The race has been and with time to reflect who was your driver of the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix weekend? This takes into account not just the race but all the activities leading up to the race. Please use the comments to let us know why you voted the way you did.
For me, it’s difficult to really pick a top performance. I think Sebastian Vettel did very well overall, so given he had to beat his direct competition (Ricciardo & Alonso) by making his final uber-long stint work, then I give my vote to him. He’s clearly very talented around Singapore. Honourable mention to Vergne’.
On a side note, I find it amazing that Ricciardo is only 60pts behind the leading Mercedes championship driver, now Lewis. Considering the 50pt final round, that should be quite troubling for the top brass at Mercedes.
Further, I think it’s a piss poor collective effort this season from Mercedes’ track/race team that this is the case, especially given their HUGE car superiority almost all season & Renault’s massive woes early and mid season. That Ricciardo could be, even on an outside chance, a troubling element for Mercedes in bringing home both titles is pretty bad.
Mercedes should be leading both world titles by a country mile, in my opinion. That lost 18pts for Ricciardo from Australia is really starting to hurt Red Bull now as he’d only be 42pts behind!!! That point wouldn’t be lost in Aldo Costa.
These should be a sobering thoughts for Niki, Toto and Paddy, and it’s indicative of a general waste of one of the most superior cars in the history of Formula One.
#WhatAWastedArrow
I agree that Mercedes lack of reliability could come and bite them in the bum come the last race. Wouldn’t that be really bad publicity? I wonder whose head/heads would roll for that!
I voted for Vergne.
Yep Merc have the car to be much further ahead than 60 pts in driver wdc. That is why I don’t buy the conspiracy about fudging Nico’s car yesterday – you where insinuating this. The Merc top brass could not ensure where HAM would finish the 2hr long and hot race and could have had a dnf himself.
Plenty of examples of tripping themselves up but no conspiracy to sabotage their own cars.
Indeed. It’s nuts to think that Mercedes would sabatoge Nico’s car in any manner, but especially that manner. Having that open grid slot for 2nd place just yelled out “Mercedes can’t sort out their cars!!!” If they planned to sabatoge, it would be in qualifying, to punt Nico towards the back.
Reliability is what’s costing Mercedes. If you remove any race weekend where Lewis has had a problem in either qualifying or the race, his points-per-race average (PPRA) is very, very good. Removing AUS, CAN, GER, HUN, and BEL, his PPRA is 23.444. That pretty much works out to winning 4 races, and placing 2nd once, every five races. Seeing as those 2nd places were in MON (Mirabeau, then the SC negating any overcut chance for Lewis) and AUT, where he started 9th, I don’t think there can be many complaints about Lewis’ driving this year.
Nonsense! Ric is in the picture only because of the reliability issues the team has suffered and nothing else. He has been fortunate to be in the right place at the right time when these issues occur. So please don’t try and paint a picture whereby it seems he has been consistently putting pressure on either of the Merc drivers. When both cars have been reliable, the closest he has finished to any of them, was Monaco, apart from that, after the 1st round of pit stops, he’s nowhere to be seen.
But it’s interesting you’re now pointing out how close he is to the now championship leader, wasn’t he close as well when Nico was in the lead? Or did you some how forget that?
“Waste of the most superior cars in history”…..
You really need to let it go. 13 wins out of 16, how exactly is that a waste of a cars superiority? There has been a Mercedes driver on every single podium this season, that’s domination! Completely untried and un-tested power units, did you not think they’d encounter reliability issues at some point in the season? That was the biggest concern of all the manufacturers and every team has had to deal with that.
And what would your comments be if they had won all 16 races so far? This is boring! This is rigged! Blah blah blah blah….. Oh wait, you have said all.
Here’s a tissue…
😀
@SISsy – you really don’t like it when someone disagrees with you do you? You can’t even come out with a sensible counter argument, rather coming up with a childish response….
Judge, when are you going to start clamping down on this sort of thing, i don’t imagine that this would be the sort of the thing you would have envisioned when creating this site.
And please respond as you do not seem to be responding to many comments on here like before – show the merc management how it’s done 😉 – btw that was in no way a dig and i agree with most of the points you made about merc’s management.
Oh, and SISsy, I will be expecting your typical toddler response as well….
Listen kid, I stand by all my comments, either in pure content and/or in context.
Happy for Judge to fine tooth comb any contribution I make and it’s subsequent origination / context.
Just because you claim things about my comments, doesn’t make them true, sonny Jim. The proof may be Judge’s lack of response to you, yet again, which may suggest to the rational mind that the problem is in your mind.
That was free, but I’m going to have to start charging if you want me to keep schooling you. Your choice.
😀
@SISsy – I can assure you they are not claims, you rather stupidly keep proving in your comments that these “claims” are in fact the truth. You were doing well until the last paragraph though, then the toddler in you kicked in…better luck controlling it next time 😀
Yeah, well maybe complain a third time then buddy… You know what they say, third times the charm. lol
That’ll be $5 thanks… 😉
Well said.
I agree with all points with the exception of DOTD
My vote went to JEV. He really put on a show for the rest of the teams to watch. A couple more drives like that and he might get himself a seat next year.
Perez would be my close second. If he had managed to stay out of trouble and not caused the safety car, he probably would have gotten the vote.
Vettel had a good drive, but was really just holding place for most of the race, so I can’t give it to him.
If you asked that question to the TV networks, Charlie Whiting, FOM, the FIA – it was Perez.
perez. 15th to 7th.
Lewis Hamilton. 15 laps 25+s over 2nd place man Seb. That stint was reminiscent of Schumi in Hungary 98 and Seb last season. He dropped Thor’s hammer on everyone yesterday.
“That stint was reminiscent of Schumi in Hungary 98” – @Fortis96
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! Omg, thank you for that laugh. And thank you for removing any remaining doubt I may have had in wondering how deep the Hamilfosi Delusion is in you.
Lol, reminiscent to Hungary 98… Maybe it’s on par with Senna at Donington and Fangio at Germany too?
LMFAO
We’re done. Peace out.
Well I didn’t really expect you to say anything else now did I? That’s my opinion, not really concerned whether you or anyone else agrees or not.
Sorry, I will give credit to Lewis for not making any mistakes after the safety car, but that wasn’t any kind of super human feat.
All that drive told us is that the Mercedes car is still, after 15 odd races, truly leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else. That was probably the first time they let either driver “turn up the wick” anywhere close 100% all season, and the car walked away from the Red Bulls at 2+ seconds a lap.
That run should be a sobering experience for the rest of the field.
I’m sorry but this is not true… Hamilton drives a car which is just 3 steps ahead on the competition. In 98 this wasn’t the case. I’m no schumi fan but comparing yesterday’s drive to that drive of schumi is something that can never happen… The effort of schumi was bigger and better…
So it would’ve been more comparable if his car wasn’t as good as it is? In 98, the ferrari was just as good if not better than the Mclaren (Mika 8 wins/Schumi 6 wins and It would’ve been 7 had DC not decided to do a driving Ms Daisy on the racing line at Spa). Also lets not forget, in 98 cars were still able to refuel and not all the teams used the same tyre manufacturer.
Writing off what he did, just because his car is superior than everyone elses, is at best absurd. He was under pressure to build a gap big enough that he wouldn’t have to come back out way down the field. 25+ sec in 15 laps, is a bloody damn super effort.
So to me, yes it does remind me off Schummi’s stint in 98 and that of Seb’s last season at Singapore, because he had similar variables to contend with.
You said it.the ferrari was just as good or a little better than the mclaren. The mercedes is better than anything out there. By a big margin. They destroyed vettel for winning in the best car out there even though his competition was better than the one lewis and nico are up against. Just as mika was closer to schumi in 98. What opposition did lewis have yesterday? Even if he’d fallen to 5th place after the pitstop he’d won it. With fresher tires and a better car he’d have no problem with it.
“In 98, the ferrari was just as good if not better than the McLaren” – @Fortis96
That says it all… Hahaha.
I’m happy you’ve made this string of comments actually, it shows the knowledgable Hammy supporters (of which there are many) that you as his choir boy is probably bad for business. Lol.
Fangio Germany
Senna Donington
Schumi Hungary
And now…
Hamilton Singapore
😀 hahaha… Thanks man.
Vettel. For finally having a pretty good weekend again…
I picked Vettel because for me he stood out a bit more than others by a small subjective margin. Having said that, I don’t think anyone really stood out to be able to recall it later as a great races. I felt like it was a long boring race, or maybe it’s because I had a hangover from attending the 6 hour WEC race on Saturday.
Driver of the day – Vettel for me. Driver of the weekend though is a tougher one as i don’t think anyone really aced the whole weekend – could have been Lewis, (come at me SISsy), but I would have liked to have seen him doing Nico over on the track….
Vettel gets it on merit, especially after the really difficult season he has had to go through. He’s pretty good around Singapore too.
Hamilton drove well but this year’s Mercedes is about as good as the Red Bull from last season (the one in the second half I mean, which left everyone for dead and Vettel took 9 straight wins). Vettel did the same “I’m going to drive 2 seconds faster than you all” stint so I’m glad to see Hamilton doing more of the same, but honestly that was never in doubt.
Vergne is also a decent shout for DotD, his surge up to 6th towards the end was pretty impressive. He gets a lot of slack but he’s a decent driver.
Singapore GP – DotW – poll results:
-as at writing, top spots is Coco Sparkles with one third of votes. Jean Eric a distant second with just under a quarter of votes. TJ13 community, collectively, loves a race winner.
I wonder if the race winner to DotW winner is the same throughout the year? I’ll go check…