#F1 Polls: How would you rate the 2014 FORMULA 1 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX?

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2014 JapaneseGP - Safety Car

How would you rate the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix? Please you the comments section to tell us why you voted the way you did.

Editor’s note: Our thoughts, well wishing and prayers are with Jules Bianchi at this moment.  Until we know facts we are unable to report anything specific, however we felt it was necessary to allow the readership to have a platform for comments.

103 responses to “#F1 Polls: How would you rate the 2014 FORMULA 1 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX?”

      • I don’t believe that Rosberg is easily able to keep up with Hamilton and suddenly drives a second slower than him, which he did after the overtaking maneuver,

        • Before the overtake, he was asked by his engineer to tell him how much he was pushing, to which he replied, “I’m flat out” and at that time, he was about 1.5s ahead.

          He was also complaining of havin “massive oversteer” which damaged his tyres. Lets not forget, he was losing more than a 1 sec a lap to JB, Seb and Ric before he was passed. So yes it’s conceivable if by that time, he had severely damaged his tyres.

    • What was the blatant race fixing? Holy geez, you could see race fixing everywhere if you really wanted to!

      As for the Bianchi accident, it’s horrible, but I’m not sure how much it should impact on your race rating. His accident is something separate from the race, imo. It should be dealt with separately. Hope to God he’s ok.

      • Thought he would’ve given it more, given Seb finished on the podium after starting 5 places behind Ric.

        It’s always race fixing when Lewis gets pass Nico and win the races.

      • Are you guys for real, or is this some weird jab to get a rise out of others? What about the race caused you to think it was fixed? Please be specific.

        • just as i said, there is a fellow racer in serious condition and these two donkeys have nothing else to do than talking about an allegedly fixed race.. sad. this site is not what it once was anymore.

        • I believe you may have missed the ironic tone in the words…

          SIS has built such a provocative reputation that as with the boy who cried wolf, when he offers irony it is regarded as an aggressive counter view

          • Why are you trying to defend him?

            This guy has been nothing but a d!ck for sometime now and at no point has he been pulled up for some of his comments. You ask for respectful debate amongst the those who make comments, but yet he’s allowed to continually restort to childish comments and name callings, especially to myself and those who offer a different opinion to his, even when it’s done respectfully.

          • Well I hope you’re right, or if not, that he takes the ‘out’ you’ve just handed him, ‘cos otherwise they (FH and SiS) come off looking quite bad.

            As I mentioned in a comment within the last week, I can understand the need for some to get their ELB (Emotional Little Biatch) on, after a race result they don’t particularly enjoy, but I would’ve thought with how the end of this race played out, that any such outbursts would be well contained, at least until the Monday.

          • @ Fortis

            quote –

            ” You ask for respectful debate amongst the those who make comments, but yet he’s allowed to continually restort to childish comments and name callings, especially to myself and those who offer a different opinion to his, even when it’s done respectfully. ”

            *
            You ?

            Respectful ?

            What a joke !

            You have been a vile and offensive cancer infecting this site.

            wrt SIS & Hippo – pot kettle black ….. oh often reprimanded one !

    • Some suggestions that he might’ve went under the back of it. If he did (i.e. the cockpit), then I don’t know how he could survive, or at least not in any condition that would be worth surviving. I think the FIA needs to look into vehicles with impact protection to serve as shields when recovery equipment is on the track. Especially in the wet.

      • Matt Somerfield tweeted earlier that roll hoop damaged and the cockpit side protection has accident damage too… Sutil looked completely in shock so make of that what you will.

        Martin Brundle in commentary was very measured with his words having experienced a similar accident twenty years ago..

  3. Aha, more race fixing. I guess we do know Rosberg is unbeatable in a straight up fight (as we saw in Bahrain). And I totally get how Rosberg was able to shake Hamilton’s hand after the race, knowing he gifted him the win and knows he isn’t allowed to win the title anymore.

  4. Troll house cookie twins, (I take no credit for coming up with that name – it was an astute observation by a fellow commentor on this website) at it again!

    P.S – yes i am talking about you SISsy and Fat Dumbo.

    • You might be taken more seriously if you refrained from calling fellow commenters insulting names, but I suppose that’s asking a little too much perhaps.

      • Let me put it differently, FH:
        *You* might be taken more seriously if you refrained from calling fellow commenters insulting names, but I suppose that’s asking a little too much perhaps.

        • Point me to a comment, where I have called people insulting names and I’ll take your ripose seriously. Else it looks more like you ran out of arguments

          • You don’t have to literally call people with names to be insulting. You insult people systematically, using subtle insinuations and other bullying tactics. I won’t start scouring the archives right now, but I will give you examples in due time.

            For now, though, the other day your calling me “you and your type” was insulting, at least for me, personally. (My first thought was: no wonder FH doesn’t recognize racism in comments on this site.) When in the podcast you say that the Judge’s reports on Ricciardo beating the hell out of Vettel in the simulator last year was, basically, “trash”, is insulting. (Many readers feel the same about many of your arguments, but notice that often commenters choose to formulate disagreement in a more polite fashion.) When you insinuate that my Russian, that you strictly have no idea at what level it is, is only good for the Chukchi, is both xenophobic and insulting. And whenever in our exchanges I got to a point where I said: “stop, this is ad hominem, personal insult”; well, each of those times you had simply crossed the line of civilized, argument-based debate.

            Overall my opinion is that your stance and arguments are more often than not overly arrogant, aggressive and dismissive; with an obviously biased, fanboy attitude when discerning events. Think of a Fortis on steroids, but with diametrically opposed supporting preferences. But that’s me, anyway.

  5. Racing is irrelevant today.

    I sincerely hope Jules is ok, but I really fear for him.

    Post German GP I said that yellow flags needed to be enforced and drivers didn’t slow anywhere near enough (after a Sauber span partially on the racing line). I don’t think anyone could argue with that after the horrific incident today.

    • Indeed so. The FIA must immediately enforce the pitlane speed limiter under double-yellow conditions… The only sane way to actually ensure that drivers pass the danger zone at an appropriate speed..

      • Unfortunately a suddenly slowing car, unsighted from behind, is a recipe for disaster. Having driven open wheelers in the rain, I can attest to the total lack of visibility and the necessity to drive by looking at the track edge; it’s difficult to know how far behind you are or what your closing speed might be to another car. How would the speed limit be enforced?

        Best wishes to Bianchi; what a horrible accident.

        • Sector flags displayed on steering now. yellow sector leading to double yellow (requires lift for 0.5s currently) leading to a new flag, say red/yellow double waved, with whatever limit is consistent with vehicle recovery. Plus total rethink and redesign of current recovery eqpt. thinking temporary and easily moveable barriers between recovery and course to prevent cars submarining.

        • In addition to Matt’s points above, the FIA has the ECU and the technology to enforce the limit semi-automatically. It can provide the driver with a display warning/beep/whatever to lift and then a 2nd beep to hit the PL. They may even do this automatically if they so wished. The technology is certainly here, though.

    • Exactly.. it shows that now F1 cars are so safe, big accidents only occur with ‘forgotten’ elements, i.e. things brought into the environment that aren’t meant to be there, e.g. a truck and a JCB.

      Why not just leave the Sauber there until race end? Car on car contact is safer than car on marshal or car on non-F1 machine. At least fit the damn JCB with safety shields, for god’s sake. I’ll take a few bent motors over a serious accident any day.

      I haven’t heard Brundle’s commentary yet, but it will surely be more measured than the BBC, who took until the red flag to even realise Bianchi had been involved in the incident, when Coulthard was finally told.

      We can’t rule out both cars simply aquaplaning off on worn inters, on a worsening track – a repeat of Brundle’s 1994 incident. But using a ‘Le Mans pit limiter’ for Dunlop would probably have ensured no heavy contact.

      Finally, if race control didn’t waste laps behind the SC at the start, could we have finished the race before the final downpour came in? If so, in this case, ‘ultra-PC’ has resulted in an avoidable accident, which might have serious repercussions for F1.

      • “We can’t rule out both cars simply aquaplaning off on worn inters, on a worsening track”

        Exactly, it’s possible Bianchi did slow because of the yellow flags, but aquaplaned anyway due to the combination of increasing rain and worn tyres. At the end of the race I felt the attitude from most of the drivers was that they had to stay out and hang on until someone goes off and triggers the pace car – because then the race wouldn’t be restarted and that would be that. I think the only conclusion here is that the diggers need to have soft barriers around them.

        I am starting to think that extreme wet tyres aren’t needed in F1, since the cars can’t run in those conditions anyway and they send out the Gullwing.

        • I read after posting that that both cars did indeed aquaplane off – so slowing down for yellows by 30kph is irrelevant.

          I agree with the comments here that introducing a foreign object into the environment is the most significant risk – then you see what happened to both Marussia drivers.

  7. Unbelievable how merc told Rosberg to have an oversteer moment exiting the last chicane so Lewis can get by him around the outside of turn 1 in wet conditions. Merc made sure that Lewis had the use of DRS as my sources have informed me that they sent Paddy the enforcer to make Charlie Whiting enable the use of DRS in the race or else Paddy would “rustle his jimmies”.

    After this race I am no longer a fan of Formula One.

    P.S – I will still watch the races, but let me make it clear that I won’t be watching as a fan. Example – I watched the scottish referendum but didn’t really care of the outcome.

  8. On a more serious note, hope Bianchi will be ok, maybe time to remind drivers to drive with more caution in situations like that. However that is not to say Bianchi was not driving with due care and attention – I have no idea on that.

    In regards to racing – Sensational pass by Lewis on the outside of Rosberg into turn 1. Lewis’ racecraft is on another level compared to Rosberg. Mega pace from Lewis to pull out that gap after passing Rosberg who was in clean air for the period before and couldn’t keep a handle on the tyres despite both being on the same setup as confirmed by Nico in an interview with the BBC. Looks like there is no substitute for raw speed and feel in tricky and changeable conditions like that and Nico couldn’t trawl through the data to see where he was losing out, consequently ending up being 10 seconds off the lead in the same car – work that one out.

    Once again, there is no doubt as to who is the racer and who is the driver…

  9. Gave it an 8. Wanted to give a 1. For the bianchi incident. But before that I enjoyed myself once it got going. Especially the red bulls did some class act outside overtaking moves.

    • Agreed, Ric made passing around the Dunlop curve his own today. Felt a little disappointed for Jenson, probably would’ve been on the podium had the team not messed up his pitstop.

      Thoughts and prayers goes out to Jules and the Marussia team. Having to endure 2 tragic incidents involving their drivers in 1 season, is a painful thing to endure.

      • “Having to endure 2 tragic incidents involving their drivers in 1 season, is a painful thing to endure.”

        2 This year? What have I missed?

          • @Alex – The accident that Fortis is referring to happened July 2012, she passed away last October.

            @Sis, I consider your pieces that you right intelligent, well thought out and thought provoking for the right reasons but there are times that your choice of words in comments appear designed to deliberately provoke others to respond.

            To everyone, can we tone this down a little. As a site we don’t like moderating anybody, freedom of speech is a right of mankind but we’re all friends here.

          • I agree with Carlo. If you stir things up on purpose, like you do most of the times, sis, than you are as bad as the one you accuse of being the worst one out here. What ever happend to normal discussions

          • Wow, I cannot believe that this SiS guy is trying to score points vs other fans on this site when Jules is in a life threatening situation

            extremely poor taste……

          • @Dingle Del

            Really!

            We can’t talk about the other things that happened today?

            breaking news…..Motor Racing is inherently dangerous at all and every level and drivers take the risk every time they race.

            But you already knew that!

    • The speed of the Red Bulls in the wet proves how good their car is. The Mercedes were left out a little too long however, and Rosberg was in serious danger of losing places, and probably would have, if not for Vettel’s mini-off, and the Williams not holding the RBs back for as long as they managed.

      It seemed to me like most passing was only possible once the tyres had started to wear, but we didn’t see anything from mid-grid back, like Hulkenberg roaring up to ‘best of the rest’.

      Hamilton got on Nico’s tail well, but could only pass once the wear was so bad for Rosberg that he then immediately fell many seconds back. That tyre management was what ultimately won Lewis the race, allied to the brave pass on the outside of T1.

      • You have to take in consideration that red bull set up their cars for wet conditions. Which is why the quali didn’t go extremely well. Not to say their chassis is rubbish. Not at all. But the set up made it a bit more easy for them. But for me vettel and danny did make the race.

        • Which to me is exactly why teams should be allowed to alter settings in Parc Ferme. It’s ridiculous they can’t change the car for changing conditions.

        • True, that was mentioned during the race, but what it really did was highlight how much Alonso had hauled up the Ferrari, to be 5th on the grid when it should have really been 7th.

      • “That tyre management was what ultimately won Lewis the race, allied to the brave pass on the outside of T1.”

        Yeah, Bozo could have easily binned it with that move. I was quite surprised that he kept it on the black stuff..

        • Imagine if Rosberg said ‘thy shall not pass’ and ‘did a Senna’ hehe.. At that point, I thought the team’s earlier response of ‘no more contact between our drivers’ probably played on his mind.

  10. I’m torn…… 10/10 from some of the wheel to wheel action in the rain, 0/10 for the fact that probably one of the nicest and most reserved drivers on the grid is left fighting for his life. For that reason I’ve not cast a vote.

    • Didn’t vote myself also.
      About above comments: if there’s something bad going on, it can be a relieve to enlighten the spirit with jokes – even with bad taste jokes. However don’t be surprised if not everybody is laughing.

  11. There is a time and place for everything….. I specially love the relax and irreverence of the site and the pod cast……but using the accident in some cynical way to Troll Hamfosis is in really in poor and bad taste….especially as Jules is still in surgery and haven’t given the Thump up.

    And yes Fat Dumbo we get it,Its a joke but no one is laughing.Now man up and apologize for inappropriate joke at inappropriate time.

  12. When a driver is severely injured and fighting for his life any comments other than words of support are inappropriate. Having twice seen drivers die at the track and numerous times on TV – for me this race and the results are irrelevant. Only a moron would even suggest race fixing under the circumstances.

    • Look get over it, I’m certain that Bianchi hadn’t slowed enough for double waved yellow, he is meant to be ready to stop, you cantctell me that he was going slow enough to do an emergency stop, if it had happened seconds earlier or later a Marshall could have been hurt too, and they don’t get paid to risk their lives. I will have Jules in my prayers but someone needs to look at this in a pragmatic fashion and for that accident to happen when he could see from well back on the track that a car was being recovered after it went off, to aquaplane off he was doing more than a speed he could easily stop from. It doesn’t mean I dont care, I do, I don’t watch F1 for crashes but this was unnecessary, not FIA at fault, not Marshalles at fault, but drivers not slowing up enough.
      I’m sorry if people don’t like what I’m saying but just detach the emotion for a moment and look simply at the rational. I’d love to know his exact speed just as he lost control.

        • Each to his own, that is why it’s called an opinion.

          No-one held a gun to his head to drive that car today, he had a choice, Nikki Lauda gave up a WDC in 1976 because in his mind it was too dangerous to race in Fuji, so noone forces these guys to do what they do, he’ll, I’m sure most would race for free they love it so much. Bianchi drove too fast through a section which already had a car off the track in it so he knew the condition in that point of road were torturous and needed great care.

          We have been spoiled in by the exemplary safety record in F1 this last 20years, other series have not been so lucky, Indy car has suffered and the 2013 Le Mans, racing cars at high speed is super dangerous not just in the rain but all the time, we need to remember this, that is why to me the drivers have never stopped being heros

          • Not that it matters to anybody but you comments were spot on IMO.

            I read a lot comments on all sites that they want to see a wet race, well they got one and immediately the blame game started and everything has to be changed, right now.

            Wet surface = dangerous, people know that and that’s why they hope for it even if it’s called something else.
            A lot of hypocrites around.

            This was a driver error, double yellows out, pure and simple, but of course I only wish he recovers ASAP and get back driving.

          • @Valhalla. Thank you, someone gets where I’m coming from. I’m as gutted as the next man for Bianchi’s accident and the injuries he’s sustained, but it needs to be looked at logically, we have had more than enough ‘knee jerk’ changes made. Simply put a speed limit on double waves yellow sectors instead of 0.5sec off best time for that section, some cars are more than half a second quicker in a section of track than others normally, so that wouldn’t give you cats travelling at a constant speed at which they can easily stop from, to drive fast enough to seriously aquaplane and have a crash with that much energy then, I’m damn sure they can’t stop the freaking car in a hurry if they needed too. The drivers have started to get complacent about crash survival, as since Senna’s faitful day in 1994 as we have had is a handful of serious accidents, shumi broke his leg, Massa had a head injury and I think Mikka Hakkinen had a bad crash, but this accident was 100% preventable.

      • Thing is, they showed a marshal at the tower by the accident (pre-Bianchi crash, pre-SC) waving a green flag. What was that about?

        • *After* the accident. Which means the track is green *from that point on*. Unbelievable that this keeps getting brought up on Twitter as well…

      • “I’m certain that Bianchi hadn’t slowed enough for double waved yellow, he is meant to be ready to stop, you cantctell me that he was going slow enough to do an emergency stop”

        You don’t know how fast he was going, no one does, and yet you’re certain he didn’t slow enough? You also don’t know how much he slowed – he may have slowed and just aquaplaned off the track anyway. On worn tyres and a track getting wetter by the second it’s certainly possible.

        • At this point this thread is past so I doubt anyone will read this but someone posted (on Titter so make of that what you will) that the F1 app listed Bianchi’s speed as 210 when he crashed. I couldn’t figure out where they found that but I’m not discounting it outright

        • First, I wish Jules fast recovery and I hope he wil be back in F1 car soon.

          “You don’t know how fast he was going, no one does, and yet you’re certain he didn’t slow enough? You also don’t know how much he slowed”
          Rules are simple, double yellow, slow down and be prepared to stop.
          You think that Jules could have stoped if he needed?
          He couldn’t stop so he didn’t slow enough.

          “On worn tyres and a track getting wetter by the second it’s certainly possible.”
          We are talking about the best drivers in the world, they should be capable to make judgment about conditions and slow enoguh to safely pass double yellow zone.

          My bigest concern are marshalls, they are unprotected while they are outside of fences and they must trust that drivers will slow down enough not to kill them.
          If yesterday was only little different, Jules could have mised the crane and hit and kill one or more marshals and comments woul’d be very different…

  13. “There is no triumph or glory in the world that’s worth an inch of human skin.” – Enzo Ferrari

  15. I chose not to vote, I watched the race on stream but it was such bad quality that it’s only after reading through text updates from the Beeb that I got the news about Jules Bianchi’s accident.

    Poor lad, I wish him all the very best, at this point nothing else apart from his well-being matters.

  17. Disgusting that this race was even started.

    FIA becoming so hypocritical- building nanny circuits with huge run-offs, but at the same time giving a race a go ahead with near to no visibility or grip DURING A TYPHOON!!!! Who gives the race a go ahead during a typhoon?? It would appear that safety is of paramount importance to the FIA, except of course when money is at stake. Then if its a choice between safety or money, money wins, everytime.

    No race equals no money for Bernie or the Teams. I wish Eddie Jordan etc. would get their heads out of Bernies arse for one minute to see how greed has left a driver fighting for his life and the sad fact that a very serious accident (or two) could have been avoided here.

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