What a difference a year makes
Why the Mercedes duel is decided on Saturday
Aus Raider wird Twix, sonst ändert sich nix
Records and Stats, Montreal Edition
What a difference a year makes
Listening to Daniel Ricciardo after the Canadian Grand Prix could have created the impression that he was reading a 2014 Vettel interview to the press. The Australian, whom some had perhaps somewhat prematurely declared to be the next best thing, had just suffered his way through a race that would make some of Vettel’s exploits in his last RB year look like a success. For the second time in a row the highly rated Australian was beaten by his team mate and finds himself in a classic role-reversal as like Vettel last year, he has no explanation for the fact that he suddenly seems unable to get the best out of his car. And what he has to say about it sounds astonishingly similar to the words of his former team mate.
”There must be something fundamentally wrong with the car. I’m not a whole second slower than Daniil, and I certainly haven’t forgotten how to drive.” We seem to have heard that before.
According to the ‘honey badger’ his car lacked grip despite the fact that he ran a higher downforce setup than his Russian team mate. The car’s sliding subsequently leads to higher tyre wear. Hmm, sounds familiar…
”I hope we can soon find out what’s wrong, so I can sleep peacefully again. I’m afraid though that we have to dig a bit deeper. It could be one of those problems where you have to check everything.”
Not only the interviews recall memories of Vettel 2014, so do Red Bull’s attempts at solving the problem. Last year Vettel’s chassis was changed no less than three times and the same will now be done with Ricciardo, who’ll get an all-new RB11 for the Austrian Grandprix.
Daniel Ricciardo, who is still one of the best overtakers in the field might simply be a victim of what happened to his former team mate. Last year it was Vettel, who had to make do with a car that was a definite step back from his former steeds, while even the lamest Red Bull was almost guaranteed to be better than what Danny had driven at Toro Rosso. This year he assumes the role of the German, and it appears he finds it equally difficult to let his talent shine when the car is not up to it, while the man he has beaten last year, enjoys a renaissance in a car that is better suited to his needs.
The Australian can take comfort though. His drop in performance is so far not nearly as drastic as happened to his team mate last year.
Why the Mercedes duel is decided on Saturday
Last year Nico Rosberg won the pole more often than his team mate, and Lewis Hamilton has obviously upped his game on Saturday. The reason for that is simple. Unless Vettel can split the Mercedes, like he did in Barcelona, the two will go into the first corner in first and second position and that won’t change afterwards. There are two major reasons for that. First of all, according to Mercedes’ myriad of rules of engagement, the man with the better track position gets the undercut. That only changes if Vettel is in the mix, as has happened in China.
The second reason was demonstrated in Barcelona, when Lewis Hamilton unsuccessfully tried to get past Vettel’s Ferrari for thirty laps, despite the fact that the Italian car was almost a second slower than the Mercedes. The new shorter noses react very badly to the turbulent air of a preceding car and the resulting loss of front-end grip kills the tyres in a hurry. To explain Lewis’ inability to get past Vettel, Mercedes’ Toto Wolff explained after the Barcelona Grandprix that one has to get past a car within two to three laps before the tyre wear becomes critical. Failing that, it is better to hang back and hope for the next pit stop.
Another problem, especially critical in Canada, is cooling. Again and again Rosberg was seen veering out of Hamiltons slipstream on the straights, to get some much needed cool air into his break-ducts. Thus he gave up the speed and fuel advantage of using his team mate’s slipstream. The simple fact is, with the critical front-end aerodynamics and the cooling problems of running too close to the car in front, it is almost impossible to overtake if the driver in front has access to the same car. Thus the qualifying battle between the two Mercedes drivers is even more important than last year.
Aus Raider wird Twix, sonst ändert sich nix
The head-line above is an old 1991 German advertising slogan for Twix bars, who until then were sold under the name Raider in most parts of Europe. It translates: Raider becomes Twix, but apart from that nothing changes. It has since found its way into everyday German language as a synonym for presenting something as new that’s exactly the same as the old idea. The Porsche 911 springs to mind, which has the tendency to look exactly like the model it replaces.
Since Monaco Raider has been phased out in F1 as well, as customer cars are now called franchise cars. The Big four met at Melbourne over the issue at Montreal, ‘forgetting’ to invite Williams and Force India. “The mandate of the Strategy Group was for some of the teams to sit down and discuss potential avenues of customer cars versus third cars, the rules and regulations for 2017,” Toto Wolff told Motorsport.com
“We call them franchise cars,” he said. “I think we need to have a contingency plan in place to say what happens if a team or two drops out? What do we do?
“I think we don’t want to be in front of the snake – ‘Oh my God, now we are down to 18 cars or 16 cars.’
“We hope that everything stays like it is, and they [the smaller teams] can make it commercially viable for themselves. But you need to be responsible enough for F1 to say, ‘What happens if?’
“We need to talk solutions, like how is it viable in terms of the sporting and technical regs? Who’s going to pay for it or who’s going to finance it?
“Who’s going to supply cars? Do we want to have standard suppliers entering, or do we want to do it ourselves? Can last year’s cars enter or not? Down to the detail, like who’s going to go on the podium? We’ve also discussed the downsides. We don’t want to have junior teams.
“All of us are responsible enough that we need to look at the next years. At the moment we hope it stays like it is.”
Records and Stats, Montreal Edition
- For the first time this year a driver appeared on the podium, who does not drive for Mercedes or Ferrari
- For the first time this year, both Ferrari drivers missed the podium
- Fernando Alonso DNF’ed for the third time in a row. The last time that happened was fourteen years ago, when he was driving a Minardi
- Fernando Alonso is the only non-Manor driver without any championship points so far
- Lewis Hamilton scored his 44th pole position sporting the number 44. It’s the second time he managed that feat. In 2007 he was driving car #2 when he scored his second pole position in Indianapolis. One more pole and Hamilton is tied with Sebastian Vettel. Only Senna (65) and Schumacher (68) have more poles to their name.
- Lewis Hamilton has now scored as many podiums as his Mercedes team – 77. For Mercedes that means they are now tied with their direct ancestors Tyrrell. Record holder is Ferrari with 686 podiums. Among the drivers Schumacher leads with 155.
- Lewis Hamilton has now 2.143 lead laps, more than any other Brit. His next target is Sebastian Vettel with 2.484, leader is Michael Schumacher (5.111)
- The win in Canada was the 35th for Mercedes, tying them with the Renault works team and Brabham. The record belongs to Ferrari with 222 wins
- Mercedes has had two drivers on the podium for all seven races so far. The only team to achieve that was Ferrari in 1952, but back then teams could field more than two cars.
- Kimi Räikkönen drove the fastest lap for the 42nd time. Only Michael Schumacher (77) has done it more often
- Kimi Räikkönen beat Vettel in qualifying for the first time this year. He was the last driver to at least once beat his team mate
- The six points for Pastor Maldonado mean that he scored more points than in the last forty-six races (5)
- Roberto Merhi’s DNF is the first for Manor GP so far
- For the sixteenth time in his career, Sergio Perez finished 11th, thus missing the points by a single position. Only Johnny Herbert has managed that more often – 17 times. But in Herbert’s day that meant coming 7th.
- His 13th position was the worst finishing position for Daniel Ricciardo since his transfer to Red Bull
Source: Auto Motor & Sport, Fat Hippo
That is a long list of first stats. I am really impressed with what other than two strong drivers in strong equipment managed to deliver. I also wanted to say something about #hondaunlishthefun, #f44, #somemore, last, but not least as Johnny Alonso Dangerously would hash tag, #forkinhondafargingicelessholes.
Also, I found this gem today. http://www.lewishamilton.com. I need more time to navigate it, but I am very interested in bridges and airline manufactures selling around 3.5.
Look at the top corner of the front page,isn’t that the manor racing emblem?.. Maybe lewis is planning a move as we know how contracts are honoured in f1 😱
I’m sorry, but what I really want now is a T-shirt that says Shut up and let me have fun!
“Kimi Räikkönen beat Vettel in qualifying for the first time this year. He was the last driver to at least once beat his team mate”
I would discount this data point. Vettel had severe technical problems, so any direct comparison is meaningless in this instance…
True, but the history records will only show that Kimi was third and Vettel was 15th. So he beat him. If it was a fair fight doesn’t show up in the records.
The qualifying stats this year are damning for Kimi:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015-f1-season/statistics/qualifying-data/
Sebastian Vettel 6 -0.545s
Kimi Raikkonen 1 +0.545s
Finger boy is spanking the Iceman big time… This is the biggest average gap between team-mates so far this season, including the Canada GP fluke.
And this is very much in line with what Fred did to Kimi last year:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/statistics/2014-f1-statistics/qualifying-data/
Fernando Alonso 16 -0.528s
Kimi Raikkonen 3 +0.528s
Marchionne won’t indulge Kimi one more year…
Scratch that, not quite the biggest:
Jenson Button 4 -2.035s
Fernando Alonso 1 +2.39s
This is more an indictment of Honda’s, than a reflection of Fernando’s skills… 🙂
Easy to mis-read headline.
Ferrri is not looking for Kimi replacement….ahem, maybe because they already have one lined up already?
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ferrari-not-looking-for-raikkonen-replacement/
Kimi is going to have to fly in the next races to keep his seat.
Bottas or Ricciardo? Would Sebastian be okay with having Daniel as a teammate again? Bottas is a company man. He will do what is asked of him and try and get the most performance out of his car. Daniel is a go-getter. He wanted to win and is hungry to have a car that can get him the top step. Which driver would Ferrari want to pair with Sebastian?
Most likely Marciello
@heidiwf1
Marciello is highly unlikely, as he hasn’t stepped into an F1 car for a full season yet, so way too early. Bottas, perhaps, but the Wolff—his manager—is unlikely to willy-nilly grant him to Ferrari… And Ricciardo is unlikely too, IMO; for one he’s a RB man, for another he needs to show his impressive speed and consistency for at least another year.
I for one would put my money on Hulkenberg. He was already in Ferrari negotiations once, before they decided to go conservative with Kimi. I have a sneaky feeling that they’ll want to make amends for the injustice…
@FH: In my mind, Maricello has done much to warrant a full time Ferrari seat. If Ferrari wants GP wins and podiums, than they would be better to choose Bottas or Ricciardo. I can see Bottas staying at Williams but I’m beginning to wonder if Daniel wants out at Red Bull. I honestly think if Adrian Newey was in his position full time at Red Bull there wouldn’t be the chassis issues with the RB11. I also think that if Renault had a more compact power unit design, it would fit better with the RB11 chassis because Adrian likes to design compact chassis and he’s probably passed that bit of knowledge on to the people who are taking over for him while he steps back from Formula 1.
@landroni: I get the impression that Hulkenberg is starting to focus on his commitments in other racing series because he may be beginning to think that his days in Formula 1 are numbered. A Ferrari seat and partnership with Sebastian would make him have to reshift his focus back to Formula 1. If Kimi’s days to Ferrari are numbered, wh o does he drive for next season or does he retire?
@heidiwf1
Oh, I expect Kimi will take his last scarlet pay and buy a Ferrari-branded motorhome of ice-cream, to follow him around the world when gets drunk. 🙂
He may retake his WRC hobby, to keep company to Kubica. In any case, Kimi has shown in the past that he has no particular affection for F1 and is not desperate to hitch a ride at any cost, like Barrichello or Massa or Jense. He’ll be frustrated no end to have lost his touch so obviously towards the end of the career, but he’ll have only himself to blame for having taken an unnecessary and extended break. He got his WDC, and I suspect F1 interest ends right there for Kimi…
Hippo I think before you can draw such a conclusion, you first need to see what happens when Lewis is breathing down Nico’s neck in a race.
There wasn’t a problem with Lewis or Nico getting past cars in Malaysia, didn’t see that problem either in Bahrain nor China. So I think your assessment is way off the mark. Everyone knows that in Barcelona it is near impossible to overtake, many say it’s worse than Monaco. That’s mainly due to the change in the layout of the last corner. Ferrari are almost a second a lap faster than the Williams but Seb spent a significant amount of laps behind the Williams of Bottas in Bahrain and that’s despite him being on fresher tires. What was the reasons for his ‘inability’ to get pass? Kimi also couldn’t get pass the Williams in Barcelona either and that’s despite being in a car that’s significantly faster, why was that?
In the podcast following the Spanish Grand Prix, AJ noted the only cars that got overtaken during that race was the Torro Rosso (excluding those being lapped) because they were so slow on the straights. Canada is one of the hardest tracks on brakes, so any car who spends that amount of time behind another, will have cooling problems, just like we say happen to Lewis in ’14.
So the reason why Lewis upped his game when it comes to qualifying is not solely to get track position, but rather to do better than he did last year. He himself said focusing on qualifying was something he needed to sort out, because that’s one of his main strengths. Lewis has been genuinely quicker than Nico every race this season, and I include Barcelona as well.
So let’s see what happens when he’s the hunter, if he’s unable to get pass then fair enough, there’s validity to your argument, but if we have a repeat of last season, then the problem is the driver.
Entirely off topic but thinking ahead to 2016 season….is anyone following the Transparency in Sport site?
Specifically the European Games segment coming up in Azerbaijan?
RE: Ricciardo
I’m beginning to believe the theory of a ‘fallen-out’ driver and a suddenly grip-less car at Red Bull. I didn’t think Red Bull would do that, and I am still not entirely convinced, but I do wonder more and more about Webber now; not just Vettel last year and Ricciardo presently. A trend may be emerging here…
(Damn dirty Apes!)
RE: Stats
This:
• Fernando Alonso is the only non-Manor driver without any championship points so far
And this:
• The six points for Pastor Maldonado mean that he scored more points than in the last forty-six races (5)
…seems quite amazing to me. The dethroner of the ‘maker of shoes’ (Schumacher); the great unburnt (Singapore 08); teflonsi, king of the great tsifosi sea; Son of Briatore; breaker of engines; bringer of $100m fines, probably never thought he’d be in this position at the end of his great career.
As for Maldonado, well, I don’t think anyone thought he’d be here either. The 2012 Spanish GP win seems so surreal now. Perhaps Williams were running illegal fuel? Nah, otherwise they’d have had to cover immediately post-race with a garage fire or something. That’d look way too convenient… Oh Wait! Erm, never mind.
“The dethroner of the ‘maker of shoes’ (Schumacher); the great unburnt (Singapore 08); teflonsi, king of the great tsifosi sea; Son of Briatore; breaker of engines; bringer of $100m fines”
King Fred, first of his name, the one and only true king of the Asturias…
“As for Maldonado, well, I don’t think anyone thought he’d be here either. The 2012 Spanish GP win seems so surreal now. Perhaps Williams were running illegal fuel?”
No, Maldonado can be a mighty quick driver, on his day and when he doesn’t bin it first. In that era of chocolate tires, everything clicked that day for Williams and Crashtor…
Or maybe it was Sir Franks birthday??..maybe a gift from MrE..still,it would have been easy to check the car for any problems or data in the pits…shame about the fire!! If i put that on my insurance claim form they would have laughed it out of the court..ohhh my silver foil hat is slipping again
“No, Maldonado can be a mighty quick driver, on his day…
Maybe, maybe not; but either way, that “day” doesn’t manifest anywhere near often enough. By any metric, Maldonado wouldn’t even qualify as an ‘average-journey-man’ type F1 driver. He’s a Sato-esque liability, and not sustainably quick.
Spain 2012; hmmmm, ’twas a curious and interesting weekend methinks. I call bullshit, but another story for another day.
Off topic but does anybody know what happen to lorenzodl83.wordpress.com? I miss his analysis…
@bruznic
Yeah, so do I. Apparently he’s on a break…
Too bad. The man knows his f1
Lorenzo had not posted to Google+ since May 8. Not sure why.
It seems like one bad race from Rircciardo is used to say, look Vettel wasnt just an average driver in great car, and was just unlucky to get his butt kicked most of last year. Lets just let the season play out a bit longer before jumping to any conclusions.
One bad race? The same happend to vettel last year. Let’s get the numbers. First race vettel retired last year. Danny was 6th this year.. second race last year vettel was 3th. Danny this year 10th. Third race last year vettel 6th. Danny this year 9th. 4th race vettel 5th. Danny 6th. Fifth race vettel 4th. Danny 7th. sixth race vettel retires. Danny 5th. Than canada last year vettel 3th. Danny this year 13th. Overal the numbers are worse for Danny than they where for vettel. Yet vettel got smacked down everywhere. And Danny hasn’t. if viewed by the same standards Danny is doing much worse. So the article here is completely right!
You can’t compare the absolute numbers. This year’s Red Bull in comparison is much worse than last year’s. As I wrote in the closing sentence, Danny is not yet looking as bad comparatively as Vettel did, but Vettel’s much improved races in the ferrari and the relatively weak performances from RIC in the RB show neatly that even the best driver is looking bad if the car isn’t up to it. This year it’s the honey badger who has to make do with a worse car that he expected and suddenly he isn’t the star anymore.
than you can’t compare anything. And we all like to compare things. And as you said before history books don’t take luck or bad car in Account, only results. And the fact is that vettel got more shit, with better results. I’m just correcting his ” one bad race”
Did Ricciardo have any good race this year? The one race when the Red Bulls worked, at Monaco, he was beaten, too. Could it be that he was flattered last year by a car that halfway fit him? And two of his wins were not only gifts from Mercedes but ironically races at which the ‘average driver’ was actually in front of him. At Canada the team intervened, at Hungary it was the safety car.
if ricciardo is an average driver who was flattered by his car, what does that tell us about vettel, who was comprehensively beaten by him over the course of a season?
I can’t believe I am about to say this but my thinking is that Vettel may have held back to trigger the get out of jail free card, it all looked a bit suspicious given the speed of the announcement of the move to Ferrari. I should imagine that he knew about Adrian’s smaller role and the lack of progress with Renault.
Is this you Hippo?
I think oddball might take exception to that insinuation 😉
This is my point, so defensive over Vettel, i said either an average driver in a great car, or just unlucky to get his butt kicked last year, lets see how this season pans out.
My own opinion is, a very good driver just like any WDC must be, just not a great driver, more of a Hill/Button level, which is hardly a put down, as i’m a fan of both.
Putting Hill and Button on the same level is quite an insult. Button is much better than that.
again, no clue. Hill is probably THE most underrated wdc of the modern era. remember whose shoes he had to step in twice, having a father wdc and being teammate to the greatest f1 driver ever to have existed who in a blink of an eye vanished and think of the pressure he had. also, he was up to msc who was no slouch either.
Hill is incredibly underated, can’t be coincidence, that Williams moved forward with him as a test driver, then race driver. Arrows moved forward and nearly won with Hill at the wheel and Jordan moved forward, he won their first race.
I doubt any other driver than Schumacher would of beaten Hill conistently at the time. (and don’t anyone dare say Alesi, now he is one of the most overtated drivers ever.Hill was closer pace wise to Prost than Alesi ever was. Look what happened when they swapped Frentzen and Alesi at Jordan and Prost.) Not to mention when Button test drove a Prost, he outpace Alesi by over a second in less than 10 laps, which convinced Williams to sign him. sorry rant over 🙂
He had exactly one good race with Arrows and he only won the first race for Jordan because Coulthard had wiped out half the field after the start and later Schumacher as well. And not to forget that Ralf Schumacher was much faster and Hill blackmailed the team over team-radio that there would be a crash if they didn’t tell Ralf to hold position. I’d say the Jordan win is more of a low point than a high point in his career.
@Jamie Norman
I guess now it’s time to throw in some stats into the debate… According to the F1Metrics model:
47. Jean Alesi (1991-1993, 6.39 ppr)
35. Damon Hill (1994-1996, 6.69 ppr)
16. Alain Prost (1984-1986, 7.53 ppr)
This doesn’t seem far-off from what you’re suggesting…
Mr Hippo
Hill had qualified well up grid and ahead of his team mate at spa, and watch the beginning of the race, Hill and Schu were in a class of their own, the once Schu got past, he was even quicker. Schu lite only caught Hill because of a safety car, and Hill had a slow puncture at the end which had greatly reduced his pace.
And look at Hills last qually session for arrows, he did ok.
That still doesn’t change the fact that by all intents and purposes the win was rightfully Ralf Schumacher’s safety car or not. It is a normal part of racing. And the blackmailing of the team was unworthy of a champion. It was pure cowardice, something you’d expect from the likes of Prost or Piquet, but not Senna, Hamilton or Alonso. It’s like demanding a yellow card in a football game.
You mean like Vettel ignoring team orders and passing his team mate when he wasn’t expecting it. Hill only suggested they might tangle if they raced and he wasn’t gonna just move over.
I think you have a strong dislike of Hill, so this is a bit like arguing against someone’s faith, logic no longer applies.
I’m fairly objective and I’m never going to argue Hill was a great, but he was above average.
The point I have here is not the team order per se. That could have come sooner or later from the team, but demanding it and then with such unveiled threats is unworthy. I know of no other driver who’s ever done something like that. Yes I have a strong dislike of Hill and it is because of that incident.
Words fail me, you confuse cheating with unintentional crashes, and brush over the bravery of stepping into a potentialy dangerous car, and the dignified manner in which he handled defeat by a competitor cheating.
You mean like losing 3 to Ricciardo ?
I have an IQ of 138, I remember everything I’ve read, seen or done since I was 2, though not photographically, but accurately, but personal feelings can still cloud opinion, but I feel I’m being objective with Hill, so I’m going to bow out, as the saying goes, “don’t argue with a fool, they just drag you down to their level and beat you with experience”.
Stepping into a car that might have been the deciding factor in killing someone is not bravery. It’s utter stupidity. I don’t give a flying expletive about your IQ, frankly, because it doesn’t have any influence on the discussion other that claiming to be superior to others. When you step into a racing car you know you might not get out of it alive. Else you have the wrong job. He was no more brave than any of his opponents.
“I have an IQ of 138, I remember everything…”
This comment does you, and your argument, a disservice. An argument I agree with, generally speaking, but it has no bearing on anything. You could have dealt a killer blow to Hippo’s argument many times already… That should have been an easy victory, as Hippo left himself exposed, but instead of bowing out, you’ve said, in essence, “Well I can’t seem to win, and I have a 138 IQ, and a good memory, so chances are I am right and you are wrong.” Then you followed it up with a bit of ad hom, implying he’s the fool in your quote. That’s lame. You had the correct argument, you failed to defeat him.
High IQ doesn’t mean you have a greater grasp of historical events and thus a more correct, balanced and moderate view. In fact, I’ve found most people who suffer a high IQ are oft the most extreme. And I use the word “suffer” deliberately, because it’s as much a curse as anything else. Anyone who is gifted and cultivated a high intellectual quota will immediately know what I mean.
But aside from that, whilst 138 is decent, it doesn’t elevate one much higher then the rest of the zoo animals, which is what most minds are – that of zoo animals…
Mine, for example, is over 160. Tested multiple times for various reasons. At certain times, under certain circumstances, it’s in ranges most wouldn’t believe… But what does that mean here? Not much. My IQ doesn’t change jointly perceived events in F1 that we debate, and my IQ has nothing to do with the value systems applied to racing circumstances. This was never an intellectual debate, but simply one of colliding value systems, and given Hippo is emotional about Hill and that day, you could have tore his argument apart with precedent and logic.
Anyway, I’ve gone on too long, again. I probably didn’t make my point clear enough either, so I’ll go back to manipulating others and hiding in comedy, smiling and nodding is much easier… But, it’s probably best not to try and win a debate with, “but I’ve a high IQ” again… Win on merit, or walk away.
>Anyone who is gifted and cultivated a high intellectual quota will immediately know what I mean.
Don’t remind me of my school days. It’s something I’m trying to forget…
There is always someone smarter than you, there is always someone stronger than you. Bragging about an iq is useless. You don’t know the iq of any of the other visitors here. And an high iq doesn’t mean your always correct. And it might be 138, but in this discussion it did seem more than 100.
@WTF_f1
160 is cool, in my job i’m surrouneded by people who are cleverer than me, and i think it is great, i learn so much. Unfortunatley a glass of wine coupled with my frustration at the lack of logic being applied to the argument about Hill, let my response get out of hand. Even Mr Hippo’s last post, managed to contradict itself, how am i supposed to argue wtih that? Its like heads you lose, tails i win.
@Mr Hippo, I’m beggining to think Joe Saward is your alter ego, judging by your responses not just to my posts, but to others too.
Anyway this a comments section, not a handbags a dawn section, so i’ll save my next comment to be about formula 1.
So far I’ve been civil. But likening me to Joe Saward, that’s a low blow. I can really only hope you won’t find yourself nailed to the garden shed with something red-hot stuck somewhere tender…
And by the way, someone with an IQ of 138 shouldn’t need a fucking kraut to explain how ‘beginning’ is spelled. Just saying…
@Jamie Norman
160 is cool, in my job i’m surrouneded by people who are cleverer than me, and i think it is great, i learn so much.
Completely off-topic, but on the subject of high IQs. There is a recent TV series called Scorpion, with the main character bragging at the beginning of each episode that he has an IQ of 197, whereas Einstein had only 160. One of the executive producers, one also named Walter O’Brien, likes to brag that this series is loosely based on his life (which Wikipedia calls BS: “loosely based on the life of self-proclaimed genius and computer expert[2] Walter O’Brien.”) The series itself isn’t particularly well thought out or executed, which speaks volumes on the self-proclaimed genius…
Anyways… In their 5th episode (“Plutonium Is Forever”) they were dealing with a melting nuclear reactor, and this 197-IQ genius wouldn’t stop talking all episode long of a “nucelar reactor”. That reminded me of another nuclear expert, one Homer Simpson, which in one episode blabs about a “nucelar reactor” and when corrected by Lisa “Dad, it’s nuclear”, he retorts: “Nucelar, honey, it’s nucelar”. Kinda doesn’t put the genius—the character or the producer—in too bright a light… 🙂
Again, completely off-topic, and merely a story I find funny…
Actually, I shouldn’t have gotten involved. It was between you and Hippo. Your IQ comment caught by attention, that’s all… I apologise. I enjoy your comments; as I do Hippo’s comments. Have a good one, mate.
PS: I also feel Hill is underrated.
I’d say true courage was getting in a car that possibly killed his team mate, and standing steadfast by his team, racing against a team that was blatantly cheating, he handled the press in a dignified manner throughout this time, including when Schumacher punted him off for the title.
Cowardly, I don’t think so.
Don’t forget he did his fair share of punting himself, like rear-ending Schumacher twice in ’96. And the shunt in Adelaide was not entirely Schumacher’s fault. Had Hill waited a single corner he’d just have driven past. Instead he panicked and put himself in a position where Schumacher could make it look like an accident. And losing three races to that crap ferrari in ’96 wasn’t exactly a heroes deed either. It was rather embarassing. In today’s terms it would be like losing three races to Bottas in a Mercedes.
A new low in F1, short noses that unable you to get close to another car because it kills the already horrible tires even faster. So you basically get a short nose for qualifying and pray for a good start and after lap 1 most of your races are over. Try to get in a position as fast as possible and bring it home while praying for some pitstop luck all the while trying to mangage fuel, tires and brakes…. Entertaining. Not.
Re Toto Wolff :
We hope that everything stays like it is, and they [the smaller teams] can make it commercially viable for themselves. But you need to be responsible enough for F1 to say, ‘What happens if?’
– The hypocrisy of this man is staggering.
‘we hope…they can make it commercially viable for themselves’,
‘you need to be responsible enough for F1′.
And how, exactly, are they meant to do that when engine costs have spiralled to the point where they can be up to 80% of a smaller teams’ expenditure, they have no say in how the sport is run, and the larger teams refuse to countenance either a cap on the price of a seasons engine supply or a more equitable distribution of the prize money?
Responsible? Don’t make me laugh, Toto. It’s plain to see that the only responsibly you have is to keep your team in as dominant position as you can for as long as possible.
The sooner the Strategy Group is outlawed the better. They have proven time and again that they are too childish and selfish to be included in the process of steering the sport.
Unfortunately, given the current president of the FIA, this looks unlikely.
Maybe the independents should contact the FBI to investigate corruption in F1 – shouldn’t be too hard to find – which could, hopefully, precipitate a FIFA-like cleaning out of the decrepit and impotent old guard.
Or, failing that, perhaps they could begin legal action against the Strategy Group members on the basis that it is a cartel that is attempting to monopolise the sport,
or sue them for recompense for the hundreds of millions of dollars that will be wiped off the value of the would-be customer teams’ shares if this travesty goes ahead.
Crash.net had posted the following quote from Ric
“If you could picture, let’s say a saggy ball sack, and if you’ve been training for a long time there’s a lot of chaffing, there’s a bit of sort of sweat building up, it’s just not pretty. That is pretty much our qualifying.”
Ouch! Makes Fred’s radio comments about his team seem almost complimentary!
Sounds to me like he is ready to quit his day job and write poetry for a living. I’d buy his books.
In other news, the McLaren is so bad Mr. Bean sold his.
Talk about jumping the gun with Ricciardo. I think you’ll find he is beating Kvyat head to head in qual and race, and let’s not forget that he was made to let Kvyat through in Monaco.
One cold day does not make a winter.
He was made to let Kvyat through because that was a pre-arrangement for Kvyat letting him through first. They told him, ‘we let you pass, try overtaking Hamilton. If you can’t make it, you’ll have to give the position back’ – and that’s exactly what happened. Kvyat had been in front of him all race.
And you don’t think Ricciardo could have overtaken Kvyat?… Kvyat got out of the way as the team knew he would only delay the inevitable. Either way it’s a bit early to be drawing conclusions based on one off round.