Brought to you by TheJudge13 contributor Mattpt55
Let the Navel Gazing Begin
VET: I had the Red Bull coming on the inside like a mad man…#ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/PkVvHYRHki
— Sebastian Vettel (@FansOfSebVettel) April 18, 2016
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That’s right Seb, that mean old bully Kvyat made you nerf your teammate in front of the big boss, who might not have been very happy especially after your less than stellar qualifying from the day before. But was it really down to Russian inflexibility or was there something more at play?
Yessss!! Kimi has locked up and I will now fulfill my destiny by once again beating my teammate
Ooopsies!! Bit of oversteer but no matter, I will still crush my teammate
Surely the Russian will back off, for I AM a four time world champion
Kimi, what are you doing you Finnish cucumber??!!
Ooopsies!! Quick who can I blame? Lewis? no he’s at the back hahaha
I know I’ll blame the Russian. EVERYONE blames the Russians
Silver Lining at least he hit Kvyat, too. And I’ll get to beat my teammate.
Best get right to the blaming
Well to be fair, those may not have been Vettel’s *exact* thoughts, but they might have been… At any rate our crew of opinionators weighs in with their thoughts on who exactly IS to blame in the Ferrari Fiasco so tell us yours in the comments.
Discuss!!
My take on it is that Ricciardo got into the lead, Rosberg had to back off slightly, which in turn caused Räikkönen to lock up slightly. Vettel had left the door wide open for Kvyat to steam past, so he couldn’t move to the right, and he wouldn’t back off, so he ran into Räikkönen. It was never Kvyat’s fault, he had an open track to enable the overtake. Räikkönen seemed caught out by Rosberg braking, but the fault lies squarely on Vettel’s shoulders, he should have eased off slightly. However, that would mean Räikkönen was ahead of him, not something Vettel wanted. With the big boss of Ferrari at the track he didn’t want to look bad, so Vettel kept on trying to pin the blame on Kvyat. The phrase “he doth protest too much” springs to mind here.
I will admit that I am biased 🙂
My first reaction while watching the race: “Who’s the b****** that crashed into Kimi!!”
After watching the replay: Racing incident…these things happen…
What I find most interesting is the state of mind that saw Seb unable to let the incident go and shut up about it during and after the race.
Vettel’s usual swagger is morphing into a stagger. Running wide in Melbourne while hunting Rosberg. The frustration of the pre-race PU fail in Bahrain. Tagging Kimi because he was caught napping by Kvyat in Shanghai. 2016 wasn’t supposed to be like this.
I think that this year, for the first time, Seb is under SERIOUS pressure to perform. The difference this year is that he and his team are increasingly on the back foot due to confounded expectations of winter performance gains.
It was never like this for Seb at Red Bull. He’s always been on the front foot, pushing and winning. Even when Ricciardo was handing him his @ss race after race in 2014, Seb had the Ferrari deal in his back pocket so wasn’t worried (and it showed, in retrospect).
Those unexpected 2015 Ferrari wins are now MY2016 millstones.
And, as much as Seb’s 2016 has been compromised by him making race-altering mistakes in the two races he’s finished this year, his team is struggling as well. I really don’t see a meaningful improvement in the relative performance between Ferrari and MB this year. The Ferrari challenge looks to be just a media beat-up in the face of another year of silver-drenched tedium.
Significant money’s been spent at Ferrari, where are the results?
There’s a red-hued singularity brewing.
Slight correction RogerD, he was chasing Hamilton when he ran wide in Melbourne.
I’m not sure he was aware of what Marchionne said, but don’t you think those comments, that they know what’s up and they need to start delivering results and him being present, escalated that pressure?
Also let’s not forget, preseason Marchionne stated categorically that they would win in Aus, only to see the team cock it up and left him with egg on his face. Not sure he’s the type of guy who likes to be proven wrong.
As I’ve said elsewhere, if they fail to better last seasons results and mount a serious challenge on the Mercs, we could witness a ‘red wedding’ (Game of thrones) scene at Maranello.
But what next?
If Seb doesn’t find his Mojo, who will be better than him?
Alonso, Ricciardo and Hamilton probably.
So after this year we will say goodbye to Kimi – unless he performs a miracle. (I do dream about that) – and hallo to Ricciardo. And than we will see what’s Seb’s response.
Kimi is not going to surprise anyone. Every year we’re told the car now suits his driving style, and every year he is made to look very average – certainly not a world champion!
Kimi must be the most expensive driver on the grid, in terms of salary vs points scored (I’m excluding Alonso and Jensen as their engine woes are not their fault).
I’m sure Kimi will continue to score points, but by the end of the season I expect Vettel to have scored around twice as many. I really hope Grosjean is in contention for the 2nd seat at Ferrari – I certainly would expect him to score more points than Kimi in the same car. He’s ironed out the rough edges, and now looks like he could become another solid long-term prospect a la Rubens, even though he’s probably never going to win the WDC.
It would have been interesting if Bottas had gone to Ferrari this year. It may have lit a fire under him, and motivated him to drive as his very early promise indicated, rather than his incredibly average performances of the last year or two! Unless he really improves this season, Bottas will just be another journeyman like Hulkenberg’s turning out to be.
If Ferrari don’t see what they want in Grosjean, I’ll be fascinated to see who they pick. I’d expect Perez to perform well as a solid point scorer – but his year at McLaren always seems to be referenced as a negative indication of his career progressing upwards – though I’m not always sure why.
I hope Ferrari treat Kimi well in terms of his inevitable retirement at the end of this year. Although I think Ferrari have actually been treating him very well since Montezemolo’s knee-jerk signing of him. If Jules Bianchi had lived I’m sure he’d be in that car by now, and at a fraction of Kimi’s salary yet scoring more points!
There was an article yesterday suggesting it was Rosbergs early braking that was the starting point for this incident, as it meant Kimi took a wider line, and if anything should be learnt from the last race in Bahrain, it’s that a wider corner entry only works when someone isn’t on your inside.
I say again though, Kvyat did nothing wrong, he saw a gap and drove into it. Vettel responded as a car was on his inside and didn’t want to hit him. Kimi? Kimi was taking a wider line into the corner thanks to Rosberg, turning in meant the avoiding action from Vettel along with Kimi’s simulationous tightening of line acted link pincer movement on the front of Vettels Ferrari. I can’t really see what Vettel could have done differently other than turning into Kvyat rather than avoiding him and then having Kimi turn across his path (or hitting the brakes, but when on the limit in a corner if you hit the brakes you’ll just spin). Kvyat couldn’t have done much differently if he wanted that space. Kimi? He could perhaps have left Vettel a little more room, but equally that would have compromised his corner entry and left him out of position for the left hander that followed. In summary it’s a nailed on racing incident.
It;s worth point out though, that even with the above incident and two PU issues for Ferrari (1 for each driver), if they can get Mercedes style pace from their car they can still play a large part in this championship battle, neither Ferrari driver is much behind Lewis and Rosberg, whilst having points in the bank, is the weakest of the four drivers in those teams.
What’s also worth pointing out is that Seb may have heard of Mr. Marchionne’s approach towards dr. Marko inquiring about Honeybadger’s availability as per AutoBild. That immediately puts a clamp on any assumption that Seb has any form of veto power over the team’s driver composition.
My inital thoughts during the race was ‘that Redbull just nerfed the chosen one’ well,its was a tad more colourful than that 😀 but in reality it’s just a first corner slipup, Seb could not do anything about it as the gap was quickly closing and if he had backed out of the corner there would have been bedlam behind him. That said,Danny inho would never have made the corner at that speed and would have ran wide If he hadn’t had the world’s most expensive braking system namely Kimi and Seb
There is only one person to blame here. And that is finger boy.
Kvyat had every right to be there, even if he used the whole track to make that corner, since he was in front and on the inside of Seb. Just as Kimi had every right to turn in since he was also a great deal in front of Seb. He should have backed up a little to give Kimi room to turn in the corner.
that is a damn lot to think in a matter of a few seconds. I am pretty sure it was a racing indecent, and I am sure Vettel was just looking for someone to blame. No one wants to be the one at fault for causing a crash and sometimes if you yell loud enough, the stewards will look into it.
“that is a damn lot to think in a matter of a few seconds.” They are professionals. These decisions are not that difficult for them.
I agree. Matt’s reconstructed train of thoughts seems quite realistic to me, though much of it was likely happening at a subconscious level…
“though much of it was likely happening at a subconscious level.” Agreed
Vettel wants to keep Kimi as his teammate.
Really? Next thing we’ll be hearing outlandish opinions such as Alonso is the most complete driver on the grid!
Do the bears use indoor plumbing where you are?
Alonso is…
Whatever man..but kimi should have waited before putting his lame horse back on the circuit, in front of the back markers passing him,he triggered the sauber- Hamilton crash, very unprofessional of him!!