F1 (SPOILER ALERT!)

[kenny]

Just glad to see an exciting race, there is hope for this season yet.

[a4drk]

The Aussies always were bad losers.

Did you here the miserable kangaroo shaggers booing Button when he got his Trophy? I like Webber but glad he was not on the podium.

tut

I thought they were booing the politican bloke who presented it ?

David

[Dominic]

I really enjoyed that! I though that Lewis made some great passes. Webber let himself down when he ran into Hamilton. Genius move my Button to go for the tyre change, and then manage the tyres to the end. Looking forward to the next race.

[tut]

They could have been, just not going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Webber made a cock of that race, so they were obviously disgruntled.

tut

[mikeep]

Yip. A very exciting race but I'm worried that it was brought about by the weather conditions.

Maybe the FIA should consider some system of randomly spraying water onto the track during the race.

Mike

[gorrie]

Exciting F1 race
Solid drive by Button & good tyre call, but lets face it... that was Vettels race to lose. He was romping away. Twice now he's been leading the GP only for the car to let him down. He must be gutted.

I am not a Hamilton fan, but I felt sorry for him in the end and understand why he was frustrated with the call on strategy. He had immense speed & immediately before the pit stop, Button was only a few secs ahead of Kubica. I'm of the belief that once Hamilton had cleared Kubica, he would have caught & despatched with Button as well. Sure, the team want to avoid their drivers taking each other out... but, losing track position like that was silly imo, and only served to damage the team points haul. Surely it's more risky to drop a car back 4 or 5 on track for him to then have to negotiate that traffic again.

Also, Webber was a c*ck. I normally like him, but that corner where he took Hamilton out was just stupidity. He did the same earlier in the race, went in too hot & forced Hamilton on the the grass/astro as well.

[Lazydonkey]

The way i read it i don't see how Hamilton can blame the team for the decsion - the way he was ragging the car around for the entire race i'd not be surprised if the tyres were well and truely shot...........he could quite easily be sitting today blaming the team fro NOT pulling in. Not long after his 2nd stop he was telling the team that the almost brand new set were shot to pieces. He's undoubtably super quick and brave, but now that we're not just doing 3 sprint "races" there may be some trouble ahead.

Really pleased for Jenson, you could see how much it meant to him, seems like the team have really taken to him - and he seems so relaxed and comfortable which has got to help. In the pre-race build up i noticed that he said that Prost was his hero, and i think his race had a little bit of the professor about it.

Great race, but felt quite sorry for Vettel - another fast but fragile Newey creation ? Hopefully they'll get it sorted soon.

EDIT : Just read that Hamilton "did all he could". Yes he did. Unless you count a decent qualifying result of course.

[r10crw]

Hamilton had a brilliant race, he actually passed Button before button made that decision to pit. I still believe Hamilton to be the better driver of the two and of course Hamiltons tyres went off he was taking 2 seconds a lap off the rest and pulling away from Webber. Granted Webber drove like a prick but if he could be consistent he has a lot of raw talent. I really enjoyed it and looking forward to next week

[Lazydonkey]

of course Hamiltons tyres went off he was taking 2 seconds a lap off the rest and pulling away from Webber

But is that not the point? Yes he was super super fast but it was at the expense of the tyres thus necessitating an additional pitstop.

Slowly slowly catchy monkey !

[gorrie]

Looked more like a turbulent air issue, especially on the 2nd to last corner which was screwing him for being close enough to tow down the straight.
I know he said on the radio that his tyres had gone off, but 2 or 3 times he fell off the back of Alonso and was pretty much able to get straight on to his tail immediately again. Same deal when he was behind Kubica.

If the tyres were off, I can't see how he would be able to yo-yo off & on the tail of the car in front.

[Lazydonkey]

The PR version of his rant - as taken from the McLaren website

“This was probably one of the drives of my life. Okay, it’s possible that the decision to make a second tyre stop wasn’t the right one, but my team are a brilliant bunch of guys and they usually get it spot-on. I guess things can’t always pan out right every time, but that’s motor racing.

[jason]

Really chuffed for Button. Great race. And, for me, a proper GP again - ie. drivers having to be smart about caring for their tyres rather than brainlessly hooning in short sprints against the stopwatch for an hour or two, and a tasty tortoise vs hare situation developing (just like 'back in the day')

It leaves me wondering if the weather conditions are masking the real reason for it being a cracker... that being the removal of the compulsory pitstop (ie. compulsory use of both slick compounds) once cars have run on wets. So we ended-up with the old, classic formula of some drivers cleverly nursing their tyres for full distance while others tried 2 sprints with the prospect of on-track scrapping like we saw *. It didn't matter that Hamilton and Webber didn't pass Alonso, Massa, Kubica... we saw a valid chase and knew the leaders didn't have to stop for fuel

...so, the 'spice the show' solution could be to abolish the artificial and compulsory use of both compounds, hence compulsory pitstop. Simples.




* but the fact they were able to do it on the soft option does show that Birdgestone have ballsed-up their 2010 range of compounds!

[Corranga]

...so, the 'spice the show' solution could be to abolish the artificial and compulsory use of both compounds, hence compulsory pitstop. Simples.

* but the fact they were able to do it on the soft option does show that Birdgestone have ballsed-up their 2010 range of compounds!

I completely agree on both counts. Having to use both tyres to me is completely pointless, forcing drivers to stop when they don't necessarily have to.

From a spectators point of view we want a hard compound that maybe lasts 3/4 of the race well, with the final 1/4 being possible if looked after, and a soft that is super sticky and can be used to hoon around much faster than the hard, but will need a stop or 2. This would work especially well on short pit lane tracks.

Also, what's this about the Virgin cars not having a big enough fuel tank...?

Chris

[mac]

Jason,

Your spot on! Also the compounds available should be widely spaced apart so that you can go for the really quick tyre but have to change it or the harder more durable compound and try and last the race.

I did hear that they were talking about abolishing the pit lane speed limit at some of the newer circuits that have wider pit lanes - which would also help!


Mac