[Official] Round 07 - Canadian Grand Prix

[bjohnsonsmith]

I thought Lewis had blown that stop.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

9 laps in and 2 commercial breaks so far, FOX coverage is a disgrace, just like every other sport their coverage infects.

check out @sniffpetrol

[bjohnsonsmith]

Lewis has surely got this one in the bag.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Congrats to Lewis. The 7th different winner out of 7 races.

[bravo]

They weighed Hamilton with the flag! I hope he didn't pick that up on the way back in, and he had it all race. Great drive, would be awful if they punished him for that.

[werner]

Great drive by Hamilton! 2 stops was the way to go obviously, especially on a track where overtaking is quite easy. Vettel and Alonso would have pipped Grosjean and Perez if they stopped earlier (or at all in Alonso's case)

Btw 8 drivers in 15 seconds without a safetycar. That might be some kind of a record?

[nicanary]

Originally Posted by bravo

They weighed Hamilton with the flag! I hope he didn't pick that up on the way back in, and he had it all race. Great drive, would be awful if they punished him for that.

You mean someone actually watches all that programme padding? That's exactly what Bernie/Sky want - don't give in to them!

I enjoyed the race far more because the Canadians sensibly have a different time zone to us - it's much cooler at 9pm and I didn't fall asleep. Good race decided by good driving and "proper" strategy, not the luck of the draw.

[werner]

On what lap did Grosjean and Perez stop? The dutch commentator told that Raikkonen would take it easy on the first part of his first stint to keep his yellow tires alive longer, and he only got a few points, I guess Grosjean just found the right balance between speed and keeping tires alive.

[steve nielsen]

Originally Posted by werner

Great drive by Hamilton! 2 stops was the way to go obviously, especially on a track where overtaking is quite easy. Vettel and Alonso would have pipped Grosjean and Perez if they stopped earlier (or at all in Alonso's case)

Btw 8 drivers in 15 seconds without a safetycar. That might be some kind of a record?

or maybe Alonso should have stopped LATER on his first and only stop

his times were´nt that bad yet with the first set of tires.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by bravo

They weighed Hamilton with the flag! I hope he didn't pick that up on the way back in, and he had it all race. Great drive, would be awful if they punished him for that.

Did you notice how he could hardly hold it up. A lead flag, clearly.

[werner]

Originally Posted by steve nielsen

or maybe Alonso should have stopped LATER on his first and only stop

his times were´nt that bad yeat with the first set of tires.

Maybe. He was pushing quite hard to beat Vettel and Hamilton at the first round of pitstops. That costed him his tires, so he had to do the stop early. With hindsight, Alonso lost the race already in lap 19!

[adam46]

Did HRT take some tips from NASCAR and start and park?

[nickyf1]

I feel absolutely cheated out of a good race thanks to DRS..

[bravo]

Originally Posted by nicanary

You mean someone actually watches all that programme padding? That's exactly what Bernie/Sky want - don't give in to them!

I enjoyed the race far more because the Canadians sensibly have a different time zone to us - it's much cooler at 9pm and I didn't fall asleep. Good race decided by good driving and "proper" strategy, not the luck of the draw.

It was only the podium celebrations, and it's not like I'm paying for it!

Was Massa's 3rd lap overtake using DRS? If so, should it have been as the 'DRS Enabled' message only came up about half a lap later?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by nickyf1

I feel absolutely cheated out of a good race thanks to DRS..

I watched the Sky coverage and JV felt that the DRS detracted from the race and prevented some potentially good battles; I don't always agree with him but I did this time.

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by adam46

Did HRT take some tips from NASCAR and start and park?

Oh yeah !

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by werner

Maybe. He was pushing quite hard to beat Vettel and Hamilton at the first round of pitstops. That costed him his tires, so he had to do the stop early. With hindsight, Alonso lost the race already in lap 19!

At that point he was doing what he had to do. I don't think you could say that cost him the race. However when Hamilton made his second pitstop, Alonso could have covered him. He would probably have come out in front, and even if not, it would have been very close and he could have fought for the lead on equal tyres, or even just settled for second.

I wonder who decided on the one-stop: Fernando or the team. If it was a pitwall decision, I reckon the toys and teddies will have been flying round the garage after the race. I'd like to hear Ferrari's viewpoint but Sky only had a short uninformative interview with Stefano Thingummy, and Autosport aren't showing anything from Ferrari yet. I suspect the garage doors are firmly closed.

Vettel/Red Bull made the same mistake as Alonso/Ferrari but at least they realised it and did what they could to rectify the situation.

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by nickyf1

I feel absolutely cheated out of a good race thanks to DRS..

Do you really think watching a fast car being held up by a slow one makes a good race?

DRS is only necessary because of the stupid aerodynamics of F1 cars. If we could get rid of huge draggy wings, we wouldn't need DRS. But F1 will never grasp that nettle so DRS is the best solution.

[nickyf1]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

Do you really think watching a fast car being held up by a slow one makes a good race?

DRS is only necessary because of the stupid aerodynamics of F1 cars. If we could get rid of huge draggy wings, we wouldn't need DRS. But F1 will never grasp that nettle so DRS is the best solution.

What it does do is make drivers wait for their guaranteed pass in the DRS zone, rather than simply getting past at the best opportunity. Watching cars get a 'free pass' doesn't give me any enjoyment. It's an overtake for the sake of an overtake, just because of the fact that it is a pass doesn't make for good racing, and it takes the 'battle' out of the drivers hands.

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by nickyf1

What it does do is make drivers wait for their guaranteed pass in the DRS zone, rather than simply getting past at the best opportunity. Watching cars get a 'free pass' doesn't give me any enjoyment. It's an overtake for the sake of an overtake, just because of the fact that it is a pass doesn't make for good racing, and it takes the 'battle' out of the drivers hands.

I too love to see two equal driver/car combos battling it out. But it's a pretty rare scenario. More commonly (without DRS) you just get the faster car trundling around about half to one second behind the slower car, without ever getting close enough to pass.

[Razzzor]

Well we did get some overtaking without the DRS straight. Vettel on the hairpin right BEFORE the straight... bit impatient of him, I would have just waited instead of making gusty outbrake into the hairpin.

Perez as well passed Rosberg at turn 1 - good move that.

If it weren't for the DRS straight, it would have been a lot more like Monaco. And I don't think it was THAT easy to pass down the straight this year. If it was, Schumacher should have blown by Di Resta or Kobayashi. Even Webber was stuck for a long time. It's just the tyre conditions that made for some easy passes.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Razzzor

Well we did get some overtaking without the DRS straight. Vettel on the hairpin right BEFORE the straight... bit impatient of him, I would have just waited instead of making gusty outbrake into the hairpin.

I liked that gutsy outbreak, pitty there isn't more of it.

[Paradise City]

Jacques isn't a bad guy and I agreed with most if his remarks but I was amused by his remarks relating to driver respect given his own tendency to harpoon competitors off the track during his latest Nationwide appearances. Contact Max Papis for details.

[Razzzor]

What I don't really understand is how these teams don't seem to know when the tyres drop off. How many hours do they get on friday - is it 3 hours? What the hell are they doing?

Surely Vettel or Alonso could have done a hard tyre run to see how long it lasts. They both did 44 and 36 laps in practise 2. Did the team not calculate the dropoff? Instead they go into the race hoping to make the tyres last 54 laps, having already seen on the Red Bull that the super softs were rubbish after 15 laps. Red Bull were dreaming thinking the softs would last 54 laps.... and on a track that's easy to pass on and is only 15 seconds for a pit stop. If it were Monaco, different story - it would have been an Alonso/Vettel 1-2.

What I was hoping RB would do is 2 stints on the softs. It would have meant he only needed to do a 14-15 lap stint on the super softs (he pitted 2 laps too late by the time Hamilton and Alonso caught him) which would have left two 27 lap runs on the softs, which he could have probably pushed to their limit the entire time since they didn't considerably drop off until about 45 laps. So much for their race simulations.

Alonso would have been fine putting super softs back on though, the Ferrari seems to be easier on it's tyres than McLaren and especially RB. In fact Alonso possibly had the best car of the 3, they just opted to the wrong strategy once Hamilton took the lead. He should have pushed to stay with Hamilton then put the super softs on slightly earlier than Alonso.

[Razzzor]

Top 10 finishers within 25 secs of Hamilton... that must be one of the closest races without a caution in a long time. Actually I'll look this up.

Ok I just went back 3.5 years, only 3 races closer for the top10 but they were all safety car races. That might be the closest top 10 in the last decade, which is especially impressive considering Hamilton, the winner, wasn't held up and was pushing all race long.