Comments on: Alonso’s speed and Rosberg’s smart strategy (German Grand Prix analysis)

By: PJA

PJA — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 08:18:15 +0000

If it had started to rain and say the safety car had come out for a few laps Hamilton would have been allowed to un-lap himself during the safety car period. He would still have been last on track but with cars going off in the rain and the increased chance of overtaking those conditions bring it would have been the only chance he could have scored points after what happened on the first lap.

By: Patrickl

Patrickl — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:34:19 +0000

Yeah, I’m not exactly sure what the point is really either.

I guess in the case of Alonso it shows he didn’t just do one fast lap, but that he drove a whole stint of fast laps.

To be honest, I don’t think fastest laps say much in general. They depend way too much on strategy and traffic. This race is quite a clear case of that.

By: Patrickl

Patrickl — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:26:12 +0000

In the radio transmission that was aired on TV, they said they wanted Hamilton to stay out for the event if the rain might fall.

Besides, these cars are mobile commercial signs. I don’t think the sponsors would be too happy if Hamilton had parked it after doing just one lap (with a car that could still do laps).

By: pSynrg

pSynrg — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:47:27 +0000

Ah, kinda get it now (by actually reading the chart below it )

Although it still seems like a meaningless statistic to me, sorry. Fastest lap surely cancels all the others out. The there’s individual personal bests and they cancel the previous ones out…

Huh?

By: pSynrg

pSynrg — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:44:04 +0000

I’m kinda with Oliver on this – I was puzzled by the comment earlier (39th…) and still am actually.

What are we missing?

By: Achilles

Achilles — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:46:42 +0000

Been nice if they had managed all that success without a veto, eh, perse?

By: Leaf

Leaf — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:14:44 +0000

Also, without opening another can of worms, lets hope Todt doesn’t wind up running the show at the FIA!

By: Leaf

Leaf — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:13:22 +0000

good point….agreed

By: persempre

persempre — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:10:44 +0000

The problem came when he was still moaning about having to continue running in interviews after the race, pSynrg.

By: pSynrg

pSynrg — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:59:40 +0000

I understand Lewis wanting to park it for reasons other than saving engine/gearbox. He was forced to yield to every car throughout the whole race.
I know when I’m racing any yield is painful – quadruple fold when you had a very promising opportunity.
But he diligently followed team orders and took the car to the end. Can’t see a problem there…

By: pSynrg

pSynrg — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:55:17 +0000

Totally with you on this. The merest sniff of getting in front of everyone and that’s what Lewis has a go at, of course is the only suitable response.
A few more ~~centimetres~~ millimetres and the lead or 2nd at worse was his…

By: persempre

persempre — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:53:55 +0000

The whole podium ceremony has changed & become a much bigger (& more heavily regulated) event in itself.

By: persempre

persempre — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:49:12 +0000

Yes, I remember too well the problems across the years, Leaf, but this years’ have been for lots of reasons not really to do with the people involved.
Also as you probably know, if Todt was still at Ferrari then the likelihood of Alonso joining would have been next to nothing. In Todt’s view Alonso had his chance in 2001(?).

By: persempre

persempre — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:42:49 +0000

Not being in the team we don’t know what they may have wanted data on. As you say it could be something mechanical. I had thought it may have been more to do with tyres. They would still want to get some idea of tyre performance with the new aero package. They had the data from the undamaged car on the 2 previous days but they may have wanted to collect data on a long run.
IMO a team like McLaren has more experience to be able to judge what they need than a driver – & particularly one who is only in his second season.

By: Paddy

Paddy — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:38:49 +0000

I know that Ferrari might not have the same dream team anymore but their experiance, finacial clout and the best all round driver on the grid makes it a pretty good bet. Plus Alonso can promote his new cycling team in italy!

By: Jay Menon

Jay Menon — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:29:09 +0000

I guess it was a bad idea to schedule my wedding on a F1 weekend, but such things happen. I did make it back to catch the start though, but was too tired to pull through.

I was quite shocked to see Alonso topping the fastest lap sheet, amazing. The man is the best, hands down. He’s been consistently bringing the car home in the points albeit it being a truck. With this new found pace, I hope that he has a shot a challenging for the podium come Budapest.

My tip for the Hungarian GP is Button or Brrichello to win with Lewis or Kovi pulling a surprise.

By: Patrickl

Patrickl — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:54:11 +0000

Did you perhaps misunderstand Keith’s quote or am I not getting your joke?

By: Oliver

Oliver — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:32:14 +0000

Taking every lap time set by every driver into consideration, Barrichello only managed the 39th best of the race.

I guess I’m not the only one who finds those FIA ghost cars confusing.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:16:32 +0000

More like Mclaren wanted to avoid another confrontation with the FIA as they surely would have overheard the conversation. But the car was damaged, except they are testing engine reliability or some other mechanical part which is unlikely, a damaged car would give inconsistent data which is useless to the engineers.

By: Leaf

Leaf — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:58:21 +0000

OK I agree with that…but. Prior to Ross Brawn and Michael Shumacher Ferrari would have a good year and then at least 2-3 years of ho-hum seasons. Now that both Brawn and Shuey are gone, Todt too, and the Italians are back in charge are they headed for the same? I would hate to se Alonso get into that mix as I believe him to be the fastest driver in the business. I like Ferrari but when things start to go wrong now it begins to look a little like the Chinese fire drill.