Alonso: “Probably the best victory”

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Fernando Alonso hails his European Grand Prix victory as “probably the best victory I ever felt in terms of emotions”.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

European GP – Conference (FIA)

Alonso: “Feeling very proud to be a Spanish sportsman at the moment and winning in Spain this race is probably the best victory I ever felt in terms of emotions. Nothing maybe compares to this one.”

Why Schumacher escaped DRS yellow flag penalty

“In Schumacher’s case he was received a DRS activation in the tow of Narain Karthikeyan. At the same time he was told by his engineer, who knew a yellow had just some out, ‘don’t use DRS.'”

Maldonado points finger at Hamilton (ESPN)

“He tried to put me out of the track and he didn’t leave any room for us to do the corner side-by-side. I jumped over the kerb and couldn’t avoid the accident. I don’t know why he drove like that, he was struggling too much with the tyres, he was completely lost and at that moment I was gaining at a very good pace.”

Sebastian Vettel takes positives after car failure (BBC)

“It’s bad, but you can’t change it now. Up to that point we were very strong. I felt happy, we were very quick.”

Renault to look into alternator issues (Autosport)

Renault Sport F1 deputy managing director and technical chief Rob White: “We don’t yet know whether it was the same incident on both cars, but it is very, very suspicious to all of us that it happened to both cars at such a similar point in the race.”

CVC accelerates to bumper return on F1 investment (The Telegraph)

“Private equity firm CVC is set to make a return of over 600% from its $1bn investment in Formula One motor racing, according to new research.”

Comment of the day

Mark Hitchcock is not impressed with Bernie Ecclestone’s comments on the New Jersey race:

That’s the key thing about these stupid public statement Bernie makes. If a powerful figure on the sport casts doubt on an event, what investor in their right mind would throw money at it?
Mark Hitchcock

From the forum

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On this day in F1

Happy birthday to three-times Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert, who is 48 today.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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114 comments on “Alonso: “Probably the best victory””

  1. maldonado could have used the run-off; all that space, and he didnt use it.
    That’s all I’m saying

    1. How was he to know Lewis would not leave him room?

      1. @infy Because he had gone off the track and Hamilton was not required to leave him room (see below).

      2. @infy
        Because Lewis was driving on the track, Maldonardo was not, therefore Maldonardo can only rejoin when the track is clear, so at no point can he leave it up to Lewis to give him space, he has to be sure that he is not going to run into anyone before he rejoins.
        In that situation Lewis had no obligation to leave Maldonardo space.
        With hindsight, Maldonardo was so much quicker that he had overtaken him shortly after anyway that it would have made more sense for Lewis just to let him go, just like Vettel could have left more room for Karthikeyan in Malaysia, but neither of them had any obligation to do so, it was therefore 100% Maldonardo’s and Karthikean’s fault in the respective incidents.

        1. Ah-hem, Vettel’s fault*

          1. How exactly?
            The incidents are pretty much the same. You can’t blame Maldonardo for rejoining the track and hitting Hamilton without blaming Karthikeyan for rejoining the track and hitting Vettel.
            Both Hamilton and Vettel could have avoided the contact, but neither of them were obligated to do so, or had any real chance to predict the incidents.

          2. @mads, the difference is that Karthikeyan didn’t leave the track, and they weren’t fighting for position. This has been discussed to death already.

          3. @aseixas
            Looking back at it, you are right, Karthikeyan did not actually leave the track. Memory is really working well for me… : )

        2. @Mads @keithcollantine

          I’m talking about the incident that forced him off track, not his rejoining of the track.

          1. @infy From the point at which Hamilton forced Maldonado at the track it was not inevitable that Maldonado would hit Hamilton. Maldonado had ample time to go across the run-off and avoid Hamilton.

          2. Maldonado always runs others off the track (kimi earlier that race, grosjean in Aus to name but 2), he should expect other drivers to show him the same respect…

          3. What run off? It was laid with speed bumps. Why risk running over it and damage the under tray of the car?

          4. @ridiculous because doing the same over the curb and then hitting another car is not risking any damage whatsoever! Cars have been going over the bumps all weekend and been fine, some of them forced there by Maldonado (completely fairly ofcourse).

    2. I agree, he should have bided his time. Also it’s difficult to say Lewis should have left him room because he was fighting to keep his car on track let alone hold off Maldonado.

    3. The run off had some bumps/humps like those at Monza. Running over those are fatal I believe.

      1. They are speed bumps and not car breakers.

        Watch the onboard footage of Button in Valencia 2009 (i am sorry I cannot find it but I have in the 2009 F1 Review). Button and Alonso go off at turn 4 and both take the run offs with those speed bumps.

      2. Yes nobody seems to notice that Maldonado went back on the racing line because of those bumps, obviously it turned out worse but there was only a fraction of a second to make that decision, that’s why I don’t blame Maldonado that much.

    4. he admitted that he jumped the Kerb! and he knew that after jumping a kerb you cant steer he knew he would crash into Hamilton, so why? Im almost forced to believe after this statement that Maldonado deliberately crashed into Hamilton, Hamilton defended with everything despite looking like he was driving slicks on wet surface he was able not to crash into someone and keep his car on track.

  2. I know I will come under a lot of criticism but i kinda agree with Pastor. Lewis did push him off the road. Wasn’t he supposed to leave some space for the competing car?

    1. @sd

      Wasn’t he supposed to leave some space for the competing car?

      No.

      This was not a circumstance such as that described by the rules clarification over the winter (see here).

      As we’ve seen several times this year, including with other drivers in this race, the driver who is ahead is still allowed to resume the racing line after passing through the corner, which is exactly what Hamilton did.

      What’s more, Maldonado has knows this: he did the exact same thing to Raikkonen on lap two at turn 17. So it’s completely disingenuous of him to accuse Hamilton of doing something wrong by practising tactics he had already used himself.

      1. As we’ve seen several times this year, including with other drivers in this race, the driver who is ahead is still allowed to resume the racing line after passing through the corner

        Is this why Senna got a penalty for the Kobayashi incident?

      2. @keithcollantine I re-read the article you linked to and I still can’t get my head around the rule. I have to add the disclaimer that I’m only talking about the initial incident where Maldonado left the track. I have no issue with Maldonado being penalised for trying to torpedo Hamilton when returning to the track.

        When Senna moved over on Kobayashi it caused an accident because Kobayashi had nowhere to go thanks to the wall. Technically that bend in the straight is called turn 7 so the racing line is all the way over on the right of the track, meaning that Senna was on the racing line as he was nearing the wall. He got a penalty for that.

        When Hamilton was coming out of turn 12 Maldonado was next to him and he had to know he was there if Senna was expected to know where Kobayashi was. He still moved over so there was no space for a car and gave Maldonado no option but to leave the track to prevent an accident. Had this been a part of the track where there was a wall on the outside of turn 12 then Hamilton would have smeared Maldonado onto that wall.

        I find it hard to believe that Formula 1 has a set of rules where this accident wouldn’t be Hamilton’s fault. Surely there is a rule that a driver can’t deliberately run into a car that is next to them when they know they’re there.

        It’s a bit like Maldonado’s pass on Webber into the final turn. Had Webber not left the track then Maldonado would have run into him and most likely got a penalty. It seems strange that because a crash didn’t happen the move was legal, even through he ran another driver off the road. If I get pulled over for speeding I can’t use the excuse that even though I broke the law, because I didn’t crash nothing bad happened so I shouldn’t get booked.

        1. @davea86 The rule clarification from last winter is pretty simple. If you pull off-line to defend a position and then return to the racing line before the corner, you must leave room for the other car. That obviously doesn’t apply in the Hamilton/Maldonado incident as they were already through the corner when Hamilton pushed Maldonado off.

          Surely there is a rule that a driver can’t deliberately run into a car that is next to them when they know they’re there.

          No, there isn’t. In a corner, the driver who’s ahead can do pretty much whatever they choose – remember Alonso and Vettel at Monza last year?

          That’s why, for example, Raikkonen was allowed to push Hamilton off in the chicane at Spa in 2008. Hamilton knew that, which is why he went across the run-off, which is what Maldonado should have done.

          @thomf1s

          The Senna penalty was odd – I don’t quite get that one. It looked to me like Senna was returning to the racing line after being passed by Raikkonen and Kobayashi was moving too late into a gap that was always going to disappear. A penalty for “causing a collision” surely should have gone to Kobayashi – he was the one best-placed to avoid it.

          It’s a particularly tricky one as they were in what is technically referred to as turn seven, but this is more of a bent straight than an actual corner.

          But I’m concerned about the precedent that penalty sets. Are drivers on worn tyres now supposed to pull over and let people pass them?

      3. He did the same thing on Webber too at one point of the race. And none of the drivers that “suffered” that crashed with him as a result.

        The guy really needs to polish his driving. He’s fast, but he’s too prone to make this kind of moves. And it seems to aggravate even more when the race is about to finish and he’s in a position to go further up the field…

    2. Wasn’t he supposed to leave some space for the competing car?

      The simple answer is no, Lewis has no obligation to leave any space for Maldonado. Just like Raikkonen had no obligation to leave Lewis space at Spa 08, and Kubica didn’t to Alonso in Silverstone 10. In fact I can think of numerous different similar situations, and in every single one, once the driver on the outside runs out of room they take to the escape road before safely returning to the track. As soon as Maldonado is off the track, it is his responsibility to return to the track safely, which under no circumstances could it be argued he did.

      On another point, to drive 2 and a half laps with no front wing, is dangerous, irresponsible and pretty darn stupid.

      1. Just like Raikkonen had no obligation to leave Lewis space at Spa 08, and Kubica didn’t to Alonso in Silverstone 10.

        Exactly.

        1. @keithcollantine @jleigh You can throw Massa/Hamilton at Fuji 08 in there as well.

          1. @geemac That’s a particularly good precedent – a very similar move, actually.

          2. @keithcollantine That was the first thing I thought when I saw the incident. it was a very similar move at a similar corner (though Valencia had way more run off). In that case too the culprit (Massa) got a drive through penalty. Dare we admit that the FIA are starting to show consistency in handing out penalties!

    3. Only a cars width in the breaking zone, which he did. I don’t know why there is all this confusion over the rule this year to leave space when moving back onto the racing line. It’s very simple. The situation in Bahrain was astounding to be honest. How Alonso in particular could think that the rule was there to require a driver to leave the door open to an overtake on both sides is insane!

      1. Its not so much that they are required to leave space, but more so that if they dont leave space then there’s going to be an accident. So it is kind of in their best interests.

    4. I also sort of agree he wasn’t left any room but then I stopped and thought about it for a bit and asked, why couldn’t he just back out of a move gone wrong and take Hamilton the next lap. Hamilton was clearly struggling and would have been easy picking the next lap. It was a bit silly to be that aggressive.

    5. Some steawards think Rosberg acted rightly in Bahrain defending Lewis and Alonso, I think they did not lose any time to figure out whose fault it was yesterday…

      Maldonando failed to overtake Lewis on the straight and tried the outside line and failed again, next thing he does: hit Lewis coming off the track. Pastor argues he was faster, so why don’t try overtaking him somewhere else? Lewis defended Kimi as well but the Finn was smart enough to wait and undercut him one turn later.

      Lewis was very polite congratulating Alonso and avoiding to publicly criticize Maldonando.

      1. It just shows the quality of driver. Kimi knew on the fly that with such lack of rear grip it is easier to out-accelerate the guy instead of out-brake.

        Maldonado is fast, but I’m very disappointed he didn’t learn anything from incident in Australia this season. Either he was totally in the zone, or he got long way before he is not just a quick but top driver.

    6. Study a YouTube video of the incident carefully. Maldonado drives alongside Hamilton approaching the corner, but as they turn past the apex, Hamilton is ahead. At this point, Maldonado had room to brake too and pull behind. What happens? Maldonado jerks the car into Hamilton. Look carefully. They touch, maybe, and Maldonado then goes off the track. And then immediately lines up to return, with Hamilton in full sight, hitting him.

      Think about it. It’s a split second thing. Maldonado knew he’d lost the corner but at that moment on the apex decided to force himself off track so he could return ‘bumper car style’ for the next turn. Only that turned into a deliberate shunt.

      When will FIA put a race ban on this guy?

      1. Ah well, If we are allowed to force cars off track then you can all stop bitching about the Schumacher/Barrichello incident! Surely it makes no difference if there is a wall there or not!

        1. Which bit didn’t you get? I was saying look carefully and you’ll see Maldonado wasn’t forced anywhere, Hamilton kept to the racing line around the apex, while Maldonado rather than braking and accepting he wasn’t going to pass suddenly accelerated and moved in towards Hamilton before inevitably leaving the track. It’s completely legitimate racing from Hamilton, defending from a faster car.

          1. No, you are wrong again, I wish Maldonado had braked on or after the apex and then we would have seen Hamilton bounicing over Pastors interlocked front wheel and retiring, but instead Hamilton forced him off track and when Maldonado tried to get back on track, Hamilton gave him no room which he has every right to do, however unfortunately by this point Maldonado was straddling the Kerb and couldn’t steer either way which is why it APPEARS that he drove straight into Hamilton whereas if you look at the on-board footage from Maldonado’s car, he WAS trying to avoid the collision.

          2. @asanator You seem to be clueless about the rules. First Hamilton was following the racing line and ahead. So he could not be forcing anyone off track: it’s up to Maldonado to judge his entry and pace accordingly. As the video shows, at the very moment he could have backed off, he does the opposite. Understood? It’s not that difficult. Second, Maldonado being stuck on the kerb is totally irrelevant. Once off track he has to take care about rejoining safely, which he didn’t. Again, not difficult to understand.

            Deliberate or reckless? Maldonado has previous in both. His arrogance is also way in excess of his talent and his achievement. Kobayashi being reckless doesn’t bother so much because he’s not arrogant. Vettel, Schumacher and Hamilton being arrogant doesn’t bother me so much because they’ve proven their talent and have the achievements to show it. Maldonado is just an immature rich kid, like Piquet Junior, a dangerous liability on the track and unbearable in his failure to accept responsibility off it.

    7. watch the footage again and again until your brain gives up trying to blame someone, Lewis kept the car inside the white lines despite his grip issues, and Maldonado simply flew straight at him knowing that he could make the corner.

  3. Maldonado’s lack of knowledge, respect and honesty really does astound me. I try to never take a dislike to people who I don’t know, but I must say, I am really starting to dislike, even despise this childish, deceitful, pathetic excuse for a man.

    1. to far lol

    2. Maldonado’s lack of knowledge, respect and honesty really does astound me.

      If he had run into, say, Ricciardo, would you be saying the same things about him as you are now?

      1. I certainly would be. I’m not really a fan of Hamilton, but Maldonado’s etiquette on track is inexcusable, and the fact that he then blames Hamilton for something that was entirely his fault makes it even worse.

      2. very much so, although maybe his reactions to the incident wouldn’t have featured in the round-up, so maybe not exactly. I’m sure you remember how critical I was of him when he deliberately crashed into Perez in Monaco.

        1. I’m sorry, but there is no evidence AT ALL that he deliberately crashed into Perez in Monaco, just because a few pundits over-react and start ASSUMING that that is what happened does not make it so!

      3. What’s the difference @prisoner-monkeys?

        1. @bascb – I think people are judging the incident based on the people involved rather than on the actual incident. I’ve seen some criticisms of Maldonado in particular that I think are as undeserved as they are strongly-worded; for example, people claiming that Maldonado should receive a race ban for this incident in Valencia. And so I am very curious as to how Maldonado’s critics in particular would perceive the incident if it involved:

          a) Maldonado and Hamilton
          b) Maldonado and Ricciardo
          c) Hamilton and Riccardo

          I’ve chosen Riccardo as a neutral third party, but it could really apply to anyone else.

          A lot of this really ties in to what I was saying the other day about certain drivers being very unpopular with the fans (however many supporters they might have). And of all the drivers on the grid, I think Maldonado is probably the least-popular at the moment. It started when he brought petrodollars from a socialist nation to Williams and replaced the fan-favourite Hulkenberg. It increased after his stupidity at Spa last year, and however much that might have been deserved, it has created a phenomenon where people are demanding race bans for every little indiscretion, and calling him a “childish, deceitful, pathetic excuse for a man”, which is simply taking things too far – and all because he said he felt Hamilton was more at fault for the incident. Even if you don’t agree with that sentiment, you can at least see the reasoning behind it; Maldonado clearly felt that he had done enough to make the pass, but got pushed wide and found Hamilton right in front of him when he attempted to re-join. Pushing a driver wide is one thing – forcing him so far off the circuit that he needs to slow down entirely and lose several seconds rejoining is another thing entirely.

          I just think that some of the rhetoric with regards to certain drivers needs to be toned down. I can understand criticisms, and I’m more than willing to debate the nature of an incident – but I think that calling a driver “childish, deceitful, pathetic excuse for a man” is unnecessary and uncalled-for.

          1. +1
            Take it easy out there fellow Fanatics, its just a sport. We dont really know these drivers, we only see them on TV, and hear what is prompted by publicists and managers.

      4. I personally kind of dislike the guy…Today it’s Hamilton, tomorrow will be Ricciardio.

      5. @ PM – I’m not exactly anti-Hamilton, but I’m no fan of his, and yet even I was upset on his behalf. There’s always that feeling that it won’t end well with Pastor. Like Jake said, I’m starting to hate him. An attitude like that in F1 will result in a serious injury.

        1. Vergne’s move on Kovalainen was worse. Hit the poor guy from no where. With Maldonado you could just tell as soon as he was pushed off track he was going to try and give Hamilton a good nudge, and he did, straight into the wall! All the drivers by now should know to stay away from Maldonado, he is just dangerous, and has the temper of a child!

  4. Happy birthday Johnny

  5. 20 second penalty what a joke, i dread to think what you have to do to get a race ban, cripple someone?
    And how Senna got a drive through is beyond me.
    And rumors abound from trackside photographers that RBR sounds suspiciously like its using some sort off throttle device, certanly explains where Vettel found 4 tenths from nowhere in qualy and 2 seconds in the race.

    1. 20 second penalty what a joke, i dread to think what you have to do to get a race ban, cripple someone?

      It’s a pretty standard penalty for causing an avoidable accident. Particularly if the other party carries a degree of responsibility for the collision. If Hamilton had hit Maldonado (instead of Maldonado hitting Hamilton), you wouldn’t be calling for tougher penalties.

      And how Senna got a drive through is beyond me.

      Senna was slow out of the chicane, and had been duelling with several cars for several laps. The stewards obviously believed that he should have been aware that other cars were nearby when he moved over.

      1. Well thats the thing, if it had been the other way round would Hamilton be starting from He`s qualy position in Silverstone or even starting the race at all.

    2. “And rumors abound from trackside photographers that RBR sounds suspiciously like its using some sort off throttle device, certanly explains where Vettel found 4 tenths from nowhere in qualy and 2 seconds in the race.”

      Typical media starting rumours. Is it so hard to believe maybe it was pure driver talent, and not the team cheating?

      1. @brad-ferrari The claims that off-throttle blowing was still going on arose before this weekend:

        Teams still using off-throttle exhaust blowing

        1. @keithcollantine, if my memory serves me rightly Michael Schumacher was reputed to used left foot braking whilst using his right foot on the accelerator to generate exhaust gas-assisted downforce in his early days with Ferrari, Rubens right foot braking was seen to be a reason for his inability to get as much out of the car. Please excuse if I have this wrong, I am not keen enough to do the research.

    3. In the end, that penalty did the job of taking Maldonado’s last point away. I guess dropping from 3rd/4th to below the point is a clear sign a driver did something wrong there.

      1. well Schumacher, KOB and vergne got 5 grid on next race, Maldonado too in Monaco he got a bonus this time. He has crash or touch most cars already hasn’t him ?

        1. Vergne got a 10 place grid penalty as his case was really completely his fault and unnecessary move.

          Maldonado was wrong to try and get back on track there, and caused the accident. But Hamilton probably also should have backed out and left a tad more room (others did do that in the same race and still defended their position).
          Don’t ask me about FIA consistency and transparency though, its often hard to find.

          Case in point is Senna getting a driver through penalty when Kobayashi was the one diving into a disappearing gap.

  6. Maldonado is so bad that I have truly fallen in love with him. He has scored 29 points for the team this year and lost at least 50 more due to his own errors. And he always manages to find new excuses that make no sense. Hopefully Chavez has enough cash to buy Pastor a race seat for 2013 as well, it would be a shame if that would be occupied by some boring and decently professional guy like Bottas.

    1. Nice addition to the grid for a bit of fun, eh!

      1. @BasCB Exactly! :) What makes the Maldonado story more complicated is that he is really quick and can be as good as Alonso on his day. But I’d really expect even a ‘wild’ driver to be more careful after messing up two races (Monaco, Canada) in a row. Frank Williams must have nerves of iron.

        1. @girts Frank, nerves of iron? You gotta be kidding. Unfortunately Frank doesn’t have as deep a pocket as he would have wanted, otherwise Crashtor Stupidado would be flying from all over the steps, iron nerves or no

          1. +1. After all, Williams is the only team on the grid that manages to have a profit at the end of the season without having results. The stock market affair pays off, the WHP development pays off, all their drivers are throwing money at the team with a shovel. To be honest they have cash flowing from pretty much everywhere you look. :)

            It’s a business model with Patrick Head’s signature on it, rather than an F1 team and if 2 terrible drivers are good for business then, so be it.

          2. @montreal95,posts like yours make me comeback to the site over and over. Comment of the day.

          3. @tony031r

            Yeah, but a couple of points woth mentioning:

            a) Williams drivers aren’t slow. I dislike Maldonado for his on-track behaviour and what seems like total lack of discipline but he’s not talent-less and neither is Senna, whose racecraft is better than Pastor’s even though he can’t hook it up in qualifying up until now.

            b) You can’t fault Williams for doing what they can to survive and succeed. For a privateer team enduring such a spell as Williams did since 2004 even survival isn’t guaranteed. Just look how teams like Lotus and Brabham have disappeared. Yet Williams are still here and will continue to be, and soon there will possibly be a time that they won’t have the need for Chavez’s dollars again. When you fall down and get up again it can make you stronger. But you can’t get up again if you’re dead.

          4. @suka

            Thank you very much. Such nice words make you want to come back and post again. And also many thanks to Keith, whose great blog which is, without shadow of doubt, the best F1 blog there is, helped gather here such a great community of posters from all over the world

        2. @montreal95 said it all. The bad about this thing, seems like Pastor he’s over confident to the point he believes he can do whatever he wants because “owns” the team.

          1. @jcost Yes that’s the thing that baffles me about PM. His driving is completely irresponsible, and the amount of points it’s costing Williams is staggering. Looks like he thinks that he is the team.

      2. @bascb, As good as the tyres at mixing up the championship !?

        1. a tad less constructed though

    2. Irony is that Senna is by far the most like man to loose his seat to Bottas, as he being absolutely smashed by Maldonado. And Maldonado performance just shows, how well Williams could be doing if they get a high quality driver, not just fast driver.

      Bottas might be the right man for the job, and when Bottas will match Maldonado’s speed. Maldonado will have to think about points he loosing because he will be next on a chopping block.

  7. Congratulations on receiving unprecedented amounts of traffic!
    Maldonado definitely seemed out of order to me, I think it’s terrible if he’s able to make up places just because people are scared of him and get out the way so I’m glad Lewis didn’t give way. Mal should have just backed out of it, and tried again later, he’d probably have got him cleanly anyway.

    1. If you followed F1 this season, you would know there is not much conspiracy there. Senna’s constant lack of pace compare to his team mate, Bottas impressive in testing and heavy financial backing. It is pretty clear Senna must raise his game asap.

  8. Sorry Pastor. Give others no room and drive then off the track and why should others then not do likewise?

    1. At the end of the day it’s not penalties that count, it’s points. Hamilton got none because he didn’t leave room like everyone else had around that corner.

      1. @Kelly – That’s not true at all. Look at lap 2, and when Raikkonen overtook Maldonado on lap 2 at turn 17, Maldonado didn’t leave any room for Raikkonen, and I don’t recall Kubica leaving any room for Alonso in 2010 at Silverstone, do you? It’s Maldonado who is at fault, because you don’t crash into someone when re-joining the track.

  9. Hamilton could have technically been in the clear and Maldonado in the wrong to the nth degree – did anyone else just know that was going to end terribly as soon as Hamilton would refuse to let an obviously faster car by?

    The boy has serious issues with red mist and frankly I just can’t see him ever mounting a legitimate championship bid again with his mentality and lack of racing awareness.

    1. @alonsowdc I think you’re misinformed as to who has a ‘lack of racing awareness’ and who doesn’t, Kimi got by Lewis without crashing, and Maldonado couldn’t…

      1. The writing was on the wall.

        He didn’t have to lose all those points in a battle he was never going to win.

        1. @AlonsoWDC, at that stage of the race Hamilton had a good chance of defending to the end, exactly as Maldonado had a very good chance of making a clean pass.

        2. So Hamilton shouldn’t have fought – fairly, I might add – for that position then? Is that what you’re saying? He should have just let Maldonado cruise by?

          That is not racing.

  10. Mercedes F1 are setting up in Broadgate Circus in central London at the moment – not sure what they’re up to but worth heading down. Fortunately I work about 2 minutes away!

  11. Maldonado THAT IS WHY YOU GOT A PENALTY!!you stuffed up!!

  12. Italian journalist Giorgio Terruzzi is reporting that Vettel has signed a three-year deal with Ferrari from 2014.

    1. It’s not sure. Read carefully this sentence:
      “Questa è la nostra convinzione, basata sia sul panorama dei contratti in essere, sia sulla tranquillità con la quale a Maranello stanno affrontando il tema-Massa”
      which means: “This [Vettel signing with Ferrari] is our belief, based on both the situation of the contracts and the calmness with which Maranello is dealing with Massa’s situation”.
      [yeah, sorry for the translation, I hope you got the message]
      In that article they also claim that if Massa doesn’t perform well enough, they will drop him, and they will take Webber for 2013 (which would be his last F1 season).

      1. The wording doesn’t matter. It’s never “official” until Ferrari announces it anyway. Given the flurry of activity on Vettel lately (initiated by Ferrari itself at times), I think this is true.

        1. Alonso said it during the Thursday press conference, they started rumours, it will take some time before that happens.3-4 years.

  13. Maldonado’s driving etiquette can be bad, but it’s his attitude after the incidents that I find most grating. For instance after driving into Perez still claiming it was a mis-judgement. Reminds me of Schumi in the bad old days, claiming innocence even when anyone with only half a brain and see a guilty verdict. This is even worse because Maldonado is somehow making out he is the victim in all of this.

    Time to take your braces off and become a man.

    1. Nah watch for MAL getting even running in the “aggressor Hamilton” as soon as FP1 in silverstone, even already everyone including Stewards told him he is wrong. He may not be afraid of getting hurt but that attitude don’t pay in F1.

  14. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/100724
    In a certain way he is right, but I don’t think that he should say anything like this on the press, speacially when Mclaren keeps doing such a bad job in the pits and in the upgrades area. Mclaren didn’t bring important updates for the last races and Lewis won one. I don’t know how much time Hamilton’s patience will last.

    1. Whitmarsh understand very little about Hamilton’s kind of racing. Maldonado is a track bully, Hamilton hiumself is somewhere between aggressive and reckless at times, but there is a difference. Hamilton refused to just cede position to Maldonado, despite knowing very well he was risking a collision.

      Hamilton didn’t repent. Why? Because he knows next time Maldonado will know he has to do the same again and risk (or probably cause) a collision or drive more carefully and get past with talent, if he has enough.

      McLaren probably lost this race again in the pits. Certainly even if Alonso and Grosjean had caught Hamilton, Maldonado would not have. Hamilton’s patience shouldn’t be factor. If he can get a move to Red Bull and Newey is still there, he should go. McLaren’s interest clearly lies with Button and has done for two seasons now.

      1. Hamilton didn’t repent. Why? Because he knows next time Maldonado will know he has to do the same again and risk (or probably cause) a collision or drive more carefully and get past with talent, if he has enough.

        I think this is exactly what it was about.

  15. What we have to remember is that Pastor Maldonado and Lewis Hamilton have a ‘history’ of running into one another, and it is probably safe to assume that they don’t exactly go to the bar for beers together. I doubt I am alone here in having a bad feeling something would happen when these two went wheel to wheel, it was almost bound to happen.
    I have made no secret in the past twelve months of the fact that I don’t like Pastor Maldonado. He is reckless and has, on more than one occasion, driven into other drivers ‘on purpose’ as recently as Monaco this year. He is unpredictable at best, despite the obvious potential he has in terms of talent. He has done well this season, and has certainly put Bruno Senna to pasture so far in terms of qualifying and race results. Yet there is something about this guy I really don’t like, something ugly!
    In saying that, despite this crash not appearing to be Hamilton’s fault, it is yet another disappointment. When we compare Hamilton to Alonso for example, when Fernando’s tyres lost performance in Canada he didn’t force the issue when drivers we making passes on him. He knew he was a sitting duck and could not compete, yet he brought the car home and scored points. Hamilton has yet, sometimes atleast, to look at the bigger picture of the championship rather than the glory of winning a particular grands prix. He had every right to defend his position from Maldonado, every right to do what he did, yet with hindsight, I bet he wishes he had settled for fourth instead of 19th.
    That is Fernando Alonso’s strength, he is consistantly bringing the car home even when it or his tyres let him down. He is not making mistakes, and picks his fights wisely. That is why I believe he will be this year’s world champion, and Sebastien Vettel’s biggest opponent.

  16. When I couldn’t access the site yesterday I got very preoccupied so I got in touch with friends located in other countries and asked them to try to access it but they were also unable to do so. I do follow other F1 related sites but not being able to access F1 Fanatic I felt like something was missing in my life. Glad to learn that the access problem was due to the high amount of traffic and not a hacker attack!

    1. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
      25th June 2012, 18:53

      @mariano
      +1
      I had exactly the same feeling. F1F is the best F1 Blog/Fan site on the interweb, I was hooked within seconds of visiting this site about three years ago. I just read the articles at first, but quickly realised that the fanatics on this site were highly informed, witty and capable of coming up with some astonishing F1 trivia from left field, not to mention @keithcollantine isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. F1F definitely enhances my enjoyment of F1 and Motorsport in general. You Gotta Love It!

      1. I agree 100% with you. This site is very addictive mainly because of all the reasons that you have stated in your comment!

    2. @mariano @tmcs88 Sorry for giving you withdrawal guys! Rest assured I suffer just as much when it’s not working correctly.

  17. One thing: isn’t it forbidden to speak any language other than English during team radios? I know sometimes coded messages are sent in other languages, but it’s the third team radio in Italian I hear from Alonso this year…

    1. This was discussed during Finnish live coverage of the race yesterday, and according to their “experts” there’s no rule which would force teams to speak English in team radio.

    2. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
      25th June 2012, 19:02

      I don’t understand why they can’t just put subtitles on the screen, as that would nullify any advantage a team may gain. That is unless the team uses code such as ‘push the blue button’ which could mean anything.

    3. Its rather that the FOM has tended not to play out messages in other languages than English, both because there are a lot of people who do not understand them, but also for the simple reason that they have a bit of trouble filtering out potential swear words.

      But I do remember the teams agreed somewhere to keep it to mostly English when the messages were made available to the FOM integrally (might have been just a non binding promise though).

      To me it seems that after Ferrari started using Italian more and more with Fernando (they also did a some of that in Canada), the FOM decided not to let them get away with this non too friendly gesture and play them out non the less.

    4. I have never heard anything about it being forbidden to use any language other than English on the team radio, and I would be surprised if it was as it would be unfair on any drivers who don’t speak English.

      Even if they can speak English some drivers may prefer to speak to their engineers in another language as it may be better to get the message across to each other.

      Anyway I am sure Italian speakers were pleasantly surprised with team radio broadcast in Italian rather than English for a change.

      1. @pja I was surprised, but I couldn’t care less whether it was in English or Italian. True, it gives the team a more private appearance, but it also separates them from the other ones.
        All F1 drivers speak English, and I thought they did mostly because their engineers were going to speak to them in that language during team radios.

  18. themagicofspeed (@)
    25th June 2012, 23:10

    I love Maldonado. He sorts out niggling little problems, like Lewis Hamilton scoring points. He is the one person who seems to be able to wind him up something rotten, which is both enjoyable and entertaining too. He can’t drive for **** but thats what makes him good. Truth is, Maldonado is a reflection of the sort of driver Hamilton was in the not too distant past. Hamilton was visited and bitten on the butt by a metaphorical ghost of himself. He can not complain about drivers doing that to him when in 2011 after too many years of F1 he still behaved like a rookie and crashed with just about any driver who got close enough to him.

    1. Considering the circumstances under which Alonso won his both Grand Prix and actual performance of Ferrari, I would be careful making statements like that. Karma is a b*tch.

  19. Pretty much as I thought but this quote made me laugh from the Schmacher/DRS/yellow flag situation…

    “However it was deemed by the stewards that by backing off Michael had slowed down sufficiently, and intriguingly it was determined that Webber was actually 0.3s quicker through the same sector…”.

    Brilliant!

    1. Racing drivers, big boys with big egos :D

  20. In my mind there is plenty of blame to go around.

    Pastor used bad ettiquette, and probably needs to temper his aggression with intelligence. Its a long race and to finish first, you must first, finish

    Hamilton also showed poor judgement – Its all well and good to be in the right, but if your car is in the wall, its in the wall and NO POINTS for YOU.
    Think big, its a long season, a few less points and a later penalty for Pastore would have been a better result than what ended happening.

    No matter who is at fault, and shunt is a shunt, and you dont get points for crashing “with an excuse”

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