Fuel saving “is the name of the game” – Hamilton

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In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton says he doesn’t understand complaints about excessive fuel-saving in Formula One.

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Formula 1: Have drivers ever raced flat out? (BBC)

"It doesn't annoy me at all. It is the name of the game. When I hear it, I try to do it better than everyone else behind me. Simple as."

Button: Driving in F1 is still a buzz... (Crash)

"It's very different. It's less balls now and more caressing. It's very different, Copse for example we didn't have tyre warmers and on lap one already I had tyre temperature."

Renault to decide future by end of 2015 (Autosport)

"Renault Sport F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul expects a late-2015 deadline will be demanded by Red Bull if the two parties are going to continue on in 2017."

Horner: Best driver and chassis still won’t win (F1i)

"I think that the emphasis on power unit of the three elements of power unit, chassis and driver, if you have the chassis and driver bits it doesn’t compensate for the power unit,” Horner said. “So it’s significant and difficult to over-ride."

Collapsed Caterham F1 team in the reds (Daily Express)

"Asministrators for the collapsed Caterham Formula One team have ­revealed that the sale of its assets is ­expected to raise just £2million leaving more than 300 creditors a total of £21million out of pocket."

Max Mosley: 'Fifty Shades of Grey? I've heard it's very vanilla' (The Guardian)

"Formula One, he says again, was only ever 'second best'. What was number one? 'Politics.'"

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Comment of the day

Nico Hulkenberg’s success at Le Mans brought the feel-good factor for many:

This is huge for Hulkenberg. Winning at Le Mans is something that very few people do, winning in his first experience and while still competing in F1 is incredible.

Hulkenberg seemed rather calm in his interview after the race, but Nick Tandy described really well how important it is to win at Le Mans.

I’m very happy for him and hopefully this will lead to more F1 drivers having a bit of fun at Le Mans.
Yoshisune (@Yobo01)

As we had some trouble with the comments system over the weekend the Caption Competition is staying open for another 24 hours for your contributions. Join in here:

Snapshot

Yesterday Hulkenberg became the first regularly active F1 driver to win the Le Mans 24 Hours since Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot in the iconic wankel rotary-engined Mazda 787B. They shared the car with former F1 racer Volker Weidler.

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On this day in F1

Mehdi Ahmadi almost had the claim to fame of being the first person to act as race engineer to Sebastian Vettel in Formula One. Unfortunately, on this day in 2007, the United States refused to allow Ahmadi into the country to attend their grand prix for BMW, where Vettel was due to make his debut as a substitute for the injured Robert Kubica.

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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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75 comments on “Fuel saving “is the name of the game” – Hamilton”

  1. If Renault does decide to get out completely then that says a lot about the state of F1. It’s perfectly resonable to say that Renault have made a mess of it, but the inability to put it right is shocking. It is a huge problem for formula one.

    Don’t forget that while Renault have failed this year, on the PR side of things, they have not been a real problem. It is only really red bull who are being difficult, I do believe that Renault knows what needs to be done, but it is a question of whether or not they are actually allowed to.

    1. @strontium On one hand I don’t really have much sympathy for Renault because the engine formula we have now is what they wanted, They were talking about walking away from F1 if it stuck with the previous engine formula & it was Renault that was pushing the hardest for what we now have.

      Considering that its frankly shocking to me that they have ended up getting things so wrong in just about every area. They have poor reliability, Are down on power, Have poor drivability, Relatively poor fuel consumption & there hybrid system doesn’t work as they want it to.

      On the other hand I do have some sympathy for them because of the engine freeze, But even then its something they agreed to well before these engines went into development so in a way they hold some responsibility for the restrictions they have.

      I also don’t believe Renault have even used the development they have been allowed to do correctly. Afterall going from last year to this Ferrari were able to make big gains with there power unit & Mercedes were able to find improvements with there’s. Renault on the other hand look to have fallen backwards, They said they spent there time working on reliability & were going to use the tokens to improve performance & yet are still unreliable & are yet to use the tokens to improve performance.

      Having said all that They have brought in some new people (Mario Illien been one of them) so pulling out now would be the wrong move. Engine freeze or not they can & will improve there unit if they stick with it longer term as there are things that can be changed on the engine that will fix there problems without using tokens (As Mercedes showed for Montreal) & without breaking the rules of the engine freeze.
      It was the same with the V8’s, They were supposed to be the same engines they ended 2006 with but over the next 7 years they gained a lot in every area.

      1. @gt-racer It’s very simple both Renault and Red Bull were arrogant enough to think they would not get it wrong so badly. Why would they; their V8 engine wasn’t the fastest either but had won four in a row, same for Red Bull their car. They were a match made in heaven.

    2. maarten.f1 (@)
      15th June 2015, 6:10

      @strontium I think we should forget about the idea that nothing can be improved. There are plenty of tokens to be spent, for this year and the next. Ferrari have shown improvements can be made (and yes, Mercedes still has a huge advantage). While Red Bull has been the most vocal, Torro Rosso (in a way also Red Bull) isn’t happy either (and why should they be if Verstappen is already on his fifth engine?). And those happen to be the only Renault customers.

      In my opinion, Renault have managed to take a step back since last year. Reliability isn’t much better than last year (albeit they had way more mileage than last year during testing); it’s ridiculous that their customers are taking penalties because of bad reliability.

      Mind you, I’m getting tired of Red Bull’s whining about quitting. I mean, just get on with it, right? But to be critical of Renault is not unfair, they made a mess of things. Both with performance and reliability.

      If Renault leaves F1, it’s not the fault of the current rules. It’s the fault of Renault. They only have two customers left at this point, and they ain’t happy. That should give them plenty to think about. I wouldn’t be surprised if F1 leaves Renault at some point.

  2. Neil (@neilosjames)
    15th June 2015, 0:11

    I think that the emphasis on power unit of the three elements of power unit, chassis and driver, if you have the chassis and driver bits it doesn’t compensate for the power unit. So it’s significant and difficult to over-ride.

    Well no, but if you have a great driver and great engine and a crap chassis, that combination won’t win either. Nor will a crap driver in a great chassis with a great engine.

    1. Nor will a crap driver in a great chassis with a great engine

      I disagree. Taki Anoue could win in that Mercedes!

    2. Nor will a crap driver in a great chassis with a great engine.

      @neilosjames Yes they will. Surely the likes of Chilton, Senna, Chandok, Karthikeyan, Ericsson, Guttierez, Van Der Garde, Pic, D’Ambrosio, Sutil, … could win in this years Mercedes on a day the teammate does not have his day…

  3. OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 40 victories!!! (@)
    15th June 2015, 0:37

    If Renault goes away, it would be URGENT for F1 to attract a competitive engine at the spot, or to become a “monoengine” formula, something Ferrari wouldn’t accept.
    It will also become even darker for Red Bull team:
    Mercedes: Nope
    Ferrari: Nope, but maybe in the absence of another engine manufacturer, FIA may push them to sell their engines to RB. I can’t imagine all the wrangle against Ferrari, claiming they are downpowering the engines for customer teams.
    Honda: Seriously? After all the mud thrown at Renault, which at least is getting points, I can see how on Earth Honda could provide engines for Red Bull, knowing all the bad marketing they would make, and knowing their own limitations as well.

    1. Maybe Cosworth?

    2. It doesn’t annoy me at all,” he says. “It is the name of the game. When I hear it, I try to do it better than everyone else behind me. Simple as.”

      So says the bloke driving his second season in the most dominant car in F1 history.

      Easy to say when you’ve got anything between 1.5 to 3 seconds in your pocket.

      We all know for a fact it would be Hamilton’s toys being launched furthest of all if he wasnt driving the Mercedes!

      1. @nick101

        Large exaggeration there.

        1. Yeah. We are not sure exactly if it is the most dominant or second most dominant.

    3. Earth and Honda – two words that should never be associated with each other ever again :P

      If Renault pull out, Redbull have two options, build their own engines (possible taking on several potential ex-Renault employees) or sell the team

  4. Lets face it F1 is way too complicated for anyone that is not knowledgeable about the sport. How on earth do you explain an MGU-K failure to someone who doesn’t know anything about F1?
    IMHO the best ways to improve the sport would be:
    1. Introduce a minimum fuel restriction at the start of the race
    2. Wider, non-made-to degrade tires
    3. Restriction to car-to-pit telemetry
    4. Remove DRS. (Allow cars to be right behind each other and leave it to the driver to plan the overtake. )

    F1 should be about man and machinery of course, but leaving it to the driver to manage his own car would make it more challenging.

    1. @f1freek
      You’re missing a huge point: the cars are NOT capable of being right behind each other. They are totally depending on huge, complex front wings for downforce and these wash out terribly if they get close to each other. They HAVE to make the front wings smaller and simpler and allow the teams to use underbody tunnels to produce downforce instead. This allows the cars to follow close and pass with better mechanical grip from wide tyres, etc.

      1. DRS is not the problem, you take away the only thing that helps a driver even get close enough down a straight to at least try and pass and you will be moaning even more about how Boring F1 is…
        yes the odd track it has made it too easy and some have made no difference at all, but the majority of tracks it has improved racing out of sight,
        be careful what you wish for.

        1. Without front wings, you probably can remove the DRS.

    2. 1. Introduce a minimum fuel restriction at the start of the race
      2. Wider, non-made-to degrade tires
      3. Restriction to car-to-pit telemetry
      4. Remove DRS. (Allow cars to be right behind each other and leave it to the driver to plan the overtake. )

      Done, how do I now explain someone what a MGU-K failure is….

  5. Imagine this:

    EVERY team quits. Every team says F1 is not sustainable.

    That’s basically every single team saying “FU formula 1 fans! You can go watch grass grow for all we care”.

    Well, that’s Renault.

    1. Well that is basically the sad truth about it..
      This is a business and as such, fans are also something to take care of, only if it suits them that way..

    2. I thought they said FU to the majority of fans when they went behind a paywall. F1 could die tomorrow and most people would not care. How’s the saying go? ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’

  6. If you have a spare sec, get on to Youtube and listen to that
    rotary-engined Mazda 787B (Pictured). Any video.
    Just a vicious sounding car. Amazing!

    1. No one cares about rotards :p

    2. In my humble opinion, there is no engine in the world roaring like a rotary going full blast along the Le Mans straights.

  7. Oh wow, an article from Andrew Benson that I actually agree with. Quite surprising.

    F1 has it’s problems however to some of the pundits who have been writing some quite sensationally over the top articles about F1 being completely broken, which is just nonsense. I just don’t get what the end game is for the constantly bashing of the sport. An attempt to drive change? or just an attempt to write an article that more people will read? Take Mark Webber for example, I like Mark and was sad to see him go from F1, not so much for his driving but for his personality, having said that, he does seem to be talking more about F1 since he has left than when he was competing in it, an era of F1 which has doesn’t have any experience I should add. Maybe his motives are simply because he doesn’t like the direction the sport he loves is heading or maybe it’s something else like attempting to lure fans over to the WEC…I don’t know, whatever it is though, maybe he should focus on talking about his new career than his old.

    The “crisis” that F1 is once again in the middle of would be completely gone if there were 3 or more teams at the top battling for the lead, History shows that one team generally managed to work a regulation change better than others so why would changing the regulations once again result in anything different? Of course you will always have some purists that won’t ever be happy however while I can’t talk for all F1 fans I would imagine for the vast majority of fans as long as there was a multi team fight for the championship they would be much happier and the tyres, break and fuel saving wouldn’t be the talk of town that they currently are. It would be who is going to win the next race etc… It’s not the failure of the rules that’s the problem, it’s the failure of the other top teams to build a package around the new rules that is truly competitive and capable of winning races/championships that is the problem, however it’s very easy for those teams to blame the rules rather than themselves, remember last season when Ferrari were moaning constantly, even calling F1 cars “taxi’s”, seems that moaning has largely disappeared now they are beginning to get a competitive car on the grid again. What’s the betting that Mr Horner and his friends wouldn’t be complaining about these rules if they were fighting for the lead. Don’t get me wrong I get it, I get why Merc don’t want to change the rules all that much, I get why Ferrari as quieter about change this year and I get why Horner is louder than ever, but lets not pretend it’s for anything other than their own self interest and not for the good of the sport.

    The floated solution seems to be making the cars look & sound more exciting, makes them faster by 5-6 secs (how they will do that without removing a lot of fuel I’m not sure.) or as some fans think that losing DRS of which I’m not a fan is a must and drivers must be at 110% every lap, All sounds great…The question is though, will these changes actually make the racing any better? If not then what is the point? Is it just a change for change sake and not what’s best for the sport.

    I don’t know how to “fix” F1 or how much of fix it actually needs in the first place but there are all too many people outside the sport who are ready to bash it for their own gains, having people inside the sport even at the highest levels constantly bashing it is saddening, especially when their motives have nothing do with the good of the sport but for the good of their own team.

    1. It’s not the failure of the rules that’s the problem, it’s the failure of the other top teams to build a package around the new rules that is truly competitive and capable of winning races/championships that is the problem

      The rules gave the teams one shot a building the engines and now forces them to race the next few years with those engines. That’s where the current rules are a failure. The reason WEC racing is exciting is because the engines (even though completely different) are balanced to a similar performance level.

      1. then maybe you can explain how Ferrari caught up with the regulations as they are?

        it has always been like this in F1, one team gets a head start then the others have to catch up,
        you have good times and bad at the moment you have Ferrari in the mix, i am sure the next race (Austria) Ferrari will be hounding Merc,

        yes miles too many key board worriers knocking F1 for the wrong reasons even Bernie.

        1. Also @woodyd91,
          It’s not been always like this. Before, teams were allowed to catch up during the season without losing precious tokens.
          Ferrari didn’t catch up last year and even this year they haven’t caught up. They will need to use more tokens than Merc to catch up which of course isn’t really catching up.
          Insisting that the grid is not frozen when the results (qualifying and race) show otherwise won’t change the facts. How many times has a car beaten a Merc on performance alone this season (or last season)?
          I’m not arguing that the rules are not fair. They are just stupid as they don’t allow teams to have a chance of catching up on performance. Only Merc (or LH) fans argue that other teams can cath up to Merc with the current regulations. Everyone else realizes that the constructors championships for 2014,2015, and probably 2016 were decided by the developments during the 2013 season, which is a shame.
          The only way to improve racing (have at least 4 teams fighting for top results every session) is to make sure there isn’t such a gap in HP between the teams (as they do in LeMans). Not through weight ballasts but something like putting a cap on the peak HP. Anything that doesn’t lock the packing order for years.

          1. Ferrari didn’t catch up last year

            Of course they didn’t, they were waiting to spend their tokens in the winter break.

            and even this year they haven’t caught up.

            They’re catching up, it’s alot to ask teams to make up such a massive amount of performance in one season. Ferrari are closer to Mercedes than they were last season, that’s catching up.

            Only Merc (or LH) fans argue

            That’s strange because Ferrari seem to think they can? Honda think they can. Ironically it’s Renault, who pushed the hardest for these regulations that seem to have said we might just give up

            Not through weight ballasts but something like putting a cap on the peak HP.

            By doing so you are artificially changing the order, what team wants to win because they’re competitors have been artificially rained in. All that does is move the goal posts from one area of performance gain to another.

      2. @earmitage That’s a falsehood that Red Bull liked to shout about last year, The opening up of in season development and the use of tokens made the ability to upgrade your engine quite easy. Somebody from Mercedes said you could almost change of all your engine with the first season token allocation. These engines aren’t “frozen” anywhere near to the degree that some teams would like people to believe, in fact there have been countless articles online of just how open they are before they start getting locked down. I remember one article going in depth of how they are less “frozen” than the old V8’s.

        Big gains can be made in the engine, just ask Ferrari…They have managed to do it under the same rules are Renault who haven’t. My point is you can’t simply blame the rules for your own failures.

    2. @woodyd91 I think the Mark Webbers of the world talk abut F1 more when they are out of it because they can. When they are in it they cannot appear to publicly run down the entity that hires them and they play and work within and which made them very wealthy. Once out of F1, I think they get asked their opinion, or asked to write articles or appear on racing shows, and they are free to speak their minds. I also think they have a vested interested in the entity that ‘made’ them not looking like or being thought of as a joke. And they are racers at heart, so they want F1 to connote amazement and fascination, not manufactured ‘racing’ via tires and DRS all the while being slow and all about conservation.

      I do take your point that change might not make it better or please everyone, since not everyone will ever be happy nor will there ever be a perfect formula that all are happy with, but surely we are at a point where change can’t hurt. There are a hundred variations amongst the regs that could be tweaked to rid us of fake passes and extreme conservation that put the cars back in the hands of the drivers and enthrall us. So I agree, no change just for the sake of change, but I think they are at a point of needing change badly such that just a few wise tweaks will do wonders. The pundits and those who have raced in F1 are probably as tired of hearing their beloved F1 run down due to it’s current regs as the drivers are of going out their to manage everything and not be able to push themselves or their cars.

      1. but surely we are at a point where change can’t hurt.

        One of the recurring themes of “what’s wrong with Formula 1?” is how it’s far too expensive for all but the big 4 teams, yet you still think change can’t hurt? Changes – any changes – are only likely to make things more expensive, whether it’s new components to design, build and test, or new procedures to adopt and optimise, or new regulations to scrutinise for loopholes to exploit.
        You keep costs down by NOT tinkering with the rules, and as a bonus, having a period of stability allows non-front-running teams to start catching up with their rivals.

      2. due to it’s current regs as the drivers are of going out their to manage everything and not be able to push themselves or their cars.

        That’s not really true, They do have to push themselves and their cars but they can’t do it every single lap, which isn’t any different to any other period of F1. Drivers always were and still are managing something, It’s just that we hear about it all a lot more. The idea that the teams and drivers are just coasting along during the race or that these cars somehow easy to drive is a non starter for the most part.

        Would it be fun to see the drivers pushing every single lap with no concerns about fuel, brakes, tyres, engine etc… Yes, but whether that would make the racing any better is another question.

        I agree that F1 needs some change, but not a knee jerk reaction, for example re-fueling was a massive knee jerk and has already been pretty much shot down. These knee jerks don’t solve anything. Another round of massive regulation change isn’t the answer either. Any change that happens in the regulations should be driven by the desire to improve the racing for fans not the performance of some teams solely, which we aren’t going to get when teams are calling the shots, we aren’t going to get if the uber political Bernie is calling the shots, and we aren’t going to get it with Jean Totd either, who seems to be happy to roll over and have the teams tickle his belly.

        That’s one the major problem with F1, it’s not what rules need changing/tweaking it’s who decides what rules need changing/tweaking. Even if we had such a system where rule changes are decided by an strong independent who has no vested interests, there would always be something that needed managing or one team who fails to build a good package, and then the cycle begins again.

        1. I do get your argument, but I just don’t believe that the drivers, even for the few laps they can push, are actually taxed physically or mentally or performing a feat that only the best drivers in the world are capable of. When it is only for very brief times, and they are going slower than they have in the past, overall during a race they are not really taxed as they should be. And I always reject counter arguments that imply the complete opposite point such as suggestions of no concern over fuel or tire or parts, and 100% sprint. That’s not reality either. I’m not suggesting anything knee-jerk. I think we’ve had enough of that. I suggest simplification and stability in the regs. No DRS, a greater ratio of mechanical grip to aero grip, or even ground effects for downforce and much smaller wings. Let’s face it…the changes that have occurred over the last handful of years are not working. They need to make more changes now but changes to simplify and head toward stability, not to add more gadgets, or penalties, or a different points system, or whatever, that all just add up to more smoke and mirrors. Drivers having to refine the art of lift and coast and fuel conservation has taken the pinnacle of racing away from it’s core. If you want to still call it racing it is racing-lite at best.

    3. It’s not the failure of the rules that’s the problem, it’s the failure of the other top teams to build a package around the new rules that is truly competitive and capable of winning races/championships that is the problem

      Nonsense. It’s the rules which, by intent, make it difficult/impossible for the other teams to build a car which is truly competitive.

  8. So, Fernando Alonso is in Honduras, La Ceiba, the little sister of my sister in law took a picture with him today.

    1. Had to re-read that a few times…

    2. :-) quite the sentence there @celeste. Nice.

    3. His girlfriend is there making the reality tv show “Supervivientes (Survivors)” for Telecinco Tv.

    4. @sato113 @bascb it was really funny, none of them are F1 fans, I´m still puzzle how they recognize him

      @alsenes I know, but they are in Cayos Cochinos, not in La Ceiba, still surprised that with only two weeks off Alonso will took and 8 (9) hour flight just to see her.

  9. Lewis is spot on. Everyone is raving about pushing things to the limit, and how is not happening in f1, but he’s so right. That’s the limit in this case, and Mercedes is pushing towards it, Ferrari is finally getting close, and lewis is being the fastest with the current limitations on tyres and fuel, which are much more “road relevant” than aero or sheer power will ever be.

    1. the W06 is the fastest, Lewis is faster than Nico

    2. For me, I get that it is the name of the game. I just can’t get excited about drivers striving to excel at fuel saving in the pinnacle of racing. LH is naturally excited about the position he is in, and I have to wonder if he would have the same attitude if he was having to lift and coast while trying to pass dominant Ferrari’s.

      1. Alonso doesn’t seem to think so. He made completely conflicting comments about the same issue. That concludes drivers are mostly talking based on their current situation on track.

      2. I think people are very deluted aboutthe fuel regulations. The fuel regulation haven’t changed anything about lift and coast.
        First, in more tracks fuel isn’t even an issue(except maybe for Honda). Even when they lift and coast is because the team calculated the fuel wrong or is playing on the edge, not because of any fuel rules.
        Team DO NOT put all the fuel they can put. They put less. So the rule about only 100kg of fuel mean nothing.
        The lift and coast is still a problem created by the teams trying to have a lighter car as possible because they believe the time gained by a few kilos less fuel is more than by having the driver push on the pedal.
        So whether you had this engines or V8 or V10 the problem would have been the same.
        The reason now is more obvious is because we hear the radio and because they have more effective computers to calculate such things and play on the edge while telling the driver to lift and coast.
        What happened in Canada is not because the 100kg weren’t enough for drivers to do most laps without lift and coast. What happened was team calculating safety cars to help them save fuel and putting less fuel in the cars.

        IT’S NOT THE BLOODY RULES!

  10. I understand most of the criticisms are aimed toward F1 as a sport, not the qualities of the drivers(except for the “pay drivers”).
    Nico winning Le Mans on his debut proves how good the current crop of F1 drivers are.

    1. I criticize F1 because of how good the current crop of F1 drivers are, and I want to see them racing like we did couple of years ago.

  11. If Renault leave the sport it will have more to do with the ridiculous manner in which Red Bull had treated its engine partner than the direction the engines have taken, which Renault supported.

    1. still think the engines have something to do with it. the only reason Redbull are leaning on them is because they dont know what to fix and how to fix it!

      1. But Red Bull are part of the problem.They are the works team, they should be working wirh Renault instead of pointing fingers. They are also reputedly (I forget the soucrce, could have been one of Ted’s Notebooks) rushing Renault’s upgrades through before Renault is happy with them which is making things worse.

        1. @geemac Let’s cut the crap and face it that RB have nothing to do with their engine or the development of it. Stop acting like they should ‘work together’. The engine department at Mercedes don’t work with the aero department either.

          They decide together on the total lay-out but an aero specialist has no clue about how the engine is being built or how he can make it more reliable…

          Red Bull most likely said to Renault this is the space you can work with as this is our chassis.

          Fact is Renault made a terrible engine and RB are the ones suffering most. They are their customers and the relation between them is hardly the same as between those same departments at Ferrari or Mercedes.

        2. Let’s cut the crap and face it that RB have nothing to do with their engine or the development of it. Stop acting like they should ‘work together’. The engine department at Mercedes don’t work with the aero department either.

          sure, if you say so @xtwl, lets just ignore the various sources who tell us that Mercedes success is based on closely working together off the departments, and that indeed Red Bull is or has been at the start of the year, pushing too much and that has led to mistakes.
          When you look at the exhaust blown period they dominated together, that was only possible by good coordination between what the engine guys could do and what the aero guys wished to have.

  12. Never had of this Wankel engine before, it’s interesting.

    1. @paeschli Interesting and unfortunately obsolete thanks to it’s gas-guzzling tendencies. Seeing an RX8 on the road always brings a smile to my face, takes commitment to run a car like that in this day and age!

  13. When was the last time an active F1 driver won a Le Man 24h with a non-Wankel-petrol-engined car?

  14. I think one of the most important points, or “bottom lines” if you like, about Nico Hulkenberg winning at Le Mans on his first attempt is simply that he proved that – albeit with a contender car – it IS possible for current F1 drivers to be successful on the Sarthe circuit despite just popping into the WEC for two races.

    If anything that should really spur other drivers on to follow suit in the next few years.

    1. FlyingLobster27
      15th June 2015, 11:24

      As much as I’m happy a current F1 driver has dabbled successfully in another competition (and why not, these guys are first-class athletes), I wouldn’t be surprised if Ecclestone placed a GP on Le Mans weekend in the future to avoid it. I don’t want to give Emperor Palpatine another bad idea, but…

      1. As I recall one of the first things Todt did after he took over from Mosley was come to an arrangement with Ecclestone that the two wouldn’t clash. As it’s down to the FIA to approve the calendar, Ecclestone might just have to deal with it.

    2. In days gone by F1 drivers like Jim Clarke and Graham Hill actually drove in other classes of motor sport and won in them.

  15. I just had a chat with my secretary about F1 and she basically called us F1 fana the worst fan out there when it comes to the sport we love.

    This is what see basically told me. She loves Football. It is a sport that she say have a 50% changes of being a draw. She says that the difference between F1 fan and Football fans are if a football game is a draw football fans
    will start talking about the next games the good moments in the game. If some one ask them why they love the sport or talk to them about football, they will tell them about all the good things about football. F1 fans can’t wait after a race to go and tell any body how will lission how bad and boring F1 is and what is wrong with F1.

    She asked me how it would look for some one how just saw F1 for the first time and think he might like it when he goes on the net or look at any media for more information about F1 and find that even the old fans are saying how bad F1 is. Do i think that person will become a fan of F1 and watch it.

    It made me relics that we F1 fans are also responsible for the problem F1 has. We complain about every thing in F1 but us fans can’t even sell the sport we love to new fans all we do is tell them way not to watch F1.

    1. You are right. F1 like any other sport has her share of problems but what I find hard to understand is the constant desire by fans to talk the sport down.

      Now, if they were consistent in their demands, that would be great but this constant shifting of the goal post or to use an F1 term, the chicane, makes F1 fans look worse and much more confused than the managers of the sport they are quick to deride.

      Take the idea of tyres for instance, fans continually complain about Pirelli’s tyres saying they want strong tyres that allow drivers to push, even though they may know that as long as tryes are made from rubber and they rub the brittle or harsh surface of a road, they must wear off. But what amazes me is the fact that as soon as they have seen a race where tyres did not degrade quickly, they find the race unentertaining RE: Sochi 2014 and Montreal 2015.

      Believe it or not, most of the problems bedeviling the sport today which have got fans riled up were solutions brought in by the sport higher-ups in reaction to fan complaints and to ‘the show’ in order to entertain fans. So fans are as responsible for the state of F1 as the sports decision makers.

      The only problem, I actually think that F1 needs addressing is the distribution of prize money such that smaller teams can survive. Besides that, I don’t really care much how the teams are suffering under current rules because they all signed up to this rule just as they have agreed on the introduction of new rules yet again in 2017.

      In that future era, as with today and yesterday, one team will perform better than the others, sometimes with a great margin and monopoly of championships for years while others languish in the back. It’s the ‘name of the game’ in Hamilton speak.

      So in my opinion, F1 decision makers should maybe try and do something they think is right for the sport in the next set of rules without trying to pander to fans who it certainly seems are not sure of what they want.

  16. Hulkenberg in the winning car for the 2015 Le Mans 24hr race. Absolutely brilliant.

    Can we not forget the equally brilliant contributions of Nick Tandy & Earl Bamber.

    Anyone would think The Hulk had driven to the circuit in his personal 919 and run the 24hrs all by himself!

    1. did anyone notice that a tiny little country like New Zealand had i driver in each of the winning cars that come 1st 2nd 3rd,
      nah that would be to far out for a Country with 26million people and 30million sheep.
      now that shold have made the headlines not Hulkenberg.

      1. And one of them even kept the Aussie off the top step;)

    2. @psynrg
      To be fair, this is an F1 site, most of the people congratulating Hulkenberg above know him personally and not the others.

      Frankly I think the real heroes are the Porsche designers and engineers, to do that with a V4 engine layout it pretty mindblowing.

  17. ColdFly F1 (@)
    15th June 2015, 13:33

    Shouldn’t a best driver/chassis team first handsomely beat its rookie drivers/low budget/sister team with the same engine!

    1. This is worse than 2008.. No excuses for RBR now.

    2. Erm, RBR have 54 points to TR’s 15

  18. I agree with Lewis, I don’t care if they are managing the car as long as they are going fast enough and especially if there is close racing between the teams.

    1. But they’re not going fast enough and there isn’t any close racing between teams is there.

  19. LOL williams downloaded your photo of Nico, proud Keith. I wonder though if Williams wasn’t just trying not to inadvertently sponsor a big name of the press. No offence.
    I agree with that Lewis quote but unfortunately Lewis is just trying to fuel save better than his team mate because even within the Merc cars there’s no parity in the software area and also some peripherals, not to mention parity between the other makers. Obviously an PU that outputs more BHP is certainly more fuel efficient as there’s a ceiling for how much fuel you inject.

  20. “It doesn’t annoy me at all”, says the driver in the most dominant car in the history of F1. Very gracious of him.

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