Perez: “I thought maybe I could have won it”

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Sergio Perez says he was “disappointed” after finishing second in Malaysia because he thought he could have won.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Interview with Sergio Perez: “We have to push hard and stay realistic” (Sauber)

“Initially I was a bit disappointed because I thought maybe I could have won it, although nobody knows what in the end would have happened if I had managed to attack Fernando (Alonso) and whether I would have got by him or not.”

Nico Rosberg about the Malaysian GP 2012: “It was an up and down weekend for me.” (YouTube)

Analysis – Ferrari gearbox-chassis stiffening arm (F1)

“Following Fernando Alonso advice, Ferrari have introduced to the F2012 a concept used by their driver’s former team, Renault, as long ago as 2001.”

Ferrari vows to protect Massa (Autosport)

Stefano Domenicali: “We need to stay close to Felipe in this moment. It’s a difficult moment and we need to find a way for him to get confident in his car.”

James Allison – “What We’d Give for a ‘Normal’ Race!” (Lotus)

“The big positive we can take from today is that our pace and degradation on the slick tyres at the end of the race was very encouraging. Give us a clean race with good getaways from the right qualifying positions and we should be able to collect a good reward.”

A race to be proud of (Sky)

Martin Brundle: “It made absolutely no sense that Perez wasn’t pitted for slicks on lap 40 with Alonso. Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso had long demonstrated that they were the tyre of choice and delaying by one lap cost Perez over five seconds. Even if it rained, which was predicted as possible at the time, his heavily worn intermediates would have been of little use anyway.”

Rubens Barrichello diary: ‘Take the positive’ after 17th (USA Today)

“The strategy in F1 is to just fill up the car and go. In IndyCar racing, there are so many elements of strategy in relation to the yellow flags and fuel. It’s something I’m going to have to learn. I wasn’t really allowed to push the car as hard as I could today, and that was frustrating.”

Mansell: Button showed tremendous maturity after Karthikeyan smash (Talksport)

“I thought it was a 50-50 call. When a car is that slow and you know you have faster cars around you, you have to pay attention and he should have given way.”

Kevin Bakhurst via Twitter

“Malaysian F1 Grand Prix on Sunday – Sky Sports F1 [average] 0.96m – peak 1.50m. BBC1 F1 highlights [average] 2.7m – peak 3.2m.”

People Talk: Guillaume ‘Rocky’ Rocquelin (Red Bull)

“It’s about results – as opposed to working in a bank, where you don’t know what the outcome is. You could do the same job for years and not know if you’re actually doing a good job, what I like about Formula One is that every day you know if you’re hitting the target or not.”

iWITNESS: Malaysia (Williams)

Jenson Button might live in Monaco and have a Japanese girlfriend, but he revealed the extent of his Englishness today. During the race’s red flag interlude, he headed back to McLaren’s hospitality area for a cup of tea. White, one sugar. A rich tea biscuit as well?”

Comment of the day

Dorian on Felipe Massa’s situation at Ferrari:

I like the guy as a person, seems lovely… but this isn’t the Red Cross or Amnesty International or a School Athletics Day where ‘participation is all that matters’ and everyone gets a ribbon – this is F1 and it’s about winning!
Dorian

From the forum

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On this day in F1

Five years ago today the FIA announced it would change its bodywork tests after it had been discovered that at least one team had found a way around its floor deflection test.

Ferrari were revealed to have used a spring in its floor which allowed it to pass the FIA’s stiffness test, yet move when being driven on the track in order to gain a performance advantage.

Image © Sauber F1 Team

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85 comments on “Perez: “I thought maybe I could have won it””

  1. It is interesting to see that honest and candid wrap-up from Rosberg. I think Mercedes have a lot of work to do in understanding their car and how to get the most out of it on long runs. For ROS to say that he thought his rear tyres were completely gone and then told by the team that they were still brand new is very worrying for that outfit.

    1. For sure…makes me feel for FM too, as he can’t seem to explain his problems either…when the car isn’t there for you it just isn’t there, and it can be embarassing and frustrating. I think these guys all know that it is a process, and all they can do is try to progress, try to figure it out, and try to stay positive as much as humanly possible, at least on the outside.

  2. Interestingly, the Sky F1 channel isn’t on BARB. Its F1 broadcast for Australia should have been in the top 20 for “Others” (i.e. not BBC 1, 2, ITV, Channel 4 or Five) given the quoted viewing figures, but no sign of the entire channel. The SD BBC broadcast didn’t get enough viewing figures to reach BBC1’s Top 30 (the threshold last week was 4.28 million) but 130,000 people did watch on BBC HD.

  3. Ferrari are really sticking by Massa, which I guess is a show of a good team bond. But if it was Toro Rosso, Massa would have just lost his seat! Yes Alonso is an exceptional driver, but with all that effort the team put into trying to make a quicker car, maybe they really deserve a driver that is capable of at least getting close to Alonso in a race.

    1. I think it’s more a show of the fact it’s only two races in and the pay off to replace him so early in the season would be of a monstrous magnitude.

      Even if it’s neither of those reasons, I don’t think any team or team principal would slate their driver after two races like that. There’s an awful lot of respect in F1, and one thing you rarely see is kicking a man when he’s down… Apart from the Torro Rosso debacle in the off-season haha.

    2. I think Ferrari will not replace Massa until the end of his contract for 3 reasons :
      1) it’s not the right moment to make such decision because the priority know is improving the F2012
      2) they will not risk a driver like Sergio (who is the main candidate for massa’s seat) & destroy his career by putting him in a car like the F2012 which is very different to the car that he’s driving (just look at Fisichella he was challenging for win in Force India & when he moved to Ferrari he was very disappointing)
      3)Massa’s manager is Nicolas Todt (Jean Todt’s son) so they will not risk their relationship with the FIA

    3. Ferrari won’t sack Massa because he has been a very loyal servant to the cause.
      How many wins has he been asked to surrender.
      How many times has his race been wrecked in order to protect their lead driver.
      He is their hitman.
      Massa hasn’t become suddenly slow. Many factors just conspire against him.

      1. It’s not a conspiracy of how he will lose his seat at Ferrari, but rather: What conspiracy is keeping him in his seat?
        He just isn’t getting the job done this year or last year as well.

      2. I agree with you to an extent. However, for Ferrari’s own credibility and their shot at the Constructors Championship they need someone who is at least a little more competitive in that second Ferrari.

        1. Something tells me they’re willing to throw away the Constructors’ Championship if it means they have a better chance of doing well with their lead driver (‘nando) in the Drivers’ Championship. I’m really not sure how logical that is, but so far this is what they seem to be doing.

          1. @pamphlet I have thought the same myself. However, they could still get more competent driver in to at least look credible!

          2. They don’t have a better chance at the Drivers Championship by having a lousy 2. driver. The job of the 2. driver is to be close behind no. 1 driver and take maximum points from his competitors. In 2010, Alonso would have won the championship if only Massa had delivered and taken away points from Vettel and Webber by finishing ahead of them in some of the races where Alonso was hit by bad luck. He didn’t. Last year he was fending of Hamilton a lot, which was good for Alonso, and Ferrari, (but also good for Vettel and RBR.) but I don’t think he did well as a 2. driver anyway.

    4. Ferrari will wait to due dat of Massa’s contract because FIAT has high commercial interests in Brazil and they don’t want to put all Brazilian press against them.
      The only way they could write off Massa before year-end could be by replacing him with Barrichello or Senna.

    5. Ferrari’s statements on Massa’s ‘situation’ are humiliating. Treating him like a bullied kid is not respectful. Massa’s attitude certainly doesn’t help, he must stop putting on a brave face and pretend nothing is wrong.

      1. I don’t think Massa did that badly this weekend when you look at lap time data.

        Only 3 tenths off Alonso in Q2, Matching Alonso’s lap times early in the race & was consistently within 2 tenths of Alonso on new tyres through the race.

        What hurt Massa & dropped him back down the field was that he used his inter’s too aggressively early in the run & the team kept him out for strategy reasons so he was just falling back on badly worn tyres for about 10 laps. When they pitted him his pace was not that far off Alonso.

        People will just look at the end result & call for Massa’s head, However when you actually look into the race in detail you actually find that Massa was not as bad as the end result looks.

        1. Good analysis @Dave_F1

          @Tifoso1989 hit the nail on the head though.

          1. Priorities
          2. They won’t risk bringing in Perez too soon
          and 3. Politics

          That said, it really boils down to the introduction of the Pirelli tires more than anything else. People look at drivers like Massa and Schumacher and think they have lost their old ability, and while a little may have faded, but it’s the tires that are killing them.

          Hopefully if China is dry we can get a good look at where the teams really are. We haven’t had a good indication yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a surprise win for Kimi, podium for a Mercedes and points for Massa soon. Patience is still a virtue after all, and when investing millions into a competition, it is wise to be prudent.

          1. I agree with much of the above…I’ve been saying all along that I don’t think Ferrari even knows entirely what they have in this new car so a)FM can be excused for struggling in Australia, the first race in anger, and he said the car felt foreign to him b) Malaysia was a wet race so that always throws a wrench into things c) do they even want a better teammate for FA?

            When I raised that last point on another thread, The Limit suggested to me that the WCC is ‘gold’ to Ferrari et al, and that even if they don’t want to challenge FA with a better teammate they still want more WCC points than he so far is looking to provide.

            I say it is early days, FM is not suddenly a sucky driver, the car is full of question marks, and the team needs to gather itself up and do what is very normal in F1…figure their car out and how to go faster and win races.

            FA’s win, masked by the weather or not, buys them a lot of time to catch up to their competitors compared to if they had both finished in low or zero points placings.

  4. I liked the dynamic that MBrundle mentioned here: the intermediates were gone, why not go to slicks??? In any event, slowmotion shots available to us lucky fans showed the inner 30-40% of the contact patch of each tire was bald, or as near as makes no difference. Teams were saying as the track dried/inters went bald – the cars were getting faster than they imagined they would do on pure slicks. MADNESS

  5. Just caught up on all the post-race news and there’s a couple of things I’d like to comment on. Obviously it was a great performance from Alonso, Perez, Senna etc, but I’d also give a mention to Hamilton. He drove a very mature race, had great pace and tyre conservation compared to Button (not for the first time in the wet) and did well to keep his head and collect good points despite his teams best efforts to get every decision wrong (no, not deliberately, although what happened to McLaren’s “first driver pits first” policy – the lack of it cost Lewis twice).

    Also, Vettel and Red Bull have really let themselves down with their comments. Calling another competitor an “idiot” straight after the race while emotions are high is bad enough, but for the team to then effectively back up these statements hours later when the dust has settled is really poor. As far as I’m aware there has been no apology from Vettel for his comments. Very disappointing!

    1. Vettel has really let himself down here. To me, he’s never come across as very likeable. He acted in exactly the same petulant way when he did the same kind of manoeuvre on Webber a couple of seasons ago. He doesn’t have any divine right to be at the front of the grid. He’s arguably not good enough to be anyway. Putting the fastest car by some way on pole. And then photocopying each lap does not a great racer make.

      1. Winning races easily doesn’t make you a great driver?

        Congratulations, we now have to rewrite the entirerty of motor racing history. Almost no-one we thought were legends is still a great driver

  6. well Perez could have got closer if he hadn’t slipped up, but could he have gotten passed Alonso is really the question?
    he was trying just too hard a one point, otherwise we would have seen the result.
    how this race panned out in the end was very fascinating,
    definitely made it very exciting, just go’s to show when different cars get in the lead they can go as fast as the pole setters which makes it rather puzzling, race trim can defeated pole sitters when given the chance.
    so how do’s that work?

    1. I think he’d have done it. He had 5 laps to try and overtake him. Plus the track gives two consecutive good spots for overtaking, and the Sauber was going faster anyway. I think it was a matter of when rather than how, but we’ll never know.

    2. it’s a wet race, and in,that case all the cars lose downforce. since downforce is where the top teams get their advantage, the field gets equalised.

      1. @hairs It was a wet race to begin with, but I don’t think that really applied too much towards the end.

    3. Is there any chance of Peter Sauber making Carlos Slim Helu and his son shareholders of Sauber F1 Team and start thinking about greater things “a la Red Bull”?

      Otherwise, I’m seeing Telmex logos on Ferraris next year…

  7. another question is,
    if Mercedes have a DSR system that allows air to flow through to the front somehow when its activated,
    will it also let water flow down and up this system as well and clog it up?
    or water being heaver than air, will it not let this happen?
    interested in others thoughts on this.

    1. I don’t think that would be the case. For Malaysia, the Mercs were just Burning up there tires. However you do raise an interesting idea. Guess we’ll not know until someone gets a good look at the car.

    2. I think you may be onto something there.

    3. Surely, if the teams are worried about water getting into the car, they wouldn’t be putting the sidepods on the cars? Or the Engine airbox?? Those are effectively big holes in the car leading to important mechanical parts of the car..
      Mercedes have thought about it, I’m sure..
      I agree with Mike about the tyres though… Mercedes have been really unlucky…

    4. Rohan (@neobrainless)
      27th March 2012, 10:51

      I don’t think so, the way their system works (as I understand it) is using the low pressure under the front wing to suck air down, so even if there was some ingress over the lap, it would at least get cleared every time the DRS was activated. Overall though, the water bring heavier than air, and the fact the front wing outlet is lower than the rear wing inlet would mean no real risk of this.

      I kinda wish it was though, would be an amusing downside!

      1. An amusing downside indeed! Poor Mercedes really are unlucky to have so few points so far. They clearly have problems, but when it comes to pure speed, they have some magic up their sleeve. You could say that only Grosjean and Massa have had worse luck than the silver arrows at this point!

  8. “Following Fernando Alonso advice, Ferrari have introduced to the F2012 a concept used by their driver’s former team, Renault, as long ago as 2001.”

    That’s very interesting… and probably tells a lot of Alonso.

    1. apparently Alonso is fine with taking intellectual property with him to another team…

      1. Apparently his the only one who does it :/

      2. Taking an idea over is different to taking design documents that detail every section of it.

      3. And, until the F2012, the last car to use front pullrod suspension was the Minardi which Alonso drove in 2001 – he obviously stole that intellectual property too! And other such conspiracy related nonsense!

        As others have pointed out, using a concept which someone else has used is night and day different from stealing a design and cloning a component. The 2001 Renault would not have been the first chassis to use a stiffening arm of some sort. My reading of the article was that Alonso had suggested the rear end of the car was flexing so Ferrari reinforced it, not that Alonso had said “hey guys, let’s use an idea from that really unsuccessful Renault in 2001”.

    2. Fernando was not at Renault in 2001. He eas a Minardi driver that season!

      1. ….”was”….

        1. Take a joke lads, sarcasm does truly need its own typeface.

          1. @ross-willow If you’re going to be sarcastic in writing, you need to make it apparent somehow. No use complaining when people take you seriously when you’ve given them no indication they shouldn’t.

      2. So? they probably kept the same design in subsequent years.

  9. True Button showed maturity. But if you miss judge your braking in tricky conditions, does it matter if the car ahead is fast or slow?
    Blaming the other car for being there is the most stupid thing a celebrated driver such as Mansell is, can ever say. It is not what you think that matters, but the reality. It looked like the HRT was too slow, when the fact is, it was the Mclaren that was too fast, because there was plenty of room on the inside.
    Like it or not, Karthikeyan and HRT were ahead at the time and minding their own business, Button could easily have wrecked their race or damaged their car. Button at least showed some respect to them by saying sorry.
    Contrast that with Vettel who used insulting language, like he himself has never made a mistake and ruined another persons race.

    1. Very well said OOliver

    2. Lets use Web v Vettel in Fuji, 2008 for instance…

    3. Last time Vettle made a mistake and crashed into Button he apologised for that. Let me check if NK apologised for his actions, Nope. Did NK accept making a mistake, Yes. Are people still blaming Vettel, Yes.

      1. Vettel used harsh words, just like Hamilton did last year when he branded a fellow driver “ridiculous” and he said sorry afterwards, but people kept hitting him, why were you expecting anything different with Vettel?

        Vettel insulted NK at least 3 different times for 3 different media outlets for God sake!

        1. Vettels behaviour is at least outrageous for me as a fan. He is driving already for what…. 6 years ? and he has been in that situation 3 or 4 times……maybe 5 ! What should Hamilton and Massa, Schumacher and Petrov and Kobayashi been doing? Taking the team shotgun after every race and go to “reason” with the one who touch them during the race? Mr. SV this season will understand that the sport is not owned by him, nor Red Bull….neither Dr. Marko. Some say that this year will be a year of growing… I say this year will get him closer to the real world because RB6s and RB7s are only made every 10 years…..

      2. I don’t know what planet you are operating from, but Karthikeyan apologized to Vettel, he even pologized to Button for Button’s own mistake.

        The moral of the story is not so much about apologies, but drivers getting off thier high horses. Vettel has taken many drivers out before. So he is far from perfect.

        Just in case you and Mansell don’t get it, Button’s clash with Karthikeyan, was for position. HRT were probably runnung around 6th then, how are you sure the contact didn’t destroy their chances of scoring points?

        1. The moral is that people like you don’t know anything about Vettel. He is far from sitting on a high horse but you don’t get that.He is two times world champion and not a single sign of arrogance like Mr.Alonso for example, so stop your assumptions on people you don’t know. Do you drive in F1? Are you an expert? NO, so don’t even try to judge people cause you are clueless!

          1. and you must obviously know Alonso well then Mr Expert…sorry which Formula 1 team do you drive for again?

          2. You’re an F1 driver? Nice to meet you!

            :)

            Sir, sports without fans are nothing. How many people who go to football stadiums are/were actual footballers? They still boo players every 5 minutes…like my late grandfather was used to say: “you don’t have to be a good dancer to judge a good dancer”

          3. Well, mr. Noname, I do not see how Alonso got into this. Alonso use insulting words on Karthikeyan and at least 3 times that was observed. Yoy don’t need to be a race driver to learn to throttle your mout, go get your logic right and take your pointy finger with you.

  10. The safest way for Perez to get past Alonso, was using the DRS, anything else was just too riskyz, Alonso can be very difficult to get past, more so on a slippery circuit.
    The risk made it easier for Sauber and Perez to be magnanimous.
    Both teams won something and also their relationship.
    Lets not forget, Sauber at a point was without engines and facing the arduous task of salvaging his team after BMW’s sudden exit.
    It is like the player who dribbles all but passes the ball to a team mate right in front of the post.
    Ferrari deserved to win that race.

  11. Yes. Ferrari definetly deserved to win that race. Who would have thought Alonso would have been ahead on the leader board 2 races into the championship ??

    Early days though. Ferrari have a tough fight ahead. And just for the record. All these conspiracy theories about Alonso being handed the win at Perez’s expense. Even if it is true. As far as I understand it, team orders are allowed now anyways. So it wouldn’t be an illegal manouvre.

    And lets not forget Hamiltons 2007 championship win in the rain in the last race of the season in Brazil. When Massa thought he had won the championship only to be denied when Glock somehow meesed up a corner letting Hamilton through to take the championship ?? Were team orderes allowed then ? Did Hamilton deserve to win the championship considering the scenario ? Glock may have had a genuine mishap. But it was just a little too dodgy from my recollection.

    1. Glock was on slicks and it had been raining for a good 10-15 minutes.
      Toyota was betting on the rain letting up and losing less time on track than they would have lost by pitting for inters, as both of their drivers were on the same strategy of not pitting.

      Team orders had nothing to do with that finish.

    2. Intra-team orders are allowed, not the whoever-not-in-our-league orders

      1. Not to mention some very dubious stewarding decisions over the season.

    3. You did not know Glock was on the wrong tyres? He did not “messed up a corner”. He was slow all lap long and McLaren told Hamilton over the radio they were “tracking Glock” who was struggling with tyres.

    4. Andy G (@toothpickbandit)
      27th March 2012, 9:29

      Funny you mention team orders in the 2008 season. Funny how in the penultimate race in China, Kimi Raikkonen just suddenly lost drive on the back straight allowing Massa to pass him for second.

      Were team orderes allowed then ? Did Massa deserve those extra 2 points considering the scenario ? Raikkonen may have had a genuine mishap. But it was just a little too dodgy from my recollection.

      People who moan about Glock driving slowly on a wet track on slicks (how dare he!) are often quick to forget the Ferrari position swap in China. And this is back when all team orders were banned.

    5. youre talking about 2008.

    6. I thought after 4 years everyone had got over this conspiracy theory…

    7. Oh not this again *sigh*

  12. Interesting viewer statistics, I apologise to A laCanta for not understanding his comment on this, if in fact 1 million less people in the UK watch F1 than last year then the value of having your name on a F1 car has decreased significantly for products/companies marketing in the UK.This probably suits Bernie just fine as it reduces the teams independent income while increasing Bernies cut and his control of team finances, something has to be done to restore to the teams a bigger share of the income they generate.

  13. Basically, I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories but I really don’t understand why Sauber didn’t call Perez in for his last stop one lap earlier. I mean, Ricciardo had already pitted a couple of laps before and one could easily tell from his sector times that intermediates weren’t the quickest tyres anymore.

    1. Waiting for the rain that never came would be the only non-conspiracy-theory explanation I can think of.
      All the teams were doing it, some just ran out of tyre quicker then the others and had to pit for new ones starting the chain reaction.

    2. It was totally bizarre. Watching Perez breeze past the pit lane confused me somewhat. I really can’t think it was to do with holding off for rain, his inters were shot at and would have been more hindrance than help @girts

      1. @AndrewTanner It seems that Sauber really focused more on bringing the 2nd place home than fighting for the victory. Nonetheless, they were probably too conservative during the last round of pit stops.

        For sure, points are money in F1 and it would be an insanity for a team like Sauber to throw away 18 points. I don’t think they were instructed by Ferrari not to try to overtake Alonso. But the thought of possibly crashing, losing 18 points themselves and making their partner Ferrari lose 25 points could have been too scary.

  14. When a car is that slow and you know you have faster cars around you, you have to pay attention and he should have given way.

    I don’t know if Mansell himself has ever been in a car that’s remarkably slower than the rest of the field, particularly the front runners. But this is not the first time when some former or current driver says something like he-was-so-slow-he-should-have-simply-given-way. And I don’t believe that these drivers would simply let the much faster car pass without a fight if they were in the same situation as Karthikeyan was on Sunday.

    1. Why did Mclaren sack Mansell after on just one race, or rather, a few laps?
      Because Mansell drove back into the pits and parked the car while the race was ongoing, and said the car was undrivable.
      Ron Dennis told him, he expected him to have tried to make a difference to the car, and promptly fired him.

      1. Ahhh… Those were the days!

  15. “Jenson Button might live in Monaco and have a Japanese girlfriend, but he revealed the extent of his Englishness today. During the race’s red flag interlude, he headed back to McLaren’s hospitality area for a cup of tea. White, one sugar. A rich tea biscuit as well?”

    Jenson Button – So English they use him as a test standard for Union Jacks.

    1. @Bendanarama: No, he isn’t that British. If he was he would be 20 years and 1 hour behind all the other drivers – and drive in the wrong side of road:-)

  16. I thought it was interesting that Button wasn’t penalised by the stewards for “causing a collision”. Are the stewards being a little more lenient this year?

    1. He wasn’t penalized because Karthikeyan didn’t suffer from the outcome of the collision whereas Vettel had a puncture.

      1. Still shouldn’t penalties reflect rules instead of damage cost?

  17. I’d be thoroughly disappointed if I was Perez. Sure, best ever result for you in a short career, and the team in their independent guise…

    … but c’mon Sergio. You were going to win that race. There’s no two ways about it. You were catching Alonso at a second per lap, and all that was needed was some DRS to make the pass, nothing dangerous or a risky lunge down the inside.

    It was his to win, and he threw it away. 2nd is nothing when an amazing win was 110% yours.

    1. 110%? Wow…doesn’t say much for FA’s ability to keep a car behind him. As much as I dislike DRS, it has shown to not always guarantee 110% a pass every time. And this is Perez vs. a two time WDC…methinks F1 is a tad harder than you are portraying here. And I doubt 2nd is nothing to SP. I think he’s already got something amazing to tell his grandkids, even if he somehow never does another thing in F1. Do you think he had/has a chance at 2nd in dry conditions? Methinks he’ll look back at this 2nd placing for the rest of his life as a racing highlight for him, being a ‘first’ in his short career.

  18. Maybe Perez just realizing that loosing position in Australia and missing the win in Sepang cost him leading the championship after two races in a year were points will be hard to get as they spreading wide, his move is going up contrary to Vettel, massa and probably Grogeain

  19. I felt sorry for Perez. Going off the track like he did whilst running Alonso down reminded me of Raikkonen a decade ago in Magny Cours. Back then, Kimi was the second season driver hunting down Michael Schumacher in his prime. Only to hit an oil patch and skid off towards the end of the grands prix, with Schumacher’s Ferrari within sight!
    From then on, there was no doubt in anybody’s mind that Kimi Raikkonen was a quality driver, and the same applies to Sergio Perez.
    As for Fernando Alonso sharing past knowledge with his present team Ferrari, I find the suggestion that it is ‘underhand’ laughable. As others have rightly implied, there is no comparison between this and what McLaren were found guilty of five years ago.
    To prove a point, every driver in park ferme looks at the machines the others are driving at the end of the grands prix. They all copy each other when they see something on a car that appears to work well, but thats it. McLaren were found guilty of having large quantities of Ferrari documentation concerning the complete design and build of their 2007 machine. The FIA fined them $100 million and kicked them out of the constructors championship. An altogether different kettle of fish!

  20. Perhaps Sauber were thinking about their engine supplier when they told Perez to calm down a bit, but if that’s the case then so be it. This is formula 1 and such ‘relationships’ between teams has been going on for years and so long as the decisions are made independently by each team (I can’t imagine Ferrari actually going down the pitlane and telling Peter Sauber to cool his driver off) then that’s just the way things are.

    Formula 1 is not a single spec series and as such there will always be some teams that have stronger bonds with others and some less so. Ok, it may detract from the pure racing sometimes (like *perhaps* Perez not battling Alonso) but this is also why we love F1 so much sometimes – little stories going on behind the scenes that make us talk about it more.

  21. My opinion is he didn’t lost that much time with the error itself, but afterwards he didn’t committed fully anymore to the corners; there was no confidence at all anymore for atleast a complete lap. My guess is even with that error he could have gotten back to Fernando, but lost even more time getting his confidence back.

  22. On the TV figures, I don’t actually care as Im super happy to have F1 on Sky simply because of the extras we now have avaliable.

    BBC gave us the onboard & driver tracker on red button yet on sky were getting so much more & i am loving it!

    the new pit lane channel Sky have is simply awesome, been able to listen to all this extra team radio is simply fantastic & we also get race control messages & some other information.
    http://dai.ly/H4aYYV

    on top of that we get 4 onboard feeds & been able to go between them is great, you see so much more than just watching the world feed broadcast.
    also getting the official timing channel that all the teams get on the pit wall lets you see who’s doing what times & what all the gaps are.

    i’ve been watching f1 since the early 70s & the sky coverage of the actual race broadcast is by far the best coverage of f1 i’ve ever seen.
    post race could be better but the actual race broadcast is awesome, really loving all the extra stuff we now have avaliable :)

  23. I liked the Williams article. Especially the incident with the dogs was quite an amusing story.

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