Hamilton concerned by Mercedes’ “shocking” pace

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In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton admits he is concerned about Mercedes’ long-run pace in Hungary.

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Merc pace looks ‘shocking’ – Lewis (ESPN)

“The car doesn’t feel bad but the pace doesn’t look great. The lap times are shocking, I haven’t had a good look at them so I don’t know how they compare to others, but it doesn’t look great.”

Red Bull not 100% happy yet (Sky)

“It looks pretty tight on one lap. Ferrari are not hanging around. Fernando [Alonso’s] always been strong here – I had a race in Formula 3000 with him back in 2000 – so the old dog’s still there.”

Sauber’s Russian recruit raises eyebrows (Reuters)

Sebastian Vettel: “When you are young and you dream about Formula One, you want to race no matter what. But I think things can be coming too early for you. I think I was probably just on the edge, if I look back now… It clearly took me a while to understand how Formula One works, how the car works and to make sure that I am driving the car and the car isn’t driving me.”

Ferrari still troubled by windtunnel (Autosport)

“Ferrari’s deputy chief designer Simone Resta admitted ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix that the team was still working hard to get on top of its issues.”

Lewis Hamilton column: Mercedes performance better than I expected (BBC)

“I still don’t feel I have quite got the maximum out of the car. But that’s a real positive sign for me, because I’m still getting poles even though I’m not at 100%.”

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Comment of the day

Aaron Banks isn’t convinced the threat of grid penalties will make pit stops safer:

It seems barmy to me that a sport as technologically advanced as F1 has jumped to banning media/minimum pit stop times/grid penalties as ideas for fixing the problem.

Grid penalties is a terrible idea, loose wheels isn’t about cheating and therefore punishment, it’s about safety and should therefore be about prevention. If this happens again and heaven forbid someone dies this time, are the top brass in the FIA going to sleep well at night because they know the offending team has been punished with a ten place grid penalty.
Aaron Banks

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Spud and Mikef1!

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On this day in F1

Happy birthday to former F1 racer Ricardo Rosset who is 45 today.

Although Rosset often seemed out of his depth in F1 he arrived in the series with a reasonable pedigree, having been runner-up in Formula 3000.

After a season with Arrows in 1996 he was involved in the short-lived Lola project the following year. He returned with Tyrrell in 1998 but fell foul of the 107% rule four times, failing to qualify.

Here he is in Monaco apparently trying to qualifying in reverse gear:

Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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41 comments on “Hamilton concerned by Mercedes’ “shocking” pace”

  1. There’s a humorous contraction between the headlines for the ESPN and BBC articles!

    1. I think that’s just the media nowadays making a story out of nothing but a few slap dash comments. A good example of media manupulation is the poor choice for the title of the days round-up when you post two opposing articles like that.

    2. @vettel No. The BBC column is released every Friday which is effectively an article written by Lewis . He would have written it before Wednesday. It talks about the trend of Mercedes taking pole. Now, after he has driven the car on Thursday , he says the car is slow on ESPN .

      1. @vettel1 * sorry typo

  2. Sirotkin does not yet have the mandatory super-licence and cannot test until the season ends in November.

    is that true? I thought he will run in the free practice sessions on Friday in the second half of the season?

    1. The super license and is required for practice sessions, my guess is that Sauber will give him a run early next year to cover the necessary kilometres to get the license and then he’ll be able to race.

      The problem is of course, they don’t have a simulator or something that could give them an idea of how quick he is in an F1 car, all this is a risky leap of faith.

  3. Oh my God, will they get that wind tunnel figured out already? Since Alonso arrived, they’ve been having troubles with wind tunnel and they still haven’t fixed it. It’s been 3.5 years now!

  4. “The car doesn’t feel bad but the pace doesn’t look great. The lap times are shocking, I haven’t had a good look at them so I don’t know how they compare to others, but it doesn’t look great.” – HAM

    So he knows the pace does not look great. He knows the laptimes are bad. However he says he does not know how it compares to others? Then he says it doesnt look good?

    Is it just me or is Ham going crazy?

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      27th July 2013, 1:00

      probably heis just “putting a bandage before the wound appears”…

    2. He probably knows that they compare unfavorably, but not by how much.

    3. Standard M.O, he’s gonna get pole anyway

    4. @joshua-mesh
      I think it’s you buddy

  5. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    27th July 2013, 1:13

    “Sirotkin’s father is the head of the aeronautical institute. I’ve seen some drivers with decent support, but half a billion (dollars)? That is some support, that,” he (Booth) added, referring to some of the media speculation about how much the Sauber partnership might be worth.

    The fact Sergey’s father is a real honcho will make very hard to think about Sauber’s decision as a “talent-deserved” one, but I won’t blame them for floating up after the bad months they were having. I just hope he can at least pay honors to Sauber, a team known for bringing excellent drivers into the sport.

  6. And Paddy Lowe to replace Brawn in 6 months according to JAF1!

  7. INNOVATION IS GREAT Britain (And a great example of that is the MP4-28 which is an evolution of the fastest car on the grid hardly manages to qualy in the top 10)

    Great advertising, yeah !

    1. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
      27th July 2013, 1:41

      I had a laugh at that, as well.

      Great Britain. Only we can turn the fastest into complete trash. (Or rubbish, if you want to be proper.)

    2. @fer-no65 as a Brit myself, +1 haha!

    3. @braketurnaccelerate Everything about that ad is right ..um….except the Mclaren perhaps ;)

    4. David not Coulthard (@)
      27th July 2013, 8:32

      Whoever made the ad probably thought that Milton Keynes was in Austria, and perhaps that Enstone was next to Flavio’s hometown, and that Brackley was in Canada (the latter is only funny when we look at Villeneuve).

  8. On that Reuters article about Sirotkin

    Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion who made a highly controversial debut with Sauber in 2001 as a 21-year-old after just 23 car races in junior series, felt the Swiss team knew what they were doing.

    Is it just me or journalists are overdoing, and overrepeating, every single thing that comes out of Kimi’s mouth?. Really… It could be my imagination, but… I know he’s popular, and I like him too, but don’t put “Kimi Quotes” in every single article about him !

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      27th July 2013, 2:05

      noticed that too… and I didn’t want to quote it here, but now you said it, I agree

    2. I know he’s popular, and I like him too, but don’t put “Kimi Quotes” in every single article about him !

      @fer-no65 mmm I think you got it wrong, first of all the article isn’t about Kimi is about other driver who’s taking a similar path to reach F1 so it makes sense to know he’s opinion also Vettel and Hamilton are quoted too, so (the way I see it at least) there’s no real focus on just what Kimi says in this particular piece.

      1. @mantresx I miswrote that. Of course the article isn’t about Kimi…

        I was pointing out the fact that they chose that sentence specifically and it just happens to be what Kimi said in Abu Dhabi last year, which we all laughed at and all… I guess you understand what I tried to say:

        On that Reuters article about Sirotkin

        Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion who made a highly controversial debut with Sauber in 2001 as a 21-year-old after just 23 car races in junior series, felt the Swiss team knew what they were doing

        .

        Is it just me or journalists are overdoing, and overrepeating, every single thing that comes out of Kimi’s mouth?. Really… It could be my imagination, but… I know he’s popular, and I like him too, but don’t put “Kimi Quotes” in every single article about him !

        1. @fer-no65 lol I know what you meant now :p
          I don’t know maybe because it’s Reuters I took them more seriously than I should have hehe

  9. Ferrari still troubled by windtunnel (Autosport)

    “Ferrari’s deputy chief designer Simone Resta admitted ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix that the team was still working hard to get on top of its issues.”

    For God sake.

    Someone shoot me, I think I’m gonna cry.

    1. @kingshark This is the Ferrari that excels and revels in its consistent mediocrity and underperformance. No matter what happens, they remain proud of their heritage.
      Unfortunately, that isn’t enough to beat the might of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull. And now they’ve got a team, operating at a fraction of their budget (Lotus) and getting similar results.
      Despite with Rory Byrne and James Allison returning next year, I can’t see much hope in the horizon..

  10. I seem to recall Hamilton making similar noises after Friday practice for the German GP – right before he took pole on Saturday. So I take this sort of comment from him with a sizable pinch of salt.

    1. He is talking about the race pace, which with this high temperatures is pessimistic + he is still sad about his love :(

  11. “The old dog is still there”

    Classic quote from Webber..hahaha..

    Ferrari’s wind tunnel woes need to stop somewhere. This has been going on for far too long. Its easy to make Stefano the sacrificial lamb, but at the end of the day, he is team principle and the overall responsibility lies with him. Success in F1 doesnt come overnight, but this is 7th year of his reign and he only has 1 WDC and 2 WCC (technically 1, because Mclaren actually won in 07) to show for it. I like Stefano, he is a top bloke…I think he has taken Ferrari as far as he can. LdM needs to replace him for next year.

    However, its hard to see that happening. Stefano is a career man, and he is Italian. Ferrari are very loyal to their staff (see Felipe Massa). I just hope that Rory Byrne’s magic will be apparently in 2014 car, coupled with James Allison’s technical nous, lets pray they can fight for the title next year.

    1. @jaymenon10

      this is 7th year of his reign

      That would put Stefano as team principal in 2007 too, whereas Todt was the TP that year..

    2. Todt was TP in 2007, so under SD ferrari won 0 WDC and 1 WCC.

      To be honest i blame SD, He is the one who was responsible for dodgy decision with Suspension change during test ban(during european leg in 2008), where kimi struggle with tire warmup issue.

      Kimi was made scapegoat for all the ferrari problem, media tag him as “Lazy” “unmotivated” and whats not, SD didn’t defend his driver. Yet he’s defending Massa left and right for all below average performance in past 3years. Funny thing is, Kimi is easily beating massa with lower budget team and matching Alonso, yet majority think massa “beat” kimi. Call me conspiracy nut, but i say Ferrari beat kimi( like Mclaren were fighting alonso during 2007).

      I say they deserve it, and SD should be fired for his incompetence, Under Todt era ferrari went from average to the best. I admired the work of Todt, brawn, byrne, shumi and co, i wasn’t ferrari fan but i respected them.

      I hate the fact that Alonso is made to look like God in ferrari and in media, i think it offensive to even compare alonso in Ferrari and shumi in Ferrari. Shumi was miles ahead and i’m not even Ferrari or shumi fan to begin with.

      Each time i read some ferrari “issue” with wind tunnel, updates not working and all, it make me happy because i hate politics and i hate those who’s involve in politics and Ferrari is full of politics now. Such a shame really, from shumi era to whats its now.

    3. this is 7th year of his reign and he only has 1 WDC and 2 WCC (technically 1, because Mclaren actually won in 07)

      Even if McLaren hadn’t been disqualified from the 2007 championship, they’d still have finished two points behind Ferrari.

      Besides which, McLaren’s 2007 car was constructed with Ferrari’s technical input so even if they had won it’d have been a moral victory for Ferrari anyway.

    4. @red-andy

      Even if McLaren hadn’t been disqualified from the 2007 championship, they’d still have finished two points behind Ferrari.

      One point, 204 for Ferrari, 203 for McLaren (218 minus 15 for Hungary).

  12. Everyone that wants to support Robin Frijns to make sure he’s not a wasted talent, and get some pocketmoney for any seat(gp2/f1) like this Facebook page please, the more the merrier :

    http://facebook.com/robinfrijnscrowdfunding

    To only have to like the page, there’s no payments involved!

  13. is Chilton so slow because he has to stop on the toll booths?

  14. I think it is extremely wrong for the current F1 drivers to state that Sergey Sirotkin might not be ready at the tender age of 18. The statement “if I look back now..” by Vettel is a horrible one on so many counts. No matter how many times Vettel looks back, the fact that he did become a f1 race driver at the age of 19 does not change. It worked for him. So what basis does he have, to weigh in on what should be done by another driver? There will not be a single driver in the history of F1, that decided to stay back in a lower category for another year to be more ready for F1 in the future, after getting an opportunity to be an F1 driver. So, everything that these drivers say about him being too young cannot even be taken at face value since they all jumped at the first chance to get an F1 drive.
    Sergey has got his chance. Now it is upto him to prove his quality.

    1. @rojov123
      Of cause Sergey is going to take the chance if he is presented with it, just like they did, they don’t seem to be denying that, but it might not be the wisest move. If he comes in and he is too young, and makes a mess of it, then he might have blown what could have been a career in F1.
      So I don’t see what is wrong about other drivers saying that it might be too early. I haven’t heard one of them say that it actually IS too early.
      Some of them just seem slightly concerned that it might be.
      Hamilton and Vettel base that view on where they were at 18. Both of them say that it would have been too early for them. And they are two of the best drivers on the grid!
      Sirotkin could be ready, but the chances of him being ready aren’t exactly great.

      1. @mads In formula 1, if you don’t grasp at the first chance you get, then that would be the unwise move. There is no certainty of him getting a drive a few years down the line. What if he doesn’t do well in a GP2 season. Or what if he..blah blah.. The problem is that there are always too many “what ifs..” that could cloud his future.
        No driver has ever been truly ready to make their move into F1. For almost everyone, after getting into F1, they gain experience and that extra bit of quality that only comes from working with the best.

      2. Hamilton and Vettel got into F1 when they were young. The drivers who existed at that time most certainly said that they might not be ready for F1. That didn’t stop either Hamilton or Vettel and they definitely did not sit down under a tree contemplating if they should spend more time in a junior category. And now, the once young kids of F1after gaining experience and name, is repeating that same old slogan.

  15. Daniel (@collettdumbletonhall)
    27th July 2013, 15:09

    This years Merc is reminding me of the Red Bull of 2010. Brilliant in qualifying but an awful lot worse in the race.

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