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I have to say I’m pretty much in full agreement with @tmekt on this one. F1 has always been like this and there has always been a number of key factors around which the teams pivot. You could moan that it’s unfair that some cars will run better at some tracks than at others. Was it unfair that the Mercedes was so fast in China last year and should the rules be changed to stop that? Was it unfair that Jenson pulled off one of the most amazing chases from the back of the grid to a win in Canada in 2011 because he was the first onto the slicks when it was still a bit damp? The races where strategy plays the biggest part are usually the most thrilling and all of the teams knew that tyres would be important. If they’ve made a car that is really heavy on the tyres then that’s their mistake and they’ll need to try to rectify it as Red Bull did last year.
Last year the Lotus was very good on its tyre wear, this year it seems to be even better. Degradation has obviously been a massive factor in Lotus’s development of the car and they’re reaping the rewards.
@Jon Sandor
People say that “Everyone drives on the same tyres”, and of course they do. The point is that – largely through chance – some cars will happen to work well on the new seasons rubber right out the box, while other teams will spend several races trying to come to grips with them.
Do you really think it’s largely through chance? I think it’s pretty unfair to suggest that Lotus’s victory was just a fluke. They’ve won two of the last four races. Ferrari were second and Red Bull were third and this reflects how the race went for the three teams. Lotus had the fastest car considering the conditions, Ferrari second and Red Bull third. It’s fair.
@tmekt good points well made. I appreciate that this is obviously a grey topic and I agree with some of the things you have said. Although Hamilton wasn’t penalised at Hockenheim it did cause some controversy and, as usual, Christian Horner was whinging like a spoilt child about how Hamilton was meddling in the top battle and he shouldn’t have been.
However if we look at Austin with Karthikeyan, isn’t that just motorsport? You win some you lose some? Sebastien Vettel was (at that point) a two time world champion in the fastest car. If he can’t get round Karthikeyan in a car that is several seconds per lap slower than his, then I don’t really have any sympathy. And maybe Karthikeyan was trying to block him, but Vettel called him an idiot in Malaysia after he cut across the front of Karthikeyan’s car and gave himself a puncture. So maybe if Vettel were less of an obnoxious bully, Karthikeyan wouldn’t have got in his way. You could say that that was Vettel’s comeuppance for being an arse. And being a true champion is as much about what you do off the track as it is on the track?
I accept that not having a blue flag might make races slightly more dangerous and a bit more unpredictable but I don’t really see anything wrong with that.
As an addendum to that point, discarding the blue flag rule would surely prevent seasons like 2011 where Vettel seemingly increased his lead by about a second a lap at almost every race. At least once he reached the backmarkers he’d have to start fighting again rather than just getting further and further ahead.
I agree with @kingshark. I really don’t get the blue flag rule. @matthijs says they’re not racing for position, but they are. They’re all in the same race and sometimes we’re talking about a driver who isn’t normally a backmarker like Hamilton in Hockenheim last year. You should be able to try to unlap yourself if you can and therefore you should be able to fight with the front runners. If the front runners are so good, surely they can get round lapped backmarkers anyway? Why do they need the backmarkers to effectively pull over and get out of their way?
Also I think it’s unfair on the backmarkers when they are having their own race with other slower drivers because they can accidentally concede too much and have another backmarker overtake along with the faster car. And this does happen quite a lot.
It’s a race, every driver should have the right to drive as fast as they are able to, to the very end.
I’d say yes if you’re all about F1. If you want to catch the drivers you can head down to the track at 2-3am (which is just open and you can walk it up to the early hours of Friday morning) and they’re often just out jogging or doing media stuff with the BBC, Sky etc.
Singapore really is a city that never sleeps and you’d be amazed how many bars and eateries are open at 4am. And it’s not rowdy or anything at that sort of time, people sit out drinking coffee and stuff. Very civilised!
However as others have said, some of the other attractions will be closed like Universal Studios on Sentosa etc.
The sad fact here is also the financial aspect. It’s not just about which engine manufacturer to go for, but which driver can secure them the biggest discount on the engines themselves.
It seems a shame when it comes down to something like this in F1, although I kind of agree with some of the others on the forums that both drivers are equally deserving of the seat for different reasons. Although Sutil’s champagne glass attack definitely stands against him. If he hadn’t done that, I think he would already have been chosen.
Yeah, I feel sorry for the guy.
As for McLaren, maybe Ron Dennis will reinstall himself as team principal? Whenever you see him at a race he looks as though he’s itching to get back in the saddle.
Maybe we’ll see VW in one it’s guises in 2014? Just found this although it is a bit out of date.
Yep, it’s a real shame there aren’t more big manufacturers competing in F1. I’d like to see Jaguar return, it’s a shame that what was originally their outfit has now won the triple double. Imagine what a coup it would have been for the company if it was still Jaguar (I’m not suggesting that things would have gone the same way if they had remained Jaguar – obviously the availability of Red Bull’s billions has helped them along the way.)
Are the rumours about Porsche making an entry still kicking around? I remember reading about this in a few places.
This is why Audi won’t be joining any time soon:
‘There’s a very good reason why we are not in F1,’ says Wolfgang Ullrich, Audi’s motorsport boss. ‘There’s no relevance to the road. Audi has always been engaged in motorsport that’s relevant to our customers such as rallying and touring cars, which brought quattro, FSI and TFSI to our road cars.
