Formula One 2018 - General Thread

[Deleted member 113659]

Seems to afflict some teams more than others - ISTR a period when McLaren seemed behind the curve on this as well.

I suspect that Mercedes were distracted by the change in circumstance for Bottas and also had this hit just at the point where competitors on the ultrasofts would be likely to start coming in.

For the money they cough and the number of people they employ you'd think they would have a continuously updated 'pit / do not pit' status should a VSC or SC occur. So the moment the VSC was called there would be no decision to make if the simple calculated state was 'pit' - the car gets called in unless somebody with authority overrides it.

Hence my post above?

 

[bob6600]

They knew it was beneficial to pit under the VSC but couldn't decide what to do if the others split their strategy. If Merc had looked back from the pit wall they would be able to see Red Bull and Ferrari getting ready for a double stacker.

 

[Stratman]

"We didn't pit in Australia, it went badly. We didn't pit in China, it went badly. Shall we pit here? Nah, keep him out, see it if goes well".

[/20/20 hindsight but the principle stands]

 

[GeeJayW]

Mercedes dropped the ball on strategy under the VSC... again! Should have just done what was best for them and not tried to second guess the other teams. As it happens, it would have made no difference with both cars failing to finish. Onwards to Silverstone...

 

[Dryce]

Mercedes dropped the ball on strategy under the VSC... again! Should have just done what was best for them and not tried to second guess the other teams. As it happens, it would have made no difference with both cars failing to finish. Onwards to Silverstone...

LH also needed an extra stop for another set of tyres as did DR.

(Though perhaps if out front in clean air LH would have been able to stretch his second set as MV managed ?)

 

[GeeJayW]

LH also needed an extra stop for another set of tyres as did DR.

(Though perhaps if out front in clean air LH would have been able to stretch his second set as MV managed ?)

Yeah maybe. All rendered moot by the DNF though. Poor weekend for MB after it looked so promising too. Good result for max, more disappointment for Daniel, amazed that the red team didn't swap their drivers in the last laps with a 'Sebastian is faster than you' style message.

 

[Dryce]

Yeah maybe. All rendered moot by the DNF though.

Moot but interesting.

In Motorsport Magazine Mark Hughes writes that the MB decision was complicated by LH being in the lead and the other teams running two cars could split strategies. So situation complicated by losing track position and not knowing what the other teams were going to do until they had already commited.

On that basis to be fair to MB and their call on the situation if LH had pitted maybe Ferrari would have left one of their cars out instead of stacking them.

So hindsight says MB should have definitely pitted on the VSC. But we might be having a different but similar discussion about MB strategy if LH had pitted and KR and MV had stayed out. Chances are we'd be criticisng MB for having come in too early because his second set of tyres would have looked bad by about lap 30 - with a third stop needed or a real struggle to last until the end.

So.

My theory is that MB didn't make a bad call given the hindsight we now have on LH's second set of tyres.

And I wonder if KR had stayed out he might have been able to manage his first set last longer and been a lot stronger than MV in the later stages and able to push harder on his second set.

 

[grober]

LH also needed an extra stop for another set of tyres as did DR.

(Though perhaps if out front in clean air LH would have been able to stretch his second set as MV managed ?)

Was interesting that certain Red Bull and Mercedes cars suffered greater tyre degradation than their corresponding team mates. While undoubtedly the clean air phenomenon played a part I am guessing that overuse of kerb runover, and engine/traction settings - in fact individual driving style---- may have hastened their demise? With a blisteringly hot track [literally] it would appear that "Softly, softly, catchee monkey" won the day.

 

[st13phil]

Was interesting that certain Red Bull and Mercedes cars suffered greater tyre degradation than their corresponding team mates.

The tyres will always get worked harder by a driver trying to progress towards the front, than a driver who is at the front and can to an extent control the pace. In that respect it is something to do with driving styles, but the style adopted was to a large extent dictated by the circumstances.

 

[Dryce]

Was interesting that certain Red Bull and Mercedes cars suffered greater tyre degradation than their corresponding team mates.

MV has shown in the past that he can manage his tyres. I think that was reinforced yesterday.

 

[wu56Shoozz]

Okay.. dunno if this should be another thread or not but:

Who's a Fan of:

Steve Jones

Or

Martin Brundle

To me both are pure tossers for different reasons, Steve Jones has materialised as a total Jerk with his stupid comments and "Baby" trying to be hip Brundle on the other hasn't, can't get it in his head that he never won a race or a championship, but always starts of " When I was racing.." Guess what? You're not now.. so forget it..then theres the interview technique whereby he questions the candidate, waits on his response but at the same time looks down his pointed nose in the "I'm superior to you" body language mode... Grrr

 

[190]

I'm with you 100% on Steve Jones. Brundle I can live with. For me they should bring back Jake Humphrey. He might not have been a racer but he was able to be genuinely enthusiastic without being a Jerk.

 

[Deleted member 65149]

I have no problem with either of them, in fact I think they both do a great job. A bit of humour from Jones and a bit of knowledge from Brundle. I’d take many hours of both of them over one minute of the little Irish idiot.

 

[Deleted member 113659]

I’m not familiar with Steve Jones. However I quite like Martin Brundle. I think he talks a lot of sense and is very fair when it comes to analysing incidents.

I’m not so keen on David Croft. He goes why OTT volume wise and talks too much about stuff we don’t need to hear. (A little like Jonathan Legard back in 2009-10)

 

[190]

Anyone who is remotely a MotoGP fan and hasn't yet seen last weekends race then make sure to watch it on catch up. It was one of the very best with countless changes in the leading group and at the flag less than 0.7 secs covering 2nd place to 5th place.

 

[Mactech]

As Martin Brundle's long time race engineer and co-founder of that 'Irish idiot's' race team I'd prefer not to make any biased comments on the above .....
However, I thought the Moto GP at the weekend was absolutely fantastic and have been a long time fan of motorcycle sport.
Four wheel racing was my profession, two wheel racing my passion.

 

[Chrishazle]

As Martin Brundle's long time race engineer and co-founder of that 'Irish idiot's' race team I'd prefer not to make any biased comments on the above .....
However, I thought the Moto GP at the weekend was absolutely fantastic and have been a long time fan of motorcycle sport.
Four wheel racing was my profession, two wheel racing my passion.

Bugger - I didn't realise there was a MotoGP as well, completely missed it!! SWMBO wanted to watch the GP, so I didn't even look for anyhting else - and we have BTTV purely because of MotoGP!! Now have to Google to see what happened where!!

 

[Mactech]

Bugger - I didn't realise there was a MotoGP as well, completely missed it!! SWMBO wanted to watch the GP, so I didn't even look for anyhting else - and we have BTTV purely because of MotoGP!! Now have to Google to see what happened where!!

I can only assume you were Assen about all weekend.......it's 'for sure' the boys on circuit weren't

I did mourn the loss of Julian Ryder as the voice of MotoGP. But I'm now warming to Keith Huewen with comments like "He maybe the the GOAT, but you're not supposed to butt your opponents out the way"....

 

[artyman]

Certainly exciting, though the last couple of laps seemed boring in comparison.

 

[bob6600]

Here's one for @Happytalk73

Boullier resigns

Eric Boullier quits McLaren, Gil de Ferran appointed Sporting Director