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Official 2011 Season Discussion - Everything!


pined5551
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What a race that was! Definitely more lively than the previous 2 races, that's for sure! Plenty of action to discuss about.

 

First off, nice to see someone other than Vettel win :) Hamilton produced a superb drive to get ahead of Vettel, and with only 7-8 laps to go. Deserved victory right there.

 

Vettel did well with what he had, but I feel he only lost because he chose to only stop twice, which cost him in the end as he didn't have the grip to keep Hamilton at bay. Still, he got 18 points, which still gives him a firm lead in the championship.

 

How Webber got up to third from 18th on the grid is still beyond me. I actually wrote him off at the beginning, and I thought I made the right call with his pace during the first stint. Then he pitted for soft tyres, and ended up going 2-3 seconds faster than everyone else! Unbelievable pace. He deserved what he got after all he went through during qualifying, but... unbelievable.

 

Button... Doing so well during the opening stint. I had him down for winning the race. But how in the world can you get the Red Bull pit crew confused for your own? A silly mistake, and one which cost him dearly. What happened after that was simply a question of not having enough pace to keep Hamilton and Webber at bay.

 

Finally, it seems that Massa is finally back in his stride. Shame he doesn't have the car to compete with McLaren and Red Bull. And Mercedes seem to have pace too. It looks like the best of the rest will be down to Ferrari and Mercedes this year.

 

Overall, a very exciting race, and definitely gives me a positive outlook for the rest of the season. Well done to Hamilton for ending Vettel's winning streak :)

 

Unless I'm mistaken, I believe we're off to Turkey next.

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Best race of the season so far and the first one were we really saw how the tires can effect the outcome of the race.

 

Drive of the day has to go to Webber, even though he had the tire strategy helping him it must take a lot of confidence in your team when he seemed to be going no were fast at the beginning.

 

Mistake of the day - has to go to Button even he admitted in his post race interview that it was a pretty school boy error, although it probably did not effect his end position.

 

As for DRS the FIA need to have a think about what changes they can make to it, because it has not really been working over the last three races

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As for DRS the FIA need to have a think about what changes they can make to it, because it has not really been working over the last three races

 

What do you mean?

 

Since its purpose is to make overtaking easier, or give us F1 fans more overtakes to watch - I think it has been working perfectly.

 

I still think it's a bad addition to F1, seeing as overtaking is just a matter of getting within a second of the driver in the front and using DRS to overtake him instead of using your driving skills to overtake your opponent. IMO it's just a cheap way of making F1 more thrilling and purely artificial.

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What do you mean?

 

Since its purpose is to make overtaking easier, or give us F1 fans more overtakes to watch - I think it has been working perfectly.

 

I ment the implantation of the zone it can be used in, for the three races the zone could of been longer for it to work better or been in another part of the track.

 

But I agree it does lead to 'manufactured' over taking rather than true skill and a 'push to pass' system would of been cheaper, easier to engineer and easier for the layman to understand than the DRS & KERS systems and would probably achieve the same result.

 

I just hope that they don't change the tires on the back of the teams & drivers complaining about the amount & size of the marbles as I think they have been the big success in improving the excitement in races this year.

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I would guess the will activate the DRS just before entering the tunnel although it could also be on the pit-straight. Short run, I agree, but hopefully more do or die action on the track.

 

 

The tunnel at Monaco is not a straight, it has a pretty sharp high speed turn right in the middle of it. Putting it there would wreck every car. It will be on the pit staright for sure.

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Looking forward to Istanbul and the inevitable car improvements for the European tour :)

 

I know every team will be bringing updates, but im really hoping Lotus can improve more. I had a bet with my mate that the team would score 5 points during the first 5 races. Lotus say they have a massive update coming in Barcelona, where they expect to score points (possible pipe dream still though), Barcelona being the 5th and final race. With any luck, a lot of luck, maybe they can make a start at scoring in Turkey.

 

And also, maybe Mark Webber can have more than just a shell of a car for this coming race :p

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, So TURKEY!!! I rate the race aroun 7/10! The first 10 laps were like no other race I have seen before. So much action the cameras couldn't keep up! The McLaren drivers displayed some of the best racing i've seen for a while... continuious at least, the overtakes were pretty standard but it was back and forth for longer than we (as an audience) usually see, and it remained clean!

 

Alonso was a surprise, as much as I hate him, Vettel needs more cars to challenge him. Koybayashi was awesome, just a shame about the flat tyre, for which the BBC did not make aware to viewers I don't think.

 

Schumacher, well off form. I thought what Martin Brundel said was slightly out of order. DC said he just didnt know when to give up, to which Brundle asked 'you mean in his carrer?' Obviously knowing DC just meant about a loss of a place on the track. And talking of Mercedes, what a shame for Rosberg. I had him down for a podium, and that oppening lap really got me hopefull :( I think the team just need more high fuel data, and an aero package to match.

 

Webber, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd... He's very quick at Barcelona, we all know that! Could it go all the wayt to 5, 4, 3, 2, 1?? Can't wait to find out!

 

As for Sebastian Vettel. Someone needs to break his legs! All he has proven to me so far is that he is a time attack champion. I want to see what happens when he is out in Q1 like Webber in China, and to see how far up the pack he can get. I think he is single handedly destroying F1. There is no way he will leave Red Bull, and unless they develop a crapish car, he will own. McLaren and Ferrari need to step up there game and provide their drivers with matching performance cars, otherwise 'The Ferrari years' will become 'The Red Bull years' and nobody wants to see one man/child dominate the rest fo the field.

 

As much as I hate Alonso, I would be happy to just see a 2nd place battle between Hamilton, Ferrari (if they develop the car more, FAST!), Button and Webber.. But only if it is to be the case that Vettel just does a Sunday drive each week. We need some genuine fights for the lead though! That is the principle reason I only rate Turkey 7/10, none of the action was for the lead... and the DRS was off! Too easy.

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  • 2 weeks later...

so the DRS activation zone....im not a fan of it, i would prefer to see it used in the race as it is in quali, that way its not as easy to overtake as it has been in some races. It would take more skill, for example, we saw vettel opening it half way around the last bend in spain, drivers which didnt have the confidence in the car or tyres during quali did not do that and only deployed it when the car was straight.

 

i believe allowing the drivers to deploy it whenever they feel would make for much more interesting racing rather than having a specified "zone" to open the rear wing.

 

at catalunya i feel that wouldve made the difference up between hamilton and vettel and wouldve made for a much more interesting last few laps watching vettel try to defend both the KERS and DRS of hamilton all around the track rather than just in the pit straight.

 

what do you guys think?

 

keep it the same

have it like in quali

not have it at all

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^^ I assume you mean that they can have it open whenever they want but only as long as they are within 1 second of a car in front and not just everyone can use it anywhere they want, otherwise that would be too easy I think. Im happy with the zone being there, its just a case of the FIA getting it right. In Turkey it was too easy, the chasing cars were flying past the driver in front and being well ahead of them by the time they reached the braking zone. And in Spain it was too difficult. The lead car had already reached the braking zone by the time the following car had got any speed advantage. If the original final turns had been in place im sure it would have been different but as it is now the final turn is just an acceleration zone and the lead car would have great traction off that turn and the following car would be compromised through the chicane and final turn being in the dirty air zone. I think its a good idea, especially somewhere like Catalunya where overtaking isnt an easy thing, but for it to work properly the activation zone needs to be in the right place which, as we have seen so far this season, is a very difficult thing to judge. However the tyres are turning out to be great this year. Its great to see people using different strategies again and so far Catalunya has been the best race for that this year what with Button three stopping while the rest of the front runners were on four stops and yet they were still doing similar lap times, the Force Indias sacrificing top 10 spots by going out on the hard tyre in Q2 so that they would have a new set of options for the race and despite the hard tyre being slower than expected, the lead drivers having to use 2 sets of primes because their last stint was simply too long for the options to last. Its turning out great this season, even when the DRS isnt in the right place, and with Vettel dominating, simply because of the way the tyres behave.

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will be interesting to see where the zone starts at monaco, considering the last corner is too slow for "dirty air" to have an effect on the car behind and the pit straight is one of the shortest if not the shortest on the f1 calender.

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Defiantly the best Monaco race I have seen for a very long time, just a shame that it ended as it did, if it had carried on i think it would of been luck of the draw who won out of the top three.

 

Lewis's new managers need to get hold of him and tell him that drivers who alienate other drivers and make unnecessary comments that cause negative publicity for their teams, will soon find themselves falling down pecking order of the top teams.

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Defiantly the best Monaco race I have seen for a very long time, just a shame that it ended as it did, if it had carried on i think it would of been luck of the draw who won out of the top three.

 

Lewis's new managers need to get hold of him and tell him that drivers who alienate other drivers and make unnecessary comments that cause negative publicity for their teams, will soon find themselves falling down pecking order of the top teams.

 

Im not sure that is the case. If the teams care about winning they'll employ a driver who can win, not a straw man who can please share holders.

 

Anyway, it is more that the world needs to get a grip and stop being so desperate to be politically correct all the time. He made a comment that was OBVIOUSLY a joke, yet the BBC responded by going, 'Oh were sorry, im sure he didnt mean it, sorry, sorry, sorry.' They acted like they had something that needed to be apolagised for. It really frustrates me how it seems im the only one in the world who knows what racism actually is. It requires hatred, somthing that was clearly not present in Lewis's interview, he laughed and made reference to Ali G for gods sake! Seriously, who cares.

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I couldn't give a damn what Lewis says, as long as he continues to be competitive. He had a pretty poor showing in Monaco, it was like a demolition derby, but I'm sure he'll bounce back in Canada.

 

What the hell happened on Webber's pitstop? I get the feeling that he always planned to come in on that lap, but Vettel reacted to Jenson coming in and got in before him. There should have been some communication, a 15 second pitstop (well tyre change) is not acceptable.

 

I want to smack Sutil and Alguersauri, for ruining what was a thrilling battle between Vettel, Alonso and Button. Vettel's tyres couldn't last another 6 laps, surely. Alonso's mentality was to go all out attack, so anything could have happened. I've never been an Alonso fan, but I found myself rooting for him yesterday. So over seeing Vettel take the win.

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I want to smack Sutil and Alguersauri, for ruining what was a thrilling battle between Vettel, Alonso and Button. Vettel's tyres couldn't last another 6 laps, surely. Alonso's mentality was to go all out attack, so anything could have happened. I've never been an Alonso fan, but I found myself rooting for him yesterday. So over seeing Vettel take the win.

 

Yeah it gets annoying when the same person starts winning everything. It's good to see someone on top of their game, but as we know from the Schumi days it can ruin F1 for quite a while. Can't blame Vettel for doing what he's doing though.

 

Yes it's a pity that the battle at the end was cut short, but I'm more annoyed at the stupid rule that says you can put new tyres on during the red flag.

 

Most of the race was amazing, and if we'd had a proper ending I think it would've gone down as one of the modern-day classics.

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Yeah it gets annoying when the same person starts winning everything. It's good to see someone on top of their game, but as we know from the Schumi days it can ruin F1 for quite a while. Can't blame Vettel for doing what he's doing though.

 

Yes it's a pity that the battle at the end was cut short, but I'm more annoyed at the stupid rule that says you can put new tyres on during the red flag.

 

Most of the race was amazing, and if we'd had a proper ending I think it would've gone down as one of the modern-day classics.

 

I know, it wasn't so much as a race resume, than a race re-set. The stewards handed this win to Vettel on a silver platter.

 

And the magic stategy that won Vettel the race was a mistake. The soft tyre was meant for Webbers car, but the team sent it to the wrong side of the garage. Subsequently the communication errors continued to Webber after Vettel left as the pit crew had not been informed promptly on what tyre they were to put on Webber's car. I also, despite being an Alonso hater, was rooting for him yesterday. I love the underdog and Alonso was just that yesterday. Lewis better win in Canada.

 

 

EDIT: Im tipping Hamilton for the win, possibly even pole as well!

Edited by pined5551
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  • 2 weeks later...
This is kinda off-topic but does anybody know of a website or something where i can watch the races?

I live in america and F1 isn't really popular over here it's all about NASCAR (unfortunatly)

 

I watch it online on BBC iPlayer, so you can try that. I have no idea whether or not it will work for someone outside of the UK, but hopefully it will. I think they show it live from the BBC's F1 website too.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/default.stm

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This is kinda off-topic but does anybody know of a website or something where i can watch the races?

I live in america and F1 isn't really popular over here it's all about NASCAR (unfortunatly)

 

 

Speed shows all the races live on TV. So far I've seen everyone of them except for Monaco and that was only because I was working.

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