The official 2016 Austrian Grand Prix Thread *** SPOILERS with banana kerbs ***

The image with the old circuit is on purpose, as there is a possibility of a return of the old Osterreichring loop for next year Clicky!


Regarding 2016, Nice timing from Hulk and Jenson! Gonna watch out for Ferrari and Red Bull as they start with supersoft tyres. In Monaco, while the track was still cold, supersofts were faster than ultrasofts so this could bring us surprises





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2016 09:13PM by Frantic.

First of all, please tell me if I'm being unreasonable here - the last thing I want to do is turn into a typical fanboy. But... I am absolutely LIVID following this race. I guess my sig and avatar make no secret of the fact that I support Rosberg. I think, today, what Rosberg did was a dirty move and I 100% support the penalty - this is the kind of thing that ruins racing in the modern era and it should NEVER be encouraged. But, what is annoying me is the fact that Hamilton has done exactly the same thing to him several times in the past (I can think of at least USA 2015 and Canada 2016), but got away scot-free. Every. Single. Time!!! Why does the FIA never punish Hamilton for dirty driving, yet others get slapped with penalties almost immediately? Hamilton never even comes under investigation, for crying out loud. I'm so angry at it, that in my mind I'm making comparisons to when Balestre blatantly favoured Prost and screwed over Senna. It honestly feels like that to me now. Add that to the fact that beautiful tracks like Austria are getting plastered with tarmac and ridiculous kerbs, the cars with zero testosterone, no exhileration, whining fans bitching at almost everything, and I think I can say that I am totally fed-up with F1. I've been teetering on the edge for years now, but I am now *this* close to completely giving up.

Ugh. Rant over.

For those of you who enjoyed the race, ignore this petulant whiny forum user (me). Apologies if I've become the new bruninho.

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You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2016 03:29PM by flat tyre.

On a positive note Pascal Wehrlein and Manor bag a point! Massive result, a little fortune played into their hands but they had enough genuine pace throughout the weekend to capitalise.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/2016 11:19PM by thestig88.

flat tyre Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> First of all, please tell me if I'm being
> unreasonable here - the last thing I want to do is
> turn into a typical fanboy. But... I am absolutely
> LIVID following this race. I guess my sig and
> avatar make no secret of the fact that I support
> Rosberg. I think, today, what Rosberg did was a
> dirty move and I 100% support the penalty - this
> is the kind of thing that ruins racing in the
> modern era and it should NEVER be encouraged. But,
> what is annoying me is the fact that Hamilton has
> done exactly the same thing to him several times
> in the past (I can think of at least USA 2015 and
> Canada 2016), but got away scot-free. Every.
> Single. Time!!! Why does the FIA never punish
> Hamilton for dirty driving, yet others get slapped
> with penalties almost immediately? Hamilton never
> even comes under investigation, for crying out
> loud. I'm so angry at it, that in my mind I'm
> making comparisons to when Balestre blatantly
> favoured Prost and screwed over Senna. It honestly
> feels like that to me now. Add that to the fact
> that beautiful tracks like Austria are getting
> plastered with tarmac and ridiculous kerbs, the
> cars with zero testosterone, no exhileration,
> whining fans bitching at almost everything, and I
> think I can say that I am totally fed-up with F1.
> I've been teetering on the edge for years now, but
> I am now *this* close to completely giving up.
>
> Ugh. Rant over.
>
> For those of you who enjoyed the race, ignore this
> petulant whiny forum user (me). Apologies if I've
> become the new Bruno.


I agree with you 100%

Yep I agree on that, too.

On Rosberg vs. Hamilton: I think Lewis sorta knows how to play "smartly dirty", i mean dirty but legal in a way. In football terms Lewis would be a Roy Keane. Instead when Rosberg tries to do that he ends up being a Pepe.

I echo all of you guys. I like Rosberg a lot, but his move was stupid, the team's efforts to blame it on a BBW failure are stupid, and all in all, he was stupid. At least today, that is.

Now I thought immediately about those times. USA and Japan 2015 sprung to mind, as did Canada some weeks ago. The thing is, those never resulted in a collision, instead they resulted in Rosberg going off just to avoid what happened today. Also, every occasion when Hamilton did this was on the opening lap, specifically in the first corner. This was the last lap, people go reckless in instances like this. The results are awesome in touring car racing but this is single seater racing and you can't bang cars without breaking vital bits. But the thing is, had Rosberg turned in on Hamilton on those races, it may have been a different story. In fact, as Frantic said, Lewis knows how to bend the rules to the limit, he goes wiiiiide on the corners but never stops steering altogether, which Rosberg did and it was a very blatant sign that this was a desperate defensive move.

In short, I do not think Nico crashed on Lewis on purpose, but that was a dirty move nonetheless. He expected Lewis to turn right at the Osterreichring loop, more or less. The fact that Lewis turned when the track ended while Nico would've gone off to avoid a collision shows the different styles of those two.

Just my two cents. If you really, really, really want to lay some blame on Lewis, do it for turning in on Nico. But the fact is he never should've been forced to do so.



Stats: 139 Starts / 7 Wins / 9 Poles / 5 Fastest laps

I like that Rosberg has toughened the hell up this year and is giving Hamilton something to think about in these wheel-to-wheel battles.

I don't like that Mercedes screwed Hamilton over with the timing of his first stop, which ultimately led to this situation. That said Hamilton usually cries over the radio when he thinks the team have done him over, but there was none of that today, so perhaps it was his choice to go as far as possible, at that point intending to one-stop.

As for the crash, obviously Rosberg made a mistake in turn 1, then out-braked himself in turn 2, but the actual contact was caused by Hamilton turning in on him (I'm not blaming Hamilton, but pointing out that had he just gone straight on, as he ended up doing anyway, they wouldn't have touched).

Rosberg was the more guilty driver of course, but I felt the fact that he lost 3 positions while the one he hit went on to win was sufficient penalty (perhaps a couple of penalty points but no punishment), so I'm content that Rosberg's penalty didn't change the order.

I thought it odd that he was under investigation for driving back with his wing under his car - that's happened countless times without any word whatsoever. Can anyone name any driver who wouldn't do what he did, Donnelly (the driver steward) included?

flat tyre Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> First of all, please tell me if I'm being
> unreasonable here - the last thing I want to do is
> turn into a typical fanboy. But... I am absolutely
> LIVID following this race. I guess my sig and
> avatar make no secret of the fact that I support
> Rosberg.

No harm in being a Rosberg fan.

> I think, today, what Rosberg did was a
> dirty move and I 100% support the penalty - this
> is the kind of thing that ruins racing in the
> modern era and it should NEVER be encouraged.

It was a dirty move. And it should be penalized. However, I think 90% of the grid, in the exact same situation would have done what he did, given no other options to fight back. If you are fighting for the WC, you sure as hell are not gonna give up a crucial win, especially to your rival overtaking you on the OUTSIDE on the last lap. The event speaks more to the structural logic of being a racing driver, than it does to Nico's personality IMHO.

What was really stupid in my opinion was 2 things. First of all, Rosberg doesn't even try to make it look like he wants to hit the apex, which would be the ideal line for him. That makes it obvious that he intentionally tried to crowd Hamilton off the track. I doubt he wanted contact, but it would have been smarter to have the brakes on full with the steering wheel turned towards the apex. Then he at least could argue better for what he did.

Secondly, and that is the most stupid thing of all. Hamilton was first to the DRS detection zone. So Rosberg would have had DRS on Hamilton on the following straight, thus even IF he lost the battle at the spitzkerhe, there would have been another fight into turn 3, and Rosberg would have had the advantage of DRS and the inside line to the corner. Maybe he did not see it, or maybe he did not think it would be enough. I don't know, but that option was open to him.

> But,
> what is annoying me is the fact that Hamilton has
> done exactly the same thing to him several times
> in the past (I can think of at least USA 2015 and
> Canada 2016), but got away scot-free. Every.
> Single. Time!!!

Every single time is hyperbole. Hamilton has plenty of penalties to his name, just not in those instances. What Hamilton does is in my mind the same thing, but he is better at masking it. If you go into an uphill braking zone, and brake too hard like in the US, then the natural tendency of the car is to understeer. So Hamilton can safely turn into the corner, knowing fully well, that even with the front wheel turning into the corner, he will probably understeer straight. And that makes it harder for the stewards to PROVE that he intentionally crowded Nico. The difference is subtle, but vital.

As for the curbs, they are fine. It is ridiculous to have a track where drivers create a line 3-4 meters off track, that they consistently use again and again to gain an advantage. And you can't monitor all those incidents, the stewards would be swamped. Thus the curbs. Pretty much every track has curbs that you can or cannot use. Mostly, because they upset the car and thus you risk loss of control or loss of time. And hence drivers don't use them, which is the point of these particular curbs. If you know they have the potential to damage the car, then DON'T use them! It wouldn't be any different if the curbs just upset the pace and led to loss of time.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2016 03:40PM by Morbid.

gav schrieb:
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> I like that Rosberg has toughened the hell up this
> year and is giving Hamilton something to think
> about in these wheel-to-wheel battles.

Yeah, that came to my mind as well. Honestly speaking I always thought that if the options are finishing 2nd behind your main rival and having both cars out of the race the latter is the preferable outcome. If your opponent invites you to do so you should go for it. I hope to see more of the agressive driving this year. So far it has been quite entertaining.

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used to be GPGSL's Nick Heidfeld

Being a Rosberg supporter I would have liked to be able to write that off as a racing incident. But I can't. It was desperate defending and yet again he's let Hamilton get inside his head. Such a shame, it had been a pretty fine drive up to then to bring himself back into contention.

But it was a pretty terrif race and that was without the rain.

Max Verstappen is beginning to chalk up some records... Youngest ever Grand Prix driver, youngest ever winner and now the first driver to sport ledheisen on the podium. That's going to take some beating. Red Bull in general seem to be on the up they've regrouped after a tricky couple of years and Newey's influence still seems to be strong.

Kimi, looking his usual delighted self on the podium. But yet another blow for Vettle. If Ferrari still think they're in the championship running then they are probably deluded.

A accomplished performance by Button, that was definitely better than they may have expected and McLaren continue to make steady progress although reliability remains a problem.

Williams and Force India were pretty disappointing (Perez had a good effort once again) and I think Smdley's new favourite word 'mediocre' definitely applied here.

More points for Hass, and a point for Manor which is a wonderful achievement. If at this point someone said that a manor would be chasing down a Williams for points at the end of a race we'd have pointed and laughed.

Quote
J i m
More points for Hass, and a point for Manor which is a wonderful achievement. If at this point someone said that a manor would be chasing down a Williams for points at the end of a race we'd have pointed and laughed.

A Williams that was on 28 lap fresher tyres too, apparently... (I've not checked).

That said Wehrlein did go a lap down and was only allowed back during the safety car period, which somewhat skewed the race in that regard.

Button was awesome. I think his start is the best I've seen/heard in the V6T era too. I was impressed with the Honda's pace along the straights too until DRS came into effect. It's the sort of track they were absolutely shocking at last year due to the ERS, but this year it seems they've largely overcome that element and it's just good old fashioned HP sauce that's lacking. I'm pretty impressed with how they're moving forward now given how utterly inept they've been thus far.

Edit: And to be fair Renault too, at least in the Red Bull - I wouldn't be surprised if the Renault team abandoned this season months back.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2016 08:31AM by gav.