Official 2014 German Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS with DRS***

2014 German Grand Prix



Previous Winners

2004 - Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)
2005 - Fernando Alonso (Renault)
2006 - Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)
2007 - Fernando Alonso (McLaren Mercedes)
2008 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes)
2009 - Mark Webber (Red Bull Renault)
2010 - Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
2011 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes)
2012 - Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
2013 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Renault)

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2014 06:16PM by EC83.

Fernando Alonso seems to know this place really well.
interesting that the FRIC ban seems to bring the field closer?. looks good for the last podium step

A very decent run by Susie Wolff, just 2 tenths off Felipe Baby. I can't see her being any worse than Chilton or Gutierrez in a race situation.

Yeah, it'd be nice to have a team brave enough to field the likes of Susie and Simone in a race or season as like you say there's no reason why they wouldn't be as quick/competent as a Chilton etc if not more so.

Nasty failure for Hamilton in qualify, definitely not his fault... But he's going to be epic entertainment moving up through the field. The pressure was completely off Rosberg after that and it would have been a monumental fail on his part to lose the Pole.

#BOTTAS is really on the crest of a wave at the moment, I hope he keeps on surfing it, and brilliant to see Massa backing that up in P3 to have both Williams back there again.

A very good by Magnussen, I'm not ignoring him :P Not only did he categorically outclass Button today but P4 is a really strong result for McLaren in normal circumstances.

thestig88 Wrote:
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> A very decent run by Susie Wolff, just 2 tenths
> off Felipe Baby. I can't see her being any worse
> than Chilton or Gutierrez in a race situation.


Clearly, Williams have done their job in painting that picture. Massa was on a far heavier fuel load than Wolff, demonstrated by the fact that he improved by 1.5 seconds in the next session. If you saw Wolff's runs, you'd see that although she was selecting the right gears, her positioning on the exit of corners was off.

Again, I point to her junior results. Nobody in their right mind would hire somebody who's never won a single race outside of karting unless they brought about $50 million in sponsorship. There are drivers like Valsecchi and Leimer who have won GP2, and other drivers in junior series who could definitely do an admirable job in F1. It's not really fair on those guys that Wolff gets this drive for no other reason than the publicity it brings to Williams.

As for your comment, Chilton and Gutierrez have actually won races in series like GP2 and both have a good amount of experience in junior series. Whether you agree that they're F1-standard or not, they still have the right level of experience and results to justify being there.

Simona de Silvestro on the other hand DOES have a) contemporary experience of top-level racing, and b) decent past results. If you must pick a driver based on gender, then pick her. If you were to pick a driver on talent and pedigree, she also has a claim there. Wolff does not.

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GPGSL: S6 - TafuroGP Tester (14th) /// S7 - ART Tester (6th) /// S8 - Demon Driver (13th) /// S9 - Demon/Snake Driver (13th) /// S10 - Snake Driver (???) ///]
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski

+1 Could not agree more.


" Perfection is not a gift ....... it comes with practice."

Member of R.S.C.T Group

Quote
Incident 2k9
Clearly, Williams have done their job in painting that picture. Massa was on a far heavier fuel load than Wolff, demonstrated by the fact that he improved by 1.5 seconds in the next session. If you saw Wolff's runs, you'd see that although she was selecting the right gears, her positioning on the exit of corners was off.

But you see that from other third drivers too (well those without much F1 experience), but with all of the attention on her, it was inevitable she'd be much more closely scrutinised. All teams would have improved in FP2 (I've not checked, but there is normally a marked improvement between FP1 and FP2 as teams hone setups and the track rubbers in). Don't get me wrong, I don't expect for a moment that Wolff would finish anywhere else than comprehensively outperformed by any current team leader, but then we've ex-champions in that bracket currently (Raikkonen and to an increasing extent Button). Is she deserving of an F1 drive... I'm not sure, but she's probably on the cusp, and we've certainly had far, far worse drivers in the not-so-distant past.

You point to her lack of wins, but she's never driven for a top team, but has had podiums and been selected as BRDC Young Driver of the Year, so she's obviously impressed some.



With Hamilton's failure it was a rather anti-climatic session. He'll make easy meat of getting up into the top 4 I expect, the question being just how quickly he'll do it. I'll go out on a limb and state I still think he'll finish second.

Standouts from Magnussen in particular (it would be easy to suggest McLaren allegedly pointing out the potential FRIC illegalities had given them an advantage, but Button is positioned where you'd expect a McLaren to be at the moment) and the Williams duo cementing their places as the closest to Mercedes overall. They've become a good partnership and it looks like they're feeding off each other nicely, though while it seems a very happy camp, Bottas is starting to really impress me (he was clearly a potentially excellent driver but he's starting to realise it now) and eek ahead of Massa.

While Williams must be thinking their reshuffle is paying dividends at the moment I still struggle to accept they've made a stunning improvement, more than just making a better job of the new regulations than Force India and McLaren. Next year, when I expect Renault and Ferrari to have made up much of the gap to Mercedes, I fear they might well find themselves back at the tail-end of the points. They really need to build on this purple patch.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2014 08:11PM by gav.

Going from being too slow to score points (almost at all) to having what is now often the second fastest overall package over the winter period is a very good improvement indeed. Whilst that doesn't guarantee future success it shouldn't detract from the current achievement. I don't think we can assume that if the Lotus, STR, Sauber etc had the Mercedes powertrain then it'd be ahead of Williams, as simply going by that logic then McLaren and Force India ought be comfortably ahead too. I think that the overall package at Williams is a genuine improvement over recent seasons and I don't think we can write it off because some other teams have supposedly lost.

Incident 2k9 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> thestig88 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > A very decent run by Susie Wolff, just 2 tenths
> > off Felipe Baby. I can't see her being any
> worse
> > than Chilton or Gutierrez in a race situation.
>
>
> Clearly, Williams have done their job in painting
> that picture. Massa was on a far heavier fuel load
> than Wolff, demonstrated by the fact that he
> improved by 1.5 seconds in the next session. If
> you saw Wolff's runs, you'd see that although she
> was selecting the right gears, her positioning on
> the exit of corners was off.
>
> Again, I point to her junior results. Nobody in
> their right mind would hire somebody who's never
> won a single race outside of karting unless they
> brought about $50 million in sponsorship. There
> are drivers like Valsecchi and Leimer who have won
> GP2, and other drivers in junior series who could
> definitely do an admirable job in F1. It's not
> really fair on those guys that Wolff gets this
> drive for no other reason than the publicity it
> brings to Williams.
>
> As for your comment, Chilton and Gutierrez have
> actually won races in series like GP2 and both
> have a good amount of experience in junior series.
> Whether you agree that they're F1-standard or not,
> they still have the right level of experience and
> results to justify being there.
>
> Simona de Silvestro on the other hand DOES have a)
> contemporary experience of top-level racing, and
> b) decent past results. If you must pick a driver
> based on gender, then pick her. If you were to
> pick a driver on talent and pedigree, she also has
> a claim there. Wolff does not.

That's me told then :-p

Fair enough, their probably was a bit of "engineering", but never the less good to see a lass in action

Really interesting race in prospect here, even if it stays dry. Interesting to see how hard a time Williams can give Nico, and interesting to see Lewis work his way through the field in a strange car.

Rain, if it turns up at all, will probably be later in the race anyway.

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This race is amazing!

Awesome reluctance from Race Control to deploy the SC, can't remember the last time a race with so much incident went uninterrupted.

It'll be fun seeing how well Lewis can manage these supersofts.

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Easy but ultimately deserved win for the part German, Part Finn Monégasque that is Britney.

A bueatiful piece of tyre management by the #BOTTAS to defend P2 from Hamilton whose recovery through the field was excellent.

Some good scraps throughout the field.

And it has to be said, good drive by Magussen to salvage points after that coming together with Massa at the start.. this time I think it was Massa's mistake.

EC83 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Awesome reluctance from Race Control to deploy the
> SC, can't remember the last time a race with so
> much incident went uninterrupted.
>
> It'll be fun seeing how well Lewis can manage
> these supersofts.


+1000

If one thing i admire from F1 is that as ridiculous as it may sound the sport prevails... in USA for example, a leaf in the race track is an instant yellow. if the car is 1mm lower you don't loose the win or whatever result you have, they'll just fine you. the show prevails. Not in F1.
and i'm saying this because the guys from FOX LatinAmerica over here were critizicing that they never deployed the SC for the Sutil incident and tbh even thou it looked as if it was in a critical spot, it really wasn't and it only took the staff 3 secs to remove it.. why Interrupt strategies and the whole race for that?

I'm not one for mollycoddling the drivers, but for met he concern for the Sutil incident wasn't the drivers (as double waved yellows means be prepared to stop) but more a car failure, where the drivers might not have been able to control it. I'm not 100% that should have been a safety car, but given more than an entire lap went by before Charlie made the call not to deploy it (and he was looking over it from a few hundred metres further along), he wasn't 100% convinced either way either.

I remember seeing it, immediately remembering Glock's crash there in 2008 which brought out the SC(Admittedly a bit different since that car was smashed up and harder to move), and thinking "FFS, not a Safety Car now for this, the race is developing nicely, just leave it alone" - I genuinely expected it to be deployed and was very impressed when it wasn't.

What I wasn't expecting was the chill that went through me when the first 3 marshals ran across the live track to start work retrieving the car, holding my breath as one reached down into the cockpit and got it mobile, then the sheer intensity of relief I felt when they finally got it tucked away in the pitlane - it was overwhelming. Maybe I've spent too much time watching horror videos of 1970s F1 and subconsciously overreacted because of that, I dunno. It was so long since I remember marshals running across a track and retrieving a car just under yellows. Maybe it's just a sign that the SC has been overused a bit in the last 10 years or so.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2014 07:20PM by EC83.