Official 2016 Japanese Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS with live octopus sashimi***

I have no map, we all know what Suzuka looks like.

I'd like to hear everyone's opinions on Lewis Hamilton's behaviour this weekend, please.

He's been a bit silly, as he's prone to being, but nothing too serious or as controversial as has been made out.

I think the worst thing he did was show how immature he still is - he's a 31 year old man posting silly snapchat pics during a press conference!

Behaviour like an immature brat.

Liked him when he got in F1, that's no longer the case. He might be better off recording some songs with his bff Bieber.

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Nice to see the GP threads coming back to life!

Lewis´behaviour is nothing new to me its like he simply likes to look out of place.

Nice work by Hass putting both cars on Q3!

I've never been much a fan of Hamilton's personality. His snapchating behaviour in the press conference was definitely on the immature side even if it is daft to take offence from it. Personally I didn't but obviously some did.

On the face if it, it's relatively harmless but I do think he's forgotten that he's there representing the Mercedes brand and whilst they'd probably have little problem shrugging off Thurdays antics they might be a tad more upset on him walking out without further provocation in their own conference. It's not very professional and when you consider just how much he is getting paid it becomes 'disrespectful' as he may put it.

He does like to project this holier than thou attitude but basically he's the same immature child he's always been. Brilliant driver absolutely, cocky little sod very definitely.

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Good job by Hass today, not bad for a car with lunatic brakes.

Also looks likely that Force India will take another chunk of points over Williams, possibly with the help of Hass.

kedy89 Wrote:
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> Behaviour like an immature brat.
>
> Liked him when he got in F1, that's no longer the
> case. He might be better off recording some songs
> with his bff Bieber.

The Justin Bieber of F1... I like it.

Back in 2012 I posted the "Lewis Hamilton on Twitter" thread, maybe we're needing a Lewis Hamilton on Snapchat thread to go with it now.

Hamilton fanboys will say that we're being unfair on him and picking on him just for being himself and freely expressing himself instead of being PR-managed, but we're not. We support drivers being free with their opinions and characters. We criticise Hamilton simply because he's being a @#$%& idiot, and he keeps on being one.
The line might be a fine one at times, but he consistently manages to overstep it, and it just gets annoying sometimes. He's one of the few personalities in F1(maybe the only one, in fact) who probably does need PR management to save him from himself.
Still, Snapchat does seem to be the preserve of stupid kids who want to take and share pointless photos, so maybe he's finally found his level.

I hope Rosberg continues to progress towards the title, since I think he deserves it this year, and I hope he can somehow repay Hamilton's shitty first-lap move during last year's race.

(I've missed you GPG, it's good to be back!)


RE the race itself, I'm hoping it'll be a good one and that the field will still be as close during the race as it was during qualifying, that would open up lots of strategy possibilities amongst the frontrunners. Kimi in particular has had great pace here, and he seems to be in a purple patch right now, which is good to see as a Kimi fan.

And this is a bit OT, but the quality classic races on Sky recently remind me how great this race and track are. Looking forward to this one!

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Regards Hamilton - I remember people talking this way about other drivers such as Eddie Irvine and Nelson Piquet. But it's weird, because I felt like I could accept them somehow - I loved their rebellious steak. But Hamilton just goes too far for me.

It's a shame. I'm the first to admit that he's a phenomenal racer, but it almost feels like his personality has become more toxic as his career has progressed. In the past, if he has ever done something that rubbed me up the wrong way, I've eventually managed to forget about it and go back to having a 'cautiously neutral' opinion of him, hoping that he will settle down and become a respectful racer. But, as soon as I do, he goes and sticks his foot in it again. It's almost like he's trying to be disliked. He reminds me so much of 'that' annoying kid at school who does controversial things for the sake of getting attention. Most 'villains' in sport I love to hate, but unfortunately, this is a case of I hate to hate.

(in all honesty, though, I understand what he did during the press conference wasn't that bad, but due to past experiences I've had myself, it struck a nerve with me)

Ahem - now back to the racing

I admit I didn't watch qualifying, but having seen the results I'm optimistic for the usual Suzuka spectacular. With Mercedes having restricted engines this race, will Red Bull be able to use their awesome chassis to fight for the lead? And kudos to Haas, I was astounded to see that both of them got into Q3, especially after the negative headlines about them during practice.

Still, though. I've always been a Rosberg fan, but I've never wanted him to win more than this. Please, for the sake of sportsmanship and decency, beat your teammate tomorrow. He desprately needs a slice of humble pie!

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

Cracking race. Good comeback by Hamilton and Verstappen was naughty again. Probably lucky from his point of view that he only needed to do it once and will avoid a penalty, but I detest people moving in the braking zone.

Edit: Forgot, Ferrari destroyed what should have been a podium at the very least and probably a 3rd and 4th. Good pace, only a tenth or 2 slower than Mercedes until the last stint but they must have hired Williams' strategy department and then appointed a work experience kid to oversee them.

Terrible race from Williams and McLaren, good from Force India.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/2016 08:55AM by gav.

Yeah... Ferrari basically evaporated at the end.

Williams just had no pace at all what so ever, I think Force India would have beaten them today on almost any strategy. At this stage Force India deserve 4th in the constructors because they're simply better at getting more from the package they've got than Williams.

Another easy day for Rosberg, the winning margin looks relatively small but it was another Stewart/Prost type exercise in winning at the slowest possible speed. A 33 point lead with four races to go looks pretty comfortable and on paper he ought to walk it from here because he's not specifically weak at any of the remaining circuits. But it'd only take a Malaysia style DNF to put Hamilton right back in there and Rosberg does have an exceptional ability to sometimes grab defeat from the claws of victory. So it's definitely not over.

I think that move by Verstappen was relatively mild by his recent standards, he does seem to have exceptional spacial awareness. He's still very young as well so maybe he'll mature a bit more in this aspect. I think in general the stewarding of racing combat needs looking at again or still... because Verstappen has basically got let off Scott free for some very dodgy moves whilst... Last week in Malaysia Rosberg got handed a penalty for his move on Raikkonen.. which admittedly was clumsy but it was also brilliantly creative and you just know if it was Verstappen or Hamilton pulling that move then everyone would have been waxing lyrical about it.

There shouldn't be any penalty for contact where no damage was caused. I mean, there was slight damage, but that's racing.

We need to lose this "no contact whatsoever" mentality, it's preventing us from seeing moves like that more often.


Arnoux and Villeneuve would have been banned for life.

Are you referring to Rosberg and Raikkonen at Sepang?

It's a tricky one. Obviously in touring cars that would be deemed a brilliant move, but I can understand why he was punished. I didn't agree with it, but I can understand it, as it was a touch rough.

I thought Brundle's stance on the matter was extremely interesting though. He, without fail, comes out with the line you said, where punishment for harmless moves like that would stop anyone from attempting a move at all, but notably on this one occasion he didn't. He's openly a Hamilton fan, but I'm worried his support of Hamilton is now starting to turn into a disliking of Rosberg and that's something a neutral commentator should never show, whatever he thinks.

Coulthard on the other hand did what Brundle normally does, saying he liked the move for its ballsiness and he was slightly disappointed when Rosberg was punished, but he could just about see why he was given the penalty (this was before Rosberg moved 10 seconds ahead of Raikkonen making the penalty effectively null).

We've had the same before - Murray with Mansell and Hill, and Coulthard with Red Bull - but they pinned their colours to the mast long before, everyone knew about it and they were usually fair with their fandom, but I'm worried Brundle is has moved from a Hamilton fan and is allowing that to influence his opinions of Rosberg.

It takes me back to ITV F1 2007-2008, I would mute the tv audio and have Radio 5L on as the comms was a lot more neutral and balanced unlike ITV's inability to say any word other than "Lewis Hamilton".

I thought it was pushing the limits, but that it was a very ballsy and creative move, and that it demonstrated a change in Rosberg - before this season he would've just followed Kimi, or only attempted a move in an obvious place.

I didn't detect any obvious signs that Brundle had begun to dislike Rosberg and let it influence his commentary, but even if he has, I don't particularly see it as a bad thing - James Hunt was biased as hell in his commentaries, and nobody holds it against him. :P

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2016 07:48PM by EC83.

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EC83
I didn't detect any obvious signs that Brundle had begun to dislike Rosberg and let it influence his commentary, but even if he has, I don't particularly see it as a bad thing - James Hunt was biased as hell in his commentaries, and nobody holds it against him. :p

As I said, it's not the bias that bothers me, it's the hidden nature of it. I mentioned Murray and Coulthard above but the same can apply to Hunt - he obviously hated Patrese as he blamed him for the death of Ronnie Petersen, and he had other dislikes too (de Cesaris for example), but it was obvious.

Are you meaning in terms of a commentator presenting the facts in a particular way to suit his opinion, instead of just saying how he feels about a particular driver?

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2016 05:08AM by EC83.

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EC83
Are you meaning in terms of a commentator presenting the facts in a particular way to suit his opinion, instead of just saying how he feels about a particular driver?

I think that's the way Brundle came across in Sepang, yes. Not so much facts, as it nearly entirely comes down to opinion, but he always says in low speed contact which results in no damage (either time or physical) that it shouldn't be punished as it will deter drivers from taking risks (as DC said of the same incident), yet in Sepang Brundle swayed the other way.

Had Hamilton or Verstappen been the aggressor, rather than Rosberg, do you honestly think he'd have been of the exact same opinion?

It's not something that overly bothers me (and I'm hardly a Rosberg fan), but it was something that struck me at the time, as he's previously been very clear-cut on similar incidents with a different conclusion.

It was the same with Verstappen in Suzuka - he's been very, very decisive about moving under braking previously (against it obviously) yet he was having a little argument with himself about whether the move was OK or not. It was plain as day that he wanted to call it OK, but with each replay he was conceding to Crofty more and more, and with a voice that had a notably resigned tone to it.

Don't get me wrong, Brundle is the best pundit the UK has ever had and I've been a huge fan of his, but in the last few seasons it's like his objectivity has dwindled as his interest in the sport wains, and that instead of saying it like he sees it, he's drifting towards having an F1 fan's attitude rather than a pundit. The Brundle of maybe 5+ years ago was a very different pundit.

Wrong thread, but case in point last night. Alonso's move was worse than Rosberg's in that damage was done and it forced both drivers off track, but I quote Brundle:

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Martin Brundle
I think that was very, very opportunistic there from Fernando and bang on frankly, literally, and very good.

Yes even though Massa did turn in a little bit not sure how Alonso got away with running him off the circuit in response.

And I agree that there is certainly a lot of bias, whether it be subconscious or otherwise on these sort of things.

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X (@ed24f1)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2016 12:55PM by SchueyFan.

Ridiculously slow reply on my part, but yeah, I get you 100%. It's the kind of comment that would be easy to understand face-to-face but can come across ambiguous in written text.

And yeah, I definitely think his response would've been completely different if Hamilton/Verstappen had made the same move, and his analysis of Alonso's move adds even more weight to your argument, absolutely.

He's still nowhere near as bad as Hunt was with Patrese though(Where he used to blame Patrese for other drivers driving into him, etc).

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