FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2012: RACE *** SPOILERS ***

You have to take spin for what it is and not take it too seriously.
If they knew then that the tires would fail they would have pitted. The question is whether they could have known.

 

The tire situation is horrible.
(Almost as horrible as Fox coverage.)

The Pirellis are horribly sensitive to track temp, and the allocation process doesn't give teams a chance to heat cycle them.

All of the drivers who pushed early -- Massa, di Resta, Schumi, even Vettel, would up burning up their tires and had to pit early.

Massa's race was hosed by the push to get around an overly slow Rossberg before the DRS zone was enabled.
(Anyone figure out why Rossburg was a second off the pace in his first stint?)

Keeping Alonso out front on aging tires was a bad call, especially after a whole race of people destroying their tires.
(Button only got 15 laps on his *primes* in the opening stint.)

Once again, Ferrari race strategy pooed the scrooch.


But FIA puts everything secondary to "the show".
Random weights swinging across the track would also "mix up the results".

Was a time when the racing was "the show", not just the results and the celebs in pit lane.

 

In Monaco Alonso was able to set his own pace (looked like he was holding up Massa at the time) saving his tires but not risking being passed. Today that wasn't an option.

 

As usual spot on, I thought the same thing in my mind watching this race.

 

This was a fantastic race in my opinion. You had Vettel pulling away with the familiar +1 second gap and by the third lap it seemed like he had another one secured. Then his tires went off very quickly and the chaos was nonstop from that point forward! The performance by Hamilton and Alonso was nothing short of brilliance today. Superb in every since of the word.


This time last year Vettel and Red Bull had essentially won both titles. Anyone who complains about having a seventh winner in the seventh race of the year must not be watching for the same reasons I am. The 2012 season has been exceptional so far.

 

Sums up my thoughts. Great race, I don't mind Ferrari rolling the dice when it's clear they don't have the fastest car. Sometimes you have to take chances, that's racing. However, to try to insinuate that they couldn't have ended up on the podium is nonsense, I fail to see how they can validate that statement. Had they pitted a lap after Hamilton, Alonso could have come out in front of him with LH's slow stop. 2nd place was entirely possible today.

Oh and Michael's car broke again, you know, par for the course.

 

Just sn obvious point of contention with the Scuderia. At worst they may have been 3rd if Vettel's role of the dice paid off, but I thought expecting 51/52 laps on a set of tires that only lasted Button 15 was really pushing it. They just didn't need to take the chance, but I understand why they did (since FA and Vettel were 1/2 in the wdc at that time)

Just don't insult us with the spin...

On MS, I couldn't understand why he had to retire with a broken DRS, since it's not a critical part.

Then I found out it was stuck in the 'open' position, so he would have been DQ'd most likely. Would have been great to see him flying around with that thing wide open though.

 

Given the reduced grip his flying might have been in the corners.

 

Massa's race was hosed by his solo, all alone on the track, self-inflicted spin at turn 1, which gave him a great big flat spot. The vibrations from that flat spot were why he had to pit early. If he hadn't screwed up when running all by himself, he would have got more laps out of those tires.

Massa still sucks.

 

Indeed. Braking would be pretty hairy with the DRS open.

 

Just have to say, while we all have different opinions on this F1 season, the banter in this section has been high-quality all season. Even the dissension has been handled fairly respectfully.

It's completely different from a couple of years ago. That really sucked.

 

In 20/20 hindsight if Alonso had pitted, he could've won the gp. Not sure why they chose a 1-stop strategy when their pits have consistently beat McLaren the entire season thus far. McLaren had 2 slow pits both with anti-stall kicking in and the 2nd w/ a right rear issue to boot, Ferrari's pit would've put him just ahead if not, at least 2nd as they push up thru the field again and overtake.

I was screaming like a lunatic 2 laps after Hami pitted and Alonso stayed out. It was really a bad call, and I just didn't anticipate he'd be kicked out of the podium...that just pissed me off even more.

Bad day for Ferrari...Massa spin out didn't help.

 

SO does Button. Fire all the #2's including Kimi lol! I guess you missed the rest of the race. Amazing.

 

Sums it up for me. When they decided to let Alonso stay out It thought well that's it - They're going to throw the race away (didn't they watch Kimi fall back massively a few races ago?).

 

Yup.

This was not a lottery situation, but a calculated gamble that Ferrari made that didn't pay off.

I think that, when Vettel pitted for tires, Ferrari had only a very very short (1 lap, if that) chance to make a decision. Every moment they delayed was a moment that Hamilton was pulling out further, and Vettel was closing in. If they came in with 4 laps to go instead of 7, that would have eliminated the time gained from new tires.

So they rolled the dice, and lost.

Managing tires is nothing new. Tires that wear out are nothing new. Pit strategy and gambling on being able to squeeze life from the tires to do one stop less is nothing new. The rules didn't screw Ferrari. Ferrari screwed Ferrari.

 

The only reason for Ferrari spinning the podium yarn is to deflect criticism from poor race strategy. Everyone in the entire known racing world (slight exageration, but only very slight) knows this years tires drop off a cliff when they let go. Playing Russian roulette with tire endurance is about as bright as daubing yourself with cows blood and going for a walk across the lion infested plains of the Massai Mara.

Domenicali has to go. He has been dreadful for longer than Massa - and that's saying something.

I, as a Ferrari fan, feel totally robbed by the team principals- not the rules or the tires.

 

As someone said earlier Ferrari did screw the pooch here. What could have been a safe victory or second place at worst became a debacle! Grrrrr!

 

That spin happened after he burned up his tires getting around Rossberg.

We've repeatedly seen that pushing the super-softs too hard, too early will destroy them.

Pushing to open up a lead also toasted Vettel's tires, and caused him to have to "blink first" in the pits.

Ron Smedley is constantly on the radio telling Massa to hold back and save his tires ... when Massa is back in 10th in mid-race.
Why didn't they hold him back until the DRS came online?

And if they didn't think Massa's tires would last long enough to wait for DRS, then why did they think Alonso's tires would go 70% of the race distance?

Nothing has changed: Ferrari has sucked at race strategy since Todt and Brawn left.

 

That was the most boring Canadian GP I've ever watched. It's normally one of my favourites for spectacle, but not very much happened.

Such terrible luck for MSC (seriously, wing stuck open?!) but he didn't have a fantastic race. Kimi did ok, nothing special though.

Perez drove fantastic, great strategy by the Sauber team. Hambone finally wins his GP this season. 7 for 7 now.

The issue now seems to be that teams can't seem to push on their tires, making overtaking rare again. I think this is partly because both compounds have to be used, and partly how some of the tires are designed to completely fall apart once the cliff has been reached.

Schumacher made a point about it a few races ago; a driver can't push the limits to try and come from the far back wrestle his way to the front, or bang in 20 qualifying speed laps in a row (hungary 1998 anyone?).

Shame.

 

exactly. lucky's post made no sense.

 

Lewis looked pretty determined today, judging by the average distance between his right rear tyre and the Champions Wall throughout the race. There was just one moment of weakness, his outlap after the second stop and the subsequent tour, Lap 51, which was a 1:20 second lap compared to Alonso and Vettel's 1:18s. Had they chosen to come in then...

http://www.planetf1.com/race-features/7805914/Canadian-GP-Winners-Losers

 

Hindsight is 20/20.
Given Lewis' speed in Canada pitting would have meant ceding first. Where they would have ended up is speculation but no doubt it would have been better than where they did finish.
They gambled on the tires lasting and lost.

 

+1 Seems like we are beating ourselves....

 

As a wise friend of mine once said "we're all our own worst enemies, but some of us are better at it than others"

 

Looks a little that way. Although 20/20 hindsight always helps......

OTOH, they were watching what everyone else was doing - IIRC, Both Lettuce & Checo ran very long stints on the primes also - They were obviously hoping to pull off the same. Didn't work unfortunately. That's racin' 2012 style.

Cheers,
Ian