5th the last two years was very distant from the top, whereas they are in the thick of it this year...a huge improvement. I wouldn't have guessed it at all.
+1 Good point...... How much "influence" do "we" think the team principal actually has? We know he's the figurehead, chopped off at will etc, but is Flav -v- Stefano where we're at? Christain -v- Eric? An even better point! He is, and shall forever remain, "The Rev". I can't imagine anything worse than an irked Isobel. Cheers, Ian
It was a little tongue in cheek...It was awesome to see the "F1 God" Schumy struggle once again, and it was good to see Hammy who many hate on this site win it. Best of all it was great to see Alonso maintain such a big lead in the championship despite all that happened... MB
That comment is completely off-base. It isn't low class at all. In fact, on this site there is more venom spewed toward other marques and drivers than on any site I frequent. After watching Rubens "struggle" for years when on the same team (and I have explained this on multiple occassions on this site) I find it humorous that MS is now struggling - especially after so many claimed upon his most recent return that he would return to form in a year or so and be waxing other driver's arses. He can't even beat his own teammate. In fact he is tied with the much beloved (on this site) Pastor Maldonado and is only 4 points up on Massa who has his own hate thread right here on Fchat. I don't wish him any ill at all, but when some bad luck befalls him it reminds me of how the world seems to balance things out in the long run. What cracks me up is that you act as if you are rooting for everyone on the grid to do well, and you don't hope that any other driver has a longer pit stop or that the other team make a bad call to assist your favorite driver in having a better result... Ok, I will come clean. I actually hope that the teams in sports that affect how my teams will do actually DO NOT do as well as my team. I know I surely must stand alone on that but it ABSOLUTELY MAKES ME LAUGH MY ARSE OFF that because I don't want to suck the sweat off of MS's balls that I am a low class guy. Before Alonso moved to Ferrari I read on FChat MANY times how he was a cheater and a bad guy, and that he wasn't as great as everyone said he was, and now that he drives a red car he is the "best on the grid" and most assuredly a great guy. HA! I never liked MS and still don't. I do not however, hate the man. I have never met him. He may be a great guy, but I don't root for him and I never will. I have always been a Senna fan and will think he was the best driver ever, and watching MS founder around as he often does now makes me chuckle. So sue me. MB
I found the race extremely boring. The rain should have showed up in this sorta stituation. We have 33 days before the next race. Crazy. But it's in Spa, hopefully with the high speed nature of the circuit, Ferrari, Lotus and Merc can pick up some nice updates and better speed.
At least Schu was good enough as a driver to make sure he lived long enough to founder around a race track at 43 years of age.
huh? By your reckoning the Mclaren must be bad too then as they have had a number of 'off' weekends where Jenson or Lewis performed poorly. Red Bull have had a couple too so please don't, just don't, it makes no sense. MB had fastest lap just last weekend and qualified third. W03 is not bad on tires, not for quite some time now. There are only a couple teams on the field who are light on tires, Lotus and Sauber, and Lotus only have good luck on tires when they are at a track which has very hot temps. So please, let's not go banging pans around the room about MB. Do a bit of research showing lap times and time drops, it's just some simple math and you can deduce tire degradation a bit for yourself. The tires are pretty much the same for everyone.
Maybe in your own little world it is. You contribute nothing noteworthy here other than popping in to talk trash when MS has a bad weekend (I've noticed you've been silent the last few weeks, must have hurt to see him qualify p3 in two successive races and smoke Rosberg). Yes, it is. If you don't like the website, please visit less. That would be great. This right here says it all, you haven't even been watching the races. If you have, your pathetic hatred of the man has masked the plain-to-see facts that MS has been screwed by VERY poor reliabilty. He lost tons of points to Rosberg based on that alone. MS has qualified in the top 3 six times this year. He's fast and you know it. Comparing him to Maldonado or Massa is ridiculous. Sure. I can't stand Lewis Hamilton but you didn't see me gloating after Germany or Britain and I mentioned how he did an awesome job after quali. You would NEVER do that with Schumi. Never, so don't try to act like you would. ...and there we go. The record books don't agree with you, that must be frustrating. This comeback will not take away any of his 7 titles or 91 race wins, that must be equally frustrating. What must be REALLY frustrating is seeing MS be fastest around Monaco at age 43 while your idol was probably P17 for some practice session at Iowa Speedway. Ouch.
Makes no sense? The only thing that doesn't make sense is how you keep trying to tell people that the Mercedes is one of the top cars on the grid. It's just not true, and anyone can see it. McLaren had a couple off weekends (for Jenson, LH has never really been slow other than England), but the difference between them and Mercedes is they actually upgrade their car. Red Bull or McLaren have not gone backwards in a race (any race) this year like Mercedes does all the time. Because MS took an extra stop late in the race for fresh option tires when no one else did. This wasn't a case of genuine pace, everyone else's tires were old. On fresh tires with the fuel load almost gone, fastest lap was easy. Why did he make that extra stop, you ask? Because the car chews tires. Silverstone/Germany qualifying were cases of the rainmaster dragging that thing to the pointy end of the grid through sheer talent in the wet. Let me know when they qualify top 3 in the dry in non-fluky conditions. Hasn't happened since Monaco, back in the days when they actually upgraded their car. Won't happen again this year. I will. The team is miserable. First they couldn't build a car that could stay together for Michael when it was actually quick and now it stays together(usually) but they won't upgrade it and it's slow as hell. I swear you should work PR for this team, because you can spin their continual BAR-Honda ineptitude into something positive like nothing I've ever seen. I know! So why is it that the fast cars are always fast and the slow cars slow? McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, Red Bull, Sauber and likely Williams are better cars than Mercedes. Pretty sad considering that MBZ was probably the 2nd fastest team at the start of the year but it's just staggering how much they've been outdeveloped.
Frankly, that's an extremly ignorant and stupid thing to say that demonstrates zero understanding of the sport, the cars, and of the drivers.
my gosh, cocaine is a helluva drug isn't it lol. Hit some technical websites and inspect the upgrades, there are plenty. This past weekend they ran their new front wing for the second race and I believe it was at Silverstone where we saw new sidepods. The difference is MB aren't trying to win a championship this year (admittedly so at the beginning of the year that was not what they were going for this year!) so they are not devoting resources hand over fist at upgrades as every other team are. Brawn is playing a long game here and most likely have a majority of their resources on W04. Nico was the highest points scoring driver from Canada through Monaco, the car is fine, they just have other plans. It would be silly to assume otherwise as MB as a company have bet big on Brawn and Haug getting the team together. Honest question, have you done the math showing tire deg between the teams? Probably not. No one is really chewing through tires, they just fall off and that's that, and it's everyone! At Germany, teams took a 2 stop or 3 stop strategy. DRIVERS WHO PITTED LAST FOR OPTION TIRES AT CLOSE TO THE SAME TIME AS SCHUMACHER INCLUDE: HAMILTON (47), GROSJEAN (42), ROSBERG (50), MASSA (47), HULKENBERG (46), SENNA (47). Don't try and tout that Schu put on softs at the last stint just to try and burn down the competition because it's just not true, do some research. Schu had 3 or 4 fastest laps in a row, he and the car were very very fast and by large margins. And he didn't start setting those fast laps until he was a few laps in with his fresh tires which further proves it wasn't eating through tires, so let's get off it please.
There's no better way to say that. Senna died in as freakish a fashion as you can imagine...it had nothing to do with his skill. Many drivers have crashed in similar fashions (including Schu) and walked away. It was a terrible comment and I'd think Korr didn't really mean to put that out there. Senna was a fantastic and special driver.
Not necessary. How long have we been hearing the "next year" talk from MB? Their car is not fine. Do you see MS dropping like a rock down the order after two straight brilliant qualifying performances as "fine?" How about qualifying 13th and 17th at this last race while scrapping with Lord knows who for a solitary point? The only thing I can think of is by running that rudimentary exhaust they are preparing for next year. The W04 will be time to put up or shut up, hopefully MS is around to drive it because both he and Nico deserve better than the cars they've been saddled with the last 3 years. Their upgrades are clearly not working, the car is going backwards. If they are focusing on next year, hopefully it works this time. Even Brawn has admitted they are still struggling with tire temp issues and the MB has a more fickle range in which it works with the tires than just about every car on the grid. http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/07/22/2012-german-grand-prix-tyre-strategies-pit-stops/ No, they took either a 3 or 4 stop strategy. Most cars (including all the front running teams - minus Grosjean, Hamilton, and Massa whose races/strategy had been ruined through early incidents) were able to do it on 3 stops. BOTH Mercedes cars had to take 4 because of their tire deg. Hamilton was cruising around about to retire and Grosjean's car was damaged through an earlier off so of the cars that were still in working order that pitted late and had tires in similar shape to Michael (older, but similar) were Hulkenberg, Maldonado, Senna, Massa, Vergne, Kovalainen, Petrov and Rosberg. He was faster than that group. Not exactly an epic achievement and doesn't make "everything okay" with the Mercedes.
Without getting too off-track from the thread, I have to say I don't agree that Senna's death was freakish. Prost didn't think so, and what's scary is Prost had been saying for years that Senna was going to basically push too hard one day and kill himself. Very very very sad, but Senna couldn't ever see himself any other way, so in a sort of poetic way it was the only way a virtuouso could go.
They taken a step this year, a big one! Podiums, a win, fastest laps. It's been a good growing season for this team which was basically nothing in 2010 when MB received it as it was basically bare bones nothing after their WCC DDD year. Brawn tore the team down to nothing thinking the RRA was going to force all teams to do the same, then Brawn was smart and cashed in with MB. Smart, but now he is charged with building the thing. Not easy, but they are progressing. Brawn simply admitted the tires have a small operating window, and W03 was built with a wide window. The suspension geometry of W03 was difficult at first to deduce tire temp ranges I'm sure because they built W03 assuming 2012 tires were going to have a wide tire operating range which 2011 had. 2012 tires have a + or - 20C operating range (this is insane!), go above or below and you are toast. W03 has the most trick interlinked heavy gravity suspension system on the field designed by Bob Bell while at Renault and this is the very FIRST car it has been implemented on so what can you expect? Lots of teams had 4 stops in Germany. Schu's quickest laps were to the tune of nearly a full second quicker than anyone else on the field. A 1.000 gap is huge no matter how it's sliced. And Hamilton was trying to unlap himself so he was hardly just 'cruising' around. This season is just incredibly backwards with these fantastic drivers like Hamilton, Button, Webber, Schu, Rosberg, all having seemingly awful races just because of how the car must be set up for these asinine tires. IMO, Mclaren should be running away with this season like Red Bull have the past two seasons. The Mclaren is the finest car out there but it's just too fickle with tires, just like W03. The difference is that when Mclaren have the rubber right, it's stupidly fast, but the rubber still falls off like anyone else. It's rubber justice the Italian way.
I hope they prove me wrong, but BAR/Honda would make progress then regress just the same. I have my doubts. No they didn't, and no one in the top 5 did. 11 cars total had 4 stops, several of those caught up in 1st lap incidents and other than Caterham and Williams, Mercedes was the only team to be forced into having BOTH its drivers take 4 stops. By the time of his lap stop he was. Getting ready to retire the car. Still doesn't excuse Mercedes from starting with a good car and having it go to crap, like we say, everyone's on the same tires. They're done for this year, can't see any more great results coming (I don't considering a 5th or 6th place a great result), so hopefully next year they can get it together.
Couldn't disagree more: Senna's death was the result of an extreme odd circumstance, the fact that the front suspension went straight through the visor into his brain. Comparable in odds with the spring Massa got to his helmet. Had zero to do with the way Senna drove.