There is also Public Relations on the internet, and teams have been known to engage in it from time to time.
Fact LH asked about tires - infers a stop Fact LH looks at monitors and assumes others are stoping(See Fact 1 above) Fact he is in the lead and thinks stoping with 12 laps to go is a good idea at Monaco Fact - Team agree's gap or not - again at Monaco Fact - He agree's to stop while in the lead at Monaco Fact - He stops in the lead at Monaco Fact - He loses lead at Monaco as a concious decision in coordination with his team. Let me know Gordon what FACT a few us are missing, internet or not about who shoulders the blame. The team does including the driver - Another fact. **In the light of recent events - my view of the facts stated above is not about LH per se but certainly any driver/team combo lacking any sense of 'situational awareness' at Monaco. Kimi, Massa, JB etc. I would feel the same so for me its by no means an insult to LH at all. He is a capable and accomplished driver who, along with his team made a mistake. Im sure more mistakes will be made as we and them, are simply human.
Sure, the teams aren't necessarily interested in full disclosure - but there are plenty of other sources around who actually want to tell what really happened. How tyre confusion influenced Hamilton's pit call - F1 Fanatic Why Mercedes gave Hamilton that fateful pit stop - F1 Fanatic Rosberg takes Monaco hat-trick as strategic blunder robs Hamilton of certain victory // F1 News // James Allen on F1 ? The official James Allen website on F1 Talking point: How will Mercedes make it up to Hamilton for lost Monaco victory? // F1 News // James Allen on F1 ? The official James Allen website on F1
You can sure spin those facts! Your third point - he doesn't think stopping is a good idea, he points out to the team that the used tires will lose a lot of heat and be difficult to re-heat after a restart. Is that incorrect? He was assuming that Rosberg and Vettel had stopped or were stopping - yes, fact, major miscommunication between team and Hamilton there. Hamilton assumes, team knows better but didn't correct him. Your fourth point - not fact. Team analysed gaps and safety car sector times, and determined that there was enough time to pit Hamilton and return him in the lead. As did SIX other teams/cars, by the way - only Mercedes screwed up their calculations. It wasn't a "gap or not, let's pit" decision as you claim - it was a "we have a big enough gap, let's pit" decision which was the failure by the team. Hamilton has absolutely zero input in those calculations or decisions. Your fifth point - not fact. The team instructed him to pit. He did as instructed, as he had no knowledge to question that instruction. To fault Hamilton because he didn't refuse to follow the team instruction is really ludicrous. Your last point - not fact. It was not a conscious decision by Hamilton to pit. He provided input to the team, the team made the decision to call him in. That's entirely different from Hamilton getting on the radio and insisting "I must pit NOW" as all you Hamilton haters are dreaming about. Who shoulders the blame? Well, according to Niki Lauda and Toto Wolff, it's 100% the Mercedes pit wall who shoulders the blame. According to all credible analysis, for example the links I posted above, it's the Mercedes pit wall that was genuinely responsible for making the call in error and that deserves the blame. As for "The team does including the driver - Another fact". Absolutely - and the various team members all have clearly defined roles and responsibilities. The driver is NOT in any way responsible for determining pit stop windows and gaps for strategy - that is 100% the responsibility of the pit wall and team strategists. Fact. Agreed? It's only here amongst admitted Hamilton haters that somehow Hamilton becomes responsible for that pit stop call - you won't find that sentiment anywhere outside of Hamilton haters, for example ANY of the F1 reporting web sites.
Yes. I am quite certain both that the internet is used as a vehicle for Public Relations and that F1 teams use the internet for Public Relations. Do you disagree?
Yes, Ron Dennis is paying me to slam Lewis and Alonso, Alonso pays me to slam Lewis an Ron, Lewis pays me to badmouth Alonso and Dennis.....of course none of them knows i work for all 3 of them...and that i would slam the 3 of them for free anyway!!!
Well I don't really understand what happened with Hamilton. I hadn't realized he told the team that he wanted to pit. So he has to take a bit of the responsibility for what happened. Drivers know that they should not pit in Monaco because it is too hard to pass. I don't know what made him believe we were going to pit. Maybe he saw his own crew out there, but our crew was not out there and Ferrari was never going to pit. So he really should have worried about our driver anyway and asked his team if it looked like we were pitting even if he thought his team mate was doing so. It was a shame for him after having led the whole race. But I can't say I was sorry to see our car come in for a great second place on account of his mistake. Sebastian did a wonderful job holding off Lewis on his new fresh tires with so much grip, despite Seb sliding around on those old tires. But that is Monaco for you.
There's the reasonable, rational and sane discourse that David was alluding to! Now we need 9 posts of nuttiness to balance it out, eight if you count this one. Team wins together, team loses together. Thought this team photo w/o Lewis was interesting. MONTE CARLO RACE ZONE: Lewis Hamilton ducks out of Mercedes team photo after Nico Rosberg snatches win | Daily Mail Online But let's give the gent a break. He & his team just lost what is arguably the most glamorous race on the F1 calendar due to a silly/dumb/improbable mistake. How many of us would be in a great mood if we had done similar in our own chosen professions, even w/o the media glare that F1 has. I, for one, would be likewise grumpy and need time to compose myself T
Anyway, instead of trying to figure out this whole Mercedes puzzle can furoni or another LH basher answer one question for me? How the hell does a garbage driver like LH with OK car control pull out a 20 sec lead on the two Germans at Monaco? One is the new master of Monaco that won 3 in a row and the other a 4x champ? If only we could all be average and garbage like LH and still make $50 million a year.
thats an easy one....one of the germans (the best one) was stuck behind the other, and the other (using some of your friens words ) is an average driver that most of the time doesn't even know wich way he is facing..... ps: and i wrote all of this while holdind a baby!!!
"ENJOINED" was a new word for me...glad i learnt something today....that and a new brand of shades for blind people....
Is that anything like holding a baby? Or is the infant doing the posting? (Duck and cover.) I kid, I kid.
So the best driver on the grid who was stuck 1-2 second behind the blind driver for the whole race couldn't even do a successful undercut on a driver's circuit? What a shame!
Just think for a minute how much better this sport was back in the days when once the race started all decisions were up to the driver. He pushed when he felt he needed to, and conserved tyres, etc. when he felt it was right to do so. Nowadays we have 30 people in each team doing toooooo much of the thinking and are we really seeing the worlds best drivers racing F1 cars? I think not. If we had a 22 year old Jackie Stewart race a 22 old Toil/Nico/Vettel and no team instructions, Jackie would wipe the floor with them. Heck he could change gear too while thinking of strategy, etc. The FIA should ban the driver to team radio and let's return to real racing, and if Toil thought his tyres would not make it to the end, he alone chooses to pit, not some computer nerd. Pete
You realize that there has been team strategy and race management since the twenties. Neubauer and MB invented it fercrisake. F1 is a team sport. That's one of its strengths.
hang on hang on..... Lewis wanted to pit because he was worried that others were pitting and worried that his tyres might not be good enough. That was an error of judgement Mercedes thought they could get lewis in for a pit stop and get him out still in front. That was an error of judgement. Nico never considered coming in. That was clear thinking. Vettel never considered coming in. That was clear thinking. The end. Was it lewis' fault, mercedes' fault or a combination? I say combination.
