2017 FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX: RACE *** SPOILERS ***

Bottas ???

 

Completely agree. It's like arguing two different things. For sure Max took a short cut from Kimi's racing line and for sure others also did it without penalty. But that doesn't make either right.

 

Lewis Hamilton,the luckiest man in F1..

 

It's easy to talk from your armchair. Beating Mercedes this year always has been a long shot.

Mercedes has been faster than our car most of the season. They're only weak at twisted tracks... and in one of them we crashed. Well, just like Verstappen and Ricciardo at Hungaroring.

We had reliability issues. It happens when you're pushing. Ask Renault, they know.

And if we're going to talk about money, Mercedes and Red Bull have the same, if not more, than Ferrari.

 

Excuses excuses. The car isn't good enough, the strategy calls have been terrible, we only have one decent driver, and the management team is weak compared to Merc and RB. We had the car to take the championship all the way to Abu Dhabi. The last month has been a complete disaster and a proper shake up of the team is required. That's the bottom line.

 

Mistakes by the drivers and the team combined have cost them this title. The wisdom in the paddock is the Ferrari is the overall better package. The team failed in taking advantage of its capability by choice, Baku, or by lack of attention to detail for the mechanical side. Ferrari had a car that could win. As a team they didnt capitalize.

 

The car lacks the one thing that makes the difference - one lap performance. It's no good being fast once you are stuck in dirty air behind others. Applies to the Mercedes as much, if not more, than the ferrari, but if we are unable to start on pole, we will struggle to win, period. Once the Mercedes gets ahead in clean air, it's very difficult to catch it.

 

But nobody wants to see a driver kicked out of the podium. Also we know that stewards often miss things, human factor should be removed as much as possible.

Anyway, why do they put tarmac in the INSIDE of the corners?

 

I thought that a few weeks ago, but it's hard to argue with how much faster the Mercedes was yesterday (top driver v top driver) and Mercedes still manages to pull out the fast lap for qualifying, although I suspect Vettel did a better job of it than Lewis this time around.

Even though Vettel got the jump on Lewis, Lewis sailed by like Vettel was standing still AND pulled away quite effortlessly.

Ferrari was relatively faster in the first 1/2 of the year

 

I wonder how much more horsepower the Merc has to make it so easy to pass...i mean, can 20 hp make all hat diference between the merc and the Ferrari? Cause Elton certainly isn't any faster than Seb, but he always manages pole, even if for 1 or 2 tenths...., and the way the merc overtake strhe Ferrari...can't be just 20hp..i think..

 

^^^ True. Merc has clearly won the development war in the second half of the season. Yet another reason why Ferrari needs to make some significant team personnel interventions quickly.

 

Baku and Singapore were preventable negative outcomes. Now Sergio says QC must be focused on due to the mechanical issues. It should always be a focus. Mercedes were faster but not so much that Ferrari didnt have a chance. On to next year

 

Meh.... Ferrari knew the challenges. They got the drivers they wanted. They have plenty of budget and resources. Yet still they and the drivers did dumb things Mercedes didn't.

Whose fault is that? Mercedes or Ferrari?

 

Wait... so it's the fault of the stewards if Max breaks the rules on the last corner? I was watching Sky Sports and almost immediately the comment came down that Max may have been off the track and there should be an investigation.

Would you rather they give the trophy to Max and then a day later give it to Kimi? Its like instant replay today. You can look at something 10 times from different angles and see it differently. Spending another day wouldn't have changed any minds.

Why?

Because Max cut the corner by going off the track to pass Kimi.

 

No it worse than that. Ferrari had a plan that the design of their car would be better on certain tracks. They lost on these tracks. Some of it was because the Merc was better and some because of their carelessness in the driver's seat or in preparation.

Mercedes, RB, and even McLaren got better after the summer break. Ferrari went backwards.

 

Certainly would appear so.....

 

I think different...the overall best car was without doubt the Mercedes as easily seen in Silverstone. But obviously the Mercedes was not an easy car to set up and had a smaller window it worked than in the past. So whenever Mercedes got it right the Ferrari had no chance at all and when Mercedes had problems the Ferrari was near or in front. And looking at the qualy it is easy to see that Mercedes still has a power advantage they can make use of in the Q3, just compare the amount of poles Ferrari and Mercedes had. So most of the time Ferrari was in a position where they had to find a way to get past the Mercedes and they were rarely in the role of driving away into the sunset like Lewis did so often which is always easier. And looking at the ease Lewis was getting by Seb down the straight yesterday shows that this was not about the driver but about the car, it almost looked like Alonso being passed multiple times this season complaining about his GP2 engine.

 

Silverstone remains to leave a bad taste in my mouth...

 

I just want to say, stand out performance of Sainz in the Renault. He was on form immediately all weekend. He's only 3 points of what Palmer scored with that car in nearly 2 seasons .

Ricciardo on Bottas was incredible...how he came from so far back was just great, didn't make it stick that time but was great to see....shame on the stewards for investigating it!

 

Personally I agree about yesterday´s penalty, but as you can see others don´t. They just should avoid ambiguous situations that require a steward decision. For example: was that stripe of tarmac necessary? If cars can´t cut the corners, then you won´t need a marshall checking if someone is doing so.

 

If it is gravel or some other loose material then it will come over onto the racing surface each time a front runs into it.
Far better to have smooth and sealed - fairer to all. So stop moaning.

 

You said it...Ferrari had a real chance, they could have won a couple more gps in the beggining had the safety car worked the other way around, and the last 3 races before this one without all the bs that went on...we had a real shot at the title, but this years title was always Mercedes and Elton's to lose...and, despite the actual diference we see now, they almost did, it just took a litle change in fortunes and everything would have been diferent.

 

Honestly, I don´t know what´s your point. One thing is aknowledging that Ferrari needs to improve and the other saying that eveerything is wrong.

So, as I see that there are so many "ingegnere dei lunedi" around here, let´s play, just for fun: what exact measures would you take if you were Sweater Man? No cheating: I don´t want to hear vague answers like "complete reestructuring of the management" or things like that.

 

Agree, rules are rules, i don't care what others did or not, Max passed outside the rules, it's not fair...it's as simple as that, same as elton's in spa 2007, he cheated he got penalized for it, next time play by the rules.

 

I think Ferrari are on a very good track, it's only minor issues and they'll be fine...a bit of luck could also help...Singapore was pure bad luck, nothing else.