F1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA PIRELLI 2014: RACE ### SPOILERS ###

Ferrari is dangerously close to living entirely off its' legacy.


OK, that's a bit harsh.

 

At least they have a legacy. Unlike the cans

 

Too harsh.

Their legacy may be recent but its real and honorable.
And ascendant. Unlike some other legacy teams.

 

Time will tell.

MB is much more interesting to me since they are connecting back to the Silberpfeile.

I honor history and tradition more than anything.

 

Fair enough. Definitely a great drive by Vettel, really showed some grit today which was brilliant to witness. That said he's still in a car that is half a second quicker than the field except Mercedes. Great fighting regardless though.

 

No one comes to close to MB for tradition. They were winning GPs over a hundred years ago.

Its interesting to compare RB's record against some of the revered teams of the past. IMO they already stack up well.

 

Their accolades certainly are there. Still the team has an artificial flavor to me. Mercenaries instead of a racing team grown through the classes or a car manufacturer with tradition.

 

I get that. But if you look at accomplishments and ignore aura they're the real deal.

 

F1 to me is so much more than accomplishments. For instance Wolff or Arrows were more interesting to me than the cans.

 

I agree. Take Hesketh, a team also built on (a rather smaller) personal wealth that won it all.
Difference is they had soul. RB is efficient but to my mind dour.

RB is a team I respect but may never love.

 

Redbull built a massively dominant team from essentially nothing. That is history.


Mark

 

100% agreed

 

Great.

Next issue?

 

It's just shocking how Ferrari is prepared to wreck their other driver's race every time, just to make sure Alonso gets ahead. I sympathise with Kimi and he is rightfully upset.

Alonso should just leave. Enough of this guy who thinks of himself like God, and yet requires every trick in the book from his team to put him ahead of his teammates should god forbid they ever get their nose in front of him.

And for those naysayers who say he doesn't require it often : please just consider, if they are doing this in the open, what are they doing behind closed doors?

 

IMHO History will show that while MB pushed hard for the new engine rules on the basis of a level playing field and an end to the dominance of RB they had planned for the new engines all along. Of course they threatened to quit if the new engine rules they were pushing for didn't come in, they had a 5 year jump in development on the other teams. I'd argue that RBR in their years of dominance never had a massive technical leap but always won with an overall package.

It was a master stroke by MB to convince the FIA to make these changes and a master stroke to have it appear they had no more development in this engine package than the other teams. When they threatened to quit if changes weren't made, that's what everyone worried about, not the changes they were 'suggesting.'

It will be years before other teams can claw back the massive advantage MB have and in the meantime they pocket a few championships.

 

I'm okay with Mercedes dominating right now. This is a new era, they just figured it out better going into the unknown. The thing is, every one rails against Seb being a ****ty driver in a great car. Their reign was at the end of the V8 era when every one had plenty of time and knowledge to design and build a great car. They earned those championships.

If Merc continues their dominance over the next couple or so years, will people say that Lewis is a ****ty driver and just has the best car? This is just how F1 usually goes. I'm not a Seb fanboy, but I like the guy and just really don't get the criticism from all the haters. All of these guys have egos, they all hate losing, mouth off sometimes, and hate having a less than perfect car. Seb ran a brilliant race. It would've been great to see what would have happened if he didn't get the grid penalty and could have raced up their with Ric. Then again, we wouldn't have seen that great race he pulled out.

It's sad to see Ferrari where they are. There's just no point in blowing a ton of money this season. Ramp up the R&D on a new power unit for next year. I hate this engine freeze stuff, penalties for broken gearboxes, etc. I just wish they could all be going flat out in all aspects, but there'd be zero parity i suppose and that could just as easily kill F1 i guess.

 

Fantastic Post Chris, agree 100%

 

I don't hate MB, or RB for that matter, I just don't think it makes for interesting F1 races when one team is light years ahead of everybody else. It's also a pity the formula is so convoluted with piddly little things like fuel flow monitors. If they are limited to 100 KG of fuel - or 100 liters, whatever - why do they need an onerous extra regulation on top of that limitation?

Even with butt-ugly cars that sound like leaf blowers you could conceivably have decent racing. This wasn't decent racing. The podium was set after the first few laps, regardless of the illusion of nail biting near the end between MB teammates.

That's the best this formula has to offer? Late race closeness between the dominant team's drivers? Not sorry to say I don't find that in the least bit interesting. It has all the hallmarks of a contrived show to me; something that was staged to add a patina of excitement. Bluntly, I think they created that situation to add faux excitement where there was never any doubt about the outcome.

Cheers,

George

 

What you seem to want for F1 has never really happened for F1. Cars never did change position and fight for the lead very often. Sounds to me that you'd like F1 to go to Daytona and run 500 miles with a restrictor plate.

 

Great race from Hamilton. He's really proving all the haters wrong this year, at least so far. I hope he continues to dominate i can only imagine if his car hadn't broken the first race of the year.

Yet again disappointed with Kimi! He was looking good the entire race and alonso of course got by on the last few laps.

 

+1, this success is the fruit of Brawn's labor. He made a mistake and paid dearly for it last year. The results in his heart and mind for this year are his and the team he assembled knows it as well.

 

This season is boring.

 

Wow!

Sounds like great material for a novel.

Best

 

You mean that the prospect of double points at the end of the season doesn't have you on the edge of your seat?

Guess we need new and better gimmicks.

 

I get your sarcasm. I believe you mean better (more interesting) cars. I agree.

Best