what i would do is pit after hamilton message the tyre is going off yea im more clever ferrari should hire me instead
Im over it. I do want to share that I really admire how Alonso has embraced the team almost like a family/an actual extension of himself and speaks of everything in a true "we" "our" "us" tone. Everybody else on the grid gives a casual "thanks team for..." but there isn't really much sincerity in it when they say it. Look at Hamilton at Canada. He just had to absolve himself of all fault and impress partial blame on the team for his stalling at the pits. It's obvious he wants to blame them for slow pits because he repeatedly said, "Maybe it was my fault..." like 4 times. Only later did he change his tune. If it were Alonso, he would've said something like, "Today we had some tough problems with our pitstops, but we will go back and review what we did so we won't repeat it in the next race." Just look at the podium champagne too, he doesn't dump Any of it on the other winners. You won't ever see him putting Maldonado on his shoulders like Alonso/Kimi did in Spain. There is hardly any of a "team and I" attitude, its just "us" with Alonso and personally that of Alonso really impresses me and I think that is what's really going to make him one of the great greats. /rant
Picking a nit... Hamilton has had far more avoidable errors on behalf of his team, so I can understand his frustration at literally giving away points in races. Otoh, I think he's been very supportive of Other drivers this year. He's certainly celebrated their achievements. I just think he's a guy who's generally in a no-win situation with a large portion of the F1 community....
Who knows the tires may have a different result in a few weeks.......at times it has helped them others not so much. Such as racing eh?
In racing, old tires don't get better. When you are losing two seconds a lap to someone who is 20 seconds behind you, and there are 11 laps left, and there is a DRS zone the length of a Dallas Ft Worth runway, your decision and fate has been decided. That's paralysis not racing; that's a mistake, not a gamble.
The Ferrari spin on this, is simply in excusable. They cannot defend the glaringly stupid response to the SPEED of LH and new tires. It was in front of them lap after lap after lap. They didnt try to win the race. They tried to hold onto the lead while minimising their loss of speed due to tire degradation. IF they thought that was the way to win a race, they need to fire alot of people. Ferrari didnt attack they held their ground and lost.
I've said it before, but I'll say it again; The FIA (and/or the Pygmy) did not "set the tire specs"...... Pirelli, via the TWG were asked to provide a range of non-wooden compounds - Stuff that would encourage multiple strategies - IMO, they were shooting for anything from one thru four stops. And it was almost working until a few of them decided (mostly wrongly, with hindsight ) they could stretch 'em to a one stopper. I'm certain the TWG *never* said "we want tires that fall off a cliff after an undetermined/undeterminable period." Pirelli have simply given 'em what they asked for (and were very happy with in testing) - Some of the time, for some of the teams they work great. Other times, not so much. One could argue they're having too much of an influence on the outcomes right now, but as others have noted, your strategists better be on the ball - With the benefit of 20/20, Ferrari made a mistake - It's happened to others and it will happen again. Same for all...... Cheers, Ian
Someone set the specs (matters not who signed the writ, we know whose fingerprints are on it) and the results were expected and intended.
I can't really understand the trouble some are having with the tires. They do exhibit a certain rapid degrading behaviour, but everyone has to deal with the same issues and can adapt their strategy. I found it much much worse during the Bridgestone/Michelin years when often the (pre-season!) choice of tires was the sole factor to decide the races and not the actual performance of the car, team or driver.
Obviously you're not the only one who doesn't understand the tire. At this point we can't expect to. There's something very peculiar going on. Whether by intent or by accident they have become a wild card. On a given day, on a given track a team may seem to be on top of the tire situation only to appear totally at sea the next race.
We gonna have to beg to differ on this one D..... I honestly don't believe the TWG told Pirelli "what we want are tires that last for some indeterminate time then fall off a cliff". They were asked to supply a range of compounds that encouraged multiple strategies - Not an automatic one-stopper or whatever. I also believe this cliff problem is/was unintended, but there it is - Modify your strategy (easy if the Monday morning QB's are to be believed ) accordingly and deal with it. Ferrari obviously thought they could do a Fauxtus/Sauber on the primes. With 20/20 again, they were obviously painfully wrong. As has been said, sometimes you win, most of the time you don't..... +1 If tires are "too important" now, they were often the deciding factor back then - This tends to get overlooked by the "bring back the tire war" protagonists. Cheers, Ian
I'm willing to accept that all this came about by chance (I doubt that they're that clever) but the result is most welcome by Bernie & Co.
But, tis the same wild card for all...... +1 Great, isn't it! What a fabulous engineering challenge! It does seem that they're alarmingly temperature sensitive - Some cars appear good at keeping 'em cool when needed and others at getting them hot when needed. The best will get their heads around the problem soon enough. Cheers, Ian
+1 Absolutely. Rightly or wrongly viewing figures are up - At least partly as a result of this unpredictability. I've had taxicab fans asking me "what's going on with F1 right now?" Seven winners in seven races - sure Bernie's a happy camper, nothing wrong with that! Last year by this stage Seb pretty much had it won - Would you prefer that again?..... Cheers, Ian
Viewing figures are up because the drama is more compelling. Anyone of 7 drivers is currently in the hunt for the WDC. That said, we keep hearing the term "artificial" come up when drivers describe how the season is progressing. (the latest are Button and Vettel). I don't want to start the argument up again, but Bernie & Co. have successfully impacted the type of change that levels the playing field.
And there's something wrong with that?..... Indeed - Seems there's a direct correlation between "poor" results and whining..... Sure, they're all over the map right now, but I don't see anything wrong with that. And leveling the playing field is wrong? As always in motorsport, you do a better job than me (be that car setup, strategy, driving, whatever) and you beat me. I *want* a level playing field in F1...... Cheers, Ian
A false alternative. There's no need to accept one or the other. Levels? I think it's more like randomly booby-traps it.
If there is a solution. From what I've seen there may well be variations between the individual tires. Not likely, but what about this season is?
Now you're just being silly..... Pirelli are adamant they're all identical and that they do a lot of QC to ensure that's truly the case. As for a "solution", I think you may be right - There isn't a "one size fits all" solution to the problem - Some guys seem to burn 'em up, others can't make them work for qualy and others have long stint problems - It all appears to depend on your car and track temperature. Which is fine by me - As I always say, F1 is *hard* - Long may it remain that way. Cheers, Ian
There's a difference between absurd and silly. Once you accept the preeminence of sizzle over steak all that follows will be somewhat absurd. I still feel that there is more to the tire situation than we, and the teams, yet realize. These guys have been dealing with changes in tire tech for decades but this year they're all behind the eight ball. There must be something radically different this season to have them so flummoxed.
Interesting comment. I can tell you that on Friday during P2, both Ferraris were weaving wildly down the straight between the hairpin and the "chicane of Champions" on their yellow (soft) tires. No one else was doing this. Seems that they needed to get them more grippy. This just lends more to the notion that Ferrari had the information they needed but made the wrong call when Alonso became the only front runner on old tires.
If the tires go off because of excess heat and the Ferrari chassis was generating so little heat that they needed to weave, wouldn't one assume that they'd be able to go further on the tires?
There's some truth to that. It was much cooler on Friday than on Saturday or especially Sunday. I think Ian's comment about sensitivity is key. Ferrari clearly had a different experience on Sunday than they did on Friday and the difference was full tanks and track temperature.
