Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2014, Yas Marina - Race 19/19

I was surprised at how much the Williams front wing flattened out at speed in FP3. I guess it's no surprise that Red Bull are still pushing the envelope in that regard.
 
Well done to Rosberg for quite clearly being the fastest driver over a single lap all season, it's going to be a interesting race. Hopefully both Red Bulls will be penalised for having illegal front wings and move JB up two places, and that Torro Rosso will be easy meat.
 
chriscatt said:
Well done to Rosberg for quite clearly being the fastest driver over a single lap all season, it's going to be a interesting race. Hopefully both Red Bulls will be penalised for having illegal front wings and move JB up two places, and that Torro Rosso will be easy meat.
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I just think Lewis sets his car up for the race more. We have seen him be consistently faster than Rosberg in race pace by a good few tenths a lap, if not more.
 
It is odd considering Lewis is meant to be the single-lap master…

Last season Lewis won qualifying 11-8, this season Nico has won 12-7.

Even taking into account Monaco and the two failures Lewis suffered in quali, he's still been making too many mistakes on Saturdays.

Silverstone and Austria were shockingly bad, Brazil and today in Abu Dhabi both seemed like he pushed too hard and blew it.

I don't know how much it has had to do with set up really…
 
Jono8 said:
I just think Lewis sets his car up for the race more. We have seen him be consistently faster than Rosberg in race pace by a good few tenths a lap, if not more.
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Hamilton is easily the fastest driver over a lap, as you say he sets up for a race, not qualifying. He both at Brazil and the race before could take half a second out of Rosberg whenever he wanted. When he passed Rosberg in Austin and Rosberg tried to get back at him, he was cruising, Rosberg went half a second faster, Hamilton went 7/10th's faster and re-established the gap, he did this over and over again all season. When Hamilton is behind Rosberg he's under a second and looking exceptionally close to overtaking. When Rosberg is behind it's 1-2 seconds behind, any time getting close to 1 second Hamilton will just ease it back out to two.

Setting up the car to be faster in qualifying and noticeably slower in a race doesn't make Rosberg faster, it gives him an advantage in qualifying one that considering the advantage he could only use to beat Hamilton half the time this season.

If you exclude the two times Hamilton couldn't make Q3 because of technical issues it's almost even when Hamilton has a quite clearly slower qualifying car.
 
Irish_Tom said:
It is odd considering Lewis is meant to be the single-lap master…

Last season Lewis won qualifying 11-8, this season Nico has won 12-7.

Even taking into account Monaco and the two failures Lewis suffered in quali, he's still been making too many mistakes on Saturdays.

Silverstone and Austria were shockingly bad, Brazil and today in Abu Dhabi both seemed like he pushed too hard and blew it.

I don't know how much it has had to do with set up really…
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I'm not a hammy defender by any stretch but I think he is having to use the different brake compound, think it's carbon industries instead Brembo which he prefers after they had some failures. That could be why when he's pushing the limits on Saturday he is making mistakes.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Hamilton is easily the fastest driver over a lap, as you say he sets up for a race, not qualifying. He both at Brazil and the race before could take half a second out of Rosberg whenever he wanted. When he passed Rosberg in Austin and Rosberg tried to get back at him, he was cruising, Rosberg went half a second faster, Hamilton went 7/10th's faster and re-established the gap, he did this over and over again all season. When Hamilton is behind Rosberg he's under a second and looking exceptionally close to overtaking. When Rosberg is behind it's 1-2 seconds behind, any time getting close to 1 second Hamilton will just ease it back out to two.

Setting up the car to be faster in qualifying and noticeably slower in a race doesn't make Rosberg faster, it gives him an advantage in qualifying one that considering the advantage he could only use to beat Hamilton half the time this season.

If you exclude the two times Hamilton couldn't make Q3 because of technical issues it's almost even when Hamilton has a quite clearly slower qualifying car.
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Also, Lewis never seems too annoyed or surprised when he doesn't get pole either this season which is surprising. I think he knows he is better set up for the race and sort of half expects to qualify second.
 
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Finners said:
Can't find a full story on it yet but it's on bbc + sky etc

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/30161617
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It will pretty much be based off seeing the replays/slow mo of one of the redbulls going around a corner when the front right egde of the wing scrapped along the floor and was bouncing around. Not the first time RBR have used an overly flexible wing, probably not the last. I wouldn't mind them starting from the back with less flexible wings attached, have a couple faster cars coming through from the back in the final race of the season would be good.
 
Jono8 said:
Also, Lewis never seems to annoyed or surprised when he doesn't get pole either this season which is surprising. I think he knows he is better set up for the race and sort of half expects to qualify second.
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Yup, what I see to, he's basically thinking if that idiot wants the glory of 0 points Saturday by screwing himself on Sunday, I'll just go ahead and take the title and leave him to his own stupidity.

Again I'll point out Hamilton has beaten Rosberg multiple times when Rosberg was on pole, Rosberg has failed to beat Hamilton once when Hamilton has been on pole. Even more than that, when Rosberg has been on pole even in the races he wins Hamilton is all over him in that sub second gap. When Hamilton poles he's either got a significant gap, or just is clearly faster and maintains a safe gap out of DRS zone almost every time. The difference has been night and day, even when screwed by safety car and on the wrong tire one guy came out on top. In, forget the race, when Hamilton refused to randomly drop back to help out Rosberg, he was on the wrong tire again and the weaker strategy and again Rosberg couldn't get him either time on fresher tires.

With that in mind when you think about the failures, Hamilton's failures would have been almost certain wins and when Rosberg has failed, Hamilton was gaining anyway(or simply faster and ahead). IE Hamilton was all over him at Canada clearly much faster, gaining at Silverstone, looked faster in general in Australia and Singapore, faster at Spa.
 
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Jono8 said:
Also, Lewis never seems to annoyed or surprised when he doesn't get pole either this season which is surprising. I think he knows he is better set up for the race and sort of half expects to qualify second.
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This is what I see too. He is so much quicker in the race. Surprised the commentators haven't worked this out.
 
Jono8 said:
Also, Lewis never seems too annoyed or surprised when he doesn't get pole either this season which is surprising. I think he knows he is better set up for the race and sort of half expects to qualify second.
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I wouldn't get annoyed either if I knew I could out pace my team mate over 60 laps, no other driver could get in the way and I could start at the back and still finish 2nd. Lets be honest here he did get miffed to start with when it went wrong, I said multiple times on here I couldn't understand that when all he needed to be told was the facts above. It might have been a problem if the gap wasn't so huge.

I don't accept this crud either that Lewis is setting up for Sunday. So is Rosberg. Lewis is just 10x the driver he is over a race distance in this current format. Rosberg is just able to string together one lap better in the current format cars. They will both be running a set up with sunday in mind, no way is Rosberg leaning towards a saturday set up, it's just an excuse for being beaten. Rosberg is just faster than lewis over one lap, when the tyres/fuel and pace has to be managed over multiple laps Lewis is head and shoulders better than him.

With the merc advantage apart from Monaco there is no reason at all for them to lean to heavily on a qualifying set up. No one comes close and it wouldn't be worth it to gain 5m on your team mate.

Skeeter said:
Lets be honest here, Nico will not win the WDC on merit.

The only way Lewis won't come 2nd or better is if there is a problem with his car.
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Agreed, which must be something from you, as the person who always said if you have more points at the end of the season you deserved it :p
 
I'm not sure how much setup has got to do with qually pace vs race pace. There's not that much you can do to make a car better suited to saving tyres, etc. Suspension will be identical, so all you can really do is change camber settings (and it's hard to believe that there's that much difference between the two, as it's the sort of thing that sets itself) and diff and throttle map settings, both of which both drivers can of course change on the fly.

I think it's more in the head. Hamilton's a more consistent racer than Rosberg (certainly this season at least), and they both know it.
 
Because one race into the season he was 25 points behind. Winning one race wasn't enough, he had to win 4 in a row just to get within a point, not even ahead. That DNF put him under pressure because it required perfection to get ahead and precisely as you say, the gap that emerged meant that no matter how well Hamilton drove, Rosberg would still get second, one more DNF and that hard work to pull back Rosberg would be gone again because Rosberg would surely win.

The precise issue you are talking about, is precisely why Rosberg is such a big threat this year which is why the gap and the DNF created more pressure on Hamilton than any other situation could have.

If the gap was smaller Hamilton could win 3 races but Rosberg might come 3rd or 4th in a couple of those races.

Once the gap was estalbiehd and known after a few races, it was the reason Rosberg was going to be so hard to catch.

There is no advantage to starting first and no reason for Rosberg to set up for qualifying? He has ONLY won races in which he has poled or Hamilton has DNF'd, there is a HUGE reason for him to qualify first. Monaco it's almost impossible to overtake at, that doesn't make it easy at every other track. Monaco is so bad that you can be in a top 4 car and get stuck behind a Caterham for the whole race. There are multiple tracks where being on pole almost makes certain of the win.

To suggest Rosberg wouldn't go for a qualifying setup because it's not an advantage is ridiculous because the proof is right there, he has not beaten Hamilton when Hamilton was on pole. It's the only way he has even the tiniest fraction of a chance and that tactic has gotten him to the final race of the season in with a shout of the title.
 
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dannyjo22 said:
Agreed, which must be something from you, as the person who always said if you have more points at the end of the season you deserved it :p
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As me again after the race. If Hamilton finishes in a position between 3rd and 6th Rosberg will have won the championship due to double points. In that case he 100% won't deserve it.

Outside of that Rosberg won't win on merit, he will win based on Hamilton's bad luck. In that case, even though I won't like it, he will still deserve it.

Merit and deserved are not the same thing. Rosberg can't win the WDC by being faster, he needs other outside forces to come into effect.
 
Rosberg has to try and back Hamilton up to try and bring the Williams cars into play.

Is Rosberg capable of this?

Who knows, but there is not much point in Rosberg winning if Hamilton gets an easy ride home in second.

Edit: Seems both Redbulls will now be starting from the back of the grid because of the front wing flex.
 
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