Bahrain Grand Prix 2013, Sakhir - Race 4/19

Mike306 said:
Says they haven't started negotiations yet. Hope they don't extend it.
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With the money out there, discussions are just a formality. The Bahrain GP is here to stay.

Its looking likely they will get a pre season test and be the first race of the year, too.
 
smr said:
Yeah um the thing is Perez had said before the race that he sacrificed qualifying (hence him not getting into Q3) for race set-up ... ie. setting the rear tyre balance correctly for a rear limited track.

It just goes to further compound the belief that Qualifying isn't very important anymore.

No one has proved this better in recent times than Nico Rosberg qualifying on pole for this race and going backwards NINE times.

To say Perez is now better in wheel to wheel combat is stupid, give the guys exactly the same set-up, condition of tyres and put them together and would anyone bet against Jenson being the victor? I wouldn't put my house on it...

Formula 1 is all about the tyres at the moment, it's a sad truth that it isn't about driver vs driver on pure skill alone yet many people take away all of the contributing factors into what's making one driver's car quicker than another driver's at any given time and call it "driver x was faster than driver y today"

Whilst that may be the case some of the time, I don't think it was in this case, and this notion is backed up by the fact that Jenson had to make 4 stops on Sunday; his car wasn't set up for the race as well as Sergio's and for whatever reason that caused him to use more tyres.
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Who has said Perez is faster, he was faster yesterday, in one race, he may be in the future, he may not.

Jenson only had to make four stops due to his own tactical error. We heard the proof in the race, he said after being passed, he wanted to stop the second the window opened, the way he said it and the words he used, it was clear as day he was saying, when its possible I want to be the first in, BEFORE Perez, and get the undercut. His tyres weren't gone, he just wanted to make sure he pitted before Perez did, nothing else. Him/the team/both got that timing horribly horribly wrong.

Button could EASILY have done 3 pit stops, as could Rosberg, Rosberg just didn't have the car setup particularly well I think, saw the chance to undercut him, Button saw the chance to head off the undercut from Rosberg and get one on Perez, neither of them used their brains, 22 laps left, tyres that weren't getting even remotely close to that distance except from a couple exceptional cars on those tyres, utter stupidity. Put it this way, even if Perez pulled out a second a lap for 5 more laps before Button pitted... he'd still have been closer at the end than he was. When he radio'd in he didn't mentioned his tyres were gone, he didn't say he couldn't handle the car, there was no evidence of extreme tyre wear while under pressure by Perez nor was he instantly sliding all over the track nor did his tyres look awful. The ONLY question was when is the window and can you guys make sure I get priority to pit first(in so many words), NOTHING about his current tyres being gone mentioned, or visible.

AS for people talking about being pushed off the track, being on the racing line isn't a reason to push people off the track, the FIA are just weak sauce about this kind of crap, they've been rubbish about all infringements this year so far, there was multiple cases of bad conduct, bad releases and all manor of other things in the first three races that should have been punished and weren't. The FIA are idiots, but also its fairly unlikely the stewards had Whitmarsh calling them up to complain about the situation to get one of their drivers punished.


As for people rounding up the cars abilitys, same as last season, every race Mclaren won... they had the best car of the year and should win the title, Ferrari won... they've fixed the car, its great now, Alonso is great, they'll win the title. Vettel wins... RBR have finally sorted out their car, they'll win the title.

90% of media, 90% of fans all together in 90% of sports can't think beyond the last race/match/whatever. Think about football, Utd have a 12 point lead cut to 9 points and City are suddenly "back in the title race", if they go to 15 points the "title is over", and its been that way for 2 months changing after every match.
 
Cavallino said:
The boy can do no wrong in the eyes of RBR management, even if he got on top of Horner, pulled down his pants and laid a nice fat one :)
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LMAO.

You are right, though.

At the end of the day though, RBR have hired Vettel to win. Plain and simple. And that is what Vettel is great at. He is on course to becoming the greatest driver in F1 history.

Given this, what can RBR do to Vettel?

When Alonso was naughty at McLaren, they fired him...but this was in the day when they weren't too fussed about winning and were more interested in playing happy families. To this day it amazes me that they let go of the best driver in F1 - madness!!!

RBR are a cut above McLaren and understand the concept of winning and what it takes. If means that they have to pander to a non-team-player (like Vettel), they have to accept it OR face winning fewer races and perhaps not winning the title again unless they hire Hamilton or Alonso.

I personally, rate Horner as the best team boss currently in F1. In fact, from top to bottom, I rate RBR staff extremely highly. Even their pit-crews post some of the best pit-stop times. I actually cannot find a single weakness in that team.
 
Watched the race late last night. Without a doubt the most exciting race at Bahrain I can remember? Shame that Vettel never really got pushed for the win with the issues Alonso had but the racing from there back was very exciting edge of the seat stuff. The DRS on the main straight was a bit over the top at times, but there was still plenty of racing around the rest of the circuit which more than made up for it.

Rosberg did the usual thing of just not bothering to turn up for the race. Great race from Paul Di Resta to keep it up the front and a disappointing end for Button after looking promising at the start - nice that Perez showed that the car is definitely a lot closer to the front runners when compared to the start of the season.

sunama said:
I actually cannot find a single weakness in that team.
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I can.... Webber's luck!!
 
PinkFloyd said:
Rosberg did the usual thing of just not bothering to turn up for the race. Great race from Paul Di Resta to keep it up the front and a disappointing end for Button after looking promising at the start - nice that Perez showed that the car is definitely a lot closer to the front runners when compared to the start of the season.


I can.... Webber's luck!!
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I think one of the main things people tended to overlook was, ignoring Schumi's luck, Rosberg won qualifying and Schumi was almost always better in the race.

Some drivers set up for qualifying pace, some set up for the race, depending on the car that can mean a fairly large difference.

Rosberg tends to not do very well in races, I honestly can't say if that is more down to his actual on track driving skills, or because he focuses on a qualifying setup that hurts him in the race. Maybe he's not good at setting up a car for anything except top speed. But I've said this for 3 years in comparison to Schumi, one had a better race car and little pace in qualifying, one had a great qualifying car(comparitively) and crap race pace.

From what I recall, one of the only races its almost absolutely crucial to qualify in pole, or as high up as possible, is Monaco, and except for the first year Schumi beat Rosberg in qualifying there, but very few other places. Suggesting to me at least that when qualifying was more important than the race, Schumi changed his setup and beat Rosberg, when it wasn't, he went race setup, was beaten in qualifying but was almost always better in race than Rosberg.

If Rosberg is genuinely less good in the races he's probably doing the right thing in aiming for the best qualifying possible, or on the other hand, he needs to be kicked in the nuts and told to set up for the race. HE wasn't terrible in defending, he made it as difficult as possible down the start finish straight but DRS against them made that very difficult. Hamilton just looked far stronger, he hung in there on the softer tyre (though why he was on them I don't know) and on the hard had pace Rosberg didn't have, and better at passing the guys infront and defending from the guys behind.

Basically for me it all adds up to Rosberg not having an awful lot of race craft, but having good(but not great) one lap pace, so he focuses on quali and looks poor in most races. Ultimately I think his qualifying/clear track pace makes him appear a faster driver than he really is. Not least because for me, Hamilton has outqualified him on a race vs qualifying setup 3 out of 4 times, this one time being a damaged car, comprimised weekend and knowing he'd be pushed down the grid so not wanting to go too hard on the tyres.
 
Skeeter said:
Are people saying they would have liked to see a bunch of penalties handed out at Bahrain?
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No, but if you are going to have rules, why not enforce them, and why not enforce them equally each race?

Anyone saying no advantage was gained by cutting the corner is wrong. If the driver had slowed to pull in behind the other driver, they would have lost speed and therefore time. By cutting the corner, they were travelling faster than they would have been had they slowed, and therefore did gain an advantage. Yes, they didn't gain a position, but they did gain an advantage.
 
WRC, WTCC, BTCC, MotoGP, WEC, V8 Supercars and DTM, according to my calendar!

Not all of that will be on TV next weekend though, but still not to much of a dry patch :)
 
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