Canadian Grand Prix 2011, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - Race 7/19

[Borrish]

To he honest I think Hamilton's problem is he almost always has the nose of his car where someone else is going to be. All of the accidents he's had recently have been because he stuck his nose down the inside of someone and simply wasn't past them at the apex of the corner. It's been known for years that if you do this your playing a lottery because the car you're overtaking can just turn in on your and you'll have to yield. In his case he seems to have a habit of doing this to people who won't yield. He had an accident with Webber before because Webber refused to yield the racing line to him (granted he should have because Hamilton was ahead).

Regarding DRS.... Well, it's just rubbish. Over-taking isn't fun to watch if the car zooms past 20km/h faster then the other one. It's as interesting as watching the leader lap cars.

 

[arknor]

Really interesting seeing the different viewpoints on Hamilton.

i think its a case of to many similar moves or mistakes depending on your viewpoint in such a short space of time.

one has to wonder with all of his celeb friends around wether he was conscious of that and only tried to hard because of them

 

[Jono8]

Hamilton is a fantastic driver and one of, if not the best drivers on the track but i think he gets too furstrated when the Mclaren lacks pace to his out and out rivals. This just seems to make him go crazy and take too many risks.

Yesterday showed that if he had played it safer like Button in the opening part of the race, he could have walked away with a podium, or even a win (seen as he is generally faster than Button).

 

[Westyfield2]

Nervously checked online first thing this morning to check that the stewards haven't gone ****ing around with the result after the race - glad to see everything stayed as it finished!

With regards to the Marshall nearly being hit by the car, everybody I was watching with was shouting at him to move and shielding their eyes thinking the worst was going to happen. Not laughing Robbie .

Yes, hilarious. The last time that happened, the Marshall died when hit by a car. So did the driver of said car when the marshall's fire extinguisher hit him in the head and decapitated him.

This.

 

[utajoker]

when the marshall fell twice, i did chuckle but my heart started pounding as the car got closer.

 

[Jono8]

It was clear to me that the Marshall was not going to get hit.... It was on a straight so drivers could see what was in front of them well enough, under a yellow flag and F1 cars can now break from like 100mph down to 0 in about 1 second

 

[clv101]

Hamilton is a fantastic driver and one of, if not the best drivers on the track but i think he gets too furstrated when the Mclaren lacks pace to his out and out rivals. This just seems to make him go crazy and take too many risks.

I guess Hamilton is usual in that he never spent a year or two in slow cars at the back of the grid. Most drivers had an opportunity to learn how to cope with a rubbish F1 car - not that the 2011 McLaren is at all rubbish!.

 

[Participant]

Nervously checked online first thing this morning to check that the stewards haven't gone ****ing around with the result after the race - glad to see everything stayed as it finished!

With regards to the Marshall nearly being hit by the car, everybody I was watching with was shouting at him to move and shielding their eyes thinking the worst was going to happen. Not laughing Robbie .

Sure, I bet you were watching it with fifty people in a pub, not one of them laughed and they all put their palms to their cheeks and gasped yeah?

You're being far too dramatic. It was a safety car situation, the marshalls at the corner had the yellow and red striped flags out, there was plenty of reaction time around the corner, and the cars were pootling along.

 

[sunama]

Every car might use it, but they can't use it, thus it's unfair,
It does. Not improve racing, it improves entertainment.

I think you nailed it with the word "entertainment".

To be fair, sports viewing is a form of entertainment, so F1 organisers have to look at their sport, from an entertainment point of view.

I can see where you are coming from, with regards to DRS being a push to pass button (on some race tracks). It is a difficult job to get it balanced right (ie. the points at which a driver can use it). Yesterday, I will admit that DRS made overtaking on the long straight a little too easy, though I would also argue that at that stage of the race, MSc was weak. The fact that Webber ended up going off the track, while attempting to overtake MSc with DRS, shows us this.

Button made DRS usage look easy and I would argue that this was because he has superior skill. Webber made the DRS overtake look a lot more difficult.

I would also say that if there was no DRS, Button and Webber may never have got past MSc and we would never have been treated to the grandstand/heart-pumping finish that we saw yesterday, where the race winner was only decided on the final lap.

In 2011, F1 is competing against many other sports. F1 know that in order to win more viewers/fans, they need to make the sport more accessible, fun and entertaining. DRS is allowing them to do this.

For me, the best part of yesterday's race was the moment DRS was switched on, as at that point, I knew anything was possible and that the race was no longer predictable.

I for one, love DRS.

 

[sunama]

Hamilton is a fantastic driver and one of, if not the best drivers on the track but i think he gets too furstrated when the Mclaren lacks pace to his out and out rivals. This just seems to make him go crazy and take too many risks.

The McLaren was not lacking pace.

As I said before the race, McLaren and Ferrari had the fastest cars in race trim. All Vettel could do was "hang on". Vettel drove a brilliant race IMO.

The reason why we didnt see Ferrari and McLaren totally dominate was because Button removed Hamilton and Alonso from the equation. Had those 2 finished the race, I believe Alonso and Hamilton would've filled the top 2 places.

Make no mistake, RBR, in race trim, are not the dominant car that we saw in race 1. IMO, they have almost been caught up and it is RBR's qualifying speed and Vettel's skill which is allowing them to win races.

As far as Hamilton goes: he is a racer. He doesnt like to hang about. He saw the opportunity, but with Button in the mood he was in yesterday, nobody was going to get past him.

 

[Glaucus]

The reason webber made it look hard, wasn't because button was better. But because the merc had much better traction out of the final corner than webber. Visually pulling away, meaning webber took longer to catch. That shows you how easy DRS makes it. You can be falling back and still have a go.

Thing is racing, not pure entertainment and if they solved the issues like they were going to do in 2013, it's not even needed.

 

[Jono8]

The McLaren was not lacking pace.

As I said before the race, McLaren and Ferrari had the fastest cars in race trim. All Vettel could do was "hang on". Vettel drove a brilliant race IMO.

The reason why we didnt see Ferrari and McLaren totally dominate was because Button removed Hamilton and Alonso from the equation. Had those 2 finished the race, I believe Alonso and Hamilton would've filled the top 2 places.

Make no mistake, RBR, in race trim, are not the dominant car that we saw in race 1. IMO, they have almost been caught up and it is RBR's qualifying speed and Vettel's skill which is allowing them to win races.

As far as Hamilton goes: he is a racer. He doesnt like to hang about. He saw the opportunity, but with Button in the mood he was in yesterday, nobody was going to get past him.

Well, it was in quali and when it was wet..Hence my point about Hamilton getting frustrated as he was back in 5th/6th in the grid.

 

[utajoker]

i think, and hope that if drs stays next year, from the results of its use this year they will alter the lengths of the usage zones so that they have not sailed past before the braking zone and they are just along side.

the drs zone yesterday should have started 100 meters later on so that you caught up but had to still out brake the driver infront.

 

[Participant]

If the driver being overtaken is good enough, being skinned by a DRS car is no problem as they should stay within 1 second and DRS them back. If they can't do this, they deserved to be overtaken in the first place.

I like DRS as it provides more drama and shortens the length of time that crap cars hold up good ones.

 

[ZG002]

Well I tried to watch the race on iplayer last night but fell asleep before the restart, Having read the thread it seems it all went off.

Lewis just seems to be going into races too hot headed at the moment and making bad racing decisions, I think he is going in with his eye on the prize and thinking he can make this and that move stick with only having a nose in it, He did this last year for a few races as well if I remember. Once the championship gets away from him (which I believe it's about to) He will calm down again.

Di resta needs to be snapped up by merc imo, It's his logical next step, I can see MSC possibly leaving next season if not the season after that. Nico is hardly a number 1 driver atm and I could see Di resta bringing the fight to him.

DRS is a Necessary evil at the moment imo, With some changes to the cars aero it might not be. F1 needed something to bring the jo public back to the sport and DRS is one of the tricks they are using.

 

[NathanE]

I for one, love JRS.

Awwww

 

[arknor]

If the driver being overtaken is good enough, being skinned by a DRS car is no problem as they should stay within 1 second and DRS them back. If they can't do this, they deserved to be overtaken in the first place.

I like DRS as it provides more drama and shortens the length of time that crap cars hold up good ones.

its not always the case though is it different tyres , different pit stop stratergies etc in the past you needed some skill to make certain stratergies work these days you dont need any skills and everyone have became backmarkers

 

[dannyjo22]

(and those thinking MS deserved the win are just laughable imo - the only thing that saved him being that high were the conditions, his car was dog slow and didnt deserve a podium let alone a win)

Yet you don't mind that it took the last safety car for button to win this race?

Or that the drying conditions played into his hands. It works both ways, the inter conditions suited MS and the drying JB. So MS flies in inter conditions in the wet in a bad car and he doesn't deserve it but JB did in a fast car only when the track is dry?

Doesn't make sense to me.

I'm torn over this.

To borrow from the prophet Ayrton for a moment - if a racing driver no longer goes for a gap, then he's no longer a racing driver. Yes, there are times when Hamilton would do well to recognise that discretion is the better part of valour. But what makes him fun to watch is that he does go for it, and does try overtaking moves that others wouldn't even have a hope of pulling off. Yes, sometimes he comes out of it second best. Yes, it basically invites the stewards to hand him a penalty occasionally. But when he gets it right, he's unbeatable.

I agree on Hamilton but at some point he has to use his head if he wants to keep racking up titles. If Button didn't see him or the timing was slightly off Button would always be closing that door. I don't think he's smart but he has to think of the longer game plan sometimes. The race was his for the taking yesterday and yet again he blew it trying to win the race in one instant.

lets switch DRS so its a flap that gives you 12KMH oh drag you press the button and it pops up on the car infront.
its the exact same effect as we have now but lets see what the reaction is from people if they did it this way .

Haha that's a good way of looking at it but it isn't really the same because in a 3 car scrap the car in the middle wouldn't be able to get past the leader

 

[Participant]

Yet you don't mind that it took the last safety car for button to win this race?

Not necessarily true, as he was catching Vettel quickly enough to reach him by the end of the race without the safety car.

 

[dannyjo22]

Not necessarily true, as he was catching Vettel quickly enough to reach him by the end of the race without the safety car.

Vettel could have had longer to react and his tyres would have stayed at a higher temperature. Hard to call but I reckon he won because of that last safety car. Maybe the cooler running on the safety car didn't help vettel at all.

Without the safety cars in that race after Button was last I doubt he would have won the race.