European Grand Prix 2011, Valencia Street Circuit - Race 8/19
- Thread starter Glaucus
- Start date
For Vettel to have the Championship tied up, he needs to have a lead that is greater than the remaining points available. You cant predict when it will be as his lead is depenadant upon how others do. But for comparison, the lead he needs is 25x the number of races left +1 point. At the moment he has a 77 point lead with 275 points left, so its not any time soon. From my calculations, if Vettel wins every race and for some reason nobody else gets any closer to him (basically nobody else finishes), then he will need to win 4 more races to secure the title. Therefore the absolute earliest he can become upcatchable is after Spa.
Soldato
The problem with this EBD thing is both Lewis and Button don't see it helping all that much, They both said yes redbull may go backwards but they will as well.
You would have to be a brave man to bet against Vettel for the championship win, When was the last time someone won this many races at the start of the season (and showed this kind of dominance) and didn't win it?
You would have to be a brave man to bet against Vettel for the championship win, When was the last time someone won this many races at the start of the season (and showed this kind of dominance) and didn't win it?
Having seen first hand at Silverstone last year what a McLaren without off throttle engine mapping for EBD's handles like, I'm not holding out much hope that anyone is going to suddenly overtake Red Bull.
That said, I'm not one of these people that think the ban is designed soley to slow RBR. Its going to affect most of the top teams.
That said, I'm not one of these people that think the ban is designed soley to slow RBR. Its going to affect most of the top teams.
Soldato
Yeah that is pretty much what they (Lewis and Button) said today, It will just slow the top teams and won't really change the order of things,
"We need aero work"
was their message to the team really.
"We need aero work"
was their message to the team really.
Alonso missed what......15 - 20 laps for being petulant (or at the very least allowing space and then taking it away without any vision/spray issues , so could easily have been given "causing avoidable accident" penalty had he got thru the corner), how can we possibly know?
Massa was out of traffic and (well ) ahead of Alonso - and seemingly as fast if not faster for comparable laps, and yet wasnt anywhere close in the end, I very much doubt Alonso would be so much better
JB was meant to be nearly 5s a lap faster than Vettel (whether Vettel was capable of pushing harder earlier - does he even know , let alone RB as a team) when it counted - and quite a bit (ie seconds) faster than everyone else on the track at the time, this was actually done without any doubt , but what Alonso might have been capable of can only be guessed at at best and even in F1 terms the amount JB was faster than everyone at the time is still an incredible amount and unlikely to have been matched (all imo of course - but it doesnt stop JB's times being a matter of fact and any other time guesswork)
Consistantly through a large number of laps - rather than through a number of races
Very few can seemingly put the pressure on like JB did in Canada - Alonso did today for a few laps (MW did for a bit, but not sure with the scores how they are RB would allow Mark to win the race even if it merited it, so SV wouldnt feel the same pressure at all)
Havent seen the forum so maybe this is where you are getting this from - but still think RB will be hurt more in quali (even though reduction will hurt everyone equally in the race). Either way with less track temp hopefully McLaren will get nearer to pole / win at Silverstone with today's car as it were, and cross every finger and toe that their upgrade works better "out of the box" than RB / Ferrari's lol
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i feel a bit sorry for mark webber, he seems to be getting more than his share of bad luck in terms of reliability, i liked dc's comment, if he didnt have bad luck he wouldnt have any luck at all.
red bull are definetly the team on form at the moment, best car, best strategy's, not flawless but overall good, the rest havent got the car, and keep making poor strategy decisions when things are heading their way. I like the races when vettel needs to work for it, i'm not a fan of him personally, i still feel he needs to earn that, but cant deny he has made the best of the oppertunity's he has been given. would be nice to see more of a fight for it though, spanish gp was good as it felt like a battle and i was happy, it just otherwise seems a bit straight forward for him, i want to see him fight for it.
red bull are definetly the team on form at the moment, best car, best strategy's, not flawless but overall good, the rest havent got the car, and keep making poor strategy decisions when things are heading their way. I like the races when vettel needs to work for it, i'm not a fan of him personally, i still feel he needs to earn that, but cant deny he has made the best of the oppertunity's he has been given. would be nice to see more of a fight for it though, spanish gp was good as it felt like a battle and i was happy, it just otherwise seems a bit straight forward for him, i want to see him fight for it.
Soldato
Not sure its been lost before from this kind of dominant start. Button won 6 of the first 7 GP of 2009 and won the title. Vettel's won 6 out of the first 8 GP of 2011 and I doubt will lose it. Apparently Schumacher, Mansell and one or two others have won the title when they've made such a dominant start to a season. It has been implied that making a dominant start like Button did and Vettel is doing means the driver doing so always wins the title. Sure Vettel can buck the trend and become the first driver to make such a start and lose the title but with him winning so comfortably apart from 2 GP where he's finished 2nd he's got the momentum and even his team mate can't beat him in a near identical car.
Made me chuckle too. One minute he's telling the team he's already going as slow as he can when they want him to be easier on his tyres then later on he's going as fast as he can when they want him to faster and he's probably cooked the tyres up by then.The only two parts i remember are.
Hamilton on the radio.
1. message I can not go any slower.
Later on in the race.
2. message I can not go any quicker.
Made me laugh
Soldato
It was said in both their post race interviews, I gather Lewis said it's going to harm Mclaren quite abit, and Button said it will slow everyone but don't expect to see any changes at the front.
Soldato
2002. Schumacher won it in France, with six races still to run. And as a measure of just how good that Ferrari was that year, he won four of the remaining races and RB won the other two (though that would have been 5 - 1 if Michael hadn't slowed for the formation finish at Indy and let Rubens by).
Caporegime
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Meh, I don't think it was a great drive from Vettel, I think the Red Bull is really just as simple as, qualifying the tyres don't matter, last one lap, done, Red Bull blows everyone away. In the race they are so far within themselves its a joke, they simply go as fast as the tyres allowed, they are never struggling to go that bit faster to catch anyone up and hurting the tyres. Not saying Vettel had a bad drive either, it was just so far within the car and within himself as its a joke.
Ultimately everyone at the front did 3 stops anyway, this is what wound me up about Lewis and people saying he didn't comprimise. Using the same sets of tyres as Button he was a pitstop ahead, and thats with him essentially giving up on 3rd with 1/2 the race to go.
What does giving up and only preserving the tyres give you..... nothing, Button did the "i'm not going to hurt my tyres" routine. On the radio his team is saying, everyone else infront is about to get slower due to tyre degredation, you won't.
Did he gain, at all, no. IF the tyres are good for 15 laps, going slowly might give you one extra lap, not 10, but going extra slow for 15 laps is completely pointless.
Half the reason this season is so rubbish is people are only thinking about tyres. One of the only reasons Button won last week was using 58 sets of tyres and never holding back, then he does the opposite think this week and looks pathetic frankly.
In the front 6 you had, Vettel and Button saving tyres, Webber and Alonso fighting and hurting their tyres, Massa and Hamilton trying to keep up and hurting their tyres but probably not as much, they all did 3 stops, the tyre savers didn't spank the guys pushing harder.
I want to see racing and guys pushing it, not a bunch of guys working out the safe pace for the tyres and everyone trying to stick to it.
"Lewis your tyres are hot", so the crap what, its a hot track, they are hot, burn round at top speed and do an extra stop. Frankly if he'd burned round faster and done an extra stop he'd likely have done better.
I think the most depressing thing in the past 2-3 years is essentially all race every race every radio guy saying "slow down, you're going to fast"
Man of Honour
What an exciting championship we have being lined up. I guess we have a new Schumacher in the making..
The only two parts i remember are.
Hamilton on the radio.
1. message I can not go any slower.
Later on in the race.
2. message I can not go any quicker.
Made me laugh
I liked this also. It's like "I give 100% at all times. There can be no less and no more".
It must be so frustrating as a driver to be told that you need to save your tyres when you are already well off the pace and to then be told you need to go faster when you are wringing everything out of it already.
Soldato
I was expecting an Alonso style comment from him on the radio "don't talk to me anymore"
Caporegime
What an exciting championship we have being lined up. I guess we have a new Schumacher in the making..
I don't think so. Vettel is a fast driver, no doubt, but I've seen precious little evidence that he's the kind of all rounder Michael was. Adrian Newey is winning this championship by a country mile, the Red Bull is just plain the best car on track. I can't see them keeping that kind of lead season after season.
Soldato
What a farcical move that was, folk in the US were raging at that one. Was almost as bad as the Austria shambles.
Adrian Newey's car isn't doing so great in the hands of Webber.
Vettel is still making the difference.
They have to say that don't they! That can't admit that a rule change will advantage them over another teem can they. They have to downplay the difference.