Poll: German Grand Prix 2019, Hockenheim - Race 11/21

[Demon]

I can't deny the race was entertaining, however I think it's best this only happens once every now and again to help shake things up. That doesn't mean I'd advocate anything contrived please (like Bernie's sprinklers), anything artificial often has the opposite effect and of course it will favour certain teams/drivers and there will be calls of unfairness, so lets leave it down to the gods to decide on the day what the weather will be like!

I do think people read far far far too much in to these things, especially when people say that it might be a factor in a team letting them go at the end of the season, or people saying the driver X is showing they are the best of the field etc, as simply the randomness of things really makes it hard to read anything concrete unless it happened time and time again over several races.

On the team fine, I agree that it does send a 'pay to win' mentality where it's acceptable to do this and just pay the fine. Better yet, a big fine, and potential to lose manufacturer points, that would hurt the team even more as the financial implication of that can be significant.

I do agree that penalising the drivers seems the least fair,. but I get the point that it works on many levels.

I most certainly don't agree with penalising a driver for limping to the pits the wrong side of the bollard due to car damage and that being the least riskiest option.

 

[4K8KW10]

Yes, a 5000 euro fine is going to send a fantastic message to ferrari and every other team. A time penalty or drive through on the other hand...

It is crazy if you think about it. They are ultra cautious with the safety car, yet dozens of mechanics and a long line of cars darting in and out of the pits, nope. One of these days it is going to go very very wrong.

Based on the current precedent though, I’d send my driver out, gain the place and take the penalty.

5000 euros may seem not enough, I'd agree. But it's all in the lollipop man, his lack of knowledge when it's safe to let the car leave... The lollipop man needs instructions what to do, or there should be red/green lights, controlled by someone else.

 

[jonneymendoza]

5000 euros may seem not enough, I'd agree. But it's all in the lollipop man, his lack of knowledge when it's safe to let the car leave... The lollipop man needs instructions what to do, or there should be red/green lights, controlled by someone else.

Wasn't there red and green lights before?

 

[The_Abyss]

The team fine was a very good decision by the stewards. All the responsibility must be taken by the managers for their bad decisions. They must learn not to ruin their driver's races.
They must pay, the innocent driver must be let compete on equal basis.

What about the innocent driver that Leclerc drove in front of, ruining his pit stop and costing him around 5 seconds?

 

[The_Abyss]

I think common sense should prevail in these circumstances. He was recovering from an incident.

That’s where we disagree. I would say that common sense is to apply the rules. If Hamilton had crashed around 15 yards further along then he would have had to complete a whole circuit. To comply with the rules he would have had to drive the wrong way around the circuit to reach the bollard (it helps if the word bollard is replaced with pit entry).

He was recovering from an incident of his own making, an error. His performance will be punished for that error - how much depends on where he was. He chose to break the rules to minimise the impact, which was actually the right decision.

The fact that he’s recovering from an incident is irrelevant.

 

[413x]

I suspect both the current Haas drivers could be sitting at home next years. Hulkenburg would be a good fit into Haas. Cool-headed and reliable. Potential podium finisher with a decent car under him. Stick Ocon in the other Haas for a year to keep him sharp. Win for all concerned.

I think Bottas will keep his seat for 2020. Good wingman for Hamilton and very consistent point scoring driver.

I really like hulkenburg. But yesterday was a big issue. I dunno who I'd replace him with. Wouldn't be with Bottas or anyone like that. Ocon maybe, but no guarantee he'd be better Bottas certainly is a good option if ferrari aren't a threat.

I suspect it would be RG who'd go from haas. Something needs to be done. Can't believe they touched again this race

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Ferrari be like “take that fine out of the £100,000,000 historic payment lolololol”

I genuinely believe the stewards didn’t want to ruin the show by penalising their best shot at the race win. Terrible decision.

Hamilton deserved the penalty but I’m still at a loss how Merc managed to balls up the stop so badly. Surely he radio’d in and told them he’s on the way and needs a new nose yet it was like they forgot how to do a simple stop with a nose change. Bizarre.

 

[Jono8]

So Hamilton crashed, had a 50 second pit-stop, a five second penalty, spun off again to finish out of the top 10 and still ends up increasing his championship lead maybe he really is #blessed

How has he been blessed?

He was ill over this race weekend - a race weekend he likely would have won had it not been for that.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Hamilton deserved the penalty but I’m still at a loss how Merc managed to balls up the stop so badly. Surely he radio’d in and told them he’s on the way and needs a new nose yet it was like they forgot how to do a simple stop with a nose change. Bizarre.

Plus, why oh why did they not put him onto inters and serve the 5s under the safety car. He wouldn’t have lost as much and would have been on brand new tyres. The whole thing was a complete shambles.

They also need to listen to Hamilton. This isn’t the first time they have overruled him on tyres and he has been right every time. He even had to trick the team in silverstone. He needs a new race engineer.

Should have been an easy podium, even with the off track incident.

They need to get back on it. Ferrari and red bull are gaining, especially with Mercedes failed upgrade.

 

[UTmaniac]

Not putting under the safety car and serving the 5sec penalty while changing tyres, was a tough call. Team were concerned about his position when rejoining track and how much time he would lose trying to get back up the field.

 

[The_Abyss]

But his position was not so relevant given the cars that he would have been behind - midfield teams. It was blindingly obvious at the time - quite a few on here called it straightaway.

 

[an0nym0us]

The Mercedes debrief on YouTube should be a good watch this week.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

The Mercedes debrief on YouTube should be a good watch this week.

Speaking of YouTube, I wish Nico Rosberg would do one with his click bait-y video titles and his opportunistic style.

*dislike*

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Speaking of YouTube, I wish Nico Rosberg would do one with his click bait-y video titles and his opportunistic style.

*dislike*

There was far too much of rosberg on
Sky this weekend. Really can’t stand his smug face.

 

[Kelt]

And to top off Renaults miserable weekend:

https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/23869

 

[an0nym0us]

And to top off Renaults miserable weekend:

https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/23869

Thankfully nobody was hurt. Something like that looks like it could've turned out much worse.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Really cool visual representation of the race (no audio).

 

[Merlin5]

Bottas driver of the day so far? has he even made a single mistake?

Bottas in the wall. Safety car deployed.,

 

[mmj_uk]

And to top off Renaults miserable weekend:

The government need to get rid of crash barriers and put massive run off areas every where, it works for the FIA. How many road deaths could be avoided annually?

To be fair he was having a spotless drive until he binned it. Even Verstappen who won the race lost control a few times he was lucky to finish himself.

Was Vettel the only top team driver who didn't put a foot wrong? he had a good drive to be fair to him.

Although it's worrying people rated this race so highly, it was entertaining in a chaotic sort of way but in terms of racing it was garbage due to safety car every 10 laps etc, it was basically an exercise in pitting at the right time.

 

[Mr Jack]

Although it's worrying people rated this race so highly, it was entertaining in a chaotic sort of way but in terms of racing it was garbage due to safety car every 10 laps etc, it was basically an exercise in pitting at the right time.

I agree with you that from a racing point of view this was no classic, and I certainly wouldn't want to see this kind of carnage every race, however I think this kind of rain induced chaos has always been part of the mix that makes up F1 and I'm happy to see it once in a while. I gave it 10/10 for sheer action and entertainment.