Japanese Grand Prix 2015, Suzuka - Race 14/19

He can be petulant (we know that from 2007) but I actually applaud Alonso for his outburst - McLaren Honda are a joke and need a kick up the backside.
 
Vertigo1 said:
He can be petulant (we know that from 2007) but I actually applaud Alonso for his outburst - McLaren Honda are a joke and need a kick up the backside.
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Actually he's being a ****, it's the Honda home race, he seems to be trying to embarrass them. Why lie all year in the media but blow up at Honda here of all places? He's paid more than everyone except Vettel and Hamilton. Part of what these guys are paid for is their media appearances, Honda are covering half of ALonso's salary as part of their deal. So I would say, outburst is pretty petulant of him IMHO.

If he was unwilling to tow the media line then go ahead and not talk crap all year about how good the plan is, but towing the line most of the year then having a go at Honda in the home race is fairly crappy behaviour.
 
That was my whole point - yes he's petulant and it's not the "done thing" to criticise like that but frankly, for me, it's all outweighed by the fact that both McLaren and Honda deserve it. They're a huge embarrassment and should be ashamed of themselves. The fact that Honda seem to be in total denial about the state of their engine is offensive to me and they deserve all the public ridicule they get.
 
Two types of racing really, there is driver on his own putting in a beautiful lap where someone is on the limit and you see the speed, it looks great. Then there is actually cars fighting for position and points. For qualifying, as a driver, it's a great track to drive. If flows so well and is difficult to get right with not much just line up the car for 1km and put the foot down boring parts.

For an actual over taking friendly, track position, fighting for points track it's a bit ****.

This is the side F1 needs to fix, slow race lap times. When a car is on the edge of it's pace limit lap after lap in qualifying you see more mistakes, a half a second loss/mistake on one lap it kills you, but at this slow race pace you can recover that at 1/10th per lap for 5 laps and because you aren't on the limit less mistakes are made.

That is one thing about the refueling era, it was lap after lap of pure pace. Drivers making more mistakes, more spins(barely ever see spins now from driver mistakes), and losing a second when everyone is pushing maxed out every lap is a much bigger deal.

Effectively when there isn't car to car action, you want to see car on track action. If a car is out on it's own, you want to see it going as fast as possible because that is still good to watch. Watching them pot around 5 seconds off qualifying pace saving tires is rubbish.
 
This is my issue with Rosberg - he's just given up immediately. Second will do, no need to even try to catch Lewis.

Were the positions reversed, Lewis would be after Rosberg and doing all he could to get past him.
 
To be fair, he can't. He did immediately gain time on Hamilton, then Hamilton did a lap 1.3 seconds faster, then Rosberg did pull the gap back 1.5 seconds over 3-4 laps, then Hamilton decided to up his pace again. He did try, he just literally doesn't have the capability. Rosberg tried a lap and gained half a second, Hamilton then put in a lap a full second faster and put him in his place.

I think at times Webber could actually gain on Vettel, Rosberg just isn't in Hamilton's class, he's not even close. Last year just fooled a lot of people into thinking it was massively closer than it really is between them.
 
What Drunken said really - It's like Monaco.

Brilliant track to drive as you have to be on the limit to do well (in quali), but for actual racing it is terrible.

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As for Rosberg, Hamilton has been coasting so he likely has a lot of fuel & tyres left over, it would be silly for Rosberg to pull closer, potentially waste his tyres and then fall back into Vettel. It's much smarter for him to preserve second, which is realistic, compared to trying to chase first, which is unlikely.

Think of Monaco this year. What Hamilton is currently doing is like what Rosberg was doing behind the safety car, saving his tyres and fuel for a sudden burst - Remember what happened a few laps after the SC? Rosberg was already multiple seconds ahead of Seb, 5 or something if I recall. Hamilton would do the exact same if Rosberg got anywhere near him.
 
Joe! said:
As for Rosberg, Hamilton has been coasting so he likely has a lot of fuel & tyres left over, it would be silly for Rosberg to pull closer, potentially waste his tyres and then fall back into Vettel. It's much smarter for him to preserve second, which is realistic, compared to trying to chase first, which is unlikely.
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At this stage of the championship this strategy makes no sense at all. It's all or nothing, not settling for second and hoping Lewis has a couple of DNFs in the last few races. Rosberg talks the talk and keeps going on about not giving up but it's so obvious he has.
 
Great drive by Nico, Seb & Lewis.

Really anti-climatic and the next race in Sochi... So I won't get my hopes up.

Vertigo1 said:
At this stage of the championship this strategy makes no sense at all. It's all or nothing, not settling for second and hoping Lewis has a couple of DNFs in the last few races. Rosberg talks the talk and keeps going on about not giving up but it's so obvious he has.
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Whilst I agree it is all or nothing, I do not blame Nico for being conservative. You get more points for second (which is more realistic) than third. It's obvious Lewis has won the WDC this year, and I think Nico, Lewis, and Mercedes know that too. As JB said, your entire team is working their arses off, you can't go into every race with a pessimistic attitude.
 
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