2014 Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli

[prisonermonkeys]

I like how Horner is claiming Red Bull made up some ground to Mercedes

Technically, he is right. They have closed the gap by about 0.001 seconds.

I hate when they cut to the garage at any time. I don't care if it's the dullest race in the history of the sport, I'd still rather see an F1 car taking a corner during an F1 race rather than someone in the garage.

I like reaction shots, when the team respond to a driver's move on another car. And showing each team's brains trust is occasionally okay. It's when we cut to celebrities (unless it's Rowan Atkinson) or significant others that it becomes a problem.

 

[Wardez]

Anyway, Monaco next. Can't wait to see how the car of Mercedes and Red Bull fair at this track. Mechanical grip of the Reb Bull. That's another example of F1 at its heart. I only need this little thing, not wait to see if there's some "pure racing" going to happen then enjoy it.

Actually, the Merc should have more mechanical grip because of their advanced FRIC suspension, among other little factors. So it's a pretty sure bet they'll dominate Cote de Azure.

Red Bull has great aero but that can only do so much around there if traction isn't up to par.

 

[Samus]

Mercedes still look to have, on average, a second a lap over the best of the rest.

Technically, he is right. They have closed the gap by about 0.001 seconds.


I like reaction shots, when the team respond to a driver's move on another car. And showing each team's brains trust is occasionally okay. It's when we cut to celebrities (unless it's Rowan Atkinson) or significant others that it becomes a problem.

Ah yes that is what I meant by 'someone', as in people in the garage not doing anything interesting, either 'celebrity' or crew. Parents are always a favourite, I don't need to see a prolonged shot of Massa's dad at the back of the garage stood watching a monitor with nothing happening. Seeing his reaction to Massa winning and losing the title in 2008 however, was great TV.

 

[Dhalism]

Attempted murder:

 

[m8h3r]

I've watched that gif about 30 times. Hilarious.

 

[Robin]

Someone should make a gif of him spraying the girls

 

[Barra333]

Lewis will have champagne dripping out of his ear until July.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Lewis will have champagne dripping out of his ear until July.

If he keeps winning it will carry over to December

 

[Peter.]

That Mercedes is going to give those two drinking problems.

 

[Barra333]

That Mercedes is going to give those two drinking problems.

💡 Maybe that has been Seb's problem. He was still hungover from the 8 in a row at the end of last year. Just coming out of it now. Maybe he got a good bacon and egg roll.

 

[mikeerfol]

💡 Maybe that has been Seb's problem. He was still hungover from the 8 in a row at the end of last year. Just coming out of it now. Maybe he got a good bacon and egg roll.

It was actually 9 in a row

 

[niky]

I'm trying to think of a "not in my ear!" joke that's not NSFW... oh, wait...

-

No hugs this race. It is on. It is definitely on. Hamilton gets the psychological edge, but Rosberg now knows for sure he can beat him on the track (or he should after a week's contemplation). And Rosberg knows he can win in Monaco.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Yeah but Lewis can also win at Monaco, and if this car is as good as the 2007/08 car. So it will be a nail biter again, especially in quali I think.

 

[niky]

Yup. But I have a feeling it might all be decided in qualifying.

 

[mikeerfol]

I think Hamilton is going to win in Monaco as well. I mean he was really close in qualifying last year although he was struggling with his brakes since the start of the season.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

I think Hamilton is going to win in Monaco as well. I mean he was really close in qualifying last year although he was struggling with his brakes since the start of the season.

Well brakes and rear tire degredation. However, he butchered the start and the race in general and thus didn't even get the podium. However, this is a totally different Rosberg and Hamilton.

 

[axletramp]

Rosberg needs to start out qualifying Lewis. OK, it's not an easy task, but that's where his main problem lies - which ever Mercedes wins the first corner will probably win the race, and starting from P1 gives you the best chance. Also IMO, Rosberg appears to lack that killer instinct when hunting Lewis down, something I believe Hamilton does have. Would the result have been the same if it had been Senna, Schumacher or Alonso (Vettel as well) doing the hunting in the final few laps of Bahrain and Barcelona? Who knows, but I can't help feeling the result may have been different.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Rosberg needs to start out qualifying Lewis. OK, it's not an easy task, but that's where his main problem lies - which ever Mercedes wins the first corner will probably win the race, and starting from P1 gives you the best chance. Also IMO, Rosberg appears to lack that killer instinct when hunting Lewis down, something I believe Hamilton does have. Would the result have been the same if it had been Senna, Schumacher or Alonso (Vettel as well) doing the hunting in the final few laps of Bahrain and Barcelona? Who knows, but I can't help feeling the result may have been different.

I don't think so because that killer instinct applies both way, when being chased you want to capture and beat your foe. When you're being chased you want to defend and make your foe destroy themselves. Lewis became more calm in those closing laps and even after a lock up still kept it going and thus Rosberg tried harder and locked it up only hurting him. Rosberg seems to overdo it in a more harmful manner than when Lewis overdoes it.

Hamilton would be as fierce if it was those guys or Rosberg and we at least have seen him act fierce with two of the guys on your list, just look at his Rookie year with Alonso as a team mate. Like I said before, Rosberg is good but he needs to realize that himself rather than over think his driving, once he does that he'll probably beat Lewis.

Also a side note, I don't think at all that teams will close in on Mercedes because these two are going to constantly push each other to win. This will reflect on the engineers to build better parts to make them faster as the drivers as for more speed to out do their team mate. So any -say Christina Horner for no particular reason - thinks they have a good chance at catching MBGP AMG, they may want to double or triple their effort.

 

[Peter.]

💡 Maybe that has been Seb's problem. He was still hungover from the 8 in a row at the end of last year. Just coming out of it now. Maybe he got a good bacon and egg roll.

I think everyone's best chance of catching the Mercs would be their eventual intoxication from all the champagne.

 

[axletramp]

Also a side note, I don't think at all that teams will close in on Mercedes because these two are going to constantly push each other to win. This will reflect on the engineers to build better parts to make them faster as the drivers as for more speed to out do their team mate. So any -say Christina Horner for no particular reason - thinks they have a good chance at catching MBGP AMG, they may want to double or triple their effort.

Possibly, although it's now going to take a fair few DNFs from the Mercedes drivers to give anyone - or any team - a sniff at a championship this year. 2009 will show how hard it is to make up ground on a team who's dominant in the first half of a season.

Does anyone else also think that one DNF from Rosberg could spell disaster for him? After all, look how long it's taken Lewis to get back on terms even after winning four in a row. I'm sure it must be on Nico's mind right now (amongst other things). Still, with the final GP worth double points, this whole season could just be down to one race after all. Nice one Bernie.

 

[Peasantslayer]

I think Hamilton is favourite to win again in Monaco, I thought Bahrain and Catalunya would be the hardest of the early races for him but he managed to win both. IIRC Hamilton had a really bad first sector in 2013 Monaco Q3 which cost him pole and he had a brilliant start but it's very difficult to go around the outside into T1 when your being squeezed.

Does anyone else also think that one DNF from Rosberg could spell disaster for him? After all, look how long it's taken Lewis to get back on terms even after winning four in a row. I'm sure it must be on Nico's mind right now (amongst other things). Still, with the final GP worth double points, this whole season could just be down to one race after all. Nice one Bernie.

Unless a team can catch Mercedes and start splitting the cars it will probably be decided by DNFs between Rosberg and Hamilton.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Rosberg needs to start out qualifying Lewis. OK, it's not an easy task, but that's where his main problem lies - which ever Mercedes wins the first corner will probably win the race, and starting from P1 gives you the best chance. Also IMO, Rosberg appears to lack that killer instinct when hunting Lewis down, something I believe Hamilton does have. Would the result have been the same if it had been Senna, Schumacher or Alonso (Vettel as well) doing the hunting in the final few laps of Bahrain and Barcelona? Who knows, but I can't help feeling the result may have been different.

Rosberg is not even close to being good enough for that comparison.

 

[Imari]

So after 66 laps, Rosberg finished half a second behind Hamilton?

That's pretty awesome. They basically raced for an hour and a half and finished about as far apart as they started.

If I had to put money on one of them, I'd have to put it on Hamilton, but Rosberg is making a pretty strong case for not being any slower than Hamilton is.

 

[niky]

If they'd both raced in clear air, it's likely Rosberg would have finished ahead of
him. I'd say he had a chance of coming out about five or six seconds ahead if he'd started in first.

-

And there's the rub. To finish first against Hamilton, he'll have to qualify better. Given he's up against a monster capable of consistently demolishing his team-mate in qualifying, he's going to have to dig deep and find... something.

He actually qualified 8-11 against Hamilton last season. (which, seriously, is fantastic work) So the potential is there, if he can get some momentum going and put Lewis off his game.

 

[axletramp]

Well, he's got the best chance at Monaco where he knows he can out-qualify Hamilton. If he doesn't and everything runs smoothly leaving Hamilton to take win no.5, then surely we're going to start seeing more tension and potentially more over-driving by Nico.

And tbh, Hamilton's side of the garage are going to wise up and counter the option-prime-option attack that Nico's side has been using from P2.

 

[niky]

Over these past two races, that tactic has seemed the stronger one, yes... but as we've seen, it's questionable whether it's strong enough for the following driver to really make an overtake stick before the prime tires go off or the race ends.

 

[Imari]

It's questionable whether there's a viable strategy that puts the driver behind on fresh soft tyres against the leading driver's worn hard tyres at any point in the race. Because in equal machinery and with damn near equal race pace, it seems like that's what it takes to get an overtake on the leading car when he's as canny as Hamilton.

It may simply be a case of whoever's in the lead going into turn 1 wins, and whoever is second just needs to hover behind and hope for a mistake.

 

[Samus]

It will be interesting to see the shoe on the other foot though. We've seen on two occasions Rosberg not quite have enough to pass Hamilton with that strategy, but will the same be true the other way around...

 

[axletramp]

I don't think it helped Nico that there wasn't a huge difference in lap times between the option and prime tyre here either. Any grip advantage was then reduced again once he was in Hamilton's turbulent air.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Two days of in-season testing get underway today. Mercedes will run the "megaphone" exhaust system, while a handful of test drivers will take part, most notably Stoffel Vandoorne.