Arena FIA Formula 1 Racing

What a great race!

Gloves are well and truly off with Hamilton and Vettel now... Think we could be in for a classic season!

 

heels1785 G-FETT - I can see the post.

 

I can see my post as well heels1785

 

Daniel. ****ing. RICCIARDO!

Also Hamilton is such a prat. Such an utter prat.

Also:






oh, Canada...

 

It looks like Hamilton has been falsely accused of provoking Vettel by Martoto77 - This is (FIA steward) Derek Warwicks take on the incident:

As leader, Lewis had every right to control the pace.' 'He wasn't erratic, he kept a constant throttle and never used the brakes, so he was within his rights.

Vettel thought he was about to go and wanted to anticipate that to get a run on him. Obviously Seb lost it and the rest is history.

'If he dug into his heart and answered the question properly, he would say it was 100 per cent his fault. Seb didn't cover himself in glory. What he did was petulant, it was pure anger and very surprising from a four-time world champion"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-fault-Hamilton-clash-Azerbaijan-Warwick.html

Must say my take on the incident at the time was that it was Vettel's fault but I wasn't sure whether Hamilton had braked or not... As it turned out it was just simply a misjudgment from Vetell which he then compounded by a petulant shunt into the side of Hamilton's car.

Also, Vettel now has nine points on his licence if he gets another three he'll be facing a one race ban... That might be critical at the end of the season.

 

Not just me accusing Hamilton. Jackie Stewart too (And Chandok until DC shouted him down).

Hamilton must have the only care with an engine note that that decreases at "constant throttle". Hamilton dummied a squirt into the corner that he backed out of on the exit (the opposite of how you take a corner, whether you are in a race or controlling the pace under SC). Your eyes tell you that if you look at Lewis's car. particularly from Perez's onboard.

On the straight, Vettel would have been able to take avoiding action, which Perez was able to since he had enough of a gap to turn sharper out of the corner.

Derek Warwick must be the first steward in history to describe a driver as 100% percent at fault for a collision and not give him a penalty for it. Since the penalty was awarded for Vettel's reaction, not the first collision.

He must be the only steward who doesn't think a difference of 20kph within the space of a car's length at the exit of a corner does not qualify as "inconsistent speed". What Warwick was referring to was that Hamilton did the same thing at the previous restart at the same corner. Which I guess makes it ok then to the stewards, even if its intent is clear. There's also the fact the starts looking to his right when he realises that Vettel is going to react.

Vettel was stupid for getting caught out by it. But Hamilton is not blameless.

A plenty of pot and kettle going on when somebody claims to be concerned for safety drives for two laps with part of their safety equipment trying to wrench itself from the car and he's driving close to 22omph, one handed, so that he doesn't need to lose position.

 

The FIA has all the telemetry. They'll know what happened and if FIA steward Warwick says it was 100% Vettels fault that's good enough for me.

I think because Hamilton isn't especially well liked there is always an assumption that anything that happens must be his fault (or at least partly his fault) but in this case I think it's unfair. Hamilton was entitled was control the pace in the way he did. The fact Vettel misjudged what he was going to do on the restart isn't Hamilton's fault. Vettel then quite outrageously drove into the side of Hamilton's car for no reason whatsoever and was probably lucky not to be black flagged...

 

Hamilton is a knob. Pure and simple. Vettel is a moron for the reaction and he more often than not talks too much and this is coming from a Tifoso. At least the tension will make the championship a lot more enjoyable. Good job by Stroll, it was unfortunate that he got passed at the end by Bottas.

 

Hamilton is responsible for pace, and his own distance to the disappearing safety car.

Vettel is responsible for his own distance to the car ahead.

Hamilton's telemetry exonerated him off Vettel's accusation.

I have respect for both racers, and this time, Seb was solely at fault.

 

Martin Brundle is right though, Hamilton didn't accelerate out of the corner which is a stupid, appropriately arse-hole-ish thing for someone as irredeemably **** as Hamilton to do. I want Vettel - Multi21 Vettel - to beat Hamilton to humble the little bastard.

 

Yep. Vettel's never going to win my support overall. But I would love the BS bonhomie from the beginning of the season to blow up in their faces. Particularly Ham's after he implied that it was a proper competition now (devaluing his last two WDCs at the same time as Rosbergs). And putting and end to "I've won - I'm so humble, grateful, meek, gracious, god etc...", alternating with "I was beaten. I don't understand, something is wrong, we'll need to figure out what's happening, it doesn't make sense...etc. "

 

Jackie Stewart is not a reliable voice in any matter involving Lewis.

If the circumstances were exactly reversed, with Lewis running into Seb twice, and mistakenly assuming the Ferarri driver had brake-tested him, Jackie would be calling Hamilton a "thug", and some of you would be lapping that up.

Personally, I think Jackie feels his historical WDC record is threatened, and just can't handle it. I don't remember him being this hostile when Lewis just had the one title.

 

Oh, please.

 

Amazing performance from Lewis and Merc at the British Grand Prix.

Mid-Season and all to play for - I think this Championship will go down to the final race.

 

I expect Bottas to overtake Vettel in the points table in the next few races. Bottas is properly comfortable at Mercedes now and will be taking more points away from Vettel while being Hamilton's wingman. Raikkonen, while he was good today, cannot do the same for Vettel.
I can see Hamilton leading home a number of Merc 1-2s in the next few races. Ferrari really need to step it up for Vettel to have a chance.

 

IT was forecast for over a week that Silverstone was a Merc track. And a couple of laps from Ferrari in the FP3 excepting, that's how it turned out on the podium (with some help from a Raikonnen puncture).

Unless every remaining race is being held at Silverstone, I expect it to be just as nip and tuck beween Ferrari and Merc for the rest of the season as it has been so far.

 

Well because Max drove like a legend and held Seb up, we don't know if Seb (who was significantly quicker during the undercut could have challenged which is a shame. Still, 4th and 5th for the Bulls, which is always a good thing. Bad, bad luck to Ferrari though, they were set for a 2nd and 4th before the nonsense happened. Pro-tip: don't push the tyres that hard guys.

 

Lando's not a system.

He's a Formula One driver.

 

Um.... Any predictions for Monza?

Could Ferrari's brakes/chassis possibly give them the advantage or parity with the Merc's engine at the high speed track?

Is Raikonnen going to finally have a trouble free weekend?

It was a bit disappointing to hear Bottas being offered up for sacrifice again after one poor race. He was thirteen points behind his team-mate before Spa, a track that didn't favour him plus a very hair moment that he was lucky to emerge from in one piece and still in a points scoring position.

 

McLaren to get Renault engines. Sainz to Renault, definitely by 2018, maybe by Malaysia this year. Toro Rosso to get Honda engines (and Honda money), and very likely Pierre Gasly driving with the torpedo.

 

Yeah that was interesting. The guys I race online with were debating it - the worst things in the world, I've decided, are Dutch fans of Max or Finnish fans of Kimi. Not Bottas, no, they have one eye firmly planted on the past. And so they're busy blaming each other's driver for the crash which Seb instigated.

The results were surprising too; Ricciardo's intimated that his gear box problem wasn't a factor in that P2, but rather setups. He says in the BBC 5 Live Chequered Flag podcast that "we didn't have the car we had on Friday" and he has an idea how to solve the pace question. Pity, because this was the best chance RB had of a win.

Disappointingly, Mercedes and Hamilton have a lead that may not easily be overhauled. I want to see anyone but those teams/drivers win, because they've had too long at the top and it's bad for the sport if there's no rotation.

In other drives - Sainz, what a performance! Palmer, too, did very well to keep it in P6.

 

2001 Malaysian Grand Prix, put up by FOM.

 

HUP HOLLAND HUP!

Max and Dan hit the road.

 

Max looks soooooooo young. I feel old.