What a screwed up season this is. Time to clean house? My guess is Vettel will end up finishing 3rd in the championship. It wasn't that long ago he was LEADING until -- 1) stupid antics by both drivers 2) poor pace and performance in races they were supposed to win 3) a lack of reliability AND GENERAL WHINING about everything which is getting annoying. This team is acting like it wants to give Mercedes the championship. Such great promise but once again, embarrassing failure. WHY?
As it looks it is kinda tough as much as we try to keep the faith ... so far Alonso is still right when he said when Ferrari wins a WDC it will the time he was wrong about leaving or something like that.
Here we go again... For a season where they were supposed to be the fourth or fifth team because the English technical director left abruptly for the main competition the Italians are doing pretty well
They keep saying the same, despite the Swiss technical director and the German engine designer. But always the same lazy reasoning: "oh, well, Italians are not WASPs... like me". Back to the topic, some ferraristi are always complaining that Ferrari tends to overreact, firing everybody and not allowing the team to develop. But those guys are the same that start whinning first. Ferrari comes from a winless season to become a challenge for Mercedes, the first time in 4 years that someone manages to do that. They´re having less reliability problems than Mercedes in 2016, and the drivers , although they´re not at their best, are what they had available. I don´t care if they don´t win this season if they manage to keep rising the bar next year: that´s how 5 championships in a row are won. I guess some people like to argue for the sake of arguing.
The pace the Ferrari shows could well turn the title around. Yes LH has a lead but the trend is for Ferrari to be faster now. If the race is dry in Suzuka and results are better for Ferrari in terms of reliability that should be a good thing. No team is perfect but reliability Ferrari must hope that they are through a difficult period now. LH must be careful as well. He only has so much he can risk. If pace is the problem for Mercedes he must respond and take a bit more risk to compensate. Careful may not be enough for him. Kimi must be ahead of Bottas.
Lewis is being very careful now in protecting his lead. In the cool down room, Lewis told Max he didn't want to chance getting hit by him. lol
Yup....as I have said before in another thread......risk assessment and damage control when it comes to Max is of high priority with Mercedes. Just let him (Max) go and bring the car home for maximum pts. Max knows this and used it to his advantage.
Why is this amazing? This driver happens to be I a position that he can. What do you suggest? Let Ham and Vet start with 30 sec advancement over the rest as the rest is not in the hunt for a WDC?
Yes Max is out to raise his stock value and is intent on winning, so in theory at this stage, it is better for Kimi and Bottas to give Max a run for his money, but even then it can go wrong... ask Vettel.
I think Ferrari clearly has the fastest car now and Mercedes upgrade appears to be a dud. If Ferrari can sort out their one bad weekend (Singapore was the driver's faults, the cars were good), they'll be in good shape for the stretch run. The red bulls now being competitive is a help as they can take points from the mercs.
Yes agreed, seems to me to be far too many negative doom and gloom Ferrari naysayers, Hamilton has not got this years WDC cut and dried yet.
Vettel is driving as if he is the favored one in the sport like he was in the past. Driving in ways that aren't necessarily against the rules or blatantly careless however doing things that may slightly push the gray areas e.g. pulling up along side Stroll or pinching Max. However Seb is not favored. It seems that now he is not the driver that behind the scenes that maybe other drivers and teams are warned not touch or do not disrupt his race in any way or suffer large consequences. Has he lost some key support in the sport generally speaking? Has he lost respect of the drivers, especially the young ones Stroll and Max? If so was it a result of his balking of Elton? Did it start earlier than that perhaps when he was hit by Kvyat and seemed to intervene in his career? Is it a result of some rumors we've heard about awful attitude from the Scuderia in the pits? Is it some of these things or all of the above ??
I think you are correct in your thinking,plus there is a massive weight on his shoulders from the media in Italy etc. I also think he might be concerned that he could end up like Alonso with no WDC at Ferrari ,with no obvious place to move to...so this has to be his year.
I still think we can win the WDC. Kimi is getting solid. The car is the best on the grid at the moment. Or, the fastest I must say. Lewis had it lucky in the last two races. We still can do this.
There is some of that. In addition I always thought that Seb is insanely fast and talented but lacks race craft. Time and again he has been in trouble when he couldn't run away from the front. Yes he cut through the field yesterday like a knife through butter, but that was on an ultra wide track with the fastest car on the field. Once he hit a formidable challenger as DR the passing came to an abrupt end.
Are you still talking about Vettel or Lewis and Nico last year? It was like this all the years that they can overtake a lot of cars in the back if they need to and once they end up with the others from the RB/Ferrari/Mercedes sextette it is over...nothing new this year...I only do not understand why it is looked at differentely depending on who does it???
Vettel is 36 points behind World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton with five races to go, while Ferrari are 118 points adrift of Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship. Its over folks...... better luck next year.
An overview of the race so its a spoiler as noted in the title of this thread, and this is not a great review of Vettel overall. http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24182/11062777/attitude-and-aggravation-could-cost-sebastian-vettel-the-f1-world-title
By the time he caught DR there was only an outside chance at getting past due to the state of his tires. Nothing to do with DR being a formidable challenger.
