planetf1.com

Yes, i know. That is my point and Kimi was quicker than Vettel at that moment (before vettel converted to 1 stop) and yet people here are critising his pace in the 2nd stint. He was quicker than Vettel who at that point was still driving to a 2 stopper.

Personally, I think some have been a bit rough on both Bottas & Kimi. I didn't vote for either of them as DoD, but then I though Seb & Gasly were the best of the day.

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Forza Ferrari
WCCs = 16
WDCs = 15

My thought is the actual events that unfolded during the last laps of the race. If you watched it, you won't need me to spell it out for your again.

Kimi’s first stint also wasn’t as bad as it seems, he lost a load of time to VSC restart/process because he was 4.3 seconds behind Vettel on lap 5 after only 2 racing laps. He was 7.2 behind at the pit stops. So lost 3 seconds in 13 laps... 0.230 per lap. He is a 39 year old number 2, do people expect him to be within the same tenth as Vettel or beating him?

Kimi would have come out about 28 seconds behind Vettel, 22 laps to go. He had about 1.5 second per lap life advantage and about 0.3 compound advantage. If he didn’t get too greedy using his SS’s up early. He had a great chance to win. Once Vettel hit the cliff, last 4 laps, Kimi would have been all over both Bottas and Vettel.

To put into perspective how slow Vettel was at the end of the race, he was running the same pace he did in the opening laps when he had 100kg of fuel in his car, which is about a 4+ seconds per lap time penalty. About 8 seconds per lap slower than qualifying pace and on the same fuel load. Hamilton took 11 seconds out of Vettel in the last 7 laps whilst himself on old mediums

Could be either one (and you are probably right that it was the call from the pits), but it seems to me that the fight was not taken to Seb early enough.

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Mission WinLater

There are some harsh comments for Bottas on here, in my opinion. Ideally he should have been asked to push a little earlier on so he'd have more time to pressure Vettel. I do think that he dropped the ball a little with the aborted attempt into T1 on the final lap - with hindsight, he wasn't really close enough to try something there and may have been better off giving himself a better drive out of T2 / 3 and a run on Vettel into T4. But I would not consider that a 'choke' in any sense.
I think that Vettel also deserves huge credit for managing a car with pretty much shot tyres in those final two laps. Great race to watch. Also, wishing a speedy recovery for the poor mechanic who broke his leg.

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Where I'm going, I don't need roads

Bottas should ask Rosberg for some pointers on how to divebomb a Ferrari at Bahrain

http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?page ... o%20Alonso

More I think of it, Kimi would have won. Vettels tyres fell off with 12 laps to go. Alonso ran the final stint on SS and even in a Mclaren was about 0.8-1.0 a lap quicker than Vettel. Kimi would have been taking 2+ second per lap during this phase and surely passed both Vettel and Bottas on there old tyres. He likely would have caught Bottas with about 8 laps to go and Vettel with about 6 laps to go.

I get the feeling bottas doesn't have that "throw the damn thing into the corner and bloody pray the other guy backs off" type moves Hamilton ricciardo and sometimes even vettel does, I think he has be be 100% sure it will stick before commitment, nothing wrong with that..but its not the stuff of champions is it? If it had been Hamilton in that position..you can be sure he woulda at least tried a few proving looks or even an opportunistic dive, not saying it would work, just that some drivers excell in a scrap..others prefer the racing to be clinical

Agree. I dont think Kimi's 1st stint was bad at all especially when taking into consideration that, in order to preserve your tires and engine temperatures, you`re better off at keeping a distance of about 3 seconds back from the car in front. Had he kept 2nd place on the race start, he would have been much closer to Vettel I think.

Here's the mechanic:


Source - www.imgur.com

Have a speedy recovery.

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Feel The Fourth

Yeah and that's fine.

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Räikkönen - Vettel - Bottas
Thank you Nico - You´re the champ!

PF1 Pick 10 Competition 2016: CHAMPION (2 wins, 8 podiums)

I think it was Mercedes who made the call when to start pushing. But I agree he should've started a lap or two sooner.

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Räikkönen - Vettel - Bottas
Thank you Nico - You´re the champ!

PF1 Pick 10 Competition 2016: CHAMPION (2 wins, 8 podiums)

Interesting
Makes what happened even more a shame.

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Räikkönen - Vettel - Bottas
Thank you Nico - You´re the champ!

PF1 Pick 10 Competition 2016: CHAMPION (2 wins, 8 podiums)

Do you honestly see Kimi overtaking Hamilton, Vettel and Bottas? He never looks like even trying to overtake anyone in a Mercedes or Ferrari usually. I don't see it tbh.

That was a fun race to watch. I think everyone underestimated these tires and how much of a beating they could take. It's a bit unfortunate that it didn't really matter which ties you used out there. There seems to be very little difference between the tires and they all seem to last forever.

Hats off to Vettel for doing what he had to do to hold on to the win after his hand was forced for that early pit stop. I do think Mercedes seemed to make the smarter strategic calls but the tires just never burned out the way you'd expect.

In terms of the championship; it's a great start to the year for Vettel and Ferrari. Good job of limiting damage from Hamilton as well to walk away with a podium but he'll really want that first win of the season in China.

Are people going to still claim Mercedes are dominant this year? I wonder...

I hope he will be alright soon :>

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eeee

Actually, this race could so easily have had a different result. The Mercs looked very quick in race trim - and let's not forget they both had the slower tyre on - and they didn't miss pole by much. You'd normally say Hamilton is quicker than Bottas and Bottas missed the front row by two hundredths of a second - if Lewis had been on his game and hadn't had the penalty, things may not have gone Ferrari's way. I think the result isn't necessarily a reflection of performance.

I still think Mercedes have the upper hand, but I agree it's too early to call the season for sure

Ferrari and Mercedes are very close and perhaps Mercedes is even slightly quicker, but clearly Mercedes doesn't seem dominant.

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eeee

Thumbs up for a hefty compensation.

Glad he's not in a worse condition. I watched the replay several times and that leg looks to bend in at least four directions.

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Regardless of what happens, this is the view that you will espouse.

Wow, I'm impressed, read the whole thread and there was (almost) no-one claiming Bottas should have moved over for Hamilton to maximise his WDC points.

So much for the Merc party mode eh, or is Bottas not allowed to use it?

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Shoot999: "And anyone who puts a Y on the end of his name as a nickname should be punched in the face repeatedly."

So glad they did not show the Kimi incident up-close. The injury must be graphic.

Just look at the replay. Dislocated knee, massive ligament damage, and probable fractures to the fib and tib. The replay was absolutly gruesome as the left rear ran up and over the outside of the mechanics left leg. You can see the knee buckle inward. OUCH!!!

There was more of a chance for Bottas to overtake Vettel than concede a place for Hamilton I guess. Hamilton finished something like 7 secs behind Bottas I think, if Bottas slowed down for him on the second race of the year, then I'd expect an outcry far worse than Austria '02.

Based on my own humble experience with lower leg injuries, and though it immediatly was obvious to me, confirmed fib and tib damage (bbc.com), and I suspect there was associated ligament and tendon damage as a result of the lateral pressure on the knee. I would also be surprised if the meniscus came out unscathed but needless to say there will be a ton of soft tissue floating around that knee joint along with the double spiral fracture.

So, assuming 2 clean breaks, a minimum 4 hours of surgery to repair the leg, a dozen screws and 2-4 titanium plates to hold the bones in place, 8 weeks off the leg in a cast with an additional 4 weeks of rehab before crutches are no longer needed and another 4-6 weeks before the muscle atrophy in the calf and thigh can be reversed and overcome. Sayyyyyy 2 more months to relearn how to walk with a balanced gate. He'll right as rain in 6 months although when it rains, during change of seasons or in the cold he'll feel it.

If he's a golfer he'll be moving the ball right to left now as the weight shift to his left leg will need to be relearned and reprogrammed into his noggin.

Oh, and orthopedic surgeons have absolutly NO idea what a countersink bit is so the screw heads will be a possible irritant.

Mercedes strategy team is truly flawed. This was evident since they lost that race for Lewis in Monaco a few years back. This year has been a double dip of dodgy strategy decisions for Merc.

With that kind of speed advantage it would be candy from a baby. He would have been 2.5 seconds quicker. If he managed his tyres well then he would have been about 3.0 seconds a lap quicker than the pace Vettel was running the last 5-6 laps and 2 seconds quicker than the pace he ran the 13-14 laps before that.

Vettel was in the high 35’s at this phase, Hamilton was low 34’s. Kimi would have been in the low 33’s easily, dipping into the 32’s.

On reflection;

1) The Mercedes race pace was very good for me. Bottas on SS held on to Vettel and seemed to have better tyre life, reeling him in at the end of the stint. Surprising to me, I expected Vettel to pull a gap

2) Mercedes struggled on the softest tyre in qualifying. This years SS is last years US and when this was used, Ferrari were strong

3) Whilst Bottas should have got Vettel, he had about 1.5 second per lap advantage over the last 2-3 laps. Let’s remember he himself was on 36 lap old mediums and heavily worn tyres too.

4) Both numbers 2 excelled today and were basically at a very similar level to the lead driver. Kimi was 6.2 behind Vettel at 60% race distance and seemed more comfortable on the soft. Bottas had an awesome first stint and a very good second one. Hamilton edged him ever so slightly on race pace, but its one of the few races Bottas didn’t look bad on at least one compound.

5) Mercedes suffered for the 2nd race running by having the 2nd car out of the tactical battle at the front. Hamilton was 14 seconds behind by the time he got up to 4th. This allowed Ferrari to split there strategies with no risk of losing any places. If Lewis was up front in that pack, he could have gone onto a 2 stop and maybe won or at least had more options to win the race. If Kimi had stayed in the race, Bottas would have been fighting two Ferraris on different strategies come the end.

Bahrain usually produces such good races that the season opener should be here instead of Melbourne.

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Feel The Fourth

Didn't think it was worth creating a thread so will post here instead.

One thought - were Ferrari going to bring Seb in, but couldn't because of the mechanic issue?

He was there some time before they moved him - could it be that that forced Ferrari to one stop ?

We know they have had multiple issues with tyres blowing at the limit of Pirelli's recommended life over the years - and they went well past that.

Thoughts?

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Should I grow a beard?

Just for everyone to see. The tyre stints for all drivers during the race:


Source - www.imgur.com

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Feel The Fourth

They weren't dominant in Bahrain, that's for sure. But they were in Australia. Question is which one is the anomaly?

I'd say that view is based on what happens.

Credit to arkady_ on reddit.

That last picture illustrates very well, thanks. So Vettel not only had the longest stint on the softs, but the longest stint on any tyre. But yeah, let's just say his tyre management was poor.

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Räikkönen - Vettel - Bottas
Thank you Nico - You´re the champ!

PF1 Pick 10 Competition 2016: CHAMPION (2 wins, 8 podiums)

I do believe his management was good, but there is no evidence that others couldn't have done this. As no one else tried and failed we can't know how he compares to others, or how Ferrari itself compares...

To be fair, that could be said for most of the great drives in history.

Yup. Most great drives come from the person pushing the limits, and lesser drives come from being more conservative rather than just messing up. People are much more likely to lose time through being safe, than lose the race through taking it too far (Max!? MAX!!!).