Posts by shadowhawk24

steelmaker83 said:Anyone got a decent chart showing the pit stop windows and tire degradation?

http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?page=results&gp=896

There's a whole lot of data here. If you're looking for pit stop details—specifically which lap they came in and what tires were used—just select "head to head" and pick your drivers. You'll find everything you need at the bottom of the page. 😉

Susan Alvarez94 said:The point of comparing a Formula 1 car to a NASCAR stock car isn't the machinery itself, but rather the specific circumstances surrounding their respective victories. Of course. However, I refuse to deify Vettel simply because he secured three consecutive championships. Winning titles doesn't inherently make him some incomparable icon. I am merely pointing out that there exists a subset of fanatics who cheer for Vettel by waving his championship count in people's faces, refusing to engage with any other logic. Why should I—or anyone else—be prevented from arguing that another driver might possess superior raw talent compared to Vettel? Is it possible the technical setup is so hyper-specific that if we swapped Alonso and Vettel into their current cars right now, neither would even sniff a podium finish? My contention is this: in the modern era, it has become nearly impossible to isolate an individual driver's skill from the performance of the machine they are piloting.
Furthermore, I maintain that the regulations have been repeatedly manipulated specifically to break up periods of dominance—first targeting Ferrari, and subsequently Red Bull. None of these interventions serve the integrity of the sport. If you don't have the capital to develop millions of dollars worth of engine components annually, you shouldn't be expected to contend for points in F1. The same applies to engine development and the various other technical arms races.

Look, I get what you were trying to say with that comparison, it just came out a bit sideways. 😉
I’m not playing advocate for one driver over the other. I am stating a fact: World Championships are all equal in the sense that they are earned. There are no "fake" or "real" champions; there is only the person standing on the top step at the end of the season. That person is the champion. Period.
I am not claiming Alonso is better or worse than Vettel, or vice versa. Championship titles don't actually prove who is faster or more talented; they are merely rewards for a perfectly synchronized package—a top-tier car paired with a driver capable of extracting every ounce of performance from it that season to secure the title.
Formula 1 is a sport where you can't strictly decouple the influence of the car from the influence of the driver. You can't look back and definitively say which driver carried the team or which car was carrying the driver, or which machine was dominant at any given moment while a driver's skill kept them at the front.
We try to analyze all of this through the lens of a teammate's performance, practice times, or qualifying splits, but we are talking about razor-thin margins. It’s incredibly difficult to judge, especially when you factor in the sheer amount of "fan objectivity" currently polluting the conversation.
Alonso and Vettel belong to that elite tier of drivers—along with a few others on the grid—who are ready to snatch a title the moment they are handed a competitive car. They are the drivers every single team in the paddock wants. As for which one of them is truly the best? We probably won't know until we put them all in identical machinery and let them race.

shadowstag10 said:Look, I'm not gonna quote the whole damn thing...

Sure, everyone gets a shot at designing a top-tier machine, but—and here's the kicker—not everyone actually gets to sit behind the wheel of one. That's the whole point.

Hold on. Formula 1 is fundamentally a team sport. Everyone is the architect of their own fate here; in this context, every single team builds their car specifically for their own needs. They have to provide their drivers with high-quality machinery if they expect any actual results on the track.

In my view, Vettel was elite material—a winner through and through. He took what was in his hands and leveraged it to stack up those World Championships three years running. Are his titles somehow less significant than, say, Alonso's run at Renault? I highly doubt it.🙂

Susan Alvarez94 said:Since when did the FIA start bugging the radio communications? If they had, certain drivers would have been exposed. That said, nobody can deny that the Red Bull racing machines have been the class of the field over the last three years. It essentially cheapens the prestige of winning a championship when the hardware is that dominant.
It reminds me of when the grandson of the former President took first place in the Formula Ford series driving a Ford. That doesn't mean he was the most complete driver in that category that year; it just means he was sitting in a car that was twice as fast as everyone else on the track.

Give me a break. How exactly does this diminish the championship title? Sure, maybe it takes a little bite out of the pride of the rival fanbases, but let’s get one thing straight: Formula 1 is a team sport. Period. To win a championship, you need every single component of the car to be flawless, and more importantly, you need every single person behind the scenes developing that machine to be on point. It isn't just about the driver; it's about the entire organization. If you don't get that, you don't get the trophy. Simple as that.
So, what exactly is Vettel supposed to say to Newey now? "Look, old man, stop wasting your time refining this car. Just crank up the speed so I can win some amateur dirt track race and have every single fan on the planet validate me as the 'real' champion." Please. Give me a break.
Ever since Formula 1 first kicked off, there’s been this endless, exhausting debate over who actually deserves the title of the greatest driver on the grid. It’s always the same tired arguments—people bickering about who’s a "real" champion and who just got lucky with a faster car. Honestly, it’s been happening since day one, and frankly, it's never going to change.
Look, let’s get one thing straight: the person who racks up the most points by the end of the season is the champion. Period. They earned it, they deserve the title, and their name gets etched into the history books. All that noise about "moral victories" and "what could have been"? It’s a joke. People talk about those things for a season or two, maybe, but then it all just evaporates. In the end, nobody gives a damn about the runner-up or the guy who played it clean but lost. History only remembers the winners and the champions. Everything else is just white noise.
Let’s get one thing straight: I am not some obsessive Vettel fanboy. Far from it. If I had to pick between him and Alonso, Alonso wins my vote every single time. But honestly? Watching this constant, relentless badgering of the kid is getting incredibly grating. It’s genuinely irritating to see people constantly picking at a guy who managed to clinch three consecutive world championships as the youngest driver ever to pull it off. Just let it go already.
Sure, in my opinion, they’ve got the fastest car on the grid right now. But let's be real—doesn't everyone start the season with the exact same theoretical opportunity to build a championship winner? It's all well and good to claim you've cracked the code, but we'll see how that holds up once the real pressure starts.
Honestly, comparing that Felicia Cup nonsense to Bembur is like trying to enter a Formula 1 car into a local go-kart race. It’s just fundamentally absurd.

stormybadger8 said:Not really. He was pulling those times consistently for about ten laps straight, and Kimi and di Resta weren't even on significantly older tires than he was.
He actually clocked faster times than Kimi. When Kimi pitted early—way sooner than expected just to jump di Resta—and came back out on fresh tires, that’s when he actually built up that massive gap over him...

So yeah, you're right, the analyst totally missed the mark there. Kimi honestly didn't have a realistic shot at fighting for the win... I actually think if they went with a three-stop strategy, he might have ended up behind Grosjean and di Resta anyway.
And I agree, given where they started on the grid, this was absolutely the absolute limit for Lotus.

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't obsessively tracking the Vettel-Kimi split because Kimi wasn't even battling him for position, so your take on the lap times could very well be accurate.
The reality is that they were on different strategies, so they had to drive differently. Clearly, both Kimi and di Resta were hitting "target times" just to make that two-stop tactic viable.
As for Kimi attempting a three-stop? That wouldn't have been a "maybe"—he almost certainly would have finished behind Grosjean and di Resta. Grosjean had two fresh sets of mediums left, which allowed him to hunt down and catch di Resta, eventually finishing about two seconds ahead of him.
Therefore, this specific tactic was the only way to pull off a result like this. Any other move would have likely seen them stuck in a scrap with Hamilton, Webber, Perez, Alonso, and Rosberg.

stormybadger8 said:Honestly, I'd rather just be buried in ash.😁

😍

Especially those "experts" claiming Vettel can't even overtake.😍

BTW, here's the text:👍
I love it when things are written objectively, without the nonsense...
And Jerga is right—I'm not exactly losing sleep over Alonso's stellar drive and being only about 30 seconds behind...
Even though those losers from Red Bull were busy tearing Vettel apart again.🙂
He could have been way faster. To me, the best parts of the race were hearing people whine about him hitting 1:40 while he was out there flat-out smashing 1:39.0s, running laps two seconds faster than Kimi and di Resta.😁
Then there was that ultra-fast lap at the end, followed by all that whining about pit stops—just shut up already.😍

Though I really am bummed Alonso had that breakdown.😢
But man, watching them hunt him down on track would have been pure bliss.🙂
And I'm dead certain Lotus would've stayed far behind, because those two would've been going full throttle, chasing each other the entire race.😳

I have to say, I can't exactly agree with everything Jason Campbell70 is throwing out there. He’s definitely not hitting the mark on every single point.
He actually went out on a limb there, claiming he wanted to see Kimi running the exact same strategy as Vettel just to give him a fair shot at applying some serious pressure.
If he’d actually played it smart and stuck to that strategy, he might have had a shot at third place. And honestly? That’s being generous. Given the absolute state of his tire sets, I wouldn't have bet a dime on him even getting close. ☕
Look, let’s get the facts straight regarding that gap. When Vettel was clocking those 1:39s, Kimi and Di Resta were lagging by a full two seconds. People love to speculate, but it’s simple math: it came down to the rubber. If I recall correctly, the latter two were basically riding on dead tires at the end of their stints, while Vettel was cruising on much fresher compounds. It wasn't magic; it was just a blatant difference in tire strategy.
Of course, that doesn't exactly take away from the sheer raw speed Vettel was pulling off out there.
It’s a complete no-brainer that Alonso and Vettel would have absolutely smoked them. They were starting from significantly better positions than Lotus ever had a chance of seeing. It wasn't even close.
What Kimi and Romain pulled off today was nothing short of a miracle. Seriously, given where they lined up on the grid and the absolute chaos of this race, that kind of performance is about as close to perfection as you're ever going to get. It was the absolute ceiling of what was possible.

stormybadger8 said:Not sure if you caught it on film, but Massa’s tires literally disintegrated—not once, but twice.😲
It’s high time someone had a serious word with those Pirelli clowns.🙄

Three sets of tires basically exploding in a single weekend.👎
And then they have the nerve to lecture us about "safety" in F1. Total BS.🙄

Man, what happens when this goes sideways at a track like 186 miles? If someone actually gets hurt because of this, it's on them.😳

Look, it’s one thing if the tires wear down and you just lose pace. But the way Massa and Hamilton's tires completely fell apart? That is straight-up dangerous.😳

Look, I saw the whole thing. Obviously, I wasn't expecting him to be fighting for a podium after two blowouts, but my point still stands: he simply wasn't up to the task.
The Ferrari is clearly fast, but it doesn't always show its full potential in Massa's hands compared to how Alonso handles it.
As for the tire failures themselves, I’m leaning toward thinking the car's setup played a role in the punctures. It’s hard for me to swallow the idea that he suffered two identical tire failures during the same race.

A solid race to round out the Sunday afternoon.
Plenty of decent wheel-to-wheel action on track and some clean overtakes.
It’s a shame Alonso dropped out of the fight for the win so early, but honestly, that’s just how it goes—today it’s him, in three weeks it’ll be someone else, and the cycle continues.
As for Massa, I don't even know what to say; he seems to have a chronic issue with these tires, but more than that, I think he just choked. He seems to lose his nerve the second things stop going according to plan.

Vettel took a well-earned victory. That opening battle with Alonso was top-tier, though it's a pity Alonso fell away so we didn't get to see the conclusion. All things considered, a deserved win for Vettel.

Kimi—well, what can you say? He proved once again that he’s fast, consistent, and that Lotus is absolutely killing it with tire management. I’m already looking forward to Austin; if it looks anything like last year or today, I don't see any reason why he won't be fighting for the win.

Grosjean finally got his shot and he took it. Moving from eleventh to third through brilliant driving, plenty of overtakes, sharp battles, and a perfect tactical call.
Lotus, Kimi, and Romain 🙏 🙏

Three-week break 🙂

stormybadger8 said:Penalties are just dumb in general... especially all that nonsense involving gearboxes and other garbage...
They should just let them race like they do in IndyCar or whatever, and only hand out penalties for actual bullshit—like when someone intentionally rams another driver off the track and it's crystal clear what happened.

As for DRS, personally, I think they should allow it anywhere on the track, just limit it by time—kind of like how KERS worked for a set duration per lap...
That way, every car on the track has it, and they can manage their usage to defend against an attack in a DRS zone...
Maybe keep that specific DRS zone where you get a 2 or 3-second boost if you're within a second of the guy in front.

I agree on the penalties. Only punish the heavy-handed stupidity and the total nonsense; as for these gearbox changes and technicalities, if there has to be a penalty, just dock one point from the Constructors' Championship.
Regarding DRS, it isn't quite as simple as KERS. KERS gives you that instant burst at the push of a button, whereas the advantage from DRS comes from the aerodynamic drag reduction on the wing, which is most effective on straights where you have a constant flow of air hitting the rear wing.
Even if they allowed it based on time, they'd probably still use it mostly on the straights for the reasons I mentioned, and the rate of crashes and broken cars would almost certainly skyrocket.
Take these rookies, for instance; Gutierrez slammed into Sutil at the last race because he lost downforce during braking, so go ahead, give them DRS to use wherever they want.

Regardless, we saw plenty of interesting overtakes outside of the DRS zones today, so it’s not all doom and gloom.

Olivia Martin12 said:Cultists are such a joke... they'll find some way to spin even a crushing defeat into a victory if they try hard enough 🤣

🤣 🤣

Raymond Anderson4 said:Romain Grosjean is struggling with mid-tier tires. I don't see him catching up to Mario DiResta easily, and even if he does manage to overtake, those tires are going to give him a hard time in the final laps.
DiResta definitely has the upper hand here.

Not happening. Grosjean ran the medium stint last time and didn't break a sweat, so I'm betting he cruises through to the finish line with these tires just fine.☕

Ford 🙏 🤣

Jerry Rogers6 said:

It’s officially kicking off—every man for himself, goddammit. 🙄🤣🤣

🤣🤣🤣

I was tied up all day yesterday so I didn't get a chance to catch qualifying, but I see there were a few surprises.
First off, seeing Nico sitting at the halfway mark—I definitely didn't see that coming. Credit where credit is due, though I suspect he’ll struggle to climb higher than third during the actual race, and honestly, maybe I'm being too harsh on him.
As for Ferrari, for heaven's sake, if they don't walk away with the win today—assuming everyone else performs—it’s an absolute failure. They’ve got two cars on different strategies sitting within the top four. Given they almost always nail their starts, I wouldn't be shocked if both Alonso and Masa are fighting for a top three spot by the end of the first turn. All things considered, if they actually play this smart, they have the potential to absolutely crush the competition.
Vettel had a solid qualifying session; I see no reason why he shouldn't be right in the thick of the fight for the win, or at the very least, a podium finish.

Then there's Lotus. What on earth happened to them? Look, let's not dwell on a mediocre qualifying session; they just need to go out there and push as hard as possible during the race. Their race pace is solid, they tend to be quite gentle on their tires, and they usually have a decent start, so they should be hunting for a massive haul of points.
They managed to pull an incredible result out of a similar situation last year, so why couldn't they do it again this time?

nimblesurfer17 said:It looks like Rebecca Fox4 was having a bit of fun around 4:00 AM...😬
I have a feeling the phrase "this ridiculous competition" was actually picked up from the football subforum...😁 It feels to me like this all really started with that little bit of back-and-forth right there on the Real-Barac line—just some unnecessary tension at the start.😁

I agree—it’s definitely worth highlighting! 🤣
I honestly think there’s a massive connection here to the team dynamic and the overall vibe—you know? It feels like Lotus has this much more relaxed atmosphere, where they aren't constantly being squeezed by endless sponsor obligations and all that corporate noise. My gut feeling is that at Ferrari, he just felt incredibly frustrated—it really seemed like he was constantly battling against the organization itself.🙂

Regarding Boldt... I have to agree with you there. Having drivers like Alonso and Seb on the grid is definitely an advantage—but let’s be honest, that’s only because their budgets and development resources are leagues ahead of what Lotus is working with. It's a different ballgame when you're comparing those massive operations to a team like Lotus.

But we aren't giving up just yet...🙂

That’s exactly where my head is at. Honestly, Lotus is the only outfit on the grid right now that can actually hand him a decent car while giving him enough breathing room to escape all the sheer nonsense that gets under Kimi's skin. It's always the same kind of mindless, technical bullshit that has absolutely nothing to do with actual driving. 😬

Assuming there’s no white flag being waved, we fight until the very end. The next target? We set our sights on Bahrain. 🙂

We’re looking at a dominant performance from Lotus here. I’m calling it now: we should see a fight for a second win for Kimi Räikkönen, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Romain Grosjean fighting his way into the top five as well. ☕

Rachel Ward4 said:Exactly! Either you run into some pissed-off loser arguing with himself (not even talking about today's race, just generally) or you hit something like this (referring to today's comments).
Okay, he won. It’s not the first or last time in the last few years. How did he win? Unbelievable, but he crossed the finish line first just like every other winner before him! What a freaking miracle, never seen anything like it—the greatest achievement in human history after the invention of the wheel and the alphabet!
For example, Vettel finished 4th while Alonso ended up 4th, right behind Vitaly Petrov, in a championship fight! There's zero point in listing more.
Who's the crazy one here? I don't even root for anyone because there's always someone better. I've been watching this phenomenon for a while now, staying quiet so some little punk doesn't think I'm entertaining them🙂, and I can't believe what I'm reading.
I knew an explosion of emotion from Alonso fans would follow. Fine, whatever, he won deservedly, but all this constant mentioning of Vettel has turned into a straight-up complex! If he isn't better, Vettel definitely isn't worse than Alonso—as a person, let alone as a driver. I haven't seen this much insecurity and need to act tough by trashing others since those old war movies.
Whoever said this forum isn't relevant anymore is right. Alonso, the unsung, misunderstood, unfortunate superman on the level of Michelangelo, invoking heights and gods... it's not even funny anymore. What is wrong with you guys? Based on your description of today's race, you'd compare him to van Dam in the first kickboxing movie! Like, he's blind and abandoned, but still the winner.🤮
There's no point arguing here anymore, seriously. The comments are the only things deserving of such "divine" adjectives, but in a negative way. How else do you explain a comment like "Kimi became a total crybaby"? Is this some kind of joke? Think about the Finn driving for Lotus who finished 2nd today because he started 2nd in a car just as good as the winner's? And that's based on that one sentence about Perez? The Perez who did what he did to him?
greetings and enjoy, the forum is yours☕

Everything said there is quite nice, and I more or less agree with it all.
But honestly, why get worked up over it? I haven't been an active poster here for very long, but I've been lurking for ages, and I've realized there is no cure for this.
You just move past it. You ignore them. You feel a bit annoyed 😬 when you see they've gone way too far...
Why would anyone give up on discussions or stop exchanging ideas with the decent crowd here—people you can actually talk to and analyze everything with—just because of a group that worships one driver so intensely they basically "terrorize" everyone else?
I don't want it to seem like I'm discriminating against Fernando Alonso fans or saying they aren't worthy; far from it. It's just that some people love to go overboard, whether they are building up their idol or spitting on his rivals. They do it despite all the effort put in to produce actual good, intelligent posts. 😬

I'd love to see a day where Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso swap seats just to see what happens to the fan dynamic on this forum. Who would be the true loyalists and who would be the frauds? Who would be called the maestro and who would be labeled a total fake?😁

Jason Campbell70 said:Given Hamilton's pole position and that third-place finish, I’m expecting a pretty "cheerful" piece from Jergović's pen. 😁

Hmm, I honestly can't say if he'll bother dissecting Alonso's girlfriend and their dynamic this time around, much like how he previously tore apart Hamilton's relationship with his lady love. 🤷

Jason Campbell70 said:Don't forget—he tore through the competition on that track. Some of them more than once. 😂

Honestly, I’m still rubbing my eyes in disbelief. 😁
Massa. 🙏

Not to mention that Ferrari’s pit wall clearly blew his race today.

Back in the distant days of 2008, when Fernando returned from that disastrous McLaren adventure, during that first race in Australia driving for Renault—I think Blaž said Alonso smelled blood, that he was just flying around the track looking for someone to hunt down...
Ever since then, whenever Alonso enters that specific hunting mode, that phrase just sticks in my head. That’s exactly what we saw today. He saw the path to victory, decided it was his, and simply went out and took it. It doesn't matter if the car is good or bad; he focuses on one thing and one thing only: winning.

We'll have to see how this unfolds for the rest of the season. It's far too early for any real predictions, but an Alonso like this—backed by decent team support and actual competent tactics—is a top-tier contender.

Samuel Ruiz4 said:Kimi lost his shot at the win because of that mess at the start, but honestly, he still did alright. Lewis Hamilton really squeezed everything out of that car. Massa was just his usual disappointing self, and man, Romain really let me down... he actually managed to clear Nico Rosberg and looked like he might snag a top four finish, but then the pit stops happened and he just vanished. I definitely need to go back and watch the replay...

Regarding Romain, I wouldn't be quite so harsh. He's been scoring points in every single one of the first three races, and he hasn't been involved in any incidents. If he just keeps doing that, he's fine. Kimi's current form might make it look like Romain isn't hitting his full potential, but you can expect him to finally find his rhythm with the car and break into the top five eventually.
Besides, he was constantly getting stuck in traffic today, caught between cars on different strategies with zero clean air in front of him.
The guy has raw speed; he just needs to wait for the pieces to fall into place. Until then, consistently picking up points isn't a bad way to live. 😉

A solid race to kick off the day 😁

Kudos to Fernando Alonso and Ferrari for a performance like that. It’s become clear that when Alonso sees a window for victory, he rarely lets it slip through his fingers. Phenomenal driving, impressive race pace, and his tire management was spot on. Truly an elite performance. 🙏 🙏

As for Kimi—look, I know I’m biased—but man, hats off to him. That poor start definitely wasn't his fault, and he spent the entire race fighting through traffic while wrestling a car with a visibly damaged front wing and a busted nose cone. 🙏
If they keep this up, and if Lotus shows up to Bahrain with the same form they had last year, we might actually have something to talk about. 👋

Hamilton squeezed every bit of potential out of that car. It was obvious he didn't have the raw pace to challenge Alonso for the win, but all things considered, it's a great result for both him and Mercedes. 👍

Looking at the rest: Daniel Ricciardo drove a beautiful race, Hulk held his own quite nicely, Jenson Button was solid, and Sebastian Vettel also put in a good shift. Personally, I think if Vettel hadn't pitted a lap earlier, he might have been sniffing around for second place, but even this is more than a decent showing.

Webber... well, everything that could go wrong this weekend went wrong. Honestly, I felt for him when that wheel came off (though it would’ve been much more entertaining if Vettelko had picked it up instead 😬).
He needs a massive result in Bahrain to get his head back in the game; a win would certainly do him some good. 😁

And finally, I really hope we don't see any of those ridiculous post-race penalties. It would be a total shame if they decided to mess with the final standings.

Everyone seems to be obsessing over the tires lately, so I figured I’d weigh in on the subject with a bit of substance. 🤣 🤣