Posts by steelmaker83

It’s about time we picked up a couple of Ferraris.

hollowcanyon6 said:They're in the hospital. Even Kobe Bryant stopped by to check on them.

View on imgur

Pathetic.

Michael Lee4 said:How are the mechanics holding up? I assume it’s nothing too catastrophic?

Exactly. What's the deal with the mechanics?

Emily Patel64 said:I mean, with all the haters floating around here, why would you be surprised?😁

@stin Đo is a class act, through and through.🙂

There aren't actually that many haters here, honestly. Fewer than most people would expect.

Tensions have definitely ramped up since the start of the season. It’s obvious.
There's some healthy banter going on, which is fine.

Besides, what kind of person actually spends their time hating someone?

Everyone here is busy playing expert, yet nobody has bothered to congratulate the number two driver on his win. Given that he’s up against the best driver on the grid today, he’s the only one with two victories this season.

Now we just wait for Sebastian Vettel to throw a little tantrum so we can all pretend there's some mysterious misunderstanding about why Mark Webber's car ended up in the gravel...

Ferrari, on the other hand, clearly enjoys learning from its mistakes in slow motion. They really like to make sure the lesson sticks before moving on.

stormybadger8 said:I’m calling it now: Driver X finishes ahead of Lewis Hamilton.☕

The bus finally showed up, right after he spent an entire lap circling it.

Roger Wright94 said:And who exactly are you representing? Which interest group do you belong to?

It’s all right there in the picture.🤷

Nathan Jones98 said:Claiming Red Bull Racing treats their drivers as equals is a joke, just as it would be at Ferrari.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they start sabotaging Mark Webber. He’s having a solid season and maintaining a pretty decent level of consistency—how many times has he finished 4th now?
Mark Webber will probably end up remembered just like Rubens Barrichello: driving a great car, but never standing a chance against a teammate in a powerhouse squad.
It seems like while Fernando Alonso is busy making sure Felipe Massa keeps his seat at Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel simply can't wrap his head around the idea that his teammate might actually be better than him for once. Ego is a hell of a thing, and it's going to be a problem for a long time.

Webber is lightyears ahead of Rubens...

I’m just waiting for Mark Webber to donate his parts to the number one driver again.☕

Maybe the alternator this time?

stormybadger8 said:The issue is how razor-thin the margins are between teams during qualifying. It means almost everyone making it into the Third Quarter ends up burning through their entire set of option tires.

It’s easy to play general after the dust settles, but if we're looking at big blunders, one of Red Bull Racing's biggest mistakes was sending Sebastian Vettel back out for a second run in the Third Quarter.
If they hadn't done that and had just saved that fresh, unused set of SS tires for him, they would have had a massive advantage over the rest of the field.

True, but they were gunning for pole, and they weren't certain they could grab it—not if he had to go out for a second time.

Ever since China, every single win has come from pole position...

stormybadger8 said:And honestly, who’s actually going to complain?
Between stock options, going public, and team bosses sitting on supervisory boards (MCM, Red Bull Racing, Ferrari), they’ve all seen plenty of cash. Plus, who knows what promises the new Concorde is throwing their way.
New fat contracts are being signed via the Sky/BBC/Bernie connection; just look at the massive money in the UK, where there's a £15 million per season bump compared to 2011.
Now, the exact same deal is already being cooked up through the Sky/RAI route.
Viewership is likely still climbing, the money is flowing, and the season looks better than ever right before the stock sale—perfect timing, isn't it?😁

Lotus, Williams, and Sauber are killing it:
At the end of 2011:
5 Renault 73
7 Sauber-Ferrari 44
9 Williams-Cosworth 5
2012 Season so far:😳
3 Lotus-Renault 108
6 Sauber-Ferrari 58
7 Williams-Renault 44
Realistically, this is a win-win for them, and nobody is happier.
They’re already performing better than last year, and we aren't even halfway through the season.😳

The only ones with any reason to be annoyed are Mercedes, because of the prize money/bonuses and the sudden noise about how they just showed up out of nowhere.
But realistically, they don't have much to whine about either; they've already grabbed a win, and Rosberg is a title contender who I can see actually taking it in the end.

STR—if the boss says there's a piece of the pie, they'll get it.
Force India—they won't even show up on the broadcast if anyone actually bites.😬

Caterham, Marussia, HRT, or whatever else is out there might try to make a move, but nobody is taking them seriously. Bernie could easily buy them out or just kick them to the curb, and I wouldn't be surprised if he just tosses them a couple of points this season to keep them quiet.

Then again, just imagine the absolute fiasco if it turned out the drivers were working with the old guard to orchestrate all of this...

It would be a total meltdown. A complete collapse of everything built over the years. I highly doubt anyone would take that kind of risk.

Most likely, Bernie just sat in the Pirelli chair and gave them very clear instructions on what kind of tires he expects. Pirelli followed orders—maybe a little too well.

But I’m telling you, I’ll give them five more races to figure out how these tires behave. If things keep happening like this after that, then I'll start asking real questions.

Keep in mind that when they list something under "used," it includes tires that have only completed a single installation lap. Ferrari always puts Alonso on those types of tires, presumably just to scrub off that initial surface layer, likely to help with warming them up.

stormybadger8 said:And if that’s the only thing that seems off, just consider this:
Kimi is seeing such a massive drop in pace in that same Lotus because of tire degradation that it’s actually hard to believe. If my memory serves me right, it starts happening after about 30 laps.
What’s actually interesting is just how much better Vettel's tires held up during that race. It really suggests that Red Bull has the edge over Lotus when it comes to tire management.🤔
Maybe there’s an argument to be made about that infamous hole on the Red Bull and the lack of brake and wheel cooling this time around, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that's the sole reason for the result.
Vettel is putting down fastest laps in Monaco on those exact same tires, and he's doing it after about 40 laps.

Alonso, Vettel, and Button are all struggling with tire management right now, which is pretty wild considering they’re widely regarded as some of the absolute best out there when it comes to preserving rubber.😕

Something is fundamentally off here. To be blunt, Ferrari isn't exactly a tire-killer, and they certainly don't compare to the Lotus when it comes to rubber degradation. I honestly have no clue where that logic is coming from.
Look, it might seem like a small gap, but we're talking about a two-second difference per lap while running on identical tire sets. That’s not nothing.😵
The whole situation involving Red Bull Racing and Sebastian Vettel is quite literally a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
Vettel put in 21 laps on the red tires with a full fuel load during practice, clocking consistent 1:19s. He pulled into the pits without his lap times dropping off at all—in fact, that final lap was actually faster than the ones before it.

And then, out of nowhere, his tires just completely gave up on him in lap 16.😕
I honestly have no clue what kind of nonsense you're talking about. I don't follow.

It looks like everyone is being handed the exact same set of tires, but there's a catch:
Three distinct yellow compounds available: one optimized for raw pace, one built for endurance, and one sitting right in the middle.
Three distinct red compounds: one optimized for raw pace, one built for endurance, and one sitting right in the middle.

It could all just boil down to who manages their tire sets better.

It’s the only logical explanation. Up until now, we've seen nothing but pure nonsense like this.
There’s nothing quite like watching drivers who look absolutely lightning-fast during practice sessions, only to have all that momentum inexplicably vanish the moment qualifying rolls around.
It’s always the same story: you watch these drivers during practice sessions, looking absolutely bulletproof on their tires, showing incredible durability but zero actual pace. Then, out of nowhere, they pull some insane, blistering lap during qualifying. It’s pure madness.

It feels like classic Bernie Ecclestone maneuvering to me. It’s not even that someone actually got an unfair advantage; it’s just that nobody has any clue what's actually going on anymore.
When someone actually manages to pull together a proper setup at exactly the right moment, suddenly we’re looking at a dominant victory.

If I had to put a bet on it, I’d say they actually show up with six entirely different sets of tires for every single race.😳

Any competent crew would have realized immediately that there was an issue with the tires. Honestly, I find it hard to believe that every single team would just sit there and accept that kind of tire roulette without raising an eyebrow. Not one team voiced a single complaint about the rubber, and nobody even breathed a word of protest.

Schumacher tore through the field, but even he burned out fast.

So, either it’s absolutely nothing, or it’s catastrophically wrong.

stormybadger8 said:Sebastian Vettel cleared the First Qualifying Round on medium tires, the Second Qualifying Round on reds during his in-lap/out-lap runs, and in the Third Qualifying Round, he did two sets of in-laps and out-laps. I am just not sure if he was using two different sets or the same ones twice.

So Vettel either had a completely fresh set of softs or two sets with three laps each.☕
Also, don't forget that temperatures plummeted again toward the end of the race. That is exactly why the tires on the McLaren suddenly started working.
That car literally wakes up and goes crazy when the track temperature drops.

And why wouldn't they overtake him while running fresh softs against Romain Grosjean on 30-lap old rubber?
They would have landed right behind him, meaning they definitely wouldn't have burned through their tires in those two or three laps.☕

They would have been significantly faster, given Romain Grosjean was running roughly 1:19 at that point, while Lewis Hamilton was at 1:17.
If a two-second gap per lap isn't enough in Canada, then I have no idea what is. Beyond that, it is possible to overtake even outside that damn DRS zone.☕
And if Lewis Hamilton could pass Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel with a two-second advantage, then these guys certainly could have passed Romain Grosjean. Or is the little alien actually better than Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel combined?

The only strange thing—assuming the track temperature actually dropped—is how the Lotus performed. Based on everything we have seen so far, the Lotus prefers higher temperatures...

I don't know... I really hope everyone is running on equal tires.

Roger Wright94 said:Second of all, what kind of stalling are we talking about? This isn't Abu Dhabi or Monaco. Out here, if you can manage to be two or three tenths faster per lap, the tech systems will handle the overtaking for you.

That’s just not accurate. Everything really comes down to how the car is set up.

Three tenths faster, sure, but only on the key part of the track.

Roger Wright94 said:I’m looking specifically at Alonso's pit call on lap 51.
If he had pitted then, he almost certainly would have rejoined behind Lewis Hamilton, but likely ahead of Romain Grosjean. Even if Grosjean had been in front, he wouldn't have been much of an obstacle since he would've been easy to overtake.

A mistake, plain and simple.
They’ll try to argue that the tires still had decent life left at that point. But we were 20 laps from the finish, so that argument holds zero water.
It’s a known fact with these compounds that once they hit the cliff, they fall off a cliff—we're talking 3 to 5 seconds per lap. The people making those calls in the garage should know that better than anyone else.
You just can't gamble on the assumption that these tires will hold up for another 20 laps after they've already put in 30 or 40.

They took a risk and it blew up in their faces—fine, I get that. That's acceptable enough.

What I don't get is why they didn't react when it became obvious nothing was happening and a disaster was looming. Red Bull would have done something. Why didn't they?!

No, let's just sit here and wait to see how badly this hits the fan instead...

ruggedfox28 said:It’s funny how people can just twist a situation to fit whatever narrative they find convenient. Everyone has their own version of reality, usually tailored to make themselves look like the hero or the victim. 🤣 😁

I’m not looking to start a fight here, but let’s be real: Vettel actually made the smarter move. He knew he couldn't match Alonso's pace, and trying to force a confrontation would have been a disaster. If he had tried to push it, we could have ended up with a massive wreck and zero points for both drivers—exactly the kind of mess that happens when someone like Alonso decides to dig their heels in.

Even if you consider that attempt at resistance, it was basically the equivalent of a wounded kitten fighting back. He honestly didn't stand a chance because his tires were absolutely shredded. If anything, you could argue Alonso's move was actually "stupider" than Vettel's, given there wasn't even a theoretical path to success. All he really did was risk losing everything for nothing.

That’s a fair point, but it really boils down to one question: are we actually here to watch a race, or are we just watching people miss opportunities?

Jason Campbell70 said:Look, despite all of Ferrari's tactical blunders, I actually have to tip my hat to one masterstroke of a decision.

Letting Vettel through before Casino Corner, based on the theory that Ferrari's DRS would neutralize the advantage of Vettel's superior tires.

In the end, the move failed miserably, but credit to the genius who came up with it.

And if it was Alonso himself...🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Alonso really tried everything. Honestly, I was surprised by how much resistance he put up against Lewis Hamilton, unlike Vettel, who just gracefully stepped aside....

A shame.....

Roger Wright94 said:Pitting the lap after Lewis was a guaranteed move for second place, assuming they could have even jumped Lewis in that moment.
I guess they decided catching Lewis was out of reach and then tried to play math games with Vettel instead.

Why on earth would they conclude they couldn't catch Lewis?! Ferrari looked great on supersofts during that first stint, actually beating McLaren. What reason did they have to think they stood no chance?

My take is they simply overestimated their tire management and underestimated the degradation. They clearly thought those tires would hold up longer, plus they were likely terrified that if Vettel stayed out, he’d end up snatching that spot from them at the end.

In the end, they blew it even harder... but hey, you learn from your mistakes.

Once again, Ferrari has proven they completely fall apart the moment they're forced to think on their feet.

Whether their initial strategy was intentional is anyone's guess, but regardless of the plan, how do you ignore reality? When you see the pace Lewis Hamilton is putting up, look at how many laps are left, and watch those tires disintegrating lap after lap, why on earth wouldn't you react?

My internal logic was telling me Alonso would be diving into the pits for supersofts about 13 laps before the finish. That actually makes sense—they stay out and just pray to God the rubber holds together until the checkered flag.

I get it; when Hamilton pitted and the tires still looked decent, they probably figured both he and Vettel could limp home. They likely accounted for Vettel holding up Hamilton for a single lap, but everything fell apart faster than a cheap tire under the blistering sun at Indianapolis.

Nothing to do now but dissect this entire mess—degradation, track temps, and the pit wall's decision-making—and get ready for GP Valencia.

The one silver lining is that the qualifying deficit has been slashed to almost nothing, and the race pace is looking better than ever.

This is going to be absolute madness right up until the final lap at Interlagos.