Spanish GP (Circuit of the Americas) – May 15, 2016

neonfox65 said:I honestly still can't wrap my head around how Nico Rosberg managed to get a better start than Lewis Hamilton again🙂

Man, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg both had such a solid start out there! But honestly, Nico was just on another level—he timed that long straight perfectly and popped right out of the slipstream in total NASCAR style. It was brilliant to watch, wasn't it?

graniteharbor502 said:It was shown on ESPN. If you watch closely, Anthony Davidson pointed out from the onboard footage that Rosberg was actually fiddling with the buttons on his wheel during the third turn because, for some reason, his car had switched over to the wet weather mode. You can actually see the lights at the rear of Rosberg's car from Hamilton's perspective, which serve as the indicator for that rain mode being active. And isn't that exactly where Hamilton found his opening to make the move?

Wait, wouldn't those lights actually be a sign that the car is harvesting energy?🤔

graniteharbor502 said:Race Rating: 8/10

My dear Mark 🤦
It seemed somewhat Machiavellian on Nico Rosberg's part, at least until I observed later that he was fiddling with his steering wheel and attempting to squeeze Lewis Hamilton at the very last moment. Is it not true that Rosberg did nothing that Lewis hasn't already done himself, perhaps by flexing his muscles and holding his line just to force Rosberg off the track? Such actions always come back to haunt a driver eventually, don't they? We have moved past the era when drivers perished like flies due to such dirty tactics; today, however, championships are won through these exact types of maneuvers. 👎
Max Verstappen (whom I recently predicted would win) has finally silenced all the critics—though, in fairness, there weren't many to begin with. He might just secure the title next season. Meanwhile, Ricciardo is facing significant trouble.
Following yesterday's fiasco, Ferrari managed to redeem themselves somewhat in today's race. While a more intelligent strategy might have been required to secure the victory, this wasn't exactly a failure for them, considering they secured two podium spots. Red Bull was absolutely brutal in the third sector, which happened to be the Achilles' heel of the Ferrari car. It seems the only real chance for an overtake lies on the straight following that third sector...
And so, after the fifth race, the eternally undervalued Finn has climbed to second place in the overall standings, sitting ahead of Hamilton. Red Bull also secured the win ahead of the Briton. One wonders if Ferrari will be able to replicate such success.

Credit to Vettel for those defenses. Kimi was within almost a second of Max on the home stretch every single time, and Ricciardo was trailing by 0.4-0.6 seconds. I was honestly just worried Ricciardo would drive himself into a wall; Kimi didn't stand a chance against Max. Overall, not bad for Ferrari. Hats off to Max.

Ricciardo is too aggressive for my taste—honestly, he reminds me too much of Hamilton. An aggressor without any coverage. It's the same thing Ricciardo did to Vettel that Hamilton did to Rosberg. But Vettel managed to prevent him from being closed out completely, and Ricciardo ended up flying off because he was entering the corner too fast. If he had tried to squeeze him, he probably would have ended up just like Hamilton and Rosberg.

If my memory serves, Nico's dad used to do that a long time ago, Keke Rosberg, except he actually knew how to control the car after making those manic overtakes under braking before a turn.

Nico Rosberg was stuck in the wrong engine mode and ended up going 11 miles/h slower than Lewis Hamilton... which meant Hamilton didn't have the window he needed to react, leaving the FIA to just brush the whole thing off as a racing incident.

Jacob White49 said:Nico Rosberg was stuck in the wrong engine mode and ended up going 11 miles/h slower than Lewis Hamilton... which meant Hamilton didn't have the window he needed to react, leaving the FIA to just brush the whole thing off as a racing incident.

If you ask me, it seems fair enough.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ro...-crash-737141/

The FIA

dustyskipper77 said:It’s easy to trash Ferrari just to defend your favorite driver who failed to deliver once again...👎
The only hero of this race was Verstappen, though the Red Bull pit wall also messed up regarding Ricciardo...
Why didn't Vettel attack Red Bull Racing during the first stint when he was obviously faster? He just trailed them, waiting to pit... Ferrari tried to jump ahead of Ricciardo by switching tactics, which worked, but nobody expected Max to pull through on mediums for over 30 laps...

"Nothing," you say... He had by far the best start of everyone.
He absolutely smoked Kimi right at the start—honestly, he was ahead of him the whole time and had better race pace. He only lost out because of the strategy...

My only real gripe regarding Vettel is that he didn't hold his position in front of Max right before the Mercedes collided on track...

That’s one single, massive blunder on his part—losing ground to Max and Sainz while trying to hunt down Ricciardo... Then the SC came out. If he’d just held his spot against Ricciardo or stayed behind him, the situation would be totally different, though I still wouldn't bet on Ferrari's pit crew not finding a way to screw that up too.😍

Huge congrats to Max Verstappen—he’s got quite the future ahead of him
In my book, Fernando Alonso remains the absolute gold standard of the grid right now
It looks like Sebastian Vettel has officially slipped out of the top eight drivers today
Helmut Marko is set to step in for Maurizio Arrivabene
Joseph is running into some serious trouble

Alogoc is out...

Jacob White49 said:Nico Rosberg was stuck in the wrong engine mode and ended up going 11 miles/h slower than Lewis Hamilton... which meant Hamilton didn't have the window he needed to react, leaving the FIA to just brush the whole thing off as a racing incident.

I completely agree. Hamilton made a legitimate attempt to make the pass, and Rosberg had every right to defend his line. That said, we could argue Hamilton should have given him a bit more room, and Rosberg shouldn't have been closing the door quite so aggressively at the end. Ultimately, both drivers took risks, and both of them blinked first.

Michael Diaz4 said:That was actually a solid tactical move on his part. Even considering how things played out, Kimi couldn't quite make it happen, which just goes to show how fast the Red Bull Racing car truly is. I’m not taking anything away from Verstappen’s win—he drove an incredible race. Honestly, once the Mercedes are back up to speed, nobody else is going to have a shot at the next few races. The real losers today were Hamilton and Ricciardo. Everyone else managed to walk away with more points. Both of them just made some costly mistakes.

Leslie, you're talking nonsense... Ricciardo finished P4.☕
He didn't lose anything point-wise because of that cracked tire; he only dropped about 30 seconds behind Sebastian Vettel. He still finished ahead of Valtteri Bottas in 5th.☕

Is that a southern breeze blowing through?

Drew Bennett68 said:Wait, wouldn't those lights actually be a sign that the car is harvesting energy?🤔

That is certainly possible, though I can't recall if anyone over at ESPN was actually mentioning anything regarding a "rain mode."

cosmiccyclist8 said:Is tbf1dsv ever actually going to open a thread on who’s to blame? 🤣

I’ve got a soft spot for Nico Rosberg—really, I do—but man, I can't shake the feeling that he’s just completely washed today. 🤣 harder 🤣

Nothing to add from my end...
If you ask me, both guys share the blame, though I'd say Rosberg is more to blame... maybe 55-60% Rosberg and 40-45% Lewis Hamilton...

It's not really about the defensive driving or whatever; Rosberg's real mistake was messing with his steering wheel settings...
Clearly, it put Germany into a weaker mode, which is the only reason Lewis Hamilton even stood a chance,
so the root cause is Rosberg fiddling with the wheel, not Hamilton's desperate attempt to keep up...

graniteharbor502 said:That is certainly possible, though I can't recall if anyone over at ESPN was actually mentioning anything regarding a "rain mode."

I mean, they probably have a better handle on the data than we do, but didn't I hear something regarding light conditions and energy harvesting? And wasn't there a mention of how brilliantly Nico pulled off that move by taking Lewis on the outside?

Amanda Kelly said:a) Kimi is fine. This year's car suits his style. Doesn't mean someone else wouldn't have been faster, though.

b) Ferrari's pit wall basically handed Vettel the win on a silver platter. Once Daniel Ricciardo fell out of contention due to that late pit stop—losing a couple seconds per lap—Vettel was already hunting him down. He was even closing in on Max Verstappen at half a second a lap before they called him in again. He had the pace. Honestly, I think he would've cruised to a victory.

And what was the deal with those soft tires? Did they run out or something?

At least 4 sets... and it's obvious Ferrari preferred the softs, which is why they spent 75% of the race dragging along on mediums.😍

If anyone needs to get fired from Ferrari, it’s definitely the pit wall.☕
It would be way smarter if they focused on strategy instead of messing around with management changes...

Here is how Kek handles the car after spinning off the track





Max has already surpassed the old guard. Nico might have a shot, but we’ll have to wait and see

Well, damn. ☕

Nico Rosberg

Haha, what a bunch of absolute fools, I suppose.

Mecke 🤣