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

steelmaker83 said:No. It's just that certain forum personalities resent seeing someone actually try. And Ricco is right—90% of the other drivers wouldn't even attempt it. Then people start whining about how they lack guts, but once someone actually tries, suddenly there's no logic left. Ricco made a solid attempt, clean, no contact, no shoving. It just didn't work with that inferior Ford. Next time, it will.

I don't think we should be debating percentages or who would have tried what at this stage. In my view, maneuvers like these are essentially the desperate gambles of someone backed into a corner. Even if someone else had been in Vettel's position, a collision likely would have occurred regardless. Personally, I hold no grudge against Ricciardo for making the move, but it was ultimately a "hero or zero" moment, as the saying goes. Nothing particularly spectacular about it, really.

Absolutely spectacular. Trying to take down a superior opponent with an inferior Ford engine—especially one who happens to be a four-time champion at that--is quite the feat.

It’s hard to imagine anything being more spectacular than this.

So, he’s got a few titles, yet he doesn't? 🤣

coastalwolf6 said:So, he’s got a few titles, yet he doesn't? 🤣

And when does he not have them? I've never actually questioned whether he won his championships. Yes, he won four titles, which is why we call him a four-time champion today—or a four-time anything else, depending on who you ask.

cosmiccyclist8 said:It’s pretty funny how he totally forgot to toggle the start mode and ended up just handing Hamilton the win on a silver platter 😁

Man, imagine if he actually had his head in the game and set it right 😁

🤣🤣

graniteharbor502 said:Whatever the case may be, he has already demonstrated his true capability, hasn't he? I am truly at a loss as to why you seem so agitated by this; is it perhaps because Ricciardo failed to deliver?

That’s what gets under his skin.😁

graniteharbor502 said:I don't think we should be debating percentages or who would have tried what at this stage. In my view, maneuvers like these are essentially the desperate gambles of someone backed into a corner. Even if someone else had been in Vettel's position, a collision likely would have occurred regardless. Personally, I hold no grudge against Ricciardo for making the move, but it was ultimately a "hero or zero" moment, as the saying goes. Nothing particularly spectacular about it, really.

He was just talking nonsense for most of the race...

steelmaker83 said:Absolutely spectacular. Trying to take down a superior opponent with an inferior Ford engine—especially one who happens to be a four-time champion at that--is quite the feat.

🤦 The car is just inferior.

Quote : 4 season

steelmaker83 said:And when does he not have them? I've never actually questioned whether he won his championships. Yes, he won four titles, which is why we call him a four-time champion today—or a four-time anything else, depending on who you ask.

Man, you’ve really got it rough, you poor soul...

It seems like steelmaker83 is slowly but surely transforming into the biggest Vettel hater on this entire forum, which—let’s be honest—is quite an achievement!🎉

Keep up the good work.🍿

Drew Bennett68 said:It seems like steelmaker83 is slowly but surely transforming into the biggest Vettel hater on this entire forum, which—let’s be honest—is quite an achievement!🎉

Keep up the good work.🍿

Who even is steelmaker83?

ruggedhawk20 said:Who even is steelmaker83?

The guy who actually understands things on the last two forum pages.

Those arguing with him clearly lack understanding. They're likely watching the wrong sport entirely or simply possess a flawed perception of racing. When one's perception is skewed, it follows naturally that they would dislike Ricciardo. In reality, it is the individual who disrupts the race flow who truly liberates Ricciardo.

People watch and interpret F1 in various ways. Unfortunately, those who fail to grasp the nuances are evidently in the vast majority 🙂, and the result is predictable: the average observer falls under the influence of the uninformed.

Who doesn't love Ricco? I mean, come on—the guy is a world champion! ☕

Yeah, but he definitely overplayed his hand during that attempt to overtake the car ahead.
Which race is this now where Hamilton loses out to Rosberg on the start... He clearly struggles whenever he’s sitting on pole.

What does harvest mode actually mean?

You know how everyone used to say that with Ayrton Senna, any contact on track was always going to be blamed on his teammate whenever he went in like a total kamikaze? Well, I’m seeing that exact same pattern playing out with Riccov’s driving style lately.

Such a great kid, really 👍

And of course, Vettel is back at it again, venting his frustration over the team radio.

swiftmaker12 said:Motorsport.com actually has a solid breakdown explaining how Rosberg messed up—it was his own behavior that caused the collision.
He forgot to switch to the Start mode at the beginning, so by the third turn, he's frantically messing with the steering wheel because he’s missing about 11 miles extra horsepower. He was trailing Lewis by quite a bit, and once he realized Lewis was going to overtake him, he just blocked his line.

Just my initial take—some people think Lewis is the one at fault, but if you actually look at the telemetry and the data, it's clear Nico was the one reacting in a total panic.

Not that I have anything against either of them, though. Nico finally showed some grit and gave Lewis a taste of his own medicine after everything Lewis put him through over the last two years.

Honestly, it wouldn't hurt the current Formula 1 season if these two clashed a bit more often—it makes things much more entertaining for the fans.

Especially since, seeing how they performed in Austin, it looks like Germany is operating on a completely different planet this year.
By the third turn, both German cars were practically a mile ahead of the rest of the field.

The info about the frantic button-pressing caught my attention right away. After reading the beginning of your post, it doesn't seem crazy to think Rosberg discovered some trick for a better start that he had to fix immediately.

It would be pretty interesting if someone from the community could post a photo or something showing what the cockpit setup looked like in Rosberg's car during the starts of previous races.

steelmaker83 said:Therefore Sebastian knows how it's done.

Lucky for us, things stay consistently terrible enough that you can find this kind of garbage every single weekend without even trying.
Given how old he is, you probably could've dug up some absolute nonsense from his karting days too.🤣

steelmaker83 said:No. It's just that certain forum personalities resent seeing someone actually try. And Ricco is right—90% of the other drivers wouldn't even attempt it. Then people start whining about how they lack guts, but once someone actually tries, suddenly there's no logic left. Ricco made a solid attempt, clean, no contact, no shoving. It just didn't work with that inferior Ford. Next time, it will.

Ricciardo is a great driver, but he drove this race like he didn't give a damn...
He can talk all he wants, but he messed up because he didn't push where he actually should have, then tried those kamikaze moves where they made zero sense...
It’s not that Ricciardo failed because he pushed Vettel too hard; he failed because he was whining over the radio instead of passing Palmer, who he lost massive amounts of time to. Let's be real, that General Motors car is a total junk heap, and Palmer isn't exactly a world-class driver anyway.☕
Basically, if Ricciardo hadn't screwed up so badly behind Palmer, there's no telling if the Ford undercut would have even worked.

stormybadger8 said:Lucky for us, things stay consistently terrible enough that you can find this kind of garbage every single weekend without even trying.
Given how old he is, you probably could've dug up some absolute nonsense from his karting days too.🤣

Actually, it's the exact opposite. Back then, Vettel had about the same amount of experience as Ricciardo does now. Vettel used to mess up constantly—just look at Kimi in the USA or Weber in Turkey—whereas Ricciardo doesn't make those kinds of mistakes.

Ricciardo is a better driver than Vettel, and he'll be the one taking over at Ford once Vettel completely implodes.

Following Lauda’s live commentary during the race, it seems Stewart has now stepped in to point the finger at Hamilton for the collision.

William Bennett53 said:Following Lauda’s live commentary during the race, it seems Stewart has now stepped in to point the finger at Hamilton for the collision.

The only interesting thing here is—since when did some random American forum using Google Translate become an authority?

Lauda and Stewart only have racing experience under their belts, and frankly, their opinions mostly serve their own branding.
Modern incidents—and the races themselves, really—are driven by technology and AI; the drivers don't actually have that much control anymore...

Rosberg admitted his engine mapping was in the wrong mode, which caused him to lose 180 HP out of nowhere. He tried messing with the steering wheel settings and ended up intentionally blocking Lewis, who saw a golden opportunity to reclaim first place...

Just a racing incident, nothing more—though it would be quite funny if those two messed up more often while tinkering with those smart steering wheels...

Over the last decade, races have basically been decided in those little containers behind the garages, where the engineers sit watching telemetry and tweaking everything from the sidelines...

The first clear instance—at least from an aerial view—was back in 2007, when Lewis's engineers essentially sabotaged his engine in the USA...

It’s kind of like how we used to rig the pinball machines at the local carnival back in the 70s...
we were basically the early precursors to tampering with artificial intelligence...

Is it actually credible? 🤔 They’re just translating foreign reports; I highly doubt they fabricated a statement from Stewart. Now, whether people agree with his take or debate what his actual motives were—that’s a different story entirely—but the man said what he said. Besides, Sky journalists cornered Lauda right in the middle of the race, and he likely just gave them an unfiltered, brutally honest answer. I don't see any self-promotion in that.