Singapore Grand Prix (Miami Grand Prix Circuit) - 09/23/2012

shadowtrucker said:Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button summoned to the stewards following the safety car incident 🍿

I don't think it warrants a penalty, but officials really ought to have a word with the drivers moving forward. What Vettel did wasn't exactly smart—flooring it only to slam on the brakes right before the turn...
How is the driver behind supposed to know if he’s actually setting a fast lap or just trying to trick someone?
In my opinion, when it comes to restarts, the leader should maintain a steady pace and then accelerate decisively, rather than this erratic gas-brake, gas-brake approach...

Raymond Anderson4 said:I don't think it warrants a penalty, but officials really ought to have a word with the drivers moving forward. What Vettel did wasn't exactly smart—flooring it only to slam on the brakes right before the turn...
How is the driver behind supposed to know if he’s actually setting a fast lap or just trying to trick someone?
In my opinion, when it comes to restarts, the leader should maintain a steady pace and then accelerate decisively, rather than this erratic gas-brake, gas-brake approach...

and it's definitely not the first time he's pulled a stunt like that.🙂

Vettel always pulls some nonsense right behind the SC....

Jessica Gonzalez said:I guess Fernando Alonso didn't really do anything special today; he just drove a bit safely to stay near the front without actually making any real attempt at winning. To me, both Vettel and Hamilton seem like stronger title contenders right now. Seven races is a long time, and if he has just one bad retirement—which seems likely—all those points might just vanish.

Sorry if I'm cutting into your chances of seeing a mistake from Fernando Alonso, but I gotta set the record straight—there are only 6 races left in the season, not 7. 🤣

Grace Barnes said:It’s true that within the current driver lineup, there isn't anyone better than Fernando Alonso,
but he really does have an incredible amount of luck on his side. His only real setback this season was when
Romain Grosjean took him out, though Lewis Hamilton suffered the exact same fate then,
and in all the other races, Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel faced much tougher struggles.
As if it wasn't enough that Hamilton had to retire today, now Pastor Maldonado is out too, which saved him from having to fight for 3rd place.
There's no need to list all the mishaps Vettel and Hamilton have dealt with this season; anyone following the sport knows.
You only need to look back at Valencia when Alonso jumped from 5th to 1st.
Vettel was leading until his car pulled aside, Grosjean's car failed, and then Maldonado
knocked both himself and Hamilton out just a few laps before the end. If that race had finished "normally,"
Vettel would be ahead of Alonso in the standings right now. And let's not even mention
last race, where Vettel lost about 10 crucial points due to a mechanical failure.
Kudos to Fernando, but luck can't follow him forever through the rest of the season,
so the title fight will likely stay wide open until the final race...

Man, you wouldn't believe what happened in Valencia—Alonso actually fought his way from 11th place all the way up to take the win! 🤦

Jessica Gonzalez said:I guess I didn't say anything wrong. It's not just about mechanical failures; you've got collisions with other drivers, tire blowouts, or even just clipping the walls. Seven races is a long stretch, and it's hard to say they'll all finish without a hitch. Plus, with drivers like Romain Grosjean, Kamui Kobayashi, and Narain Karthikeyan out there, nobody can really relax. If he wants the title, he’s going to have to win; Vettel will definitely be close in the standings, and I suspect Hamilton will be right up there too.

Oh, and Deda really nailed Jean-Éric when he least expected it. 🙏 🙏 🙏

Since he’s finished in the points in almost every race over the last thirty starts—aside from that one outlier—there's a strong chance he cruises to the finish line. That said, he still needs to pick up a few more wins because this current tally won't be enough to hold onto first place.

True, an impressive move. 👍

Ashley Cook64 said:Michael Schumacher got slapped with a 10-place penalty ☕ Let them talk about conspiracies—I’ll just be over here polishing seven championship cars 🥳

What kind of conspiracy are we even talking about here? Honestly, he’s lucky he walked away with just a warning. If he were some rookie kid instead of a veteran, he probably would have been slapped with a full race ban.

What is Perez even going for here? Like, does he want Hulkenberg to just spit on him or something? Just another overhyped moment, I guess.

Hand me that SC 👋

Seriously, what is up with Kamui Kobayashi? :/

Mark Webber just slapped with a 20-second penalty following that scrap with Kamui Kobayashi.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/102821

Raymond Anderson4 said:I don't think it warrants a penalty, but officials really ought to have a word with the drivers moving forward. What Vettel did wasn't exactly smart—flooring it only to slam on the brakes right before the turn...
How is the driver behind supposed to know if he’s actually setting a fast lap or just trying to trick someone?
In my opinion, when it comes to restarts, the leader should maintain a steady pace and then accelerate decisively, rather than this erratic gas-brake, gas-brake approach...

Yeah, honestly, Button is more to blame here.😁
He basically admitted it indirectly. If he hadn't been so cautious, he wouldn't be whining about how it was all Vettel's fault. He wouldn't be hunting for a penalty just to snatch the win if he truly believed he was innocent and Vettel was in the wrong.
That was just sloppy driving on Button's part. It’s obvious the guy in front dictates the pace. He's going to speed up, slow down, or weave left and right under the SC just to get those tires and brakes up to temperature—that's his prerogative.
Besides, this isn't exactly news, so saying it caught him off guard is a stretch.😁

And how can the driver behind not know what the lead car is doing? They don't just start the race wherever the leader feels like it; everyone knows exactly which line the restart happens on and exactly when you're allowed to overtake the guy setting the pace.
Take Fernando Alonso, for example—he knew exactly what was happening, so he had zero issues and didn't have to worry about sudden braking. Everyone else behind him knew it too.😉
I highly doubt you're going to tell me the guys trailing Vettel weren't busy warming up their tires and brakes.😁

I guess you didn't quite catch my point.
Sure, in Valencia, Alonso started 11th and ended up 1st.
But what I meant by him moving from 5th to 1st was specifically regarding how things unfolded
for him after he made that solid jump from 11th to 5th, which then set the stage
to let him clinch the win... That's all I meant when I said "from 5th to 1st."

Grace Barnes said:I guess you didn't quite catch my point.
Sure, in Valencia, Alonso started 11th and ended up 1st.
But what I meant by him moving from 5th to 1st was specifically regarding how things unfolded
for him after he made that solid jump from 11th to 5th, which then set the stage
to let him clinch the win... That's all I meant when I said "from 5th to 1st."

He was ahead of Grosjean, ahead of Pastor Maldonado, and even ahead of Hamilton when those guys all dropped out for various reasons. So really, his only stroke of luck was with Vettel.
Does he have a bit of luck on his side this season? Absolutely, he does.

But honestly, that's nothing compared to how luck treated him back in 2005. THREE TIMES Kimi had to retire while leading (once on the very last lap!). Do I really even need to mention who ended up snatching those wins🙂
those were just the most obvious gifts handed out that season. There were plenty more where those came from.

Given how things were playing out, Pastor Maldonado and Lewis Hamilton were both major threats to his position. If they hadn't collided, he could have easily ended up behind one of them.
If I recall correctly, Romain Grosjean retired while he was still ahead of him.
It was just lucky enough that his only real run-in was with Sebastian Vettel. That’s basically an extra 25 points for Vettel
that he didn't lose for nothing. And if we assume Fernando Alonso would have definitely taken at least 2nd place had Vettel not dropped out, that gives Alonso another 7 points too. Essentially, in this single race, the momentum swung 32 points in Alonso's favor over Vettel—and today, he's leading by 29...
For instance, Vettel gained 7 points today thanks to Lewis Hamilton's retirement.
But Fernando Alonso also walked away with a 3-point boost. So, looking at the math, Vettel actually had 4 points
more luck than Alonso did today. 😁
It's a huge question whether Alonso would have even stayed ahead of Pastor Maldonado if the driver hadn't run into those issues,
which would mean Alonso picked up another 3 points there. Bit by bit, he could potentially pull this off all the way to the title...

Linda Vaughn said:By the end of this weekend, we will have completed five out of the six tracks that traditionally favor Red Bull Racing, along with this unpredictable variable here in the US. It is going to be an uphill battle; honestly, we are all just sitting here hoping they can manage to improve that absolute wreck of a car at Ferrari even just a little bit.

Are you talking "traditionally" based solely on last year's results?
There isn't much "traditional" left to talk about, honestly—everything has changed, especially with the tire situation.

Ferrari performed better at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza, but a series of unfortunate events kept them from really capitalizing on that advantage.
They struggle on tracks like Singapore, with all those tight turns and high downforce requirements. I doubt many of the remaining tracks will be any easier on them. Plus, the heat definitely doesn't help.

Any word yet on which tire compounds they'll be running for the next race?

If Fernando Alonso and Ferrari don't finally snag at least one win—or if Vettel's alternator gives up on him again—we could easily see a repeat of 2010. Honestly, I've got a bad feeling it’s going down that way.

If I'm remembering right—and I usually am—Romain Grosjean pulled out while he was still ahead of him.

Actually, you've got it wrong. That guy dropped out while he was BEHIND Fernando Alonso.

Ayrton Senna dodged the penalty since he was just sticking to the standard racing line😁
The FIA is certainly being consistent with how they apply the rules🙏👍🤣

Honestly, what a joke... they didn't even hand out penalties to Ayrton Senna or Felipe Massa, yet they went after Michael Schumacher just for a standard overtake... if that's the case, they should have penalized that poor Indian driver when he ended up hitting the wall too.
As for Mark Webber, I'm not even sure why he got penalized since I missed the overtake through the chicane. It honestly baffles me that they didn't penalize Pastor Maldonado or Lewis Hamilton for their mechanical failures.

There’s one thing that really gets under my skin regarding all this "luck and misfortune" talk whenever a competitor drops out.
It’s a plain fact: when someone ahead of you pulls out due to a breakdown, those behind benefit. They move up, they gain positions, and they pick up more points. The biggest win, obviously, is watching your direct rivals bleed points.

People really ought to grasp—finally, at least—that Formula 1 is a team sport.
If a car breaks down mid-race, that falls squarely on the shoulders of the team. It's their responsibility.
Is Fernando Alonso somehow to blame because Red Bull Racing's alternators are failing, or because McLaren can't seem to tune both of their cars properly for two or three races in a row? Of course not. They're the ones at fault, not him.
And if you want to score points, let alone win a championship, you actually have to finish the race first.

If it hadn't been for that opening lap incident at Spa-Francorchamps, Fernando Alonso would be sitting there today as the absolute record-holder for consecutive races with points. That’s something worth respecting. Deeply. He deserves credit for that, and so does Ferrari as a team. That isn't just pure luck.