Williams surprised by Mercedes pace

14 comments on “Williams surprised by Mercedes pace”

1. 

   PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
   12th October 2014, 18:30

   Mercedes could use this car to win the ’15 titles aswell, that is how dominant this car is. You could almost be that harsh and say it’s a small failure they did not win those three races in Canada, Belgium and Hungary. Only Canada was really out of their hands.
   1. 

      HK (@me4me)
      12th October 2014, 20:00

      @xtwl, Not sure if they could win it, but I agree, they would probably be competitive even with this years car next year. Especially their race-pace is amazing. Hamilton was just chillin’ today.
      1. 

         Nin13 (@nin13)
         12th October 2014, 21:56

         Hamilton must have saved some engine mileage too. Because he was never pushed too hard. If Rosberg was there with him they tend to put too hard.
         1. 

            dex
            13th October 2014, 8:48

            I agree, he looked after that engine and gearbox so there should be reduced ware and tare. Might help reliability later in the year.
            1. 

               Vettel2014
               13th October 2014, 9:36

               I was listening to an interview on sky with one of the guys from Mercedes , he said cruising or pushing the engine hard doesn’t really make any difference to the lifespan of the engine .
2. 

   jdd
   12th October 2014, 18:38

   Lots of teams let the drivers way to long. Bottas time’s are clearly climbing from lap 17, he should have pitted by lap 19. That would have saved him 15 seconds.
   1. 

      Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
      12th October 2014, 19:26

      It’s fair to say they were cautious after making an error at Singapore. With an earlier stop, Bottas could have tried to hold Rosberg back.
      1. 

         PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
         12th October 2014, 20:26

         @fastiesty Well, RIC pitted on lap 12 from behind VET and when the latter pitted he was a good 8 seconds behind RIC. So that was the situation with similar cars. I’m pretty sure had Williams brought in Bottas earlier he could’ve hold him off longer but I doubt with the ever lasting tyres he would’ve finished in P2. Rosberg would’ve gotten past sometime somewhere as the Mercedes is just the quicker car. Bottas is the faster driver no doubt, for me.
   2. 

      Patrickl (@patrickl)
      12th October 2014, 20:05

      I was thinking perhaps the Williams wasn’t doing well on the medium tyre as an explanation for Massa’s odd strategy and the overly long stint for Bottas on the softs, but then Bottas actually seemed to perform reasonably well on the mediums.

      Or perhaps Bottas overcooked the tyres trying to hang on to Hamilton in the early phase of the race. Just like he did in qualifying. These tyres are not meant for extracting the maximum out of the car. Even on this track where they did seem to go for quite a lot of laps.

      Either way Williams really need to work on their strategy. They seem to get it wrong way more often than right.
3. 

   Mr win or lose
   12th October 2014, 23:33

   “Williams surprised by Mercedes pace”
   Actually Hamilton was surprised by Bottas’ pace. However, Bottas’ tyre problems are interesting. Probably he overcooked the tyres in his fist stint and then in the second stint his tyres took very long to get up to temperature. If that’s true, it’s very strange. Apart from that, this race was very similar to most races in 2010, when drivers made an early switch to the rock-solid hard tyre, so probably Bottas should have done the same thing as Ricciardo, who didn’t suffer at all in his very long second stint. Christian Horner was really fascinated by the lack of tyre degradation.
4. 

   Theo Parkinson (@theo-hrp)
   13th October 2014, 2:37

   Rosberg’s drive today definitely wasn’t a recovery drive. No one called Vettel’s race in India last year one.
   1. 

      gdewilde (@gdewilde)
      13th October 2014, 9:02

      This was sort of a ‘recovery’ drive, he had to come through the field one way or the other in order to finish 2nd.
      And Vettel’s race in India last year was indeed not a recovery drive. He started on pole, never looked back and finish 30sec clear of the rest of the field (and snatched the drivers title by doing so)
5. 

   BasCB (@bascb)
   13th October 2014, 6:49

   We all know that Mercedes is quite easy on fuel use, but is it possible that Mercedes fuelled the cars full, despite expecting a SC?
   The reason for that could be that they had not wanted to be in a position to have to tell either driver to slow down in the case of a race long battle going on, as it would be likely to hurt one of them more than the other? Because even though Rosberg was driving to save his tyres, we never got any indication he was told to save fuel, despite barging through the field.
6. 

   jpowell (@jpowell)
   13th October 2014, 15:47

   Lucky for Rosberg the car seemed so far ahead the tyres were not under much pressure. I can’t believe he hasnt come in for more criticism over the incident on the decline corner. It appeared there was a ‘cats chance’ of making the corner , good job the run of area was so obligingly designed .

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