Sainz salvages a point from the pits

13 comments on “Sainz salvages a point from the pits”

1. 

   froddd (@)
   24th May 2015, 19:56

   I really hope Sainz doesn’t get overshadowed by the whole “Verstappen is only 17” kind of comments. He is doing a sterling job so far.
   1. 

      eerko
      24th May 2015, 20:02

      Carlos was driving an invisible race….not bad not good

      He was quite lucky there were some problems with cars in front of him
   2. 

      Patrick (@paeschli)
      24th May 2015, 20:32

      Well, he got a point thanks to Verstappen today ^^
   3. 

      maarten.f1 (@)
      24th May 2015, 20:50

      The hype seems very much to be about Verstappen. But both drivers are doing a really good job and I’m sure all the teams are keeping a close eye on both of them.
   4. 

      Captain Shuntalot (@f1withmyson)
      26th May 2015, 19:53

      Agreed — I think Sainz is actually doing a better job than Verstappen. I’m sick of the hype surrounding Verstappen.
2. 

   Biggsy
   24th May 2015, 20:14

   From what is emerging around the web, it seems team initially wanted to keep Lewis out, but he got nervous at the prospect of Nico and Vettel getting new tires, so he suggested to the team they should pit him.

   Basically, he was in the lead, and whatever he did, Nico and Vettel would do the opposite. Can’t really blame the team. He was a victim of an unfortunate safety car, and perhaps of his own defeatist attitude as soon as the race restarted.
   1. 

      Biggsy
      24th May 2015, 20:18

      Looking at it, 5 out of 10 cars that were in the top 10 decided to pit. So you can’t even really call it a bad strategy call. There was apparently 50/50 chance that any of the cars behind him would pit. And he felt that way too, which made him nervous, thinking about defending the position on the old tires, and ultimately contributed to that pit call.
      He was also the only one of those 5 who pitted from the top 10, who actually lost a place.
   2. 

      Mark Hitchcock
      24th May 2015, 20:44

      He got nervous because he saw on the big screen that the Merc mechanics were in the pitlane and thought that meant Nico and Vettel had stopped for new tyres so he had to cover them. The team were the ones who ultimately made the call to stop him. If they thought it was the wrong decision they should have told him to stay out.
   3. 

      Polo (@polo)
      24th May 2015, 21:50

      Apparently what Hamilton said was that his tyres were going off a bit, and he asked the team if he should pit – key word here is “should”.

      Basically Hamilton was asking if he had enough of a buffer to be able to pit and comfortably maintain the lead. Mercedes led him to believe that he did, and so he pitted with full confidence in the team, only to emerge behind Vettel and Rosberg.

      If you have enough of a buffer to pit without risking the lead under a safety car, it makes sense to use that lead and do the rest of the race with grippier tyres, instead of risking going into the barrier with worn/cold tyres.

      Mercedes apparently “miscalculated” the gap, presumably unaware that Lewis would catch the safety car and therefore lose a bit of his lead before he pitted.

      It should also be mentioned that Hamilton was stationary for 4.1s in the pit (1.3s slower than his earlier pit stop) as Ericsson delayed his release – without that he would’ve emerged in front of Vettel, and maybe Rosberg.
   4. 

      Ed Marques (@edmarques)
      24th May 2015, 22:05

      Can’t blame the team? You enter in every single topic and say the same thing.
      Even the team said they are to blame.
3. 

   Melvin (@)
   24th May 2015, 22:08

   The one thing that was worrying is that he spend a great deal of the first part of the race behind ericsson and the pitstop put him right behind ericsson again! I know it’s monaco, but you have to overtake these guys which are at least 1 sec slower. Still, he is a great driver and will grow.
4. 

   Dantes
   25th May 2015, 0:16

   Had to make my first comment here after this whole Mercedes strategy blunter… after watching the whole race and the after the race comments I don’t understand Hamilton’s comments. He said the team wanted him to stay out, but he felt he should pit because he was afraid of being on the “wrong” tire at the restart as he saw the pit crew on the TV screens and though ROS had/would pit for the super soft, but how could he saw the pit crew on the screens before telling the team he wanted to pit? The pit crew doesn’t get out unless the pit wall says so, and the pit wall initially told him to stay out… So he couldn’t have seen the pit crew before he asked the team to better pit him.
   My opinion on this case. It looks similar to the Silverstone qualifying last year, Lewis misjudged the SC situation and wanted to have the better tires advantage in the last laps, the strategists calculated the gap vs pit stop time and thought it was OK if the pit stop was “normal”. The pit wall decided (after discussions) that it was OK to pit, the pit crew was not so well prepared (definitely they thought they are done with the stops for today) and made a not-so-fast pit stop, another 1-1.5 sec was lost as Ericsson was passing on the pit lane as the result HAM exited the pits behind ROS and VET. So, I don’t think it was an issue of the strategists, and the team bosses didn’t do any good in blaming the team and apologizing to Lewis before analyzing the details. For me the blame for the whole situation is 50% driver, 50% team principal, both for misjudgment (the pit-stop was unnecessary in any case, don’t try to get an advantage were you already have a big one – the best car), and the responsibility for the outcome: 60% team principal (didn’t call off the pit despite having more that 1 min time to think and all the info), 30% driver (yes he didn’t had all the info, but had lack of confidence and with his experience should have kept position with 13 laps remaining), 10% team crew (slow pit stop, not first time for Merc crew). I think Wolff and specially Lowe should question themselves more i this case, and put more work into getting the race aspects of the team into a better shape!
5. 

   Michael
   26th May 2015, 1:56

   Mercedes know they have the drivers and constructors championship won whether Lewis or Nico wins the drivers.Are viewers too naive to realise they will do anything to spice up what will be a boring title race.Remember the old saying ‘no publicity is bad publicity’.

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