In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton says overtaking is too difficult with the current generation of cars.
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Hamilton rues qualy stoppage (Sky)
"It doesn't matter how good you are at overtaking, you can't get close enough. These cars do not allow us to get close enough."
Jenson Button hits out at Niki Lauda over his F1 McLaren talks (The Guardian)
"We spoke as I was going for a pee, and I never understand him anyway."
Button warns of ballooning tyres (Autosport)
"It's going to be tough for everyone because the pressures are so high, the tyres are just going to be overheating after one lap."
Three car teams a fall-back if Red Bull quits - Toto Wolff (ESPN)
"I'd rather have Red Bull in the sport than third cars and a grid of 27 or 28 cars. But this is definitely one of the fall-back solutions."
Mercedes' F1 rivals fear normal service has resumed (Reuters)
Vettel: "Mercedes are back to their usual level of competitiveness as we have seen, unfortunately, all year."
Mercedes close to Manor engine decision (Motorsport)
"We like Manor a lot. Because there is a competitive edge to the whole story, that if Manor gets the right chassis and the right engine, it would be a pretty interesting narrative to see how the team develops."
Kimi rues 'sh*t end result' to qualifying (Crash)
"It was just one average lap that ended up costing us a lot because there was a red flag."
Renault deal to buy Lotus 'close' (BBC)
"Things are looking very positive at the moment. We are confident Monday will go in our favour and things are looking very positive going forward, much more than in the last few weeks."
Grosjean revels in 'outstanding' qualifying performances (F1i)
"It’s not a secret that I worked with a psychologist and dealing with all of that is what we do as well. I’m probably driving better than I’ve ever done; qualifying performances have been outstanding this year and I’m very happy with the way we set-up the car and the way we go in the weekends."
"When the team told me there'd been an accident, that it was Jules (Bianchi) and that it looked bad, I was confused because I didn't see anything, which probably speaks for the visibility."
Tweets
11th time in Q3 for @RGrosjean in 2015, just four for @Pastormaldo. Grosjean 13-1 up in qualifying. #F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/kH2mHGnv0s
— F1 Fanatic (@f1fanatic_co_uk) September 26, 2015
Frustrating end to a very decent first dry day in Suzuka. There was a lot of potential missed with that small problem. Will fight from P10.
— Carlos Sainz (@carlosainz) September 26, 2015
Video of @Max33Verstappen stopping on the racing line during Q1, which he was penalised for: http://t.co/KuijnSYv3Z https://t.co/0DnpWln5BP
— F1 Fanatic (@f1fanatic_co_uk) September 26, 2015
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Snapshot
Comment of the day
Everything is relative. If you had a clean lap, making no mistakes, always hitting the apexes correctly, drew a flawless lap onto the circuit on the very limit of your car, you have done your job, you can’t do more. Not in a Mercedes, not in a McLaren. And considering that he is a two-times drivers’ champion, we might assume that he is capable of doing this.
Everything is relative. If you had cars in the last like ten-twelve seasons that were good enough to make it to the third row, and you took the car there with ease, a good lap in a car that is only good for the ninth row, ending up higher on the grid might make you feel that you have done more for it. Maybe you have done more than a frontrunner did, whose mistakes remain covered by the superior car…And how exactly should Alonso approach interviews? He can’t say that the car is a piece of ____, even if it is. He can’t say that the upgrades are working very well, because they are not. He can’t say that he is very optimistic about the future progress, because there’s no progress at McLaren. If he does not talk about how hard he is trying, he couldn’t really say anything at all to the journalists…
@AndrewT
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On this day in F1
Felipe Massa took an emphatic pole position for the first ever Singapore Grand Prix on this day seven years ago. A frustrated Fernando Alonso was eliminated in Q2 after his car broke down – but the following day he won the race in deeply controversial circumstances.
dragoll (@dragoll)
27th September 2015, 0:19
Haha, I just responded to @andrewt post in the previous article. Great COTD.
dragoll (@dragoll)
27th September 2015, 0:22
Hamiltons comments are a little self-defeating before the race has even begun. I understand that it is difficult to overtake at Suzuka, but its easier to pass here than at Monaco, and we saw passes there. Maybe he needs to take a few tips from young Max.
BTW, for those that don’t know, Max is the youngest driver ever to be in Formula 1.
ADD (@addimaf1)
27th September 2015, 0:44
Everyone knows how old Verstappen is! I have heard the word “seventeen” as much as the word “tyre” this year. Ask Perez how good he is at overtaking. As for Hamilton, he is stating facts. The cars cant follow each other this year.
paul
27th September 2015, 4:55
:D
Strontium (@strontium)
27th September 2015, 0:52
I would put money on a Hamilton win right now, whether I would like that to be the case or not. I feel that maybe he is just staying calm and playing it down.
RL
27th September 2015, 3:17
I think he’s remarking how it’s more difficult this year due to the regulations. Verstappen is overtaking successfully due to a mixture of bravado under braking and a competitive chassis. But Hamilton isn’t overtaking Nico here I feel unless the latter has issues with his car, or if it’s an undercut but I don’t see Mercedes letting Lewis do that.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
27th September 2015, 5:06
@dragoll
Also, Charlie Kimball has diabetes…
Michael Brown
27th September 2015, 8:09
Bruno Senna is the newphew of Ayrton Senna
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
27th September 2015, 16:18
Lewis Hamilton is not a natural blonde.
@HoHum (@hohum)
27th September 2015, 0:22
So the faster the car the quicker the tyres will wear out, brilliant, a handicap system with no extra weights or reverse grids, maybe Manor will be fighting at the front as the fast cars run out of tyres. Bernies genius knows no bounds.
Formula1 (@s2g-unit)
27th September 2015, 1:11
Yep, just another great weekend with Pirelli and their amazing tyres!!
No, you cannot defend them saying Bernie asked for degrading tyres. Nobody asked for tyres that have to have pressures that are too high and balloon for safety reasons because can’t even estimate their wear properly. They can’t even see that a tyre will explode for no reason (more than once).
We did not ask for a tyre that has a tiny operating windows (according teams and drivers) where if you get luck you get into the sweet spot and win ALA 2012 lottery tyre temp/range.
Nobody asked for tyres that constantly have “thermal degradation” and can’t cool down properly.
Tyres, that prevent drivers from attacking or defending for more than what, 5-6 corners.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
27th September 2015, 0:56
I’m happy that Button mentioned the tyre pressures for Suzuka. Everyone knows that Suzuka has a rough surface and high g corners but 20 or 21 psi on the rear is 20% higher than everyone would run in normal conditions. Gutierrez said ferrari was going for a race/qualifying balance, as such no one had the chance to test degradation and no one had a real chance to test different aero loads. I wonder if RBR which had really poor top speed, and Ferrari went for race setup whilst Mercedes and Williams were more laid back on the tyres.
Chad (@chaddy)
27th September 2015, 1:21
There needs to be a rule that adds 2-3 minutes to Q3 if there is a red flag like that.
Simon (@weeniebeenie)
27th September 2015, 2:02
Why? They had 12 minutes, it’s their choice to go out at the very last minute.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
27th September 2015, 5:10
@chaddy I agree with @weeniebeenie. This is a sport and it’s up to the competitors to weigh the benefit of running late in the session when the track is at its best against the risk of going out when there is likely to be more cars on track and therefore a grater chance of yellow or red flags.
Besides which, as several of the drivers running at the end of Q3 had already started a lap on their last set of tyres, even if they’d had an extra run it’s unlikely many of them would have been able to find more time.
Chad (@chaddy)
27th September 2015, 5:56
I disagree @weeniebeenie and @keithcollantine because it ruins the laps of people even ahead of the accident. I don’t support extra time for a yellow flag, because in that situation you benefit if you accepted the trade-offs to be ahead on track.
After the red flag yesterday, there were still 30 seconds left, yet it was impossible to do another lap, and that seems wrong to me. It’s not like someone would be allowed to park on track so that when time restarted they could cross the line at full speed and then have 1 flyer.
In the vast majority of races pole time is set on the final shootout in the final 2 minutes of Q3, and today the viewers and spectators got robbed because of Kyvat’s mistake. I agree that the teams should bank as fast a lap as they can at the beginning of the session, but there is an expectation that the session won’t be cancelled with time remaining.
I’d also ask you both to imagine a (very unlikely) situation in which there are 3 separate crashes spaced out, and no one is able to set a lap, even if one spent no time in the pits. If the race controller isn’t allowed to add time, then we’d essentially have no Q3, and that wouldn’t be a desirable situation.
Dave (@)
27th September 2015, 6:25
Since the introduction of the Q1/Q2/Q3 format, how many Q3 sessions have been red flagged? One? Two? Not enough to warrant yet more regulations in a sport with a rulebook thicker than an extended copy of War and Peace.
Nase (@)
27th September 2015, 2:05
Spot-on CotD. Couldn’t have said it better.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
27th September 2015, 2:20
How can overtaking be difficult now? I have more trouble overtaking lorries on the motorway than modern DRS-supercharged moves!.
paul
27th September 2015, 4:57
Aerodynamics.
JB27
27th September 2015, 3:06
Am I the only one that thinks that it’s really silly that they don’t add extra time onto qualifying when a red flag stops cars on a flying lap or cars from starting a flying lap? It’s always baffled me considering other sports like football etc have extra time added on when a player is injured near the end to allow the result to be determined properly, Charlie Whiting suggested something like this not too long ago but then nothing else was said about it..I’ve seen it happen a few times now and it just seems silly to me to not allow drivers to have the lap they would have had by just adding 3-4 minutes after a red flag period
paul
27th September 2015, 4:58
Because it is first a show, and second a sport.
CeeVee (@)
27th September 2015, 5:02
No, they’re both part of the entertainment industry
Dave (@)
27th September 2015, 6:35
The added time in football is to cover all stoppages during the half, not just if someone is injured at the end; that’s why it’s called stoppagetime. Would you add an extra three minutes if there was a red flag just two minutes into Q3?
Also, the tyres have already passed their best; the chances of improving times would be much slimmer. And this would apply no matter who makes them; it’s not unique to the Pirellis.
JB27
27th September 2015, 15:16
Yes ofcourse It doesn’t matter what session since it could also determine who gets through into the next round of qualifying like I said it just doesn’t seem very sport-like to not have the full result pan out due to something interrupting the session and the fact Charlie Whiting has already suggested this shows that other people obviously feel the same way and it would also stop accusations of cheating like in the qualifying session in Monaco last year since drivers interrupted would have just been given an extra lap.
Peppermint-Lemon (@)
27th September 2015, 4:31
Bring in Michelin as tyre supplier next year!