Drain incident could have hurt someone – Bottas

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Valtteri Bottas says the broken drain cover which damaged his car during final practice could have injured bystanders.

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Comment of the day

Qualifying wasn’t Hamilton’s finest hour
Did Hamilton have a poor qualifying session because he didn’t do his homework? Matthew isn’t convinced:

Really poor session for Hamilton but no criticism from me, he owned up said it was his fault didn’t try to make any excuses (unlike the pundits trying to use the sun as an excuse for him which he dismissed) not sure what more you could want to be honest under the circumstances. People blaming the lack of a track walk or simulator time are talking rubbish to be honest it’s not like he has been off the pace all weekend.

All the greatest drivers have had bad sessions at times but should make for an awesome race.

I still think he could win it to be honest if he keeps his nose clean at the start. The pace advantage they have is so much bigger than anywhere else we have seen for several seasons and it should make overtaking so easy down the long straight with DRS and slipstream, on the long runs he was quicker than Rosberg and we know he can make his tyres last when he needs to as per Canada so it’s certainly possible – He probably needs a quick starting Ferrari to help him out at the start.
Matthew Coyne

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The Belgian Grand Prix held today in 1960 was a black day for Formula One, as Alan Stacey and Chris Bristow lost their lives in separate accidents.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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36 comments on “Drain incident could have hurt someone – Bottas”

  1. Totally a green with COTD, well said! Betting on a couple of safety cars too which could stir things up!

    1. @nemo87 I eco that. It will probably be an elimination race, I expect quite a lot of incident (yellow flags and SC). Gamble strategy-wise and the driver which can keep out of trouble could win.

  2. I was thinking after Hamilton denies track walks and poo poos the simulator, eventually something will happen. Why does COTD think this is so unbelieavable? How do you learn a track in such a short time without using all there is to help you? Arrogant, conceited and I hope it is “pouty” Hamilton all weekend.

    Is it possible to say Azerbaijaan without the pre face “oil rich”? Very sly tactics employed and used by everyone. How about we start saying “Military industrial war complex rich United States”. Or “Pillager of African resources United Kingdom”? Maybe it is too much of a mouthful.

    1. Simulator teaches you only the layout and reference points, walking the track does the same, but you can only get a feeling of the track when you drive the bumps and corners. You dont get real feeling of track from a simulator! He did the simulator, and the guy is a three time WDC on F1, and has pretty good track record all his life. What do you have couch gorilla in the manila? What do you know better that he doesnt? Oh you play PS4 or Xbox versions?

    2. Hamilton hasn’t done a track walk in 6 years apparently, but that didn’t stop him from learning new tracks and winning at them. He feels a track walk gives very little information– Raikonnen has said the same, but since it came from Kimi, that’s OK. If Lewis says it, the F1 forums have a meltdown.

      “Arrogant and conceited” is anyone other than Hamilton who tries to expound on what Hamilton should and shouldn’t do to prepare for a race. With three world titles, more race wins than anyone who’s name isn’t “Prost” or “Schumacher”, 92 podiums, 53 pole positions and 29 fast laps, I think Hamilton probably knows more about how to prepare for a race than anyone commenting on this forum, since I’m pretty sure neither Prost nor Schumacher are reading these comments.

      1. I’m not going to judge what Hamiltom does to prepare for a race but let’s not try our convince ourselves that Hamiltom isn’t arrogant.

        All the interviews i have seen with him, there is always an underlying tone that he thinks he’s one of the greatest drivers to have ever lived. This may be true however modesty wouldn’t be a bad thing to show any now again. I prefer supporting legends who are actually modest and self deprecating, not trying to constantly say how THEY as individuals are the ones who will continue the legacy of other legends.

        1. So you don’t like Ali?

    3. @ibrahim

      I bet Hamilton has his reasons for not doing track walks nor simulated laps. Every driver is different. He’s not done a single track walk since 2010 and yet he’s won everywhere since then… He finished 1st in all practice sessions here, without doing much simulator work, and yet we’re hearing about arrogant behaviour?

      Maybe we should just watch and learn. The guy was blistering all weekend… it has nothing to do with preparation, personal behaviours or anything… it was just a bad day, maybe he wasn’t convinced by setup changes or he wasn’t comfortable with the track conditions… that’s all!

      1. there is this thing called hypocrisy, and it’s probably one of the worst ‘sins’ in the world. Arrogance is a bad quality, and I am not saying Lewis doesn’t have his vices, nobody is perfect, but baseless commentary really only points to the person making the comment. Like I said, I am not perfect, I go overboard too, but I usually do my homework before I go all personal and emotional on something. Sometimes when you know you are wrong, it’s easier to ignore it than face up to that pretty bad feeling, especially when you are amped up by poor commentary and political correctness/social expectations-norms, etc, etc, etc, etc.

    4. Keith Crossley
      19th June 2016, 2:28

      Perhaps you can come up with some more negative comments?

    5. @ibrahim I slightly disagree on your last paragraph. Oil Rich-Azerbaijan obliviously a compliment here in F1 society. It fits glamorous oil-rich live style F1 try to promote. Its like saying Renewable Energy-Scandinavian country in Formula-E community.

    6. Because digging a hole in the ground isnt that hard to do.And they didnt even do that. Say what you will about the brits or the yanks, at least they actually did something other than get paid by BP.

    7. Having clearly got a good feel for the track on Friday, what extra information do you think a track walk and time in the simulator would have given him?

    8. Yet he still wins races and championships. So what does it matter? What do you care about his methods?

    9. pastaman (@)
      19th June 2016, 12:36

      The hate is strong with this one.

    10. @ibrahim He blasted the field until that session, what do you think a track walk would have change?
      He messed up and did not try to make excuses, assuming all the blame. Kimi would have done the same (nom track walk, no excuses), but as it is Hamilton let’s show our anger against the man.

  3. I’m no driver, but if your only option is to overtake the driver in front, on the first corner of your (and the guy ahead) fast lap, maybe you and your team made a bad decision on when to go out, and you should not compromise either driver’s laps.

    Trying to overtake when you shouldn’t won’t make any good to either. So maybe Bottas should realize that he’s at the wrong place at the wrong time and back off. It’s not Verstappen’s fault that Bottas started the lap so close to him. Bottas wanted the tow? great, but you can’t also get the preferable line because the car that gave you the tow is RIGHT THERE, also on a timed lap!.

    1. Well said @fer-no65, it seems like a move forced by being at the wrong time/place on track

    2. Don’t forget that Vestappen rather cheekily overtook Bottas just as they left pit lane – I suspect as payback for the previous incident. In the previous incident, Vestappen overshot the corner and was completely off the track – any driver would have gone inside as Bottas did.

      1. Off course not. You dont see anyone overtaking in fastlaps because you always lose time. Bottas wouldve lost time anyway.

        He should not have followed Max zo closely, should have dropped of a couplet of seconds. Than he could have picked up a tow at the end of the lap.

        But hey, it is Bottas: He is reasonably quick, but not a very good racer.

      2. Arnoud van Houwelingen
        19th June 2016, 10:24

        On dutch tv Verstappen said he went wilde to avoid a crash with Bottas. Come on it’s a 6 km plus track with only 10 cars he could have given Verstappen some room.

    3. I did not know that a faster driver should not overtake another slower driver during qualifying especially when the slower driver goes off the track! Then Bottas should have followed Verstappen off the track to maintain the slipstream so that both can benefit!
      Versrappen was compromising Bottas’ timing so Bottas had to react. Bottas simply passed by when Max went off the track (his own mistake and not because Bottas forced him to go wide).
      If the case was the other way around, I imagine the comments being like ‘oh my god what was Bottas doing and what a super drive from Max passing Bottas during qualifying’.

      1. @hzh00 when did Verstappen left the track? only when Bottas tried to overtake. And you’re only talking about the first incident, it happened twice during qualy!

        1. Go watch the replays. It was the opposite way around. Bottas passed when Max left the track.

  4. Re the COTD:
    I don’t normally get to watch the after-qualy interviews, but I watched a (very poor quality) feed from a UK broadcaster for this one where they interviewed Hamilton and tried to help him out with those excuses. The same interviewer very rudely did their best to get other drivers to admit they made mistakes but it was completely different with Hamilton. And it just annoyed him. He knew what they were on about and it embarrassed him into having to tell them straight out that it was all his fault.
    Afterwards in the wrap of qualifying performance one presenter was saying how well a driver had done in finishing so high qualifying (I think it was about Kvyat) when he was interrupted by a different presenter who then claimed that Hamilton had done a great job in qualifying – simply for admitting a mistake!
    I don’t blame Hamilton for any of this – he knew he was rubbish and said so. I am also used to the Hamilton fans on this site refusing to agree that he is only human and that is OK with me, after all they are fanatics.
    But I cannot stand such bias in commentators, it really puts me off the broadcast. Can anyone recommend any English-language coverage that isn’t so one-eyed?

    1. Well, I’ve just converted to Channel 4. Mainly because those on Sky Sports F1 seem to talk a load of waffle. David Croft and Ted Kravitz the main culprits. Oh and Johnny Herbert and Simon Lazenby.

      1. Arnoud van Houwelingen
        19th June 2016, 10:27

        I really miss Martin Brundle on SkySports .. That Johnny Herbert is rubbish!

    2. You are a bit quick on the Hamilton’s fans. A lot of them are not fanatics ans critisize the man when he’s at fault. Heck, they are not the loudest. @juan-fanger

    3. while i kind of disagree with your rubbishing comment, I think reliability/something or other held him back during the race, and perhaps reliability or most likely over ambition ate away at his qualifying attempts, I completely agree with you when it comes to the press, manipulating the ‘masses’ and how they try to jerk the drivers around. It’s a real shame the guys who are supposed to get it right are often getting it wrong. The lady who does the interviews after the race and Crofty really deserve an award though, for all that they manage to get away with. I did enjoy listening to PdR school Crofty in one of the FPs this round though, listening to Crofty get insecure and actually look like he might be questioning his position, that was worth the price of admission for the whole round me thinks.

  5. No action over the unsafe release of Bottas into Vettel’s path?

  6. Mick Nicholson
    19th June 2016, 10:27

    F1 needs to develop a code of practice for drains/conduit covers/kerbs. If not someone is going to get killed. In a high tech sport these are just lash ups and a little more engineer ing need to be applied.
    some suggestions:
    1) don’t have them where you don’t need them. What Bottas hit was a conduit not a drain and should have been a buried pipe.
    2) every one needs to be held down with multiple bolts or welds. The Bottas one was held by a single bolt.
    3) welds need to be done properly, and be inspected. Bolts need to be specified correctly and torqued correctly.
    4)Some standard designs need to be produced.
    5) need to formalise the test/inspection process.
    Not all of this can be done at every circuit right now, but it there needs to be a programme of improvements.
    This is quite possibly more important than Driver head protection, not least because it affects the safety of the Marshalls and spectators.

  7. Hold the phone, I’ve just come up with a brilliant nickname for the circuit, which I’m 100% positive nobody’s thought of before: Monzaco.

    Yup. THAT. JUST. HAPPENED.

    1. Your prize is in the mail.

    2. I think Monabaijan or Azerco… :-)

    3. What do you think of that @ibrahim ?

Comments are closed.