Kodongo

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  • #198783
    Kodongo
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    Is it just me or isn’t it abundantly clear that the remaining three active drivers are Räikkönen, Alonso and Schumacher? The last two need no explanation but Kimi’s body of work is so much more complete (versus Vettel, Button et cetera). He has every skill, superior talent and has been doing for a much longer period of time at the top level. I just don’t see how Vettel or Button could be in the top 20 ahead of Kimi.

    #202607
    Kodongo
    Participant

    One thing which is undeniable is that the drivers are driving at well less than 100%. At Monaco, the shortest lap of the year, Perez lapped 1.1 seconds faster than anyone else and had about 6 of the top 10 times in his Sauber. This means that the leading cars could have gone 2 seconds faster if they weren’t so afraid of the drop off. The Pirellis have scared everyone into stasis. I absolutely hate the concept of ‘falling off the cliff’. It punishes the driver so severely for a small decision such as doing an extra lap or pushing a bit too hard.

    The idea to promote overtaking is noble but executed incorrectly. Instead of consulting the drivers and finding a way to ensure that they can drive to the limits of their abilities, they took the desired result (more overtaking) and reverse engineered this catastrophe.

    The sport has changed from being about the symbiosis of car and driver to being about the symbiosis of car and tyre. One of the most enduring memories I have is watching Hamilton and Alonso at Silverstone 2009. They were in 13th and 14th places in mediocre cars but going hell for leather like they were fighting for the title. The champion spirit was clear in both of them; they were both driving to the absolute limit. Nowadays, it’s no longer the driver who dictates the limit of the car but the tyres.
    All of the drivers are colouring well inside the lines nowadays and it detracts from the moniker “pinnacle of motorsport”.

    #200415
    Kodongo
    Participant

    Yes. It has gone beyond the threshold of unpredictability into randomness. The signs are unnatural for motorsport. In Q3, there is now a “black hole” for places 8-10. Any surprise Q3 entrants prefer to save tyres rather than chance their arm at a higher grid position (which they would almost certainly lose anyway given the ease of passing in this iteration of F1). Also, there is the new “midfield pole” of 11th which gives a strategy advantage and fresh tyre advantage to those ahead. This undoubtedly helped propel Kimi from eleventh to second.

    The most worrying is that drivers are losing their identity. This shows itself in many ways. The tyres are just the latest in a series of attempts to neutralise the disparity between driver talent (e.g. DRS). Aggressive driving is redundant because any time gained will be lost several times over due to excessive degradation/more boxes. Superior tyre management is null because the tyres are specced to die after 100km. Sustained pressure on an opponent is near impossible because they do not hold up well in traffic. Outrageous overtakes are more difficult because of the life you take out of the tyres as well as the fact that the tyres are churning out marbles the size of Chuck Norris’s testicles. The second overlooked aspect is how is a young driver supposed to distinguish himself? The number of one-and-done F1 drivers is rising (half-and-done if you drive for Toro Rosso). How are they supposed to make their name if they are mostly just a faceless drone overtaking/being overtaken generically? Kobayashi made his reputation in two races for Toyota by being super aggressive. If he débuted in today’s F1, he would blend in with the crowd. How many dormant Kobayashi’s are there on the grid today? We don’t know and the tyres obfuscate the truth from us.

    I can’t believe this hasn’t been mentioned – the drivers are no longer physically pushed to the limit. I remember when the drivers used to rest their heads on the side of the cockpit because the race was so taxing. Nowadays, a driver completes a 100 minute race and hops out of the car looking untried and not fatigued in the slightest. Will we ever see again something near Ayrton Senna struggling to stand up after completing an exhausting Brazilian Grand Prix?

    The biggest fault of the Pirelli tyres, in my opinion, is the fact that they kill sustained battles between two drivers. In 2010, I loved watching Button and Hamilton joust and jostle and try to outwit one another. Now it seems like I’m watching [Button vs. Pirelli] and [Hamilton vs. Pirelli] on the same piece of tarmac.

    I have no problem with tyres being a limiting factor, but they are so limiting that is becoming impossible to distinguish drivers from one another. Who has the most overtakes this year? I don’t know. Who has been the most attacking driver so far? I don’t know. Most conservative with the tyres? Don’t know. Who are the latent talents most likely to break into the big teams in the future? Perhaps Checo, otherwise I don’t know.

    A final observation. I don’t understand the logic of “falling off the cliff”. It’s arbritrary and so pointless. If a driver over uses a tire, he should be punished commensurately (0.5-1 sec) instead of having a race ruined by doing a lap or two too many.

    #169186
    Kodongo
    Participant

    88, according to Clip the Apex.

    #169129
    Kodongo
    Participant

    Hamilton: “I will always think that my nemesis and my closest rival will always be Fernando, Just because of my history, when I started out. I see him as my Prost, if we were [Alain] Prost and [Aryton] Senna. If you were to say ‘choose a driver’ [that I would like to be] I would clearly choose Ayrton. And maybe I would put him as Prost.”

    Hamilton: I’m Senna and Alonso is Prost, Formula One Blog

    Hamilton: Alonso my nemesis, Prost to my Senna, crash.net

    “Red Bull are not a manufacturer, they are a drinks company. It’s a drinks company versus McLaren/Ferrari history. I don’t know what their plan is. Our team is building to become a bigger manufacturer, like Ferrari, and I can only see our team being there for a ridiculous amount of time. It is a pure-bred racing team.” Guardian

    ‘Red Bull are just a drinks company,’ says revved-up Lewis Hamilton, The Guardian

    I think he has matured a bit but also a lot of the perceived arrogance is just hyperbole from creative journalists looking to decontextualize and twist what he says.

    #159524
    Kodongo
    Participant

    How many Ferrari drivers does it take to change a light bulb?

    Two.

    One to change the light bulb, and the other to stand on.


    Reporter: Martin, so close to a Drivers Championship in 2010, what prevented you from unlocking all of the MP4-25’s potential?

    Whitmarsh: Well, we believe we were disadvantaged by Charlie Whiting’s decision at the beginning of the season. We wanted to run our wing stalling device slightly closer to the cockpit for maximum efficiency, but Whiting took umbrage to our proposed ‘a-hole’ solution.

    [vodafone]


    Reporter: Mark, we’d like you to briefly describe Vettel’s precision driving when he has to set a timed lap to claim pole position?

    Webber: Deadly.

    Reporter: On the rare occasions that he hasn’t been on the front row, he has had to come through the field. A few words on the German’s overtaking manoeuvres?

    Webber: Deadly.


    Reporter: Mr. di Montizemelo, we’ve heard you want to get into Italian politics in the near future, is this true?

    di Mont: Yes, this has always been a wish of mine. I have always had a keen eye on the runnings of the country. Apparently, it is some kind of initiation into the political scene, that you have to screw someone. We heard all the rumours about Berlusconi screwing all the young Italian girls. Me, personally I prefer to screw Brazilians. Felipe in Germany, Rubens in Austria, I’ve been doing it since before you could spell Gisele.


    Reporter: Mark, how does it feel to have come so close to being a world champion?

    Webber: I am gutted, mate. Dominated and beaten by a German. Mind you, Max Mosley would have to pay to receive that kind of treatment!

    #159060
    Kodongo
    Participant

    Riise, your post mentions strangeness but neglects the fact that it was a double world champion with several years of experience going against a rookie. Hamilton is from the school where he will fight with whomever whereas Alonso needs to be mollycoddled and told constantly “You’re the best”. An example being after Lewis first four races of the 07 season where he started brillianty, Alonso banned Hamilton from going to the test in Spain. Hamilton will do everything to beat his opponent on track (including pushing the envelope too far from time to time e.g. Monza 2010) whereas Alonso will try to beat his opponent off the track (e.g. Spygate, favouritism rumours, “F1 is no longer a sport” et cetera). Now that Hamilton is more experienced, I would expect him to beat Alonso again.

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