2012 European GP - Valencia

[neilbah]

macca have certainly lost a few points in the pits, i think they make things too complicated, to gain a tenth in a process, but when it goes wrong........

[Traction]

Is it possible that the alternator received to much current from the Kers? An alternator will overheat with too much charge/ current and considering the alternator handles/directs the energy back to the engine it might be that it might be possible. No?

[piast9]

And now for something completely different. Have you seen Petrov's Catheram overtaking a Ferrari at the end of the race? That's not something you see every race...

[zyphro]

This race shows how useless quali really is this year.

[stefan_]

McLaren pit stops are a joke, Senna's penalty was a joke.

Agree %100 to both. Senna was almost hit from the back. How can he be penalised for that ?!? As for McLaren's stops, not need to say anything...

To be honest when i saw 2.9 sec pitstop i was like WTF but then again they proved me wrong with another failed stop...To hell those "experimental" jacks and nuts ffs...

I'd prefer to make 2 x 3.2/3.4s pit stops rather than 1x2.9s and 1x15s.

[marcush.]

IF Michael AND Rosberg do not suffer any more incidents this year than I´m sure Schumacher /Mercedes has a mole inside the team ....You just cannot switch off the issues instantly by implementing an engineer to oversee the work...
Let´s see what they are going to offer us in a few weeks as a result of their evaluations...hoprfully somebody has the balls to ask Mr.Brawn later on.

[neilbah]

yes a caterham took a fezza, but he was wounded i suspect

[sknguy]

And now for something completely different. Have you seen Petrov's Catheram overtaking a Ferrari at the end of the race? That's not something you see every race...

Probably not since the 80's... being a former lotus branded car I mean.

[Traction]

This race shows how useless quali really is this year.

With respect, you wouldn't be saying that if Seb had won..

[beelsebob]

macca have certainly lost a few points in the pits, i think they make things too complicated, to gain a tenth in a process, but when it goes wrong........

I disagree, it's quite the reverse in fact, right up until this race. Up until now they were losing points in the pits because they didn't invest in new tech for making the stops more reliable, while other teams did, hence all the cross threaded nuts early on. This one appears to have been caused by new tech in terms of a new fancy pants swinging front jack like ferrari's.

[beelsebob]

This race shows how useless quali really is this year.

o.O You realise the 3 races before this one were all won from pole, right?

[Dragonfly]

This race shows how useless quali really is this year.

With respect, you wouldn't be saying that if Seb had won..

If it wasn't for the SC that Whiting sucked out of his fingers, he might have actually.

[Poleman]

I'd prefer to make 2 x 3.2/3.4s pit stops rather than 1x2.9s and 1x15s.

Heck even a 4 sec one would be enough...

[kaller]

Yes...I agree...if an alternator recieves too much current it will overheat.

And if it overheats, parts will melt, short out creating even more current, creating even more heat and its gone.

Even under the assumption that this is true (which I am not going to challenge, knowing nothing about the Renault engine), predicting an alternator failure due to a Safety Car period only by the size of the sidepods is ridiculous.
edit: Especially since Webber had no problem at all.

At least Vettel also seemed to complain more about the "unnecessary" safety car than the failure itself. So it might not be a far stretch to assume it is related.

[ArchAngel]

'Thrilling' and Valencia -- who knew those two words could possibly go together? And with no rain at that! It took a couple of reliability gremlins and some gremlin-brained moves on track, but hey -- I'll take it over the usual Valencia snorefest.

Kudos to Alonso, Raikkonen & Schumacher! Shame about Vettel, Grosjean and Hamilton, though. Another disgusting pitstop from Lewis' pit crew, but that's to be expected. Wasted opportunities for Kobayashi and Massa, too. Maldonado -- did this guy really win a race a few GPs ago??