iotar__ wrote:Permane: "We have let Kimi past him a couple of times this year, and those have been with good reason when we have had a shot of overtaking."
Any doubts that Lotus are lying? Boooo. What shot at Silverstone, at what exactly? What shot in Germany? Zero. The real team orders were in the form of "undercut" or split strategy of changing to older than Vettel's mediums? What "good reason" was present at the time of doing it? "We tried to undercut Vettel with Grosjean but that didn't work," 1. Lie 2. I wonder why changing to older tyres with low deg in the middle of two tyres stints didn't work. Who was faster in the first stint in Germany and had the chance to close on Vettel even more? No "good reason" team orders there? Who was faster on softs and had better chance to challenge Vettel? It was a "real shot" for a change. Salesman of owner's preferred driver is now pretending that there was some logic to team orders at Lotus, not to mention results. No there wasn't, just marketing preference of a driver.
Not this year but still failures of TO: what shot in Bahrain? Zero. What shot in Hungary 2012 (you can pretend this wasn't TO but had they been driving for different teams KR would have never finished in front after ptistops)? Zero. What shot in Singapore at anything? Zero, glorious two points gained. OK, let's pretend these were "shots", it's 100% failure rate, very impressive from both driver and team. Not challenging Vettel in Korea (let's be clear - no doubt about it and I wouldn't want it) would be no different
but at least they'd be consistent.
What about safety cars Mr Permane? "There was an element of luck for Kimi with the safety car" "Element"? How about full 100% element of luck (25 s)? Really small number in F1. Same song as in Germany: [the safety car] "It played into Kimi's hands a little" Yes "a little", the whole 10 s, he would have had no chance to be anywhere near top 2 without it. What were the other elements I wonder, the bigger part in Germany for example? Ugh, marketing pitch.
They can play their games (what can you do?) and have two failed seasons in a row no one is responsible for of course, but this shameless lying is what bothers me. I'm surprised Allison packed himself and left in the middle of the season despite all the "shots" at great results.
Germany?? when Kimi was pitted earlier and got stuck behind traffic despite lapping faster still. And for your information, Kimi was in front of Romain at that point.
Silverstone?? Kimi was in front of Alonso. Alonso pitted to undercut, Lotus instead pitted Romain that was behind Nando and make kimi stay out. Kimi pitted and came out behind both nando and romain. Kimi was harassing Romain's back all the time for being much quicker, even without TO, he was a gone case. In the end, the team didn't pit kimi under SC and lost an easy P2.
Korea?? Romain wasnt even quicker than Kimi despite having fresher rubber. Until the last two laps when kimi's front tire gone, he was able to get into DRS zone. The team obviously not convince by his speed and the probability of cacthing up Seb, hence they reject the request of TO from Romain.
For your information, all the TO events from Lotus so far, had been their own-doing for compromising Kimi with strategy. In korea gp for example, kimi got pass Alonso, Alonso pitted, and Kimi stayed out. When kimi pitted he was behind Alonso again.
Not to mention the past few races kimi had been treated very badly.
Canada, bad car. Bad pit stops, rear brake issues....kimi had to switch the brake balance forward and rely on front brake on a rear limited circuit. Insufficient fuel issues arose, Kers not able to harvest due to rear brake issues. Finish in the point and once again demolished Romain on sheer pace with all the issues combined.
Spa, the team send kimi out on the worst probable timing to get a lap in. Kimi was the fastest guy on Q2. On the race, Romain almost crash into Kimi, otherwise, he would've been p4 or p5 after the turn1. Doesnt matter, demolised Romain with ease because their pace in comparison is like comparing different planets. kimi rose up with few sick move and on course for Top5 finishes, but brake failure costed him.
Loose seat in Singapore, injured kimi's spine. And it was Seb's physio and mclaren's doctor Aki that came to the rescue, not Lotus.
Broken front wing in Q3, team only found out in the evening. Lack of focus on Kimi's garage.
Anyway, its easy to just claim Kimi had no raw pace whatsoever. Lucky?? if he has that tad of luck, he would be 3 times or even more WDC.