2014 Spanish Grand Prix - Barcelona

[ringo]

Massa suffered from the 3 stop.

As for Hamilton's tyre graining, i think when the front wing was adjusted, too much wing was taken off.
So it made things worse.
I don't think Rosberg would have overtaken him. Even if he had 10 more laps. His tyres were going, and there would be a point where the hard tyre would have better performance. Coupled with the fact that after watching Alonso basically on Kimi's gearbox and still not being able to pass, shows Rosgerg would have had a huge fight on his hands.
Hamilton wont let him drive pass that easily either. So Nico probably is better off humbling himself and work with second place.

Beating Hamilton is going to be very very hard to Nico. He just doesn't have to speed to run off into the sunset. He's quick enough to keep up, but not enough to run away. And Lewis is somewhat of a track bully, he'll lock on and start a brawl.
I'm starting to see how Jenson did a very good job using other skills to outsmart Lewis. Rosberg is much faster than Jenson, but he's not as cunning. He's going to need some of that to beat the track brute that is Hamilton and the W05.

[PlatinumZealot]

Kimi was good this weekend =D> =D> , never seen so emotional. Alonso has started his crying...

When did he cry and if you do a little bit research you would know that Alonso have been the faster driver the entire race. He beat him fair and sqaure.

found this on the internetz:

Alonso:
"I don't know how the tyres were for Kimi, but for me after two or three laps I had a very difficult rear end so was asking when we could stop," said Alonso.

"When it was time, we stopped. Then I had traffic and because of that I didn't pass Kimi.

"In the second stint I finished the tyres again and asked when we could stop. They said we could keep going or do two stops, or we stop and do three.

"They said Vettel was on three so if we stopped now, we covered him. And I said 'we do it'.

"I tried to protect the position from Vettel and it was not possible. The intention was just to keep Vettel behind once we'd changed strategy. We didn't manage it and it was a shame."

[George-Jung]

^^ Hamilton clearly hadn't had the speed either to run in to the 'sunset'...
Please take off the pink glasses and admit that both drivers are very closely matched to each other, with Hamilton currently having the momentum..

China looked a walk in the park, but don't forget that Rosberg had a poor start and dropped back to 6th.. Otherwise that race too could have been very close..

[Waywardism]

^^ Hamilton clearly hadn't had the speed either to run in to the 'sunset'...
Please take off the pink glasses and admit that both drivers are very closely matched to each other, with Hamilton currently having the momentum..

China looked a walk in the park, but don't forget that Rosberg had a poor start and dropped back to 6th.. Otherwise that race too could have been very close..

Agreed. The only race that has been dominated by either one over the other is Malaysia. The other 4 we either didn't get the chance to see or it was very close.

[ringo]

And that's why i've said if it stays the same Hamilton will continue to come out on top.
I didn't say Hamilton can runaway on track. I was more alluding to him being more comfortable in close combat.

They only ever will dominate if the other's car doesn't work how it should, as we've seen so far in the races with the big gaps.
However for Rosberg to beat hamilton on track, which he hasn't since the season has started, he has to find some kind of advantage that will allow him to run off into the sunset.

Hamilton doesn't have to find that as we've seen in Bahrain and Spain. He'll muscle through it. And when he's on a proper setup he does tend to drift away.

After today, i don't think this is as close as the stopwatch suggests. Ignoring the gaps for a second, it seems that Rosberg is fully under control. He needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out something.

[Phillyred]

After 5 races so far I feel that anyone who is disappointed with Mercedes' obvious dominance should be more disappointed with the other teams and their efforts so far in 2014. We all knew 2014 with all the rules/regs changes could have gone any way for any team. The bar has been set for the rest of 2014.. There are still valuable points and $$$ to be earned for second best and we all know that F1 is ultimately a business as much as it is a sport. As a general fan of F1 I would hope that at the very least 2015 will provide a closer gap to the top team.

As it pertains to the Nico vs Lewis battle I do believe Lewis is a bit rougher with his tires at various points through the last few races and Nico has done a better job and his engineers have really helped with strategy to close up on Hamilton's obvious raw pace this year. However, the racing in the last 2 laps between them would not have been nearly as thrilling if Lewis would have had a better pitstop times. Nico def had the advantage there.

I'm happy to see Vettel "prove his worth" to the naysayers that he can make his way through the field.. Very "alonso-esque" even though it appear RB may be on the brink of having the 2nd best car.

AND, we'll never know the real story behind the differing pit-stop strategy between Kimi and Alonso at Ferrari, but I really think it was a "favor" to Alonso at his home race as much as I hate conspiracies.

[foxmulder_ms]

Kimi was good this weekend =D> =D> , never seen so emotional. Alonso has started his crying...

When did he cry and if you do a little bit research you would know that Alonso have been the faster driver the entire race. He beat him fair and sqaure.

I hardly think so. If they were on the same strategy Alonso would have ended up like Rosberg did to Hamilton. Especially, if Raikkonen pitted first during the pitstops and took the advantage of the undercut which he should have been as the track position dictated. Ferrari clearly favors Alonso.

[siskue2005]

Kimi was good this weekend =D> =D> , never seen so emotional. Alonso has started his crying...

When did he cry and if you do a little bit research you would know that Alonso have been the faster driver the entire race. He beat him fair and sqaure.

I hardly think so. If they were on the same strategy Alonso would have ended up like Rosberg did to Hamilton. Especially, if Raikkonen pitted first during the pitstops and took the advantage of the undercut which he should have been as the track position dictated. Ferrari clearly favors Alonso.

completely agree

[Kiril Varbanov]

Now that the race dust has settled, you can vote for your driver of the day at Spain:
http://www.f1technical.net/poll/index.php?dispid=273

Edit: Addressed the comment of AnthonyG bellow for missing Grosjean - added now.

[AnthonyG]

I miss Romain Grosjean in the poll.

[Mandrake]

After 5 races so far I feel that anyone who is disappointed with Mercedes' obvious dominance should be more disappointed with the other teams and their efforts so far in 2014. We all knew 2014 with all the rules/regs changes could have gone any way for any team. The bar has been set for the rest of 2014.. There are still valuable points and $$$ to be earned for second best and we all know that F1 is ultimately a business as much as it is a sport. As a general fan of F1 I would hope that at the very least 2015 will provide a closer gap to the top team.

It does not matter who you are disappointed with, it's way more boring than even the rest of last year.

There is no fighting other than ppl recovering from poor starts, qualifying out of shape results and fresh vs old tires. The intra-team battles are thrilling? To the ones that are claiming this - you surely must be kidding yourselves, or be massive Hamilton supporters as he's on track to WDC.

Yesterday before the F1 race there was the ADAC GT Masters at Zandvoort. So much rain that F1 would never have thought about starting at all and so many intense battles, after that F1 looked even more like a snorefest......I shouldn't watch both series after each other on the same day, too much pain.

[ecapox]

I suggest all of you complaining about "boring races" begin looking at other forms of Motorsports. After every race "OMG this race was so boring. The FIA need to do xxxx and yyyy and it will fix the problems. I cant watch anymore." but yet everyone continues to watch, and subsequently bitch.

If the race is a single file line until the end, you complain about no passing.
If the race sees the first two cars drive away into the sunset, while the battles from 3-10 are intense, you complain about no passing.
If the race has 4 pit stops and people getting passed based on tire strategy, you complain that they are only passing because of tire strategy.
If the race has a guy start from 15th and charge his way through to 4th, you complain that there isnt any passing, or the guy doing the passing sucks.

WTF do you guys want?! THIS is F1 in 2014. Love it or leave it. Just dont bitch an moan after every race. It gets tiring.

[Phil]

I agree. I thought the racing was quite good. I also don't see the Mercedes dominance as a problem - to me, it doesn't matter if they are dominating by half a second per lap, or two seconds. What would definately spice up the racing though is if there was a slightly bigger performance differential between the two tyre compounds. The sole reason for having two tyre compounds (IMO) is to get the quicker drivers into traffic at some point during the race - which should enhance the spectacle because we get to see more overtaking (similarly to when we had refueling and shorter-stint drivers would find themselves at some point behind drivers with higher fuel loads). At the moment, option and prime are quite similar and the Merc dominance means that both their drivers never fall back behind other drivers. Increase the performance differential between the tyres and you get that back. Although, Merc is really dominating, so perhaps we shouldn't focus too much on them. Watching Vettel - it shows nicely how he had to fight his way through the field. Then again, he started from 15th, so this was always going to happen...

[turbof1]

I saw huge signs of improvement for Vettel. He fought himself back very well. He's starting to deal with the fact his car isn't dominant and looked to have more fighting spirit.

[Harsha]

I saw huge signs of improvement for Vettel. He fought himself back very well. He's starting to deal with the fact his car isn't dominant and looked to have more fighting spirit.

Or had constantly plagued with issues some we knew and some we never knew , But either way its the SV we all know for a long time