2014 Singapore GP - Marina Bay, September 19-21

[Shrieker]

Does anyone have any more details on ricciardo's ERS failure? He managed to keep up pace OK during the race, just wondered what the failure was and how much time it potentially cost him.

He mentioned post race that the problem was coming and going (intermittent). I don't know what exactly it was either.

[basti313]

I am just wondering so much of the spectacular races we seen this season is down to Safety Car? I would imaging that without the SC period in Singapore, this race would have been unbearable to watch?

No. Without the SC there would have been a showdown between the Bulls and Alonso. Vettel could keep up on Alonso with the Soft, whereas the Ferrari was rather slow on the Soft. So there would have been a final with Vettel and Ric flying on the SS and Alonso struggling on the Soft. Would have been very interesting.
The same for Bottas/Raikkonen. Of course, Ham would have disappeared in the night and we would have seen him only at the pitstop and when crossing the line

[i70q7m7ghw]

Does anyone have any more details on ricciardo's ERS failure? He managed to keep up pace OK during the race, just wondered what the failure was and how much time it potentially cost him.

He mentioned post race that the problem was coming and going (intermittent). I don't know what exactly it was either.

Some other teams suspect there was no fault, and the radio messages were just a way of telling him he was losing time on the exit curbs, without it sounding like driver coaching.

[MercedesAMGSpy]

I am just wondering so much of the spectacular races we seen this season is down to Safety Car? I would imaging that without the SC period in Singapore, this race would have been unbearable to watch?

Well every race in Singapore we have had a SC, so that's nothing new/

[f1316]

I am just wondering so much of the spectacular races we seen this season is down to Safety Car? I would imaging that without the SC period in Singapore, this race would have been unbearable to watch?

No. Without the SC there would have been a showdown between the Bulls and Alonso. Vettel could keep up on Alonso with the Soft, whereas the Ferrari was rather slow on the Soft. So there would have been a final with Vettel and Ric flying on the SS and Alonso struggling on the Soft. Would have been very interesting.
The same for Bottas/Raikkonen. Of course, Ham would have disappeared in the night and we would have seen him only at the pitstop and when crossing the line

When did we see evidence of that? Alonso was easily pulling away on the super soft (as you would expect) and was just as fast as ricciardo (and i think held up by him) on softs; again, Alonso had newer tyres so this is to be expected.

But nothing in that supports your claim that Ferrari were slow on the softs.

[djos]

Does anyone have any more details on ricciardo's ERS failure? He managed to keep up pace OK during the race, just wondered what the failure was and how much time it potentially cost him.

The battery kept going offline according to reports I've read.

[Kingshark]

Interestingly if Ricciardo did not have an ERS failure, both him and Alonso could have been ahead of Hamilton in the final stops.

[basti313]

I am just wondering so much of the spectacular races we seen this season is down to Safety Car? I would imaging that without the SC period in Singapore, this race would have been unbearable to watch?

No. Without the SC there would have been a showdown between the Bulls and Alonso. Vettel could keep up on Alonso with the Soft, whereas the Ferrari was rather slow on the Soft. So there would have been a final with Vettel and Ric flying on the SS and Alonso struggling on the Soft. Would have been very interesting.
The same for Bottas/Raikkonen. Of course, Ham would have disappeared in the night and we would have seen him only at the pitstop and when crossing the line

When did we see evidence of that? Alonso was easily pulling away on the super soft (as you would expect) and was just as fast as ricciardo (and i think held up by him) on softs; again, Alonso had newer tyres so this is to be expected.

But nothing in that supports your claim that Ferrari were slow on the softs.

Easily pulling away on the SS?
Actually he had a pace advantage of 0.4sec comparing the best laps on this stint. Not much. And there was a lap Vettel was even faster. Most of the gap was gained by pitting earlier. Some laps more and the 0.4sec would have been gone due to tire degradation. Only another aggressive undercut could have saved Alonso.

Ricciardo was struggling when Alonso followed him on newer Softs but Alonso could not get into DRS range. Vettel opened a gap of 5 sec on even older Softs...to me that clearly looks like the Ferrari was not good on the Softs.

[SiLo]

Interestingly if Ricciardo did not have an ERS failure, both him and Alonso could have been ahead of Hamilton in the final stops.

I don't think that would have stopped Hamilton winning the race. He would still have been hugely fast compared to them. It him less than one lap to overtake Vettel, so the other two would have been similar.

[djos]

Interestingly if Ricciardo did not have an ERS failure, both him and Alonso could have been ahead of Hamilton in the final stops.

I don't think that would have stopped Hamilton winning the race. He would still have been hugely fast compared to them. It him less than one lap to overtake Vettel, so the other two would have been similar.

I have to agree, as much as I'd loved Danny Ric to win, Lewis looked pretty darned comfortable out there to me and not under pressure at all.

[MercedesAMGSpy]

Interestingly if Ricciardo did not have an ERS failure, both him and Alonso could have been ahead of Hamilton in the final stops.

I don't think that would have stopped Hamilton winning the race. He would still have been hugely fast compared to them. It him less than one lap to overtake Vettel, so the other two would have been similar.

Exactly. Running on fresh tyres vs 25 laps old tyres, would be the same outcome.

[mrluke]

Interestingly if Ricciardo did not have an ERS failure, both him and Alonso could have been ahead of Hamilton in the final stops.

I don't think that would have stopped Hamilton winning the race. He would still have been hugely fast compared to them. It him less than one lap to overtake Vettel, so the other two would have been similar.

Exactly. Running on fresh tyres vs 25 laps old tyres, would be the same outcome.

QFT

Mercedes didnt need to stretch Hamilton's last pit stop so much, could have pitted him a couple of laps earlier as he would have had such a tyre advantage when he emerged.

[Richard]

His pit crew were saying on the radio that he was extending his lead on the old tyres. I guess there were worried pitting earlier might have required him to overtake more cars after the stop. I guess they were also thinking a bigger lead would give more margin for error if there had been a problem in the pits. Of course that approach does need to be in moderation, China 07 is an example of how it can go wrong.

[siskue2005]

Overtaking too many cars would prove highly risky, we don't know what may go wrong while overtaking
So they decided unless he is loosing time to others he should stay out and rightly so he gained 0.8 sec on his last lap
And ofcorse a puncture should prove disastrous, but these 2014 Pirelli tyres have thermal degradation only so they were not going to explode(that's what bundle said on live commentary)