2015 Monaco Grand Prix - 21-24 May

[knabbel]

This was pre-race on Dutch television, Max Verstappen takes his dad around the Monaco track in a Renault Clio. the look on Jos' face is priceless

[Sevach]

The radio transcript for this race is gonna be a doozy.

[OblongCheese]

Hockenheim 2010. This one has got something to do with one team and one driver only.

Hockenheim 2010 was the fault of one team and one driver only, but apparently that race is a controversy? You contradicted yourself on opposite sides of a full-stop!

[evered7]

Hockenheim 2010. This one has got something to do with one team and one driver only.

Hockenheim 2010 was the fault of one team and one driver only, but apparently that race is a controversy? You contradicted yourself on opposite sides of a full-stop!

Yeah, It was only to do with Alonso Massa didn't exist in that race and was nowhere involved in the equation =D>

[foxmulder_ms]

Lewis didn't tell the team that he wanted to come in because he 'thought' Rosberg/Vettel had pitted. Team didn't tell him that neither Rosberg/Vettel pitted. Team of the opinion that tires were not good (low temp etc) for Hamilton (as mentioned by Hamilton). They see that the gap is more than enough to get him out on time with fresh tires. Miss it by a couple of seconds because VSC changes to SC and picks up Hamilton and also because they wait for Manor to pass.

Why is this then only the team's fault?

Maybe because that´s exactly his job?

If they can´t calculate Lewis was catching up the SC so difference with Rosberg and Vettel will be decreasing, they simply don´t deserve that job

And the responsible of the action knew he was not going to pit Rosberg because he´s the same person (only one strategist in Mercedes) so there was no reason at all to stop Lewis.

As Phil said, pitstops have an inherent risk, it´s a nosense to stop the leader in Monaco with just 10 laps remaining, complete nosense

No No No. That's not team's fault, sure it's not. It is THE DRIVER who is responsible for his own destiny out their in the middle of the track as he has STEERING in his hand, so steer to wherever he wants to go, even for a ride in the sea. The guys sitting in front of those stupid computers are simply hired to travel to various different countries, enjoy 5 star hotel stays, eat in lavish motor homes, roam around the paddock for free and stare with desperation towards those beautiful women out there. All this, free of cost plus get paid for doing so. The driver has been paid millions, so he should use that DAMN steering to understand what is the track temperature is, where is he related to competition, fuel usage, tyre temperature, what's his advantage/disadvantage to the competitors and most of all, what's the MONACO prince is wearing and howz the lady smelling. He better DAMN decide when he wants to use those tyres (does he really needs them?) and pit whenever he wants, even in Bernie's plush gardens (remember he still has STEERING in his hand). Take liberty and drive the whole race with just one set. By virtue of getting those millions, he is also a designant to break situations like "MULTI 21" and drive to his destiny which MANY WILL PRAISE.

The Canada race forum is open, for those who understand racing.

You are kidding right? How can Lewis know the distance and delta from the second and third? Get real. Mercedes team had brain freeze. It is really worth firing someone in my opinion.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

No No No. That's not team's fault, sure it's not. It is THE DRIVER who is responsible for his own destiny out their in the middle of the track as he has STEERING in his hand, so steer to wherever he wants to go, even for a ride in the sea. The guys sitting in front of those stupid computers are simply hired to travel to various different countries, enjoy 5 star hotel stays, eat in lavish motor homes, roam around the paddock for free and stare with desperation towards those beautiful women out there. All this, free of cost plus get paid for doing so. The driver has been paid millions, so he should use that DAMN steering to understand what is the track temperature is, where is he related to competition, fuel usage, tyre temperature, what's his advantage/disadvantage to the competitors and most of all, what's the MONACO prince is wearing and howz the lady smelling. He better DAMN decide when he wants to use those tyres (does he really needs them?) and pit whenever he wants, even in Bernie's plush gardens (remember he still has STEERING in his hand). Take liberty and drive the whole race with just one set. By virtue of getting those millions, he is also a designant to break situations like "MULTI 21" and drive to his destiny which MANY WILL PRAISE.

The Canada race forum is open, for those who understand racing.

You are kidding right? How can Lewis know the distance and delta from the second and third? Get real. Mercedes team had brain freeze. It is really worth firing someone in my opinion.

Of course it was sarcastic. I was just summarizing what many on the thread were commenting, blaming driver for the problem, without any thought process into the whole situation and commenting without understanding what is the role of those sitting in the strategy team.
Analysis: What made Mercedes get it so very wrong

It was at this stage that on a giant TV screen Hamilton caught a brief glimpse of the Mercedes crew standing in the pitlane, the guys having dashed out 'just in case', as is the usual routine.

He knew he wasn't making a pitstop, so his immediate conclusion was that Rosberg had, and that quite possibly Sebastian Vettel and other top runners had too.

Hamilton thought Rosberg had pitted, and the team didn't realise that's why he was so agitated about the tyres.

They were suddenly not working from the same script.

Instead of reassuring him that neither Rosberg nor Vettel had pitted, the team heeded his tyre concerns. They did the sums and decided that there was sufficient time for him to pit and resume still safely ahead of Nico and Vettel.

[evered7]

Yeah, maybe Mercedes will employ a couple of mind readers for the next race. Is this the same Hamilton that was not looking after Rosberg's race in China?

And since when did Mercedes have had tire heating issues? Not a peep from Rosberg about tire temperatures during the SC period. Only Vettel was howling about the slow safety car pace which made his tires turn cold. Even then he was able to ward off Hamilton on his SS shod Mercedes.

The point is not to put all the blame on Hamilton nor all on the team. There was a miscommunication and both sides didn't fully understand each others intentions leading to this situation. If somebody needs to be fired, maybe Hamilton will take a pay cut on his new contract also considering he is at fault here as well.

[wickedz50]

From the time Mercs showed their dominance rarely they have put a foot wrong. Over the time they have been very conservative because no one was there to challenge them. Suddenly in 2015 from no where they have Ferrari challenging them here and there and they are puzzled. A small disadvantage they are breaking down. They reckon Ferrari is a challenge and they start copying every move or tries to cover every move Ferrari makes to make sure they are on top. In the process they forget their own advantage and brilliance. Ferrari was never there to trouble them in Monaco yet conservationism and some fear got them in to probably the most stupid situation. They made them look like utter fools to the world.
It will be very interesting from Ferrari point of view as they know they have created that non existing situation into the mind of the Merc team and am sure this kind of stupid decision will keep coming in future races more consistently. Mercs are scared to lose and Ferrari has nothing to lose. I assume that the strategy team at Ferrari will deploy many a decoy tactics just to see if Mercs respond. Sooner or later they will start playing into the hands of Ferrari.

[zeph]

I don't know what is the more likely option:

A
Mercedes' normally highly capable strategy experts get it so wrong under the most ideal (and least stressful) circumstances: their lead guy ~20s ahead of their guy in P2, and the closest competitor a few seconds behind that, on a circuit that is notorious for its lack of overtaking opportunities.
No real threats, car is superior, drivers are on top of their game, less than 10 laps to go, yet somehow they panic because of a fairly normal safety car situation, for which they must have had scenarios, as it is a frequent occurrence on this particular track. In fact, they panic so bad it costs their lead guy the win, and the team an assured double.

or

B
The whole thing was rigged for any number of reasons; stopping HAM from winning the title to soon, humoring the Monegasque royals, or betting odds, take your pick...

[wickedz50]

I don't know what is the more likely option:

A
Mercedes' normally highly capable strategy experts get it so wrong under the most ideal (and least stressful) circumstances: their lead guy ~20s ahead of their guy in P2, and the closest competitor a few seconds behind that, on a circuit that is notorious for its lack of overtaking opportunities.
No real threats, car is superior, drivers are on top of their game, less than 10 laps to go, yet somehow they panic because of a fairly normal safety car situation, for which they must have had scenarios, as it is a frequent occurrence on this particular track. In fact, they panic so bad it costs their lead guy the win, and the team an assured double.

or

B
The whole thing was rigged for any number of reasons; stopping HAM from winning the title to soon, humoring the Monegasque royals, or betting odds, take your pick...

I cant go with option B, its ridiculous.

[turbof1]

C'mon turbs, locking the Monaco thread has become a yearly tradition - why stop now?

You know what they say Tim, you gotta built a lockdown to a climax. Let's try to do that:
Gents, my previous plea to turn the topic did not work. If the current topic keeps running in circles without any real new information, I'll lock the topic. I'll check this evening if that's necessary. So behave, it's up to you.

[iotar__]

I don't know what is the more likely option:

A
Mercedes' normally highly capable strategy experts get it so wrong under the most ideal (and least stressful) circumstances: their lead guy ~20s ahead of their guy in P2, and the closest competitor a few seconds behind that, on a circuit that is notorious for its lack of overtaking opportunities.
No real threats, car is superior, drivers are on top of their game, less than 10 laps to go, yet somehow they panic because of a fairly normal safety car situation, for which they must have had scenarios, as it is a frequent occurrence on this particular track. In fact, they panic so bad it costs their lead guy the win, and the team an assured double.

or

B
The whole thing was rigged for any number of reasons; stopping HAM from winning the title to soon, humoring the Monegasque royals, or betting odds, take your pick...

I cant go with option B, its ridiculous.

You can't "go with it" but you're throwing it for a reason . It's repeating time I guess. Was Silverstone 2014 rigged, was Canada pitstop that gave Hamilton the lead rigged, was Hungary '14 rigged, was Monza rigged, was servicing substance contamination that gave Hamilton +25 points at the crucial stage of the championship rigged? Let's say it happened in the other direction (perfectly normal scenario) - it's Rosberg 263 points, Hamilton 216, weird but I can't go with it. I can however without doubt say that Barcelona '14 (my favourite) was 100% "rigged" in terms of strategy to avoid any contact and Bahrain repeat. BTW To avoid off topic accusations: I'm giving those examples for a reason, you can do all the rigging in the world much easier and with less drama.

Judging by incredible overreaction both by audience and Merc management now and relatively small drama after all their previous failures (bigger failures in terms of points it cost Rosberg and bigger consequences for WDC) that their driver approach and management looks a bit rigged. I'm not saying it is, it would be ridiculous I'm saying it looks . A bit like Bahrain and Spa reactions.

Edit: I forgot, was Verstappen's getting way too close, way too fast, losing completely control of the car and putting it into a wall rigged too? If it wasn't than Merc strategists took a hell of a gamble waiting for it. In case it gets closed:
- Perez: driver of the weekend, the fact that there's no headlines about him says it all about the level of coverage of F1
- those barriers at the first corner are very impressive, Junior was lucky it's not the good old 90s.

[WaikeCU]

Seems like the perfect scenario for Rosberg:
- Chilling with the royal highness before the weekend
- Winning back to back races
- Winning the Monaco GP
- Winning the Monaco GP 3 years in a row
- Getting mentioned alongside drivers such as Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Graham Hill.
- And closing the gap with your main rival.

Life doesn't get much better than that. I don't think Rosberg even realizes that he had done all that in one week.

[SiLo]

Just realised the amount of money that would have been riding on Hamilton to win the race... I feel sorry for anyone that put any money on that. Or even a Merc 1-2! Ouch!

[Jordan44]

Seems like the perfect scenario for Rosberg:
- Chilling with the royal highness before the weekend
- Winning back to back races
- Winning the Monaco GP
- Winning the Monaco GP 3 years in a row
- Getting mentioned alongside drivers such as Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Graham Hill.
- And closing the gap with your main rival.

Life doesn't get much better than that. I don't think Rosberg even realizes that he had done all that in one week.

But it was clear from his Brundle interview that he only really cares about beating Lewis to the world title.