2015 British Grand Prix - Silverstone, 03-05 July

[LionKing]

In spite of the results, for me Massa is driver of the day. He drove like a champ.

Holding his team mate up at the start?

Williams did not tell Massa to move over (Thank God), but Bottas was given the green light to pass him and couldn't do it. After the first pit stop, Massa widened the gap. After the rain, Bottas fell back even further.

So what did Massa do wrong again?

Exactly, it was fair what happened.

[enckboaz]

In addition, I don't understand the comments about Massa letting Bottas to overtake. Aren't we the ones hating team orders saying drivers to let go each other. If Bottas was faster, he should have passed Massa but he wasn't much faster. The reason he was catching Massa was the huge help of the drs.
Sky Reporters to me aren't sincere anymore. When team orders happen, they began to talk how wrong it is. When williams didn't say Massa to let Bottas, this time they said that they should let Bottas overtake Massa.

But they DID gave team orders: not to race each other.
But when they realize that bottas was faster they give him the green light only for a clean pass. with the same car, with the same condition is quite impossible to overtakewith a "clean pass".

it was a team order, and clearly a mistake,

[domh245]

Looking at a replay of the incident with the lotuses, it looks as if MAL swerved to avoid the Red Bull, then again for the Sauber, then colliding with GRO. Will it be a penalty, or will it be classed as a racing incident?

[godlameroso]

So the Audi R18 is faster in race pace than both Marussias? Hah I'd love to see that, I think in race trim the Audi, or Porsche LMP-1's could give it a run for it's money.

[Just_a_fan]

Hardly surprising that a fully funded factory outfit with years of development behind them can be quicker than a new team with no budget. The fact that the Marussias are on the grid at all is testament to a lot of hard work by a financially poor team. Don't knock them. Give Marussia half of Audi or Porche's budget and see them race up the field (and away from the LMP1 chasing them...)

[ringo]

In addition, I don't understand the comments about Massa letting Bottas to overtake. Aren't we the ones hating team orders saying drivers to let go each other. If Bottas was faster, he should have passed Massa but he wasn't much faster. The reason he was catching Massa was the huge help of the drs.
Sky Reporters to me aren't sincere anymore. When team orders happen, they began to talk how wrong it is. When williams didn't say Massa to let Bottas, this time they said that they should let Bottas overtake Massa.

But they DID gave team orders: not to race each other.
But when they realize that bottas was faster they give him the green light only for a clean pass. with the same car, with the same condition is quite impossible to overtakewith a "clean pass".

it was a team order, and clearly a mistake,

But you want a team order to put Bottas in front of Massa?

What are you complaining about again, because you seem to want team orders any how.

[Andres125sx]

After the rain it makes no sense as it messed the whole thing up, but before the rain Williams just wasted a perfect oportunity to win the race.

To me this was a perfect example about how important are team orders for teams. If they´d have decided who deserved the win (Massa or if Bottas was faster then the finish), they could have used the second car to make a gap, so no Mercedes car could do an undercut to both cars. Since it was a one pit-stop strategy that´s all they needed to secure the victory. But they provided a different team order (do not attack... now attack only if you can do a clean pass) so instead of winning the race, they let their drivers fight for second position. It was obvious Mercedes are so much faster if both Williams were just in front, they could undercut both of them, as they did. How stupid if you ask me

Then it started raining so it would have been useless, but at that point when nobody expected rain, that was a stupid move. And you can´t use the excuse of they didn´t provide team orders so they did it to allow a fair fight, because they actually provided team orders and didn´t allow a fair fight, so it was simply a bad strategy, one of the biggest mistakes I´ve ever seen strategically wise.

[Andres125sx]

What a shame about Sainz´s mechanical problem, it looked like a perfect race for him, into the points, the rain would have been good for him as his car provide good downforce... I understand his desperation when the car turned off


Great call for Hamilton and Vettel, when they entered the pits it was a shock... what are doing these two? But they nailed it.


And Force India made a big step forward, looks like the new car is working as expected

[F.Massa]

On lap 14, the Merc mechanics came out with tyres on hand preparing for a pit stop but then thay came back to the garage. Was that a fake pit stop Mer created to threaten Wil ? I think it wasnt and seems like fake pit stop has been banned. Looks like a Mer didnt want to pit at the time and decided to stay out so the mechanics came back.

Is that right, everybody ?

[nacho]

Williams should have let them race and give Bottas a chance to pass as he seemed a lot quicker. In other case they should have pitted Massa earlier than the Mercs, at least they would have had the chance to have Massa leading even if the other Merc came in from the same lap. It was the same last year, some very mediocre choices.

[Sevach]

Williams really screwed things up, pit Massa early and keep Bottas "marking" the lead Mercedes.
Their passiveness really made things easy for Mercedes.

I'm glad it rained otherwise i would be pissed.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

And I thought Williams only bought PU from Mercedes, didn't know they have also bought brainless strategists too. Absolute third rate strategy call. The way they were running so close together, it was EVIDENT that one of the Mercs would undercut AT LEAST one of the Williams at the pit stop. Instead, they should have let Bottas pass and create sufficient gap in front, so that they both could have got comfortably ahead of Mercs after Pit Stops. Not sure if Williams were thinking that they could hold the Mercs for entire race length, if so, absolute nut cases.

Well earned victory for Lewis. The british fans couldn't have asked for more from their star driver, a pole and a win.
One more time Mr. Vettel put forward a brilliant wet drive, for otherwise a lacklustre Ferrari.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Holding his team mate up at the start?

Williams did not tell Massa to move over (Thank God), but Bottas was given the green light to pass him and couldn't do it. After the first pit stop, Massa widened the gap. After the rain, Bottas fell back even further.

So what did Massa do wrong again?

Exactly, it was fair what happened.

People always look at the things in the hindsight rather than IN THAT moment. Bottas was very fast and was getting held up by Massa, just like Lewis was being held up by Bottas. Williams should have made the call and let Bottas pass and see how far he could go and if he couldn't carve out a gap of, let say, more than 5 seconds, ask him to give up the place at some point. But by TRYING TO BE WORLD CLASS and letting their drivers race, they simply screwed up team's interest. In the process, Bottas got his tires killed being so close behind Massa and finally both of them lost out to Lewis after first stop, which even a school boy could have guessed as coming.

It probably affected Bottas psychologically and I felt he couldn't really drive the way he usually drives.

[iotar__]

The air brake tested Verstappen junior (sorry I couldn't help myself) as opposed to driver error. Excuses machine of Red Bull is getting weirder and weirder. Yesterday Ricciardo pretended he didn't go off track as if it can be questioned.

Ugh why can't they let it as it was? You know something is wrong when Mercedes is trying to convince the crowd that it was some tactical personal masterstroke that "decided" the race. No, LH was leading and kept the lead with no competition and they are acting as if he jumped five drivers with some slicks on full wets track against the odds brilliance.

Hamilton didn't make any calls, he was slow and destroyed his tyres, was losing time to Rosberg and had no other choice, on top of that he was leading and pitstop of his team mate took out the only competition he had. Way to cover a bad decision, trying to convince the other part was something different than it was. Reminds me of "perfect" yet very close to retirement Canada race.

[Moose]

Lewis was incredibly lucky with the timing of the heavy shower today. As soon as Nico got some clean air, he was miles faster than Lewis. As far as I'm concerned, Monaco has been repaid.

Actually no - only in the last 10 laps were they both in clean air with tires that weren't in some way compromised. During that period, Lewis was 0.5 seconds a lap faster.

Lewis was in front because he was able to undercut the Williams in the pit stops, Rosberg did not have that luxury. We also don't know Lewis was faster for "49" as well. They were never in clean air. In fact it was Massa, Bottas, Lewis and Rosberg train till the first stops. You simply can deduce who is faster when they are following each other stuck behind the Williams cars.

As I just said - both were in clean air after the final stop. Lewis was faster.