2016 F1 Spanish Grand Prix

[zeph]

Vettel will whine everytime someone tries to overtake him.

Truth.

But in this case he was right; no way was RIC ever going to make that stick.

[bauc]

Congrats to Max, a well deserved win after the Mercedes collision before turn 4. It was nice to see the battle for 1st till the last lap so a good GP....feeling bad for Alonso's DNF but thats life.

[zeph]

Exactly. I like RIC, but this was poorly judged and executed. It looked desperate...

It looked indeed somewhere between optimistic and desperate. But these dive bomb attacks are bit of his trademark. This time it was messed up a bit though so it openly looked like a dive bomb. He was indeed lucky that Vettel was alert and avoided the collision. I don't blame Daniel for launching such an attack, though. Was just not one of his best moves. Possibly, seeing Max running to the win was somewhere nagging on his mind as well.

Yeah, that's the vibe I got as well.

[Sonador]

After listening to Ricciardo after the race this race was a gift to max from red bull...Ricciardo asked a valid question why would you make the leading driver do a 3 stop race and force him to have to pass faster cars on track when its next to impossible to pass in spain???
He doesnt look like a happy camper

Just like Vettel (in2014), Ricciardo asked a valid question in that respect.
For me it is a bit of a flashback ....

[GPR-A duplicate2]

After listening to Ricciardo after the race this race was a gift to max from red bull...Ricciardo asked a valid question why would you make the leading driver do a 3 stop race and force him to have to pass faster cars on track when its next to impossible to pass in spain???
He doesnt look like a happy camper

For Max to get a 3 stopper, he should have been brought in first, ahead of leading driver. As soon as they pit Ricciardo, instantly Vettel came in and it was clear that, pitting Max right there, would put him behind Vettel. So, they had to go for splitting the strategy between their drivers. If Ricciardo wasn't brought in, at the time when they brought him in, Vettel would have got undercut and Red Bull would have lost both places as the difference between the cars wasn't that much. The idea was to ensure safety of Ricciardo's place and as Ferrari countering Ricciardo's pit, forced Red Bull to go for alternate strategy. It was definitely a difficult situation and no one would have imagined a car doing 31 laps on mediums on this track. 3 Stopper, on paper was the faster strategy and that is what Ricciardo got.

[henra]

After listening to Ricciardo after the race this race was a gift to max from red bull...Ricciardo asked a valid question why would you make the leading driver do a 3 stop race and force him to have to pass faster cars on track when its next to impossible to pass in spain???

True but from a team perspective it was a logical move to do an undercut from the front in order to prevent Ferrari from doing so. They could have chosen Max for the undercut but that would have given Vettel the space to catch up to Daniel. Strategically the way they did it made perfect sense but for Ricciardo the outcome was foreseeable (with the little question mark if the Mediums would really last that long). Same goes for Vettel.

[gandharva]

For Max to get a 3 stopper, he should have been brought in first, ahead of leading driver. As soon as they pit Ricciardo, instantly Vettel came in and it was clear that, pitting Max right there, would put him behind Vettel. So, they had to go for splitting the strategy between their drivers. If Ricciardo wasn't brought in, at the time when they brought him in, Vettel would have got undercut and Red Bull would have lost both places as the difference between the cars wasn't that much. The idea was to ensure safety of Ricciardo's place and as Ferrari countering Ricciardo's pit, forced Red Bull to go for alternate strategy. It was definitely a difficult situation and no one would have imagined a car doing 31 laps on mediums on this track. 3 Stopper, on paper was the faster strategy and that is what Ricciardo got.

Well explained and finally some common sense.

[RicerDude]

Bunch of mediocrity leading and Hamilton ruining Rosberg's win. If you expected exciting racing - you should know better:
- Ricciardo - losing Barcelona from the lead - quite an achievement. Anyone still thinks he's a top driver? Plus trade mark: dive, outbrake yourself & collision attempt.
- Verstappen - drove in circles at his own pace, "option" strategy worked and he had a driver behind in a (slightly) quicker Ferrari that should not be in F1. Yesterday losing fifth-eighth places in Toro Ross and now suddenly leading races. A miracle transition of F1 A.D '16 - the blind leading the lame.

Loving the negativity, just what the sport needs!

[domh245]

By the way what caused RIC puncture?

I think it was just wear, like Vettel at Spa last year. Possibly exacerbated by the aggressive moves into T1 and the lock ups.

[turbof1]

Like I said, he needs to find another team for next year. Because RedBull have the history of favouring anything even slightly related to Austria (Germany, Austria and Netherlands speak almost the same language, same region, or maybe I am not sober) and hampering their 'Australian' drivers.

Will you please with that insinuating that Red Bull favoured Verstappen? As said, they simply split the strategies to force Ferrari's hand. When Ferrari switched to the medium they had to do the same for Ricciardo else the risk existed he would be caught out when he had to make his final stop.

Ricciardo is simply a victim of the strategic play between Ferrari and Red Bull. But that's just how it played out. Nobody could have predicted this.

[ripper]

Still I don't understand why VET was pitted so early with so few laps on softs

[ripper]

By the way what caused RIC puncture?

I think it was just wear, like Vettel at Spa last year. Possibly exacerbated by the aggressive moves into T1 and the lock ups.

He had 10 laps less than VER on that compound and i don't remember lock ups with the rear wheels. Maybe the escursion on T1 damaged it a bit

[giantfan10]

After listening to Ricciardo after the race this race was a gift to max from red bull...Ricciardo asked a valid question why would you make the leading driver do a 3 stop race and force him to have to pass faster cars on track when its next to impossible to pass in spain???
He doesnt look like a happy camper

For Max to get a 3 stopper, he should have been brought in first, ahead of leading driver. As soon as they pit Ricciardo, instantly Vettel came in and it was clear that, pitting Max right there, would put him behind Vettel. So, they had to go for splitting the strategy between their drivers. If Ricciardo wasn't brought in, at the time when they brought him in, Vettel would have got undercut and Red Bull would have lost both places as the difference between the cars wasn't that much. The idea was to ensure safety of Ricciardo's place and as Ferrari countering Ricciardo's pit, forced Red Bull to go for alternate strategy. It was definitely a difficult situation and no one would have imagined a car doing 31 laps on mediums on this track. 3 Stopper, on paper was the faster strategy and that is what Ricciardo got.

the nonsense is in bold... Rosberg did 31 laps on the medium last year
Regardless of your take on the strategy... the optimum strategy should be given to the driver in the lead of the race not to the driver in second place... if Ricciardo was given the 2 stop strategy he would have won the race

[giantfan10]

Still I don't understand why VET was pitted so early with so few laps on softs

i think it was because it was used softs and also to undercut Ricciardo which worked

[GrayGreat]

After listening to Ricciardo after the race this race was a gift to max from red bull...Ricciardo asked a valid question why would you make the leading driver do a 3 stop race and force him to have to pass faster cars on track when its next to impossible to pass in spain???
He doesnt look like a happy camper

For Max to get a 3 stopper, he should have been brought in first, ahead of leading driver. As soon as they pit Ricciardo, instantly Vettel came in and it was clear that, pitting Max right there, would put him behind Vettel. So, they had to go for splitting the strategy between their drivers. If Ricciardo wasn't brought in, at the time when they brought him in, Vettel would have got undercut and Red Bull would have lost both places as the difference between the cars wasn't that much. The idea was to ensure safety of Ricciardo's place and as Ferrari countering Ricciardo's pit, forced Red Bull to go for alternate strategy. It was definitely a difficult situation and no one would have imagined a car doing 31 laps on mediums on this track. 3 Stopper, on paper was the faster strategy and that is what Ricciardo got.

the nonsense is in bold... Rosberg did 31 laps on the medium last year
Regardless of your take on the strategy... the optimum strategy should be given to the driver in the lead of the race not to the driver in second place... if Ricciardo was given the 2 stop strategy he would have won the race

This. RedBull should have known what the optimum strategy was. Everyone keeps saying they did it to cover Vettel. Why do it in the first place? Why not just run your own optimum strategy?