2016 F1 Spanish Grand Prix

[smellybeard]

I'm not saying it wasn't interesting or enjoyable but it was a procession - just not in the usual order.

[WaikeCU]

Once the two Mercedes were gone, the Ferrari was by far the fastest car in the race - that's something, I suppose , but not winning the race from there (let alone getting a one-two which I was expecting) is not good enough.

Anyway, good race from verstappen -he won a race when three people behind were quicker and in many ways that's what the greats do.

And yet again it points out that F1 is too much about aero and less about mechanical. Clearly Kimi's Ferrari was quicker than Verstappen's Red Bull, but once you are getting close enough, dirty air causes your car to lose aero grip, which is why Kimi always got close to Verstappen in sector 1 and 2, but when they go on the main straight, Kimi would be too far away. Barcelona isn't a circuit for great overtaking is it?

[Manoah2u]

There was an interesting point Hamilton raised.

Rosberg - accidentaly? - put his car in SAFETY CAR MODE, which was 180 HP down on normal mode. This meant Rosberg f*cked up and was 180hp down. Compared to that, Rosberg at that moment essentially was a Manor car of last year, just driving in front.

and this 'backmarker' if you will was busy on his steering wheel and cut off the must faster car behind him - which he clearly kwew was there, i mean come on, you dont even have to look in the mirror to KNOW lewis was right there and even which side he'd pass.
Rosberg was fully aware that Lewis was steaming in on him and just pushed him dirty off track and got the worst of it by getting collected himself. It was a dirty move and imho the blame is fully with Nico.

Nico knew he screwed up and should have kept left. 180hp down, safetycar mode. he f*cked up good.

Hamilton obviously took the right normal action, overtake and there was only 1 spot to do that, the right. Yes it might have been 'slightly' agressive BUT it only looks agressive because of the power output difference. Aside that, Hamilton got aside Rosberg and rosberg was regularmentary forced to give him room.

Imho, it's pure nasty politics that they got away with zero punishment. I think it says enough Merc was not gonna talk to the Media before having conversated with the stewards, and they immediately went into the 'birdsnest'. Ask me, that was damage control in all its political ways.

The only good thing to come from this was Max's WIN. that was the awesomest thing that could happen today.

Curious on the outcome of this scenario. RedBull is going to have a 30hp+ update as soon as possible and they already were quite close to MERC during qually.
I wonder how close RB and Ferrari would have been had the mercs not have collided, something tells me they would not have been too far off.

Vettel stated they had a bad day yesterday at qually and today - sunday - things were normal, but they couldnt get the mediums to work as it should whilst RB did manage to.
In other words, if Ferrari could have made those mediums work better they would have possibly won this GP instead of RB.
Combine that with the fact Mercedes claimed they were interested in Ferrari's pace and that at qually they were surprised they slumped as they expected them to be right
up there, and were surprised to see RedBull in that position.

So if we were to combine this, then Merc expected Ferrari to give them a run for their money. Ferrari finished 2nd and 3rd. RedBull outpaced Ferrari though both on saturday
as on sunday. In other words,
this could mean Mercedes actually now has close competition from RedBull - whom are still going to get their engine upgrade soon.

We're 5 races in, 1 race both Mercs have taken eachother out, other races Lewis had a good portion of technical malheur,
Kimi is 2nd in the WDC now, and RedBull are steaming in.
there are still 17 races to go.
The championship is still wide open.

Rosberg, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Vettel, Ricciardo, Verstappen all might make a good chance on the Championship.

[Moanlower]

Hi guys new user here.
Something struck me on the footage today.
When looking from the shot looking down the small straight just before turn 3 it's noticeable just how far over Rosberg actually is . No one else is anywhere near that far to the right even those trying/defending overtakes. At one point as Hamilton ends up being a passenger Rosberg is about 1 tyre width from being on the grass himself. Now if that's the normal line why is nobody else over there?

Also for those saying Hamilton should have backed out of it. Fine that's a valid point until you factor in just how slow Rosberg was going at that point. If Hamilton backed out and totally compromised himself he is running a real risk of a redbull steaming up within a corner or 2.
That would mean that Rosberg makes a mistake in engine mode and yet he gets a net gain of not only retaining his place but possibly costing his teammate second.

I haven't heard anyone say that's the normal racing line. Rosberg already took a defensive line for the right hander ahead by staying mid track instead of opening the wheel and going to the outside out the track for a wider line since that turn is always on the edge of almost going flat out. And the wider line you can take the more speed you can carry. Since Lewis lost his place in T1 he set himself up for a better line going into T3 by going more to the left before the corner entry, hence the extra closing speed he had over ROS before he got into harvesting. The harvesting made the speed difference even bigger.

They both were very aware of the importance of being on the inside coming out of T3 and going into T4. The one on the inside of T4 would've pushed the other gently to the outside of the track and giving him the choice of 3 losing options, to run into him, having to back out or run off track. Remember T1 COTA 2015 for instance, and there are many other similar situations where the one on the outside is screwed and the one on the inside get away without a penalty.

Another thing I wanted to add is that Rosberg probably misjudged and underestimated the closing speed of HAM slightly (even though being shortly on harvesting mode) because of HAM's better line into T3 like I already mentioned and also that ROS was occupied making unforseen adjustments on the steering wheel and therefore only had a short glance in his mirror before opting to close the inside even more in a split second decision thinking it wasn't too late for such a move. Chit happens, and ever so much under pressure and limited time to decide.

[Moanlower]

There was an interesting point Hamilton raised.

Rosberg - accidentaly? - put his car in SAFETY CAR MODE, which was 180 HP down on normal mode. This meant Rosberg f*cked up and was 180hp down. Compared to that, Rosberg at that moment essentially was a Manor car of last year, just driving in front.

and this 'backmarker' if you will was busy on his steering wheel and cut off the must faster car behind him - which he clearly kwew was there, i mean come on, you dont even have to look in the mirror to KNOW lewis was right there and even which side he'd pass.
Rosberg was fully aware that Lewis was steaming in on him and just pushed him dirty off track and got the worst of it by getting collected himself. It was a dirty move and imho the blame is fully with Nico.

I guess we have to agree to disagree.

[Serbian4ever]

Clearly, Hamilton had more space on his left side to overtake...


And of course everyone blames Rosberg but this isnt his fault at all. He blocked Hamilton properly

[foxmulder_ms]

I thought it was 51 to 49% Nico/Ham fault share but I watched it couple more times and changed my mind. Rosberg's move is so sudden that Lewis really couldn't have done anything. Nico was not defending at all he shoveled Lewis out, it was a malicious act. I think it is 100% Nico's fault. He should have been penalized for "unfairly blocking another driver / not leaving at least one car’s width between their own car and the edge of the track". Moreover, Hamilton really tried to avoid as clearly shown by him going on grass. He did what he could.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Well, I am happy that Nico managed to stop his own run of victories.

Link - Here is what Toto says and what he could mean!

Toto Wolff says a "wrong setting" on Nico Rosberg's Mercedes W07 was the catalyst for the collision between the German and teammate Lewis Hamilton on lap one of the Spanish Grand Prix.

According to Wolff, Rosberg was down on power as he exited Turn 3 in the lead, a warning light illuminating on the back of his car/

The slowdown allowed Hamilton to close in rapidly before Turn 4, where the two drivers' races ended at once.

"Nico was in the wrong setting - and that's why he lost power out of 3. He didn't have as much energy as Lewis had," Wolff said.

"I wouldn't say [Rosberg's to blame], but it explains why everything went so quickly - because there was such a discrepancy in speed that they needed to make a decision in a split/second.

"He had a setting on the steering wheel which should have been changed at the start - and he didn't."

Despite the issue of the setting, Wolff refused to apportion blame for the incident.

"Coming out of [Turn] 3, Nico closed up the inside in what looked to be a clean maneouvre, Lewis chose to go that side and was out on the grass and then lost the car.

"A racing incident, a very unfortunate racing incident, triggered by various circumstances.

"[Hamilton's] manoeuvre was fair enough even though the result was unfortunate. I think seeing that and going for it was what he should have done - and you can’t blame Nico for closing the door but the difference of speed triggered the incident."

Although he doesn't want to admit in public, but in private they have concluded it was Nico's mistake. Case closed.

[Zynerji]

What's sad, is that after reading over 30 pages about this race, is no one has even mentioned Vettel's overtake of Sainz at the beginning of the race. 3 move dummy? Epic!

[giantfan10]

What's sad, is that after reading over 30 pages about this race, is no one has even mentioned Vettel's overtake of Sainz at the beginning of the race. 3 move dummy? Epic!

wasnt mentioned by me because i saw about half of that move NBC cut to a commercial right at that exact moment

[SectorOne]

Clearly, Hamilton had more space on his left side to overtake...
http://s32.postimg.org/5i6pr0vud/Levo_Miksajlo.jpg

And of course everyone blames Rosberg but this isnt his fault at all. He blocked Hamilton properly

http://s32.postimg.org/8v38np7hx/6f79dc ... 3fd53e.jpg

You obviously have a very limited understanding of the rule regarding leaving space.

[GrayGreat]

Clearly, Hamilton had more space on his left side to overtake...
http://s32.postimg.org/5i6pr0vud/Levo_Miksajlo.jpg

And of course everyone blames Rosberg but this isnt his fault at all. He blocked Hamilton properly

http://s32.postimg.org/8v38np7hx/6f79dc ... 3fd53e.jpg

You obviously have a very limited understanding of the rule regarding leaving space.

Are you saying Nico was not alongside in the previous examples he posted?

[GrayGreat]

Well, I am happy that Nico managed to stop his own run of victories.

Link - Here is what Toto says and what he could mean!

Toto Wolff says a "wrong setting" on Nico Rosberg's Mercedes W07 was the catalyst for the collision between the German and teammate Lewis Hamilton on lap one of the Spanish Grand Prix.

According to Wolff, Rosberg was down on power as he exited Turn 3 in the lead, a warning light illuminating on the back of his car/

The slowdown allowed Hamilton to close in rapidly before Turn 4, where the two drivers' races ended at once.

"Nico was in the wrong setting - and that's why he lost power out of 3. He didn't have as much energy as Lewis had," Wolff said.

"I wouldn't say [Rosberg's to blame], but it explains why everything went so quickly - because there was such a discrepancy in speed that they needed to make a decision in a split/second.

"He had a setting on the steering wheel which should have been changed at the start - and he didn't."

Despite the issue of the setting, Wolff refused to apportion blame for the incident.

"Coming out of [Turn] 3, Nico closed up the inside in what looked to be a clean maneouvre, Lewis chose to go that side and was out on the grass and then lost the car.

"A racing incident, a very unfortunate racing incident, triggered by various circumstances.

"[Hamilton's] manoeuvre was fair enough even though the result was unfortunate. I think seeing that and going for it was what he should have done - and you can’t blame Nico for closing the door but the difference of speed triggered the incident."

Although he doesn't want to admit in public, but in private they have concluded it was Nico's mistake. Case closed.

If it makes you feel better...

[ringo]

Clearly, Hamilton had more space on his left side to overtake...
http://s32.postimg.org/5i6pr0vud/Levo_Miksajlo.jpg

And of course everyone blames Rosberg but this isnt his fault at all. He blocked Hamilton properly

http://s32.postimg.org/8v38np7hx/6f79dc ... 3fd53e.jpg

You are overreacting. What you fail to post is how lewis has done the moves you posted above. All of those moves were very smooth and predictable and according to the regulations. What he does is a steady sweeping towards the outside of the corner.
That is of no surprise to the attacker and the attacker can back out quite easily unless he wants to try his luck.

On the other hand, Rosberg has shown to be very erratic in defending; where it almost seems as if he doesn't want to even consider a dog fight, he rather shuts out another car and screw their race by sending them off track.
In all examples where rosberg pushes people off track it's a very erratic movement and done on the straight, which is grossly unnecessary, and at all times he does not leave a car's width.
So there is a very big difference with what hamilton does. Ham does his sweeping action on corner entry, and he does it methodically and steadily which is pretty much easy to read and react to for the attacker.

So in my opinion Rosberg was wrong at this race for a few reasons:
1. He lunged across the track in an unpredictable manner.
2. He did not leave a car's width.
3. He was quite dangerous in how he completely disregarded the speed differential, and could not have expected anything but an accident, either a rear end crash, or a tank slapper.
4. Had no real reason to be driving like that on straight piece of track.

Also i have a belief that Rosberg's blistering start was due to him using up a lot of his electrical energy. He put the car in a high power mode for that start, and possibly thought he had to go to harvesting mode right after to ensure he had enough energy to use strategically on the rest of the lab.
He was in harvesting mode on purpose after he took the lead, and simply didn't expect Hamilton's speed differential to be so great, so he tried switching back to power mode.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Well, I am happy that Nico managed to stop his own run of victories.

Link - Here is what Toto says and what he could mean!

Toto Wolff says a "wrong setting" on Nico Rosberg's Mercedes W07 was the catalyst for the collision between the German and teammate Lewis Hamilton on lap one of the Spanish Grand Prix.

According to Wolff, Rosberg was down on power as he exited Turn 3 in the lead, a warning light illuminating on the back of his car/

The slowdown allowed Hamilton to close in rapidly before Turn 4, where the two drivers' races ended at once.

"Nico was in the wrong setting - and that's why he lost power out of 3. He didn't have as much energy as Lewis had," Wolff said.

"I wouldn't say [Rosberg's to blame], but it explains why everything went so quickly - because there was such a discrepancy in speed that they needed to make a decision in a split/second.

"He had a setting on the steering wheel which should have been changed at the start - and he didn't."

Despite the issue of the setting, Wolff refused to apportion blame for the incident.

"Coming out of [Turn] 3, Nico closed up the inside in what looked to be a clean maneouvre, Lewis chose to go that side and was out on the grass and then lost the car.

"A racing incident, a very unfortunate racing incident, triggered by various circumstances.

"[Hamilton's] manoeuvre was fair enough even though the result was unfortunate. I think seeing that and going for it was what he should have done - and you can’t blame Nico for closing the door but the difference of speed triggered the incident."

Although he doesn't want to admit in public, but in private they have concluded it was Nico's mistake. Case closed.

If it makes you feel better...

Oh absolutely !!! It is still the same Nico from Monaco 2014.