2016 F1 Spanish Grand Prix

[zeph]

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

I know, right? That pissed me off so bad...

[ringo]

As for Max, congrats.
Wasn't really a fan of his, but he has truly shown to be a steady and fast driver. He is also more focused and hungry than Danil.
His win today wasn't very special, but he held it together and most importantly he was as quick as riciardo. That's what made the win happen.
I like his work ethic and his big thinking.

The racing Gods just did not favour vettel and ricciardo on race day. They did nothing wrong and got beat by their slower teammates.
I guess this track is the race win sweepstakes of the calendar. 10 different winners in 10 years says a lot.

Good race by Sainz, and also guitierez. The other torro rosso i think wasn't really doing much in the first 3/4 of the race, and i believe Kyvat's career is over with Max's win. He is no longer relevant to redbull, he can start looking for other teams from now.

[Restomaniac]

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.

I get that. It was the how far Rosberg had gone over to the Right. Others have tried and did try yesterday to overtake going into T4 and those overtaking don't end up in the as far to the Right of the track as Rosberg ended up because the racing line is to the extreme Left.
My take is that Hamilton saw the red light and figured out Rosberg had cocked his settings up and jumped on the opportunity. Rosberg was so fixated on getting out of that setting that to quote Davidson he stopped being spatially aware and he had no clue where Hamilton was for the second that Hamilton made his move. By taking the usual overtaking line and then finding himself blocked off by his team mate who has gone so far over Hamilton at that point is screwed because his is now hung out to dry and if he drops the anchors out there he is going to see at least 1 car sail past on the racing line. I doubt he expected his team mate to push him onto the grass (as Rosberg did per the regs). The rest as they say is history.

I'm not saying Rosberg meant to push Hamilton off the track which is probably why the stewards came by the decision they did. However the fault has to lie with Rosberg because the cause is that wrong setting and his actions in trying to fix it. The thing is that if Hamilton had kept the normal racing line he would have just sailed past Rosberg but he wasn't to know what Rosberg was about to do.

[Vasconia]

What a race!!

When I saw the collision between Nico and Lewis my first thoughts were about the epic shitstorm of comments I was going to see here hahaha.

Not a lot to comment about this, it seems that Nico had a problem and at the same time Lewis was too optimistic trying to overtake Nico in that place. We can say a lot of things about this incident but what Lewis has said it sounds like an apologize to me. So lets move on.

Anyway Nico was super solid overtaking Lewis in the first corner, dont you think that? Nico doesnt seem to be the weak driver who couldnt overtake Lewis anymore.

Super impressive work by Max, its awesome to see who he defended himself showing a total control of the situation. Astonishing. Anyway I was expecting more from Kimi, not a real attack during the last 20 laps.... :S

I thought that Sebastian was going to win the race, he was the fastest driver but I still dont understand why he pitted so much earlier than Ricciardo. Any explanation?

Great job by Carlos, awesome overtake, good defense and a very solid pace. If Ricciardo leaves RB he could have a chance for the next year.

[Restomaniac]

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 have just highlighted the point I was trying to make. Just where the hell was Rosberg going? Hamilton was going where those overtaking normally go only to find his team mate going further and further to the Right. I doubt he expected his team mate to keep going Right until Rosberg almost had his Right tyre on the edge of the track. Imagine Hamilton was thinking 'where the hell is he going?'. By the time Hamilton realised that it was to late as he had committed himself.

[Vasconia]

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?

True but when you can win your first race since... 2012? you must do more, take some risks and Kimi did take no risks. I could imagine Sebastian trying to something more or Max.

With softs the Ferraris were faster and with mediums faster than Ricciardo in the second stint but not in the last one.

[Steven]

@serbian4ever : The comparisons of Hamilton blocking off Rosberg to this incident are, well, far fetched, to say the least. It's very convenient to forget that all the above screenshots were from accelleration out of a corner, where the car ahead, usually the faster one as well, can claim the racing line.

In the case from Spain, both were off the racing line. Rosberg moved over, and since Hamilton was partly aside at one point, he should have left space. The problem here is that the speed difference was so big, and unexpected, that Rosberg's mind was probably outpaced by Hamilton's Mercedes. I therefore believe that, considering both are human, no penalties apply, but for me, it's clear who did contribute most to this coming together.

I thought that Sebastian was going to win the race, he was the fastest driver but I still dont understand why he pitted so much earlier than Ricciardo. Any explanation?

Well, I think Ferrari at least wanted to make sure to get ahead of RIC by pitting him earlier. Waiting until the same lap, or even later than RIC could have seen him get stuck behind the RBR and finish one place further down

[Vasconia]

.

I thought that Sebastian was going to win the race, he was the fastest driver but I still dont understand why he pitted so much earlier than Ricciardo. Any explanation?

Well, I think Ferrari at least wanted to make sure to get ahead of RIC by pitting him earlier. Waiting until the same lap, or even later than RIC could have seen him get stuck behind the RBR and finish one place further down

Yes you´re right but it was so much earlier! 6 or 8 laps perhaps? an undercut happens 1 or 2 laps before.

[NL_Fer]

At that point, after the stops of Max and Kimi, they were lapping almost 0,5s quicker on new Mediums than Ricciardo on soft. Taking the pitstop was the most logical step for Vettel.

[Godius]

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!

Actually in my opinion the overtake from Max on Seb in Turn 3 was stellar, he passed Seb around the outside of the corner.

[henra]

I believe the race was lost for RIC and VET when Ferrari pitted VET in a strategy no mans land.

Nice one!
Indeed I have never seen such a bizarre tyre strategy as with Ferrari/Vettel. A three stopper where you basically use three sets of tyres for the first half of the race and one for the second. That waste of tyre life will have cost him about at least 15s in Lap time potential alone. Daniel also had a sub- optimum tyre strategy but not nearly as bad from a Lap time potential point of view. In his case it was more track position/overtakes that hampered him.
All in all both strategies were terrible and worth being mentioned in the book of strategy epic fails.

By Micro optimising (read covering) they deteriorated the overall result.

[Godius]

I think Ferrari realised quickly that covering Ricciardo was a disastrous opportunistic move and from there on Ferrari tried to secure a podium for Seb by giving him better track position towards the end of the race.

[wickedz50]

I believe the race was lost for RIC and VET when Ferrari pitted VET in a strategy no mans land.

Nice one!
Indeed I have never seen such a bizarre tyre strategy as with Ferrari/Vettel. A three stopper where you basically use three sets of tyres for the first half of the race and one for the second. That waste of tyre life will have cost him about at least 15s in Lap time potential alone. Daniel also had a sub- optimum tyre strategy but not nearly as bad from a Lap time potential point of view. In his case it was more track position/overtakes that hampered him.
All in all both strategies were terrible and worth being mentioned in the book of strategy epic fails.

By Micro optimising (read covering) they deteriorated the overall result.

Ferrari was hell bent on copying and nothing else. Too scared of RBR without keeping faith on their own.

[jurinius]

What a race!!
...
Not a lot to comment about this, it seems that Nico had a problem and at the same time Lewis was too optimistic trying to overtake Nico in that place. We can say a lot of things about this incident but what Lewis has said it sounds like an apologize to me. So lets move on.

Anyway Nico was super solid overtaking Lewis in the first corner, dont you think that? Nico doesnt seem to be the weak driver who couldnt overtake Lewis anymore.
...

1- Not too optimistic at all, Nico was on playstation mode, he saw the bullet coming, I am saying that because when the red light flashing on his car, you can see him taking the normal racing line then realize how f...k he was slow, look on his mirror and probably said I have nothing to loose I ll stop him.

2- No apologize needed here, Lewis is describing clearly what happened, but Nico interview was such a rigolade ! were u distracted ? euh no I wasn't ... Did you see Lewis coming on the right ? Yeah I was aware of ...

3- This came to "Nico is solid on overtaking ..." now ! , "Nico doesnt seem to be ... weak driver ..." . Where is the problem to recognize that your are weak when it is a reality, strong doesn't mean being Maldonnado esque and nobody said weak as Jo Palmer

BTW Lewis is already 3 times champion, Nico 0. Let's go to the next races. a 1 2 driver decision ?

[henra]

Link - [url=http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/rosbe ... sh-737141/]
Although he doesn't want to admit in public, but in private they have concluded it was Nico's mistake. Case closed.

I'm completely at a loss about the benefit of this never ending second guessing who of the two had the 51% share of guilt in this incident? what does it change? What does it give you?
The race is over. Both were out early. Both had their fair amount of involvement.
Nico made an error in a setting, when he noticed it he defended aggressively, Lewis attacked aggressively. Speed difference between both was high, so reaction time for both was very short once each one committed to his manouver (which was basically at the same time).
Result: Foreseeable.