Ferrari and FIAT President Sergio Marchionne hailed the resurgence of his team and praised the job done over the winter which propelled Ferrari to score its first race win after a one and half year-long winless period.
Vettel said that he wasn't very satisfied with his S1 of his best lap, but he also said that pole wasn't possible. So there's still a little margin to gain, but Hamilton still has an edgebonjon1979 wrote: ↑25 Mar 2017, 10:25I do feel we saw drivers making the difference today. Great job by grosjean and clearly a good lap from ham. Could vettel have got more? Perhaps, but looks like a good start to the season to me.
I understand everyone has favourites but I've rarely seen desperation to prove their driver is godlike to this extent on this board.
I always wanted to see a situation like that of today, when Rosberg was there with Mercedes. Another team within 3 tenths of Lewis' pace. On too many occasions, Nico trailed Lewis by more than 3 tenths but still stood 2nd and in situations like today, Nico would have been starting outside of top 2 or 3. And because there was no one within 6 tenths of Mercs for the last 3 years, it allowed Rosberg to take advantage whenever Lewis slipped at the start and from there onwards, it was rules of engagement. In last few years, had there been two more cars within 3 tenths, Nico wouldn't have had a chance to jump Lewis on his bad starts. Well... Nico called it quits at the right moment I guess.Schuttelberg wrote: ↑25 Mar 2017, 10:59Mercedes massive advantage in the last 3 years often sold the illusion of Rosberg being neck and neck with Hamilton. While that always remained true in terms of points because the worst a Mercedes driver could finish was second, the real exciting races only happened when Hamilton was behind Rosberg, for whatever reason.
In all honesty, I enjoyed qualifying today, even though the result was expected. May be it comes naturally being a hardcore fan and the excitement will subside as the season progresses. I must say though that I did wonder twice about Alonso being in the second Mercedes/Ferrari seat.GPR-A wrote: ↑25 Mar 2017, 11:10I always wanted to see a situation like that of today, when Rosberg was there with Mercedes. Another team within 3 tenths of Lewis' pace. On too many occasions, Nico trailed Lewis by more than 3 tenths but still stood 2nd and in situations like today, Nico would have been starting outside of top 2 or 3. And because there was no one within 6 tenths of Mercs for the last 3 years, it allowed Rosberg to take advantage whenever Lewis slipped at the start and from there onwards, it was rules of engagement. In last few years, had there been two more cars within 3 tenths, Nico wouldn't have had a chance to jump Lewis on his bad starts. Well... Nico called it quits at the right moment I guess.Schuttelberg wrote: ↑25 Mar 2017, 10:59Mercedes massive advantage in the last 3 years often sold the illusion of Rosberg being neck and neck with Hamilton. While that always remained true in terms of points because the worst a Mercedes driver could finish was second, the real exciting races only happened when Hamilton was behind Rosberg, for whatever reason.
Where are those 4 second faster cars, that we were expecting to see, gone?
They looked very uneasy next to one another, especially Bottas.
One thing that struck me on watching that is that Vettel seems to be having to do a lot more steering wheel inputs than Hamilton.
Either Ferrari went with a bit more DF setup therefore resulting in a bit faster cornering and lower straight line speed, or Merc still has 10-15HP more. Maybe both.
These are very good points. I am super excited to see that the emphasis has ever so slightly shifted to the drivers.f1316 wrote: ↑25 Mar 2017, 13:02I'm surprised everyone isn't a little bit more excited (including the commentators).
Here's a list of all the exciting things from qualifying:
- finally we have a car that's capable of fighting the Mercedes; it's clearly not quite as good (look no further than Bottas vs Kimi) but it's close enough for a fight - exactly what we've all been waiting for for years!!
- as a result of which, we have the two most successful drivers going head to head; a fight between Vettel in Hamilton in two different cars is like the Schumacher/Hakkinen years
- this is also linked to the fact that the drivers are now clearly making a difference; you can see much more where a driver is doing something dramatic and finding time as a result (see Grosjeans's lap or lots of what Alonso was doing)
- for all the talk of 'just' 1.7 secs faster, these were the fastest laps ever turned at this circuit and it's visible. The temps and nature of the track mean we'll be faster elsewhere (vs 2016 - and lest we forget that the target 5 secs is vs 2015) but still, fastest ever laps is still cool
I'm psyched for tomorrow and think we'll see a race where drivers are pushing throughout, which we'll be great; even if there's less overtaking, it'll be great to see them going for it and trying throughput (and bet you the lap record goes or is close towards the end) which in itself is likely to contribute to mistakes and incidents.
So, this is a grid penalty right? But, he starts from the back, so do penalties get rolled over this year or is it the same as before?The Williams Martini Racing team has changed the gearbox of car number 18, driver Lance Stroll,
after P3 without informing the FiA.
I would like to refer this matter to the stewards for their consideration.
The FIA Formula One Technical Delegate
I wouldnt really look at Kimi as he was solid untill Q3 where he has been very hit and miss last 2 years. Put Ric or Verstappen in that car and suddenly you have 4 cars all under 3 tenths of each other.f1316 wrote: ↑25 Mar 2017, 13:02I'm surprised everyone isn't a little bit more excited (including the commentators).
Here's a list of all the exciting things from qualifying:
- finally we have a car that's capable of fighting the Mercedes; it's clearly not quite as good (look no further than Bottas vs Kimi) but it's close enough for a fight - exactly what we've all been waiting for for years!!
- as a result of which, we have the two most successful drivers going head to head; a fight between Vettel in Hamilton in two different cars is like the Schumacher/Hakkinen years
- this is also linked to the fact that the drivers are now clearly making a difference; you can see much more where a driver is doing something dramatic and finding time as a result (see Grosjeans's lap or lots of what Alonso was doing)
- for all the talk of 'just' 1.7 secs faster, these were the fastest laps ever turned at this circuit and it's visible. The temps and nature of the track mean we'll be faster elsewhere (vs 2016 - and lest we forget that the target 5 secs is vs 2015) but still, fastest ever laps is still cool
I'm psyched for tomorrow and think we'll see a race where drivers are pushing throughout, which we'll be great; even if there's less overtaking, it'll be great to see them going for it and trying throughput (and bet you the lap record goes or is close towards the end) which in itself is likely to contribute to mistakes and incidents.
does anyone know why hamilton's speed becomes cyano sometimes (very often indeed)? is that related to energy recovery?
