2017 United States Grand Prix - COTA, 20-22 October

[AliMadsen]

Howdy,

I'll be in a Manhattan hotel room next weekend. Any yankees in here who can advice me to how to watch the race? Is it free on air in the USA? Which channels?
Or - is there a pay per view streaming service available?

[Just_a_fan]

Everybody gets on well with Daniel.

Which is why he'll never be World Champion.

[TAG]

Howdy,

I'll be in a Manhattan hotel room next weekend. Any yankees in here who can advice me to how to watch the race? Is it free on air in the USA? Which channels?
Or - is there a pay per view streaming service available?

It's on NBC, free to air, so you'll be able to get it in your hotel without issue. NBC is channel 4 in NYC.

[NathanOlder]

Everybody gets on well with Daniel.

Which is why he'll never be World Champion.

Didn't everyone get on with Mika Hakkinen ? Other than Salo, but who cares about him.

As for Daniel, I'm sure Vettel dislikes him deep down.

[Jolle]

Everybody gets on well with Daniel.

Which is why he'll never be World Champion.

Didn't everyone get on with Mika Hakkinen ? Other than Salo, but who cares about him.

As for Daniel, I'm sure Vettel dislikes him deep down.

The FIA makes a list every two weeks or so where you can find who likes who (a bit) and who doesn’t.
Pick you driver, everybody above him he thinks he’s a cheat, not so good, lucky or in there because of the team, everybody below their own name he respects and is doing a good job.

[aral]

Could you please have a look at the title of the thread ! I have had to remove a number of off topic posts and there are probably many more that should also be removed as they are off topic. Discussions as to which driver likes which other driver, together with debate as to whom works for whomever are irrelevant

[ringo]

With this year's W08 i can see nothing else but a barnstormer from Hamilton. If it does rain, then a throwback to silverstone 2008. I feel the car is going to love this track. A mercedes 1-2 if its dry, and if it rains, a three way fight with redbull and ferrari with Lewis slightly ahead.
It's at this time in the season hamilton always finishes strongly. The past 3 years have shown that. He will focus until the WDC is his, only then will he relax.

[godlameroso]

Saturday there's supposed to be some rain, Friday and Sunday should be dry, at worst the rain will start with a damp track. Saturday P3 will likely have rain, qualifying may be on a drying track, or sprinkle throughout, should be nice and lottery like. Or Hamilton can just smash all competitors.

[Manoah2u]

With this year's W08 i can see nothing else but a barnstormer from Hamilton. If it does rain, then a throwback to silverstone 2008. I feel the car is going to love this track. A mercedes 1-2 if its dry, and if it rains, a three way fight with redbull and ferrari with Lewis slightly ahead.
It's at this time in the season hamilton always finishes strongly. The past 3 years have shown that. He will focus until the WDC is his, only then will he relax.

Yeah, Lewis is usually rather strong in the end of the season BUT in the past years that did go paired with a sluggish midseason - something i didn't see this year at all. So i don't think he'll be 'stronger' i just think he'll be as consistant and strong as he has been for a while now.

I think one of the biggest reasons Lewis is staying so strong is that he has less mental drama influencing his races.
Sky had Rosberg for company last GP and it was interesting how he mentioned Lewis is rather sensitive for mental games and that influences his highs and lows. Rosberg knew saying the right things would set him off just enough to start messing up his weekend. Obviously, this is not happening with Bottas (this year atleast).

Vettel then doesn't throw out those mental games like Rosberg did - obviously being in a different team makes that less easy either way. Right now it wouldn't do much anyway as Vettel is the one in the biggest danger and backfoot.

If Vettel is smart he should bomb Hamilton with some mind bombs. If he's smart he should mention that despite his recent run of DNF's and DNS's, and Lewis getting free wins which dont mean anything because he didn't have to fight for it, that even a blind driver would win in a Mercedes and that Bottas isn't competition and that he himself Vettel is still very much in the WDC competition shows just how good of a job Ferrari and he have done, and how much worse Mercedes and Lewis have gotten now that they have to battle underpowered RedBull whilst Ferrari is not in the picture.

If Vettel wants to win this WDC he should go all out war. Bombard Hamilton with dirty low mindgames, get P1 in qually and work on his starts and worry less about turn 1 during the start. IF he gets overtaken in turn 1, just accept that and use momentum and flow back to take back the position, and atleast stay within the DRS window. He can't afford another 1st corner crash. And use kimi to disrupt Mercedes' races. Make sure he gets in between Vettel and Hamilton and compromise Kimi's race for it if that's what's needed. The WCC is out of Ferrari's reach anyway. Now just focus on getting the WDC and if you can get Kimi between Vettel and Hamilton to ruin his race just go for it.
It might get Kimi to finish 6th or 7th in the end, but can make all the difference in getting Vettel a win and at the very best perhaps even bring Hamilton in RedBull territory and see Max or Danny grab p2 from Lewis.

Lewis doesn't want to take risks now so they should really take advantage of that.
Offcourse Lewis wants to win but if it comes down to accepting Vettel gets a P1 instead of getting a DNF, then it's a no-brainer. Then offcourse the risk gets bigger when he needs to yield for Verstappen or Ricciardo for P2, but still, does he want to risk a DNF or worse by only focusing on P2 in Austin instead of the WDC.

It would then however mean Vettel stays firm in the WDC competition, and a P1 for VET and P2 for VER and P3 for HAM would only open up more potential for some mental bombs on Lewis.

Don't get me wrong, i don't think Lewis will fail on this WDC anymore, just stating out what Vettel MUST do to make it.

If Vettel manages to beat him to the WDC though - that would really, really really be something.

[JonoNic]

The only way that Hamilton looses this championship is if he's physically injured and he cannot drive to his full potential for the rest of the races (I hope that this never happens). Otherwise there's no other way for Vettel to close the gap quickly as the championship leader will not likely DNF twice in a row. I also feel that it is too late for mind games at this stage.

[Manoah2u]

Who expected Vettel to get 2 DNF's due to mechanical issues and crashing out in Singapore. thats' 3 DNFS in a row.

Lewis doesn't need any injury at all. All he needs is what happened in Malaysia 2016, an engine blowing up, and getting taken out by another driver.
if Vettel wins those GP's he decreases Lewis' lead by 50 points out of the 72 point lead he has now, so that's a total of 22 points over 2 races to spread.
that means that if Vettel gains 11 points over Lewis in 2 races, he is the WDC.

if Vettel wins the last 2 GP's, and Hamilton gets 2nd both, then Vettel is WDC. not at all impossible.

It's unlikely that we see HAM get 2 DNF's in a row [well, 2 is enough, doesn't need to be a row really], and Vettel winning all 4 GP's, though it must be said
that if HAM is out of the equation for 2 gps, then chances grow exponentially for Vettel to win those 2 gps.....as long as the Ferrari stays intact.

and no, it's far from too late for mind games. play mind games and have that in his head during the race and then pressurise him and we might see mistakes happen
that cost him a win.

the simple truth is; not playing mind games will not stress him out anyway, so better to try anyway.

[ian_s]

Hamiltons already started the mind games towards Vettel, the comment in the drivers briefing about Vettel having to keep his belts done up after the race is one example of that. Even if it was delivered in a good humoured way, Vettel was not impressed.

[SiLo]

I'd hazard a guess that Hamilton has learned a lot from fighting Rosberg. He's probably better prepared mentally.

[NathanOlder]

Who expected Vettel to get 2 DNF's due to mechanical issues and crashing out in Singapore. thats' 3 DNFS in a row.

Lewis doesn't need any injury at all. All he needs is what happened in Malaysia 2016, an engine blowing up, and getting taken out by another driver.
if Vettel wins those GP's he decreases Lewis' lead by 50 points out of the 72 point lead he has now, so that's a total of 22 points over 2 races to spread.
that means that if Vettel gains 11 points over Lewis in 2 races, he is the WDC.

if Vettel wins the last 2 GP's, and Hamilton gets 2nd both, then Vettel is WDC. not at all impossible.
.

What ? Its 59pts not 72? And if it was 72 and Seb got it down to 22, and if he wins the last 2 races and lewis was 2nd, he would still be behind lewis by 8pts,

Normally you are spot on with what you say, bit of a brain fade on that one lol.

[Manoah2u]

Who expected Vettel to get 2 DNF's due to mechanical issues and crashing out in Singapore. thats' 3 DNFS in a row.

Lewis doesn't need any injury at all. All he needs is what happened in Malaysia 2016, an engine blowing up, and getting taken out by another driver.
if Vettel wins those GP's he decreases Lewis' lead by 50 points out of the 72 point lead he has now, so that's a total of 22 points over 2 races to spread.
that means that if Vettel gains 11 points over Lewis in 2 races, he is the WDC.

if Vettel wins the last 2 GP's, and Hamilton gets 2nd both, then Vettel is WDC. not at all impossible.
.

What ? Its 59pts not 72? And if it was 72 and Seb got it down to 22, and if he wins the last 2 races and lewis was 2nd, he would still be behind lewis by 8pts,

Normally you are spot on with what you say, bit of a brain fade on that one lol.

Ah my bad, i was confusing Bottas' scores haha thanks for the correction, you're totally right.
was looking in the wrong list ( i have a notepad comparison, was looking in the wrong points )

so correction;

If Lewis gets 2 DNF's and Vettel wins those 2 races,
the points difference is just 9 points then.

so then if Vettel wins 2 races, and lewis is behind him in those 2 races, Vettel wins the WDC anyway (the final 2 then).
Vettel can win both races and if Lewis is 2nd in one of those 2, then all vettel needs is a 2 point advantage over Lewis to win in the final race. That means that as long as Vettel is P8, he wins the WDC - right?!

i know this belongs to the championship permutations though.

BUT,

if in Austin,

Lewis gets a DNF,

and Vettel wins,
and in Mexico Vettel wins and Lewis is 2nd,
and in Brazil Vettel is 2nd, Verstappen 1st, and Lewis gets a DNF,

then it comes down to the last GP to decide the WDC,

where as long as Lewis finishes in front of Vettel, Lewis is the WDC,
and as long as Vettel finishes in front of Lewis, Vettel is the WDC*

*as long as he's not P9 and lewis P10. if Vettel is P9 and lewis out of the points, Vettel wins.

That imho would be the ideal scenario to see it come down to the final GP. would be majestic.