2018 British Grand Prix, Silverstone, July 6-8

[turbof1]

Ferrari did a good job to close that gap. And I do think Mercedes acknowledges that. They never outright stated Ferrari cheated; they only said they have good faith in the investigation and in Ferrari's intentions. Nowhere has Mercedes accused of cheating. Yes, they asked for clarification. That's not the same.

In my opinion both the media and the fans are making a much bigger deal out of it than it all is.

[JonoNic]

Ferrari did a good job to close that gap. And I do think Mercedes acknowledges that. They never outright stated Ferrari cheated; they only said they have good faith in the investigation and in Ferrari's intentions. Nowhere has Mercedes accused of cheating. Yes, they asked for clarification. That's not the same.

In my opinion both the media and the fans are making a much bigger deal out of it than it all is.

So when they are asking for clarification. What technical details of that clarification will Mercedes (or all other teams) be privy to?

[Sevach]

On another topic...

No action on Grosjean-Sainz, sometimes i really wonder if who hit who counts...
In this case they didn't car either way.

[turbof1]

So when they are asking for clarification. What technical details of that clarification will Mercedes (or all other teams) be privy to?

Only what is asked in the clarification. FIA will neither confirm or exclude that Ferrari has this or that. Only when Ferrari has done anything illegal you'll hear about any of this. IMO, Whiting already talked too much about this in public, about something he did not even fully understood himself at the time. Of course that gets interpreted as shady business from Ferrari by media and public, which could have been avoided.

[JonoNic]

Thanks Turbof1

[BwajSF]

Ferrari did a good job to close that gap. And I do think Mercedes acknowledges that. They never outright stated Ferrari cheated; they only said they have good faith in the investigation and in Ferrari's intentions. Nowhere has Mercedes accused of cheating. Yes, they asked for clarification. That's not the same.

In my opinion both the media and the fans are making a much bigger deal out of it than it all is.

@turbof1 you are right they never said ferrari are cheating directly.. (if they did so they would have been in deeper trouble with brand image being tainted) but they rather than asking for a formal investigation of ferrari's technical aspects they went out and blabbered stuff in media.. and the media took care of making a huge deal out of it and FIA too said if Mercs Had thier doubts they could have launched a formal req to FIA which they never did. And now this openly accusing a Global Brand representing Team for "foul play" with no sensible grounds to the media.

To be frank it doesnt look like acknowledgement of Competition by Mercs.. But it is more like being disrespectful to the effort,Hard work and Morals of their main rivals..and the sport.

[DVB]

It's actually the same as last year. FIA forbid suspension that could change the aerodynamics of a car.

It's known that Red Bull and Mercedes had a superior suspension then Ferrari.

Ferrari then asked the FIA to clarify that the suspension didn't have an aerodynamic advantage, in the hope RBR and Merc had to show what they designed so Ferrari could go ahead and copy.


Both RBR and Merc couldn't clarify that the suspension didn't had an aerodynamic advantage, so they weren't allowed to use that suspension anymore.

[turbof1]

Ferrari did a good job to close that gap. And I do think Mercedes acknowledges that. They never outright stated Ferrari cheated; they only said they have good faith in the investigation and in Ferrari's intentions. Nowhere has Mercedes accused of cheating. Yes, they asked for clarification. That's not the same.

In my opinion both the media and the fans are making a much bigger deal out of it than it all is.

@turbof1 you are right they never said ferrari are cheating directly.. (if they did so they would have been in deeper trouble with brand image being tainted) but they rather than asking for a formal investigation of ferrari's technical aspects they went out and blabbered stuff in media.. and the media took care of making a huge deal out of it and FIA too said if Mercs Had thier doubts they could have launched a formal req to FIA which they never did. And now this openly accusing a Global Brand representing Team for "foul play" with no sensible grounds to the media.

To be frank it doesnt look like acknowledgement of Competition by Mercs.. But it is more like being disrespectful to the effort,Hard work and Morals of their main rivals..and the sport.

I never have actually seen any team being highly acknowledgeable to a direct competitor. That's not how F1 works and that's not important either. Crucial here is that Mercedes did not formally accuse Ferrari of cheating. Also in my opinion the fia leaked much more than Mercedes did.

With accusations of foul play you do mean the remarks from Wolf regarding Raikkonen, right? Mercedes has apologied for it. Not the best pr field day for Mercedes, but then again we should appreciate the raw emotion, and put it in the right context.

[BwajSF]

Ferrari did a good job to close that gap. And I do think Mercedes acknowledges that. They never outright stated Ferrari cheated; they only said they have good faith in the investigation and in Ferrari's intentions. Nowhere has Mercedes accused of cheating. Yes, they asked for clarification. That's not the same.

In my opinion both the media and the fans are making a much bigger deal out of it than it all is.

@turbof1 you are right they never said ferrari are cheating directly.. (if they did so they would have been in deeper trouble with brand image being tainted) but they rather than asking for a formal investigation of ferrari's technical aspects they went out and blabbered stuff in media.. and the media took care of making a huge deal out of it and FIA too said if Mercs Had thier doubts they could have launched a formal req to FIA which they never did. And now this openly accusing a Global Brand representing Team for "foul play" with no sensible grounds to the media.

To be frank it doesnt look like acknowledgement of Competition by Mercs.. But it is more like being disrespectful to the effort,Hard work and Morals of their main rivals..and the sport.

Also in my opinion the fia leaked much more than Mercedes did.


With accusations of foul play you do mean the remarks from Wolf regarding Raikkonen, right? Mercedes has apologied for it. Not the best pr field day for Mercedes, but then again we should appreciate the raw emotion, and put it in the right context.

Amen to that...They revealed some details about the battery and also revealed the names of whistle blowers..

Hope Mercs will be back to thier senses.. Cause this year looks like a real race to the championship and it should be all in all about racing then it will be a year to remember..

[BwajSF]

It's actually the same as last year. FIA forbid suspension that could change the aerodynamics of a car.

It's known that Red Bull and Mercedes had a superior suspension then Ferrari.

Ferrari then asked the FIA to clarify that the suspension didn't have an aerodynamic advantage, in the hope RBR and Merc had to show what they designed so Ferrari could go ahead and copy.


Both RBR and Merc couldn't clarify that the suspension didn't had an aerodynamic advantage, so they weren't allowed to use that suspension anymore.

Yup Ferrari asked FIA to clarify.."FORMAL" way.. Thats what is the underlaying difference

[Phil]

I'm quite disappointed in many of the posters here. I'm a huge Hamilton fan, but to suggest Kimi did anything on purpose is blind fanboy-ism. In that sense, I am also disappointed in the suggestion by Hamilton on stage that there was any malicious intent behind the collision with Kimi. True or false, it's just not professional to suggest something like that. Of course, it's absolutely frustrating if your potential win gets ruined by being taken out by the team-mate of your closest WDC rival, but there are certain areas you just don't go to as a professional sportsman.

Having that said, Hamilton showed an extremely good race. I don't believe there were team-orders involved in passing Bottas either - his tires were just shot. I do find the strategy element interesting though; had Bottas pitted alongside Vettel for used softs (vs new on Vettels car), Bottas would have finished a certain 2nd. However, I get the reasoning for Mercedes of taking that risk of potentially getting the win. If Bottas had somehow miraculously fended off Vettel, he would have won the race and also helped Lewis along the way (Hamilton would have lost 3 points instead of 7-10). At the point of which Vettel passed Bottas, his tires were gone and Lewis was in a much better position to pass him too. Also evident by the fact that then Kimi also passed Bottas, I am fairly confident there were no team-orders involved whatsoever.

I also think Vettel drove a fantastic race. No errors there and quite possibly the driver of the day. Yes, Hamilton had to fight through the pack and deserved much credit, but he did botch that start. Hamilton did show his class on Saturday though by getting pole by the smallest of margins, so brilliant performance from both of them.

I also feel for Bottas. So close and yet again one that slipped through his fingers. He just can not catch a break. As for strategy - from what I hear, he is standing 100% behind the strategy of not pitting him for the potential win or finishing in 4th with shot tires over finishing a guaranteed 2nd.

Overall very good race, Silverstone delivered once again.

PS: I also think Kimi drove a fantastic race. I like the guy. I'm not sure if he is competitive enough often to keep that seat (probably not), but I would love to see him perform overall better and have more success.

[Wynters]

to suggest Kimi did anything on purpose is blind fanboy-ism

Agreed. Of all the people on the grid, I'm not even sure Kimi would do such a thing in extremis let alone during a normal start.

I don't believe there were team-orders involved in passing Bottas either - his tires were just shot.

Bottas took an extremely strange line for someone 'letting his team mate' through as you can see from the line Seb and Kimi take over the same piece of track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HkmYvKVx58#t=06m05s

But, to sum up both preposterous positions, fanboys gotta fanboy.

I'd hope that this, combined with Ferrari's refusal to swap Kimi with Seb last race, put to rest any suggestions of 'team orders' favouring Vettel/Hamilton (for a little while, at least).

The most positive thing to come out of the weekend was the absolutely riveting last few laps of the GP. I wouldn't want to see it every GP (has it required the intervention of a Safety Car), but it was edge of the seat stuff, particularly between Bottas' gutsy defending and Vettel's flawlessly executed overtake.

[AnthonyG]

Imo both Raikkonen en Bottas still have a shot at the WDC. A few times bad luck for their respective teammate + following grid penalties and they are suddenly the best placed driver. It's too soon to already start swapping them on track.

[Juzh]

Vettel vs Bottas vs Hamilton

[Just_a_fan]

That nicely shows how it's the chase, the will-he-won't-he dicing that is exciting - it is not "overtaking" that is exciting.