Malaysian GP 2012 - Sepang International Circuit

[myurr]

Very bizarre the best drivers out there seem to be unawares about perimeter of a typical formula 1 car .Vettel,Hamilton,Button ,Rosberg ,Webber all seem to fall into this trap and even Schumi had his oops ,i lost my front wing moments..
But :Schu was the one guy who even took responsibility when you could debate the stiff defense and recklessness of the other guy.Never ever heard something along these lines from the heros mentioned above.
Vettel screwed up under pressure ,and not for the first time....all the confidence he built up over two and a half years is gone with the wind methinks and was owed mainly to a car and team fitting like a glove to his needs.
I doubt he is able to bounce back in China and we might have to wait a surprisingly long time till we see him on the top spot again.

Nice try. Button has a long history of holding his hands up when he's done something wrong. For example Button has just admitted it was his fault that he hit NK. Hamilton also admitted fault when he hit Kobayashi at Spa, by way of example. Webber is again often brutally honest when he's messed up, and whilst I can't think of any specifics I'm sure Rosberg's had his moments too.

Even Vettel has admitted on occasion that he's made minor mistakes although I don't remember him taking the blame for hitting someone else other than when he hit Webber behind the safety car in Fuji.

Edit: I should also add, at risk of starting further arguments, that Schumacher has had more than his fair share of controversies and failing to admit he did anything wrong even when it's been quite blatant. Yeah he's been better since his return but historically you have things like comically claiming to have tried to engineer a dead heat with Barichello (at Indianapolis if I remember correctly), or claiming to have had a problem when parking it at Monaco, etc.

[fritticaldi]

The Italian media is reporting tension between Red Bull and Vettel. Apparently Christian Horner wanted Vettel back into the pits before the end of the GP. Radios were malfunctioning on both cars and Webber actually ripped the connection from his helmet in frustration.

[banibhusan]

That's good news for Ferrari I guess.

[raymondu999]

No offense, but it was a single radio call. The Italian media would exaggerate it to cater to the loals, whom are mostly, if not all, tifoso. Or is it tifosi? (I'm not saying this is xclusive to the Italian media). Point being, sometimes it's wise not to read too much into things.

[Giblet]

The Italian media is reporting tension between Red Bull and Vettel. Apparently Christian Horner wanted Vettel back into the pits before the end of the GP. Radios were malfunctioning on both cars and Webber actually ripped the connection from his helmet in frustration.

Webber said in his article it was because it was pumping extremely loud static in his ears, a differing pitches in different parts of the track. He was getting no radio actual radio messages, so ripped out the chord, knowing that was it for the radio in case it came back.

[Giblet]

@Myurr, it was actually DC he hit behind the safety car, immediately after announcing his retirement.

[raymondu999]

@Myurr, it was actually DC he hit behind the safety car, immediately after announcing his retirement.

Nope it was Webber in Fuji 07.

DC was hit by Nakajima in Brazil 08 right after Turn 2 of the start. Hell of a way to have a last race.

[Ral]

@Myurr, it was actually DC he hit behind the safety car, immediately after announcing his retirement.

Nope it was Webber in Fuji 07.

Yeah and a not insignificant detail was that at the time Vettel was driving in the junior team, so he didn't want to ruin his chances to step up to the bigtime. A very public apology and humility wouldn't have hurt on that occasion.

[myurr]

No offense, but it was a single radio call. The Italian media would exaggerate it to cater to the loals, whom are mostly, if not all, tifoso. Or is it tifosi? (I'm not saying this is xclusive to the Italian media). Point being, sometimes it's wise not to read too much into things.

At least 3 radio calls were broadcast. One to call the guy in, another to cancel that, and then finally a further call to bring him in. Plus it's been reported that the pit boards were also telling Vettel to come in and retire the car.

[raymondu999]

No - I meant that I felt it's reading too much into it. This is one disagreement. There won't suddenly be negative emotions between the team and Seb because of that. The team has brought Seb 2 world titles in 3 years; and Seb has helped the team to 4 in 3 years (counting drivers' titles). The loving fuzzy feeling doesn't just go away because Seb wouldn't park his car one day.

[myurr]

No - I meant that I felt it's reading too much into it. This is one disagreement. There won't suddenly be negative emotions between the team and Seb because of that. The team has brought Seb 2 world titles in 3 years; and Seb has helped the team to 4 in 3 years (counting drivers' titles). The loving fuzzy feeling doesn't just go away because Seb wouldn't park his car one day.

Yeah pretty much agree with you, however if Seb has gone off on one and didn't park the car because he was still fuming over the Karthikeyan incident then I can understand the team being concerned and wanting words. Looking in from the outside we just don't know, but having a driver completely disregard what the team was saying would be cause for concern for any team principle.

[Giblet]

Indeed I had stuff mixed up. My bad.

I was thinking of:

On the Thursday before the 2008 British Grand Prix, Coulthard announced that he would retire at the end of the season, but would remain at Red Bull as a consultant. He retired on the first lap after colliding with Sebastian Vettel, the driver who would replace him at Red Bull in 2009, in his last British Grand Prix.[25]

and mixed it up with hitting Webber. The hitting of Webber was the incident I remembered, wrong people involved.

I also thought I'd feed some large animated images to you guys.

Frame by frame, lined up. NK takes the same line as Pic who takes the same line as Hamilton. Vettel seems to be the only car of the 4 who goes in a straigt line to the outside of the corner. He is considering it a pass, NK is obviously following the guys in front.


Comparison of Hamilton's and Karthikeyan's position on exit.


Comparison of Pic's line

[myurr]

Great images Giblet. To me that just shows that NK was following the racing line whilst SV was off line but trying to return to it. Reinforces my view that SV had plenty of room to the right but chose instead to take a line that cut across in front of where NK was going to naturally drive.

Edit: Should add that NK was also fractionally to the right of the line the others were taking (20cm maybe?) but that could have been easily explained by his earlier wobble giving a desire to keep away from the curbs plus his lower speed not taking him out as wide as the others.

[alelanza]

So most folks agree he could have done more to avoid the incident and for that he paid dearly. Everyone also agrees the hooligan behavior was uncalled for. What matters i think is how he bounces back from this, and by that i don't mean just the next race.

I doubt he'll be sanctioned beyond a wrist slap, but i do think an apology is in order.

The FIA could sanction F1’s reigning back-to-back world champion for his behaviour during the recent Malaysian grand prix.

Before calling backmarker Narain Karthikeyan a "gherkin" and "idiot" in the wake of their collision, Sebastian Vettel was captured by his on-board camera twice displaying his middle-finger to the Indian driver.

"I think he’s highly frustrated because he’s having a tough season," Karthikeyan told the Deccan Chronicle on Wednesday.

"It’s completely unprofessional to blame me for the incident. The derogatory remark only goes to show him in bad light.

"Just because he has a good car, he can’t call others an idiot," Karthikeyan continued.

"I have won races in all the previous single-seater championships I have participated in so I don’t need a certificate from Vettel."

Reports in Germany, including in the Kolner Express, Bild and Die Welt newspapers, claim that Red Bull driver’s behaviour may have breached the new stricter code of conduct introduced by FIA president Jean Todt.
The FIA has been contacted for comment.

"He has breached the code of conduct," former F1 driver Marc Surer told Germany’s Sky television. "You sign it when you get the license and then you have to behave correspondingly."Any behaviour that hurts other people or the sport is an offense," added the Swiss.

Asked what the penalties might be, Surer explained: "Anything from a warning to a license revocation. In this case I think it was quite understandable and there will be a mild punishment, if there is anything."

Hans-Joachim Stuck, however, is slightly less forgiving.

"When you’re overtaking, misunderstandings can occur. I think Vettel needs to learn this.

"With him, the curve was always upwards and now it’s not the case, and he needs to deal with that," the German legend told the DAPD news agency.

As for Vettel’s description of Karthikeyan as a "gherkin", Stuck insisted: "It’s better than ’asshole’."

Vettel’s attack, however, was sustained, with Kleine Zeitung newspaper now quoting the Red Bull driver as having said: "Maybe formula one is not the place to learn how to drive."

Stuck responded: "If Sebastian had left more space, it would not have happened. It happens sometimes so it’s a racing incident.

"He (Karthikeyan) didn’t do it on purpose and it always takes two."The HRT driver hit back by calling Vettel a "bully", and even David Coulthard - a Red Bull team consultant - defended Karthikeyan.

"He can’t make his car invisible," the Scot is quoted as saying by the Mirror.

Also defending Karthikeyan was Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg, who told the Indian press this week: "From what I saw, it was not Narain’s fault.

"So I don’t really understand why he (Vettel) said all that."

Hukenberg’s Force India teammate Paul di Resta added: "Narain is entitled to do as much on the track in comparison with someone like Vettel.

"Both are F1 drivers and are there to represent their teams."
http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/Vett ... 39100.html

[raymondu999]

No - I meant that I felt it's reading too much into it. This is one disagreement. There won't suddenly be negative emotions between the team and Seb because of that. The team has brought Seb 2 world titles in 3 years; and Seb has helped the team to 4 in 3 years (counting drivers' titles). The loving fuzzy feeling doesn't just go away because Seb wouldn't park his car one day.

Yeah pretty much agree with you, however if Seb has gone off on one and didn't park the car because he was still fuming over the Karthikeyan incident then I can understand the team being concerned and wanting words. Looking in from the outside we just don't know, but having a driver completely disregard what the team was saying would be cause for concern for any team principle.

Apparently he said on RTL (I think?) that he just felt it was wrong to not try for the flag. Nothing to do with the NK collision in particular.