2015 Monaco Grand Prix - 21-24 May

[atanatizante]

IMHO, Lewis lost the race both on his pit stop under the SC when they did at least a 4 sec. stop and afterwards not speeding on the way out probably hadn't been warned by the team and that's the second fault by them ...
And the second reason is his judgement coz you can't be relying entirely on your team and not on yourself when you have 15 or so laps to go and your tyres were fine and there is almost impossible to pass on this track ...

[zeph]

Ham will win comfortably in Canada...one of his best tracks

That's what we thought last year as well...

[Phil]

How idiotic Nico was looking there, celebrating a win that he fully know he didn't earned. I remember when Barrichello left the race win to Michael, Michael was far more gracious. May be that's the difference between great drivers and cheap ones.

I think that is an unfair comparison. In case of Barrichello, Ferrari asked him to let Michael pass while here it was a bad call by the team.

I'd agree with that IF each driver had their own strategist. In this case though, it is one, or a singular entity that decides for both. Isnt much different than team orders, except that in this case it was an obvious **** up, but with the same or worse outcome (Ham being 3rd, instead of 2nd)...

I wonder how this might spice up the championship. Last year, i feel Hamilton would have delt better with Monaco if he didnt have the feeling Rosberg caused that yellow on purpose. This year, he wont be leaving feeling better, after utterly dominating the race and then being stuffed over by a stupid team decision, that not only cost him one of the most prestigious wins, but also 17 points vs his closest and probably onle WDC rival...

[ChrisM40]

How can he even catch SC when he pit and safety car is beyond pits?
WTH? The lie doesn't even make sense.

This thread will get locked soon, because it was so obvious what happened (politics demanded Rosberg win the local of Monaco) and people will vent and mods will lock.
Disgusting Race year after year. Remove ASAP.
THE END

Lewis lives in Monaco as well, how is Nico 'the local'?

He got the wrong reason, but if I can don my tinfoil hat: I wouldn't be surprised if this call came from higher up, simply to stop HAM from securing the title by Hungary.

IF I was putting a foil hat on I'd say that by doing what they did Nico got an extra 4 points breathing space over Vettel..

[jknights]

OK I really dont understand the timings here.


I thought that under the VSC (deployed immediately after the accident) there were delta speed changes which are meant to be equivalent to a real safety car being immediately on track.
If Hamilton had a 25 sec lead at that point and then the real SC is deployed and he comes into the pits surely he will come out ahead of the SC, even with a slow pit stop. Lap times under SC are >1min:18sec:000.
This implies to me that Vettel & Rosberg were traveling too fast under VSC conditions. Surely a DQ or time penalty event!!

I must be missing something or am I?
Any explanations?.

[Jordan44]

Ham will win comfortably in Canada...one of his best tracks

That's what we thought last year as well...

Lewis was well on his way to winning in Canada before the brake failure. He got the undercut sorted. Plus he seems to be better in qualifying this year so far. I really hope for the sake of his confidence he wins in Canada. This is just dreadful.

[henra]

At this track you simply cant be overtaken if your car has good traction.

Counter evidence is Daniel Ricciardo who overtook his Team mate (so even no car Advantage) and then Kimi (albeit in a somewhat unfair manner - would have warranted a similar Penalty to Fernando) within 2 laps after the restart.

Yes in hindsight it was a gross mistake. But hindisght is always 20/20.

[komninosm]

How idiotic Nico was looking there, celebrating a win that he fully know he didn't earned. I remember when Barrichello left the race win to Michael, Michael was far more gracious. May be that's the difference between great drivers and cheap ones.

Yeah completely agree.
I remember that Schumacher tried to push him on the podium to first place spot, and there was some sort of complaint later on about how that looked damaging to F1. It didn't. I hated Ferrari and Schumacher, but I respect him for that one incident.

[kaepernickus]

At this track you simply cant be overtaken if your car has good traction.

Counter evidence is Daniel Ricciardo who overtook his Team mate (so even no car Advantage) and then Kimi (albeit in a somewhat unfair manner - would have warranted a similar Penalty to Fernando) within 2 laps after the restart.

Yes in hindsight it was a gross mistake. But hindisght is always 20/20.

Kvyat let Ricciardo pass (on team order) and got his position back before the end of the race, because Ricciardo couldn't pass anyone ahead.

[rifrafs2kees]

At this track you simply cant be overtaken if your car has good traction.

Counter evidence is Daniel Ricciardo who overtook his Team mate (so even no car Advantage) and then Kimi (albeit in a somewhat unfair manner - would have warranted a similar Penalty to Fernando) within 2 laps after the restart.

Yes in hindsight it was a gross mistake. But hindisght is always 20/20.

It was a team decision to let him pass. You'll make your case no matter what

[Bomber_Pilot]

Should they have called Lewis into the pits? In hindsight no. But it was a yes/no split second decision. They just miscalculated the time needed for Rosberg and Vettel to overtake Lewis under the safety car speeds.

And some rants from me - I generaly like them, but lately they just pi** me off. These idi*** at Sky keep going on how could Merc have made such an error in how much time they need for a pit stop, since they have done it already a thousand times this weekend, without even considering, that under the safety car, you don't loose that much time, especially here, with such a short pitlane. If the safety car hadn't been waiting for Lewis at Rascasse, it would have been enough and Ted, Martin, Johnny, Damon and Crofty would all be jumping in the air, claiming how brilliant Merc strategy was in eliminating any concerns about tyre longevity/damage...

[zeph]

Aside from Mercedes brain melt (and I think someone should be fired), I guess a cautious congratulations is in order for McLaren. Alonso out, but at least Button got points for the team. Finally.

[SectorOne]

At this track you simply cant be overtaken if your car has good traction.

Counter evidence is Daniel Ricciardo who overtook his Team mate (so even no car Advantage) and then Kimi (albeit in a somewhat unfair manner - would have warranted a similar Penalty to Fernando) within 2 laps after the restart.

Yes in hindsight it was a gross mistake. But hindisght is always 20/20.

Kvyat let Ricciardo pass (on team order) and got his position back before the end of the race, because Ricciardo couldn't pass anyone ahead.

And Raikkonen had a massive oversteer moment enabling Ricciardo to dive on the inside (and luckily kept the car in one piece)

The weird thing is the safety car. They had virtual safety car for about 10 seconds then changed to a safety car.
I haven´t seen any explanation why they would switch to a safety car.

[Phil]

Should they have called Lewis into the pits? In hindsight no. But it was a yes/no split second decision. They just miscalculated the time needed for Rosberg and Vettel to overtake Lewis under the safety car speeds.

Ehm. A 20 second gap is a 20 second gap, irregardless if they are driving 10kmh, 100kmh or 200kmh.

And about catching the safety car: he was driving to a delta. If he had driven slower, the gap to those behind would simply have decreased earlier as they were all driving to the (virtual) safety car delta. It was mindbogling stupidity, pure and simple.

[iotar__]

How idiotic Nico was looking there, celebrating a win that he fully know he didn't earned. I remember when Barrichello left the race win to Michael, Michael was far more gracious. May be that's the difference between great drivers and cheap ones.

1. This was completely different situation, comparable one is in case you forgot Canada 2014 and Rosberg losing the lead through pitstops, did Hamilton give it back? These things happen. Do you think anyone was fired then? Was anyone fired for Hungary '14 strategy? 2. Schumacher = meaningless dishonest graciousness, did he give the points and win back? As for Hamilton and your selective driver standards: was he celebrating Silverstone win last season, did he look idiotic and cheap to you then? Perhaps you should use more restrain in calling drivers you don't like names?

I think luck more or less equalised itself, Rosberg lost the second place in Bahrain through brake failure, strategy and Ferrari pace, Hamilton was a bit lucky in Barcelona that Ferrari were at their weakest. He deserved this win as Rosberg deserved one in Silverstone. If it's about Monaco don't forget 2008. If it's about bad strategy: Barcelona '14 (edit) and Hungary.

Ricciardo on Raikkonen wasn't an overtake - it was a foul and it should be penalised. Edit: FIA didn't give anything of course, I'd be surprised if they got something right for a change, one sided causing of collision and bumping other driver was the only way of making this overtake, I'm stressing: the only way, not through skills but forcing other driver off in the corner. That's not proper racing.