2016 German Grand Prix - Hockenheim, 29-31 July

[Wynters]

Great drive for Ricciardo. Good drive from Verstappen too, who was very opportunistic at the start and has shown he can follow team orders. It looks to be clear that, if the Red Bulls get in front, over taking is going to be very difficult for the Mercs.

Vettel vs team. Interesting. It's easy to read a lot into Allison leaving (another one of the group who lured Vettel from Red Bull), scrappy weekend, arguing over strategy but, really, I think Vettel just had a better grasp of how hard he was/wasn't pushing and the life of the tyres. He'll have known he wasn't going to make up ten seconds on Verstappen. Worth keeping an eye on the situation though.

Ferrari. Still in the top 3 pack but being dropped fast. Poor effort.

Hamilton. Reasonable start (for a Merc), solid drive. No errors.

Rosberg. Poor start, looked like Driver error. Mercs are weak starters anyway but he exacerbated it. Desperate attempt on Verstappen to try and overtake during such a diminishing window. Same as Austria and Silverstone (Vettel/Massa). Agree or disagree with the idea that you don't need to leave space on the way into the corner, at least the stewards are being consistent. No pace in the last stint either. Rosberg made no real attempt to close down the Red Bulls or, if he did, couldn't even dent their lead whilst they were negotating traffic.

Mercedes. Need to sort their starts. Need to sort their strategy calls (switching Hamilton so late into his stint cost their driver bags of time, again). Perhaps checking the timing equipment before Nico comes in to serve his penalty would be useful too. Plenty for Merc to work on over the break.

Good work from Force India and McHonda. Should be a good midfield battle to the end of the season.

Do we know for sure which teams have entirely switched focus to 2017?

[Restomaniac]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_sMZG0MLcc
You have to leave the space!!

Now who could Alonso be talking about?

That driver pulled that trick twice that day as well.

[PlatinumZealot]

Rosberg was at his same old clumsy self again. His own worst enemy. What an awkward way of taking the turn. The onus was on him as the attacker to get his braking point and turn right! Whether or not Max turned in too early you can't plan to run straight on as if he was noy there. Up till now Nico doesn't understand that it is just wrong to do this at the apex; at least try to make it look unintentional if ur going to break the rules.

[komninosm]

Rosberg was probably pissed at VES for blocking under braking.

I have to say that while ROS deserved a penalty by the rules, VES is using dirty defending like Schumcher race in race out and has to also get a penalty some day...

Rosberg was just clumbsy, Austria like ....

Verstappen, dirty?

Why do you think that?

He left miles of space for Rosberg, something Rosberg did not do for Verstappen ....

As I said in the chat, Ves makes a small move towards the inside in the breaking zone, before then taking the actual turn. It's blocking during breaking to spook the other driver. It shouldn't be allowed imo. I'm no Rosberg fan or Vers hater btw.

[Restomaniac]

Rosberg was at his same old clumsy self again. His own worst enemy. What an awkward way of taking the turn. The onus was on him as the attacker to get his braking point and turn right! Whether or not Max turned in too early you can't plan to run straight on as if he was noy there. Up till now Nico doesn't understand that it is just wrong to do this at the apex; at least try to make it look unintentional if ur going to break the rules.

And Rosbergs problem is that he now probably going to get a reputation for doing it. So he had better keep his nose clean from now on in 2016.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

See how idiotic Nico is here. He doesn't bother about turning the steering.

[sosic2121]

Rosberg was at his same old clumsy self again. His own worst enemy. What an awkward way of taking the turn. The onus was on him as the attacker to get his braking point and turn right! Whether or not Max turned in too early you can't plan to run straight on as if he was noy there. Up till now Nico doesn't understand that it is just wrong to do this at the apex; at least try to make it look unintentional if ur going to break the rules.

So what exactly is the rule?
Only, if you clip apex you can push other car of the track. We have seen that so many times.
Or it's perfectly fine to divebomb if other guy is smart enough to move out of way(like Vettel was in Spain when Ric divebombed)?
It's illegal to to overtake off the track unless it's max on ric?

Don't get me wrong, I'm strictly against pushing off the track!
But this is getting discriminatory.

[RZS10]

I think if you want to be really, really strict it might be covered by 27.5 "At no time may a car be driven [...] erratically" ... the other driver believes you'd go for the apex or use the space on the inside and will eventually turn in (as Lewis did in Austria) ... they don't expect you to continue going straight.

But the move itself seems to be legal if you're able to pull it off in a way that will leave one car width on the outside line.

[Wynters]

So what exactly is the rule?

It appears to be:- Leave space for the outside car until you are past the apex.
If the other guy yields then you won't force him off the track, so no penalty. If you give him the choice of yielding or you taking a penalty, that's your call.
Overtaking off the track isn't relevant to this.

[Sevach]

The level of degradation and and performance balancing of the tires in Hockenheim was perfect imo, shame it doesn't happen often, one tire lasting forever is too common these days.

The rules regarding the kind of forcefull driving that Rosberg did on Verstappen needs to be cleared up imo, personally i'm not onboard with any kind of moves like that but it's too arbitrary on when and where it's cool to force somebody out(it should be nowhere).

[Phil]

How so? He did it in Austria and was punished. He then did it again here and... guess what, he was penalized again. Cant be more straight forward and consistent.

[GrizzleBoy]

Rosberg was at his same old clumsy self again. His own worst enemy. What an awkward way of taking the turn. The onus was on him as the attacker to get his braking point and turn right! Whether or not Max turned in too early you can't plan to run straight on as if he was noy there. Up till now Nico doesn't understand that it is just wrong to do this at the apex; at least try to make it look unintentional if ur going to break the rules.

So what exactly is the rule?
Only, if you clip apex you can push other car of the track. We have seen that so many times.
Or it's perfectly fine to divebomb if other guy is smart enough to move out of way(like Vettel was in Spain when Ric divebombed)?
It's illegal to to overtake off the track unless it's max on ric?

Don't get me wrong, I'm strictly against pushing off the track!
But this is getting discriminatory.

You are allowed to take the racing line through the corner and squeeze on corner exit. But you actually have to drive through the corner. That's what Nico keeps failing at.

Divebombing straight up the inside across the path of another car is video game level driving. It has never been a respected or accepted attacking strategy.

Nico did it in Austria and got a slap on the wrist that had no real consequence. After essentially receiving a warning, Nico did the same again and was actually punished this time.

[Sevach]

How so? He did it in Austria and was punished. He then did it again here and... guess what, he was penalized again. Cant be more straight forward and consistent.

Hamilton pushes him out in Japan and it's cool because... corner exit apparently.

[Manjhi]

Both Williams and FIs setting the same time in q3.
Is it fair to say FI is better with tires?

I thought Williams will be ahead of FIs inn qualis but they were almost equal, pace wise I think both are same but FI looks after its tyre very well.

Mid-Field :
- Williams took a bad decision of keeping bottas for 2 stop. 3 stop always looked faster option here.
-Amazing undercut by Force India on 1st stop with Hulk.
-Amazing race by Perez, he lost 7 positions and then came back in points, simply amazing.
-Guttierrez, a big mistake at the start otherwise could have scored his 1st point of the season.
Top Teams :
-Red-Bull, you are our only hope for a good season now. Hoping a lot of improvement after the summer break.
-Merecedes, Hamilton Amazing, Rosberg Disappointing.
-Ferrari-> Pathetic team, with this resources Force India could have dominated Mercedes, I can't believe this team gets 80$ million from F1 just for staying in the sports. . I don't think F1 needs this Ferrari team anymore.

[ESPImperium]

I don't know the difference between Hamilton at turn 1 Montreal with Rosberg and Rosberg and Verstappen today. Zero consistency. If you force someone wide and off the track, a penalty needs to be applied. Also the danger of Verstappen and changing direction under breaking, this needs to stop now.

It appears that the stewards were being consistent with GP2 of the past two days, that is a good thing to bring driving standards across the lower formula up, but whilst that is going on F1 is now driving its driving standards down and allowing certain drivers to be racers and others there to make the numbers up.

Consistency and the regulation of 'subjective' matter to make it more 'objective' needs to happen. Allow them to race, allow them to force someone off the road if the driver thinks the driver they are passing as dangerous, but the driver that has been forced off also needs to be wary of re-entering the track in a safe manner. Im pissed off that too many races are being ruined with too many stewards decisions, and a few drivers are also driving in such a way to manipulate the rules and stewards decisions and better their championship or race needs.