2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

[PlatinumZealot]

ZOMG!!! That was was... uggghh.. ermms..nearly soiled my brief. Was one of the greatest races in a Looooong while.. Maybe greatest dry race??

Were fights everywhere!

Just WOW!!

Kudos to all the drivers especially...

DA BAWZZ!!! Hands down the best fight was the two Merc drivers going at it but keeping it clean. I have never seen any driver defend Both DRS and Tyre advantage at the same time time and come out on top! I was gob-smacked!

=D> =D> =D> =D>

[markn93]

Nice and understated as always n smikle

[iotar__]

What's with all the blind hate towards Vettel? If you actually paid attention, Vettel (unlike a certain Spaniard) never blamed anyone but himself. He didn't do so in Australia when his bad qualifying was demonstrably down to the car, and he didn't do so in Bahrain, neither after quali nor after the race. It has always been the team that came out with the fact that his car wasn't working properly.

I can give you plenty of examples when he blamed everyone else but himself in clear situations. Starting with - "I made only one mistake in 2010", Button Spa. If it's about 2014 only - the same can be said about Alonso - it can't be about telling about problems because Vettel tends to amplify every technical glitch he has by making sure everyone hears about it immediately. Problem is with quantifying these problems into lap time. Anyway not much to discuss about Vettel in 2014.

Sky Sports delivers: "Lewis Hamilton says he wouldn't have been able to hang on to victory of the Bahrain GP - in what is being billed as the duel of the century - without the skills he learnt in karting as a youth."
Who said that, I want names. Even in this race alone Perez did better, it's not like the same team cars were overtaking each other easily and Ham prevented it in some unthinkable situation (leading from start to finish BTW). 24 seconds in 10 laps for Mercedes after pitstop .

[Emerson.F]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJvlNqKi1Uk

fast forward to 0:53.

Man i forgot how sick that battle between Kimi and lewis was on Spa. One of the best duels of the last ten years and Bahrain yesterday is right up there. Damn Hamilton been showing people how to overtake without DRS since 2008. =D>

[basti313]

And we should not miss 20.5:
20.5 Manoeuvres liable to hinder other drivers, such as deliberate crowding of a car beyond the edge of the track or any other abnormal change of direction, are not permitted.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 9722_n.jpg

This code brown move on Rosberg is just not covered by the rules and if it would not have been the team mate every driver on the grid would have been whining at Charly in the radio.

.....

so now taking the normal racing line is deliberately crowding your opponent off the track , is it ? or do you think it is an abnormal change of direction ?

Do you think Hamilton is on the racing line in the picture? He was clearly right of the normal line (on the inside) and with this angle towards the track he would have cut the following corner. Rosberg is more or less on the racing line in this picture.
Classical closing of the door...I do not know how we should discuss about that.

if that were the case there would be no motor racing !
if you try and overtake around the outside and cause a collision then you are culpable if the other driver keeps to the normal line

I am totally with you, that this is "normal" racing. But I am talking about the F1 rules and nothing else. And these are concerning safety and overtaking sometimes strange. But for me it does not make sense to talk about what I want F1 to be, but only to talk about how it is.

Come on...you can not judge wheel to wheel racing on the basis who is crossing the racing line at the moment...
For me the rule is clear:
You are allowed to shut the door only before any piece of your opponent's car is next to you.

I think the main problem here would be that drivers have a very limited and narrow view of the track. Coming up on either side, either outside or inside is always problematic, because you are putting yourself in a vulnerable place. For this reason alone, I think the onus is on the driver attempting the overtake, because by definition, he has the better view and sees what the other car is doing.

I agree with you, but the rules do not. You remember this crazy pass of Massa against Senna in Singapur 2012? This is how the rules are and this is how Hamilton/Rosberg would have looked like if there would have been a wall.

Can a driver coming from behind, being on the outside into a corner expect the other driver to leave a car's width on corner exit? IMO - it depends, on how far alongside the car is.
If he is alongside enough to "make his mark", the other car, by definition will drive into his side if he attempts to close the door. If he isn't far enough inside and theoretically in his blind side, I don't think the responsibility is on the defending driver to leave room, but on the attacking driver to assess the situation, the closing gap and opt out of the manoeuver.

Yes. And Rosberg was clearly "alongside" as he had to steer off the track in several occasions.

To continue on your path then is futile, as you are 1.) in the blindspot and

Do you think Ham did not know where Rosberg was? I strongly doubt that.

2.) in a closing gap. Lewis vector was consistent - he didn't make any swerves outside, but simply took his line and was committed to the corner.

This again would be rather how I want racing to be, but this is not covered by the rules. They do not allow to simply take your line, but clearly say that there has to be room for the opponent next to you. With a wall or gravel this would look much different.
And for me it is very, very strange, that the rule that was introduced because of Bahrain, the rule that penalized Vettel in Monza 2012 or allowed Massa to hit Senna in Singapur 2012 now is completely invalid for Bahrain.

[dans79]

I find this entire conversation amusing. Turns 4 through 7 routinely sees cars being pushed off track, it's been that way for several years. As far as I'm aware no drivers have been penalized for it, so they are going to keep doing it end of story....

[Juzh]

I find this entire conversation amusing. Turns 4 through 7 routinely sees cars being pushed off track, it's been that way for several years. As far as I'm aware no drivers have been penalized for it, so they are going to keep doing it end of story....

Pretty much this. It's a non issue.

[FoxHound]

The thrill before the safety car was not about who is going to win, but who is going to be best of the rest. Its only after the safety car that both merc got a chance to race one another.

Again I disagree with this assessment. Hamilton said himself he required a gap of 11 seconds and had 9.5.
Rosberg and Hamilton where not on the same strategy. There was a race between the 2 that was masked by the strategic difference.
And if that aint good enough, have it from the horses mouth....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXFCbz1WlgI[/youtube]

[CHT]

The thrill before the safety car was not about who is going to win, but who is going to be best of the rest. Its only after the safety car that both merc got a chance to race one another.

Again I disagree with this assessment. Hamilton said himself he required a gap of 11 seconds and had 9.5.
Rosberg and Hamilton where not on the same strategy. There was a race between the 2 that was masked by the strategic difference.
And if that aint good enough, have it from the horses mouth....

I am fully aware they are running different strategy after the first pit stop. Rosberg was on medium tyres and his plan close in on LH after the 2nd pit stop with the soft tyres.

In order for Rosberg strategy to work, Rosberg doesnt just need to stay close to LH, he also need LH to pit for the medium early so that rosberg will have sufficient race distant to close in on LH. And IIRC, LH was able to maintain the 9 overs sec gap on the soft right till the SC in lap 40, which mean every extra lap LH does on the soft tyres, Rosberg will have one less lap to close the gap.

Anyway what I was saying is that prior to SC, Merc cars were hardly seen on screen because there is really nothing much that is going on right at the front.

[Ganxxta]

One gripe I had with this race (besides Ferraris lack of any speed ), the safety car phase was WAY too long.

I mean after they cleared the car it should be already good to go, count +1 lap for warming tires or whatever.
But they first removed the car, then they waited until everybody was really in the queue, then they waited again until lapped cars passed the SC, then they waited until the lapped cars were almost again at the end of the queue...

I don't like this driving behind the SC at all for no reason

Who had the idea of this "lapped cars may overtake" anyway?
Why not move lapped cars to the back of the grid, would be way faster...

[henra]

Life isn't fair....
If Nico wants to be world champion, he needs to come to grasps with the fact that he is going to have to take it from Lewis. Lewis isn't going to say you're ahead on points, you first Sir.

Absolutely!
If you want to become WDC you need to win against your Team Mate first.
Rosberg was not assertive and aggressive enough in his efforts and he was not creative in creating an opportunity. He always tried it in the same way in the same Locations. That was way to predictable. If you want to be Champion you need to be much more clever than that. He will kick himself in the butt (hopefully) when re-watching it on video.
Even though overtaking still isn't exactly easy if your car is below 0,5s faster than the other one it is that tiny amount of aggresiveness and creativity that creates the opportunity which makes the difference.
Hamilton's defensive maneuvers were indeed aggresive but definitely not overly. Alonso or Vettel wouldn't have been very much less aggressive in the same situation and have demonstrated that by crashing rather than conceding.

It was great to see this battle and I hope Rosberg can keep up with Hamilton over the season, because otherwise it might become boring quickly. But he needs to make his stance clear on track. Even if it costs a wheel. And he needs to be more clever than what he displayed today. He seemed to be a bit in WDC conservation mode but for that it's way too early.

Re the Overall Situation: Deeply worrying regarding every car which has a Ferrari or Renault Engine on board. There doesn't seem to be too much of a difference in performance between the two latter PU's atm. They are collectively lacking >>1s on the Merc powered cars (bar possibly McLaren, no idea how they messed it up) when comparing the relative Performance to the previous years. The FI and Williams Chassis are probably where they were last year, (Williams probably improved a bit) the difference now being the PU.
Even though this track seesm to be tailored to the Mercs and Vettel's RB possibly had some minor issues the overall picture became worryingly clear in the last 10 laps.

[mikeerfol]

One gripe I had with this race (besides Ferraris lack of any speed ), the safety car phase was WAY too long.

I mean after they cleared the car it should be already good to go, count +1 lap for warming tires or whatever.
But they first removed the car, then they waited until everybody was really in the queue, then they waited again until lapped cars passed the SC, then they waited until the lapped cars were almost again at the end of the queue...

I don't like this driving behind the SC at all for no reason

Who had the idea of this "lapped cars may overtake" anyway?
Why not move lapped cars to the back of the grid, would be way faster...

+1

[henra]

I mean after they cleared the car it should be already good to go, count +1 lap for warming tires or whatever.
But they first removed the car, then they waited until everybody was really in the queue, then they waited again until lapped cars passed the SC, then they waited until the lapped cars were almost again at the end of the queue...

I agree with your un-happiness about this.

It's the Price we pay for Bernie's improving the Show by trying to get the direct competitors closer together with the aid of the SC. Personally I'm not a fan of these artificial ways of trying to increase the thrill.
And indeed this often makes the SC phases much longer than otherwise needed.
They should just go back to leaving every car in the queue where it is. Stupid Change.

[hollus]

The Ham vs Ros fight was the most exciting fight since Villeneuve vs Arnoux. Classic.

This was way better! I was thinking about Villeneuve vs. Arnoux before, allegedly the best bit of racing ever seen in F1. But that was between a car that was a beast in the straights and a dog in corners against a car that was the exact opposite, allowing for the obvious I pass you on power, you pass me on handling. It was only in a few corners, the highlight reel cuts make it look better and more constant than it was. And they only stayed together because in a couple of occasions the car passing went way too far, into the grass, and back to the track minus a lot of speed.
Yesterday we had two cars going at each other for an entire lap, in each straight, in each corner, never more than a meter ahead or behind (or to the side!), never off the tarmac... and it was a true man vs. man fight, as the two cars had almost identical handling characteristics.

Being objective, I think this was way better!

[turbof1]

Admittingly, this battle couldn't have happened without DRS. It's one of the rare occasions were DRS actually made racing better.