quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
Poor Alonso, a career of being with the wrong team at the wrong time for the most part. He should have so many more notches on his gun.


...Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato (ex-F1 driver).

I'll just point out that Sato and Alonso were teammates on Michael's team

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
I wonder if Kimi will make his own decision on when to pit in the future?

Rock and a hard place yesterday. The Ferraris had a reasonable gap, backmarkers allowed the Merc and Red Bulls to close it. When Bottas pitted, Kimi/Ferrari had to respond. Post race Vettel said his tires had degraded mid-stint but came back at the time he needed them. A few quick laps and he jumped Kimi after his stop. Same for Ricciardo over Verstapen.

IIRC neither Ferrari had great stops, 3.1 to 3.4. Vettel came out with more than that to spare. A bitter post-race Lew suggested Ferrari "worked hard" to get Vettel in front. Just not the case, Hamilton looked unusually bad, even by his standards.

quote:

Originally posted by 9mmepiphany:
I'll just point out that Sato and Alonso were teammates on Michael's team

Good point, it's true. Right team, wrong time I guess. FA won his championships in an arguably lesser car, schooling Schumi in the better Ferrari. A doomed stint at Mclaren with hand-picked golden boy Lew, losing a WDC for Ferrari when they dropped the ball in the deciding last race.

Early mixed feelings about FA grew into total respect, particularly after how he handled Indy from start to finish. In the end his career numbers will not reflect his talent.

If Honda had a contender for LeMans, it would be awesome to see Nando take a shot at the Triple Crown of racing.

Maybe they can revived the Acura ARX-01 with updated tech...but I don't think Honda has any interest in developing a diesel engine

quote:

Maybe they can revived the Acura ARX-01 with updated tech...

I think it would need a little more than some TLC after being designed by Nick "I only need CFD to build a championship winning F1 car with no room for fuel" Wirth.

What a race. Shocked that all 20 made it through lap 1 without incident.
Shame for Button & lucky for the Sauber, definitely some confusion to come into shot with a car on its side.

KANAAN HITS BACK AT HAMILTON'S INDY JIBE

Jun.1 (GMM) An Indycar driver has hit back at Lewis Hamilton following recent comments made by the triple world champion.

As Fernando Alonso was tackling the Indy 500, Hamilton scoffed at how the Spaniard was able to be so competitive straight out of the box in qualifying.

"To see him fifth against drivers who are there all year is ... interesting," said the Briton.

Tony Kanaan, an Indycar champion and Indy 500 winner, hit back: "What can I say?

"The guy (Hamilton) competed in a two-car world championship last year and was second, so I don't think he can say much," the Brazilian is quoted by Globo.

Kanaan continued: "It was a pleasure to have Fernando here. He is humble, not like some of his colleagues who were making comments this month."

LINK

Ouch!
It would be interesting to put all the F-1 drivers in the same spec/brand car, even with the different levels of preparation provided by the teams, and see how they do.
Barrichello didn't do so well in Indycar, even though he was past his prime.

Wehrlein cleared for Canada:
http://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/40123766

quote:

Sauber driver Pascal Wehrlein has been cleared by doctors to race at next week's Canadian Grand Prix.

The 22-year-old German was hurt in a crash with Jenson Button in Monaco on Sunday, his car ending up on its side against the barriers with Wehrlein trapped inside.

He injured his back but has now had medical tests and is allowed to race.

"Checks all done, see you in Montreal," he tweeted.

"Great news! Medical checks done - ready for the #Canadian GP," added his team.

Button, the 2009 world champion, was making a one-off return to Formula 1 as a replacement for Fernando Alonso, who was taking part in the Indianapolis 500 race in the United States.

Wild race in Baku.
Looks like Lewis and Vettel ended up with almost identical handicaps for different reasons.
Now the gloves are off between a lot of drivers, some in the same teams.

Was that a Formula 1 or Nascar race?

Hamilton and Vettel are the two biggest whiners on the grid, so I have little sympathy for either.

I'm glad Stroll finally got a good result. Does anybody else think he lifted early giving second to Bottas? Maybe he didn't realize where the finish line was?

That is an exciting race to watch but that place IMHO is by far the most dangerous track on the schedule.

quote:

Originally posted by oilpatch29:

That is an exciting race to watch but that place IMHO is by far the most dangerous track on the schedule.

I remember watching practice last year thinking the race would be carnage. But no, a surprisingly clean outcome. This year, yikes! But yeah, entertaining start to finish.

I rather love the track, but I'm also a huge fan of Indycar Street Courses like Long Beach and Toronto.

I'm not sure I'd vote Stroll as driver of the day. Bottas went from a lap down to 2nd. That's just speechless.

Vettel and the Hamster are the biggest whiners on the track, but Vettel did cross the line when he pulled up next to Hamilton and steering straight into him. The chrome horn could be considered an accident. He gets caught off guard and damages his front wing. You don't drive up to a guy and try to ram him behind a safety car. The guy should have a grid penalty for the next race.

quote:

Originally posted by oilpatch29:
I'm glad Stroll finally got a good result. Does anybody else think he lifted early giving second to Bottas? Maybe he didn't realize where the finish line was?

I don't think he anticipated Bottas opening his DRS flap for the extra boost of speed to draft around him. Stroll was too far behind Ricardo to make use of DRS

The closing speed did look much higher than normal but maybe Stroll had a poor exit from the last turn.
They both had Mercedes engines and the two cars seemed to have similar top speed when racing earlier in the race.

Agreed that it did look like Bottas was moving at a significantly higher speed, near photo finish.
Amazing comeback to come from 20th & +1 lap to 2nd step on the podium.

Not sure WTF Seb was thinking, IMO he got lucky to only get a 10 sec stop/go. wouldn't be surprised to see an additional penalty for the next race.
Telemetry showed that Lewis did not brake check him, may have been ERS braking if he lifted at the same time that Seb was accelerating.

All in all, an entertaining race. Glad to see Smiley back on the top step & as a Bottas fan, glad to see him on the podium.

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
I remember watching practice last year thinking the race would be carnage. But no, a surprisingly clean outcome. This year, yikes!

I think the fact that the cars are about 8" wider this year made it a lot riskier.

As for Vettel' bump, he's as sick of Hamilton as anybody, no-doubt contributing to his angry response. I don't think I'd have penalized him if I was Race Stewart, since Hamilton's move looked intentional to me. Not to get rammed, but to put Vettel off his pace.

quote:

Originally posted by newtoSig765:


As for Vettel' bump, he's as sick of Hamilton as anybody, no-doubt contributing to his angry response. I don't think I'd have penalized him if I was Race Stewart, since Hamilton's move looked intentional to me. Not to get rammed, but to put Vettel off his pace.

Long discussion at the Autosports forum about this and Seb's the big loser there of course. But yeah, the telemetry seems to belie what clearly looks like Hammy slowing midway in a tight turn, Not a brake check but who slows exiting a corner? It sure looked like Lew Lew gamesmanship.

Not to defend Vettel's actions but at least he had the car control to bump wheels to wheels, least chance for damage. Whatever we think now, the rest of the season is now set up for some hard racing as needs be.

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
...Not to defend Vettel's actions but...

I will, then.

Vettel is there to race, to win races, to win the World Championship again. Not to put up with antics designed specifically to annoy. Hamilton has gotten away with his prima donna behavior for too long, and if it had been controlled by his team even as late as last year, this incident would never have happened. The team is babying him, even having to remind him at the beginning of each Q-2 that he's on his race tires, in order to keep him from destroying them.

Vettel's anger and actions were, to me, entirely justified.

quote:

Originally posted by newtoSig765:
I don't think I'd have penalized him if I was Race Stewart, since Hamilton's move looked intentional to me. Not to get rammed, but to put Vettel off his pace.

The Race Stewwards confirmed that Hammie did not Break Check, or even come completely off the gas, by examining the data feed from his car. They said his data showed that his driving was consistent through that corner for each restart behind the Safety Car.

Also remember that it is the prerogative of the leading driver to pace the pack and the responsibility of the following drivers to follow his lead