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| Lewis Hamilton was happy |
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| Nico, not happy |
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| Lewis growing a mohawk? |
Not much in the way of hugs after this one, perhaps Nico heard those interviews where Hamilton pointed out how he used to wipe the floor with Nico back in their karting days.
Score one more for Hammy. If he does not win the world championship this year, with that car, he may as well grow a mohawk...
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| Cruel, cruel internets! |
Two aspects to consider. Vettel is not feeling the RB10, the RB6 through 9 were pretty much built around him and around his driving style and needs but with the new regulations this could not be done, cars are too different and Ricciardo, coming in as a blank slate of sorts is driving what they give him, happily without getting hung up on whatever it is that Seb is missing to do his thing.
The other is the team showing him zero respect. Once gain he got the Felipe Massa treatment. This would never have happened in previous years so, despite all the the kumbaya comments after the race, either being a four time world champion means little at Red Bull or perhaps Marko and company know Vettel has a signed contract tucked in his pocket?
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| Alonso made Mattiacci's day |
Hamilton may have been faultless but let's face it, Chilton could score points in the Mercedes. The star of the race has to be Alonso. Another wicked start and first lap, a bit of luck surviving Massa's sideswipe (Massa's "he crashed me" will go down in the annals of silly F1 driver whines). He chased down Vettel and then pounded around fast enough to finish third, after the week Ferrari has had? Badass.
Poor Stefano Domenicali must wonder, what is Montezemolo had showed up in China rather than Bahrain? The pace is still not there to take it to Mercedes but, if Ferrari had set the goal of being the next fastest, that they accomplished. Not bad for a team already written off by most of the press. I bet Ron Dennis is wishing he had a team principal ready to do what Domenicali did.The only sour note for the Scuderia was Raikkonen, like Vettel, it seems he's not getting the new cars fully yet.
Next stop, Spain.
The Merc may be the best car but you still have to deliver at the right time and that is what Hamilton is doing at the moment and Rosberg is not. Although Rosberg got fastest laps, etc Hamilton seems to be hooking up with car really well. He was the only person without tyre issues and really good fuel consumption, he was driving well within his capabilities. Will be interesting to see how the season pans out, especially if it is like Button in '09 where things started to go wrong and the other teams got some advantage back.
ReplyDeleteNico is gonna have a frustrating season. He's the new Mark Webber, minus the cool macho beard growth and the Cougar/MILF complex. As the season transpires Nico will provide the occasional surprise, but Lewis has constancy on his side. Lewis should be able to handle him pretty easily. I thought Lewis was insane for leaving McLaren, but he's proved me wrong. Talk about timing. His move to Merc is proving to be one of the best team moves in F1 history. I'm surprised at how Kimi has really been a non-issue this year. He must really be struggling. He needs to get back to doing more hot-tubbin' and ice-cream eating and rethink his approach to the game. And regarding Seb, I'm a big Seb fan, but Seb really needs to turn it around. If Ricky keeps out-qualifying him and out-racing him his leverage within the team could seriously tank. I give Seb till Germany to turn it around, otherwise Ricky is gonna take priority at RBR. How many four time world champs are told to move over? If Ricky is this much better than Seb and Seb was that much better than Mark Webber then I bet the guys in Stuttgart are scratching their heads.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I bet it raised the engineer's eyebrows when he came in for his first pit with the comment of "The tires still feel great, even the rears."
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much closer Ricciardo would have been to Alonso or had a chance to challenge for P3 if he hadn't been held up by Vettel?
ReplyDeleteNo real surprise this race was boring. The reason everyone was so competitive in Bahrain is because a lot of pre-season testing was done there. It may pick up in Europe but I doubt it....
ReplyDeleteI think it may be time for a new Kimi shirt. One with his Ferrari set up as a chicane while the other cars drive around him...
ReplyDeleteBlue flags for everyone. Yea!!!
ReplyDeleteRed & White colors for both.
ReplyDeleteLegit.
Vettel had an engine failure in Australia, and has had constant energy recovery systems failures every race so far. Daniel has has only one failure, the fuel flow sensor. There's no reason to write off Vettel yet, and it makes sense to allow the guy with the car that doesn't frequently and spontaneously fail try and get the most points. It's not a lack of respect towards him, it's the right thing to do. Vettel was right to not let Daniel past at that point in the race, they were both on the same tire and at a similar pace. In Bahrain it was completely different and Seb did the sensible thing and let him through. Vettel is not down and out yet.
ReplyDeleteI think you're forgetting Daniel's unsafe pit release in Malaysia, costing him time, a stop and go, followed by a puncture, front wing failure, and a 10 place grid penalty for Bahrain... Not exactly the best luck either.
ReplyDeleteI'm not forgetting anything. I'm just saying that Vettel has had multiple car failures and at multiple times in all three races this season. He has been on the back foot so far this season and up until Daniel had that pit stop problem he didn't have an actual performance penalizing car problem. They are both doing very well considering, and Vettel has had more issues so far than Daniel has, it makes perfect sense to let the driver that's had better luck so far try to get as close to the front as is possible. I would fight being told to move over twice in two races too, especially when they are running a similar pace on the same tire. There was no data proving that Daniel would finish ahead of him so he argued. As any 4xWDC should. I hope to see them fight it out all season and I don't rate one higher than the other. It's just nice to see Seb get some competition and put up a fight against it, he's been on cruise control most of the last four seasons.
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