- 30 May 11, 19:21#258367Excuse me not reviewing all 40 pages of this thread before posting, but has anyone noted that Vettel won Monaco because his team bollocksed his first tyre change?
He was slated for options on his first stop but the RBR drivers had "talked over" each other on the radio so the pit crew failed to receive notice Vettel was inbound. Rather than waste more time sorting out the tyre selection, they simply slapped on the primes they had readied for Webber. You can see the pit crew had brought out a set of red lettered options for somebody but both drivers left the pits on primes. The options were left behind, unused. Under those circumstances, the done thing is to put the faster driver on the faster tyre so he can continue to take the fight to the other frontrunners, and to put the slower driver on the more durable tyre so he might take advantage of unexpected developments.
Also, I "ran the numbers" based on tyre life expectancy figures generated in free practice. Even if Vettel could have wrung 23 laps out of the options (as GP Update was stating), using 25 seconds as the "delta" time, there was no way a 2-stopper still wouldn't have been faster. I even considered that Vettel might have skipped Q3 and started the race in P10 on a fresh set of options and a 2-stopper still would have been faster. And Vettel made his first stop on Lap 17, not 23.
The obvious conclusion is that Vettel got the wrong set of tyres on his first stop. But McLaren aided the RBR cause when they sent out JB on another set of options on lap 34. Had he gone out on primes, he'd have been good to the regulation and might well have won. And without the Red Flag, only the third in the history of the race at Monaco, I consider it highly unlikely Vettel could have held off Alonso for a further nine laps (especially since Fernando was in the "throw caution to the wind" mode).
Everybody's favorite teammate is luck.
Hamilton got off light. After the Maldanado incident, he should have been penalised grid position in Canada. There is no regulation or tradition that the leading driver must "leave room" for a trailing driver. To the contrary, the leading driver's line is his to do with as he pleases (so long as he does not violate the "one move" blocking rule). To suggest Webber should have left Massa more room so Massa, in turn, could have left Hamilton more room is patently absurd. In the Maldanado incident, Hamilton could have averted contact either by overrunning more of the curb or by depressing the pedal on the left. Maldanado's actions could have prevented the accident but only Hamilton's actions caused it.
And if you think the FIA have finished with Hamilton's outburst, you are mistaken. He has accused the stewards of the the offense that must not be named. Laughingly or no, he opened the door and let in the racism rumour. Like accusing someone of paedophilia, even if found innocent, it is a charge the stench of which will never go away. He impugned the decision-making of race officials in the execution of their professional duties. And lest we forget, one of those stewards was Mark Blundell. Whether he realises it or not, Hamilton has entered into a game of brinkmanship with the FIA and the future of the sport might well hinge on how they respond.
Last edited by Fred_C_Dobbs on 30 May 11, 19:26, edited 1 time in total.
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