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[smokin]

Not necessarily sure the race outcome would have been any different had lewis gotten 4th or 5th on the grid instead. Yeah, I didn't like seeing him bringing up the rear in Q3, but it wasn't like he was magically going to be fighting for a Silverstone win given this weekend's overrun regulations goings on.

Yes, 4th or 10th they were still going to short fuel him to give him a chance to stay with the leaders.

[racechick]

Not necessarily sure the race outcome would have been any different had lewis gotten 4th or 5th on the grid instead. Yeah, I didn't like seeing him bringing up the rear in Q3, but it wasn't like he was magically going to be fighting for a Silverstone win given this weekend's overrun regulations goings on.

No but during the race at one point when he was lying 2nd , for a moment it looked possible...and then the petrol!!!

[Hammer278]

I thought the petrol alarm sounded after all the pistops, when Lewis was around 10 seconds ahead of Massa?

From my crappy Star Sports broadcast with below average commentators, it seemed to be 10-12 laps from the end. Which is why I was surprised during Lewis' interview he said 21 laps from the end?

[acosmichippo]

just throwing this out there, it may be completely unfounded.

MAYBE underfueling Lewis' car is what allowed him to cut through the field so effectively early in the race. Suppose they did give him more fuel, maybe he could have fought longer, but he wouldn't have been able to gain positions so quickly. Lately Jenson and Lewis have both publicly criticized McLaren for not taking chances when there's little to lose and much to gain. So why not try to put as little fuel in as possible? Especially when they KNEW their pace was severely diminished by the reg changes.

[spankyham]

I'm not convinced McLaren made a mistake, or that they under fueled Lewis's car. From what I remember (will be watching the race again later this evening) Lewis had some blisteringly fast series of laps early on in the race. He passed a lot of cars early on. I suspect he was running peak mix to get max performance. He probably knew then he was using fuel too fast, but, had there been more rain, or one SC period of a few laps, then his fuel problem would have gone away and it would have been a great strategy.

I actually think Nando did exactly the opposite. He knows Seb turns the wick up to the max for the first few laps, he was banking on staying in touch, conserve fuel and tyres, and reap the reward later in the race. Interestingly I these two were clearly the best performers in the race.... which leads me to think ....... wouldn't it be nice to see them as teammates one more time .......

[Denthúl]

just throwing this out there, it may be completely unfounded.

MAYBE underfueling Lewis' car is what allowed him to cut through the field so effectively early in the race. Suppose they did give him more fuel, maybe he could have fought longer, but he wouldn't have been able to gain positions so quickly. Lately Jenson and Lewis have both publicly criticized McLaren for not taking chances when there's little to lose and much to gain. So why not try to put as little fuel in as possible? Especially when they KNEW their pace was been severely diminished by the reg changes.

It's possible. They fuelled the car based on the data they had available regarding their pace and where they expected to be in terms of traffic. Since their pace didn't look good, they had to fuel not only to take that in to account, but to ensure that they didn't make it more likely to finish out of the points, too.

It's not the first time we've seen it; Rosberg in China is an unfortunate example of this, on the one hand you could argue that he would have won if Mercedes had fuelled the car a bit more, on the other you could say the extra fuel would have slowed his pace enough to remove that opportunity. Just how things go, I guess.

[What's Burning?]

I thought the petrol alarm sounded after all the pistops, when Lewis was around 10 seconds ahead of Massa?

From my crappy Star Sports broadcast with below average commentators, it seemed to be 10-12 laps from the end. Which is why I was surprised during Lewis' interview he said 21 laps from the end?

He's numerically dyslexic.

[acosmichippo]

also, there's no way to know when the team radio clips aired on TV are actually put through to the driver. He could have gotten the alarm with 21 left, while being aired with 10-12 laps left. It would make sense to give a bit of a buffer so that their situation wouldn't be leaked to the other teams as quickly.

[Blinky McSquinty]

Just a casual examination of the points standings, for both drivers and teams indicate that Red Bull, and Vettel are already running away with all the trophies. It's just half-way through the calender, yet the WDC and WCC appear out of reach for everyone else.

So how can you catch them? If you just follow, play the conservative pit strategy most of the field employs, you will find it almost impossible to make up ground.

And the truth is that it's desperation time, playing it safe and sound won't work for this situation. So alternate strategies have to be considered. Try something, anything because safe and sound doesn't make up ground.

Each McLaren driver has one win in 2011, both as a result of them adopting alternate strategies. Back when Hamilton won China, he was actually boasting that he had managed to save one set of softs. And he parlayed that advantage into a win. At Montreal, Button quickly switched strategies, made many pit stops, and with the help of a lot of luck and determination, won. If the driver had followed what everyone else was doing, they would not have won.

And even Monaco for Hamilton. He attempted a risky strategy during qualifying, and unfortunately luck turned her back on him. But if things had worked out as hoped for Hamilton, he would have started the race with one more set of softs than his competitors. Hmm, sounds like what happened in China, where he won.

And now the criticism falls at Silverstone, and I honestly question what the fans are thinking.

During qualifying Hamilton flopped, and wound up tenth. OK, so now what, do we just folloow the pack, or try something away from the beaten path? The car was short on fuel, but that offered an advantage of being quicker than the rest. But obviously, sometimes during the race Hamilton had to save fuel, drive a portion of the race with control and fuel savings in mind. In other words, the team set the strategy, the driver had to execute. But in the end, for whatever reason, he didn't and had to severely drop pace in order to save fuel. Additionally, his attempts to stay with Vettel resulted in him pitting sooner than expeced, resulting in worn tires. He knew that on the closing laps, his tires were going to be junk.

But at the start, Hamilton made a great start, and captivated and thrilled his fans by doing what he does best. I wonder just how many fans were questioning McLaren strategy at that moment. Let's see, jury is in, polls reveal that not one Hamilton fan felt at that moment that the strategy was incorrect. Not while Lewis was carving up through the field and in third. Only when things go sour do some of his fans suddenly challenge strategy.

[racechick]

No point carving through the field then running out of petrol. Dont think any fans would go for that one. Lewis is ace at a wet silverstone and in the wet was when he made most of his overtakes.
And he didnt flop in quali, he was sent out on worn tyres when a rain shower was due.
Of course they will try for optimum strategies, especially when trying to beat faster cars but there are limits....

[acosmichippo]

No point carving through the field then running out of petrol.

why not? It would get you track position and allow the opportunity to hold that position by aggressive defense. Rather than trying to overtake everyone in an inherently slower car of equal weight.

[racechick]

No point carving through the field then running out of petrol.

why not? It would get you track position and allow the opportunity to hold that position by aggressive defense. Rather than trying to overtake everyone in an inherently slower car of equal weight.

I said running out of petrol. You stop on the track then and dont finish the race, at one point they were talking about that. Its a fine balancing act and one I think mclaren were the wrong side of. I think they expected the damp to slow things down more than they did and misscalculated the fuel based on that.

[FRAFPDD]

Just a casual examination of the points standings, for both drivers and teams indicate that Red Bull, and Vettel are already running away with all the trophies. It's just half-way through the calender, yet the WDC and WCC appear out of reach for everyone else.

So how can you catch them? If you just follow, play the conservative pit strategy most of the field employs, you will find it almost impossible to make up ground.

And the truth is that it's desperation time, playing it safe and sound won't work for this situation. So alternate strategies have to be considered. Try something, anything because safe and sound doesn't make up ground.

Each McLaren driver has one win in 2011, both as a result of them adopting alternate strategies. Back when Hamilton won China, he was actually boasting that he had managed to save one set of softs. And he parlayed that advantage into a win. At Montreal, Button quickly switched strategies, made many pit stops, and with the help of a lot of luck and determination, won. If the driver had followed what everyone else was doing, they would not have won.

And even Monaco for Hamilton. He attempted a risky strategy during qualifying, and unfortunately luck turned her back on him. But if things had worked out as hoped for Hamilton, he would have started the race with one more set of softs than his competitors. Hmm, sounds like what happened in China, where he won.

And now the criticism falls at Silverstone, and I honestly question what the fans are thinking.

During qualifying Hamilton flopped, and wound up tenth. OK, so now what, do we just folloow the pack, or try something away from the beaten path? The car was short on fuel, but that offered an advantage of being quicker than the rest. But obviously, sometimes during the race Hamilton had to save fuel, drive a portion of the race with control and fuel savings in mind. In other words, the team set the strategy, the driver had to execute. But in the end, for whatever reason, he didn't and had to severely drop pace in order to save fuel. Additionally, his attempts to stay with Vettel resulted in him pitting sooner than expeced, resulting in worn tires. He knew that on the closing laps, his tires were going to be junk.

But at the start, Hamilton made a great start, and captivated and thrilled his fans by doing what he does best. I wonder just how many fans were questioning McLaren strategy at that moment. Let's see, jury is in, polls reveal that not one Hamilton fan felt at that moment that the strategy was incorrect. Not while Lewis was carving up through the field and in third. Only when things go sour do some of his fans suddenly challenge strategy.

1. No fans even knew he was underfuelled until after his overtaking show had finished, that is in real life and through TV, so your dead wrong to even imply truth that nobody decided to question, nobody knew there was anything to question?

2. Go look at Abu Dhabi '10 to see an example of Ferrari fans not questioning the strategy until the race is over and he loses the championship, why do i bring this example up, cause your ridiculous presumption that " only when things go sour do some of his (Hamiltons) fans suddenly challenge strategy" to suggest that Hamilton fans are some sort of extreme case is laughable, and tiring, this anti-hamilton-ness is quite literally a Wet Pirelli tyre on its 52nd lap of sunny silverstone, no substance left at all.


3. Nice work structuring the post for the conclusion, takes the heat off your grievances with LH, sign of an experienced hater.

[Ri21]

Wow its amazing that you can read 1 sentance of someones comment and know who they favour in F1 without them actually saying it...anywhooo

I hope that when it comes to Germany that Mclaren will be on there A-game....and hopefully it will be a fun and interesting race (and i wont have to come back to this post again)

[darwin dali]

Wow its amazing that you can read 1 sentance of someones comment and know who they favour in F1 without them actually saying it...anywhooo

I hope that when it comes to Germany that Mclaren will be on there A-game....and hopefully it will be a fun and interesting race (and i wont have to come back to this post again)

Hm, from that one sentence there I take it you're a Ferrari fan?