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[smokin]

Snowballs do that.

I suspect that it was a gamble on the weather and a consequence of pitting before Vettel and Button. Alonso had put on another set of SSoft a couple of laps earlier and was immediately lighting up the track. If the rain had held off it was probably the right decision. As things turned out it was woefully wrong. The switch to inters was also the right decision if the rain had continued but the rain turned out to be a light sprinkle. Wrong again. Maybe McLaren, or at least Hamilton's crew, just need a good weather forecaster.

[f1ea]

Lewis should have put in "R" instead of that burnout to avoid that penalty in Hungary...

poor form!!

[myownalias]

To say that Lewis is being screwed over is silly though, would McLaren damage their own faint title hopes to advantage another driver? I seriously doubt it! I also think that JB is more likely to overrule the team and do his own thing than LH, from what I have seen, LH is more likely to go with the team strategy than strike out on his own like JB has done a number of times!

[F1er]

To say that Lewis is being screwed over is silly though, would McLaren damage their own faint title hopes to advantage another driver? I seriously doubt it! I also think that JB is more likely to overrule the team and do his own thing than LH, from what I have seen, LH is more likely to go with the team strategy than strike out on his own like JB has done a number of times!

Lewis China 07; the tires are gone
Pit; Lewis stay out
Lost WDC

2011
Malaysia
Monaco
Silverstone
Hungary
All strategy cockups,and a chance at WDC

Lewis is the unluckiest F1 driver for as long as I've been watching. It's sick! Wasted talent.

[myownalias]

To say that Lewis is being screwed over is silly though, would McLaren damage their own faint title hopes to advantage another driver? I seriously doubt it! I also think that JB is more likely to overrule the team and do his own thing than LH, from what I have seen, LH is more likely to go with the team strategy than strike out on his own like JB has done a number of times!

Lewis China 07; the tires are gone
Pit; Lewis stay out
Lost WDC

2011
Malaysia
Monaco
Silverstone
Hungary
All strategy cockups,and a chance at WDC

Lewis is the unluckiest F1 driver for as long as I've been watching. It's sick! Wasted talent.

Not the same as screwing Lewis over; McLaren have tried some ambitious strategies that haven't paid off but that's what has to done when the car can't compete on pure pace!

Monaco turned out to be a strategic mistake but it's also LH responsibility to voice his opinions, if he didn't agree with the Q3 strategy, he should have spoken up at the time rather than complaining about it after the fact. At the same time the McLaren pitcrew did great work to fix his car during the red flag period after an untidy race. It's swings and roundabouts, all part of F1!

[Peng]

To say that Lewis is being screwed over is silly though, would McLaren damage their own faint title hopes to advantage another driver? I seriously doubt it! I also think that JB is more likely to overrule the team and do his own thing than LH, from what I have seen, LH is more likely to go with the team strategy than strike out on his own like JB has done a number of times!

I 100% agree Hamilton just doesn't seem to like going against the team and from what i have seen always follows whatever the team wants to do no matter what, where as Button goes with his instinct and overrules the teams decisions quite alot which has won him several races so far.

But the simple fact is that Mclaren have had extremely bad strategic decision making for the last few years now which have cost them several wins and a boat load of points, i get the fact they sometimes need to go for the crazy strategies because they lack the pace but even when they do have the pace they still somehow manage to stuff it up.

Also not saying the other teams are perfect its quite clear that every team has made some very stupid strategic calls but it seems more often than not Mclaren throwing away race wins with extremely dumb strategies.

And no i don't believe Mclaren are purposefully sabotaging Lewis like The Ram does, i just think whoever is in charge of the strategic decision making needs to either be replaced or some sense knocked into him.

[myownalias]

And no i don't believe Mclaren are purposefully sabotaging Lewis like The Ram does, i just think whoever is in charge of the strategic decision making needs to either be replaced or some sense knocked into him.

That'd be Lewis' engineer then, I believe that strategic calls are made exclusively within the driver/engineer combo at McLaren, even more so now with the refuelling ban!*

* I'm not 100% sure on that!

[Peng]

From memory Alonso went to SS tyres and was 2 seconds a lap faster, I think this is why McLaren put him on SS but you're right, that is where the race was lost.

He was 2 seconds faster than the front runners after putting those tyres on yes but that was mainly because the front runners had been on their tyres for quite a few laps, when Button and Vettel pitted for the prime tyres they were matching Alonso's pace quite easily.

So Hamilton would have had to push very hard to be getting the 1-2 seconds per lap he needed in order to open the gap for his extra pitstop, which was most likely what he was doing and what lead him to make that mistake and spin.

Thats mainly my speculation obviously but he was told on the radio that the others were on the prime and didn't plan to stop and that he was only 7 seconds ahead and needed to open a gap, that radio message came through a few laps before his mistake so look at it however you like to me it looked like he was forced into a mistake by a bad strategic decision.

[f1ea]

Mclaren are sabotaging Lewis. They also sabotage Jenson from time to time.

Does that make any sense?

[Hammer278]

You win some, you lose some. They made a bad call in Hungary, but they were also the geniuses in Germany! Don't forget the call in for hard tyres at the last stop which won Lewis the race.

When you're fighting tooth and nail, its easy to pick out faults. Redbull you can't since their car backs up their strategic decisions very well. Ferrari....well, they have their no.1 and no.2 system which backs them up there...and they aren't really at the sharp end much this year so you don't notice them as much as McLaren (who are prime competitors of Redbull at this stage)

[bud]

From memory Alonso went to SS tyres and was 2 seconds a lap faster, I think this is why McLaren put him on SS but you're right, that is where the race was lost.

He was 2 seconds faster than the front runners after putting those tyres on yes but that was mainly because the front runners had been on their tyres for quite a few laps, when Button and Vettel pitted for the prime tyres they were matching Alonso's pace quite easily.

So Hamilton would have had to push very hard to be getting the 1-2 seconds per lap he needed in order to open the gap for his extra pitstop, which was most likely what he was doing and what lead him to make that mistake and spin.

Thats mainly my speculation obviously but he was told on the radio that the others were on the prime and didn't plan to stop and that he was only 7 seconds ahead and needed to open a gap, that radio message came through a few laps before his mistake so look at it however you like to me it looked like he was forced into a mistake by a bad strategic decision.

Yeah the SS wouldn't have been 2 seconds faster than a brand new set of softs, but I think this is what triggered McLaren to go SS, Alonso's pace. This is the chicken up, At a track like Hungary if it had stayed dry then what Vettel and Button did was the best strategy to get the car home.(Edit: it didn't stay dry and this was still the best strategy to get home)

As for his spin, just before it he was losing time to Jenson, I was thinking he might be trying to save his tyres so they lasted to the end, an ambitious attempt but was really the only option for the win. But given the rain that came it was more likely he was losing time because of the conditions and the SS losing tyre temperature.

Mclaren are sabotaging Lewis. They also sabotage Jenson from time to time.

Does that make any sense?

Yeah Its funny hearing from either Lewis or Jens fans who are not say McLaren first fans claim their drivers are being sabotaged

[Denthúl]

Lewis is the unluckiest F1 driver for as long as I've been watching. It's sick! Wasted talent.

You've not been watching very long, then.

[What's Burning?]

I'm just happy McLaren now has a car they can go toe to toe againts the RB7 with.

[scotty]

Lewis is the unluckiest F1 driver for as long as I've been watching. It's sick! Wasted talent.

You've not been watching very long, then.

Jean Alesi definitely springs to mind...

[Peng]

I'm just happy McLaren now has a car they can go toe to toe againts the RB7 with.

I will be happy if that continues into next year but its way too late in the game to really make much of an impact.

Who knows though anything can happen but Vettel would need to make a large amount of mistakes or have quite a few mechanical failures in the next few races for anyone to even have a sniff at him.

Here's hoping that happens as id rather have an exciting end to the season with the WDC being decided on the last race instead of 3 races from the end even if Vettel still ends up winning.