FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[The Second Coming]

Gives a whole new meaning to a Curly Wurly.

Err...Curly Wur...do I dare ask?

I'm just saying...

[andrew]

Gives a whole new meaning to a Curly Wurly.

Err...Curly Wur...do I dare ask?

I'm just saying...

Click here, if you dare.

[f1boy]

Eddie slating Mclaren

This race just showed what a failure McLaren are. Their leading driver is leaving, and pathetic performances from both their 2013 drivers again.

2013 can't come sooner really.

Agree Hammer. McLaren are looking like a spent force imo.
I'm keeping an open mind about all this, but it looks to me like McLaren don't want Lewis going out on a high.

I'll leave it at that.

[Nin-Chin]

"Lewis Hamilton's car failure is unacceptable really for a team as powerful and as mighty as McLaren, they need to sort this out quickly."

[racechick]

Well I still think its complete mismanagement and errors. Can't afford it at this level. Gary Paffet has just been interviewed and said unreliability has cost the both championships. And so it has.

[CookinFlat6]

I hope for the teams sake that the last 4 races have been an attempt to spite Lewis

if it really is just incompetence then this team are the laughing stock of the entire paddock and their struggling road car division will go bust dragging the whole company down

[f1boy]

Whitmarsh on the BBC Forum now.

He's blaiming Mercedes engines......a fuel pump apparently.

[Hammer278]

Abu Dhabi GP: Hamilton believes McLaren had dominant car

Lewis Hamilton reckons McLaren had a dominant car in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and would have delivered a one-two finish with a trouble-free weekend.

Having taken pole at Yas Marina, Hamilton was pulling away at the front of the field when what he reported as a fuel pressure issue forced his retirement on lap 20.

His team-mate Jenson Button finished fourth.

"I think this weekend we had the pace to get a one-two," Hamilton said.

"I'm not really sure what Jenson was struggling with, but we had the strength in the car and the ability this weekend.

"I think in the last four or five races we've had something fail on the car even when we've finished the race. I hope luck will now swing our way."

Hamilton's retirement left the door open for Kimi Raikkonen to win the race for Lotus.

"I was in a really comfortable spot. It wasn't like I had [Sebastian] Vettel or a Red Bull behind me that was massively quick," said Hamilton.

"Kimi drove phenomenally and I'm very, very happy for him, but I was comfortably in the lead and the car was just beautiful to drive."

He added: "I was cruising and I was still pulling away."

Despite losing a likely victory, Hamilton said he would leave Abu Dhabi happy with his performance and the speed his car had displayed.

"It was still a good weekend for me. I really enjoyed it. At the time it felt fantastic in the car. We have a couple of other opportunities. Next time..." he said.

Hamilton stayed around to watch the end of the race, and was surprised to see Vettel get to the podium after starting last.

"Incredible how Sebastian came up from the pitlane," Hamilton said.

"He's got to be the luckiest person in Formula 1."

____________________________________________

What a difference a driver makes eh....1 cruising to victory until a breakdown, another unable to keep a podium position alive in a race. McLaren wanted their lead driver, they're stuck with him for another 2 years.

[Nin-Chin]

Lewis Hamilton has described Sebastian Vettel as the luckiest man in F1 with the entire McLaren team apparently unconvinced that the World Champion deserved to claim third place in the Abu Dhabi GP after starting Sunday's race from the pitlane.

While Hamilton's remark was made with a forlorn chuckle following his own luckless retirement from the lead of the grand prix, the description was endorsed by both Jenson Button, whom Vettel overtook with five laps remaining to clinch his place on the podium, and McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh as they reflected on a captivating and confusing afternoon.

"Vettel got lucky with the second Safety Car," bemoaned the 2009 World Champion. "To keep him behind when he had brand-new tyres was so difficult because he had really good traction out of the slow corners.

"He did very well on the prime tyres, the car is quick, but if he didn't have those two Safety Cars he wouldn't have been up there."

To compound McLaren's evident frustration, Sunday's result also mathematically ended their hopes of winning the Constructors' Championship this season, with Button unable to hang on to a podium after a suspected fuel-pump failure forced Hamilton into retirement.

"Gutting for him, and the team," commented Whitmarsh. "Jenson fought long and hard through that race but I think Sebastian was quite lucky with the number of safetys, which is quite unusual here, but that's the way it went. A tough afternoon for the team."

But doesn't a driver make his own luck? If Vettel was fortunate, it was surely not in the exploitation of the two Safety Car deployments, but at the start of the race when he damaged his front-wing on two separate occasions and was then wisely instructed by his Red Bull team to cede position to Romain Grosjean after overtaking the Lotus with all four wheels over the track confines.

"A great effort from him to for 3rd but not totally perfect," observed Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft. "Some early clashes had to give a place back to Grosjean but from then on sublime.

"Yes, he made his luck and it might have been different if not for the pace car but a tremendous drive."

It is a balanced viewpoint endorsed by Anthony Davidson.

"Yes, he had a helping hand along the way but you have to have the desire and he had that today," concurred Anthony as he reviewed in-car footage of Vettel's topsy-turvy afternoon. "He showed the real mentality of a champion."

The barbs might not be going away, but a third World Championship, barring disaster, will be surely be coming his way sooner rather than later.

[CookinFlat6]

"I think this weekend we had the pace to get a one-two," Hamilton said.

"I'm not really sure what Jenson was struggling with, but we had the strength in the car and the ability this weekend.

common Lewis, no grip and couldnt find the balance

do we have to give you some post race interviews in 2003 or 2004 or 2005 or 2006 or 2007 etc etc to watch?

[What's Burning?]

McLaren have failed to provide Lewis a mechanically sound car for five GPs in a row.

[racechick]

That really is incredible. I don't subscribe to the conspiracy theory, I put it down to ineptitude and bad management. But McLaren are making it very hard for me to maintain that way of thinking.

[LRW]

That really is incredible. I don't subscribe to the conspiracy theory, I put it down to ineptitude and bad management. But McLaren are making it very hard for me to maintain that way of thinking.

I personally think JB is behind it all. I think he pee'd in lewis' petrol tank, and that made the fuel pump break.

[darwin dali]

That really is incredible. I don't subscribe to the conspiracy theory, I put it down to ineptitude and bad management. But McLaren are making it very hard for me to maintain that way of thinking.

I personally think JB is behind it all. I think he pee'd in lewis' petrol tank, and that made the fuel pump break.

Yeah, his pee must be really acidic so that it ate through the gas tank rubber bladder - whooosh:
"Lewis, we lost all power..."

[What's Burning?]

That really is incredible. I don't subscribe to the conspiracy theory, I put it down to ineptitude and bad management. But McLaren are making it very hard for me to maintain that way of thinking.

I personally think JB is behind it all. I think he pee'd in lewis' petrol tank, and that made the fuel pump break.

Yeah, his pee must be really acidic so that it ate through the gas tank rubber bladder - whooosh:
"Lewis, we lost all power..."

it could also be very basic and cause massive caustic corrosion.