FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[Denthúl]

Kovalainen has a point about Hamilton being aggressive. Although not as bad as it first looked, Hamilton suddenly swerving to the right was still not exactly the ideal way of driving and treating your team mate. Kovalainen can say all he wants about the strategy, indeed, the reason he carries a lap or two more fuel than Hamilton is because he looks after his tyres slightly better, so can have a little extra weight in his car. Why doesn't Kovalainen try to explain why his race pace is anything from two or three to five or six tenths of a second slower than Kovalainen or why he was not able to alter his driving style as quickly as Hamilton was to get the MP4-23 to use its tyres better? Kovalainen can say whatever he wants for all I give a toss. He's nice a guy and all that, but he's dramatically underperformed this season, and his pathetic display in qualifying today attests to that. If I were de la Rosa, I'd be mighty pissed off right now. What's it going to take for this guy to get the gig over Kovalainen. de la Rosa is no Senna, but he's a solid enough performer and could do no worse than Kovalainen. Thanks for pissing away McLaren's constructors' title hopes Kovi!

But when you look at the comparisons of fuel levels and qualifying times, Kovalainen does well to qualify often within a few tenths of Hamilton despite having anywhere between two and five laps more fuel onboard. He's been allowed to have the lighter fuel load only once in Q3, yet with only two laps' worth of fuel less than Hamilton, he out-qualified him by eight tenths of a second. Surely that should be screaming out to the guys at McLaren to give him more opportunities with light fuel loads so that he can put his car on the front row more often? No?

[racechick]

Kovalainen has a point about Hamilton being aggressive. Although not as bad as it first looked, Hamilton suddenly swerving to the right was still not exactly the ideal way of driving and treating your team mate. Kovalainen can say all he wants about the strategy, indeed, the reason he carries a lap or two more fuel than Hamilton is because he looks after his tyres slightly better, so can have a little extra weight in his car. Why doesn't Kovalainen try to explain why his race pace is anything from two or three to five or six tenths of a second slower than Kovalainen or why he was not able to alter his driving style as quickly as Hamilton was to get the MP4-23 to use its tyres better? Kovalainen can say whatever he wants for all I give a toss. He's nice a guy and all that, but he's dramatically underperformed this season, and his pathetic display in qualifying today attests to that. If I were de la Rosa, I'd be mighty pissed off right now. What's it going to take for this guy to get the gig over Kovalainen. de la Rosa is no Senna, but he's a solid enough performer and could do no worse than Kovalainen. Thanks for pissing away McLaren's constructors' title hopes Kovi!

But when you look at the comparisons of fuel levels and qualifying times, Kovalainen does well to qualify often within a few tenths of Hamilton despite having anywhere between two and five laps more fuel onboard. He's been allowed to have the lighter fuel load only once in Q3, yet with only two laps' worth of fuel less than Hamilton, he out-qualified him by eight tenths of a second. Surely that should be screaming out to the guys at McLaren to give him more opportunities with light fuel loads so that he can put his car on the front row more often? No?

There needs to be one guy on one strategy one on the other for obvious reasons. Kovi has not shown well enough in race conditions to get the favoured strategy for pole and for most of the season he has been way behind lewis on points(I know in part due to bad luck) but even so the guy with the best chance will get the best strategy as the season goes on. Having said that I woyuld agree that fuel adjusted Kovi has been v v close to Hamlton in quali. Not good in race conditions though.

[Rorschach]

HK's race pace is abysmal and it's not down to different fuel strategies. He's just plain slow light or heavy. Needs to pull his finger out next season or he'll be trying to be aggressive back in a Red Bull soon enough. Still, it's his first season at McClaren, hopefully he'll be settled into a routine next season and feel more comfortable in general.

[McLaren Fan]

That's exactly it. Some people, however, will always try and excuse failure. It's maybe fine to put in rubbish performances at a team like Honda, but not when you are driving for McLaren in a car capable of winning Grands Prix and championships.

[Denthúl]

Kovalainen has a point about Hamilton being aggressive. Although not as bad as it first looked, Hamilton suddenly swerving to the right was still not exactly the ideal way of driving and treating your team mate. Kovalainen can say all he wants about the strategy, indeed, the reason he carries a lap or two more fuel than Hamilton is because he looks after his tyres slightly better, so can have a little extra weight in his car. Why doesn't Kovalainen try to explain why his race pace is anything from two or three to five or six tenths of a second slower than Kovalainen or why he was not able to alter his driving style as quickly as Hamilton was to get the MP4-23 to use its tyres better? Kovalainen can say whatever he wants for all I give a toss. He's nice a guy and all that, but he's dramatically underperformed this season, and his pathetic display in qualifying today attests to that. If I were de la Rosa, I'd be mighty pissed off right now. What's it going to take for this guy to get the gig over Kovalainen. de la Rosa is no Senna, but he's a solid enough performer and could do no worse than Kovalainen. Thanks for pissing away McLaren's constructors' title hopes Kovi!

But when you look at the comparisons of fuel levels and qualifying times, Kovalainen does well to qualify often within a few tenths of Hamilton despite having anywhere between two and five laps more fuel onboard. He's been allowed to have the lighter fuel load only once in Q3, yet with only two laps' worth of fuel less than Hamilton, he out-qualified him by eight tenths of a second. Surely that should be screaming out to the guys at McLaren to give him more opportunities with light fuel loads so that he can put his car on the front row more often? No?

There needs to be one guy on one strategy one on the other for obvious reasons. Kovi has not shown well enough in race conditions to get the favoured strategy for pole and for most of the season he has been way behind lewis on points(I know in part due to bad luck) but even so the guy with the best chance will get the best strategy as the season goes on. Having said that I woyuld agree that fuel adjusted Kovi has been v v close to Hamlton in quali. Not good in race conditions though.

It would still be worth giving him the lighter strategy every once in a while. If he has to spend the opening few laps trying to push hard with a heavy fuel load, then of course he's not going to make up much ground and then after that he has to deal with having taken the best out of his tyres and being behind the people he needs to try to overtake.

[KyrosV]

wow did hiekki actually say that? I remember he used to be a moaner at renault about fisi and the team. Thats why I wasnt bothered to see him go. His problem is he doesnt push himself to the front and has no aragance at all, so he will never be a champion or team leader