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[Cyril Sneer Racing]

Don't think so. Massa has been in F1 how long? He knew Perez was slow and breaking early so why pass with half an inch?
Lauda said it was an 'insane' move, and I'd have to agree.

[darwin dali]

Williams' Rob Smedley believes Force India should have retired Sergio Perez with brake issues before his huge last lap accident with Felipe Massa.

Massa and Perez were both hurled at the crash barriers on the exit of Turn 1 after the Williams collided with the rear of the Force India in the braking zone. Footage showed that Perez hit the brakes earlier than Massa and moved to the left slightly, which resulted in the contact.

The stewards deemed Perez to be at fault and gave him a five-place grid penalty for the next race, but Smedley believes Force India had a responsibility to prevent the accident from happening.

"I think from about Lap 67 - that's when we got the [radio] transcript but it may have been broadcast earlier - they were talking about having no rear brakes," Smedley said. "'I've got no rear brakes' was his [Perez's] comment and they said 'If you can carry on, carry on. But if you can't, pit'.

"That says to me that it is a fairly f***ing terminal problem, to be honest. Why you then leave a car out when you've got that sort of problem is a little bit beyond me. Today you saw two teams - one of which was ours - call it quits. In our case it was Valtteri and we told him to back off, saving brakes and saving the engine, and more critically brakes because it can be dangerous. We had to back him off and lose points, but that's life.

"Lewis Hamilton, because of his problem of brakes and engine, had to stop the car and that's a guy fighting for the world championship. I'm a bit peeved to say the least that this has happened.

"Felipe registered 27G [in the accident] and I think we are all relieved that both of them are all right, because it doesn't bear thinking about what can happen in silly accidents like that."

Smedley accepted that Perez's brake issues may have been resolved to some extent by the final lap, but said the way in which he braked for Turn 1 suggests the car was still not running as it should have been.

"It's now come to light that he didn't have the brake-by-wire for some laps, so as a default it goes to fully-rearward brake balance and he was running like that for some laps. Whether he was running like that at the end or whether it was just problems with the car, I don't know. But definitely he braked very, very early, backed into Felipe and jinked to the left and Felipe collected him.

"We were lucky not have someone seriously hurt and lucky not to have collected Sebastian [Vettel] in a side-on accident. So the main thing is that nobody has been hurt. I think the stewards have given a five-place grid penalty to Sergio after reviewing the evidence, and they know usually what they are talking about and have meted out the punishment."

[What's Burning?]

Btw guys, I'm pretty sure there was no acceleration in the cutting of the chicane, I'm sure the telemetry would show that. It's a visual comparison of what he needed to do and how Hamilton slows his car compared to Nico not having to slow his car nearly as much. He gained an advantage by being able to unblock the brakes and steer through the gap that was free of the speed bump.

My apologies to LRW. After looking at the incident again a few times this morning, Nico clearly accelerated out of the chicane and gained a massive advantage. It was a four car length gap in and about a twenty car length gap out.

[What's Burning?]

Fair point, but it's still overkill, he was avoiding an accident not dangerously driving, he gained a tiny advantage, as did several other drivers that race who all cut corners at various points but nobody cares about those.

He was avoiding an accident that he himself induced from being under his team mates pressure. The advantage was clear and it turned out to be permanent as well. The stewards screwed up, and he should have been penalized grater than merely a warning.

Let's see what happens the next time we see the issue pop up.

[darwin dali]

Toto Wolff about LH:

"Lewis entered the pits, stopped the car and temperatures rose, and then when he went out the pedal just went soft and then fell down completely. "

His pedal went soft

[What's Burning?]

Toto Wolff about LH:

"Lewis entered the pits, stopped the car and temperatures rose, and then when he went out the pedal just went soft and then fell down completely. "

His pedal went soft

I posted a special "headline" for you.

[Cyril Sneer Racing]

Darwin, not sure why you're quoting Williams as proof, are they going to blame their own driver? Hell no.
The difference is that Hamilton had no control of the car, Rosberg and Perez still did. There was no need to stop as they were clearly driving much safer than Massa was.

Massa is not that great of a driver and he has made several retarded moves like this already, just luckily got away with them unlike Maldonado. Perez was entitled to make the minor adjustment that he did, it was extremely minor. Massa on the other hand was going in too fast and too close under the circumstances. He did not exercise caution which is the primary rule here. To say Perez 'backed into Massa' is ridiculous.

I'll continue to take the experienced and neutral driver's word over the team engineer anytime.

[Hammer278]

Darwin, not sure why you're quoting Williams as proof, are they going to blame their own driver? Hell no.
The difference is that Hamilton had no control of the car, Rosberg and Perez still did. There was no need to stop as they were clearly driving much safer than Massa was.

Massa is not that great of a driver and he has made several retarded moves like this already, just luckily got away with them unlike Maldonado. Perez was entitled to make the minor adjustment that he did, it was extremely minor. Massa on the other hand was going in too fast and too close under the circumstances. He did not exercise caution which is the primary rule here. To say Perez 'backed into Massa' is ridiculous.

I'll continue to take the experienced and neutral driver's word over the team engineer anytime.

Exactly.

[racechick]

Andrew Benson thinks differently. He thinks Felipe was innocent of blame. In this link he has a video and he s drawn lines on it to show where there cars were pointing.
https://twitter.com/andrewbensonf1/stat ... 2685633536

Initially I thought it was Frlipe's fault but after watching replays and reading around I now think k it was Sergio's.


EDIT: Sorry, Bemson was just retweeting someone else's tweet. And it's not a video it's just a picture.

[Hammer278]

RC, that is a dumb pic by Benson as he's drawn the lines only after Flipper has collected him. I don't know what Benson is trying to prove with that.

[racechick]

He didn't draw it, that was my mistake, he retweeted it.

[Cyril Sneer Racing]

In the helicopter footage you can see Massa clearly turn into Perez. So total Maldonado move.
http://youtu.be/_0PuSoufowQ

[racechick]

Tell you what. I'm going to sit on the fence

[sagi58]

Williams' Rob Smedley believes Force India should have retired Sergio Perez with brake issues before his huge last lap accident with Felipe Massa...

Smedley sounds fit to be tied, not that I can blame him!

[racechick]

I love Smedly. I think he's one of the good guys. I always said I'd love him to engineer Lewis during the Whitmarsh years.