F1 - 2016 Belgian Grand Prix

[Garak]

Vettel made a big booboo by not leaving enough space, but Verstappen shouldn't have been diving down the inside when he knew full well that Kimi would be entitled to the racing line and take the racing line. Kimi got stuck in the middle through no fault of his own. Fortunately, this time it bit Verstappen in the backside and he was left out of a points finish. Throw in a couple more DNFs and he may be brought back down to earth.

I also find it ironic that Toto was talking how it's a silly loophole to be able to open so many engines in one weekend because penalties don't get spread across more than one weekend, and it should be closed. Well, he had no problem taking advantage of that loophole, now did he? At least in this race, it seems the grid penalties kept a couple guys out of big trouble.

 

[billt460]

Originally Posted By: Garak
I also find it ironic that Toto was talking how it's a silly loophole to be able to open so many engines in one weekend because penalties don't get spread across more than one weekend, and it should be closed. Well, he had no problem taking advantage of that loophole, now did he? At least in this race, it seems the grid penalties kept a couple guys out of big trouble.


These guys are the biggest hypocrites with their own rules. This nonsense give me a headache trying to follow. How stupid is a 55 grid place penalty, when there are only 20 spots? What would happen if they all ran out of engines and gearboxes? Would they all have to sit on the grid while the Safety Car did a lap to put all of them 1 lap down?

 

[Garak]

Martin Brundle was saying that back in the day, they used to have 60 or more engines in the pipe, between shipping and rebuilding and three or more engines per weekend, and how ridiculous that was. So, there is some reasoning behind this. If everyone ran out and all had to take penalties at once, they'd just cancel each other out, I gather.

The point for the extra penalties was that early last year, they'd be spread out over more than one race. The media and public flipped out over it, so the spreading out disappeared. Then, last year, Ron Dennis was the first to come up with opening a boatload of engines on one weekend and taking all the penalties for the rest of the year. Toto does the same this weekend, and then complains about it. Yes, it is hypocritical.

There is a logic to having a penalty greater than the maximum possible on the grid. It would help sort out positioning when two cars qualify but both have enough grid penalties to put them in the back, to determine who is really at the back. It would have been a little more obvious this weekend had Alonso been able to set a Q1 time, rather than have a failure before setting a time. I believe, and the commentators had speculated as much, that Alonso would have been ahead of Hamilton, since Hamilton was expected to have a much larger penalty, even if he would have had a better time than Alonso, though Hamilton was only shooting to be within 107% and not even to get out of Q3.

 

[whip]

Originally Posted By: billt460
Originally Posted By: whip
It's a team sport, so treat them like a team.


I get sick of hearing that in Formula 1. It's only a "team sport" when it's convenient for the team. There is one guy in the car. How many guys line up on the line of scrimmage during a play in football? Lousy analogy.

Is it lousy? I'd like to see the driver do a sub four second pit stop without his team. When a car gains a position from a faster pit stop, should the driver give it back?

 

[bdcardinal]

The penalty thing seems silly, but it if I was Toto I would say how stupid the rule was as I was doing it. More like "these rules makes are so stupid, but I will do it until they say I can't."

What is interesting in NASCAR the teams, even the big ones, have gone to NASCAR and asked for things to be banned because they were spending too much money on them.

 

[billt460]

Originally Posted By: whip
When a car gains a position from a faster pit stop, should the driver give it back?


If they give him an unsafe release, or do something else that causes a violation during the race, they have to. This has nothing to do with engines, gearboxes, and cars that are manufactured and built in a shop months before a race. Many times in another country on another continent.

 

[Garak]

Well, fast pitstops do have something to do with effort put in months in advance on other continents. Williams F1's consistently fast (as in record breaking) pit stops this season, versus last year's disasters, weren't the result of Sir Frank simply telling them to shape up and work faster. That came from hours upon hours of practice at the factory.

Now, they just have to focus that effort on something else this year. They obliterated the competition with respect to pit stops; now it's time to focus on another area.