F1 2013 Championship

[Geckothan]

FFS. Vettel procession then. Good job Nico, ruining Hamilton's race, asshole.

Hope that cameraman is okay.

 

[MacLeod]

Yep lets hope the cmaera man is ok, but what where Mercedes playing it. Lewis and Nico where running countra strategies as soon as Lewis was on his rear he should have let him by. But it is his home race.

 

[Geckothan]

Vettel yet again benefits from a safety car (well, everyone but Hamilton benefiting). Race is pretty much ruined now.

 

[Geckothan]

Well that's it. Fingerboy has officially ruined the WDC (barring a string of DNFs with Alonso or Kimi wins).

Come back, Bridgestone, come back!

 

[MacLeod]

A couple more laps and Kimi would have had him.

 

[Geckothan]

It would have been a Hamilton procession if they weren't running on comedy Pirellis.

Anyway, RBR can piss off with their whine about Merc possibly benefiting from the tyre test now, because it clearly didn't help them at all.

 

[MacLeod]

The more important news is however from listening to Horner that the cameraman is ok apart from some brusing.

 

[ITL]

Poor start + not enough grip + stuck behind team mate = Lewis' race. Dammit. I have to I admit I don't understand the team order saying for Nico to "not hold him up". That gave Nico too much leeway and he damn well did hold Lewis up when they were essentially running different races and shouldn't have been fighting each other.

Same goes for Lotus - Grosjean was told not to hold Kimi up, when an order to unambiguously release him would have given Kimi race position and clear air a couple of laps earlier than he got, and therefore could have been in the DRS zone earlier.

If you're going to use team orders, do it right. "Don't hold him up" can backfire, "Let him though" is much safer and releases a driver quick smart.

 

[MacLeod]

I translated as "Don't hold him up" to mean move over and let him overtake

 

[Ganja Tea]

Great race for Vettel! Glad to see the cameraman is okay even though I cheered when Webber lost it. Also Hamilton can fuck off. I have friends coming to stay with me this week and they are big Hamilton fans and I'm going to enjoy rubbing this win in their faces.

 

[ITL]

I translated as "Don't hold him up" to mean move over and let him overtake

But a driver can interpret "Don't hold him up" to mean "If I'm faster than him, I'm not letting him past". As we saw today, Lewis and Kimi were behind their team mates a lot longer than they should have been after the order was given. "Let him through" doesn't have the same ambiguity and would have been a better order.

 

[Geckothan]

Good to hear the cameraman is okay! I felt sick when I saw that incident, knowing what has happened in the past when people have been struck by bouncing tyres. He's quite lucky, as it could have quite easily smashed his spine up if it had hit him at a different angle, and a blow to the chest or the neck/head would have been catastrophic.

Anyway yeah, Grosjean really didn't do Kimi any favours at all. If he had got past a couple of laps earlier, that could have made the difference. Nico holding Lewis up didn't do too much harm in the end anyway, in terms of podium prospects, as the Mercs destroyed their tyres anyway even in clean air.

To be fair to Vettel, as much as I can't stand the guy, he drove a faultless race, and it is his first home GP win. Hopefully he'll DNF a couple of times in the next few races to even out the WDC, though.

Also, Marussia need to invest in handbrakes.

 

[MacLeod]

^Yep that'll need looking into as well. That could have caused an accident.

 

[MacLeod]

And non-essential people i.e. cameramen have been banned from the pitline following t=Webber's errand tyre.

Seems like a touch of an over-reaction, the Tyre could just have easily hit a member of another tieam's pit crew. The prblem wasnt the camerman being there, the problem was the unsafe release.

And the fine US$30 000 seemed a touch on the low side. Still at least it was more than Force India got with their US$5000 fine for an unsafe release in the same race.

 

[Defcon]

Seems like a touch of an over-reaction, the Tyre could just have easily hit a member of another tieam's pit crew. The prblem wasnt the camerman being there, the problem was the unsafe release.

I think the reasoning for that is that other pit crews are somewhat protected by their gear (i.E. helmet), while cameramen are not.

 

[Geckothan]

Tbh they should just make all people in the pit lane wear head protection and instead of banning cameramen from the pit lane, just make them stand closer to the garages so that they're less likely to be in the path of any loose wheels (the one who got knocked down was pretty much standing in a pit box, wasn't he?).

 

[Avon]

less ted kravitz is worth losing a few cameramen

 

[MacLeod]

Utter fail

Banned from the pit lane on safety grounds

TV Crew
TV Journalists

Not banned from the pit lane (obviously they are at no danger)

Still Photographers
Written Journalists

Either you ban everyone on safety ground or you don't ban anyone. And I'm sorry the excuse that you have no control over one of them is feeble. You are making a descion based on safety grounds, safety should trump everything.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/23269399

 

[Pingfah]

How is that feeble?

They don't have control over them. They have made the decision to ban people they do have control over, how are they supposed to ban people they have no control over?

 

[MacLeod]

Very simple impose a new rule banning non-team members from the pit-lane. If it is an attempt at safety the FIA should step in and impose the rule. Or individual tracks could impose the rule.