2015 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix

solstice · 04-20-2015, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by five_timer

OK, I agree there's a difference in that aspect; I just thought you were referring to his skills as a driver maturing.

As for his team attitude, I think a lot of that is due to circumstance. At RBR, he clearly established that he was the #1, and the team was behind him as well, because the better-performing driver gets favored. Nobody cared about Webber's personal achievement except Webber. The team just wanted him to GTF out of the way and finish one position down. So maybe Vettel was a little douchey, or maybe it was the way things were.

I definitely meant personality wise. In regards to racing skills he did a sweet move in the start but was also passed twice by Rosberg, ran wide, wasn't able to pass Bottas while obviously having better lap speed etc. Maybe just a bad race for him, we'll see as the season progresses.

solstice · 04-20-2015, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by E90SLAM

Ferrari was 'artificially' close to Mercedes in Bahrain - Sebastian Vettel

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...bastian-vettel

Sebastian Vettel believes Mercedes was not racing to its full potential for the second race in a row at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

At the Chinese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton deliberately drove below the potential of the car in the second stint in order to save tyres, much to the annoyance of his team-mate Nico Rosberg behind. In Bahrain the tyre management was less obvious from the outside, but once again the gaps between the top three closed in the second stint.

Vettel, who was running third in the second stint but dropped to fifth with front wing damage, believes Mercedes was trying to manage the race and ultimately saw it backfire when Nico Rosberg encountered brake problems on lap 56 and lost position to Raikkonen.

"I think they had a very strong pace in the race, probably more than they showed in the middle stint, so I think we were artificially a little bit closer," Vettel said. "But equally it worked pretty well for us as a team because they slowed themselves down in comparison to Kimi and he was able to catch them at the end."

Asked directly whether Mercedes might be sandbagging this year in response to pressure from the sport to make racing more exciting, Vettel added: "I don't think they are trying to do something stupid. I'm sure Lewis and Nico are pushing as hard as they can and the first stop was very close when we all came out of the pits, even between Nico and Lewis.

"So I don't think they were sandbagging at that point, but I think the second stint they were managing a little bit more the tyres just because you can when you are in the lead and you have free air.

"You are free to do what you like because you know that for many laps you won't get undercut [at the next pit stops] because that wouldn't make much sense [to pit again so soon]. But that's normal I think. Last year we didn't see them sandbagging but they had way less reason than this year. "

Vettel said. "But equally it worked pretty well for us as a team because they slowed themselves down in comparison to Kimi and he was able to catch them at the end."

Hehe, nice VET. Just trying to further unsettle the volatile and moody ROS and hammer in the wedge between the Benz guys. Pretty much saying that HAM and the team screwed ROS out of 2nd by managing his tyres.

E90SLAM · 04-20-2015, 01:41 PM

Ricciardo onto his final engine

http://planetf1.com/driver/55667788/...s-final-engine

We have only had four races this season, but Daniel Ricciardo will use his final engine in Barcelona after a spectacular blowout in Bahrain.

The Red Bull driver finished a comfortable sixth at the Sakhir circuit on Sunday, but smoke was seen bellowing from his car moments before he crossed the finish line as his engine gave up. It means he will have to use another new internal combustion engine (ICE) at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Australian also suffered an engine problem during practice at the season-opening Australian race while the team also fitted a new one ahead of the Chinese GP last week.

He will be onto his fourth ICE in Spain and any new ones fitted after that will lead to an automatic grid penalty.

"All the [post-race] fireworks went off and the engine obviously wanted to join in," team principal Christian Horner.

"It failed 200 metres before the line, but thankfully we had enough momentum to coast over the line. I think that the engine will be a coffee table in the future - that's three out of four now for Daniel. He'll be on engine four in Barcelona."

Horner added: "We have had problems in every race so far. I went to Paris between China and coming here, I had a constructive discussion with [Renault's chief performance officer] Jerome Stoll who is the main board member within Renault and they don't want to be in this position.

"They want to be in F1 to compete and they want to win, they don't want to be in the situation that they are, so of course that is not going to come for free. He recognises that and Renault seem committed to finding a solution."

E9TOU · 04-20-2015, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by E90SLAM

Ricciardo onto his final engine

http://planetf1.com/driver/55667788/...s-final-engine

We have only had four races this season, but Daniel Ricciardo will use his final engine in Barcelona after a spectacular blowout in Bahrain.

The Red Bull driver finished a comfortable sixth at the Sakhir circuit on Sunday, but smoke was seen bellowing from his car moments before he crossed the finish line as his engine gave up. It means he will have to use another new internal combustion engine (ICE) at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Australian also suffered an engine problem during practice at the season-opening Australian race while the team also fitted a new one ahead of the Chinese GP last week.

He will be onto his fourth ICE in Spain and any new ones fitted after that will lead to an automatic grid penalty.

"All the [post-race] fireworks went off and the engine obviously wanted to join in," team principal Christian Horner.

"It failed 200 metres before the line, but thankfully we had enough momentum to coast over the line. I think that the engine will be a coffee table in the future - that's three out of four now for Daniel. He'll be on engine four in Barcelona."

Horner added: "We have had problems in every race so far. I went to Paris between China and coming here, I had a constructive discussion with [Renault's chief performance officer] Jerome Stoll who is the main board member within Renault and they don't want to be in this position.

"They want to be in F1 to compete and they want to win, they don't want to be in the situation that they are, so of course that is not going to come for free. He recognises that and Renault seem committed to finding a solution."

I really hope Renault can sort out their issues and give RB & STR a competitive engine. They seem to be in a worse position than last year and it just blows my mind on the reason why. If they're doing that bad, they may as well use the engine specs from last season. Also, I'm tired of Horner whining about engine equalization (even though it does have some merit) -- sweat it out and discuss that with your supplier in private.

hellrotm · 04-20-2015, 06:20 PM

Enjoyed Bottas keeping Vettel in 5th.

Ham is just toying with Ferrari fans. He has so much more pace in that car.

solstice · 04-20-2015, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackJetE90

Enjoyed Bottas keeping Vettel in 5th.

Ham is just toying with Ferrari fans. He has so much more pace in that car.

Temporary pace that he no longer can use since the car is too hard on the tyres at full tilt. The Ferrari is kind on tyres just like the Lotus was when Kimi and Grosjean was styling behind the RBRs.

The Ferrari threat is real alright and it's not just easy on tyres it's properly fast as the quali times shows.

I honestly think Alonso would have been world champion this year if he stayed at Ferrari. Sukcs to be him, kind of but not really

hellrotm · 04-21-2015, 01:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by solstice

Temporary pace that he no longer can use since the car is too hard on the tyres at full tilt. The Ferrari is kind on tyres just like the Lotus was when Kimi and Grosjean was styling behind the RBRs.

The Ferrari threat is real alright and it's not just easy on tyres it's properly fast as the quali times shows.

I honestly think Alonso would have been world champion this year if he stayed at Ferrari. Sukcs to be him, kind of but not really

Ham will keep racking up the wins. Ham will be 3rd on career F1 victories list, when season is all done. Currently 4 away from Vettel, 5 from Senna.

Rosberg passing Ferrari's at will was quite enjoyable as well.

Mercedes just needs to keep pitting one lap after Ferrari, to cover Vettel's strategy. Really smart actually, at times RBR use to do the same back when they were dominating.

E90SLAM · 04-21-2015, 12:25 PM

Mercedes explains brake-by-wire failures on both cars

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...-failures-cars

Set-up changes to the cars of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg aimed at making the Mercedes competitive against Ferrari contributed to the brake problems both cars faced at the end of Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

Rosberg lost second place to Kimi Raikkonen at the start of the penultimate lap after his brake-by-wire failed on the entrance to Turn 1. Rosberg outbraked himself and lost the position, putting an end to the chances of Mercedes taking a one-two.

"We saw it in Nico's system all race from lap one but it finally went wrong on the third last lap, so that's why he went long because the brake-by-wire system converted from active to passive where it's no longer a powered system," Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe explained. "Which is fine, you still have brakes, but it takes a bit of getting used to."

Hamilton's issue came under braking for turn one on the final lap and Lowe confirmed it too was a brake-by-wire failure, although not as detrimental to his race.

"I think my brakes just got a bit warm when I was behind a few backmarkers", Hamilton said. When you're behind them there's no cool air coming into the brakes, so they got a bit warm. But it wasn't really a problem."

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff explained that set-up changes were made between Friday and Saturday after long runs in practice showed that Ferrari had an advantage on the tyres. The changes then put extra strain on the brakes resulting in the failures.

"It is set-up issues and we knew the changes we made on the car were compromising a little bit the brake temperatures. We knew what we were doing. But then it was a hard race with lots of overtaking, especially in Nico's side, and then both cars struggled to make it through the backmarkers at the end of the race. The minute you follow another car or a couple of cars, the airstream collapses and this is why it made the brakes go.

"It is never one single solution, so you try to tackle the problem that we had on the Friday and the Saturday afternoon with a couple of adjustments. One of them was linked to the capability of brake wear, so in hindsight and knowing that this caused a problem and nearly cost us the race and P2 we will probably look at things again and do things differently in the future."

Wolff admitted the Hamilton issue surprised the team as they were focused on Rosberg.

"The interesting thing is that we were discussing the car overall and the issues we had and monitoring Raikkonen catching up, so on Nico's car the brake failure didn't come as a surprise as we saw the higher temperatures. On Lewis's car it was a bit more of a surprise and must have been linked to the fact that he gave it a gentle push seeing Kimi come and making his way through backmarker traffic.

"Lewis's came after the heavy braking on the long straight into the last lap. So he had the full last lap without any brake-by-wire."

E90SLAM · 04-21-2015, 12:28 PM

'Too many problems' for McLaren - Fernando Alonso

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...ernando-alonso

Fernando Alonso says McLaren suffered "too many problems" during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

Alonso had a relatively clean weekend but the same cannot be said for team-mate Jenson Button, who had two stoppages on Friday, missed qualifying altogether and then failed to start the race due to a recurring issue. Alonso drove to 11th, his best result since re-joining McLaren, and he says finishing was the most important thing with only one car in the race.

Asked if he was disappointed to miss out on points, he replied: "No, I think we have to be realistic. It's good for the team to finish the race with one car. Unfortunately Jenson could not finish the race so it was important to do as many laps as possible for extra experience. We now have three weeks at home to improve performance and reliability because know it is not good enough and we proved this weekend there is a lot of work to be done, but optimistic for the future."

Alonso says McLaren has a lot of work to do in three weeks before his home race in Spain.

"We knew we were weak in some areas of the car. In terms of reliability we had too many problems always repeating, so there are a lot of actions now in the next couple of weeks. It's sad for Jenson because he prepared the race in the best way, and also the mechanics, the engineers, everyone who works late until the race starts. Hopefully we cannot repeat these kind of things and we are more competitive and more strong next time."

E90SLAM · 04-21-2015, 12:29 PM

McLaren over most dramatic problems - Eric Boullier

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...blems-boullier

Eric Boullier says McLaren-Honda is "past the dramatic time" in terms of the teething problems it has suffered in the opening four races of 2015.

McLaren finished the first race of the season two laps off the pace but was just one place away from scoring a point in Bahrain. But progress remains gradual, with an unresolved electrical issue hampering Jenson Button throughout the weekend and causing the 2009 world champion to miss the start of the grand prix completely.

However, racing director Boullier is happy that McLaren is over the worst of its problems.

Asked if he was encouraged by where the team was after Bahrain, he said: "Yeah, sort of. Obviously we are still having glitches on one car and the other car was trouble-free all weekend more or less, so it's encouraging. It's good to see we can make some progress and we are just about ready to score points on merit. We're still far from where we want to be but I think in some way it looked very dramatic and now we are past the dramatic time so there is some progress."

Honda is bringing an upgraded power unit to Spain and Boullier says improving reliability will be a key focus.

"The reliability programme is still going on. It's good to see Fernando [Alonso] doing his second race in a row with no problems, but on Jenson's car it's still not good enough. The reliability package is more or less working but still not at the level we would like to be, but the maturity of the project is very, very young."

solstice · 04-21-2015, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by E90SLAM

McLaren over most dramatic problems - Eric Boullier

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...blems-boullier

Eric Boullier says McLaren-Honda is "past the dramatic time" in terms of the teething problems it has suffered in the opening four races of 2015.

McLaren finished the first race of the season two laps off the pace but was just one place away from scoring a point in Bahrain. But progress remains gradual, with an unresolved electrical issue hampering Jenson Button throughout the weekend and causing the 2009 world champion to miss the start of the grand prix completely.

However, racing director Boullier is happy that McLaren is over the worst of its problems.

Asked if he was encouraged by where the team was after Bahrain, he said: "Yeah, sort of. Obviously we are still having glitches on one car and the other car was trouble-free all weekend more or less, so it's encouraging. It's good to see we can make some progress and we are just about ready to score points on merit. We're still far from where we want to be but I think in some way it looked very dramatic and now we are past the dramatic time so there is some progress."

Honda is bringing an upgraded power unit to Spain and Boullier says improving reliability will be a key focus.

"The reliability programme is still going on. It's good to see Fernando [Alonso] doing his second race in a row with no problems, but on Jenson's car it's still not good enough. The reliability package is more or less working but still not at the level we would like to be, but the maturity of the project is very, very young."

Four races into the season they have no points and had only one car in the last race. Fantastic. They keep re-iterating that there is no panic, everyone is committed to the project. You have to wonder if the lack of "panic" is maybe a problem? If they aren't at least a solid mid-tier team in Barcelona it seems that it's time to swap the carrots for sticks.

Rix313 · 04-21-2015, 04:13 PM

They have to be seen to be relaxed and under control thought don't the. It wouldn't look good if they were going around saying 'ooh its all a bit smelly we may have fucked up here' lol. Behind the scenes, they will be shitting their pants, but they have to keep a brave face on. Better that then do a RedBull and throw the toys properly out of the pram.

04-20-2015, 01:41 PM	#47
E90SLAM Supreme Allied Commander 2038 Rep 61,781 Posts Drives: A BBS WHORE Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: . iTrader: (6) Garage List 2022 BMW X3 sDrive30i [0.00]	Ricciardo onto his final engine Ricciardo onto his final engine http://planetf1.com/driver/55667788/...s-final-engine We have only had four races this season, but Daniel Ricciardo will use his final engine in Barcelona after a spectacular blowout in Bahrain. The Red Bull driver finished a comfortable sixth at the Sakhir circuit on Sunday, but smoke was seen bellowing from his car moments before he crossed the finish line as his engine gave up. It means he will have to use another new internal combustion engine (ICE) at the Spanish Grand Prix. The Australian also suffered an engine problem during practice at the season-opening Australian race while the team also fitted a new one ahead of the Chinese GP last week. He will be onto his fourth ICE in Spain and any new ones fitted after that will lead to an automatic grid penalty. "All the [post-race] fireworks went off and the engine obviously wanted to join in," team principal Christian Horner. "It failed 200 metres before the line, but thankfully we had enough momentum to coast over the line. I think that the engine will be a coffee table in the future - that's three out of four now for Daniel. He'll be on engine four in Barcelona." Horner added: "We have had problems in every race so far. I went to Paris between China and coming here, I had a constructive discussion with [Renault's chief performance officer] Jerome Stoll who is the main board member within Renault and they don't want to be in this position. "They want to be in F1 to compete and they want to win, they don't want to be in the situation that they are, so of course that is not going to come for free. He recognises that and Renault seem committed to finding a solution." __________________
	Appreciate 0 Quote

04-20-2015, 06:20 PM	#49
hellrotm Banned 4146 Rep 6,924 Posts Drives: F80 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: ...Location...Location iTrader: (0)	Enjoyed Bottas keeping Vettel in 5th. Ham is just toying with Ferrari fans. He has so much more pace in that car.
	Appreciate 0 Quote

04-21-2015, 12:25 PM	#52
E90SLAM Supreme Allied Commander 2038 Rep 61,781 Posts Drives: A BBS WHORE Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: . iTrader: (6) Garage List 2022 BMW X3 sDrive30i [0.00]	Mercedes explains brake-by-wire failures on both cars Mercedes explains brake-by-wire failures on both cars http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...-failures-cars Set-up changes to the cars of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg aimed at making the Mercedes competitive against Ferrari contributed to the brake problems both cars faced at the end of Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix. Rosberg lost second place to Kimi Raikkonen at the start of the penultimate lap after his brake-by-wire failed on the entrance to Turn 1. Rosberg outbraked himself and lost the position, putting an end to the chances of Mercedes taking a one-two. "We saw it in Nico's system all race from lap one but it finally went wrong on the third last lap, so that's why he went long because the brake-by-wire system converted from active to passive where it's no longer a powered system," Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe explained. "Which is fine, you still have brakes, but it takes a bit of getting used to." Hamilton's issue came under braking for turn one on the final lap and Lowe confirmed it too was a brake-by-wire failure, although not as detrimental to his race. "I think my brakes just got a bit warm when I was behind a few backmarkers", Hamilton said. When you're behind them there's no cool air coming into the brakes, so they got a bit warm. But it wasn't really a problem." Mercedes boss Toto Wolff explained that set-up changes were made between Friday and Saturday after long runs in practice showed that Ferrari had an advantage on the tyres. The changes then put extra strain on the brakes resulting in the failures. "It is set-up issues and we knew the changes we made on the car were compromising a little bit the brake temperatures. We knew what we were doing. But then it was a hard race with lots of overtaking, especially in Nico's side, and then both cars struggled to make it through the backmarkers at the end of the race. The minute you follow another car or a couple of cars, the airstream collapses and this is why it made the brakes go. "It is never one single solution, so you try to tackle the problem that we had on the Friday and the Saturday afternoon with a couple of adjustments. One of them was linked to the capability of brake wear, so in hindsight and knowing that this caused a problem and nearly cost us the race and P2 we will probably look at things again and do things differently in the future." Wolff admitted the Hamilton issue surprised the team as they were focused on Rosberg. "The interesting thing is that we were discussing the car overall and the issues we had and monitoring Raikkonen catching up, so on Nico's car the brake failure didn't come as a surprise as we saw the higher temperatures. On Lewis's car it was a bit more of a surprise and must have been linked to the fact that he gave it a gentle push seeing Kimi come and making his way through backmarker traffic. "Lewis's came after the heavy braking on the long straight into the last lap. So he had the full last lap without any brake-by-wire." __________________
	Appreciate 0 Quote

04-21-2015, 12:28 PM	#53
E90SLAM Supreme Allied Commander 2038 Rep 61,781 Posts Drives: A BBS WHORE Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: . iTrader: (6) Garage List 2022 BMW X3 sDrive30i [0.00]	'Too many problems' for McLaren - Fernando Alonso 'Too many problems' for McLaren - Fernando Alonso http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...ernando-alonso Fernando Alonso says McLaren suffered "too many problems" during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend. Alonso had a relatively clean weekend but the same cannot be said for team-mate Jenson Button, who had two stoppages on Friday, missed qualifying altogether and then failed to start the race due to a recurring issue. Alonso drove to 11th, his best result since re-joining McLaren, and he says finishing was the most important thing with only one car in the race. Asked if he was disappointed to miss out on points, he replied: "No, I think we have to be realistic. It's good for the team to finish the race with one car. Unfortunately Jenson could not finish the race so it was important to do as many laps as possible for extra experience. We now have three weeks at home to improve performance and reliability because know it is not good enough and we proved this weekend there is a lot of work to be done, but optimistic for the future." Alonso says McLaren has a lot of work to do in three weeks before his home race in Spain. "We knew we were weak in some areas of the car. In terms of reliability we had too many problems always repeating, so there are a lot of actions now in the next couple of weeks. It's sad for Jenson because he prepared the race in the best way, and also the mechanics, the engineers, everyone who works late until the race starts. Hopefully we cannot repeat these kind of things and we are more competitive and more strong next time." __________________
	Appreciate 0 Quote

04-21-2015, 12:29 PM	#54
E90SLAM Supreme Allied Commander 2038 Rep 61,781 Posts Drives: A BBS WHORE Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: . iTrader: (6) Garage List 2022 BMW X3 sDrive30i [0.00]	McLaren over most dramatic problems - Eric Boullier McLaren over most dramatic problems - Eric Boullier http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...blems-boullier Eric Boullier says McLaren-Honda is "past the dramatic time" in terms of the teething problems it has suffered in the opening four races of 2015. McLaren finished the first race of the season two laps off the pace but was just one place away from scoring a point in Bahrain. But progress remains gradual, with an unresolved electrical issue hampering Jenson Button throughout the weekend and causing the 2009 world champion to miss the start of the grand prix completely. However, racing director Boullier is happy that McLaren is over the worst of its problems. Asked if he was encouraged by where the team was after Bahrain, he said: "Yeah, sort of. Obviously we are still having glitches on one car and the other car was trouble-free all weekend more or less, so it's encouraging. It's good to see we can make some progress and we are just about ready to score points on merit. We're still far from where we want to be but I think in some way it looked very dramatic and now we are past the dramatic time so there is some progress." Honda is bringing an upgraded power unit to Spain and Boullier says improving reliability will be a key focus. "The reliability programme is still going on. It's good to see Fernando [Alonso] doing his second race in a row with no problems, but on Jenson's car it's still not good enough. The reliability package is more or less working but still not at the level we would like to be, but the maturity of the project is very, very young." __________________
	Appreciate 0 Quote

04-21-2015, 04:13 PM	#56
Rix313 BMW Fanboy 18 Rep 60 Posts Drives: 4x E30 + F21 M140i LCI2 Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Brackley iTrader: (0)	They have to be seen to be relaxed and under control thought don't the. It wouldn't look good if they were going around saying 'ooh its all a bit smelly we may have fucked up here' lol. Behind the scenes, they will be shitting their pants, but they have to keep a brave face on. Better that then do a RedBull and throw the toys properly out of the pram.
	Appreciate 0 Quote