2017 Singapore Grand Prix - Marina Bay, 15-17 September

[foxmulder_ms]

It is true that Ricciardo keeps calmer and has the benefit of then steering away from trouble.

On the other side, Singapore was a textbook example of - like Alonso, really - being at the wrong place at the wrong time. He could have done NOTHING to avoid this DNF.
Additionally, the view on Max' DNF's is obscured by mixing technical DNFs [ the engine letting him down ] with bold moves.

For example his move on Danny where he made contact and ended his own race was Max' his own stupidity.
But plenty of other situations he really couldn't have done anything else.

As for Danny bringing home a oil pressure-stricken RedBull, well, he was lucky there where Max got a lot unlucky. Sure he did his best not to stress out the car.
I do think his comment on the interview before has some merit, even if it's brought as a laugh. Max -like his father- tends to be agressive in his driving, where danny is much smoother.
But an oil problem is an oil problem. Hulkenberg had to retire, Palmer didn't. Just another example. Palmer also got seriously unlucky this season [not taking away that i think he's still cr*p].

but there was no way Max could have kept 'his nose clean' and he surely didn't 'cause' any accident.
You could rather argue Kimi got into the heat and caused the accident, sure as hell more than Verstappen.

Kimi's only fault was being too good off the line.

[Quantum]

@Nathan,

F1F reporting the same. The team expected him to retire, but he nurtured the car home.

I watched some onboard footage during the race and I couldn't pick anything up, that is no measure of course.
Besides that, I don't recall hearing a radio warning Ricciardo of the gearbox problem. I can't find any radio transcripts either.

As an aside, if a car has loss of gearbox pressure on lap 15 at Singapore, it generally ends up toast. It's the second highest gear change to meterage after monaco, but actually surpasses Monaco by way of being 60kms longer race distance. Guessing the cogs were made of adamantium.

[Gothrek]

Well, this WDC is over, let's hope 2018 is better

How could it be any better up to this point. Or is it just the wrong guy winning ?

Next races Mercedes will dominate again, game over Ferrari. Championship is over. Everybody was just hoping that Ferrari could do something this year. Against all odds they were able to do that the beginning of the year, when Mercedes was not 100% at the top of their game. If you still see any excitement in the WDC battle after this race, I have to congratulate you. Because I cannot see it.

[NathanOlder]

Even if the championship is over as you say (which its not) we can still have good racing as it seems Red Bull are almost ready to join the party so the last 6 races will be good. Especially as the 2 red bull drivers can drive hard and have nothing to lose.

[Jolle]

Even if the championship is over as you say (which its not) we can still have good racing as it seems Red Bull are almost ready to join the party so the last 6 races will be good. Especially as the 2 red bull drivers can drive hard and have nothing to lose.

On average Hamilton has one technical DNF per year for Mercedes... so .... who knows...

[NathanOlder]

Even if the championship is over as you say (which its not) we can still have good racing as it seems Red Bull are almost ready to join the party so the last 6 races will be good. Especially as the 2 red bull drivers can drive hard and have nothing to lose.

On average Hamilton has one technical DNF per year for Mercedes... so .... who knows...

On average Sebastian Vettel never wins a championship in a ferrari so....
Who does know....

[djos]

@Nathan,

F1F reporting the same. The team expected him to retire, but he nurtured the car home.

I watched some onboard footage during the race and I couldn't pick anything up, that is no measure of course.
Besides that, I don't recall hearing a radio warning Ricciardo of the gearbox problem. I can't find any radio transcripts either.

As an aside, if a car has loss of gearbox pressure on lap 15 at Singapore, it generally ends up toast. It's the second highest gear change to meterage after monaco, but actually surpasses Monaco by way of being 60kms longer race distance. Guessing the cogs were made of adamantium.

I'd suggest doing things like setting the engine to a lower torque map and changing gears at lower points in the engines power and torque bands (aka short shifting) would all contribute to extending the life of the gearbox.

[PlatinumZealot]

@Nathan,

F1F reporting the same. The team expected him to retire, but he nurtured the car home.

I watched some onboard footage during the race and I couldn't pick anything up, that is no measure of course.
Besides that, I don't recall hearing a radio warning Ricciardo of the gearbox problem. I can't find any radio transcripts either.

As an aside, if a car has loss of gearbox pressure on lap 15 at Singapore, it generally ends up toast. It's the second highest gear change to meterage after monaco, but actually surpasses Monaco by way of being 60kms longer race distance. Guessing the cogs were made of adamantium.

Meh. Horner and ricciado making excuses after getting outclassed in the wet. Danny did have a problem with his upshift but it wasn't anything to hurt his pace in the wet significantly. Maybe it hurt him in the dry though.... But hey even if he had no such issue Hamilton had pace in hand.

[Jolle]

Even if the championship is over as you say (which its not) we can still have good racing as it seems Red Bull are almost ready to join the party so the last 6 races will be good. Especially as the 2 red bull drivers can drive hard and have nothing to lose.

On average Hamilton has one technical DNF per year for Mercedes... so .... who knows...

On average Sebastian Vettel never wins a championship in a ferrari so....
Who does know....

The biggest reason not to get rid of Kimi, he has 0,14 Ferrari championships per season. (oh, and plus Vettel, of all still active (ex) Ferrari drivers, he's got the least wins and the lowest "highest WC position at the end of the season" for the reds)

[GrandAxe]

Meh. Horner and ricciado making excuses after getting outclassed in the wet. Danny did have a problem with his upshift but it wasn't anything to hurt his pace in the wet significantly. Maybe it hurt him in the dry though.... But hey even if he had no such issue Hamilton had pace in hand.

Exactly. Its almost certain that Horner's message was aimed at the business side of things (shareholders, sponsors etc.); especially after all the Saturday hype and the growing belief that Red Bull is beginning to get sharp enough to hunt with the big dogs. It might have been a punt by Horner to both make up for potential money lost (by not being on the top step of the podium) as well as keep the energy around the brand from flagging. F1 is as much a business as it is a mechanical, aero, electronic etc. sport.

Ricciardo never complained about gummy gears over the radio too - that's telling.

[zeph]

On average Hamilton has one technical DNF per year for Mercedes... so .... who knows...

On average Sebastian Vettel never wins a championship in a ferrari so....
Who does know....

The biggest reason not to get rid of Kimi, he has 0,14 Ferrari championships per season. (oh, and plus Vettel, of all still active (ex) Ferrari drivers, he's got the least wins and the lowest "highest WC position at the end of the season" for the reds)

That's funny

Interesting, I had to check, but indeed: Raikkonen, Massa and Alonso all have been more successful at Ferrari. Of course, Vettel is only in his third season, and no doubt he will catch up and/or exceed. Still, it's funny

Raikkonen: 1 WDC (2007), 9 wins (out of 37 podiums), 125 races and counting
Massa: 1x runner-up (2008), 11 wins (out of 36 podiums), 139 races
Alonso: 3x runner-up (2010/2012/2013), 11 wins (out of 44 podiums), 96 races
Vettel: 3rd (2015), 7 wins (out of 30 podiums), 44 and counting

But 30 podiums out of 44 races really shows Vettel's strength. He is bloody quick, and consistently so.

[PlatinumZealot]

To be fair to Vettel, he has been driving for Ferrari when the car is not the class of the field for two years. In his third year now the car is joint best. After revelations in these past years I believe in Raikkonen and Massa's time the Ferrari was a step above the McLaren.

[TAG]

I'd suggest doing things like setting the engine to a lower torque map and changing gears at lower points in the engines power and torque bands (aka short shifting) would all contribute to extending the life of the gearbox.

Would also have made him easy pickings for Bottas but Bottas couldn't make time on him, something's fishy and I have a hunch that it's Horner's excuses.

[marvin78]

I think Bottas was just really slow on this curcuit and that he can not do his best in wet conditions. I would not say that Horner did not lie (he does often, I think) but we don't really know.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

I'd suggest doing things like setting the engine to a lower torque map and changing gears at lower points in the engines power and torque bands (aka short shifting) would all contribute to extending the life of the gearbox.

Would also have made him easy pickings for Bottas but Bottas couldn't make time on him, something's fishy and I have a hunch that it's Horner's excuses.

If one was to believe that Honer was lying, it becomes difficult to believe then that, a driver who qualified ahead of another, gets a new Inters and could fall away to the guy ahead, who was on 12 laps old Inters. It is difficult to overtake on this circuit, especially between the front runners, regardless of the pace advantage, but in that situation, Ric should have been atleast on Lewis' tail constantly and that did not happen at all. He was falling away. That is hard to accept, if it wasn't for some kind of problem. I know, none of us heard any radio about the gearbox issue and that makes us believe that, Horner is lying as radio about every front running drivers' issues gets relayed.

Either Mercedes had enarmous pace advantage in those conditions OR it was that, Ric was genuinely nursing some problem.