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

[Andres125sx]

I'm getting a bit tired of drivers telling their engineers to go away, leave them alone or shut up. Like they all heard Kimi do it once and want to emulate that.

Ultimately the engineer is trying to help, so why not be a little bit polite and respectful (and NB I couldn't care less if someone uses an expletive - that's a completely different conversation).

You can´t ask someone with a heart rate of around 160-180, who is racing at night, on a wet track, with walls all around wich he must almost touch at every corner, to be polite.

This was not a race to get the drivers distracted, even the smallest distraction can be disastrous here

[Andres125sx]

https://twitter.com/Carlossainz55/statu ... 4179748864

Nice

Not a single mention to the awesome race Sainz performed yet?

He was almost perfect, he even got the necessary luck after they put supersoft tires instead of ultras and got passed by Hulkenberg.

Great perfomance in his probably last race on a STR. Pressure? What´s that?

[Unc1eM0nty]

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.

In the wet Riccardo was pulling away from Bottas, Lewis was pulling away from Riccardo, I think this was just down to Lewis having better wet pace.

Later when it dried Bottas was able to Match Riccardo's pace, at this point Lewis was just nursing it home

[TAG]

Bottas never even got within DRS distance of Ricciardo. So a Red Bull nursing a transmission issue in one of the most transmission dependent circuits on the calendar is able to keep Bottas from even getting withing DRS? That's just as hard to accept. The most logical explanation is that Ricciardo is not Verstappen in the rain but still had a better platform around Singapore than Bottas with his struggles.

The temperature and the surface on Sunday was not what it was on Saturday. That's far more likely a reason for the gap.

EDIT: actually with the extended time they completely cut up the post race interviews for us, did Ricciardo mention anything post race about his transmission issues?

[f1316]

I'm getting a bit tired of drivers telling their engineers to go away, leave them alone or shut up. Like they all heard Kimi do it once and want to emulate that.

Ultimately the engineer is trying to help, so why not be a little bit polite and respectful (and NB I couldn't care less if someone uses an expletive - that's a completely different conversation).

You can´t ask someone with a heart rate of around 160-180, who is racing at night, on a wet track, with walls all around wich he must almost touch at every corner, to be polite.

This was not a race to get the drivers distracted, even the smallest distraction can be disastrous here

It's becoming a trend though, you would never hear that a few years ago and now it's every race/several times every race.

Part of being a great driver is having that additional capacity on top of what's required to race the car - it was one of Michael's key attributes that, in cars/races equally as hard to drive (if not more, given their relative weight > change of direction) he had that extra capacity to think ahead and, so Ross Brawn says, sound on the radio like he's having a normal conversation on a Sunday drive.

I get it, of course, it's easy for me to say and the job hard/reaction understandable, fair enough if you'd perform better without interruption, but I think part of it is that this kind of thing has become fashionable - and drivers have noted the extra column inches/support people like Kimi and Fernando get because of their entertaining radio - so I think there's a lot of that going on too.

[zibby43]

Bottas never even got within DRS distance of Ricciardo. So a Red Bull nursing a transmission issue in one of the most transmission dependent circuits on the calendar is able to keep Bottas from even getting withing DRS? That's just as hard to accept. The most logical explanation is that Ricciardo is not Verstappen in the rain but still had a better platform around Singapore than Bottas with his struggles.

The temperature and the surface on Sunday was not what it was on Saturday. That's far more likely a reason for the gap.

EDIT: actually with the extended time they completely cut up the post race interviews for us, did Ricciardo mention anything post race about his transmission issues?

I'll try to find the source, but I read that Daniel said he only had to manage the gearbox at times (i.e., intermittently) and that even without the issue, he would not have had the pace to challenge Lewis.

If I can find a clip or a transcript, I'll edit my post to include it.

On a somewhat related note, it was reported that both W08s were using Spec. 2 power units for Qualifying and the Race. I believe the upgraded Spec. 3 and 4 PUs only have about 2 races worth of mileage on each.

I'm sure that both Hamilton and Bottas were instructed to be as kind as possible to those older, Spec. 2 PUs.

[SiLo]

Yeah those were old engines in the back of the Mercs, no need for more powerful ones here.

[Jolle]

Yeah those were old engines in the back of the Mercs, no need for more powerful ones here.

And no Mercedes retirements this race and only one outside the points. Not a bad result for their worst circuit.

[krisfx]

I'm getting a bit tired of drivers telling their engineers to go away, leave them alone or shut up. Like they all heard Kimi do it once and want to emulate that.

Ultimately the engineer is trying to help, so why not be a little bit polite and respectful (and NB I couldn't care less if someone uses an expletive - that's a completely different conversation).

You can´t ask someone with a heart rate of around 160-180, who is racing at night, on a wet track, with walls all around wich he must almost touch at every corner, to be polite.

This was not a race to get the drivers distracted, even the smallest distraction can be disastrous here

It's becoming a trend though, you would never hear that a few years ago and now it's every race/several times every race.

Part of being a great driver is having that additional capacity on top of what's required to race the car - it was one of Michael's key attributes that, in cars/races equally as hard to drive (if not more, given their relative weight > change of direction) he had that extra capacity to think ahead and, so Ross Brawn says, sound on the radio like he's having a normal conversation on a Sunday drive.

I get it, of course, it's easy for me to say and the job hard/reaction understandable, fair enough if you'd perform better without interruption, but I think part of it is that this kind of thing has become fashionable - and drivers have noted the extra column inches/support people like Kimi and Fernando get because of their entertaining radio - so I think there's a lot of that going on too.

Arguably, you'd not hear the radio aggression a few years ago because of a lack of broadcasting, not because drivers were more polite.

[J.A.W.]

Yeah those were old engines in the back of the Mercs, no need for more powerful ones here.

And no Mercedes retirements this race and only one outside the points. Not a bad result for their worst circuit.

Agreed, for the Silver Arrows, it was a jolly good show!
Their recovery from a 'difficult' Q-session, to an excellent race result ( start/re-start/lap-speed/pit-stops/zero-drama)..


Funny that Ric seems reliably capable of 'keeping his nose clean' & gaining points, while the 'boy wonder' Ves, cannot..
A 'luck-judgement' continuum playing out, & within the control/auspices of the R-B team..

[Just_a_fan]

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.

We did hear Hamilton say that pulling away from Ricciardo was hard after the second safety car. Either Ricciardo still had pace in the car at this stage or the newer tyres were sufficient to offset any performance loss from the gearbox.

My guess would be that the RedBull just wasn't as quick in the race as it was in qualifying.

[wesley123]

We did hear Hamilton say that pulling away from Ricciardo was hard after the second safety car. Either Ricciardo still had pace in the car at this stage or the newer tyres were sufficient to offset any performance loss from the gearbox.

My guess would be that the RedBull just wasn't as quick in the race as it was in qualifying.

Race pace is a whole lot different than the raw pace you can show in Quali, and track position matters. Ricciardo lost some time being stuck behind Palmer, for example.

I do think a lot came from the driver(s) today. Hamilton seems to have gained confidence after the struggles earlier in the season and has once more become the man to beat this season.

[Phil]

I am not sure what the point is about calling out RedBull. What would they have to gain by making up excuses?

Horner said they had loss of oil pressure in the gearbox. That can mean anything. Ricciardo was instructed to upshift early. This obviously means slight loss of performance. How much is anyones guess.

Mercedes/Hamilton were cruising most of the time according to Toto. Engine turned down. The rest is down to Hamilton, confidence, skill, risk/reward and the Mercedes being good in the wet due to being aggressive on the tires (more heat in the tires).

As for the race: i am happy for Bottas, even if i feel he lucked into that podium. Pitty for Hulkenberg, he was well set up initially.

[TAG]

Pitty for Hulkenberg, he was well set up initially.

^^This.

I really thought it would be his day. If it wasn't for bad luck, he'd have no luck at all.

[f1316]

You can´t ask someone with a heart rate of around 160-180, who is racing at night, on a wet track, with walls all around wich he must almost touch at every corner, to be polite.

This was not a race to get the drivers distracted, even the smallest distraction can be disastrous here

It's becoming a trend though, you would never hear that a few years ago and now it's every race/several times every race.

Part of being a great driver is having that additional capacity on top of what's required to race the car - it was one of Michael's key attributes that, in cars/races equally as hard to drive (if not more, given their relative weight > change of direction) he had that extra capacity to think ahead and, so Ross Brawn says, sound on the radio like he's having a normal conversation on a Sunday drive.

I get it, of course, it's easy for me to say and the job hard/reaction understandable, fair enough if you'd perform better without interruption, but I think part of it is that this kind of thing has become fashionable - and drivers have noted the extra column inches/support people like Kimi and Fernando get because of their entertaining radio - so I think there's a lot of that going on too.

Arguably, you'd not hear the radio aggression a few years ago because of a lack of broadcasting, not because drivers were more polite.

I'm not talking about Schu era when I make that point (Ferrari didn't broadcast its radio then anyway) but literally in the last 3 or 4 years. I don't think they broadcast less team radio than they do now (notable exception being the period when they clamped down on radio).