The 2016 British Grand Prix Thread

Post by **Miguel98** » 08 Jul 2016, 09:17

No... Just... No. Burn it. With fire. :facepalm:

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 08 Jul 2016, 09:42

See? There are positives to be found in free F1 coming to an end. I won't be watching that ugly tangle of nonsense.

Jan Magnussen · Post by **Rob Dylan** » 08 Jul 2016, 14:12

With Raikkonen being granted another year at Ferrari, and Perez sitting in a Force India for another year, it's the fans who suffer the most. Ferrari might as well keep Raikkonen for the next 5 years, and seeing their current decision-making policies, they probably will. This is Rantbox material I know, but it provides no excitement or intrigue to watch Raikkonen doing a solid 5/10 job at Ferrari every season, whilst promising drivers are wasting the best years of their careers at mediocre midfield teams they appear to have no opportunity to progress from.

good_Ralf · Post by **good_Ralf** » 08 Jul 2016, 14:58

Rob Dylan wrote:With Raikkonen being granted another year at Ferrari, and Perez sitting in a Force India for another year, it's the fans who suffer the most. Ferrari might as well keep Raikkonen for the next 5 years, and seeing their current decision-making policies, they probably will. This is Rantbox material I know, but it provides no excitement or intrigue to watch Raikkonen doing a solid 5/10 job at Ferrari every season, whilst promising drivers are wasting the best years of their careers at mediocre midfield teams they appear to have no opportunity to progress from.

Which is why we've had only four new race winners in the last 7 years. And I bet when Ferrari finally recruits another young talent in the mold of Bottas or Perez and we get to see what they can do in top machinery, it'll happen just as the team takes a big dip in form.
BTW I'd rate Kimi's 2016 at least 7/10, a 5/10 is a bit harsh in my view.

Post by **mario** » 09 Jul 2016, 10:02

Things are not going well for Vettel, it seems - he reported over the radio that he thinks he has had a gearbox failure in the final practise session, so it sounds as if he possibly has a penalty heading his way.

Jan Magnussen · Post by **Rob Dylan** » 09 Jul 2016, 10:09

Yeah he was gesticulating angrily after he finished his final lap. It was only last race he had a gearbox penalty in qualifying.

In jollier news it looks like the McLarens are actually competitive this weekend! There's no time separating the midfield teams, but at least McLaren are on the up, so to speak.

Post by **mario** » 09 Jul 2016, 10:36

Rob Dylan wrote:Yeah he was gesticulating angrily after he finished his final lap. It was only last race he had a gearbox penalty in qualifying.

In jollier news it looks like the McLarens are actually competitive this weekend! There's no time separating the midfield teams, but at least McLaren are on the up, so to speak.

Honda did mention that they were introducing a new intake system this weekend, and it looks as if it might have had a fairly positive impact - we might well see both drivers make it into the top 10, and it's been a long time since we could say that. If they can continue this rate of improvement over the season - and Honda does still have a reasonable amount of tokens in hand - then they might start to move clear of the midfield teams and begin to claw their way back towards Williams.

rachel1990 · Post by **rachel1990** » 09 Jul 2016, 11:15

So Vettel will need a new gearbox and ANOTHER 5 place grid drop.

I think some heads may be rolling if this doesn't improve soon.

Paul Hayes · Post by **Paul Hayes** » 09 Jul 2016, 12:20

I just do not understand why they left Button in the pits - unless there was a problem with the car. Even for me, as an armchair viewer, it just looked far too dangerous given how far down he was.

lance_rambert · Post by **lance_rambert** » 09 Jul 2016, 12:24

Welp, apparently Magnussen went too wide at Stowe(?). That means Button's back in Q2.

...strike that, Button's still out

Paul Hayes · Post by **Paul Hayes** » 09 Jul 2016, 12:27

lance_rambert wrote:Welp, apparently Magnussen went too wide at Stowe(?). That means Button's back in Q2.

Although nobody seems to have any clear verdict yet!

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 09 Jul 2016, 12:32

Hoping that Ericsson gets to start the race tomorrow after his FP3 crash.

Paul Hayes · Post by **Paul Hayes** » 09 Jul 2016, 12:35

I'm glad at least that it was a car issue and not a team cock-up for Button. Fingers crossed there's some rain for him tomorrow.

Post by **Miguel98** » 09 Jul 2016, 12:45

Charlie before qualifying :"There will be zero tolerance regarding track limits during qualifying"

No times disallowed despite numerous track limits violations. :facepalm:

Fetzie · Post by **Fetzie** » 09 Jul 2016, 12:47

lance_rambert wrote:Welp, apparently Magnussen went too wide at Stowe(?). That means Button's back in Q2.

...strike that, Button's still out

that wasn't his fastest lap, so his time remained on the board.

Post by **Miguel98** » 09 Jul 2016, 13:05

I'm not going insane, aren't I?

When Hamilton crossed the finish line, the time it showed was -0.052 lower than what Rosberg had previously done.

But when the comparison graphic appeared, Hamilton was 0.312 ahead of Rosberg. Wut?

good_Ralf · Post by **good_Ralf** » 09 Jul 2016, 13:15

Miguel98 wrote:I'm not going insane, aren't I?

When Hamilton crossed the finish line, the time it showed was -0.052 lower than what Rosberg had previously done.

But when the comparison graphic appeared, Hamilton was 0.312 ahead of Rosberg. Wut?

The time Hamilton's final lap was being compared to was obviously his deleted time.

Post by **mario** » 09 Jul 2016, 13:30

rachel1990 wrote:So Vettel will need a new gearbox and ANOTHER 5 place grid drop.

I think some heads may be rolling if this doesn't improve soon.

Especially when you consider that he'd already made a free gearbox change after his DNF in the Austrian GP, so the one which failed in FP3 had almost no mileage on it at all. That is now the third gearbox penalty he has picked up this season, and he's probably not far off from an engine penalty either given his engine failure in Bahrain (I believe that he is already onto his 5th engine).

Miguel98 wrote:Charlie before qualifying :"There will be zero tolerance regarding track limits during qualifying"

No times disallowed despite numerous track limits violations.

Whiting said that they would be "adopting a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to cars leaving the track at turns 9, 15 and 18 during qualifying." (i.e. Copse, Stowe and Club). Whilst there were instances of drivers exceeding the track limits, they were mainly exceeding the track limits in Luffield - that is why no further action was being taken.

Incidentally, you are also wrong about times not being disallowed - Magnussen, Palmer and Hamilton all had at least one lap time disallowed during qualifying, so the stewards were taking action when drivers did exceed the track limits in those corners.

Paul Hayes wrote:I'm glad at least that it was a car issue and not a team cock-up for Button. Fingers crossed there's some rain for him tomorrow.

And a bit of a nasty issue as well if the rear wing really was beginning to come loose in the middle sector - it's a shame for him that he couldn't get through, but Alonso showed that perhaps there is some light at the end of the tunnel for the team if he did at least manage it.

Jan Magnussen · Post by **Rob Dylan** » 09 Jul 2016, 13:44

So the Ferraris (pending) line up 5th and 11th on the grid whilst the Red Bulls are 3rd and 4th. I get the feeling that the Red Bull pace advantage is beginning to grow, and that Ferrari are going to keep losing pace comparatively.

Post by **mario** » 09 Jul 2016, 13:55

Rob Dylan wrote:So the Ferraris (pending) line up 5th and 11th on the grid whilst the Red Bulls are 3rd and 4th. I get the feeling that the Red Bull pace advantage is beginning to grow, and that Ferrari are going to keep losing pace comparatively.

It does seem that Renault's Monaco spec upgrade has nullified much of the power advantage that Ferrari used to be able to rely on - the mechanical problems the team have suffered from have hurt them as well, since the talk is that they're having to detune their engines slightly in order to make them last for long enough.

Renault has a lot more room to play with in terms of performance upgrades too - Ferrari have blown most of their tokens, whilst Renault has the most tokens left of any manufacturer. You'd expect Red Bull to be much more competitive in terms of chassis design than Ferrari has been, given their recent relative records, so I do agree that there is a good chance that Red Bull will begin to pull away from them over the rest of the season.

Fetzie · Post by **Fetzie** » 09 Jul 2016, 13:59

Apparently Rosberg has been summoned to the stewards over taking too long to complete his "slow" lap on one occasion.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/rosbe ... ch-797095/

Post by **mario** » 09 Jul 2016, 14:21

Fetzie wrote:Apparently Rosberg has been summoned to the stewards over taking too long to complete his "slow" lap on one occasion.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/rosbe ... ch-797095/

I suspect that the stewards will only reprimand Rosberg, but it makes you wonder what he was up to on that lap though. It might be understandable to miss the minimum lap time by a small amount of time, but he was more than 40 seconds off the pace - that's a pretty big mistake to make.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 09 Jul 2016, 17:07

mario wrote:
Fetzie wrote:Apparently Rosberg has been summoned to the stewards over taking too long to complete his "slow" lap on one occasion.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/rosbe ... ch-797095/

I suspect that the stewards will only reprimand Rosberg, but it makes you wonder what he was up to on that lap though. It might be understandable to miss the minimum lap time by a small amount of time, but he was more than 40 seconds off the pace - that's a pretty big mistake to make.

Nah, it's fine. It wasn't an in-lap or an out-lap so the regulation in question, article 27.5, doesn't apply to this situation.

Post by **mario** » 09 Jul 2016, 19:53

dr-baker wrote:
mario wrote:
Fetzie wrote:Apparently Rosberg has been summoned to the stewards over taking too long to complete his "slow" lap on one occasion.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/rosbe ... ch-797095/

I suspect that the stewards will only reprimand Rosberg, but it makes you wonder what he was up to on that lap though. It might be understandable to miss the minimum lap time by a small amount of time, but he was more than 40 seconds off the pace - that's a pretty big mistake to make.

Nah, it's fine. It wasn't an in-lap or an out-lap so the regulation in question, article 27.5, doesn't apply to this situation.

To be honest, it is the sort of offence where I feel that you'd really only require a gentle reminder not to do that again rather than any sort of formal action, so overall I think it is a fairly sensible decision.

That said, the clause is surely contradictory if it starts with the words "at no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly", only to then focus on in laps and out laps. If the clause applies at all times, then surely it should be irrelevant whether it was an in lap, and out lap or a timed lap - on the other hand, if the clause only applies to in and out laps, then it doesn't apply at all times.

In the end, it does rather make a mockery of the situation - evidently the stewards did initially think that regulation should have applied in those circumstances, only for them to then change their minds - it's an irritatingly badly worded clause, but then again the FIA are masters of that.

Leaving asides the arguments over the regulations, though, I'm just curious why Rosberg backed off quite that much on that lap. Surely backing off quite that much is going to be detrimental to performance, given that it could cause the brakes and tyres to potentially cool down outside of their working range?

When you look at Rosberg's next fast lap after that very slow lap, he ended up 0.75s slower than his best time. Several other drivers (Vettel, Grosjean, Gutierrez, Nasr and Hamilton) all followed a similar strategy - whilst they all failed to improve on their initial flying lap (Gutierrez was closest), most of them managed to get times within 1-2 tenths of their best time.
The data from the other drivers indicates that the strategy wasn't a particularly good one to begin with - although it was colder than expected, the long radius corners with sustained tyre loads makes it reasonably easy to build up tyre temperature, unlike in Austria - but, even then, Rosberg executed it fairly poorly in the first place, making me wonder if he overdid it.

Post by **mario** » 10 Jul 2016, 10:26

On some cheerier news, after the precautionary checks that he was subjected to yesterday, Ericsson has now been passed as fit to take part in the race and is now expected to start from the pit lane. http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/erics ... 53295&em=1

Aguaman · Post by **Aguaman** » 10 Jul 2016, 12:02

SC start.

Aguaman · Post by **Aguaman** » 10 Jul 2016, 12:18

Aww no more Pascal.

RAK · Post by **RAK** » 10 Jul 2016, 12:18

Damn. Wehrlein out after his success at Austria.

Collieafc · Post by **Collieafc** » 10 Jul 2016, 12:21

Message to Charlie Whiting:

Its annoying the fans and the drivers. And caused too many near missed in the pits. Yes they are unsafe releases but are you surprised about it? What is the point in the wets?

Fetzie · Post by **Fetzie** » 10 Jul 2016, 12:39

Palmer decided he didn't want to wait for his fourth wheel

lance_rambert · Post by **lance_rambert** » 10 Jul 2016, 12:40

LOL nice going, Renault. Unsafe release penalty incoming?

...Alonso :facepalm:

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 10 Jul 2016, 13:00

Haryanto spun out and DNF'ed in the last turn, which appears to be still wet.

Post by **Londoner** » 10 Jul 2016, 13:35

So Rosberg might be on the cusp of being disqualified, simply because his team radioed to him how to drive around his gearbox problem to, you know, keep his car in the race and not affect the championship. These radio rules are retarded!

Terrible race for Vettel.

Aguaman · Post by **Aguaman** » 10 Jul 2016, 13:37

I'm more over Brundle than anything else in F1

Post by **Miguel98** » 10 Jul 2016, 13:39

To FIA:

IndyCar races more than you in the rain. And we still had the bathplug retardness that was Detroit last year.

Fetzie · Post by **Fetzie** » 10 Jul 2016, 13:40

Exactly what is the point of full wets when they pull out the safety car whenever they would be warranted?

Post by **mario** » 10 Jul 2016, 13:48

Fetzie wrote:Exactly what is the point of full wets when they pull out the safety car whenever they would be warranted?

It does feel as if the FIA have become hyper sensitive on wet weather racing now, to the point where they are now essentially trying to avoid it where possible. I have a feeling that this might be because of Bianchi's accident and the subsequent legal action by his family, which has now lead the FIA to avoid taking the legal responsibility for letting the drivers race in those sorts of conditions in case of an accident.

East Londoner wrote:So Rosberg might be on the cusp of being disqualified, simply because his team radioed to him how to drive around his gearbox problem to, you know, keep his car in the race and not affect the championship. These radio rules are retarded!

Terrible race for Vettel.

It is very, very irritating - we saw Perez'z brakes burn out in Austria because the team weren't allowed to tell him that his brakes were wearing out, given that the FIA didn't deem it to be a "critical" brake issue.

Now, we have seen a situation where there was a relatively quick and simple fix for a gearbox issue that might otherwise put Rosberg out of the race, and yet the team are now having to gamble on the FIA being lenient on them. Whilst it's about time that one team finally decided to test the rules and hopefully force the FIA to take more of a middle ground, it really shouldn't have come to this.

Post by **Londoner** » 10 Jul 2016, 13:53

Rosberg being booed by the crowd, even more so as Hamilton and Webber tell them to knock it off. Way to make ourselves look like even bigger jackasses to the world, Britain. :facepalm:

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 10 Jul 2016, 14:12

Hey all you Silverstone boo-ers! Not only did we not need another example of f--ktardisity for the nation you kind of proved that the morons who used to boo Vettel around Europe were you lot. Dickheads.