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2014 Formula 1 Season Thread (part II)

What you really seem to be saying there is that the car has been developed more with Rosberg's input, and to suit his style of driving and the loads he puts on the car than Hamilton's.

No I am not.

Nobody knew how Lewis or Nico would drive these cars right out at the limit as too much had changed from any previous car. So with a difficult to predict duty cycle we end up with cars, that as predicted, are less reliable than last years, with some drivers affected more than others.

Something like it was alleged was done for Schumacher when Rosberg was beating the pants off him.

Please can you expand on this as I do not know what you are alluding to.
 
Hi Mike,

The term duty cycle is commonly used w.r.t. reliability where parts fail after a broadly predictable usage and hence components can be lifed (this is I think how you are interpreting it, please correct me if I am wrong).

I am using the term in a slightly wider sense as what happens with more extreme loads etc is that you accelerate the failure modes dramatically. It is a highly non linear situation with combinations of loads likely to be causing these problems.

Thanks for the post Ian and you are right in that this is how I was looking at it.

I appreciate that stresses increase dramatically as anything approaches it's limits - a look at the human body shows just how dramatically things change as we approach the upper limits of the performance envelope.

I'm just saddened that the data collected so far has not resulted in modifications that have enabled Hamilton to drive without penalty. If we are talking about a brake disc compound or resin then is it not more feasible to increase the safety envelope of that component (with small weight/performance penalty) rather than ask a top driver to take it easy all the time? After all, surely the reason MB are paying millions for Hamilton's services is that he is one of the very quickest drivers in F1 and has been for some time?

Obviously people like me are not in possession of enough information to make a judgement on whether MB are doing a good job of diagnosing the car's issues and correcting them. If the team can eradicate the failures and Hamilton can still produce the lap time then this is the correct route surely, even if the replacement part/design appears on the drawing board to be of inferior potential?

In other words you have one driver who can seemingly squeeze every ounce of performance out of the package but it breaks, and another who stresses the design less but cannot explore the limits. Whatever his supporters say, I've never seen Rosberg as being able to extract the last hundredth from a package or make that last lap move that rescues three crucial points. Quick yes. Consistent yes. Intelligent. Clearly. But it's not like he could brake later and gain time consistently but chooses not to - and i think that greater component stress capacity just might prove that and put the argument about his being a "thinking driver" to rest.
 
Hi Mike,

The designers and systems engineers involved are unhappy with these problems as it is their systems that are at fault. They are working very hard to resolve it as it is a team problem and has to be solved (htey are under a lot of pressure and have a lot of help to fix it). The fact that it hasn't been solved suggests very strongly that it is a difficult to resolve problem. It is almost certainly a very complex loading situation that is very difficult to instrument, analyse, predict and fix.

Lewis and Nico just drive differently, at most circuits Lewis will be quicker but not at all. At some circuits Lewis will trash his tyres quickly in the race due to his driving and at others he won't.

In other words this is a very difficult problem and there are some very clever and very motivated people working very hard to resolve them.
 
Vettel's RB contract ends with the 2015 season, as does Hamilton's Merc contract. German media are speculating that Merc are interested in signing Vettel.

Helmut Marko claims that Vettel also got a very good offer from McLaren.

Silly season comes early this year.
 
On current form, performance gains wouldn't be high on the list for those offering the young German a contract Markus ;)
 
Personally, I think Lewis relies a bit too much on others getting out of the way for him. I'm sure it'll cost him another race before the season is through.

Yeah that damn Lewis Hamilton he races.

If only he was German ...

...maybe he's got a German mother or something?
 
I don't think Lewis will need anyone to get out of the way for him or to take any unnecessary risks if he has a smooth lead up to Sunday Markus.

On pace, he'll be on pole nine times out of ten and be able to control the race from the front. Unfortunately, to date, little issues (with the exception of Silverstone seemingly not of his making) have masked that fact.

Given reliability in the second half of the season I firmly believe that Hamilton will prevail - my only question mark being how, if at all, the banning of the FRIC impacts tyre degradation in race trim.

There is undoubtedly an element of nationalistic bias when discussing F1 drivers, you only have to see the crowds at Hockenheim and Silverstone to appreciate that. The media no doubt plays it's part but Hamilton is the first British driver that I have truly rated. Personally I had no time for Mansell or Hill, Hunt or Watson. I think prior to breaking his legs Herbert was a great talent and Brundle was quick and intelligent.

But typically I have admired the talents of Lauda, Prost and Senna, Gilles Villeneuve and the odd driver from even earlier eras. Schumacher I have issues with (given that Benetton were almost certainly cheating and Ferrari totally dominant) and Vettel is yet to prove himself in a car that doesn't feature the blown diffusor.
 
Too young for Clark and Stewart? Moss was maybe the best Brit, but close with Clark. Fangio was the best of all time IMO, and Moss always acknowledged he was just better than him.

None of the modern drivers bullshit there.
 
Schumacher I have issues with (given that ...Ferrari totally dominant)

Not at the beginning. I'll never forget Schumacher's first Ferrari win in the rain in Spain in an evil-handling car running on 9 cylinders. He totally trounced the opposition. It is one of the great drives in history. And it was Schumacher's relentless pursuit of perfection that helped drive the team to the heights it reached. Some of what he did was morally questionable, but no more than e.g. Senna.

Alas, the gentleman days are gone. It tends to be forgotten that Mike Hawthorn became World Champion instead of Stirling Moss because Moss persuaded the authorities to reinstate points Hawthorn had lost by disqualification because of a push start. Moss pointed out that the push start had been made while the car was off the circuit, so disqualification was not merited. Those reinstated points made the difference at the end of the season. Can you see any current driver doing that?
 
Not at the beginning. I'll never forget Schumacher's first Ferrari win in the rain in Spain in an evil-handling car running on 9 cylinders. He totally trounced the opposition.

Hmm. What quality of opposition Tones?

I remember being at Donington Park in 1993 and seeing what a true great could do in those conditions against real opposition like Prost and Schumacher himself.

I never saw Clark sadly. I did however see Fangio at Donington Park when he gave a remarkable demonstration of the Silver Arrows at pensionable age. Still fresh in the memory the sight of him playing with that huge wheel whilst opposite locking through Mcleans and Coppice. :)
 
From today's FP3:

"Lewis Hamilton has been doing a lot of work on hitting his marks in the Mercedes pit box. Every tenth of a second counts, of course. There's still some more work to do, though, as Jennie Gow reports that he clatters the front jack on his last entry."

Courtesy BBC Sport.
 
FFS what the hell is going on with Lewis car. This is getting more than bad luck. Merc should be embarrassed at this complete and utter shables
 
What a joke.

The conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day.

Rosberg is being handed the championship by Mercedes engineers failing to do their jobs.

Another boring Sunday. I can only hope for trouble to strike the Rosberg car to keep the fire burning throughout August (probably the wrong turn of phrase but..)
 
What a joke.

The conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day.

Rosberg is being handed the championship by Mercedes engineers failing to do their jobs.

Another boring Sunday. I can only hope for trouble to strike the Rosberg car to keep the fire burning throughout August (probably the wrong turn of phrase but..)

Conspiracy theory (3) Bernie's legal team suggests a German WDC might help his case:)
 
I don't know what HiFi kit Lewis does use, but expect it to be big and loud from comments he made

Lewis is certainly having a bad run with reliability here. The overall level of reliability is no surprise to me (I have explained why in many posts including why some faults are likely to occur to Lewis more than Nico), but having said all that I do feel for Lewis.

I hope he can surprise people tomorrow and come through the field and get close to Nico by the end.

There are more than enough races left for Lewis to be world champion.

Meanwhile back in Brackley, the pressure continues to sort out the poor reliability shown so far.
 


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