The F1 Thread 2012 Season

McLaren are lucky to have two great drivers, their strategy and execution has been errrr somewhat suspect so far. Well done to Rosberg, wonderful drive, Vettel should be a bit happier considering he was 15th after the start. Felt bad for Raikkonem he finished 14th in the end! 3 races and 3 different winners with not a finger in sight, Coulthatd was right when he said it was like Formula Ford. Not sure I agree with the next race taking place however.
 
Leg-End said:
Great win for Rosberg, Mercedes clearly likes the races a bit cooler and they have got on top of the tyre issues a bit.

McLaren yet again beat themselves before trying to beat anyone else, a team that can build race winning cars but obviously have an absolute feckwit in charge of strategy and thats before talking about pitstop feck ups.
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I thought they did OK today , the problem with Button could of happened to any team.
 
marchi-91 said:
I don't think Buttons strategy was bad at all, just unlucky.
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It could have worked without the pitstop mishap yeah, they hung Hamilton out to dry twice though by calling him in too early or too late straight into roadblocks, the second pitstop especially when he needed probably two more laps to jump the pack.
 
McLaren's strategy kept putting their drivers in traffic with new tyres on, they were more concerned with Webber than Rosberg. Admittedly Button was unlucky on his last stop but that's the 2nd race in a row the pit stops haven't been ideal.
 
Solid result for Mercedes, could of had a 1-2 had their traffic light system failed on Schumacher's pitstop. Combination of the circuit temperature and circuit layout suited them down to the ground. However, can't see them doing much in the European races if they dont resolve their tyre issue though.
 
Drivers that have more points than Massa

1 Lewis Hamilton
2 Jenson Button
3 Fernando Alonso
4 Mark Webber
5 Sebastian Vettel
6 Nico Rosberg
7 Sergio Perez
8 Kimi Raikkonen
9 Bruno Senna
10 Kamui Kobayashi
11 Romain Grosjean
12 Paul Di Resta
13 Jean-Eric Vergne
14 Pastor Maldonado
15 Daniel Ricciardo
16 Nico Hulkenberg
17 Michael Schumacher
 
I didn't think it was that good, had a good ending, but the first half not so much
Best bit was Raikkonen's tyres running out, the tyres are less entertaining than last season
 
Updated Fantasy League standings

Only just noticed there's only a few of us gone for the three drive strategy and it's not really paying off, and two of us have the same three drivers (Button, Hamilton and Webber)

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Bahrain will tell us (if it happens, I guess it should). China was cooler conditions therefore much easier on the tyres but they must have made some improvements in that regard.
 
Did anyone hear Vettels rant on the radio on the lap back into Parc Ferme after the race finished? Was quite a rant apparently about the Red Bull's lack of straight line speed.
 
Leg-End said:
Bahrain will tell us (if it happens, I guess it should). China was cooler conditions therefore much easier on the tyres but they must have made some improvements in that regard.
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I have my doubt if Bahrain will happen , there is still trouble on a daily basis
I think the wrong desision has been made to even go there fir the race
 
Leg-End said:
Bahrain will tell us (if it happens, I guess it should). China was cooler conditions therefore much easier on the tyres but they must have made some improvements in that regard.
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I think they'll struggle in the heat, we'll just have to see won't we. But think we're looking at the McLaren dominance again
 
If I was honest I expected it to be a damp squib. Protests normally promise much and deliver little.

And there was a chance we might not have even found the demonstration site at Salmabad at all - it was 17 kilometres north of the Bahrain Grand Prix track and way outside the capital Manama.

Police roadblocks closed off all the major routes into the village which was staging the third and final day of funeral marches for local cameraman Ahmed Ismael Hassan Al Samadi, who was killed in the troubles.

But by a little persistence, off-roading and luck we found ourselves in the village an hour after the start time.

The marchers turned out to be mainly women dressed from head to foot in their traditional black abaya.

Men and boys, some probably as young as, nine or 10, lingered on the fringes.

They marched a few hundred yards, turned a corner and marched down a local road. A megaphone blared out a message in Arabic and the rank and file chanted what I was told was “Down with Hamad” (the monarch).

“Just wait a while and the party will start. The police will come,” said a passing protester.

Behind the marchers' concrete blocks, bricks and debris were spread across the road. Teenagers and men appeared carrying molotov cocktails. One in hand and another in the back pocket.

I could smell the petrol as they walked past me.

I had deliberately chosen an unbranded white shirt to avoid offence. “White shirt makes you an easy target. You stand out,” I was told.

Almost as one they turned, suddenly, and retraced their steps. I was mystified. Police were gathered behind a block of flats, I was told, but the crossroads ahead was deserted.

Then the police arrived. Women play a large part in the current protests but this group morphed from mainly women to almost exclusively men, from 2,000 to a few hundred. But one woman I saw was head to toe in black wearing a teargas mask.

They ran towards the police, making sure their scarves were in place, and it was difficult to know who reacted first. There were petrol bombs, flashes of fire as they hit the ground, a few loud explosions and trails of smoke into the sky as teargas was used.

The protesters fragmented and ran, smoke starting to billow around them.
When the bulk turned like a herd of wildebeest and headed for buildings and cars behind me, I suddenly found myself in the middle of the action.

I was unsure whether to remain still, wave my passport or my notebook at the advancing riot police, or run.

A human rights activist had allegedly spent six hours in custody the night before after being caught in a police raid.

A canister landed nearby. I ran.

Our car had been in a line of a few dozen. By the time we reached it there was only ours. As I hit the door button another canister landed on the other side of the car, five feet away, billowing smoke.

Ian Parkes from the Press Association was with me. Because the smoke was creeping up around the door pillars he could not get into the passenger side and jumped in the back behind me.

I slid into the driving seat ready to drive off. I stared at the automatic gear stick and the letters D, N, P, R but couldn’t remember what any of them stood for. Was P for power, pause or park? Was R for release?

I coughed and sneezed from the teargas.

I snatched a gear and we sped away. A few hundred yards later I stopped on a different side of the open ground that had just been the scene of the conflict.

I was told there was a makeshift clinic nearby in case of injury because those hurt and taken to hospital risk being arrested, but I didn’t see it and there appeared to be no injuries this time.

Protesters were disappearing into the buildings and alleyways on my right. Riot police, all in dark blue, maybe 15-20 of them, were advancing, line abreast, across the open ground.

Giant wheelie bins were ablaze, clumps of wood on fire, the roads littered with blocks of concrete.

Three giant police SUVs swung onto the dry sand and headed directly for us. Ian shouted an alarm.

I was unsure whether to go or stay but chose the former and we raced away again.

I expected them to shepherd us off the protest site completely but once we had moved, they stopped where we had been and took position.

Throughout, police helicopters hovered overhead.

After that the riot police marched into the streets of Salmabad, sweeping away the last signs of protest.

Not once during the event had Formula 1 been in evidence. Just “unhappy and angry” people.

When I tweeted as much one activist explained there was much to be unhappy about.

She claimed there were nightly sweeps of local villages and brutal arrests with more than 80 people in custody from the last week all as a clampdown against possible trouble at the Grand Prix.

The increased repression, she said, is only fuelling anger at the ruling monarchy.

Another told me that even among the ruling royal family there is division over the Grand Prix. He said the driving force was Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad rather than the monarch, his father, Hamad.

With this protest the last for the dead cameraman, I was told, the focus would turn on Formula 1.

The authorities have not helped that in using the banner “UniF1ed” in all their promotional material.

To some F1 and the ruling monarchy are the same thing.

The two trigger points for the next few days, I’ve been told, would be the Grand Prix itself and the condition of hunger striker, Abdul Hadi Al Khawaja, who has reportedly been transferred to an army hospital and is said to be close to death.

The authorities have refused his family or lawyer access to him, increasing fears he may already have died.

Activists say 60 sportsmen from national teams, basketball, tennis, football have been arrested over the last year and 15 still remain in custody.

An Amnesty International report published in full today, and covered in my last column ( Why Formula 1 is playing with fire by sticking to its guns over the Bahrain Grand Prix ), said there continued to be a human rights “crisis” in Bahrain, detailing systematic torture, unnecessary force and abuse of power.

And it warned there was a danger the international community would think all wrongs had been righted simply because the Grand Prix had gone ahead.

Protesters responded with a detailed list of demonstrations which will take the issue ever closer to the F1 venue itself, culminating in "Two Days of Rage" for the Saturday and Sunday of the race weekend – with unspecified acts threatened.

The authorities and leading Formula 1 figures claim there is no need for concern and all issues are under control.

So what is to there to worry about? Marchers and banners don’t amount to much, surely?

Around a week ago seven police were injured in a bomb blast, three of them seriously.

That one incident has changed the nature of the conflict, escalating it to a level that was hitherto unimaginable.

One activist told me: “The Grand Prix is a once in a year opportunity to be heard.

“No-one wants to target journalists or teams or fans; this is not Syria or the Lebanon, we are not schooled in warfare in Bahrain.

"But if they get caught in the crossfire, who knows?”
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http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/bahrain-grand-prix-how-the-mirrors-797440
 
Everything about that Bahrain GP just feels so wrong. Bernie was going on in an interview that they are not protesting about F1 and thats why we are going there but the reality is F1 going there gives them a chance to be in the spot light, I can see it all going wrong this weekend and badly too.
 
iSparky said:
Everything about that Bahrain GP just feels so wrong. Bernie was going on in an interview that they are not protesting about F1 and thats why we are going there but the reality is F1 going there gives them a chance to be in the spot light, I can see it all going wrong this weekend and badly too.
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I agree with you on this IMHO they should of cancelled the race this season.
marchi-91 has a very valid point how are they going to stop a group of determined people from invading the track and making a political point , there could be carnage.
 
I have a strong feeling it's going to be Jenson Buttons year this season, I hope it is aswell.
 
Widnes said:
I have a strong feeling it's going to be Jenson Buttons year this season, I hope it is aswell.
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Early signs are for a good McLaren season , Jenson and Lewis will be fighting it out most of the season and it is going to make for some good races.
Mercedes will also be in there and you can right off the Red Bulls , it is going to be one of the best ever season I think
 
Why did they just push Bahrain towards the end of the season when they come back across Europe for a couple of races in Asia?
 
Im guessing they could not move Bahrain to the end as the season now finishes pretty late into winter these days, last race is at the end of November, the guys need to have winter off to spend with family and to recharge, its a long long season.
 
iSparky said:
Im guessing they could not move Bahrain to the end as the season now finishes pretty late into winter these days, last race is at the end of November, the guys need to have winter off to spend with family and to recharge, its a long long season.
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Well they could have moved on to the next race in the calendar and pushed everything up one place and fit in Bahrain towards the end of the season.
 
RDCR07 said:
Well they could have moved on to the next race in the calendar and pushed everything up one place and fit in Bahrain towards the end of the season.
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They really couldnt, moving everything on the calendar up one week would be a logistical nightmare from hell. I am betting that its not as easy as saying, "ah hell lets just move it all forward a week"
 
It's very much not that easy. The logistics behind moving F1 around the world are incredible, playing around with the schedule would cause massive costs and headaches.
 
The teams need to just say feck it and get out of there, balls to Bernie the fecking wank stain.
 
A decision based on pure greed, F1 will never change.

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The drivers chilling all in the same area for safety apparently.
 
Wouldn't surprise me if the likes of Schumi and Bernie fly in by helicopter straight to the circuit. Alright for some, but it's a different when you're a mechanic.

Either way, if I had the money I sure as shit wouldn't be staying in the country.
 
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