Could Webber's pit be RB's tactic to bait Ferrari into a wrong strategical mistake?

[Hornet]

I know, this probably sounds crazy, but I just want to hear what you guys thought about it.

I just find it strange that RB would intentionally put Webber right in the middle of a train of cars knowing this track is extremely hard to overtake. Though Webber did complain of his tires problem, but I still can't help but to wonder why they pit. I'm sure they could have guess where Webber would rejoin.

But that's my opinion. What do you guys think?

[RedRebel40]

NO I don't think that happened, Ferrari forgot about Vettel and tried to desperatly defend Webber. Also on the last 2 laps Alonso was sliding alot and also almost hit the barrier. So probably his tyres were gone too.

[Mrs.Domenicali]

Rob Smedley basically said they took the decision because they expected the soft tyres to go off fairly quickly.

[AvantiFer]

No, it wasn't intentionally, but Ferrari failed in covering the wrong guy... it's not a trick from Redbull

[Katu]

i guess Red Bull tricked Webber

[steelstallions]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I could predict anything with Hindsight, so using hindsight they should have pitted when MS crashed, or even better told him before the race he would crash so he could prepare.
Had MS not crashed we would be celebrating as those middle runners would not have got in the way

[MASSUM THE GREATEST]

No, it wasn't intentionally, but Ferrari failed in covering the wrong guy... it's not a trick from Redbull

Agreed. No tricks.

[Agron]

I think they did, they had a chance to win with Vettel if Ferrari messed up, and Webber was already out of it, so...

[WRX202]

Andrea Stella apologized to the team after the race as he admitted to having made the wrong call. You cannot blame him since our closest rival in points was Weber at the time. The only thing that baffled me was why they pitted Massa with such a minimal gap, he had like 19 seconds on Weber when we know it takes 20+seconds just to go through the pitlane. He would have been our shield if pitted correctly. Weber had to pit after hitting the wall with his rear wheel and was losing pressure [he said it on team radio] so it felt odd that after a driver had to make an early call we followed suit. Still, we had too many cars infront that took the opportunity when the safety car came out so not really much to do. The pressure is not just on the driver, Stella must have been sweating blood at the time poor fella, all those fans questioning him...

[Hornet]

Yeah, well, I wasn't trying to blame anyone in Ferrari

Just wondering if (to put it bluntly) RB may have used Webber to forced us to response and put ourself in a bad shape behind those slower cars

[dfunk257]

Andrea Stella apologized to the team after the race as he admitted to having made the wrong call. You cannot blame him since our closest rival in points was Weber at the time. The only thing that baffled me was why they pitted Massa with such a minimal gap, he had like 19 seconds on Weber when we know it takes 20+seconds just to go through the pitlane. He would have been our shield if pitted correctly. Weber had to pit after hitting the wall with his rear wheel and was losing pressure [he said it on team radio] so it felt odd that after a driver had to make an early call we followed suit. Still, we had too many cars infront that took the opportunity when the safety car came out so not really much to do. The pressure is not just on the driver, Stella must have been sweating blood at the time poor fella, all those fans questioning him...

If it was him that made the call, then i feel sorry for him as well. At the end of the day, you have to make a critical decision at that time, and for me personally it was a 50/50 decision. Unfortunately we just chose the 1 that didnt work. Yes we are all upset and devestated, but thats how it goes.

[tpe]

AST did the call??????? How and WHY? Did he run the simulators? Did he had any positive signs for the move? I was watching the live timing. I am sure that if MW was running 1'' faster than Alonso I would have noticed that... Alonso was in front of MW and he rejoined track just ahead of him because our pitstop was slow, not because the tyres were destroyed. I also noticed that Massa was called in with his gap from MW at only 18.something'', instead of the 21+ that is necessary...

Generally, I believe that FM is right about the teams mistakes. FA just covers the team and I do not know if I like that.
From the replays, it's clear that FA's and FM;s tyres could last much more laps, I don't know how many, but more. And since the saw that FM was stacked behind JA's STR they should NOT call FA in until the very end. At the end of the day, they should wait until MW reach the Renault of Petrov....

Of course that's history now. Let's move on, and please change the team that makes all those calls. We already saw from 2009 that they make a lot of mistakes.

[FFFerrari]

1) Webber did hit the wall and had some problem with the tyre that had the impact, came in
2) He did pick up the pace after that with the harder tyres -> Ferrari had to react in someway cause they thought that the soft tyres would run out soon anyways and be slower than the hard ones (this wasn't the truth as we found out with Vettel and specially Button)
3) They tried to shield Fernando by pitting Massa but it failed
4) They still thought that it would be wisest to keep Alonso ahead of Webber and made him pit
-> End result Alonso ahead of Webber, but behind Kubica, Rosberg and Petrov that managed to keep Alonso behind for the rest of the race.

So the pitlane crew failed 3 times. RBR didn't hatch a plan, it was all because Webber happened to hit the wall.

[Fiondella]

Huge Cahoonas required preferably made of steel to make that call me thinks

[KurtC]

NO Webber lose grip in the rear tyre after hittin the wall.... he was losing time so he had to go in... it was no bait... didn't you lads watched the race??? now ... i'm no strategist and i don't think any of us could be much better of what we have in Ferrari team but after the race we do knew that it was not the best call to send Alonso to pit that early.. but again i don't know what were Alonso's tyre condition at that time, and Webber did fast laps after he changed his tyres...

[Hermann]

I'm beginning to believe in a conspiracy.

Do you remember what i wrote about haug? That he said they would try to help Vettel by bringing a car between him and Fernando? And you were all laughing about that, asking 'how would he do that'. And see now?

Who was one of the cars who pitted very early? Who was between Fernando and Vettel afterwards? Rosberg.

And Alguersuari? He let Webber by after a few laps, but not Massa. Maybe they should look for another engine suplier.

Not to speak about Petrov. RB is driving with Renault engines.

I count out McLaren because Hamilton still had a (very small) chance himself.

But otherwise, to me it seems Ferrari was not only driving against one or two teams.


And Horner with all his 'we don't manipulate like Ferrari'- talk all the time....


Maybe some of the teams got together and decided to stop Ferrari if they got the chance. Is this so far- fetched? Maybe i'm getting paranoid, but they did have a reason.

With Hockenheim, Ferrari dragged something into public that had been done all the time quietely and without much attention. Yes, they would have had a reason.

[Tony]

Ferrari messed up by botching the pit stop (at least that's what the commentator said, problem putting on the tyre) for Massa.... if they would have managed to have gotten Massa out ahead of Alonso, there would not have been the need to bring Alonso in the next lap....

And of course, at the end of the day, I blame Michael Schumacher for losing the title.... without his accident, it would have been a normal race with Fernando probably very easily finishing 4th.... oh well....

[Red is Best]

Now that I think about it, I wonder if Petrov would have defended his position so harshly if it was Webber and not Alonso behind him (in the case Alonso didn't pit early in the race).

[The Architect]

It would be nice to think it was bait, but the fact Ferrari have had such blunt reactionary tactics all season long reflects worse on Ferrari than anyone else. We let ourselves be duped into following suit, ignoring the fact that we'd have to overtake at least two cars around Abu Dhabi which was never going to happen.

[DIEK]

The video is narrated and subtitled in Spanish, but you can hear Vettel&Mark talking in English...

[Grillo]

It's dodgy. They probably had planned something in advance if Webber couldn't pass Alonso but the SC helped them a lot.

I understand Webber had to help the team and I think he did the correct thing but I don't like him being so nice with Vettel at all.