2012 Canadian Grand Prix - Race thread

[sav_pap]

We're up there with the top guys, and that's the most important thing.

Domenicali is now predicting a three-way fight for the championship, and that includes Alonso.

Things weren't as good a few weeks ago, now is the time to show our support and stop nagging about the mistake they made yesterday.

It's easy to speculate after the event, but during the race, staying out on the softs looked like a reasonable option. Until Vettel pitted at least.

It was an amateur mistake that should never happened. Thas why we are so diassapointed. Noone said that mistakes are not acceptable. Also we never stop supporting our team.
To be a F1 champion you need the maximum support of your team. If this support don't exist then then we are in trouble. Also the driver loses his faith, he must have his mind only in driving.

[F2002]

It was an amateur mistake that should never happened. Thas why we are so diassapointed. Noone said that mistakes are not acceptable. Also we never stop supporting our team.
To be a F1 champion you need the maximum support of your team. If this support don't exist then then we are in trouble. Also the driver loses his faith, he must have his mind only in driving.

That's not to say that it wasn't a stupid mistake, mind you. It really was a very frustrating moment.

And a temporary moment of elation for our friends at Mclaren, until their next big mistake (in the box, with the tyres,.......)

[sav_pap]

That's not to say that it wasn't a stupid mistake, mind you. It really was a very frustrating moment.

And a temporary moment of elation for our friends at Mclaren, until their next big mistake (in the box, with the tyres,.......)

Hopefully we can rely on this

[Hornet]

after his second pit stop hamilton came out 1.7 sec in front of grosjean, so that means that alonso would be behind grosjean after his pit stop. ferrari knew that and decided that is better to stay 16 sec in front of grosjean who had only one pit stop at the same time when alonso had his. this was right call cause no one expected that tyres would die . if alonso's tyres weren't so bad grosjean wouldn't have chance and alonso would have been second.

A fresh tires will allow Alonso to pass Roman. Judging by how fast Lewis was pulling away, Alonso would have similar pace on a brand new set of tires.

You're right if Alonso tires was still ok, it will be fine. But I'm sure the team will notice once the gap between them starts to fall with all the lap time info, and looking at its rate, the team could easily tell when Roman is going to catch up and pass Alonso. Not sure why they did not react once the gap starts to close.

[Greig]

[Nova]

I watched the race again last nite on Speed. Watching our cars, it appears that, yes, we've made some good progress, but not enough.
How can anyone say "settle for 2nd"?? when a few races ago all we could do was 6th, 7th? Massa in 10th at times was getting passed like it was
a holiday for the other cars. His car didnt look to have anything after the spin. Alonso looked stronger, but not a match in any way for the Mac.

My point is, there is no such thing as settling for 2nd when you know your car wasnt fast enough on that day, on that track to win outright..
Ok, it was a gamble, but again given todays technology, they should have been able to tell if the tires would last given most of the other cars
performance thru out the race. Heck, even knowing what your teammates car was doing was worth noting and a better reference than another teams cars.

I couldnt watch the end of that race again, it was like getting punched in the face. Settle for 2nd? Beans....I wouldve taken 2nd in a minute.
Given the speed of the cars around us, yea, 2nd is much better than 6th. And for those that say youre glad Ferrari "went for it"..Im not at all.
It showed more fear than bravado. And tossed important points.
Ferrari, given the fact that we are still not fast enough, should still be in damage limitation mode, taking as many points from each race as possible.
Its worked so far, as we are developing a better car, and were leading the wdc..Steady car development, consistent race results. Remember the goal.

[F2002]

Ferrari, given the fact that we are still not fast enough, should still be in damage limitation mode, taking as many points from each race as possible.

To be fair, this is exactly what they have been doing so far - with enormous success if you consider the situation in the WDC.

This time they made a mistake, and they admitted it. They have to try not to repeat it again.

[F1NAC]

Does anyone have picture of Alonso's tires after the race ?

[ForzaJay]

I had a feeling Hamilton would win today and during the first stint I watched the sector times and he was faster than Alonso and Vettle which confirmed it. I thought Alonso was looking after his tyres but towards the end of his first stint he wasn't doing purple sectors like he did in Monaco, in fact immediately after Hamilton pitted he was even faster than Alonso - these factors should have signaled our pit wall that we weren't racing Hamilton who was just too fast today.

After Hamilton's second stop he was gaining over a second in one sector alone, that should have got the pit wall thinking on their feet immediately knowing the experience with the tyres this season and pitted Alonso to cover Vettle and consolidate 2nd position.

Oh well, the team will no doubt realise where they went wrong and learn from it and know that the tryes are still very unpredictable, and hopefully if Button carries on with his downward trend and Massa his upward trend then we can climb up the constructors table.

As per my previous post Gary Anderson helps sum it up, but hey who are we to judge. Alonso, his race engineer and the team made the decision together and we lost together. Lets now move on to the next race and improve on the negatives. Gary also talks positive on some of the upgrades, lets hope these work well in Valencia together with the new upgrades. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18390944

[Suzie]

This is probably a really stupid question, but yesterday during the race, Andrea and Fernando were talking to one another over the radio in Italian. Is that allowed? I was under the impression that they all had to speak English. I know for most race engineer/driver combos, they may not have a shared language so English is the only one they can really use.

[sagi58]

This is probably a really stupid question, but yesterday during the race, Andrea and Fernando were talking to one another over the radio in Italian. Is that allowed? ...

Only if they don't use their hands: swear1.gif


(( ))

[Jose-Lorca Fan]

This is probably a really stupid question, but yesterday during the race, Andrea and Fernando were talking to one another over the radio in Italian. Is that allowed? I was under the impression that they all had to speak English. I know for most race engineer/driver combos, they may not have a shared language so English is the only one they can really use.

In Malaysia Ferrari lost all telemetry from the car during the race and there was only one way to relay information back to the garage: Via radio. Alonso transmitted radio messages in italian concerning car telemetry which he read from the steering wheel. On Dailymotion they released all radio messages of every single race, but only those which were in english. I've heard the ones from Australia and Malaysia but I'm not sure if they've released them from then onwards. Anyway, needless to say, since Alonso and Stella were communicating in Italian, they didn't include it in the clip. But one could argue that they were allowed to do it then, because Alonso was feeding back sensitive information.

[F1NAC]

after this race I doubt that the tires are same for everyone .. Just look at the Grosjean .. He pitted maybe 2 laps after Fernando and he still manage to push like hell at the end. And Fernando reach the cliff .. I don't think that Lotus is that good in saving tires

[Ferrarichamp]

it seems fairly simple to me, of course I'm an armchair expert. When you lead the championship, you don't take unnecessary risks, but when you're behind, you may have to. Well, now we're behind again. And 2 or 3 points may seem very little, but Alonso lost the 2010 WDC by about 4 points. So why take a gamble when you're ahead? a throw of the dice to try and get back in the WCC race? WCC is long gone IMO.

[Alonsomaniac]

Fernando still insists there was nothing wrong with the strategy - he says it was the only way to fight for the win.

[Chicane]

Fernando still insists there was nothing wrong with the strategy - he says it was the only way to fight for the win.

I think deep inside he knows it was a bad choice..fernando is truly a statesman and a professional that's why his saying this

[Chicane]

To be fair, this is exactly what they have been doing so far - with enormous success if you consider the situation in the WDC.

This time they made a mistake, and they admitted it. They have to try not to repeat it again.

[REDARMYSOJA]

This is probably a really stupid question, but yesterday during the race, Andrea and Fernando were talking to one another over the radio in Italian. Is that allowed? I was under the impression that they all had to speak English. I know for most race engineer/driver combos, they may not have a shared language so English is the only one they can really use.

Last year when Alonso and the Ferrari pitwall were communicating in Italian the SPEED announcers made a big deal out of it, saying it is against the regulations. None of us could find anything in the regulations saying that.

[F2002]

Fernando still insists there was nothing wrong with the strategy - he says it was the only way to fight for the win.

My impression, after having re-read some of the statements made after the race, is that Alonso was a party to the decision, which is why he continues to defend the strategy.

[sav_pap]

I think that whenever there is strategy plan changing, the driver has to participate in the decision making.

[Corey]

Mercedes are just an honest bunch on that jammed DRS. Schumacher and the team could've said "we did not know why didn't it close nor did we want that to happen. But there was nothing we could do to fix the issue during the race, so we just had to let the car keep running like that."

Unless there is a rule which states the car MUST be retired if there is a DRS failure, it could be said that Mercedes blankly ended Schumacher's race.

[Suzie]

Last year when Alonso and the Ferrari pitwall were communicating in Italian the SPEED announcers made a big deal out of it, saying it is against the regulations. None of us could find anything in the regulations saying that.

Yeah, I had a look also but couldn't find anything confirming this. In that case I guess the only thing stopping them from always using Italian is because there are some native-English speakers on the pitwall.

Was just something I was curious about!

[Greig]

Mercedes are just an honest bunch on that jammed DRS. Schumacher and the team could've said "we did not know why didn't it close nor did we want that to happen. But there was nothing we could do to fix the issue during the race, so we just had to let the car keep running like that."

Unless there is a rule which states the car MUST be retired if there is a DRS failure, it could be said that Mercedes blankly ended Schumacher's race.

He would have either spun into a wall, or got black flagged. I was sure they said it was impossible for DRS to fail in the open position, maybe something to do with their Double DRS system? maybe it will be banned now on safety grounds

[EL NANO]

This is probably a really stupid question, but yesterday during the race, Andrea and Fernando were talking to one another over the radio in Italian. Is that allowed? I was under the impression that they all had to speak English. I know for most race engineer/driver combos, they may not have a shared language so English is the only one they can really use.

It was Spanish not italian

[EL NANO]

Fernando still insists there was nothing wrong with the strategy - he says it was the only way to fight for the win.

Rule of thumb is to mirror the quickest car and this was HAM on the day so bad call from ferrari...

[Suzie]

It was Spanish not italian

I'm pretty sure they were speaking Italian towards the end of the race?

[Alonsomaniac]

I think deep inside he knows it was a bad choice..fernando is truly a statesman and a professional that's why his saying this

Yes, he knows, he even said it. But he also said it was easy to say that after the race - at the moment they made the decision they thought it was the way to go, and that's why he still defends it.

[Alonsomaniac]

Rule of thumb is to mirror the quickest car and this was HAM on the day so bad call from ferrari...

That is the safe way, you don't win if you do that. They thought (which was a wrong thought they know now) by doing it the other way they had a chance to beat Lewis.

[Nova]

I have a solution..lets make the F2012 faster than the Mac....
Then we will have no problems mate.

[F2002]

I'm pretty sure they were speaking Italian towards the end of the race?

It was definitely Italian.

Not sure there is a rule obliging communications to be made in English. These are recorded and many are made public, so I cannot see any problem.