The Formula One Topic

[Chrill]

The race wasn't amazing by any means, too many stoppages. I was genuinely worried about the safety of the drivers. Pirelli clearly can't design a proper rain tire.

That standing ovation for Massa though. Oh my. Tears were shed.

[Pilot]

I can't help but feel a lot of the issues caused by the rain were actually caused by stopping the race when the rain was dying down, and the safety cars slower speed. If they had been out when instead they were Red Flagged, maybe the track would have been a lot safer to drive on. After all, several drivers were saying that the conditions were better, though I'm not sure whether that is entirely believable, as tactics were probably also coming into play.

Verstappen was on fire in that race, coming back from 13th to 3rd, though of course he nearly lost it into the barriers on a couple of occasions (though I'm sure he wasn't the only one). I thought Sainz did well being able to finish as high as he did, just a shame he lost a few places towards the end of the race. The two Manor drivers were unlucky not to get some points on the table, however, I wasn't exactly surprised seeing that car go into reverse once the racing resumed! Nasr was another driver I thought did well, getting some points on the board for Sauber!


Massa crashed in the perfect place for him to get a standing Ovation! Almost like it was planned It was brilliant to see the Mercedes and Ferrari garages come out though, proper Sportsmanship right there! Unfortunately not the best day for Williams though.

[Chrill]

This video shows just how close Ocon was to hitting Raikkonen. Also, those speeds. We don't see it on the TV, just how fast these cars drive. Crazy.

[Transportman]

The race wasn't amazing by any means, too many stoppages. I was genuinely worried about the safety of the drivers. Pirelli clearly can't design a proper rain tire.

That standing ovation for Massa though. Oh my. Tears were shed.

If you cut out all those stoppages and safety cars I did find it a nice race, but all those things did make it a bit boring.

And that moment for Massa was indeed touching, beautiful to see.

[Chrill]

The race was great near the end when the standing water was less. At every restart after SC I genuinely feared for a Japan 2014 repeat. Seeing Ocon slip by Raikkonen that close at such high speed really scared me. I wasn't comfortable watching them race.

Verstappen's performance may perhaps be the single greatest drive in the last 10 or so years of Formula 1. He found alternative lines, he passed everyone he needed to and he ended up third despite Red Bull messing up the strategy. Ricciardo had nothing on the Dutchman. Rosberg had nothing on the Dutchman. Hamilton perhaps did, we never quite found out. Verstappen fought through traffic the whole race. I'm still not a fan of his post-race and pre-race comments and behavior, but I am a huge fan of his ability to understand the car's ability on track at all times.

[Pilot]

The race was great near the end when the standing water was less. At every restart after SC I genuinely feared for a Japan 2014 repeat. Seeing Ocon slip by Raikkonen that close at such high speed really scared me. I wasn't comfortable watching them race.

I do genuinely believe that the safety car period caused Raikkonen's crash, less water was being removed from the racing line due to the lower speeds, this being directly after one of the restarts after all. Ocon was brilliant to avoid it though, he musn't have had much time between seeing it and avoiding it (the video appears to show him driving around it, whether you agree or not is up to you!).

Hamilton perhaps did, we never quite found out.

I think Hamilton had the advantage on similarly worn tires, however, I think it would have been much more in favour of the Red Bull driver in any battle towards the end of the race, with tires just half as worn as the Mercedes had.

He is a brilliant driver, no doubt about it, but like you say, some of his comments aren't exactly the most popular. However, is his job to be popular, or to get points on the board for the team? I expect the latter

[Chrill]

Verstappen is speaking his age, so to say. He could have done with maturing for a couple years. I can see him getting tired of F1 politics like Vettel. I don't currently see Vettel continuing to the age of Alonso and Massa, I see him retiring way sooner.

Verstappen may end up leaving F1 before he turns 30. At which point he will already have completed 12 seasons.

[Chrill]

We're close to filling the grid. My fellow Swede Marcus is now confirmed to remain at Sauber. Considering how he has had the upper hand on Nasr this season I am not surprised.

Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team:
6. Nico Rosberg (source)
44. Lewis Hamilton (source)

Red Bull Racing:
3. Daniel Ricciardo (source)
33. Max Verstappen (source)

Scuderia Ferrari:
5. Sebastian Vettel (source)
7. Kimi Raikkonen (source)

Sahara Force India Formula One Team:
11. Sergio Perez (source)
31. Esteban Ocon (source)

Williams Martini Racing:
77. Valtteri Bottas (source)
?. Lance Stroll (source)

McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team:
14. Fernando Alonso (source)
47. Stoffel Vandoorne (source)

Scuderia Toro Rosso:
55. Carlos Sainz, Jr. (source)
26. Daniil Kvyat (source)

Haas F1 Team:
8. Romain Grosjean (source)
20. Kevin Magnussen (source)

Renault Sport Formula One Team:
27. Nico Hülkenberg (source)
30. Jolyon Palmer (source)

Manor Racing MRT:
88. Rio Haryanto (source)
94. Pascal Wehrlein (source)
?. Jordan King (source)

Sauber F1 Team:
9. Marcus Ericsson (source)
12. Felipe Nasr (source)
?. Antonio Giovinazzi (source)

[Pyoro]

So Rosberg is Champion of the World. Congratulations, I suppose.

I don't think it's a season I'll remember much. And he's not a World Champion I'll consider high up the skill list, right there with Button, Villeneuve or Hill. No offense to any of them ^^;

[Chrill]

I rate Rosberg highly. Lewis Hamilton is definitely the more talented driver of the two, but also the more emotional. Rosberg's best is not as good as Lewis, but Lewis can experience bigger dips and low points. Rosberg is simply more consistent.

Even if you ignore all the reliability issues, fact remains that Hamilton has made a fool of at least 3 starts by own merit (and then another 2-3 due to clutch issues). Rosberg suffered the same bad getaways due to clutch, but never due to his own behaviour.

Rosberg is never going to be the better driver over a lap, but he proved that he can be the better driver of a season. It's fair. He deserved the title, more so than Hamilton.

I am also not very happy with how Hamilton acted at the end. He ignored very clear team orders for his own good. I'm sure Rosberg would have done the same had the situation been reversed, but fact remains that Lewis actually did it. Formula 1 is a team sport first and foremost. The driver is second to the team. Lewis chose to ignore that. Not a nice move.

[Pyoro]

Ah, deserve or not, meh. He didn't cheat, so he's certainly a fair winner. And I don't like Hamilton - he's matured, but still has this tendency to sulk when things don't go his way - so I'm certainly not complaining. ^^

But I don't really agree with the Hamilton/Rosberg view. In their first year together, maybe, but by now Hamilton on a bad day is still faster than Rosberg, at least until he in turn has a very good day. He certainly can be fast under the right conditions, but that's pretty much true for any F1 driver. And while I'm not saying that Rosberg is a bad driver, I'd rather have a whole bunch of other drivers in my team than him - Vettel, Alonso, Bottas, Ricciardo, Perez or Hülkenberg ... Verstappen obviously, but not just yet.

[Transportman]

I think Rosberg is the more cautious driver of the two, and I think he deserved to win it this year.

Also a nice drive from Vettel this last race, he deserved that place (although he also would have deserved to lose his 4th place in the championship to Verstappen for his whiny behavior in earlier races, with the low point his tirade in Mexico).

And now we have to wait over 3 months for the next season start...

[Pyoro]

It's actually kinda astonishing that while the season has more races nowadays it's not really much longer, date-wise. 20th of March to 27th of November, 21 races; 14th of March to 7th of November in 1994 with 16 races. Adjusted for starting 6 days earlier that basically means the season was just two weeks longer this year, for 5 extra races. I frankly thought the difference would be more notable ^^;

[Voyager One]

It's actually kinda astonishing that while the season has more races nowadays it's not really much longer

They do need some time to prepare the new cars...


Wrt Rosberg - I agree with Chrill, he has simply been more consistent than Lewis. OTOH, I also think he lacks that "sparkle" that "something special" that some other drivers show. In another set of circumstances like not having Lewis having that DNF some races ago (or some other "black spots" Lewis has had in the season), Rosberg wouldn't have been nowhere near the title.

P.S. Before anyone says something about my "something special" comment, I mean that they're all special just for being F1 drivers but there are still some finesses between them.

[Dave]

As much as it pains me to praise the petulant little turd, Hamilton is a million times better driver than Rosberg.

But that doesn't always guarantee you championships. So.

[Chrill]

Dave sums it up better than most. Hamilton is a turd but a fast one.

He is not a complete driver, he is not as consistent as Rosberg, but he is definitely faster.

[Pilot]

I'm not what you would call a Hamilton fan, but I would have preferred if Hamilton would have won it, simply due to the fact he's British. That said Nico was the most consistent over the season, and deserved to win it, so I'd have no issue congratulating him

I'm rather surprised the team got involved telling Lewis to speed up "for the good of the team". At the end of the day, there was no danger that the team was going to lose in the Constructor's Championship, and if anything, it actually made the race more entertaining! I'd also be amazed if they punished Hamilton, yes, he disobeyed team orders, but it was clear he was doing it in an attempt to win the championship himself, something I'm sure many people can understand!

Surely there is some form of talent in driving that slowly and maintaining grip too?

[Pyoro]

I think that was kinda a development of how MGP tried to managed the Hamilton-Rosberg relationship. In the beginning, they were all "team orders? We don't do that sort of thing" (unless they weren't really racing against each other anyway), then they were "well, they mostly get to race against each other, unless we feel the need to step in", then they were sort-of "we have those rules, but when things are decided they get to do their own thing" and now it's "we tell them what to do, at all times".

Whether that actually helps or not, I don't know. Classic military advise is to never order a soldier to do something he won't do anyway, and, frankly, telling a F1 driver in the last race of the season to throw away his only chance at the title is just that ^^

[Chrill]

They told Lewis to speed up because Vettel was pretty damn fast on his supersofts. Mercedes would prefer a Mercedes 1-2 over a 1-3 or 2-3. Obviously.

Mercedes have been really good at letting the two race this year. Kudos to them.

On a similar note, Lewis was "ill" today and refused to do the 2017 tyre testing that he was meant to do. Mercedes had to call for Pascal Wehrlein at the last minute.
Source

The three-time world champion was due to sample the wider rubber for the first time at Barcelona last month, but sat the test out because of a sore foot.

Hamilton took to the wheel of the modified 2015 W06 at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina circuit on Tuesday and was expected to complete the whole day. However, Mercedes said Hamilton felt unwell after his early runs so the team drafted in reserve Pascal Wehrlein, who was on standby, to take over.

[Chrill]

A friend of mine, together with myself, decided to rate the drivers this season. We only started in Monaco but now that the season is over we have amassed the following stats. All ratings are on a scale of 1-10 (where 3 is really bad, and a 2 is basically super mega awful and 1 is more or less unheard of).

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Fantastic. Here are the results of our 2016 Rate the Drivers table! In the event of ties, I am dividing them by the amount of times they were awarded a 10. If that's also a tie, I order them by the amount of 9s they got and so on.

Chrill:
Pos. Driver - Average Rating (Tie breaker)

1: Daniel Ricciardo - 7.438
2: Lewis Hamilton - 7.188
3: Sebastian Vettel - 7.133
4: Fernando Alonso - 7.125
5: Sergio Perez - 7.000
6: Carlos Sainz Jr - 6.867
7: Nico Hülkenberg - 6.857
8: Nico Rosberg - 6.750
9: Max Verstappen - 6.375 (Score of 10 once)
10: Kimi Räikkönen - 6.375 (Score of 8 four times)
11: Jenson Button - 6.267
12: Valtteri Bottas - 6.250
13: Marcus Ericsson - 6.143
14: Pascal Wehrlein - 6.071
15: Romain Grosjean - 6.000
16: Esteban Gutierrez - 5.750
17: Estaban Ocon - 5.667
18: Felipe Massa - 5.375
19: Daniil Kvyat - 5.333
20: Jolyon Palmer - 5.200 (Score of 9 once, 7 twice)
21: Kevin Magnussen - 5.200 (Score of 9 once, 7 once)
22: Felipe Nasr - 5.063
23: Rio Haryanto - 4.143


Penfold:
Pos. Driver - Average Rating (Tie breaker)

1: Daniel Ricciardo - 7.500 (Score of 10 twice)
2: Fernando Alonso - 7.500 (Scored of 10 once)
3: Lewis Hamilton - 7.500 (Score of 9 four times)
4: Sergio Perez - 7.143 (Score of 10 once, 9 twice, 8 three times)
5: Nico Rosberg - 7.143 (Score of 10 once, 9 twice, 8 twice)
6: Sebastian Vettel - 7.000
7: Carlos Sainz Jr - 6.769
8: Kimi Räikkönen - 6.714
9: Nico Hülkenberg - 6.500
10: Max Verstappen - 6.429
11: Jenson Button - 6.385
12: Valtteri Bottas - 6.286
13: Pascal Wehrlein - 6.231
14: Romain Grosjean - 6.167
15: Estaban Ocon - 6.111
16: Esteban Gutierrez - 5.643
17: Marcus Ericsson - 5.615
18: Felipe Massa - 5.538
19: Jolyon Palmer - 5.308
20: Kevin Magnussen - 5.071
21: Daniil Kvyat - 5.000
22: Felipe Nasr - 4.929
23: Rio Haryanto - 4.600

The driver with the most scores of 10 overall:
1. Daniel Ricciardo (Penfold 2 + Chrill 1)
1. Max Verstappen (Penfold 2 + Chrill 1)
3. Carlos Sainz Jr (Penfold 1 + Chrill 1)
3. Pascal Wehrlein (Penfold 1 + Chrill 1)
5. Fernando Alonso (Penfold 1)
5. Nico Rosberg (Penfold 1)
5. Sergio Perez (Penfold 1)




The worst weekend of any driver this season (since Monaco) was:
1. Daniil Kvyat - 2.000 (Penfold 2/10, Chrill 2/10) - Grand Prix de Monaco
2. Kevin Magnussen - 2.000 (Penfold 2/10, Chrill X/10) - Grote Prijs van België (Belgium)
3. Felipe Nasr - 2.500 (Penfold 2/10, Chrill 3/10) - Gran Premio d'Italia
3. Max Verstappen - 2.500 (Penfold 2/10, Chrill 3/10 - Grote Prijs van België (Belgium)

The best weekend of any driver is obviously a tie at 10 points. Chronological order of who achieved it first:
1: Daniel Ricciardo - 10.000 - Grand Prix de Monaco
1: Pascal Wehrlein - 10.000 - Großer Preis von Österreich (Austria)
1: Carlos Sainz Jr - 10.000 - United States Grand Prix
1: Max Verstappen -10.000 - Grande Prêmio do Brasil



And the final stat I can think of now. Since Daniel Ricciardo won both our rankings, I think it'd be interesting to take a look at his three worst weekends:
1. 日本グランプリ (Japan) - 5.500 (Penfold 5/10, Chrill 6/10)
2. Grand Prix of Europe (Azerbaijan) - 6.000 (Penfold 6/10, Chrill 6/10)
3. Grande Prêmio do Brasil - 6.000 (Penfold 6/10, Chrill 6/10)

That is a heck of a high average. He scored one 5 this season, all other ratings were 6 or higher.

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I hope some of you guys would be boring enough to join us in rating the drivers next season. I only had 2 people doing this in 2016, more would sure be fun.