The Motorsport Thread 2014

I meant more overall, but this not new...we all know Hami is fast and aggressive, but with a history of perhaps being too much so at times. 

Edited by JJLehto - September 12 2014 at 16:25

It's been interesting, but I hate the NASCAR attitude of going racing by throwing full course yellows every time someone sneezes, almost half of Sebring was run under yellow and allowed the least deserving car of the lead group to win. It seems like they're deliberately trying to play to the strengths of the DP's over the LMP2's which are always going to loose out on a restart as they have 200hp less (just watch the end of the Watkins Glen 6 hours, Brundle was right that just wasn't racing). And then there's LMPC, made up of some excellent drivers and morons who are a danger to everyone else (see Tag's crash at Sebring).

That said, there has been some excellent racing and the disparate cars going toe-to-toe has been cool, though I expect when Oak switch from their current Morgan chassis to the Ligier JS2 for the last 3 races they're going to be an even bigger threat, particularly for Petite Le Mans where those fast corners will play right into their hands. GTLM has been suitably close with everybody getting stuck in, and as usual providing the best racing of all. Can't say I pay that much attention to GTD, cut down GT3's and cup cars aren't that impressive, though full on GT3's might be a bit of a problem for the GTLM class. 

^ I meant to, but did not. Seems like a cool thing though.

^All that with a generator and a bunch of batteries. Cool!

^Perhaps it's not so cool?  Ah, still interresting though.

Singapore this weekend. The radio clampdown should be fun, it wont be as comprehensive as originally intended until next year, too many reliability worries with the way cars are currently set up, but here's a list of what the teams can't tell their drivers:

* Driving lines on the circuit
* Contact with kerbs
* Car set-up parameters for specific corners
* Comparative or absolute sector time detail of another driver
* Speeds in corners compared to another driver
* Gear selection compared with another driver
* Gear selection in general
* Braking points
* Rate of braking compared to another driver
* Rate of braking or application of brakes in general
* Car stability under braking
* Throttle application compared to another driver
* Throttle application in general
* Use of DRS compares with another driver
* Use of any overtake button
* Driving technique in general

WEC and USC from Austin this weekend, should be fun. And IndyCar has announced that they'll be racing at Brasilia circuit next year.

:O  Cmon Alonso! Can't you steal at least one win this year??

Excellent qualy session, amazingly close. Ricciardo recons he's going to be fighting Merc for the win.

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m45.681s	-
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1m45.688s	0.007s
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m45.854s	0.173s
4	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull/Renault	1m45.902s	0.221s
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1m45.907s	0.226s
6	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m46.000s	0.319s
7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m46.170s	0.489s
8	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1m46.187s	0.506s
9	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren/Mercedes	1m46.250s	0.569s
10	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m47.362s	1.681s
11	Jenson Button	McLaren/Mercedes	1m46.943s	1.262s
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m46.989s	1.308s
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1m47.308s	1.627s
14	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber/Ferrari	1m47.333s	1.652s
15	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m47.575s	1.894s
16	Romain Grosjean	Lotus/Renault	1m47.812s	2.131s
17	Adrian Sutil	Sauber/Ferrari	1m48.324s	2.643s
18	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus/Renault	1m49.063s	3.382s
19	Jules Bianchi	Marussia/Ferrari	1m49.440s	3.759s
20	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham/Renault	1m50.405s	4.724s
21	Max Chilton	Marussia/Ferrari	1m50.473s	4.792s
22	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham/Renault	1m52.287s	6.606s

I feel like the championship is over now that Hamilton has the lead.  Whereas LH seemed to be in a mental turmoil at the beginning of the season, I feel like Nico is in that state now and Hamilton has the upper hand, at least from a psychological standpoint. 

It was a damn shame that Button had his mechanical failure yesterday, too.  He was having a great battle with Bottas and Kimi (for 6th, I believe, maybe 7th) when his car just shut down. 

Interesting that both drivers are on 2 mechanical failures in races for the year and the difference is now 3 points. I'm pretty certain Lewis will win this, he's the better of the two drivers.