[Race] Korean Grand Prix Preview

[jsTrecu]

The racing was actually pretty decent after the second SC, and a lot of things happened. Not boring at all unless your have that "no matter what, if Vettel wins it must be a boring race" mentality that is so popular these days..

Impressive Hulk, good drive from RoGro too.
Merc disappointed.

[321Go]

Originally Posted by jsTrecu

Embarrassing race.

Originally Posted by Rgms320

Yawn...

Geeez... happy much????

[jsTrecu]

I posted that in the first half of the race. It was looking very bad with that tyre failure, a Jeep coming out of nowhere and those couple of crashes. Afterwards it improved a lot.

[IceMan_PJN]

Originally Posted by jsTrecu

The racing was actually pretty decent after the second SC, and a lot of things happened. Not boring at all unless your have that "no matter what, if Vettel wins it must be a boring race" mentality that is so popular these days..

I think that's pretty much it. I still find people a bit perplexing here, to be honest. If a driver barely wins a championship over one or more drivers that threatened them on the track and in the points, then the driver wasn't really all that spectacular and X-amount of other drivers could just as well have had it, but if a driver is clearly head-and-shoulders above the rest of the competition then people aren't happy because it's all predictable.

It's like a driver is supposed to win because he's clearly the best but it's horrible that he's the best. It's like we don't want people to be great. It's much the same with the Red Bull car and team, wherewith it's "shame on them for being great at building race cars. We don't want people to be great at building cars. Give us mediocrity."

EDIT:
I want to note that I'm not saying Vettel is definitely the absolute best on the grid. It's more of him being perhaps one of the best but paired with the best car, so it's a winning combination. It just seems like people want him, the team, or both to be worse, as if being good is a bad thing.

[Armco Bender]

Webber stops for a BBQ.....I think he had a rye smile walking away from that.

[Chatters]

The events surrounding Webber's fire and the subsequent Safety Car were an absolute joke. Too long for the fire crew to respond, coupled with a hot headed truck driver who decided to take matters into his own hands before sidling across a live F1 track in front of one the back markers. Unacceptable and unbelievable.

[Knowlesy]

The second part of the race was gripping, but worth remembering it only occurred due to a tyre delaminating and a jeep surging onto the track for no apparent reason.

Embarrassing to watch and frankly terrifying. Still, nobody was there to see it so maybe it didn't actually happen.

[jsTrecu]

I thought it was just me, but watching a replay it seems the fire crew was indeed a little slow.
Live, I was unconfortable for a moment seeing no fire extingishers around and Webber taking his time to get out of the car.


Korea is listed as "provisional" on the 2014 calendar, I wouldn't miss it if it's droped...

[JacobP]

Awesome race. Nico Hulkenberg and the Lotus drivers performed above expectations. The rest of field looked on a level below. The race track looks very good. I think it will become one of my favorite race tracks. However, I am afraid F1 will be banned in Korea after Vettel tactfully praised Japan as the best place.

[321Go]

The radio conversations between Lotus, Kimi and Romain was very interesting indeed. My understanding of this is that Kimi was not supposed to have passed Romain when he did towards the end of the race. Boullier was not a happy chappy on the radio.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I didn't watch the race live so will have to watch the BBC highlights. So Webber's car turned into a mobile barbie for the second race in a row.

[Paradise City]

Hulkenberg and Kimi salvaged the race. Great performance from both.

[jsTrecu]

Woah, Lewis... You can't say that after the race Hulk put together, and Grosjean was driving incredibly well the whole weekend too qualifying third just a tenth shy of Ham's best time.
I know he is frustrated, but come on...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/24419864

"It's strange, me and Fernando in fifth and sixth having our own little battle. We are of a higher calibre,"

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

So Webber's car turned into a mobile barbie for the second race in a row.

It did. But this time it wasn't someone on the pit wall pressing the 'Disable Mark's Car' button. Or maybe it was?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Marbot

It did. But this time it wasn't someone on the pit wall pressing the 'Disable Mark's Car' button. Or maybe it was?

It's amazing what you can do from the pit wall these days.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by jsTrecu

Woah, Lewis... You can't say that after the race Hulk put together, and Grosjean was driving incredibly well the whole weekend too qualifying third just a tenth shy of Ham's best time.
I know he is frustrated, but come on...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/24419864

You may think that you are of a higher calibre than those in front of you (?), but that doesn't give you the right to have a car that is just as quick.

[jsTrecu]

Originally Posted by Marbot

You may think that you are of a higher calibre than those in front of you (?), but that doesn't give you the right to have a car that is just as quick.

I know, just seems disrespectful to say that when every driver in front of him has done a terrific job this GP and is not there by luck.

1. Vettel, flawless
2. Kimi, fantastic comeback
3. Grosjean, fantastic qualifying and strong race
4. Hulkenberg, clearly the driver of the weekend

I don't see which of them doesn't deserve to be there.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Just watched the highlights but obviously not the same as watching it live. I think if it hadn't been for the two caution periods and the restarts it might have been a rather dull affair. Having said that there were some good mid field battles helped by the field bunching due to the SC, especially in the last 10 or so laps, which seems to be a regular thing in F1 these days.

I couldn't help but notice a number of empty stands.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I couldn't help but notice a number of empty stands.

Yes. I would be highly surprised if it stays on the calendar. No great loss, but it's always a shame to see half decent circuits like this be used to host F1 GPs and then are let go to rack and ruin because no one else is interested in racing there. Turkey also springs to mind. Great track, but little interest in F1 or indeed any motorsport.

[jsTrecu]

Just noticed Vettel just had back to back Grand Chelems, and now has 4 of them equaling Senna, Mansell and Stewart.
One more and he'll be there with Schu and Ascari, but still far from Clark who has 8.

Only two other drivers did it twice in a row, Ascari in 1952 (Germany/Netherlands), and Clark in 1963 (Netherlands/France), it's been 50 years.


Not sure if people like stats, but I do and I'm bored. So I post them

[bjohnsonsmith]

The FIA admit to letting the fire truck lose onto the track.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/110402

[Aysedasi]

Do they give themselves a 10 pace grid penalty for that.....?

[mythoughtsareracing]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

The FIA admit to letting the fire truck lose onto the track.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/110402

"But we didn't expect the fire truck to go out and pick up the leaders!"

I think every race series should replace their safety cars with fire trucks. Why the hell not?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Do they give themselves a 10 pace grid penalty for that.....?

They should do, otherwise it smacks of hypocrisy; disgraceful.

[jedrinck]

Originally Posted by jsTrecu

Just noticed Vettel just had back to back Grand Chelems, and now has 4 of them equaling Senna, Mansell and Stewart.
One more and he'll be there with Schu and Ascari, but still far from Clark who has 8.

Only two other drivers did it twice in a row, Ascari in 1952 (Germany/Netherlands), and Clark in 1963 (Netherlands/France), it's been 50 years.


Not sure if people like stats, but I do and I'm bored. So I post them

In the RTL interview after the race Niki Lauda asked Vettel why he drove the fastest lap, and he said 'because I'm stupid'. He just loves racking up the stats I guess.