[Official] Driver of the race : Japanese GP

[beau1]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

I can see you made a top three, so fair enough for that, but you didn't vote for Kobayashi in the poll.

I did fail to acknowledge your point about him being your driver of the race because I didn't decide to read through the whole thread when responding to one post.

I don't think I voted for anyone in the poll. I probably forgot to do it a week or so back, my vote, as suggested in my post would have been for Kobayashi.

Could you use my argument about why Kobi shouldn't be driver of the race? Maybe, but I based it on his car being worse than Schumacher's and him making passing manoeuvres. What did Schumacher do? He passed Barrichello into the chicane. Kobayashi was passing people left, right and centre and just looked like a promising driver of the future. A bit like Schumacher did once.

I agree it was one of Schumacher's best drivers of the season but alas that is not saying a great deal. This is a seven-times world champion and I have higher expectations, but I suppose 6th was 'reasonable' based on his year. As others have stated before though, if it wasn't Schumacher that Rosberg had thrashed this year, Mercedes would probably have replaced that driver a while ago.

Who deserves to be third best driver? Well, hang on. Who says I even agree with your top three. Hamilton isn't even third. Now, I would put someone like Vettel or Alonso in third, and Hamilton second.

You see here I don't really agree, Alonso and Hamilton I thought did nothing all race. Whilst Schumacher passed Barrichello, had a good start and was up there with Hamilton until he got stuck behind Rosberg.
A bit of cleverer strategy by Mercedes would have meant he would have come out ahead of Rosberg (they only needed to go two-three laps longer as Schumacher was gaining 0.3-0.5 seconds each lap) and he would have been close enough to Hamilton to have a go at him towards the end of the race.

I agree that Kobyashi did a lot more, which is why I gave him driver of the race. I also think that Schumacher did a lot more than most of the cars infront of him though.

[Wims]

Its not like 2009 anymore. Pitting first is the optimal strat as driving around on new tyres is quicker than going around with worn tyres (for the most part). The fuel loads are the same.

[beau1]

Originally Posted by Wims

Its not like 2009 anymore. Pitting first is the optimal strat as driving around on new tyres is quicker than going around with worn tyres (for the most part). The fuel loads are the same.

The problem with that is that Schumacher already had a fairly large pit window. He had Barrichello more a reasonable amount of time behind him and Hamilton more than 5 seconds in front of him before he did the pitstop.

It was obvious to me watching the gaps between all the drivers that he only needed to do a couple more laps on 'old' tyres then he would have cleared Rosberg instead of potentially being stuck behind him. He had the space to try the risk of staying on old tyres for two or three laps but Mercedes didn't take it. Rosberg was hardly setting the track on fire with those tyres because he had been on them since lap 2, so I think personally it was worth the risk but they just played safe.
Brundle and co. seemed surprised when Rosberg emerged in front but it was obvious it was going to happen as Schumacher pitted on that lap.