[Official] Bahrain Grand Prix 2016 Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by MGDavid

the natural order seems to have been restored; he's a bit good that Hammy isn't he!

he really did make up for his earlier Q3 mistake with a wonderfully fast lap....but Nico was right there with a 0.077s difference.

good job from Ricciardo for getting ahead of the Williams as well.

should be a fun start tomorrow!

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Didn't they already supply extra tyres for the Q3 runners? Are we just going to solve every ridiculous decision by asking Pirelli to supply more tyres?

I thought that they did, but I must admit that the whole tyre business baffles me. But then I am passed caring anyway, so I haven't bothered to put my thinking head to try to understand the format.

The more that they tinker while Rome burns, the more angry and despondent about a sport that I have loved for 50 odd years. The only reason that I participate on these threads is to help keep my mind active, otherwise I really wouldn't bother.

[fieldodreams79]

First look at the new Qing format for me. Awful but it's certainly a moot point as no one likes it.

[Mike Harte]

Hamilton under investigation for reversing, using the car's power to do so, in the pits after qualifying. It seems as though that is forbidden, and he might have to go and sit on the naughty step.

[wolfhound]

I thought a comment by Ben Edwards was very pertinent to the situation of qualifying. He now spends most of his time clock watching rather than commenting on action on track. If you do not have a timing screen in front of you, you have no idea what is going on.
For this type of qualifying to work drivers would need to be given a relatively hard set of tyres that are good the whole session and a tank of fuel to last the same length. The times then would gradually get faster as the fuel load burns off meaning you should have cars on track all the time.
I also think the length of time available for a knockout should be longer as then spectators etc. will have a better chance to absorb what is happening.
Qualifying also needs to build up to the final not the other way round so that at the end you have the top seven or eight cars going for pole.

If the knockout system was designed to mix up the grid it has so far failed as we only had Perez and Kyvat being the only drivers out of position everybody else was within one or two places of where you would expect them to be.
However if you look back at the old system there was usually one or two drivers who were not where they should be.

[ASCII Man]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Hamilton under investigation for reversing, using the car's power to do so, in the pits after qualifying. It seems as though that is forbidden, and he might have to go and sit on the naughty step.

And he gets away with it, yet again. Wonderful!

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

But there were times when nobody bothered to run.

Ultimately it makes little difference. What it does do is exposure the inherent problem we've had for some time now. People don't run because they want to save tyres. Although a few only got one run in when they may have had chance to do a couple. Having said that the Hulk had another go with it.

The final bit was the same as it would have been, top four going for it. However the rules meant it happened three or four minutes earlier.

It's more rubbish than last year, but not by a lot. Last year was already rubbish.

Let's ditch it and just have fastest lap at any practice and ditch the restriction on tyres. Fair, sporting, but the fans won't like it as it isn't a good show.

[jimclark]

Capitol idea.

Simple...sorta like days of old.

Practice sessions; you're fastest time from all is your qualifying time.


edit: Oooopppsss. Sorry Adam. hadn't refreshed the page and hadn't seen your post. Great minds think alike, eh?

[TrapezeArtist]

What sort of scheming is Todt up to? There must be something. Qually in Australia was so awful that the teams couldn't prevent themselves from agreeing with each other (previously unheard of) that Bahrain should revert to 2015 rules. A look at any television channel, any motorsport magazine and any motorsport forum would tell him that the customers wanted 2015 rules. So he engineers a vote that doesn't include that option!

There was really nothing at all wrong with 2015 qually rules so they were always trying to mend something that wasn't broken.

Bahrain was marginally better than Australia. Manor seemed to understand how to respond to being on the bubble, and got Wehrlein up to a superb (for them) position as a result. Red Bull and Force India clearly haven't understood it at all. The end of Q3 was enlivened only because Hamilton got it wrong on his first run so was out-of-position. He needed a second run to recover his expected position and the other three had to go again to defend. And even then we had 3 1/2 minutes of nothingness at the end.

Todt and Ecclestone really are testing my tolerance to the limit.

[Adam43]

This wasn't the fix and I agree there are other things that should be the priority, but last year's qualifying did have things wrong with it. Like people sat in the garage not going out, or people doing the minimum number of runs to save tyres.

The end of Q3 was practically the same it just happened earlier than it would have last year.
As last year, the problem is the lower top 10 only having one go.

jimclark,

[wolfhound]

TrapezeArtist , here is my view. Relations between Jean Todt and Bernie never seemed to be very good since Todt became head of the FIA. I suspect the current bi-lateral agreements between the various parties to F1 might have something to do with it but that's another story.
Since the current problems with qualifying blew up in Australia Bernie has been blaming the FIA for the idea of the new format which maybe true but Bernie was the one pushing for a change to qualifying to mix the grids up a bit. There were several ideas being put forward none of which could work for various reasons. At one of the many meetings it appears that Charlie Whiting (of the FIA) suggested the knockout idea, the teams went it without thinking too much about it believing that they had to make some concessions to Bernie.
Now Bernie is blaming the FIA for the new format whet it was he who was primarily pushing for a change to qualifying. I suspect this went down like a lead balloon at the FIA.

[canamman]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

First look at the new Qing format for me. Awful but it's certainly a moot point as no one likes it.

Agree. I just hate it when the unbrokens are broke.
Can't even begin to describe the disatisfaction when there
are 5 mins left in a Q session with 1 car on the track.
But I digress ....... GO HAAS!

[wolfhound]

Grosjean has an interesting take on the new qualifying process....

.........sitting in his pit for over 7 minutes hoping for somebody to go faster and knock him out of Q3. He was willing Hulkenberg on during the Germans lap!

http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/123587

Qualifying is just crazy this year how long before we have something that's sensible?

[jimclark]

Originally Posted by canamman

But I digress ....... GO HAAS!

'Thought I wuz gonna be a fan 'til I found out they're just Ferrari jr. (What happened to having to build your own stuff.)

Again, see my signature

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by jimclark

'Thought I wuz gonna be a fan 'til I found out they're just Ferrari jr. (What happened to having to build your own stuff.)

Again, see my signature

A Ferrari by any other name?

[canamman]

Originally Posted by jimclark

'Thought I wuz gonna be a fan 'til I found out they're just Ferrari jr. (What happened to having to build your own stuff.)

Again, see my signature

Takes toooooo much money to reinvent the wheel these days
unless you are a factory. Haas wins stock car championships using
Hendricks stuff. Of course that changes next year.

The Bahrain start should be interesting. Ferrari needs to be ready
for any Mercedes clutch mishaps.

BTW - when I see your sig. I cant help but thinking of that song
from 1968. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3KEhWTnWvE

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by wolfhound

Grosjean has an interesting take on the new qualifying process....

.........sitting in his pit for over 7 minutes hoping for somebody to go faster and knock him out of Q3. He was willing Hulkenberg on during the Germans lap!

http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/123587

Qualifying is just crazy this year how long before we have something that's sensible?

The really ridiculous thing about that is wanting to be knocked out because 9th is better than 8th due to the tyre rules. This problem has been around since we had the three round elimination format not just this year.

Cananman, it was broken before, but they've made it worse.

Hopefully they will finally realise this. Seems unlikely as everyone keeps saying the last format was good Maybe a change to the format that also brings in more tyres from Pirelli will get accepted. Assuming that they are too daft to open it up more. Although will we just think it's silly if they give them more tyres as this will be a waste?

[Born Racer]

My thoughts on the qualifying were that it was okay but flawed and fixed something which wasn't broken. The countdown losing one every 90 seconds is not bad but that tension could come near the end and be better. Wehrlein and Manor did a superb job and Force India stuffed it up with Perez, although I would imagine given time teams would iron out these mistakes and it would stabilise.

Which leaves the problem that now they're using up supersofts just to survive in qualifying and unless they allocate extra sets for qualifying, it starts to negate all the potential benefits of more open strategies with three compounds afforded by the new rules.

I also spent too much time watching the clock.

At least we had a climax to Q3 even if it came early. Hamilton pulled it out of the bag again. I had hoped Ferrari would get in the mix with a pole but it was a tall order.

[pirenzo]

Qualy worked better than in Melbourne, if we ignore that the action is all over well before the clock runs out.

It clearly doesn't mix the grid in any meaningful way however, and the countdowns, rather than forcing the drivers to keep circulating, simply cuts them off mid-riposte. Look at Perez: he was winding up to defend his position, Werhlein crosses the line and demotes him onto the bubble with 20-odd seconds to run, rendering his effort pointless before it had even begun.

[Wardy.]

Really liked the Murry Walker intro

[bjohnsonsmith]

Just looking at the grandstand as the camera went along the start/finish straight and there are quite a few empty seats.

[canamman]

Button starting directly behind Vandoorne.
Hmmmm, that could be an interesting start
for the ol ego.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I thought I saw a load of smoke from Vettel's Ferrari. Rotten luck.

[bjohnsonsmith]

A bit of a messy start as Botas and Hamilton come together.

[canamman]

Pieces continue to fly !!!!!