[Official] Russian Grand Prix 2016: Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[Paulaweybridge]

Originally Posted by Kempi

Right, and a staff member at MB world sure has excellent insight what is going on. Come on, people, don't buy into that crap. We have seen it before aT Ferrari and Red Bull: sometimes it just happens that the malfunctions concentrate on one of the drivers.

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by Paulaweybridge

Went over to Mercedes Benz World at Brooklands after attending Auto Italia at Brooklands Museum there on Saturday.

Got talking to a member of staff at M-B World and he said " Both Rosberg and Hamilton have equal cars BUT it would seem that the bosses of their team want a German driver to win the F1 championship this year so Lewis has no chance ".

We all know how F1 works don't we ....

Don't we ? That's stuff for the good old conspiracy theories that always plagued this forum.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Razzzor

I actually think Kyvat should get a 1 race ban, or at the very least should have been blackflagged.

China was his fault, then he hits the back of another car 3 times, does he not know where the brake pedal is? Wrecks Sebs race twice, wrecks his own teammates race, wrecks his own race in front of the home crowd.

When Kyvat is on it, he's great, but more often he's not on it. Even Ricciardo managed to beat him by a large margin, despite pit queuing behind on the first lap and saying he had a lot of damage affecting his pace.

I think it's time to move Verstappen up to RB, and I mean now, not 2017. Verstappens been driving like a veteran so far this year, well ahead of Sainz.

Plus 1.

How you get away with one 10 second stop go penalty for the level of arrogance and incompetence Kvyat showed I don't know.
Hamilton earns a penalty point on his licence for not driving around a random bollard.

Anyway I reckon RBR should now have made the Max v. Kvyat decision now.

[Paulaweybridge]

Forgot to mention that I also said to this guy "Do you think Lewis is sandbagging" !!! I was being sarcastic and he just laughed. No Lewis knows that his number is probably up this year and you can see it when he is interviewed.

But I might be wrong, of course and maybe Rosberg will have problems in order to spice up the show later in the season.

It's all a variety act really and the drivers are very well paid actors !!

Originally Posted by Paulaweybridge

Went over to Mercedes Benz World at Brooklands after attending Auto Italia at Brooklands Museum there on Saturday.

Got talking to a member of staff at M-B World and he said " Both Rosberg and Hamilton have equal cars BUT it would seem that the bosses of their team want a German driver to win the F1 championship this year so Lewis has no chance ".

We all know how F1 works don't we ....

[wolfhound]

There must be a whole cluster of black cats wandering the F1 paddock these days. Hamilton, Vettel, Kyvat and Force India to mention a few all seem to be crossing their paths.

[Richard C]

I hate to post multiple times about Kvyat's penalty. I think four penalties where handed out during the race on Sunday. Nasr rejoined at turn 2 incorrectly and got a 5 sec time penalty. Sainz forced Palmer off at the turn 2/3 complex (debatable IMHO after watching the replay once) and received a 10 sec time penalty. Gutierrez hit someone at the start and received a drive through.

That leave Kvyat who hit Vettel two or three times and impacted other cars as well and the last hit on Vettel caused him to crash out. Given the severity of the other penalties, a 10 sec stop and go doesn't seem to fit.

I wonder if people are not saying much about this because they feel Kvyat is already a dead man walking at RBR?

Richard

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

I hate to post multiple times about Kvyat's penalty. I think four penalties where handed out during the race on Sunday. Nasr rejoined at turn 2 incorrectly and got a 5 sec time penalty. Sainz forced Palmer off at the turn 2/3 complex (debatable IMHO after watching the replay once) and received a 10 sec time penalty. Gutierrez hit someone at the start and received a drive through.

That leave Kvyat who hit Vettel two or three times and impacted other cars as well and the last hit on Vettel caused him to crash out. Given the severity of the other penalties, a 10 sec stop and go doesn't seem to fit.

I wonder if people are not saying much about this because they feel Kvyat is already a dead man walking at RBR?

Richard

I wonder how much of it had to with Putin being there?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Bononi

Don't we ? That's stuff for the good old conspiracy theories that always plagued this forum.

Match fixing does go on in other sports, so why should F1 be exempt?

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

I wonder if people are not saying much about this because they feel Kvyat is already a dead man walking at RBR?

i would agree that this would have been a good use of a blackflag. maybe a time penalty for the first hit but the second in so short a span...he ruined a lot of races.

that said i thought it was slightly poor form for SV to go talk to Horner during the race. Vettel is smart enough to know that it would have been on TV.

i can understand the frustration but the way it came across to me, in part because Kvyat has dead man walking cloud over him, as SV was there to hammer in the final nail to coffin.

of course i shouldn't complain when drivers act with normal emotions though.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

i would agree that this would have been a good use of a blackflag. maybe a time penalty for the first hit but the second in so short a span...he ruined a lot of races.

that said i thought it was slightly poor form for SV to go talk to Horner during the race. Vettel is smart enough to know that it would have been on TV.

i can understand the frustration but the way it came across to me, in part because Kvyat has dead man walking cloud over him, as SV was there to hammer in the final nail to coffin.

of course i shouldn't complain when drivers act with normal emotions though.

I watched the race live and initially it was hard to tell where the second hit to Vettel's car came from. It was only after the replays of the aerial shots, that it became apparent it was Kvyat.

[Mike Harte]

I believe that Kvyat actually hit Vettel 3 times, twice in the first incident, and the third time when he completely finished Vettels's race.

It was probably preferable for Vettel to vent his anger and frustration immediately on Horner than bottling it up and saying or doing something when Kvyat eventually came into the pits.

[djinvicta]

Bit of "home" GP nerves and fright I think. Such a shame, as in all the news, his head is for the chop, and it will probably happen.
If it is Max that takes his place, and I'm sure it will be, I hope he can control the emotions too. See...we put all these youngsters into F1 and expect them all to behave like Jenson...not going to happen.
Gerry Marshall would show them how..

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I wonder how much of it had to with Putin being there?

I am trying to not be overly cynical, but I really wonder the same. I can only imagine what was going on in the minds of the stewards! Blackflag Kvyat and then make a hasty exit from the circuit and head for the border as quick as you can! It clearly was important from a national pride perspective given Putin was there. Here in the US your not going to see the president attend the USGP let alone expect him/her to know it was even happening.

Originally Posted by chillibowl

that said i thought it was slightly poor form for SV to go talk to Horner during the race. Vettel is smart enough to know that it would have been on TV.

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

It was probably preferable for Vettel to vent his anger and frustration immediately on Horner than bottling it up and saying or doing something when Kvyat eventually came into the pits.

You know I was surprised at how professional I think Vettel handled the entire thing. Yes he was quite upset on the radio when it first happened and I don't blame him. And I expect he was still hot when he got to the pit and reviewed some video, but as best as I can tell it looked like he had a professional conversation with Horner (no shouting, etc.) and the interview I saw with him later on... He was very Zen about the entire thing. He really could have ripped into Kvyat, but he didn't. My best guess is that Horner said something like... "Sorry, it was his fault and we are not happy about it either".

I mean it could have been something like the Senna and Irving pit fight. If it was NASCAR we would have had a brawl between the Ferrari and RBR pit crews!

Richard

[bella]

i think there's a bit of a tendency towards immediate outrage nowadays and kvyat's cockup is a great example of that. the boy just needs a serious talking to by the race director and a grid penalty for the next race perhaps so he's still paying for it later. we're not looking at a "mazepim only getting a one race exclusion for smacking someone in the face" type injustice here, the boy just did something stupid.

obviously it doesn't help that he was a bit of a wally when vettel confronted him after the previous race but arguably vettel was being a bit inappropriate doing it in front of the cameras anyway.

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by djinvicta

See...we put all these youngsters into F1 and expect them all to behave like Jenson...not going to happen.

No, they behave like Jenson did when he was their age. (Sorry, JB.)

[TrapezeArtist]

I really don't understand the vitriol being poured out against Kvyat. Fair enough, he's not star quality and he'll probably go on the RBR scrap heap at the end of the season, but he hasn't deserved all the abuse that has been heaped on him. He's got himself involved in two first corner accidents: I think any of us who have raced know how that feels.

For sure the first hit in Russia was a misjudgement on his part. He held his hand up and took his penalty. The second hit (or third according to some people) is much more questionable. On the face of it, when you go into a flat-out corner you expect the car in front of you to be flat-out. Given the previous impact perhaps he should have anticipated that Vettel would take that corner unexpectedly slowly. But equally Vettel should have understood the danger of lifting off in the middle of a flat-out corner.

I still can't understand why Kvyat is blamed for China. Vettel left a gap and Kvyat took advantage of it. Meanwhile Raikkonen ran wide and then tried to barge back onto the racing line. And got hit. Vettel's post-race tantrum would have been more appropriately directed towards his team-mate.

Vettel may be a four-time world champion and frequently an amusing and personable speaker, but he is occasionally prone to operating his mouth without first engaging his brain. He can be forgiven for his Russian radio rant (adrenalin) but he was way out-of-order in China.

[Armco Bender]

I like Kvyat,he's rattled Vettel's cage.
Vettel comes across like that whiny kid no one liked at school who used to tell tales to on everyone the teacher.

[Wims]

Kvyat drove into Vettel on purpose twice. He needs to have his super license revoked

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Wims

Kvyat drove into Vettel on purpose twice. He needs to have his super license revoked

Why would he do that?

[wnut]

How is the Kvyat incident different from the Grosjean incident and suspension following Spa in 2012?

"Grosjean has been involved in a number of first-lap incidents this year, but the one at Spa was the most serious as he collided with Lewis Hamilton and then took out Fernando Alonso at high speed at turn one. Following an investigation in to the incident the stewards ruled that Grosjean should be suspended for one race, and also imposed a €50,000 fine.

http://en.espnf1.com/fia/motorsport/...MGp1Q9DHPed.99

[Wims]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Why would he do that?

I don't know, perhaps because he feels that he was wronged in the previous race and that he wanted to prove a point?

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Wims

I don't know, perhaps because he feels that he was wronged in the previous race and that he wanted to prove a point?

More like Kvyat was being a smartass and thought that he could enhance his reputation by pulling an impossible move off against a four time WDC who he'd already made smart remarks to regarding racing in the previous GP.

[Wims]

Originally Posted by wnut

More like Kvyat was being a smartass and thought that he could enhance his reputation by pulling an impossible move off against a four time WDC who he'd already made smart remarks to regarding racing in the previous GP.

The impossible move of driving straight through a Ferrari? It didn't really look like he was trying to avoid, nor did it look like he put much effort into slowing down properly

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Wims

The impossible move of driving straight through a Ferrari? It didn't really look like he was trying to avoid, nor did it look like he put much effort into slowing down properly

Yup, just going much too fast in the hope that he could jump into a non existent gap like he did in China, where Vettel jumped out the way and got involved with Kimi, this time Vettel could not even see Kvyat and Kvyat totally misjudged it 3 consecutive times!

Dear Danii, its called stacking and happens on the first lap of every race, guaranteed!

[dsg]

Kvyat made a great move in China and thought he could do it again. Yes he badly misjudged the situation in Russia and should have been penalised for his mistake.

But, in the scheme of things was this really worse than a driver running up the rear of competitor while under the safety car (Japan 2007) or taking out a car stopped at the red light in pit lane (Canada 2008)?