[mashmash]

Absolutely Fantastic Race. It was a thriller right from the start. Vettel, never had my respect till this race. Those Softs had no business running till the end, but he made them and thats a drive that will go down in history as one of his best. As for Hamilton, getting P3 was I guess more than what the team hoped for. I expected him to be P4 or P5 at most.

However, its just 2 races yet and this has raised my hopes for the rest of the season. China is a Merc circuit historically. Would be interesting to see whether they can turn the tables around.

MaSh

[HKap]

Fantastic race and looks like this is going to be a close season esp if Red Bull can get their act together and Max stops his craziness.

I'm very disappointed with Kimi. Yes he lost a great chance of finishing in the top 3 or 4 but his attitude was disgusting. He did not even bother checking on the mechanic and his comments after the race made it worse. The pit crew are the ones who can make or break your race and like it or not, responsible for the points that you score. Not caring for them is not cool. Kimi WAS my favourite driver up until this race.

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

It must have been Plan B. They have hard time getting Plan A right most of the time, so to expect them to have plans C/D figured out would be too much to expect.

Over the radio, the plan being referred to was surely D. What we also forgetting is the fact that Ferrari didn't have their box available for Vettel to swap tyres during the window due to the injury to the mechanic. So, it is very clear that Ferrari improvised.

Originally Posted by HKap

I'm very disappointed with Kimi. Yes he lost a great chance of finishing in the top 3 or 4 but his attitude was disgusting. He did not even bother checking on the mechanic and his comments after the race made it worse. The pit crew are the ones who can make or break your race and like it or not, responsible for the points that you score. Not caring for them is not cool. Kimi WAS my favourite driver up until this race.

I think you are being unreasonably harsh on Kimi.

A pit stop is a really rough where everything happens so frantically amidst a lot of noise with a huge crowd very close to the car. And F1 engine is still very loud and I am not sure whether you have heard a F1 wheel gun outside of TV. It is ear-splitting and very very harsh. Add four of those and one can only imagine the cacophony along with the heat, smoke and dust. Add to that the fact that the driver is belted to a very stiff car which is dropped from the jacks the moment the wheels are fitted. It will be a jolt when that happens. And all of this happens inside 2 seconds or less.

Also, don't forget the light turned green there. Kimi' only job is to get out of there as fast as possible after that. I doubt whether Kimi knew it was so bad immediately afterwards. In the past two decades, I have seen fires and mechanics falling over but never seen someone being run over so badly.

And Francesco, the mechanic was being attended by experts right after that. I am not sure what Kimi could have done to help there. Crowding around, not adding any value and getting in the way is not going to help anyone.

And Kimi did say the following after the race.

"What happened to our guy Francesco today at the pit-stop is very unfortunate. I feel sorry for him and hope he's going to be OK soon.

"It's always a bad thing when someone gets injured but I am sure he has the best people taking good care of him and I wish him a speedy recovery. As for the accident itself, all I know is that I moved when I saw the green light go on.

"I couldn't have possibly realised that there was an issue with the rear left wheel, then I saw someone had got hurt and, immediately, I was told to stop by the team. Unfortunately something must have gone wrong and we'll need to find out what.

"The car had good speed today but I had some wheelspin at the start. Anyway, there's not much I can do now but wait for the next race, where we'll try to do our best."

Here is Francesco after the successful surgery in Bahrain on Sunday.


source

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by HKap

I'm very disappointed with Kimi. Yes he lost a great chance of finishing in the top 3 or 4 but his attitude was disgusting. He did not even bother checking on the mechanic and his comments after the race made it worse.

To echo deetjohn, I'm not judging Kimi by his behaviour after walking back to the garage - he did the right thing by staying out of the way out of the medical professionals. Rubbernecking wouldn't have helped anyone. I think his initial glance confirmed the seriousness of the incident so he elected to stay away.

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by HKap

I'm very disappointed with Kimi. Yes he lost a great chance of finishing in the top 3 or 4 but his attitude was disgusting. He did not even bother checking on the mechanic and his comments after the race made it worse. The pit crew are the ones who can make or break your race and like it or not, responsible for the points that you score. Not caring for them is not cool. Kimi WAS my favourite driver up until this race.

Which comments are you are referring to? He was probably not even aware of mechanic's injury till he walked back to the garage. There was nothing Kimi could do to help the injured mechanic lying on the ground.

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Over the radio, the plan being referred to was surely D. What we also forgetting is the fact that Ferrari didn't have their box available for Vettel to swap tyres during the window due to the injury to the mechanic. So, it is very clear that Ferrari improvised.

Could be. I thought I heard it as Plan B (may be B and D sounded similar with Italian accent?). Practically there were only two options for Vettel - Either stay out or bring him in which would have meant coming out behind Hamilton. Clearly they took the option most likely to give the win. Even if the tyres dropped off later, there was a big gap to P4, so P3 was the worst they could get, while pitting wouldn't guarantee a win.

When Kimi pitted, gap of VET-HAM was around 19 seconds. If Vettel had pitted and lost some time in overtaking Hamilton, it was very much likely that Mercedes would have pitted Bottas to either attack or undercut Vettel.

P.S. Francesco is the same guy who hoisted Thomas-the crying kid.

[HKap]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

I think you are being unreasonably harsh on Kimi.



Also, don't forget the light turned green there. Kimi' only job is to get out of there as fast as possible after that.

And Francesco, the mechanic was being attended by experts right after that. I am not sure what Kimi could have done to help there. Crowding around, not adding any value and getting in the way is not going to help anyone.

And Kimi did say the following after the race.

Originally Posted by arunphilip

To echo deetjohn, I'm not judging Kimi by his behaviour after walking back to the garage - he did the right thing by staying out of the way out of the medical professionals. Rubbernecking wouldn't have helped anyone. I think his initial glance confirmed the seriousness of the incident so he elected to stay away.

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

Which comments are you are referring to? He was probably not even aware of mechanic's injury till he walked back to the garage. There was nothing Kimi could do to help the injured mechanic lying on the ground.

I'm not for a second saying it was Kimi's fault. The light turned green and he went. That's what you expect him to do. My point is that he simply walked back to the garage without checking why there were a bunch of people gathered around a mechanic on the floor (possibly screaming his lungs out. I've had that injury and trust me it is extremely painful). Even if I ignore him walking away, his initial comments (which I read on the internet. I can't find it now but he did sound very indifferent to what happened). Being concerned vs getting in the way of help are two different things.