[narayans80]

Barring the turn 1 crash, it was such a boring race. Good for Max to put his head down and nail the podium finish.

Too bad for Kimi to miss out on what should have been a 1-2 or 1-3 finish yesterday. Domino effect from that qualifying goof up.

[blackwasp]

Some highlights from the race:
1. Have Ferrari finally managed to out power Mercedes?
2. Halo, though. ugly, does its job as advertised and has made the sport a much safer place.
3. Force India team continues to outperform. For a team with so many problems, how they bounce back is commendable. I wish them all the best! The consortium who bought them is gonna be real happy about their investment provided they manage it well.
4. Bad luck streak (or the goof-ups) continues to hamper Kimi. The Finn is so much talented and I hate to see him in this position.

[ferrarirules]

What a win by Vettel!! Decisive pass on the first lap and after that Merc didnt have the answer to Ferrari pace. Hamilton went on to say in the press conference that "Ferrari has tricks in its car that Merc doesn't have as of yet". He was grilled for it in the rest of the interview but Merc and Ham are really feeling the heat from Ferrari. Ferrari is beating Merc on outright pace first time in the turbo era.

It was disappointing for Kimi. He could have made it 1-3 finish definitely. Valuable constructor points lost due to Hulkenberg's antics.

Next race is Monza. Hoping for a Ferrari 1-2 in front of the tifosi. It looks very likely from the current form and it will be difficult for Merc to find an answer in 5 days.

[ashwin.terminat]

Originally Posted by ferrarirules

"Ferrari has tricks in its car that Merc doesn't have as of yet". He was grilled for it in the rest of the interview

The exact quote is: "They’ve got a few trick things going on in the car" (Source)

"Trick" here is new-gen speak for old-gen "fancy or special". He doesn't mean that Ferrari has something illegal under their car. Even Charlie Whiting called out Hamilton saying there is no way LH can know Ferrari have something illegal if the FIA doesn't. It is just misinterpretation and misrepresentation.

To quote the man again,

No, we all have trick things on our cars. Trick is just a word for something special, I guess.

There’s probably something trick on… Trick is just something that helps you bring that extra bit of performance. That’s all I mean. I don’t mean anything to it so please don’t read into it and please don’t twist my words and say that I say they’re doing anything illegal because they’re not

That said, Hulk gets a 10-place grid penalty at Monza for the chaos he started at Spa. (Source) Valteri also got a 5-second penalty (inconsequential) for running into Sergey Sirotkin on lap 1. (Source)

[arun_kun]

Since Kimi retired from the race, can he use new Turbo without incurring the penalty for the next race?

[Chalu]

Originally Posted by arun_kun

Since Kimi retired from the race, can he use new Turbo without incurring the penalty for the next race?

He can use a new gear box but not Turbo.

All PU units quotas have been defined. If Kimi bolts a new TC he will incur penalty

[arun_kun]

Originally Posted by Chalu

He can use a new gear box but not Turbo.

All PU units quotas have been defined. If Kimi bolts a new TC he will incur penalty

Oh, I was wishing he could get a free Turbo as it is applicable GB after retirement from a race.

[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by ashwin.terminat

The exact quote is: "They’ve got a few trick things going on in the car"

Relax Man, nobody is misinterpreting or misrepresenting any facts. My reason to mention it was that he made an opened statement in the ontrack interview and then he had explain (as mentioned in my last post) it a lot in the whole press conference.

Excerpt from the post race press conference pertaining to the grilling

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, just picking up on something you said after the race, you referred to Sebastian and Ferrari’s straight-line speed at the start. You mentioned there that it didn’t seem like you were surprised to have him attack you. Are you surprised by the extent of Ferrari’s engine performance with the latest upgrade? And how do you think they’ve achieved that? We’ve heard you mention them maybe doing engine tricks. Do you think they’re just outsmarting Mercedes at the moment?
LH: Well, we came here with a pretty good upgrade and, I mean, generally, every time we do bring an upgrade they bring a bigger one. But no, we knew they were quick on the straights. They were quicker, particularly in qualifying in the last sector. We’ve known for the last four races or so that they’ve had some things on their car that’s enabled them to be quicker on the straights and yeah, we’ve just got to work harder, I guess.

Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, when you say ‘tricks’ do you mean, do you think that Ferrari are bending the rules slightly? Or do you think it’s all legal?
LH: No, we all have trick things on our cars. Trick is just a word for something special, I guess.
Q: Something special that’s legal?
LH: Just something special. I don’t know. I don’t know what’s on their car so I couldn't tell you either way.

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, just reading into what you’re saying to your answers with regards to the trick things, will you or Mercedes be speaking to the FIA…
LH: I’m not saying that there’s anything illegal on. I’m just saying we all have something trick. There’s probably something trick on… Trick is just something that helps you bring that extra bit of performance. That’s all I mean. I don’t mean anything to it so please don’t read into it and please don’t twist my words and say that I say they’re doing anything illegal because they’re not. They just outperformed us today and we’ve got to work harder, but there are things that they have on the car that we might not have on the car and vice versa and we’ve got to try and find out what and improve on that. That’s it.

[ashwin.terminat]

Originally Posted by ferrarirules

Relax Man, nobody is misinterpreting or misrepresenting any facts. My reason to mention it was that he made an opened statement in the ontrack interview and then he had explain (as mentioned in my last post) it a lot in the whole press conference.

Ah, just wanted to clear that out. Hence the post


Since Charlie Whiting got it wrong, I figured others could get the same idea too.

[sun_king]

Usually Ferrari does not really dominate the Practice sessions like in Belgium and the way they did it in Spa, the results were predictable. The low downforce configuration is a beauty and the engine upgrades just added the icing.

For me the fun actually started after the safety car went in, the commentator was desperately trying to explain why Hamilton was unable to catch up and as the laps went by his conviction was taking a nosedive. By Lap 15 Hamilton had sensibly preserved his tires for a late charge on Supersofts but the slow motion replays showed some serious delamination on the immaculately preserved rear tires. Then the pit stop and the slim opportunity at the pit exit. Once again Hamilton drove sensibly, preserving the tires for the late charge. Somehow nobody told this to Seb and Seb kept increasing his lead. Only after the chequered flag did some labored excitement showed up.

How hard is it to acknowledge that the Mercs had been outperformed?

To top it up, there were the "tricks" in the post race interview, the last Ferrari win had "Interesting Tactics". Can't wait for Monza!

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

....
I'm sure no one in Mercedes expected the overtake to be so easy and on the first lap.

Traction out of the bus stop chicane to get some breathing room on the pit straight, then traction out of La Source downhill to Raidillon/Eau Rouge complex through Kemmel straight is critical at Spa to maintain track position. Interestingly, Hamilton kept a faster Vettel behind last year by letting him get in his slipstream, then lift just a little forcing Vettel to do the same and breaking the tow up to Kemmel. Vettel had far better traction this year and just enough extra grunt to make it stick.

Merc admittedly suffered at low-speed traction, plus had tire usage issues so Vettel could've made a move later on too. Good pass, but not really a deal-breaker if the SC was deployed earlier.

Merc are hoping to do better at Monza as there are no slow turns except T1, but Ferrari have gained a slight upper hand on outright power and more importantly, how early and effectively they can put it down on tarmac relative to Merc.

[arun.kulkarni]

Its been a interesting season so far and I am really gunning for Ferrari to the distance this season! My last wish is to see Kimi win a grandprix this season! That will be epic!

[motorworks]

Originally Posted by ashwin.terminat

The exact quote is: "They've got a few trick things going on in the car" (Source)

"Trick" here is new-gen speak for old-gen "fancy or special". He doesn't mean that Ferrari has something illegal under their car. Even Charlie Whiting called out Hamilton saying there is no way LH can know Ferrari have something illegal if the FIA doesn't. It is just misinterpretation and misrepresentation.

To quote the man again,



That said, Hulk gets a 10-place grid penalty at Monza for the chaos he started at Spa. (Source) Valteri also got a 5-second penalty (inconsequential) for running into Sergey Sirotkin on lap 1. (Source)

That was totally uncalled for from Lewis! He got down from his Car, kept staring at the Ferrari and then made this comment. Well, it could have been Casual, but Lewis made a comment sort of implying that Kimi took him out in Silverstone on purpose and now this. He can justify all this later, but he should know he cannot come out and say anything he wants. And its not like he is Spanish or of Finnish origin that he cannot place his words right! He is English for gods sake! I guess he does not take losing sportively especially after dominating the scene for 4 years in a row.

[HKap]

This should have been an easy 1-2 for Ferrari even after the horrible qualifying. I believe Vettel still had a couple of tenths in reserve if required. I have no doubt that had Kimi made it past turn 1, they could have caught up with Lewis before the 1t stop and either passed Lewis on track or undercut him in the pits. There's no way Mercedes could have done anything about the Ferraris this weekend. Hopefully we get a Ferrari 1-2 next week at their home GP. It's been long overdue!

[Makin Rulesz]

Christian Horner 'nearly got violin out' for Hamilton's Ferrari "Trick" comment.

When asked if he took any confidence from the performance of Honda at a power-dependent circuit, he said: "[Honda] need to make a step. As you can see, Ferrari and Mercedes... just to hear Lewis moaning about Ferrari, I nearly got my violin out!