Be Excellent To Each Other

He didn't look at all happy. I'm sure it's all someone else's fault....

He did say it was all his fault afterwards.

That makes a pleasant change.

Ouch.

Not sure he cares now though.

Shame, as that would have been a cracking race.

Cry me a river.

Well that was something else, wasn't it? I applaud Hamilton for not handing anything to Rosberg. And what an effort by Alonso.

EDIT: And Ricciardo, obviously!

I think Hamilton should do as he's damned well told. He won't win anyway, which is something.

Whoo Alonso!

If Rosberg wanted to pass, he could at least make a proper, manly attempt. Hanging around 1 second behind and expecting Hamilton to pull over and wave him by was pathetic. In any case, Hamilton shouldn't give him an inch, they are in proper competition for the championship, and Hamilton is now only 11 points behind him, which is nothing at this stage.

It would be utterly daft to ask him to give up position when there was still a risk of rain, as that would equalise the pitstop disadvantage Rosberg had.

Regardless of whether it's right to ask someone to give up position to his only realistic competitor in the title. All it's going to have done is give the conspiracy nuts more fuel.

Never mind.

Funny how no one is talking about the engine noise anymore.

Apart from Bernie and all the team principals yesterday, I suppose.


That's what his engineer was telling him over the radio, so why shouldn't he expect it?


Hamilton very probably cost Mercedes second place.

I find it odd that you advocate giving up a title fight to further consolidate an already won constructor's title.

That's exact the opposite opinion to anyone who wants F1 to be interesting, surely?

I just want them to put it back to how it used to be, to be honest. So much has been thrown at making it "interesting" (and "cheap", in fairness) that a whole lot of what made it good has vanished.

Of course, we've known for years how to make a race good - you make it rain, and you put a fast car at the back of the grid

And why on Earth should he care? Any driver worth his salt should think only about winning, race and championship, as long as there is even a small chance. In this case, they're almost even on points, it would be colossally stupid to hand Rosberg any. These guys have to think ahead to coming seasons as well, who would hire anyone as a principal driver who isn't solely concerned about winning?

In any case he did a pretty outstanding job to get them third and fourth which is worth a lot more than second. This sort of thing also gets them more press and more coverage for the sponsors. I'd be amazed if they gave a shit.

Because it's a team sport. He's one (of the more important, certainly) of a massive number of players.


That's a very romantic view of things.

I'm not convinced Hamilton's car would have exploded because Rosberg drove past him (although, going by past form... )


Did you not see Toto's interview with Ted after the race? He may have kept saying "that's an internal matter" but I'm not convinced his teeth actually came apart.

It was a fucking good drive, though (apart from the second corner). Those Merc's are sublime.

Of course not but I'm sure that any annoyance will be tempered by his race performance and I can't help thinking that with the constructors pretty much in the bag having two drivers fighting for the championship is a lot better for the team than a big lead for Rosberg and a sulky Hamilton not wanting to bother with interviews and whatnot. I'm sure he ignored the order knowing he would probably get away with it and as such it was exactly the right thing for him to do.

Maybe, but I believe that being on the very top of Formula 1 is ultimately to a large extent a matter of having a certain personality. Formula 1 has had its Schumachers and its Barrichellos, and Hamilton has shown he belongs to the Schumacher category. Good on him, I say.

Turns out they've not given Hamilton a hard time of it because they felt guilty about shitting his car up in quali.

Back to which specific day/month/year, at which point there was a magnificent peak in motor racing that was entirely due to the cars and has been ruined at every millisecond since?

Obviously tongue-in-cheek, but a return to what? To Eddie Irvine getting screwed by his own team so he didn't win the title as it would make Schumi look human? To being the best driver but having to pull over to let a lesser driver through as it would help the team?

The likes of Ferrari are famous enough already. It surprises me that there are people who care about the constructor championship more than the individual one, and surprises me even more that they care more about a couple of points extra in an already dead constructor race ahead of actually keeping a title race alive by racing drivers actually racing! Some of the Rosberg/Hamilton stuff earlier this season was fantastic, and to remove it so the team coasts to a 1-2 is just mind-blowingly dull.

Fuck knows what you're babbling on about now.

Just wanted to know what point was 'the best', and why you prefer team orders over racing, but don't really care either way. Generic internet arseyness by me.

I think it's been on a gradual downward spiral with all the restrictions placed on the cars themselves (I don't really care about the drivers so much). I think my first big "whuuut" moment was when they banned testing.

So you'd like to go back to the days where the richest team can perform unlimited testing at their own personal track and even get the tyre supplier to manufacture bespoke tyres, like Ferrari did in the first half of the 00s? That was deathly boring and put me off the sport almost entirely.

I think the issue is that different people see F1 as different things. Some as a sport with competitors trying to win the drivers' championship, and some as a shiny car show. Both are fine, but it's clear that different people take different things from it.

What would it take to put you off the Internet entirely?

[edit]How did you sneak that in, Curio? I didn't get a warning or anything.

This place does a reasonable job - it's a good thing I'm immensely stubborn.

Phew, eh?

But anyway, I'd just like them to actually be given their heads again, and build some sort of super-rocket. Something like "Here is a massive box. Your car has to fit inside this box without touching the walls or ceiling. You have to incorporate this safety cell, and [x] number of onboard cameras. You can use [x] number of megajoules per race in any way you want. It has to use these wheels*, and it can only drive through the back ones and steer through the front ones. You can't put any bodywork within [x] inches of the wheels. Try not to make them look like fucking dogshit, either."

That would do it.

* These would be bigger, too. Thirteen inches is silly.

Yeah, I read about that. There's a difference between "trialling" and "using", though. Still, fingers crossed.

Surely we must agree it's amazing seeing Vettel getting his arse handed to him by Ricciardo though?

I don't dislike Vettel like everyone else seems to, but obviously I love Ricciardo, because how can you not?

Vettel was a lucky motherfucker with his spin down the straight, though.

I just hated Vettel because he always seemed like such a horrible winner. Although I have warmed to him slightly this season, he seems to be coping with not having the best car and winning all the races and getting a bit of a drubbing from his team mate a lot better than I thought he would.

I think the general problem with that is one of safety. It's been said that they're perfectly capable of building something that would go sufficiently fast that it's likely no person could actually be able to cope with the physical stresses of driving it even with G suits and the like, and you don't particularly want to push that barrier.

Also: Cost. Which would be less of a problem if Mr Ecclestone wasn't such a greedy arse.

So Merc have publically said they're cool with Lewis ignoring team orders.

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12472 ... sberg-pass

I don't know if they've said something different privately, but if not you've got to imagine that they won't be using team orders again this season.

Considering they've got the constructors championship already sewn up, there's no real need for team orders again this season. They realised they made a mistake asking him to move over and I doubt they'll do it again. Just let them race.

Bernie's court case is over - he's not going to jail.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28656050

[edit]Well, the news story says different to the tweet I saw - I guess it's likely to end soon with him not going to jail.

Germans. Great at applying the law until OH LOOK SOME MONEY.

Disgraceful really, the guy he paid\bribed got 12 years.

100 Million is not a lot of money to him, plus Rolf Harris went to jail in his 80's for his crimes so don't see why his advanced age counts for anything

He wanted to have his cake and eat it and got caught.

Oh well, at least he'll be dead soon. Good luck with buying your way out of that, Bernie.

"I'll show you how, Bernie!"

Wait, so the trial about Bernie paying someone to get what he wants, was ended due to Bernie legally being allowed to pay to get what he wants?

Amazing, right?

Nice and vague statement as to where 99% of the "fine" is going



Why is this difficult to prove? His banker friend is already doing time!?