You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Didn't watch this last race/ procession, however, can anyone tell me what lap Alonso got the third fastest lap time please? Only 2 and a bit tenths slower than Hamiltons lap time and 2 tenths slower than Vettel.
I didn't know that he had. Where did you read that?
He put super sticky tyres on a few laps from the end. Combined with very low fuel probably did it.
Commentators said he was just having fun but maybe he was showing others that he is still fast given a good car.
Not much time for any real work between them so it'll be run what u brung
And here lies F1's problem - as it stands whoever gets it right at the start of the season wins everything.
slackalice - Member
…can anyone tell me what lap Alonso got the third fastest lap time please?
twonks - Member
He put super sticky tyres on a few laps from the end.
Lap 52 of 55
Selected quote from f1fanatic.co.uk:
McLaren allowed Fernando Alonso to turn his engine up to “full deployment” as he made a late bid to claim the fastest lap of the race in Abu Dhabi.Alonso also switched to super-soft tyres for his run at the end of the race which left him 0.279 seconds off the quickest time…
“The results were more than somewhat encouraging. He carved his fastest lap on the race’s 52nd tour – 1’44.796s – and only two drivers bettered that: Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.”
Alonso close to fastest lap with “full deployment”
Good comment at the bottom of the page:
“So an F1 car going as fast as it possibly can has become so much of a rarity that it has it’s own news story.”
"I don't know the big picture and ultimately you have to rely on the engineers to give you the optimum strategy," he told reporters after the race."
...........Lewis......... - you gotta laugh - if you want to rely on the race engineers then stop bitchin at them on team radio that they are doing it wrong and blaming them after the race, get faster, get pole.
@legend = review show
the beeb will put on the full ar*e lick of hamilton as he writes for them on the bbc website anyway, and will probably feature "exclusive" interview with him on the "review show" with his usual "pretending to be humble" talk from his monte carlo mansion while showing off his newly repaired supercar. 😉
What gets me is Hamilton's complete lack of humility when he doesn't win, his body language yesterday was like that of a spoilt child. I don't like people like that (and I know he couldn't care less what I think) but it's a shame that I have to root for his team mate each GP.
Hope that Mclaren bounce back next year with a better power plant from Honda, the Alonso lap showed a glimmer of hope and the chassis is recognized as being very good so fingers crossed, would be nice to see Button and Alonso challenging the Mercs and Ferraris
I wouldn't pin too much hope on McL beyond hopefully being there if Merc and maybe Ferrari cock up until 2017. Not to mention that with Ferrari's wings clipped in terms of having Haas do a load of extra development for them they'll find it harder to close the gap.
Still, now Hamilton's won his three which I think he deserves, it'd be good if NR could take the race to him next season though I'm not really holding my breath - it sounds like LH has been partying non-stop since winning and I expect that things will be back to normal next season.
That said the cars do seem to be getting worse for overtaking so maybe if NR can keep up the good qualifying, he could keep ahead of LH more consistently. And also if Ferrari can't mix it up which I think would hand the advantage to LH.
Been out all day, so thanks for the replies re my earlier question of Alonso's quick lap. I haven't read anything else as yet, so how does it compare to Hamilton and Vettel in terms of what tyres they were using and which lap they set their quick laps on?
After all, if they set their quickest laps earlier in the race and on the harder compound tyres, then Alonso's time becomes academic and possibly sabbatical inducing.
Hamilton's fastest must have been the prime tyre, nearish to the end, when there was "Strat 6" and "Strat 10" tit-for-tat (or being told how to drive?) going on in the Mercs?
Vettel's fastest would have been supersoft near the end?
Sounds more like a PR exercise to get sponsors in. Reality slower than the Merc & Ferrari and on faster tyres, so hard to see much improvement other than the PU actually lasted 6 laps!!!
That said the cars do seem to be getting worse for overtaking
Yes, Max Verstappen in particular seems to find it hard.
Lucky that he addressed exactly that point at the last race then...
My predictions for the 2016 season:
- Hamilton will come back with hair plugs
- Rosberg will come back with a shaved head and punch him in the mouth
- Kimi will stop drinking and start winning races
- One of Eddie Jordan's predictions will actually come true, prompting David Coulthard to pull off the mask and reveal an astonished Bernie Ecclestone. Who will then shake a fist and angrily mutter something about 'you pesky kids'.
- Grosjean will come from out of nowhere to bag a podium and/or a win
- Suzi Perry will ask a question by following a meaningless outburst with the qualifying-but-now-displaced preamble (for example: 'Engines! Er..so...are you going to have any for next year Christian?')
- David Coulthard will use the following words and phrases:
'Dirty air'
'New boots on'
'Tankslapper'
'Well, two into one won't go'
'Almighty lock up on the brakes'
- Vettel will finally have that finger taken off by a very (very!) well paid sniper
You forgot
"Over-rotation"
"Under-rotation"
So true!
'on this day in history...'
- Verstappen will put the car in the barriers almost every race as other drivers get wise and his beginners luck runs out.
'Engines! Er..so...are you going to have any for next year Christian?'
No, they'll either be pedalling like on a kindergarten trike, or walk along like in flintsones.
They will still beat McHonda.
ohhhhh i love trolling - i mean predictions...
Nico will win 2016 title
With no Lauda to sing his praises - and Merc favouring Nico, it will be Lewis' last season with Merc as he just cannot handle getting beat and will have to blame the team.
will be Kimi's last season at ferrari
will be Horners last season at RBR
will be Dennis lasts year at McLaren
will be alonso's first season in the WEC 🙂
will be a bbc pure highlights package - no suzi or eddie (yay!!!)
FIA and Bernie will crumble under pressure from teams to drop the "cheap engine" despite getting an external contract with a supplier who will then attempt to sue them.
Where's Lauda going?
Horner to McLaren in 2017
That would be an interesting move. And Brawn to Red Bull?
I've already said too much
My prediction, Alonso will take a sabbatical in 2016 - no point having a driver on £40m running around at the back of the grid, better to use the money for development.
Alonso sit at home and not get paid - you do know who is manager is don't you!?
He may sit at home, but you can be certain he'd be getting paid.
He'll quit altogether and do WEC or stay IMO.
He'll quit altogether and do WEC or stay IMO.
Unlikely that he'll get a drive in WEC, Porsche and Audi are full (and only running 2 cars at Le Mans), Toyota cant afford him, and the Nissan is a death trap (Marc Genes words...)
Yeah I do, and yes I agree, but I reckon Ron has a plan or will pay him less not to stay at home. Ideally I'd like to see theMcHonda near the front with JB and Alonso in them both.
.....of course he might still be driving a Honda powered engine, just not in F1 .....
.....of course he might still be driving a Honda powered engine, just not in F1 .....
Where else?
If he quits I'd put money on him setting up the cycling team he tried a year or 2 back. No way he'd give up turning right.
shermer75 - Member
.....of course he might still be driving a Honda powered engine, just not in F1 .....
Where else?
BTCC obviously!
Of course!! 😀
Finally! Lotus is no more.
[url= http://beta.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122120/renault-completes-lotus-takeover ]Autosport links [/url]
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/35004203 ]red bull secures new renault deal[/url]
So all we're waiting for is Force India to become Aston Martin and to see what becomes of Manor.
Nice timing of Bernie to announce what Fom and thr fia are proposing at the end of Jan too, just when F1 news is getting a bit thin on the ground
'red bull secures new renault deal'
I wonder how they'll stack up against the 2015 Ferrari engine in the Torro Rossos
so could be no German GP and no US GP next year
funny Merc are giving out warnings about "getting along" to thier drivers - i suspect a lot more issues internally than we ever saw on a sunday afternoon in the post-race-press conference.
...and rumours about the CVC sell off of F1 - could a consortium of Manufacturers about to put in 8bn to buy it out and run themselves (considering how much CVC make each year from F1 its not a bad investment , they then get almost ALL the F1 money)
[url= http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/333827/mercedes-sues-employee-for-data-theft/ ]ooops...my pen drive slipped[/url]
I'd strongly doubt Ferrari had any knowledge of this but it does have a certain resemblance to a previous case...no photocopier this time though!
In this day and age I'd suspect there's a lot of data leaving the building in the months and weeks prior to an employee handing in their notice...
oops..my pen drive slipped
ooops, your ctrl-v slipped - your link doesn't go anywhere... 🙂 got the link you could re-post?
ooops, your ctrl-v slipped - your link doesn't go anywhere... got the link you could re-post?
A minute shy of a stealth edit...
🙂
Just watched it, great stuff. I'd had this down as a bit of a dull season, but there was actually a lot of memorable moments
Well - mighty peeved this morning. Went to watch a bit of classic F1 last night only the find the F1 channel had be replaced by a ruddy Darts channel. Not happy.
And now the BBC walk away from F1!...
lets hope they drop eddie and suzie!
If you saw the BBC forum after Abu Dhabi DC was eulogising about having worked with such a great team. To me that didn't sound like someone about to sign a contract for the beeb in 2016.
Right now we need someone to take on the commercial rights who isn't going to screw over the entire fan base so he can die with another few million in the bank. Joe saward has been writing some interesting blog articles about the current issues in f1 and he's got a big picture perspective rather than just changing the engines or tweaking the aero.
the-muffin-man - Member
Well - mighty peeved this morning. Went to watch a bit of classic F1 last night only the find the F1 channel had be replaced by a ruddy Darts channel. Not happy.
After a few of this seasons snoozefests I can't wait 😀
Think I will have a cheeky tenner on MVG this year.
Will darts players have an energy recovery system this season?
I'll be honest I'm a bit disappointed that the BBC are backing out of F1 coverage. I've really enjoyed watching it on there. Not looking forward to adverts in the middle of races again!
I actually enjoy darts - it's the principal I'm annoyed over - I pay a package that includes an F1 channel.
And I rarely get chance to watch some classic F1 and was looking forward to a few hours of 80's F1 with a mince pie and a glass of whisky this crimbo!
They have lots of other general sports channels they could have stuck the darts on.
Re F1 on ITV - I wonder if they are considering taking all races live, possibly on ITV4.
I doubt itv will show all the races I presume they take over the highlight package from bbc. Sky would have paid a premium and unlikely to let go their competitive advantage. It woul dhave to take a monumental u turn from bernie and digging deep into his pockets to make that happen.
The £££ are there for Bernie. I do hope Formula E gets more exposure and hope F1 can learn from other formulas.
as far as i know, ITV is just picking up the BBC package, no new deal.
I would not be surprised though if they are not tucked away sometimes on ITV2/3/4 if something else "big" is on ITV sat/sun at the same time....
are we not looking here though at a bigger problem for the BBC, it simply cannot compete with the money that can be pumped into News/Sport/Drama/Variety that commercial channels can, and therefore its going to have to either change, or die.
Is it time for a new thread with an updated title?
Don't be hasty - it's not 2016 yet! 🙂
Yeah, but it's not like there's much discussion of 2015 season any more.
are we not looking here though at a bigger problem for the BBC, it simply cannot compete with the money that can be pumped into News/Sport/Drama/Variety that commercial channels can, and therefore its going to have to either change, or die.
I think the BBC are screwed on the Sport coverage front, IIRC the only coverage that they have is the 6 nations and Wimbledon. More often than not the News programmes are just plugging other BBC programmes, even the website is dropping off these days.
chatter on the webby is after Bernie's hardball lines with the BBC they turned around and said they would just use R5L commentery over a live stream .
i also see no "podium" for Lewis from the BBC sports personality last night - but then again lewis never had one 🙂
ahaaaa
Channel 4 it is...
so here's how to do business as the BBC -
take up a massive contract and pay XXX million for it,
a few years in, realise your cannot afford it and instead of thinking of the fans and allowing ITV/C4 to take it all Free To Air, do a secret deal with Sky and Bernie to only show half the races, screw the fans, and pay a bit less on the contract...
then a few years after that, saying you cannot even afford the new contract you did just 24 months ago, sell it out again to the people you didnt want it to go to 24 months ago !
shambles
On the upside it seems c4 will be showing their live races with no ad breaks, and as b2b says they were interested in taking the rights the last time the BBC had to cut costs so with any luck they'll do a decent job and bring some fresh ideas.
C4 fresh ideas? Can we try; get rid of Eddie Jordan and Suzi Perry pwease? 🙂
so long ben gallop head of f1 at the bbc. I think you may find he is the one at the top of the tree.
I'm looking forward to the c4 coverage. I hope the production crew keep their jobs and move over to c4.
I wonder if dc / suzi P end up on top gear now?
DC settled into his job nicely, it'd be nice to see him carrying on. Ben Edwards made a pretty good fist of the commentating as well.
My understanding of the reason for the change is that the license fee has been frozen and left the BBC with less money than they thought they would have, rather than shambolic planning on their part.
hopefully the production team will be TUPE'd across. Sad news but frankly not a surprise. 'hopefully' C4 can give it some freshness in production.
tbh, I'd be happy if C4 just start the programme 5 mins before the start, and finish it 5 mins after. Dragging it out for an extra 2-3hrs lost my interest a long time ago
Now THAT'S a good idea!
Also remember ITV dumped its contract early as well. TBF it can't be much fun dealing with Bernie, this is what he was saying 2 days ago apparently “they can’t leave the contract early”. Yet on the other side the BBC will have been pointing out that F1 viewing figures have dropped year-on-year by 3.6 percent and are now back at 2009 levels, despite a British champion.
For the BBC an audience of 3 million isn't great, whereas for C4 that is pretty damn good. So possibly a low cost F1 on C4 works better from the financial point of view and F1 can be happy it won't loose to many viewers.
I'm still s****ing at the idea of Coulthard, Jordan etc being TUPE'd 😀
TUPE? I think ej has been wearing one for years.
So therefore the BBC should have negotiated a contract based on viewing figures, instead of it escalating each year - yet more crap planning on their part - they were convinced i think that Lewis would bring in millions of audiences, but, and as we have stated here, the "younger generation" are just not that interested in F1 or its drivers,
the F1 fan base is made up of casual pub viewers (who can give or take a race viewing) or the ever decreasing die hard F1 fans who love the technicalities of the sport, but are getting ever screwed over by stupid rule changes, boring tracks, and stupid non-testing rules....
looks like Button and wife Jessica are split !
yeah slow news day - well apart from Ron Dennis talking up how everyone should be scared of Honda next year --- yeah yeah Ron, we all know your desperate to up your chances to get any kind of sponsor !