Spain:hero's and zero's

[Dare]

What appeared to settle into a procession
turned into a hell of a race


hero's

Hamilton and Rosberg=either one desrved to win

Vettel=hate to admit it butVettel drove the race of
           the day imho

Alonso=taking a inferior car and gettng more out
            of it than anyone else could

Daniel R=is he RB's new number one driver

Bottos=another presumed #2 driver proving he is anything but

Zero's

Mclaren=maybe Dennis had it wrong,it wasn't Martin or Perez,
             fire yourself Ron

Pastor=what can be said in his favor?time to go Pastor

reliability=where's the un in unreliable 2014 F1 cars,would have made
               for a exciting season

Mecedes=come on guys give the other teams a chance this year

[Andy B]

I can only disagree with two of your options Dare.
If the cars were un-reliable then the racing would not be as good as we would have less cars on track.
I think Mercedes are giving the others a chance as they are racing each other how far in front would they be at the end of the race if they were not? It was the Mercedes duo that made it edge of the seat for the finish.

[Willy]

Dare I can agree with most of what you said but not about Merc.
If they are the first to get the new regs figured out then they get the advantage.
Way to go ex Brawn GP Team.  If it wasn't for the infrastructure that Ross put in place, Merc wouldn't be where they are.

[F1fanaticBD]

The finish of the race was exceptional, yeah may be not as good as Bahrain, but surely credit goes to Rosberg for not giving up, and just .6 away from the winner after 66 laps of racing. I have never seen ever as the battle with the team-mate intensify over the season, and just shows how closely the battles are fought between team-mates.

Heros :

Sebastian Vettel : What a drive, being pushed to 10th place for not posting a time in Q3, then 5 place penalty for gear-box change, and then that class act in Sunday. Vettel may not have won the race, but surely silenced the people, who think he is not a good driver. And his last move on Bottas was phenomenal, Williams was far better in the straight line than the Red Bull, so it was necessary for Vettel to make his move other place than, start-finish straight, which he ensured brilliantly.

Lewis Hamilton : I have a feeling this was almost the pivotal time for this guy, because this weekend he was not the all-out superior driver, yet he manages to sneak out the performance, when it mattered the most, in Q3 and in the race. And when I look back a year and half ago, I just realized what a great move this guy made from switching to Mercedes from McLaren. Initially it looked suicidal, but as time progress, I could not imagined I would be made this much of a fool with that sort of thinking. He had that issue with his car Australia, other than that this season is all about Hamilton & Mercedes, Rosberg is just there to make it not boring all the way.

Zeros :

Nico Rosberg : I know I an being harsh, but he will never get a better chance at Driver's title than this year, and he is letting things slip away, both grip in the team, where he has been for 4 years, as well as in the title race. He should be get his act together, show that he is a world champion contender and do not let Hamilton get away with this sort of race.

Ferrari : What a lousy red tractor Maranello has created spending that much of money, being lapped by the leading cars after in 5th place, that is just insulting, and just showing what a poor job has this been from the Prancing Horse team. Get you act together Ferrari, because you almost had the same facilities as the Mercedes and you are that far away from the leaders.

And there is another Category Called Maldonado, because saying him the Zeros with other will be an insult to them, so this is an honorable mention for him.

[Monty]

I agree with most of what Dare says, including reluctance praise of Vettel.
I do not agree with the comments regarding Ron Dennis. The 2014 car was designed under the Whitmarsh regime (don't forget they were using the excuse that they would not develop the 2013 car so they could concentrate on the 2014 car.... and what a dog it has turned out to be.
I would not be at all surprised if Ron accepts 2014 as dead and starts to concentrate on the 2015 Honda car.
I think it is extremely unlikely that they will be able to develop the 2014 chassis to suddenly find downforce and balance. These attributes come from the fundamentals of the chassis design and no amount of 'fiddling' will make a fundamentally bad car suddenly become a good car.

[Vince]

I can't honestly say that Rosberg was a zero... He fought to the end and he was ultimately beaten by a better driver. He's good - it's just that Hamilton is better.
Vettel was a genuine hero. I am not a fan, however to come through the pack the way he did with some of those overtaking moves was pretty impressive. Bottas did well and proved that Massa should retire, as did Grojean... The Force Indias were pretty impressive too!
The zeros? - Pretty easy really... Mclaren were a waste of space and carbon-fibre, and that 'twonk' Maldonado should open a karting academy or something with his PDVSA dosh...   

[Scott]

Have to agree with most of the posts, but was a bit confused also when Rosberg seemed to be in a gap managed by Lewis until the end.  Not sure why things didn't go his way until the last stint.  Really disappointed that Kimi couldn't keep Alonso behind at the end after staying in front the first half of the race all the while Alonso was in DRS range.  Tire strategies were surely part of the cause, but the race somehow showed poorly for both. 

Reliability is a good thing, but whether it's the tires or the aero, the cars just didn't seem to be on the edge, while the GP2-3 and Porsches were drifting the corners and even a lot more twitchy (at least from where we were sitting).  Want to fix F1?  As Vintly said again and again, throw some danger back in.  Not causing injury, but sure find a way to have the cars run off the track more often.  Got to have a way to throw the back end out a bit more.  In GP2-3, turn 9 was an exciting passing zone.  F1?  Follow the leader.

[Scott]

I think another problem could be the point system.  Midfield teams would rather get 1 or 2 points to finish 9th or 10th than have the driver risk anything to get further up the field where the points really make a difference. 

[Jericoke]

I think another problem could be the point system.  Midfield teams would rather get 1 or 2 points to finish 9th or 10th than have the driver risk anything to get further up the field where the points really make a difference.

I think that the current point system does allow for more action, as someone in 13th place realistically has something to shoot for.  We do see more parity amongst the midfield cars, and more action.

Of course, given the variety of F1 tracks, we're unlikely to have any formula that provides flag to flag nailbiting action at every single venue.  At least, not when the cars are basically locked down.  (I miss the days where they could bring track specific engines and transmissions!)

[lkjohnson1950]

I agree. Freezing the tranny ratios was just stupid.

[vintly]

I'd recorded the race and watched it back last night - really enjoyed it. Being at the track is of course superb but you miss the details that only live commentary can provide. It was interesting to hear how Hammy's last pit-stop was possibly delayed one lap while they changed their mind about how many turns of the wing to apply, and whether the eventual 2 turns instead of 3 was partly to blame for Hammy's lack of pace at the end. And of course great to see Vettel's many overtakes

One hero to add - Scott for getting there early on the Sunday and securing a great viewing position, nice one mate.

[Scott]

Thanks for the mention Vintly.  I think honourable mention goes to the guy in Montmelo selling lawn chairs for about the same price as a beer at the GP.  Without him we would've all had sore a$$es.   

[Andy B]

The more I think about it the more I am convinced that if Rosberg cannot beat Lewis on his bad weekend the he has little chance on a good one. 

[Dare]

The more I think about it the more I am convinced that if Rosberg cannot beat Lewis on his bad weekend the he has little chance on a good one. 

He may Andy,remember the brilliant double points race or is
it races?

[John S]

The more I think about it the more I am convinced that if Rosberg cannot beat Lewis on his bad weekend the he has little chance on a good one. 

He may Andy,remember the brilliant double points race or is
it races?

Not to worry Dare, with Lewis' mindset this season I'll stake my house* that he'll take the title before we get to said double pointer. 


* the doll's house currently residing in the loft is the actual subject of said wager and is available for inspection by any interested parties on payment of a $200 viewers fee no guarantee of condition of said property is implied or warrantied any claimant wishing to claim the property if wager lost must pay a security release fee of $100 and pay all shipping import/export taxes and duty liable with the movement of said dolls house contents of the property must remain with the dwelling no contents included in wager prize purchase of which will require $250 payment in advance all rights to ownership to be retained the full leasehold terms will be made available to any claimant after wager lost.

Well you can't be too careful can you.