Poll 2011 British Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

[Lewywo4]

My vote Hamilton.....A terrific start, passing 5 cars including his teammate in the first 2 laps.

Excellent passing without using DRS, and a good example was, taking Alonso at copse in the wet on dry tires.

" But I was not giving him (Massa) that position, no way. "

Honorable mention......Paul di Resta.

 

[Quintessentially]

Hamilton was ahead on pace and faster at more times...

Really not understanding the logic at all

Neither do I. This place does baffle me at times how often people deny the obvious. Hamilton cruised past Button with relative ease and pulled a signifcant gap within a few laps. He even managed to get back on track after an off road moment chasing down Massa, with Jenson still no where to be seen. I don't think Jenson would thank people for arguing his case that he ws matching Hamilton for pace and it is not known whether or not he would've had to navigate a similar fuel issue.

 

[Andyoak]

Sorry, but I can't see the logic in going for Lewis.

Yes, he probably had the best race but not the weekend.

However, I don't buy into blaming the team. Lewis is the one with first hand knowledge of the track, the tyres, his car and any decisions must be based on his feedback. If his feedback was poor or he lacks the confidence to assert his opinion to his garage and engineer then more fool him.

Ultimately the driver should have the final say... can't see Alonso, Senna, Prost (or any number of greats that he would like to be seen as on a par with) being so accepting of opinions he claims to have known to be wrong.

No... Alonso for driver of the weekend; he didn't put a foot wrong over all three days.

 

[Slyboogy]

Those where the words I was looking for... (plus a few other points, which I still can't put into words )

Thanks Anyoak

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Sorry, but I can't see the logic in going for Lewis.

Yes, he probably had the best race but not the weekend.

However, I don't buy into blaming the team. Lewis is the one with first hand knowledge of the track, the tyres, his car and any decisions must be based on his feedback. If his feedback was poor or he lacks the confidence to assert his opinion to his garage and engineer then more fool him.

Ultimately the driver should have the final say... can't see Alonso, Senna, Prost (or any number of greats that he would like to be seen as on a par with) being so accepting of opinions he claims to have known to be wrong.

No... Alonso for driver of the weekend; he didn't put a foot wrong over all three days.

I see the point that you are trying to make but what makes you think Lewis would have had any idea that he would not have had enough fuel to push for the whole race. That's like saying that it was Jenson's fault for leaving the pit lane without a wheel nut because he should not have trusted the lollipop man.

 

[RasputinLives]

Almost a dead heat for me between Alonso and Hamilton but gone for Alonso as he got bonus points for improved attitude this season - head down and wait for the car to get better seems to have worked for you Fernando.

honourable mention to MS for getting the wrath of Nigel Mansell and still getting in them points.

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

Wish we were allowed to vote for two drivers on this one as i would have gone for Perez aswell as Alonso. Perez is improving race by race and i can see him in a top team very soon.

 

[Quintessentially]

So now Hamilton should estimate the amount of fuel that goes in his tank. Is he the first driver in the history of F1 to be asked to save fuel because of circumstances. Was there not a radio message during the latter part of the race of him demanding more information from the pitwall? This whole driver of the weekend poll is inevitably down to personal opinion and you have to accept people's choices but some of the arguments being used to dismiss Hamilton's efforts is quite frankly dishonest.

 

[Slyboogy]

Andyoak is talking about the Q3 decision, not one whether he should estimate how much fuel he has in the tank...

 

[RasputinLives]

just thinking about it - could I give a mention to Massa. He was hung out to dry twice on pitstops by his team and lost a lot of time waiting for them to bring him in and was still only 13 seconds behind the Red Bulls which doesn't even take into account his fight with Lewis at the end.

If you think about it Ferrari could have pulled off a 1 - 2 if they'd just been a little smarter with strategy.

hmm that could be a thread on its own

 

[Jen]

So if I were a minnow and came across a submarine breathing pachyderm, I'd feel very unlucky indeed.

Depends on the pachyderm and what sort of day he had had

 

[Quintessentially]

Andyoak is talking about the Q3 decision, not one whether he should estimate how much fuel he has in the tank...

It's still a poor argument considering the many uncertainties over the weekend, especially the weather. I would say the soft tyres Hamilton saved turned out to be a blessing in disguise and at no point did he claim that the he accepted an opinon he knew was wrong. It should not be underestimated the amount of scrutiny and data evaluation that go into the decision process during a Grand prix weekend. Formula One is first and foremost a team sport and a driver's input is a small part of a very long equation. If Alonso was so great in leading the team like Andyoak claims, he would've been more assertive at Abu Dhabi last year when he effectively threw away the championship against all odds. However is it not a more balanced argument that sometimes a driver is suceptible to the team's decision, like Hamilton was in Q3, and Alonso paid the ultimate price through no fault of his own at Abu Dhabi?

 

[Slyboogy]

They are two different things, first of all, the team didn't learn their mistake from Monaco from getting a banker lap in conditions, you would think after that Hamilton would have more of a say, actually you would think they would learn from Malaysia 2010.

Back in Abu Dhabi it had nothing to do with the weather for the strategic call, or a red flag to cause the session to stop, you are comparing to different things.

I am not saying Hamilton did anything wrong, I am looking at it from Andyoak's point of view.

 

[FB]

Massa damaged his car early on in the race so 5th was pretty impresive.

It’s true my pace wasn’t amazing today, but that could have had something to do with the fact my floor was damaged, after I hit something at Turn 6; maybe a part from another car.

 

[sushifiesta]

Yeah heard that earlier today, which maybe softens my stance a bit. As for the argument about him being No. 2 that was probably expected when Raikkonen came in as well, especially after he won the championship in 2007, but he fought and towards the end of the 2008 season the roles had reversed.

For reference, in the last four races both Alonso and Massa have had one retirement but in the other three Alonso has finished 1st/2nd but Massa has finished 5th/6th. I would argue that he's not even being an especially good number two driver, although perhaps this is just showing how good Alonso is.

Anyway this is all going a bit off topic now... If the Chump of the Weekend thread was still running my vote would have gone to him, certainly on Sunday and probably even now taking into account the damage to his car.

 

[Quintessentially]

I don't think I'm comparing different things going by what was initially posted. You are asking for the driver to the lead and I'm saying this is not always the case, whether it's reacting to the weather, SC or other changing conditions. I think McLaren realise that they need to improve the car's performane significantly in quali trim and until then the immediate strategy is largely geared towards having a strong race and you can't blame them.

 

[Incubus]

I think Ferrari wouldn't let anyone get in the way of their partnership with Alonso, they want this partnership to work really badly, I can see nothing getting in the way.[/quote]

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They want their parnership to work badly???

 

[Slyboogy]

It seems to be the case, they got him in a year early and have him contracted for 2016, a lot can go wrong in 5 years...

 

[Incubus]

Yeah, but he could leave anytime he likes really...I mean, it's just a contract isn't it? It's not really anything worth much is it?

 

[Andyoak]

Thanks Slyboogy for pretty much covering what I would have said to support my view re. Q3 and the impact on the race.

Fuel allowances are something that the driver can't have an influence on... that has to be a garage / engineering calculation based on anticipated outcomes in the race. To the best of my knowledge all cars are under-fuelled; that is the gamble the teams make.

As something to think about... if Lewis had been fully fuelled for a 90% Banzai attacking race would he actually have been able to make the flying start he did or would the weight penalty come into play?