Grand Prix 2015 Austrian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

F1 is back in Austria for 71 laps of the 2.688 mile track. 9 corners, a giant metal bull and enough sugary caffeine drink to give you heart palpitations. This is the Red Bull Ring.

At this point in the championship last year Nico arrived here 22 points ahead of Lewis, and was hoping to increase that gap.

What happened next nobody expected. Williams secured a front row lock out in Qualifying giving Massa the teams first pole position since 2003. Nico could only manage 3rd and Lewis had a shocker down in 9th.

Qualifying pace and race pace are however different things, and the Williams couldn’t live with the Mercedes despite the Mercs nursing brake issues for most of the race. Nico secured the win doing enough to stay ahead of a chasing Hamilton in 2nd, a position helped by an amazing first lap from Lewis where he made up 5 places. Bottas fought valiantly for 3rd and his first ever podium. Massa came home in 4th.

Despite this being the home of Redbull, the team had a bit of a nightmare. With a Retirement for Sebastian (thank you boys) Vettel, and just an 8th for Dan. This home advantage thing isn’t as important as it would appear. With the year they are having (yeh no it’s Renaults fault I tells yah) its hard to see Dan and Dan doing much better this time round either.

So here we are 8 races into the season, just shy of half distance, and the Merecedes boys have, pending any cataclysms, got both championships sown up. Its hard to see anyone catching them at this point barring miracles.

Lewis has a 17 point lead and is back on top after Canada with Nico looking like he is running out of answers. If Nico is to stay in the fight he needs to win here. Otherwise the points gap and his mental doubt could build into an avalanche.

Ferrari upgrades bring them in closer to the Mercs but they still need to find at least half a second. Good result for Kimi last time out baring the spin (not my fault guv).

The thing I am most looking forward to is seeing if Williams can do the same as they did last year. I always enjoy seeing a smiley Claire Williams. Everything crossed for them to at least beat the Ferraris.

Hopefully McLaren can avoid another double DNF, but even if they do I'm sure they will say they are still improving. Alonso will be hoping to just finish after 3 DNF’s in a row.

Most people in the CTA pole scored this 7 out of ten last year. Lets hope it’s as good this year.

Highlights from last year.

 

[FB]

Given that most races are won at the first corner it is very important.

 

[Il_leone]

FB

Which brings to the point why can't they use pedal clutches rather than hand clutches to make it a bit more challenging and demanding of drivers... the starts then would be more mixed up and we would not get grid formation procession races

 

[sushifiesta]

Hamilton lost the race/the chance to win the race via:

1. A bad start.
   
2. The safety car, which put an end to the early pressure he was putting on Nico.
3. Stupidly crossing the line at the pit exit.

It would have been a much more interesting race if at least one of these three things hadn't happened.

 

[Il_leone]

I don't think crossing the pit exit or not would have made a difference because Rosberg had got his tyres warmed up and was the fastest man on the circuit


Its the first weekend where Hamilton seems to have been rather erratic

 

[steveg]

After the race Paddy Lowe said the tension was taken out of the race when Lewis got the time penalty. The way I see it is MERC took the tension out of the race for themselves by leaving Hamilton, who at that point was gaining rapidly out for an extra lap that cost him 2 seconds followed by another half second loss in the pits. The stops always seem to pan out just nice whenever its advantage Rosberg unlike the total shambles for Hamilton such as Monaco (say no more) or Bahrain where they managed to somehow turn a 6 second lead into zero when Hamilton emerged in front of the Vettel/Rosberg squabble by the skin of his teeth. What I'd be intrigued to know is had Vettel been alot closer on Sunday as everyone had expected would Merc have sacrificed Rosbergs pit stop in favor of Hamilton to cover Vettel as they so often do for Rosberg. On this evidence I doubt it.

 

[RasputinLives]

So they should have pitted Hamilton before Rosberg when Rosberg was the lead driver? Are you suggesting Merc should give Lewis number 1 status?

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

They could've pitted Lewis 1 lap earlier. Nico pitted on lap 34, Lewis on lap 36.

 

[Brogan]

So they should have pitted Hamilton before Rosberg when Rosberg was the lead driver?

They have done so for Rosberg this season.

As above though, Merc screwed up again by leaving Hamilton out a lap longer.

 

[RasputinLives]

Only because Lewis had a clear lead and Rosberg was going to be nabbed by Vettel.

Didn't Merc pit Hamilton the lap after Rosberg?

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

It was 2 laps after. I was sad enough to check because I couldn't remember.

 

[Brogan]

Mercedes said they left Hamilton out a lap longer as they expected Rosberg to be held up by Massa but Massa pitted before Rosberg caught him.
So Rosberg had a clear fast lap on new tyres and Hamilton had another lap on old tyres, which increased the gap.

Lap chart here: http://cliptheapex.com/overtaking/gps/2015-aut.924/

 

[RasputinLives]

So is someone going to do the math for me and figure out if he'd pitted a lap earlier he'd have got out in front of Rosberg?

 

[Brogan]

I doubt he would have been in front but he probably wouldn't have lost 2 seconds.
Then there's the 5 second penalty which he received for crossing the lit lane exit white line, which may not have happened if he had pitted on the previous lap.

So all in all, it could have been a different second half of the race.

Difficult to say though as Rosberg seemed to have the pace.

 

[RasputinLives]

Its all a bit woulda shoulda coulda. I think Rosberg had the better of him on race day and everything else is speculation.

 

[Brogan]

The gaps were as follows:
Lap 32: 2.210
Lap 37: 4.604

 

[FB]

Nico definitely had the legs on Lewis in Spielberg. I suspect Lewis will get his own back at Silverstone.

 

[steveg]

So they should have pitted Hamilton before Rosberg when Rosberg was the lead driver? Are you suggesting Merc should gove Lewis number 1 status?

No what I am saying (as the conversation above has lead to anyway) is they left him out too long which gave Rosberg vital breathing space at a crucial point of the race - just another mess up in a long line for Hamilton as far as I'm concerned. My reference to pitting him ahead was simply a question of would they? - in a hypothetical situation where Hamiltons 2nd place was at risk as they always do for Rosberg - even when it has compromised Hamilton. And I don't believe they would..

 

[RasputinLives]

What makes you think they wouldn't?

 

[steveg]

What makes you think they wouldn't?

because if they are happy to compromise Hamiltons race when he is leading despite - and I stand to be corrected - their racing philosophy of protect the lead driver first and gain a one-two second then why would they pull any trees up for him if he's running second. Perhaps 'happy' isn't quite the right word but they just seem IMO more lackadaisical when it comes to Hamilton.

 

[RasputinLives]

I think your jumping to conclusions and I've not seen anything to suggest they wouldn't treat both drivers equally. I agree they can sometimes be stupid but I don't think they are conciously more care free with one drivers strategy over the other.

I'll stand corrected if it happens like but I think thats all just residual anger from Monaco.