The 2011 Season

Vettel is now 77 points clear of 2nd place, or 3 full race wins.
He could DNF the next 3 races and still be leading the WDC.

I think it was also the third time that every car has finished the race.
 
Indy 2005 is a bit dodgy. There were 20 cars entered, 20 qualified and 20 did the warm-up lap, 14 of whom disappeared into the pits and did not start.

When does the counting start? The FIA timing starts at 15 minutes before the start of the race when the pit lane closes so they might well say that there were 14 retirements.
 
The Race Hub has been updated, minus the overtaking data which will be added once it's available.

I think Lewis Hamilton summed it up earlier when he said: "It's finished really. In the sense of the championship it's almost over already.''
 
There are still 11 races left and 275 points up for grabs.
Two DNF's or non-points finishes for Vettel and two wins for either Hamilton, Button or Webber (or even Alonso) and the picture would look very different.
It's not over till it's over. It's a game of two halfs.
etc. etc.

Remember Murray: "Anything happens in Formula One and usually does".
 
Even if there's a drastic change in fortunes from Silverstone due to the EBD changes (unlikely), it's still 2009 all over again.
Vettel's lead is virtually unassailable in my opinion.

Speaking of the EBD changes, I have a feeling that Red Bull will actually come out of it better than the other top teams.
On the strength of this weekend, that would seem to be a safe bet.
 
There are still 11 races left and 275 points up for grabs.
Two DNF's or non-points finishes for Vettel and two wins for either Hamilton, Button or Webber (or even Alonso) and the picture would look very different.
It's not over till it's over. It's a game of two halfs.
etc. etc.

Remember Murray: "Anything happens in Formula One and usually does".

True, but even if the points were equalised now, you'd still fancy Vettel to heavily outscore the rest over the remainder of the season anyway.
 
True, but even if the points were equalised now, you'd still fancy Vettel to heavily outscore the rest over the remainder of the season anyway.
Of course, that's the sensible view and it would take a brave man to bet against Vettel now.

But Remember Rory McIlroy, who had led at the 2011 Masters right up till the last nine of the final day, and finished 10 shots behind eventual winner Schwartzel, who wasn't even in the top 10 at the half way stage?
And who gave Liverpool FC a chance when they were 3-0 down to AC Milan at half time in 2005?
Or Dennis Taylor, when he was 7-0 down to Steve Davis in 1985?
Or Manchester United when they were 1-0 down to Bayern Munich in injury time in 1999?
But here's my favourite.
Munich, 1972; I watched a young Finnish policeman make his Olympic debut in the heats of the 10,000 metres. In the final, he tangled with Emiel Puttemans at around half distance and fell, along with Tunisian runner Mohamed Gammoudi. Gammoudi gave up a couple of laps later, but Lasse Viren didn't. He was 20-30 metres off the back of the pack, but got up and carried on. He deliberately ran every bend as close as possible to the inside rail to save precious metres and re-caught the pack within half a lap. He won the race and the gold medal in a world record time (a time which still stands as the stadium record), and a week later also won the 5,000 metres gold in an Olympic record time.
The original flying Finn.
 
I think we are looking at instances and finding hope and expectations of change......though if we look at realistic facts...they are that RBR is not weaker nor look like getting weaker, they don't have the reliability issues so it seems.....that said there is nothing to suggest an Abu Dhabi showdown this season.
 

"It's finished really. In the sense of the title it's almost over." Hamilton
"The [title] is not in our calculations." Alonso

Two of the greatest racers in current F1 making these statements half way through the season. I don't think I could feel anymore depressed. What a sad state for the sport.

Last year may not have had all of the action of this year but the quality was a thousand times better.
 
Two of the greatest racers in current F1 making these statements half way through the season. I don't think I could feel anymore depressed.

I missed the race yesterday and for the first time since I can remember I have no interest in watching the repeat, it's always a bit dispiriting when someone starts walking away with the title so early in the season. I'll just be discounting all Vettels wins from now on ;)
 
Well I for one won't stop watching, and I completely disagree with those who are saying Red Bul's dominance is bad for the sport. They are, basically, doing a better job, and it's up to the others to catch up.
I'm not a Red Bull fan, but I find a dominated season just as interesting as a hotly-disputed one, it's always fascinating to see the product of genius at work, which is precisely what we're getting from Mr Newey.

I think I might have said this before but anyway I think top-chief designers are like top-drivers, over a longer period of time. They mature, and reach a level where mistakes borne out of youthful enthusiasm gradually gives way to a level of perfection where they just get it right every time. That's exactly the stage Newey's carrer is at right now.

Frankly it just makes me laugh when I read all these "McLaren-in-crisis", "what's-wrong-at-Maranello" articles that prop up periodically.
Of course they're both likely to make mistakes, they have to try something different. Because the cause of all their problems is very simple: a faster in another garage, designed by the man who these days invariably designs the grid-s fastest cars.

As long as Newey is at Red Bull, all the other teams will have a problem.
And I'd be tempted to say as long as Newey remains at Red Bull, no other team can hope to produce the fastest car.
I don't see that about to change anytime soon.

Hamilton for one knows this. Of course he'd love to join Red Bull! He'd be mad not to.

All this certainly won't stop me watching though, as I said it's up to the rest to catch up. If they can.
 
I'll just be discounting all Vettels wins from now on ;)

I've been doing that for a while but as with Monaco there was some hope that another team could win - I think Vettel had all the fortune on his side in that race but the drivers seemed awfully downbeat that there was nothing any of them could do to rival the Red Bull. It was like the glimmer of hope was cruelly taken from us.

I wanted Alonso to get pole and win - that's how crazy it's getting!
 
which is precisely what we're getting from Mr Newey.

I think I might have said this before but anyway I think top-chief designers are like top-drivers, over a longer period of time. They mature, and reach a level where mistakes borne out of youthful enthusiasm gradually gives way to a level of perfection where they just get it right every time. That's exactly the stage Newey's carrer is at right now.

Credit where it's due - Rob Marshall is Red Bull's chief designer - Mr Newey is in charge of making sure all the right bits get put together correctly. ;)
 
Well it's always difficult to know exactly who does what, technically Newey is "chief technical officer" at Red Bull and neither Rob nor Newey occupies the role of chief aero-dynamist, but the design for this current generation of Red Bull chassis is generally attributed to Newey isn't it?
 
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