What a great, great race today. Massive props to Vettel for winning his first (of many, I'm sure) win in Ferrari livery.... and you just have to appreciate the raw emotion shown by the Ferrari team. They've come so amazingly far in a year, and the way they talk with reverence and respect for Kimi and Vettel is just inspirational. The post-race interview with the engineer(?) where he said "if there's a problem, you know it's not them having a bad day... they are fast... the problem is with the car. That is refreshing." It's going to be really, really interesting to watch Hamilton and Rosberg. Every PR event I've seen with Rosberg this year has seemed so fake and manufactured... he goes out of his way to put his hand on Hamilton, as if to show "look what great friends we are". Is it crazy that I want to see them at each others throats? You could tell Hamilton was getting frustrated by his in-car communication... he was pissed. It was confusing listening to the team relay information to him... hopefully they get that shit under control. And Alonso went 33 laps... a new record for Honda. Hopefully in a couple of races they'll be able to, you know, finish a race. But in the late stages of the race, huge kudos go to Williams, who had their two drivers (Massa and Bottas) fighting it out in the last couple of laps... to the point I thought they were going to take each other out... but nope, they let them race. Awesome! To see Bottas take Massa in the last lap to finish ahead of him, was incredibly entertaining! I can only imagine old-man Williams on the pit wall, having his two engineers complain about each driver potentially taking each other out, and him replying, "let them race". The only sad note came when Brundle was making a wistful comment about Schumacher's start at Ferrari, and it made me sad to think that we haven't really heard anything positive come from his rehabilitation... which probably is not a good sign. Still, great race, and looking forward to the next one.
I've been rooting for Williams for the past year, especially Bottas, mainly because he's fast, but even better..... He's calm and collected in the car. I don't think I've seen him make a mistake yet. He'll go toe to toe with an opponent, but if they're is going to be contact, he'll back off and give way. There are other drivers in the field that do not do this. Hopefully Massa won't have as many un-forced crashes as last year, and they can be in the mix to fight for second place this year.
I like Bottas also, but this backing off and giving way could be his downfall. The best of the best drivers will use that to bully him forever. Sooner or later he is going to have to force the issue so others will not know they have someone they can take advantage of. Ronnie Lott of the 49ers used to say "sometimes you just have to clean someone's clock and take your 15 yard penalty".
I don't agree with this. Bottas knows that Williams is one of the better cars but not the BEST car. If you are in the best car, then yes, by all means get tough on opponents. I think that it is more important for Williams to consistently score points to finish as high as possible in both the Drivers and Constructors Championships, particularly since Ferrari is becoming more competitive and Red Bull aren't as dominant as they were prior to the regulation changes. Also, I'm pretty sure that most sponsors would rather not see incidents involving "their" cars. F1 is corporate now, it isn't just about the drivers and the teams anymore.
I kind of agree with you both,,, if your M.O. is to always give way, then you're going to get bullied. BUT, like Durb said, Bottas is in a points car and they are going to be battling for probably 2nd this year.. So every point counts. I was more or less talking about when the guy behind you is in a faster car with fresher tires, he'll fight and make the other guy work, but if its inevitable he gets the fuck out of the way when there is contact coming. It tells me that he has intelligence and is calm under pressure.
2nd could even be a bridge too far for Williams if Ferrari keep up their development - Kimi was looking racy and Vettel definitely had the measure of Massa and Bottas in the heat at malaysia - it would be interesting to see the battle between Ferrari and Williams on a track with cooler temperatures. I'm still reasonably sure Mercedes will win the Constructors title again this year.
My thought is that unless Williams can move up to being a top tier team, ( A very tough proposition given the world economy and price to be a top team) then Bottas has to be showcasing himself to the top tier teams. (Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull) Those teams want bullies, or at least drivers that do not back down. How Bottas is driving may be the best for Williams, but not the best for his career if Williams has peaked as far as their technology. I like Williams, I would love for them and Lotus to become top tier teams, I just do not think they have the sufficient resources to do it. So if they have talented drivers, I feel it is only a matter of time before they must leave.
Red Bull aren't a top tier team anymore - no-one wants that crap Renault engine. Even Lotus told Renault to take that engine and shove it. Ferrari and McLaren have their own driver programmes so no likely spots there. Mercedes have two talented guys who they won't replace quickly, so Williams is it for Bottas for at least the next 2 seasons. Williams will continue to be the upper-midfield team of choice. Lotus are getting closer to that goal too.
Damn you guys are way on top of it. Durbanite, I stand corrected. It sounds like Bottas is there for the foreseeable future. In my own mind, I would still like him to not back down just once to place an element of doubt in the others minds.
I don't think Bottas backs down at all, unless his tyres are worn out or he's getting lapped (pretty rare for a Williams now) - I think almost all drivers give way in that case, so it isn't something unique to him. Only Perez doesn't move, and as a result, he gets penalties for accidents and blocking leaders, just like last week for "causing an accident".
Just watched the Bahrain qualifying... and man, it is going to be a WILD fucking start tomorrow. Ferrari and Mercedes splitting the front two rows, it'll be interesting to see if they can pull off a start without any major fucking around with each other. And it was good to see Alonso do as well as he did, even if Button bailed early. Progress is being made... slowly but surely.
Button said that "Everything just went off" so probably an electronics gremlin? It was great to see Alonso get to Q2 - that's real progress for Honda and McLaren as you said. Williams weren't far behind. Lotus seem to have slipped back a little and the Toro Rossos struggled - lack of decent power in the Renault engine didn't seem a huge problem for Ricciardo though! I'm expecting a cracking race.
I feel bad for Verstappen. He was having a good race until his goof that brought out the safety car. But then, just how badly did Hamilton's team shit the bed in calculating the time to get him in and out of the pits? I can respect Hamilton's talents as a driver, but his petulance is annoying. I can understand the frustration and disappointment with how the race ended, but his actions rival my daughter when she doesn't get her way.
A great first race of the season. I was really happy to see Nico Rosberg get the win over his teammate. I am more excited about the Haas team getting a sixth place finish and championship points in their first race ever.
Wow. Just finished watching the qualifying and race. Holy fuck. Qualifying blew chunks. But at least the powers that be realized it pretty fucking fast and have reverted back to last year's format for the remainder of the year. Why fix something that wasn't broken in the first place? And props to Horner for coming right out and saying it sucked. Hard. Interesting race, to say the least. Haas scoring points in their first race? FUCK YEAH! But I had to laugh when Haas was being interviewed... he seemed so out of place... like that geek that was at his first dance. Here's hoping they kick some serious ass for the rest of the season. Kind of reminds me of the Braun inaugural year. Go Haas! How the FUCK did Alonso walk away from that crash? Just... how? And it's nice to see that Mercedes doesn't have the killer mechanical engine design advantage that they had last year, so it looks like they're not anywhere near as dominate this year. Ferrari had a killer start, and if it weren't for the red flag, you'd think they would have taken it. All in all there's some serious racing going on, even far back in the pack. Felt badly for Kimi catching on fire and having to retire, but I'm hoping he does well. Last thought... WTF Honda? Haas comes in for their first race and beats you? And you have Button and Alonso? Get you shit together already.
Qualifying was fucking dreadful. I actually tweeted about it about 30 minutes before the race (I had just watched a repeat of the qualifying - it really was an idiotic format and screwed Gutierrez out of qualifying higher and likely other drivers too). Haas has come in with a similar development time for their car for this year that the other teams have had, they have an established, proven engine supplier in Ferrari, in addition to being better financially placed than most of the recent start-up/revamped teams (e.g. Spyker, Midland, Manor, HST, Caterham, etc.) and also hiring experienced personnel who are not new to F1 (including drivers) - they have many advantages that other new teams have not had, so there was no reason to think they would be poor. Did they do better than expected? Yes, but you have to factor in that the Renault engine that still powers three teams is still down on power when compared to the Mercedes or Ferrari, so that again puts Haas at an advantage over at least STR, Manor (also using Ferrari power but much less money) and Renault. How fucking bad is that Renault power unit though? They STILL have not been able to catch up a bit on power? They have two decent drivers in the factory team in Palmer and Magnussen but they will struggle if those engineers cannot get more power out of that unit. It's not even that reliable either! I can say the same about Honda but they have had more than 12 months less development time than Renault and McLaren got both cars into Q2 so it's a small improvement over last year. I still expect Honda to move up the grid this year, though.
Nico Rosberg has retired. Nice to go out a champion. I think it would have been hard to repeat, as I do think Hamilton is a bit more gifted as a driver and has a more me first attitude. I do not say that in a negative way. In order to compete at that level you have to have it. Regardless, congratulations Nico.