You know Kimi did put the pressure on his team in finnish..he said he is not satisfied with second places and the team should not either..He sort of hinted they should be more ambitious. Maybe thats what they are lacking..too convinient to be second and trusting Kimi will get them second in manufactures championships.
Zitat von Olgavery pleased with Kimi! i think he did his best!
i still feel theres something missing. not with Kimi...with the team....
i get the feeling tyres are too important. and its the strong point of lotus. what if the tyres are changed as it is whispered? will lotus loose their strong point?
This is the problem with Lotus I dont think they have real speed they are just good on tyres and Kimi is good at getting the most out of the car. If they change the tyres to much Lotus will fall behind.
agree with you Boudica, they don't look like having the best speed overall. Ferrari is pushing hard and went to that direction - maximum speed with normal (not best, not worst either) tyre wear. It is the way to do it when there is no loss on the pitstop. But some track will punish this strategy. I am just not sure that there are that many. Monaco - possibly the place you don't want to have many stops.
You may ask why, with the world at large seemingly set on berating another race in which tyre strategy played too large a role. I hope I can go some way to explaining myself.
Earlier in the weekend I had a fabulous conversation with a driver in the paddock. I didn’t record it as it was just two friends chewing the fat, and he probably wouldn’t want me to quote him anyway. So please forgive the paraphrasing.
“Mate, everyone is complaining about the tyres. But the guy who wins… does he complain? No. You should ask them why they don’t complain when they do well, when the day before they were saying it was the end of the world. The only one who understands it is Kimi. He says it’s the same for everyone. If you don’t like it, fuck off, do something else. He’s right. If you make the tyres more durable and you only have three stops in a race everyone will still try to make only two stops. It’s the same now as it was with Bridgestone. You always try to do one less stop. By complaining you only damage the sport. It’s the same for everyone. Get on with it and race.”
I loved the opinion. I loved the candor.
There’s nothing more depressing than standing in the pen at the end of the race and asking a driver how his day went, and how happy he must be with his result, only to get an answer that racing to a delta is boring and gone are the days of pushing during a race.
So ask yourself. What did Ferrari do on Sunday?
Did they drive to a delta? Did they try and make one fewer stop than their rivals? Did they hell. They went out and they pushed. Every. Single. Lap.
Fernando Alonso’s opening stint was mesmerising. He was running quali laps on full fuel. It was an absolute joy to behold. And while he might not have been putting in quali laps all day, he certainly wasn’t hanging around.
What Ferrari did in Spain was to completely flip the script. Rather than going into the race and telling their drivers to hold back, they told them to push with everything they had. Four stops was always their intention and it caught everyone else off guard.
Red Bull realised what was going on too late and switched from three stops to four, but by then the race had already been won.
Formula 1 loves a villain and this year Pirelli has been cast into this pantomime role. But, as I explained at the end of the Spanish Grand Prix in my final thought on the NBC Sports Network, the job of a Formula 1 team is to design a car around the variables which are unchangeable. Hermann Tilke used to get the blame for ruining the show for his apparently dreadful circuit design. But is it not the job of the teams to design a car for the circuits on which the championship races? Of course it is. Just as it is the job of the teams to design a car that maximizes the tyres on which it runs.
The problem we’ve had of late is this unfortunate trend towards the creation of a formula based upon the misheld belief that preservation is a better mode of attack than consumption.
What Ferrari showed in Barcelona was that yes you may have to make more pitstops than we’ve seen in the past, but that it is possible to push from the moment the lights go out to the moment that the flag falls. That so much of the press is decrying the race shows, I believe, a disappointing cynicism. Pirelli has become too easy a target.
But should we blame Pirelli for simply doing what they’ve been asked to do and make the tyres less durable? Or should we blame the teams who have seemingly got themselves into the rut of a blame culture that hides the true fact that some have not designed a car capable of maximizing one of the unchangeable variables that has defined the history of the sport?
Because this is nothing new.
I remember with great fondness an interview I conducted with Sir Stirling Moss about a decade ago about his greatest races. And the one that always sticks in my mind is his explanation of how he won the 1958 Argentine Grand Prix. He lined up in a privately entered Cooper and against the might of Ferrari he won, taking the first F1 victory for a mid-engined car in the process. How he did it holds as much relevance today as it did back then.
The tyres were only good for 30 laps. 40 tops. The race was 80 laps long. You couldn’t finish without stopping for new tyres. The Cooper’s tyres were fixed with studs, rather than the quick hammer release nuts on the Ferraris. Moss couldn’t win with such a long pitstop delta to change a studded wheel.
He pulled into the lead but nobody paid it any attention. He’d have to stop and all would be lost. But he didn’t stop. He carried on. And by the time Ferrari figured out he wasn’t going to stop, it was too late. The pack gave chase, but Moss won… by 2.7 seconds from Luigi Musso. His tyres were down to the canvas. He’d been driving on the grass for the last few laps to try and cool them down.
“Was I brave that day or stupid?” Moss confided in me. “To this day I don’t know as the two were very closely related. I did everything you shouldn’t normally do to win that race.”
In a way, and although actually completely the opposite of Moss’ fabulous Argentine win in that Ferrari made more stops than expected, that’s precisely what the Scuderia did on Sunday. Because they did everything that, apparently, you shouldn’t normally do on Pirelli tyres to win the race.
They actually raced.
As the Moss story highlights, trying to make fewer pitstops has always been a part of F1. It is nothing even vaguely new.
But, for me, the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix was a game changer. Ferrari’s victory was the perfect riposte to those who claimed that Pirelli’s tyres could not be raced on. Does anybody now have the excuse of saying that it is impossible to push in a race on these tyres, when Ferrari showed that for 66 laps you could… and that by doing so you could win?
With the exception of Lotus the other teams have every reason to feel frustrated after the Grand Prix, as do their fans. Ferrari showed what was possible. It is now up to everyone else to react. For while it might not be achievable for everyone at every race to do what Ferrari did today, what they proved is that Formula 1’s greatest misconception is that doing so at all was impossible.
nice piece of writing. Thank you Olga for posting it. I feel as if I could sign for every word of it.
Another thought - Lotus is not that fast with full tanks. this is my observation from last races. First 10-20 laps is the time when Lotus loses possible victory. It is a feeling, not data to support it, but this is what I feel.
I agree Ferrari did a great job to win the race, I think Lotus rely too much on their tyres benefit and didn't think out of the box to adapt to different circuits. It gets a bit boring after a few races, I would rather see Lotus try hard to improve their car and strategies so they can win races and not just try to do with one less stop.
I don't agree. Sure Lotus is happy with a podium, why not? Kimi is Kimi but I don't think you shouldn't be happy with a podium. At the same time it doesn't mean they don't want more. They had updates for this race, there will be updates for Monaco and Canada so they are pushing and trying to improve like everybody else. And they do have a good car and worked hard for it. Sure that they are kind to tyres are their big advantage but I don't think that's all. Also you can't compare Kimi and Alonso this race as they had different strategies. Kimi couldn't push as much as Alonso. Yes they maybe should have gone for 4 stops like Kimi said after the race too but that's always easy said after. Still Alonso would have won as the Ferrari was faster but it might have been closer. Although it's the question if he wouldn't have stuck behind the others more. anyway.. I really like Buxton's article, it has good points, like from the unnamed driver (who could that be? " title="hmm" /> )
ZitatIf you make the tyres more durable and you only have three stops in a race everyone will still try to make only two stops. It’s the same now as it was with Bridgestone. You always try to do one less stop. By complaining you only damage the sport. It’s the same for everyone. Get on with it and race.
you should have heard Lauda after the race, he was complaining about the tyres for minutes, it was ridiculous. at least the other presenter talked back. Lauda even went that far to say it's only luck that Lotus has a car easy to tyres. WTF? just because Mercedes is since years not able to produce a car kinder to the tyres it's the other's luck that they manage? " title="mad" /> I only see RB and Mercedes complaining so they should really just look at themself. RB is mainly relying on aerodynamic grip and if that's not so good to the tyres, that's only their fault. Why don't they just accept it how it is and try to gain more mechanical grip? Alex Wurz told that Lotus recently hired some clever guys from LeMans/prototype racing working on suspension and something else (I don't remember) to improve grip from that side.
this constant complaining is so annoying, always talk about tyres. without the complaints from certain teams and drivers would people even think that the racing is different? haven't we seen good races this season?
Zitat von miezicatI don't agree. Sure Lotus is happy with a podium, why not? Kimi is Kimi but I don't think you shouldn't be happy with a podium. At the same time it doesn't mean they don't want more. They had updates for this race, there will be updates for Monaco and Canada so they are pushing and trying to improve like everybody else. And they do have a good car and worked hard for it. Sure that they are kind to tyres are their big advantage but I don't think that's all. Also you can't compare Kimi and Alonso this race as they had different strategies. Kimi couldn't push as much as Alonso. Yes they maybe should have gone for 4 stops like Kimi said after the race too but that's always easy said after. Still Alonso would have won as the Ferrari was faster but it might have been closer. Although it's the question if he wouldn't have stuck behind the others more. anyway.. I really like Buxton's article, it has good points, like from the unnamed driver (who could that be? )
ZitatIf you make the tyres more durable and you only have three stops in a race everyone will still try to make only two stops. It’s the same now as it was with Bridgestone. You always try to do one less stop. By complaining you only damage the sport. It’s the same for everyone. Get on with it and race.
I bet it is one of the older drivers, like Webber or Button.
Zitat von miezicat you should have heard Lauda after the race, he was complaining about the tyres for minutes, it was ridiculous. at least the other presenter talked back. Lauda even went that far to say it's only luck that Lotus has a car easy to tyres. WTF? just because Mercedes is since years not able to produce a car kinder to the tyres it's the other's luck that they manage? I only see RB and Mercedes complaining so they should really just look at themself. RB is mainly relying on aerodynamic grip and if that's not so good to the tyres, that's only their fault. Why don't they just accept it how it is and try to gain more mechanical grip? Alex Wurz told that Lotus recently hired some clever guys from LeMans/prototype racing working on suspension and something else (I don't remember) to improve grip from that side.
this constant complaining is so annoying, always talk about tyres. without the complaints from certain teams and drivers would people even think that the racing is different? haven't we seen good races this season?
Lauda is not objective at this stage, he shouldn't really be commentating to much as long as he has ties with Mercedes. Lotus might or might not be that fast without an extra pitstop. But they all had the same opportunities to evaluate the tyres, and to design their cars to cope with the tyres. There is always some limitations under the rules, if some teams did a good job with the design it would be unfair to punish them because they did a better job.
Well, to be honest I didn't really enjoy how Kimi drove in Spanish GP... just feel so flat and joyless, I want to see the agressive Kimi fighting for the win. I think the 3-stop strategy didn't really gave him much edge compare to others ... I would rather they tweak the tyres a bit, don't think it will hurt Lotus with more durable tyres.
Zitat von YiNingWell, to be honest I didn't really enjoy how Kimi drove in Spanish GP... just feel so flat and joyless, I want to see the agressive Kimi fighting for the win. I think the 3-stop strategy didn't really gave him much edge compare to others ... I would rather they tweak the tyres a bit, don't think it will hurt Lotus with more durable tyres.
I would like to see Lotus try a normal strategy, just to confirm if they have pace or not.
I think the situation when the cars are running the closest to their best pace is directly after they have pitted for fresh tyres. This is the time when they usually push to make sure that they are not leapfrogged by the others they are racing against, this is also the time when the tyres are at their optimum. When you look at the 3 - 4 laps directly after Lotus has pitted you would see that they just weren't competitive against Ferrrari in the last race. And it was the same in Bahrain as well against Red Bull. In my opinion I am not seeing real pace. It just seems that Lotus are able to push the tyres harder for longer or more consistently. They also cant compete with the other top teams when it comes to pitstops, so if they use the same strategy they will naturally lose more. Of course you can never be quite certain until Lotus actually employs the same strategy as others.
" Kimi [Raikkonen] looks like he is not managing a lot while everyone else is managing a bit in the high-speed corners like [Barcelona Turns] three and nine."
Thats by Toto
So, lotus isnt really conservative in their driving
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