Yeah I know it is a ton of what ifs. This whole season is full of them with how close and random it has been. I'm not going against Kimi or Lotus, as you can see I was pulling for him, just that I didn't see it happening realistically unless he was able to pass him before the final pit stops.
In the end it is all speculation. No need to get all crazy about it, unless we are blueflame.
How interesting you weren't bitching when Hamilton blocked Webber last week... And now world ends when Rosberg is doing it. Too bad most of your posts are BS.
Considering how different the McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari are and the fact they've all won races is the pattern for the rest of the season. Ultimately we won't know or be able to guess at who will win or have a chance of winning the next race, until they're in FP1. Or in most cases qualifying.
Lotus seems to be about 0.7s slower per pitstop. Or maybe it's kimi but there's definitely room for improvement in pitstops there for lotus.
Race was good and nice to see different winner every time. Next race in barcelona with lots of new parts. Really hard to say how the balance is going to change when no one really knows where we are now
Strictly speaking, the track is within the white lines and Lewis gained an advantage by driving beyond the white lines. It wasn't a short cut, but he used it to overtake.
''The stewards looked into the matter and decided that because Rosberg had moved to the right to defend his position in a 'constant and continuous straight line manner' and because Hamilton was not alongside Rosberg as he began that move that the German did nothing wrong.''
''Rosberg was cleared for his incident with Alonso for the same reasons.''
That's true for the Hamilton one, but the Alonso one was worse - Alonso was already alongside when Rosberg started moving to barge him off the track. Alonso was forced off, Hamilton decided to go off.
From a pace perspective it's pretty clear to me that McL has it the most consistently so far. Ferrari doesn't. Merc, RB, Lotus are somewhere in between and possibly in that order. I can make no claims as to how that'll play out in future race results... Which is why I'm lovin this season so far.
That's interesting. There's an implication here that if, further down the road, a car has pulled fully alongside, you are entitled to drive into the side of them or put them in a wall, and don't have to leave any room at all as long as you haven't deviated from your chosen diagonal.
Take a sharp enough diagonal at the right time and you'll have people jumping on the anchors in the drs zone.
It seems a bit stupid to me. We all know you can't intentionally move across on someone if they're overlapped by an inch, on a straight. Why have this "autopilot : on, course:set, responsibility:nil" thing? Just bizarre that they give penalties for not quite having a full overlap in a slow corner, but what could have caused a huge high speed collision is ignored because a driver has no responsibility once they've input a heading and are heading for the edge.
I'm sure they'll say exactly the same things when someone gets squeezed into a pit wall at 170mph and the pit walls are blasted with carbon fibre debris. Not.
Edit: in fact, remember this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAfF2Wt8-Bw
I don't see a deviation from the course he sets, except to leave room, and barrichello is way back when he begins, but he gets a penalty. Consistency?
This is the Alonso sand Rosberg incident and it is nothing like Schumi-Barrichello.
Just watch where Alonso's nose is. At any point is Alonso's front wing even at the same level as Rosberg's rear tyres. Alonso is fully behind and chooses to go out like Hamilton did.
Had there been a wall nothing would've happened because Rosberg would not have hit Alonso due to the fact that Alonso was behind
I really can't figure out how you can think two completely different cases are exactly alike. Schumacher's move on Barrichello was too late and Barrichello was already almost alongside. In this case Alonso was nowhere near being alongside so why are we even discussing about this?
Consistant yes, but they haven't had the fastest overall package since Melbourne, so it proves nothing.
Lotus had the fastest package here from on overall point of view considering how far back they started, its just once the track rubbered in more they lost that advantage, similar to Mercedes in China, only they had the luxury of being at the front of the grid at the start.
I know Ferrari are pretty much out of it right now, but i doubt Mercedes ability to stay up the front in the next few races, they have been quite slow before china, where as Lotus seemed to always had pace only hindered by bad luck and bad strategy.
I think Next race should give a better picture of our front guys but at this point im feeling its Mclaren, Red Bull and Lotus that have the packages to propell out of this group.
Where is Alonso's onboard?
I was under the distinct impression that he had pulled partially alongside before having to go off track. If he didn't then I agree with you, Juzaa, and take back my comments.
The Hamilton / Rosberg judgment passes no comment on Hamilton passing whilst outside track limits. It would appear that perhaps they did not even consider that part of the event for a rule breach, although:
Rule 20.2 Drivers must use the track at all times. For the avoidance of doubt the white lines defining the track edges are considered to be part of the track but the kerbs are not.
A driver will be judged to have left the track if no part of the car remains in contact with the track.
Should a car leave the track the driver may rejoin, however, this may only be done when it is safe to do so and without gaining any advantage.
A driver may not deliberately leave the track without justifiable reason.
Hamilton completely left the track. He rejoined gaining an advantage by completing his overtake. Did he have a justifiable reason to leave the track? That's debateable, but he did gain an advantage so still broke 20.2.
In many ways this is precisely the same as Alonso / Kubica in 2010. Alonso had no choice but to leave the track and gained an advantage by doing so therefore he was punished.
Perhaps the only difference is that Alonso completed the pass off the track, but then again Hamilton was punished in Spa a couple of years ago for missing the chicane but only applying the advantage of leaving the track by completing a pass at the next corner.
They had an amazing run this race but I'm not too bullish on them. It's too hard to judge relative performance during the race because of different strategies and different rates of tire deg.
For example, after the last pit stops it looked like Kimi was loosing touch with Vettel. Mid way through he caught up again, only to once again fall back near the end. And what was up with the "only chance" of passing Vet? So who actually has the faster package? Hard to say.
Much easier to judge in qualifying where everyone is on equal ground. And in qualifying the Lotus is not consistent in challenging for the first few grid slots.
Kimi 09 Spa is more comparable than either of those incidents. Both your examples happened in corners where, totally in Alonso's case (how he could ever deny it was beyond me...) a corner was cut that enabled a driver to gain a positional advantage. In Spa 09 Kimi gained a lot from going right outside of the La Source hairpin, but I guess as it was considered a straight he was let off, and I think that's what they would say here.
