KPerez

Many have focused on who is to blame for the collision on either Vettel or Weber or both with the last of these being expressed by RB management. However, to me this incident is, in large part, the result of the new regs and pit strategy. Specifically, the fueling ban has put a major crimp on racing towards the end of the race. This has resulted in some cars having more fuel than others, in this case team mates, and so U have Webber in the lead being told by the pit to conserve fuel and make a cockpit adjustment to accomplish same. This adjustment then allows Vettel to catch up and the pit knows Seb fuel level. Now the perspective of the drivers: Vettel says, Hey I've caught Mark...I'm going to pass. Weber sees Vettel attempting to pass him and says, Why is Seb faster?... did he have to lean out his engine like I did to conserve fuel?...WTF I am holding my line. The pit is silent.

Bottom line: If Weber had used more fuel than Vettel at that point in the race, then the pit should have said to Weber, let Seb through... he is able to run max out of engine and make it to the finish line, whereas U do not.
If this had been done, RB would have come in 1-2 and these two drivers would not have been at each others throats when the real fault lies, not with drivers, but with managements "failure to communicate (Cool Hand Luke)".

Later, Ken

DaWorstPlaya

iTrader: (31)

There definitely was a failure in communication but in this case I have to agree with the announcers, it was still mainly Vettel's fault. He should have communicated his intention with the team so they could communicate that with Webber and have everything play out according to plan. At no point was there any communication from Vettel of his intention or the pressure he was feeling from the McLaren duo. The team/management aren't mind readers ....

Ryan.Kauz

iTrader: (11)

http://jalopnik.com/5553427/texas-ta...-million-to-f1

So the state of texas paid Bernie $25,000,000 to allow them to spend $250,000,000 for a track.

NICE!

Question is: do citizens of the state of Texas get free tickets to see the race? No? Thought not.

GG06MR

iTrader: (9)

I bet Rick Perry, Susan Combs, and Lee Leffingwell all get free tickets, and they're all Texas residents.

Ryan.Kauz

iTrader: (11)

^ who?

GG06MR

iTrader: (9)

Rick Perry = Texas Governor
Susan Combs = Texas Comptroller
Lee Leffingwell = Austin Mayor

Those are the three Texas gov't officials directly named and quoted in the announcement on the F1 website, so I'm assuming they're mostly responsible for the Austin selection, and therefore will likely get free passes to the annual event.

Ryan.Kauz

iTrader: (11)

"Comptroller" still the stupidest title i've ever heard of. You're a COMPuter? Or you're a conTROLLER?

Hamburger Earmuffs! (H. Simpson)

KevinD

iTrader: (56)

Jalapnick is way behind on the news. The people who brought the race here said the track is being built out of pocket by private firms/individuals.

The 25 million in tax money spent will more then be made up in the expected 100 million/yr it brings to the area. Not to mention the 250million that's going to be spent on the track, and thr many businesses that it will bring to the area.

XBoost

I'll be at Montreal next week!! Anyone else going??

KPerez

The major point here is: the pit knew that Weber was slowing down due to low fuel and their orders to dial down the power. As a result, it was obvious that Vettel would therefore catch him up since he was running full power and apparently had more fuel. So the pit knew or should have known well before Vettel caught Weber that there would be a problem if he attempted to pass. At that point, both drivers should have been contacted and provide the correct strategy to each driver: Mark, let Vettel through.
In short, the pit, not the drivers, failed here for it was only them that knew about Weber's power reduction; Vettel was in the dark...all he saw was...Hey I'm catching him...here come 25 points! What sort of pisses me off is mangement now says both drivers were in error when, in fact, it was the pit, actually Horner who was to blame for the whole fiasco.

Later, Ken

DaWorstPlaya

iTrader: (31)

KPerez, I understand your point but "in F1 there are no team orders" ... ... At which point the driver would need to inform the team, so that the team can alert the other driver. In most cases you would hope scenarios like this are discussed within the team behind closed doors so that there won't be any obvious radio chatter ... either way there was a break down in communication.

KPerez

As U indicated there R team orders and the radio can be turned off to the outside. Therefore, it is management=Horner who should have responded first to the drivers, not the other way by the drivers since they are totally in the dark about each others condition like fuel left, tires, breaks, etc. alll of which is known by the pit.

Later, Ken

Ryan.Kauz

iTrader: (11)

Sporting events and stadiums have proven themselves to be a net negative return on taxpayer investment.

You would be better off taking the $25M taxpayer dollers and randomly selecting a few thousand low-income people and just giving them the money and collecting tax revenue off the items they purchase.

GG06MR

iTrader: (9)

Yeah, that worked awesome the couple times they did that during the George Junior era. With all of the different events being held at the new Cowboy stadium, I think Jerry Jones has set the bar very quickly on how to build a stadium that can actually justify the expense to build it. So....if they're smart, they'll build that track in Austin with the capability of not only running an annual F1 event, but also incorporating alternate configuration options for Indy, Nascar, etc., and build infrastructure around it to enable even more types of entertainment draws.

donour

iTrader: (6)

Yep. There's 5 of us from NM flying in for it.

d