58 replies to this topic

[Mr.Wayne]

-how can a race considered interesting and given 8-9-10 points out of the maximum 10 which was determined by a car which had 8 tenths over the best non RB cars per lap? Without Seb/Webber it would have been a Red Bull one-two. Seb won with a 30 margin over the rest without pushing for the last 40 per cent of the race. Something must be really wrong with the sport when people like it. As for the celebration: it was kinda an ablogation from him, cos he knows that is something people would love to see from him. It was a copy&paste celebration from Alonso, Rossi or Schumacher.

In my opinion, what made this race great for Vettel is that he destroyed Webber in half a race.  For all intents and purposes, Vettel started from the back of the grid with hard tyres (pitting at the end of lap 2, coming back in the low midfield creates that effect), yet he sliced his way through traffic (yes, not all cars are competitive enough for a RedBull; still he cut his way through the field), got to P2, was gainning time on Webber when Mark pitted for his (new) soft tyres, and then, rather than having a qualy shoot out of 4-5 laps and getting to Sebs. neck, the net effect was that he pitted one lap after Vettel did, and came back a massive 12 seconds behind... 

THAT is the part, in my opinion, that put Vettel's race head and shoulder's above anyone else's: he effectively won this race from the back of the grid, and obliterated his teammate who simply showed once again is not that efficient in pulling out the critical move when needed (and that is also the reason why Vettel didn't have to bother about Mark on Japan...) .

[Mr.Wayne]

Best Driver: Vettel and Grosjean

Worst Driver: Maybe Alonso? After tweeting all week and inscribing an irrelevant record on his helmet (at 25 points, Schumacher would have more points for his victory that Alonso's total tally so far...) he drove one of the most uninspiring races I have seen from him in a long time... 

Best Team: Lotus or Mercedes?

Best Overtake: Massa on both Mercedes on lap 1, or Perez double move later in the race.

Best Moment: the fight for P2-P3 in the podium in the later stages.

DRS + Tyres: Tyres: A shame softs were that soft.  DRS? Felt a tad strong.

And the race in a sentence... A very competitive race from P2 backwards.  Vettel was just untouchable.

Edited by Mr.Wayne, 28 October 2013 - 11:23.

[Coops3]

I didn't watch it. First one I've missed in years :-(

[Crossmax]

 

Best Team: Lotus or Mercedes?

 

Lotus? F****ed up Romian's qualy and Kimi's race. I would say no team really stood out as the best, but if any, I would give it to Force India.

[Afterburner]

I'm not going to argue that Vettel isn't one of the better drivers. But certain aspects of the celebration seemed quite contrived to me - worshiping the car especially. He tried to make that out to be a joke, but it's not funny that the rest of the field can't really compete, is it.

 

Bowing down to the car was quite humble, I thought--a fairly symbolic way to pay respect to the team and the machine that brought him his titles. Seems Vettel can't do right for some people even when he's acknowledging (numerous times after each race, I may add) the fact that the car is the reason he's winning--at this point I don't think he's the problem.

 

Moments like that celebration don't come very often and I'm thankful we've witnessed two of them in the last two years. It's a good time to be an F1 fan, at least on the 'human' side of the sport. If the other teams don't think it's funny they've been thrashed for four straight years then they'd best get on with the programme, wouldn't you say?

[djparky]

I got up late and missed the start- I was so interested I didn't even bother sky-plussing it- so I joined about lap 15- saw that it was 2 RBR's at or near the front with Alonso nowehere and pretty much lost interest within a couple of laps. I gave up on it completely when Webber went out- from what I saw of it a terrible race, at a terrible track in front of a small-ish crowd covered in what appeared to be smog. Not expecting much of Abu either but it does at least look great under the lights in HD unlike this place

[BillBald]

In my opinion, what made this race great for Vettel is that he destroyed Webber in half a race.  For all intents and purposes, Vettel started from the back of the grid with hard tyres (pitting at the end of lap 2, coming back in the low midfield creates that effect), yet he sliced his way through traffic (yes, not all cars are competitive enough for a RedBull; still he cut his way through the field), got to P2, was gainning time on Webber when Mark pitted for his (new) soft tyres, and then, rather than having a qualy shoot out of 4-5 laps and getting to Sebs. neck, the net effect was that he pitted one lap after Vettel did, and came back a massive 12 seconds behind... 

THAT is the part, in my opinion, that put Vettel's race head and shoulder's above anyone else's: he effectively won this race from the back of the grid, and obliterated his teammate who simply showed once again is not that efficient in pulling out the critical move when needed (and that is also the reason why Vettel didn't have to bother about Mark on Japan...) .

 

We didn't see all of Vettel's overtakes, but I don't recall seeing any other driver making a defensive move to make it even slightly difficult for him. We heard Perez' RE on the radio telling him to let Vettel pass: 'You are not racing him'. I'm guessing that other teams would have given the same instruction.

 

IIRC Gary on the BBC even suggested that the traffic was helping Vettel, because he got the DRS boost each time.

 

'Slicing his way through the field' suggests something a little more exciting to me.

[caso]

Best Driver - Vettel/ Grosjean

Worst Driver - Webber for touching everybody within reach (after the first lap he drove good )

Best Team - Red Bull

Best Moment - Vettel crossing the finish line as a quadruple worldchampion

And the race in a sentence...It was a good race in front of a great crowd.

 

9/10

(A 7 for the race + 1 because I love the venue and another + 1 because I was ecstatic Vettel won the championship)

[caso]

 

 

Worst Driver: Maybe Alonso? After tweeting all week and inscribing an irrelevant record on his helmet (at 25 points, Schumacher would have more points for his victory that Alonso's total tally so far...) he drove one of the most uninspiring races I have seen from him in a long time... 

 

 

 

 

Maybe it was deliberate. Since he finished out of the points Alonso can wear the helmet again and therefore prolong the celebration.

Edited by caso, 30 October 2013 - 11:18.