165 replies to this topic

[BillBald]

OK, it's that time of the year again.

 

But it's so nice to be able to start the thread with congratulations instead of complaints. It's a long time since we saw the McLaren pitwall this sharp.

 

An excellent call on the SC, followed by a well-judged undercut on the 2nd pitstop, with Jenson stopping early enough to get the jump on the others, but not so early that he struggled to finish the race on the same set of tyres.

 

Do we know who actually made the calls?

 

[pup]

Do we know who actually made the calls?

 

There were reports of an older balding gentleman standing at the pit wall.  

 

Seriously, whoever made the strategy calls today not only made good calls, but apparently made them with the added stress of having Ron Dennis literally staring over his shoulder.

[BillBald]

One aspect of strategy which the team might want to look at, is how it is that Jenson consistently seems to lose out in wet practice sessions, even though driving on a damp track has given him some of his best races. In particular, Jenson has often failed to get into Q3 in spite of seeming to have the necessary pace.

 

I myself think that they are leaving it a bit too late to fit a new set of inters. When you have a drying track in Q2, there are 2 possible things that can happen:

 

• The track can continue to dry, in which case you have a mad scramble to set faster times, which often results in a red or yellow flag
• The rain can start coming down again, so if you've left it late to put on a 2nd set of inters, it's now too late

I can think of a number of occasions when fitting new inters a little bit earlier would very likely have allowed Jenson to get through to Q3: The Melbourne race we just watched, also Brazil last year, Silverstone 2012, I'm sure there have been more.

 

You could say it's partly Jenson's fault for being so obedient to the yellow flag, but the team could maybe avoid this situation altogether.

[nosecone]

First of all: Congratulations to McLaren for their race operations this weekend. This was a flawless race.

 

BillBald: yes i agree to that. They should have fitted the new inters earlier. They fitted it to late and all depended on the last lap (which was wrecked by the yellow flag). If there is a yellow flag or a single mistake in that single lap... you're f**

[ReeVe]

Has something changed? My understanding was the strategy calls at McLaren were always made (well always as in for the last few years) by the individual car's engineer with significant input from the guys back at Woking crunching numbers on their supercomputer

[dumm]

Marvellous stopps with great impact on the race .. nothing else to say really. Im quite delighted

They didnt look so mature since 2010

[BillBald]

Has something changed? My understanding was the strategy calls at McLaren were always made (well always as in for the last few years) by the individual car's engineer with significant input from the guys back at Woking crunching numbers on their supercomputer

 

I think something must have changed. Something to do with EB?

 

Maybe the strategy is still made between the driver and his RE, but others are now also involved in the discussion, not just providing info, but also questioning the reasoning behind the strategy.

Edited by BillBald, 17 March 2014 - 22:42.

[ElDictatore]

I am not sure that the pit wall made the decision in the SC phase. They mostly say 'safety car window is open' and Jenson said in the interviews after the race that he just saw the SC light flashing on and he came in. This is just guesswork though, take it with a pinch of salt.

Otherwise flawless race with good pit stops, however as BillBald pointed out the Q wasn't top notch.

 

EDIT: http://www1.skysport...id-opening-race

Edited by ElDictatore, 17 March 2014 - 23:06.

[mp4x]

@BillBald

When the MP4-29 thread was created we hoped when you start this thread it would be a thread to discuss how awesome their race operation and race strategy would be and so far it's fulfilled that expectation.

[peroa]

Well, Ron says he asked some questions...

“I wasn’t on the pit wall telling him what to do, I was really just trying to understand the strategy as it was being remodelled through the race. I’m a racer, so the thought of not understanding and contributing doesn’t come across my mind. It’s just when you observe things it’s good to say, ‘Why not this, why not that?’

 

[BillBald]

Well, Ron says he asked some questions...

 

A bit more from Ron here:

http://www.autoweek....d&utm_campaign=

 

“It’s a luxury not to have a role in the team, if you stand back, you can watch what’s going on. The thing is, everybody is receptive to change, everybody knows we have to change, and when you change things you get better. The outcome of today was a really good team effort. They called the pit stops at the right time, they were agile with the safety car, stops were all well executed, tire utilization, fuel; everything was well executed.

“I’m pleased about the discipline of the team. Everyone knows what we have to do, and we’ve just got to get on and do it.”

 

[Nicktendo86]

Exactly the role Ron should be in I feel. Not directly in charge, letting everything get on with that they should be doing, but keeping an eye on the whole thing from the garage to the pit wall and keeping everyone on their toes. Everything seemed to run very well on Sunday so keep it up!

[BillBald]

Malaysia quali - a bit of a downer.

 

Jenson admitted that it was his choice to run inters in Q3, but throughout quali McLaren seemed to be going a bit contrary on both cars. In Q1 they started on full wets when everyone else was on inters, that could even have seen them failing to get into Q2.

 

I'm guessing that a certain amount of disappointment is affecting them, as they realise that the new car is not as competitive as they had hoped.

 

With disappointment comes desperation.

 

For the race tomorrow, I was thinking that, in the unlikely event that it turns out to be hot and dry, they should definitely start on the hard tyres. The medium tyres will be more suited to lower temperatures.

 

If it's wet, there's not much they can do - the lack of high speed downforce is a killer at this track.

[Disgrace]

I wonder what the differences are in terms of procedure or method on the pitwall that has seen McLaren so much more susceptible to poor decisions for so long.

[Solari12]

Lots of bad descisions today with the tyres.

[tkulla]

Lots of bad descisions today with the tyres.

 

I disagree. Jenson's gamble was smart - had the rain held off everyone else would have been scrambling for inters at the end of the session and he would have been sitting pretty. He was only risking 7th or 8th tops and could have ended up way higher had it paid off. I'm sure he's confident of moving forward in his usual fashion tomorrow.

 

As for the other tyre choices... both cars made it to Q3 so nothing lost there.

[Disgrace]

The murky world of hypotheticals you use to defend the Q3 decision is exactly why some consider prior decisions to be poor. Had McLaren missed the optimal track conditions whilst they were busy reversing their tyre decisions in Q1/2, they would have lost out heavily. You're right in that nothing was ultimately lost, but they left themselves more exposed to trip up than others.

Edited by Disgrace, 29 March 2014 - 18:23.

[ngwe23]

I disagree. Jenson's gamble was smart - had the rain held off everyone else would have been scrambling for inters at the end of the session and he would have been sitting pretty. He was only risking 7th or 8th tops and could have ended up way higher had it paid off. I'm sure he's confident of moving forward in his usual fashion tomorrow.

 

As for the other tyre choices... both cars made it to Q3 so nothing lost there.

 Well if it was smart he wouldn't be 10th. Being on the right tire at the right time - now that is smart.

[ThadGreen]

 Well if it was smart he wouldn't be 10th. Being on the right tire at the right time - now that is smart.

 

I tend to think that Button's comments were accurate - it was a worth while gamble, had he been on wets he may have been a few places higher but if the track dried he may have been even further up the grid. 

 

It did seem that in Q1 and Q2 there was some confusion concerning which tyres to use.

[tkulla]

The murky world of hypotheticals you use to defend the Q3 decision is exactly why some consider prior decisions to be poor. Had McLaren missed the optimal track conditions whilst they were busy reversing their tyre decisions in Q1/2, they would have lost out heavily. You're right in that nothing was ultimately lost, but they left themselves more exposed to trip up than others.

 

Except that it's a gamble either way. If Vergne or someone had gone on inters and qualified on the front row on his last lap there would be second-guessing as to why McLaren didn't do that. There was no way to no exactly what the conditions would be for the last minute of Q3.

[BillBald]

Except that it's a gamble either way. If Vergne or someone had gone on inters and qualified on the front row on his last lap there would be second-guessing as to why McLaren didn't do that. There was no way to no exactly what the conditions would be for the last minute of Q3.

 

I understand what you are saying, but tbh I would have been very surprised if Jenson's Q3 gamble had paid off. In fact before the session was half over, I was really hoping to see Jenson pit and take full wets, while there was still time.

[chumma]

Anyone complaining should take a step back, we were never gonnma make the top 6, the race is long and we have 2 Red Bulls dreadfully slow on the straights, the gamble was worth it and it would have paid dividends had it gone our way, i applaud their forward thinking. it didnt pay off but it doesnt always happen like that

[BillBald]

Malaysia race strategy seemed well-executed, but I can't help wondering if it could have been better.

 

If they'd started on primes, and run 2 long prime stints, it seems to me that they might have got away with a 2-stop. I don't think the hard tyres would actually have been much slower on a hot track, as they have a higher operating window than the mediums. Other cars which took primes earlier seemed to have pretty good pace, but I'll admit I haven't really studied it yet.

 

I was interested in what the graphic was showing about the fuel situation. Jenson seemed to be using more fuel than the Williams cars, and I was expecting them to be able to launch a very strong attack towards the end. I'm not sure whether the Williams had more fuel at the end, or perhaps whether they had tried to get away with putting less fuel in, so were having to conserve for that reason.

[BillBald]

OK, I'm going to refer to the chart on this page: http://www.f1fanatic...s-fastest-laps/

 

Click on Select None, then click on Jenson to get just his laptimes.

 

You can see that Jenson's laptimes get progressively faster in each stint, as the fuel load comes down. In the last stint on primes, you get the same improvement that you got earlier when he fitted new options, the only difference is that the stint lasts longer.

 

In his final stint, there is one slow lap when he was lapping Ericsson, and at the same time fighting with Massa. Otherwise the times hold up very well over this longer stint. The times are not quite so consistent, but in the earlier stints he was not under attack from following cars.

 

I can't see any good reason why Jenson shouldn't have been on the primes for most of the race. In the hot conditions, the options were no faster in reality. And mainly on primes, he might have been able to manage one less tyre stop.

Edited by BillBald, 31 March 2014 - 02:26.

[Withnail]

 

Who knows?  Maybe if they'd ran in FP3, they'd have a bit more tyre data and could have made this call.  But they' probably didn't have a lot of tyre data to work on.

[Lights]

I thought McLaren would already put him on hards for the 3rd stint, as it was clear he had more tyre wear than the ones around him and had to pit sooner than them. I assume the threat from Williams was so big every time they had to pit that they couldn't risk it, and therefore stayed on the mediums.

[BillBald]

Who knows?  Maybe if they'd ran in FP3, they'd have a bit more tyre data and could have made this call.  But they' probably didn't have a lot of tyre data to work on.

 

Missing FP3 couldn't have helped, but they had data from the first 2 sessions, and it looked to me as though the car wasn't great on the options.

 

I thought McLaren would already put him on hards for the 3rd stint, as it was clear he had more tyre wear than the ones around him and had to pit sooner than them. I assume the threat from Williams was so big every time they had to pit that they couldn't risk it, and therefore stayed on the mediums.

 

I think it's a kind of default strategy for Macca to run options until the last stint, they've been doing that for a few years now.

 

This time it worked out well, but perhaps mainly because Kevin held up the Williams cars in the first stint and allowed Jenson to pull a few seconds on them. In each stint, the Williams closed up, but before they were in a position to attack, Jenson pitted again and used the undercut to stretch out the gap again. If he hadn't had that buffer, I don't think it would have worked.

 

Still, you can't criticise the team for using a strategy which was well suited to the situation. I'd just like to believe that they would have the flexibility to fit the primes earlier, if there was every indication that it would work better.

[BillBald]

OK, the car seems to be in the mix for that 3rd spot on the podium.

 

What strategy could achieve that? This is very different to Malaysia, where the hard tyres were close to the mediums in terms of pace, and at the same time had longer life, so it seemed reasonable to fit the hard tyres in the middle of the race. Here the medium tyres are pretty hopeless, due to their low operating temperature, and everyone will try to stay off them, at least until the end of the race, when a colder track might make them more viable. So it will be soft tyres every stint until the last one.

 

The main question is, do you push very hard and stop often, or do you try to stop one less time than the opposition? Last year's car usually worked much better when you ran long stints and didn't push too hard. So far this year, it's not been so clear-cut with the 29.

 

Force India have often run long stints here, so we might expect something similar from them tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how the guys try to counter that.

[BillBald]

A good strategy for Jenson, spoiled by the safety car. Not sure what happened with Kevin.

 

I was surprised at how good a pace Jenson was able to maintain, while looking after the tyres so well. Something to do with his setup? But the setup didn't seem too good for the primes, I'm guessing it didn't put much heat into the tyres.

[Lights]

A good strategy for Jenson, spoiled by the safety car. Not sure what happened with Kevin.

 

I was surprised at how good a pace Jenson was able to maintain, while looking after the tyres so well. Something to do with his setup? But the setup didn't seem too good for the primes, I'm guessing it didn't put much heat into the tyres.

 

Nah check the latest comments. Nothing to do with heat. He would have been fine on the primes.

 

Not much to complain about McLaren's strategy and race operations today. Just killed by reliability.

[BillBald]

Nah check the latest comments. Nothing to do with heat. He would have been fine on the primes.

 

Not much to complain about McLaren's strategy and race operations today. Just killed by reliability.

 

OK, I assumed they were tactical retirements to save the engines, once points were no longer in prospect.

[Lights]

OK, I assumed they were tactical retirements to save the engines, once points were no longer in prospect.

 

Nah Magnussen parked it and at one point they even showed a coasting Button at the end. Did you watch the race on live timing? 

[BillBald]

Nah Magnussen parked it and at one point they even showed a coasting Button at the end. Did you watch the race on live timing? 

 

I often find I miss stuff on the broadcast because of looking at live timing - or vice versa.

 

I need them both on the same screen really.

[silense]

I thought is was a mistake for Jenson to wait for 3-5 laps to do his pitstop after both Force India had pitted. He lost position to both Hulk and Perez and came out behind one or two Ferraris as well.

But other than that is was a very solid race for him, Kevin was on the back foot right from the beginning.

[BillBald]

I thought is was a mistake for Jenson to wait for 3-5 laps to do his pitstop after both Force India had pitted. He lost position to both Hulk and Perez and came out behind one or two Ferraris as well.

But other than that is was a very solid race for him, Kevin was on the back foot right from the beginning.

 

I think they were aiming to minimize time spent on the primes, because in FPs there seemed to be a very big difference between the tyres. And stopping later would also shorten the final stint, which would be better because it would allow Jenson to push harder.

 

On most tracks, you can lose more by putting yourself behind other cars, than you gain by running a longer stint. But in Bahrain, if you have a big pace advantage with newer tyres, you can generally overtake fairly easily.

 

I think it was a very sound strategy, and a complete contrast with what happened last year. You might remember that they kept pitting Jenson a lap after Rosberg, who he was fighting with, giving their opponent the undercut each time without giving Jenson the benefit of newer tyres.

 

No question that strategy has improved immensely this year.

[BillBald]

China

 

Neither driver made it to Q3, but I think it was more down to the car than the strategy this time.

 

What can they do in the race? Assuming it's in the dry, the FPs suggested that they don't have great pace or look after the tyres that well.

 

Should they go aggressive, and try to make up places quickly? It depends on how easy it is to overtake. It would be a recipe for destroying your tyres, to repeatedly follow other cars around turn 13.

 

I'm inclined to think that they need to aim for a 2-stop, and hope that their opponents mostly stop 3 times. Last year they started on primes, and in Jenson's case, only did a quick stint at the end on the options, and that worked out very well.

[BillBald]

The car was so unimpressive that it almost seems irrelevant to talk about the strategy, but did they really make the best of it?

 

Why did they start Jenson on options? And why did he come in to change to primes after just 7 laps, when his pace wasn't dropping off at all? He wasn't making any progress, but it would surely have been helpful for his race if he'd had shorter stints to run on the primes.

 

In the end, it probably made no difference, but it's still a bit disappointing after the good calls they previously made. Desperation seems to be setting in.

[BillBald]

Spain

 

Kevin should start on primes IMO, and run as long as he can. He could still score points if he can stop less often than others, as Jenson did last year.

 

For Jenson it's more complicated. He has to start on the options from Q2, but should he go aggressive, or should he look after the tyres and try to make a long first stint?

 

Going aggressive didn't work too well in China, he had to run overlong stints on the primes and lost out as a result. Here they might want to run 2 or more stints on the options, but even so I don't think the aggressive approach will work with the car they've got. Overtaking is too difficult on this track.

 

I'm thinking that Bottas might not have great race pace, if so there will be a DRS train without any overtaking being possible. So I think the smart move would be to follow the train, (but leaving a gap to avoid stressing the tyres), then bang in some quick laps after Bottas pits.

[BillBald]

Jenson screwed up his own race at the start and the first few corners. But the strategy didn't really help.

 

Jenson was unlucky that his early 2nd pitstop didn't allow him to jump Perez. But having to run such a long final stint, I'm not sure that he could have kept Checo behind him anyway.

 

When you need to make up one or two places, the undercut can do the job. But when you need to make up a lot of places, you have to get onto a contrary strategy, so that there are points in the race when you are much faster than the cars around you.

 

Jenson had no choice but to start on the options, but IMO should have delayed his first stop as long as possible, and then switched to primes. After running again as long as possible, he could then have run a short fast stint on the new options he saved from qualy. Even at Barcelona, it's possible to overtake cars on worn primes when you have new options. This strategy might have lost a place or two mid-race, but paid off big-time at the end.

 

Disappointing that McLaren's strategies have carried on being somewhat unimaginative, even under the new regime.

[BillBald]

Did McLaren get the best possible result at Monaco? On the face of it, it seems not, but what could they have done, strategy-wise?

 

I think that they should maybe have split the strategy, similar to Force India, with Jenson starting on primes since Kevin didn't have the choice. 

 

Hulk started on primes, but then changed to options when the safety car came out. That could have worked against him, but for the fact that the Force India is very easy on its tyres. I think if Jenson had been on primes, he should have stayed out. That didn't work for Massa, but he was on options, so it never looked like a good idea.

 

If Jenson had been on primes, and had stayed out, I think he would have been behind Alonso at the restart, and would have had a good opportunity to pull a gap on the slow-moving Hulk. Could he have pulled 20 seconds in maybe 30 or so laps? With the pace that Hulk showed, it seems possible to me. Of course, Force India might have decided to speed Hulk up a bit, but in that case his tyres would have given out sooner, and both McLarens might have finished ahead of him.

 

By not splitting the strategy, McLaren made it easy for Hulk. This being Monaco, he was guaranteed fo finish ahead if he drove round very slowly. Making life easy for other teams seems to be kind of a habit for McLaren.

Edited by BillBald, 27 May 2014 - 18:03.

[BillBald]

Canada

An excellent result for Jenson, aided by quite a lot of luck at the end of the race. But how much help did he get from the pitwall?

Jenson had no choice about tyres to start the race, and it was unlikely that he could run a long stint on used options. So chasing the undercut was the only possible approach. The first pitstop was very good, but Jenson came out in traffic. He got past Gutierrez, but was then being held up by Kvyat when Kimi came out almost alongside him. Jenson wisely conceded turn 3, but then endured a slow stint.

Could they have timed the pitstop better? It might have been Jenson who was calling for a change of tyres, but it’s still up to the pitwall to choose the moment to pit. If they’d waited until Jenson was more than a pitstop ahead of those slower cars, Kimi might have pitted at the same time, so no undercut. So I think we can't complain.

In the second pitstop, the timing was good, but this time the pitstop was very slow, about 8 tenths slower than the one Ferrari gave to Kimi. In a single outlap, Jenson got his new primes warmed up, and more than made up the deficit (or maybe he overtook on Kimi’s outlap?). Whatever happened, put Jenson in a position to make good progress through the rest of the race.

For Kevin, there was a free choice of tyres at the start, and I think you could make a case for saying he should have started on primes. He was clearly going to be in a lot of traffic, and having Jenson in front meant he would be less likely to get the undercut. I suppose it’s unlikely that he could have one-stopped, but a long stint on the primes would most likely have given him clear air at some point, and the option tyres would most likely have been better in a shortish stint at the end. At it turned out, he luckily did get clear air, but only because Kimi spun out of his way.

I’m really quite puzzled about what happened with Kevin in this race. From about lap 25, his pace was generally much slower than Jenson’s.In the next ten laps he lost 6 seconds, even though Jenson at that time was behind Kimi, and Kevin was in free air. Was the pitwall telling him to slow down to run a longer stint? If so, what was the plan?
 

[Lights]

In Q1 McLaren let Jenson do an extra cooldown lap and hot lap for no reason as they were already safe.

[BillBald]

In Q1 McLaren let Jenson do an extra cooldown lap and hot lap for no reason as they were already safe.

 

Yes, looks like they slipped up, but I think it won't majorly affect anything.

 

Car looks good in Austria, Jenson did a very promising long run on Friday, started slow but then got faster. Kevin is well up on the grid, I expect him to pit rather early, but that could work in his favour to give him an undercut.

 

What will McLaren do with Jenson? The consensus on this forum seems to be that he should definitely start on primes, and aim to run long to get clean air when everyone ahead pits. If he can run long enough, he may be able to make less pitstops than most of the opposition. And if he saves the options until the end, they might actually turn out to be a good tyre on a rubbered track and low fuel load.

 

It seems to me to be such a no-brainer, that I will be a little bit shocked if I see Jenson starting on options, even though that has been the pattern so far this season.

[BillBald]

Sergio Perez has been repeating at Force India the sort of drive he became renowned for at Sauber, running long stints, looking after tyres, achieving surprising results from midfield grid positions. But at McLaren, he didn't do very much of that at all, and I think we need to ask why.

 

It seems to me that McLaren only understand one tactic - the undercut. They don't always get it right, because the pitcrew are not all that reliable, but at least the timing of the pitstop is normally OK. But when the undercut is not relevant, they are completely lost. I was hoping that might change under the new regime, but so far, it's not happening.

 

In Austria, McLaren did a good job of timing Kevin's first pitstop to prevent the attempted undercut by Hulk, and they did the same at the second pitstop. That way they stayed out as long as possible, to shorten the following stints, without losing track position. Also, Kevin was well advised not to try to pull a gap, as that would have led to increased degradation and spoiled the strategy.

 

Jenson was in a different situation. Starting on primes, he obviously needed to run a longer first stint. But how long? One can almost imagine the fidgeting in the McLaren pit: "are we there yet?". Some good judgement was going to be required.

 

The problem was that Jenson was a little bit less than a full pitstop ahead of Kimi's Ferrari. He was not gaining ground, and he was not losing. If they pitted him, he would come out just behind Kimi. But it wasn't a bad situation for Jenson, because each lap that this persisted was helpful to Jenson, and a problem for Kimi. The longer Jenson could delay pitting, the older Kimi's tyres would be when Jenson came out on fresh rubber.

 

Of course, if Jenson's tyres had started to really go off, and his pace went away, then if he didn't pit immediately he would come out further behind Kimi, so he would have to close that gap before being able to attack. But even that wouldn't be a real problem, he would still have the tyre advantage. Basically there was nothing to be gained by pitting Jenson before he started to struggle for pace, and there was even a good case for leaving the pitstop until later than that.

 

So why did McLaren pit Jenson on lap 27, knowing full well that he would come out behind Kimi? Presumably they hoped that Jenson already had enough of a tyre advantage, so that he would be able to overtake Kimi fairly easily. After all, he'd done some overtaking in Canada. But this was a different circuit, and it should have been clear by that point in the race that you needed a big speed advantage to overtake at the RedBull Ring.

 

Please, guys, get yourself a strategist.

Edited by BillBald, 28 June 2014 - 14:27.

[Lights]

I think McLaren pitted their drivers too late this race. Button was losing a lot of time to Ricciardo before his pitstop and in the end was only just short of overtaking him. Had Button pitted 3 laps or so sooner I'm sure he'd have a better chance at attacking Ricciardo because the tire wear was almost non-existent, especially on the hard compound. But when Button pitted they probably didn't expect Ricciardo to be able to finish the race on 37-lap old mediums, and they were more focused on the best strategy to keep Alonso and Vettel behind them. And can we blame them? I was as surprised as them when Ricciardo didn't pit again. Maybe they informed Button pretty late about it, but it seemed he was already giving it his all anyway.

 

Magnussen could have probably leapfrogged Alonso and Vettel had McLaren pitted him a lap after Alonso, because he had a 5 second penalty. But seeing how his pace dropped off massively in the end I don't think it would have made a difference. Maybe it only would have released Vettel sooner and that would have hurt McLaren in the big picture.

 

Anyway, it was such a relief to finally see them race with a lot of clear air, so I still think they really got a lot out of this race.

[BillBald]

I think McLaren pitted their drivers too late this race. Button was losing a lot of time to Ricciardo before his pitstop and in the end was only just short of overtaking him. Had Button pitted 3 laps or so sooner I'm sure he'd have a better chance at attacking Ricciardo because the tire wear was almost non-existent, especially on the hard compound. But when Button pitted they probably didn't expect Ricciardo to be able to finish the race on 37-lap old mediums, and they were more focused on the best strategy to keep Alonso and Vettel behind them. And can we blame them? I was as surprised as them when Ricciardo didn't pit again. Maybe they informed Button pretty late about it, but it seemed he was already giving it his all anyway.

 

Magnussen could have probably leapfrogged Alonso and Vettel had McLaren pitted him a lap after Alonso, because he had a 5 second penalty. But seeing how his pace dropped off massively in the end I don't think it would have made a difference. Maybe it only would have released Vettel sooner and that would have hurt McLaren in the big picture.

 

Anyway, it was such a relief to finally see them race with a lot of clear air, so I still think they really got a lot out of this race.

 

Silverstone was such a good result (compared to what anyone expected), that it almost seems a bit unfair to criticise the strategy, but I am inclined to agree with you. If they had pitted Jenson even a couple of laps earlier, he would have been 2 or more seconds closer to Ric, and that would almost certainly have been enough, Ric would have been a sitting duck at the end.

 

The problem is a long-standing one. They always seem to want to avoid using the hard tyre, on the grounds that it is difficult to get heat into it (and keep the heat in some situations). But in reality, it usually seems to work very well in the race, and often it actually gives a better performance than the medium, as well as being more durable.

 

Of course, we are speaking here from a position of not having insider knowledge. It might be that, with their Friday setup, the hard tyre was not performing well, but that they changed the setup to put more heat into the tyres, for better performance in the wet quali. And perhaps that change had the happy outcome of making the hard tyre much more usable.

 

Again, since they knew that Alonso would have to take the 5 sec penalty, it's a little strange that they didn't pit Kevin the very next lap, to get him in front. I can only assume it was because they thought he would struggle so much bringing the hard tyre up to temperature, that Alonso would pass him easily.

 

But apart from the pitstop timing, this was a great performance by the team, and the key to it was not dropping the ball in quali. Well done guys!

Edited by BillBald, 06 July 2014 - 20:51.

[BillBald]

Germany

 

Normally I like to wait a little while before I post anything on the strategy, because it's easy to get your facts wrong, especially if you are a little bit annoyed!

 

But this time I really feel the need to vent. Jenson definitely had the worst strategy of anyone on the grid.

 

It was very clear when he stopped for the 2nd time that he was going to have to stop again. If you'd told me at that point that he would try to make it to the end on the same set of tyres, I'd have said you knew nothing about F1.

 

As Jenson's pace dropped off predictably, the question in my mind wasn't whether he was going to stop again, but just a matter of timing. Would they leave it until about 15 laps from the end, so that Jenson could make full use of another set of tyres? Or would they leave it until later, so that Jenson could really thrash a set of options?

 

Unbelievable.

[alfa1]

Unbelievable.

 

If you pit with only 4 laps to go for new tyres, then yep, its a total screwup.

[tkulla]

Germany
 
Normally I like to wait a little while before I post anything on the strategy, because it's easy to get your facts wrong, especially if you are a little bit annoyed!
 
But this time I really feel the need to vent. Jenson definitely had the worst strategy of anyone on the grid.
 
It was very clear when he stopped for the 2nd time that he was going to have to stop again. If you'd told me at that point that he would try to make it to the end on the same set of tyres, I'd have said you knew nothing about F1.
 
As Jenson's pace dropped off predictably, the question in my mind wasn't whether he was going to stop again, but just a matter of timing. Would they leave it until about 15 laps from the end, so that Jenson could make full use of another set of tyres? Or would they leave it until later, so that Jenson could really thrash a set of options?
 
Unbelievable.

Agreed. The team gave away a place to Hulkenberg for no good reason. Jenson must be furious. I wonder if his glacially slow last lap was saving the car or some form of protest.

[BARHonda006]

I just don't see this as coincidence. Why did he only get the rear wing yesterday? Why this poor strategy? Poor form from McLaren.

Edited by BARHonda006, 20 July 2014 - 14:09.