2013 United States GP Discussion Thread

[Weiss]

Go Button!

[Alextrax52]

Crofty we know Chilton is finishing another race but it's not a major achievement if he's 50 seconds behind

[S951]

yes bottas getting some points

and some doughnuts

[rachel1990]

Gutierrez does doughnuts and nearly wipes out a few cars- Nice little fine heading his way

[dr-baker]

YES, YES, YES!!! Williams increase their points total five-fold!

[Alextrax52]

Bottas da man

[FullMetalJack]

#BOTTAS

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! Finally!

[Londoner]

Crofty we know Chilton is finishing another race but it's not a major achievement if he's 50 seconds behind

Yes it is. Stop hating on the ChiltonCraze, and embrace it mate.

But sod everyone else, today belongs to #BOTTAS.

[Alextrax52]

Crofty we know Chilton is finishing another race but it's not a major achievement if he's 50 seconds behind

Yes it is. Stop hating on the ChiltonCraze, and embrace it mate.

But sod everyone else, today belongs to BOTTAS.

I think you'll find I did some 4 races ago. That comment was in general terms. If he does it next year with unreliability in play then I'll say it's impressive

[mario]

Gutierrez does doughnuts and nearly wipes out a few cars- Nice little fine heading his way

Not the sort he would have liked to do though after clashing with Vergne...

problem for webber again?

To be fair, his starts in the past few races haven't been as bad as they could have been - it seems that he gets off the line OK, but it's once the cars have a bit of momentum and drivers start using a little bit of KERS that Webber seems to bog down. Interestingly, it does seem that Vettel is the opposite of Webber - he doesn't tend to get off the line especially sharply, but once he has built up that initial momentum he then controls the next stage of the start much more cleanly and tends to pull ahead from that point in.

It does show how much pace the team probably have in reserve though - until he wrecked his tyres, Webber could choose to drop back and then catch right back up to Grosjean whenever he wanted. There were a few comments on the commentary that, since he has become a father, it seems that his outlook has changed completely and he has really blossomed since then - to the point where Brundle was quipping that perhaps Ferrari have hired the wrong guy from Lotus.

As others have said though, it's Bottas who has stood out the most today - perhaps it is telling that at a slipperier, lower grip track that somewhat mimics what happened in Canada that Bottas has outdone expectations and had such a strong race. It's a race that should do wonders for his reputation though - being able to pressurise Alonso in the opening stages and putting in some smart moves does seem to validate Williams's faith in him.

[Dj_bereta]

I forget something:

If I remember well, Red Bull did an unsafe release of Vettel, almost equal to Hulkenberg x Perez situation in the last race. But I don't think Vettel will get a penalty for that (which gives Grosjean the race win).

[lgaquino]

the pit lane in Austin has two lanes. So unless your pit is right next to the guy coming, there wont be an issue

[AustralianStig]

The whole two lane pitlane thing is such a joke, and one day a mechanic is going to get hurt because of it. It wasn't so bad with Vettel/Chilton, but on other occasions I've been cringing at just how close they come to the pitcrews.

The sooner they get rid of it, the better.

[lgaquino]

The whole two lane pitlane thing is such a joke, and one day a mechanic is going to get hurt because of it. It wasn't so bad with Vettel/Chilton, but on other occasions I've been cringing at just how close they come to the pitcrews.

The sooner they get rid of it, the better.

Sorry but I didn't follow...
This large pit lane is better than ..say Imola. There's two lanes, the outside with drivers coming in the pits, and the inside with drivers coming out of their boxes. Minimizing the chance of accidents and unsafe releases.
Sure they can still tangle..but it is still far better, imo


I only saw it briefly, but I got the impression that chilton should've backed of a bit, not to risk turning into vettel when he boxed. And vettel should've kept 100% on the inside lane when he left his box

[go_Rubens]

The whole two lane pitlane thing is such a joke, and one day a mechanic is going to get hurt because of it. It wasn't so bad with Vettel/Chilton, but on other occasions I've been cringing at just how close they come to the pitcrews.

The sooner they get rid of it, the better.

Sorry but I didn't follow...
This large pit lane is better than ..say Imola. There's two lanes, the outside with drivers coming in the pits, and the inside with drivers coming out of their boxes. Minimizing the chance of accidents and unsafe releases.
Sure they can still tangle..but it is still far better, imo


I only saw it briefly, but I got the impression that chilton should've backed of a bit, not to risk turning into vettel when he boxed. And vettel should've kept 100% on the inside lane when he left his box

That's more or less the problem with the incident, it wasn't really an incident. There were signs of it possibly becoming an incident, but it didn't happen, and if the drivers did something different, there would be no problem at all.

[AustralianStig]

Sorry but I didn't follow...
This large pit lane is better than ..say Imola. There's two lanes, the outside with drivers coming in the pits, and the inside with drivers coming out of their boxes. Minimizing the chance of accidents and unsafe releases.
Sure they can still tangle..but it is still far better, imo

The problem is most of the time there's not two lanes, there's one and a half. That's when I'm cringing...

It might look closer than it really is on TV, but that's just the way it looks to me. I'll have to take a closer look when I'm at Albert Park next year.

[Sublime_FA11C]

Looked like a good race until the pace car neatly spaced everyone apart and they all went into maximum tyre conservation mode. Dissapointingly dull, BUT i will say that when there was an overtake, it was usually an excellent moment of racing. So overall not exciting but Webber, Bottas and Hulk among others saved it from being worthless.

[Hound55]

I think that Vergne's incident with Gutierrez is the closest to dumping someone in the corner that I have ever seen in F1. Gutierrez was up his gearbox, gets on Vergne's outside in the corner, and Vergne looked like he wasn't having none of it.

[TheBigJ]

I don't know where to post this so I guess a US GP thread in a forum named after the Legend himself is a good start...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY7IdWpqYXI

Who else cracked up after 'this bullshit race'...vintage Stoddart!

[watka]

Well put!

[FullMetalJack]

I don't know where to post this so I guess a US GP thread in a forum named after the Legend himself is a good start...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY7IdWpqYXI

Who else cracked up after 'this bullshit race'...vintage Stoddart!

Telling Stoddart that he was allowed to swear was brilliant too.

Imagine if BBC had said the same to James Hunt, it'd be chaos.