Yeah, but...

[oldredracer]

I'm guessing everyone's seen Fangio or Clark drifting through one corner or the other...



And maybe it's just because I've seen 'Senna' twice last week, but did anybody see Vettel's car step out on him in Q3 this morning? The car never twitched and he didn't lift, near as I can tell. He just motored on and aborted the lap, figuring he had lost too much time. At least that was Varsha's guess.
If you TIVO'd it you can see it with 5:15 left in Q3 (incar) and again in replay at 4:35 from outside the car.
I'm jes' sayin' the boy's good.

[Cyranodeburgerak]

It says SOMETHING about the modern era in F1 when a car getting sideways ONCE in a weekend warrants a notification with the TiVo timestamp...

[Cyranodeburgerak]

That pic of JMF is INCREDIBLE!

[Fred K]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blg3mRnVukI

[oldredracer]

Thank you Fred K.!

Now, as if that wasn't enough, let's get video of him passing Alonso on the outside at Curva Grande with two wheels in the grass.

[oldredracer]

Originally Posted by Cyranodeburgerak

It says SOMETHING about the modern era in F1 when a car getting sideways ONCE in a weekend warrants a notification with the TiVo timestamp...

Heck son, even I can get a car sideways. The art is in what happens afterward.

[Cyranodeburgerak]

That was pretty macho. Cool stuff.

[Fred K]

Originally Posted by oldredracer

Thank you Fred K.!

Now, as if that wasn't enough, let's get video of him passing Alonso on the outside at Curva Grande with two wheels in the grass.

How about this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULgxmFxkv1A

--
Fred K

[Slowhands]

Vettel has arrived. He is now the complete package, the real deal. Qualifying, racing, technically, mentally, and with regard to maturity and confidence. Head and shoulders above everyone else. I think the only person who could match him at this particular point in time is Alonso. Lewis has the talent and the potential, but mentally he's got work to do, and it looks like he is lagging behind Vettel in terms of helping his engineers when the setup is challenging (absolutely unacceptable to have his car geared badly for the race), and managing his tires in this new world of accelerated tire degradation.

[WatertownNewbie]

Originally Posted by Slowhands

Vettel has arrived. He is now the complete package, the real deal. Qualifying, racing, technically, mentally, and with regard to maturity and confidence. Head and shoulders above everyone else. I think the only person who could match him at this particular point in time is Alonso. Lewis has the talent and the potential, but mentally he's got work to do, and it looks like he is lagging behind Vettel in terms of helping his engineers when the setup is challenging (absolutely unacceptable to have his car geared badly for the race), and managing his tires in this new world of accelerated tire degradation.

Agreed on all counts, and when Hamilton struggled behind Michael for so many laps and then Jenson dispatched him relatively easily, well, what's that supposed to suggest?

[oldredracer]

Fred K. Thanks again for the videos. How exactly do you do that? I'd ask DalyDuo but his explanations make my hair hurt.

[Slowhands]

Originally Posted by WatertownNewbie

Agreed on all counts, and when Hamilton struggled behind Michael for so many laps and then Jenson dispatched him relatively easily, well, what's that supposed to suggest?

McLaren should have reacted more quickly and changed Lewis' strategy, bringing him in to put him on primes and get him in open track much earlier, when it was clear he couldn't get around Michael in a couple of laps. I think Jenson got the pass done because of a combination of things: 1) his tires were in good shape because he hadn't been overdriving them like Lewis and Michael had 2) by that time Michael's tires were going away, and 3) by that time Michael had been forced to tone down his shenanigans by 2 very clear messages from Ross Brawn to "give room at Ascari" which I am convinced was code for "let Lewis by or you are going to get penalized" because, after the first warning, he was allowing Lewis room at turn-in, but he obviously had the inside and kept braking really late. When Jenson went by, Michael braked quite a bit earlier and that is what let him through. Michael may not have even known it was Jenson.

Lewis on the other hand was kicking himself for falling asleep on the restart and giving Michael the opportunity to go by him, and ended up trying WAY too hard to flog a car which just did not have the top end to make the pass on the Mercedes. He had no chance of pulling off the move in the main DRS zone down the front straight. In spite of his rear wing being wide open you could see his car go backwards the moment he pulled out of MS's slipstream. And then he was on the limiter for what weemed like an eternity, sayonara horsepower. Early on, when his tires were better, he did get a couple of decent runs on Michael out of the second Lesmos but Michael blocked the hell out of him and he had to lift. IMO Michael should have been warned much earlier about his driving, personally I think he should have been given a drive-through after the first couple of laps--they were pretty egregious, and others have been penalized for less.

[Fred K]

Originally Posted by oldredracer

Fred K. Thanks again for the videos. How exactly do you do that? I'd ask DalyDuo but his explanations make my hair hurt.

What's easy is calling up www.youtube.com and search for "vettel drift" or "vettel passing alonso 2011," picking a couple that look promising.

What's hard is seeing them before someone claims that the postings violate someone's copyrights and then muscling youtube to declare a violation of their terms of service and pull them.

Maybe they'll show up again sometime, wrapped, I suppose, in suitable revenue-generating advertising.

Sigh.

--
Fred K.

[oldredracer]

Originally Posted by Fred K

What's easy is calling up www.youtube.com and search for "vettel drift" or "vettel passing alonso 2011," picking a couple that look promising.

What's hard is seeing them before someone claims that the postings violate someone's copyrights and then muscling youtube to declare a violation of their terms of service and pull them.

Maybe they'll show up again sometime, wrapped, I suppose, in suitable revenue-generating advertising.

Sigh.

--
Fred K.

Ah. And here i had a picture of you in a back room somewhere with a hacksaw and a videotape. Thanks again.