2015 Belgium Grand Prix

[truefan72]

oh noooooo!
Vettel!

gamble failed
shame

[steveaki13]

Lucky Seb did not have that failure in Eau Rouge..... that would have hurt.

Great for Lotus and Grosjean

[truefan72]

yeah!
and finally...finally! some decent points for my FGP from lotus

[truefan72]

And a slight tear in my eye for Grosjean and Lotus.
I am really happy for them

As for Ferrari, I can't really blame them for keeping Vettel out.
It was a tough decision and if he pitted earlier he would probably have finished 4th or 5th
But considering how fast Kvyatt was with a set of new softs, he might have challenged grosjean for 3rd
It reminded me of Kimi at Nürburgring a few years back. even though that one was worse since he was leading the race, but same limbo situation

Perez was flying earlier on in the Force india but their middle sector speed did them in.

[dj_bytedisaster]

It reminded me of Kimi at Nuremberg Ring a few years back.

Little correction It's a common mistake. The track is called Nürburgring. Nuremberg is a town in Bavaria, at least 200 miles from the Nürburgring. It has its own street track called Norisring.

[The Black Knight]

Pretty good race overall! Was always going to be a Mercedes 1-2 barring mechanical issues. I was once again very impressed with Verstappen and his overtaking. Some of it was mind blowing stuff! Let's not forget Sainz though as I figure he has had the upper hand on Verstappen but been

[The Black Knight]

Pretty good race overall! Was always going to be a Mercedes 1-2 barring mechanical issues. I was once again very impressed with Verstappen and his overtaking. Some of it was mind blowing stuff! Let's not forget Sainz though as I figure he has had the upper hand on Verstappen overall but been rather unlucky again today!

Misery for McLaren - the upgrade seems pretty worthless and to not have done anything! Worse if anything!

Hamilton was mighty - That second stint he just obliterated and you get the impression he could have pulled away at any point had it been required!

Vettel - very unlucky and I am with him when saying that tyres should not delaminate like that after 27 laps. This is on pirelli's doorstep this failure.

Delighted for Grosjean - tremendous race and am very happy to see him on the podium again - great race from him!

[Big Ben]

Those Pirellis are crap. How hard is it to make some tires that either degrade rapidly or last for 3 races according to the whims of everyone involved. Vettel's hissy fit is totally justified. Gambling and losing.... That's unheard of.

[Nitrodaze]

Donkey of the race goes to the Williams pit crew.

Vettel angry with Pirelli tyres. The general consensus is that Ferrari eeked it out to far and paid the price. That Tyre disintegrated after 27 laps, roughly 189 miles. When you look at it from this perspective, then you gotta ask, would it not be safer for the tire to drop performance dastically but keep its structure in tact rather than disintegrate at speed. While Ferrari and Vettel may have gambled and lost, Vettel does have a point. Tyres blowing up at speed should not be acceptable. While the FIA mandate is for marginal tyres with short race life, Vettel is saying there should be a window of warning to the driver that disintegration is eminent before the onset of failure.
While l agree Ferrari took a gamble that was not going to work out, the tyre ought to have a number of stages of performance level drops to indicate to the driver the phase in the lifecycle of the tyre they are at. The basis of Vettel's argument was that the tyre had good performance up to the point that it disintegrated. It would seem the famous cliff is no longer there as it use to be.
Whichever way you look at this, it is safe to say that the drivers are showing signs that they are fed up with marginal tyres, not Pirelli per se.

I have to add that Pirelli's Hembury put up a supreme demonstration of a PR response to the criticism. It was cool unflustered, uncritical and unwavering confidence in the absence of fault by pirelli. Simply exemplary. If you missed it, l highly recommend you go watch it again. The response is one that l shall be watching repeatedly for a very long time as there is much to learnt from it.

[dj_bytedisaster]

I have to add that Pirelli's Pembury put up a supreme demonstration of a PR response to the criticism. It was cool unflustered, uncritical and unwavering confidence in the absence of fault by pirelli. Simply exemplary. If you missed it, l highly recommend you go watch it again. The response is one that l shall be watching repeatedly for a very long time as there is much to learnt from it.

You should drink less. Here is what the teams had to say about Hembery's 'exemplary' PR response:

Alain Permane (Lotus);
"If Pirelli tells us the tyres last 40 laps, they can’t possibly blow up after 28 laps. For us a one-stop strategy was only a backup plan, but we considered it as well."

Andy Green (Force India):
“If Vettel’s tyres had been worn out, he’d have come into the pits. As soon as the rubber is worn below 30% the lap times go up by two to three seconds and tyre temperatures drop from 140°C to 110°C. You’re driving on ice in that case, you won’t even get anywhere near critical wear. Your team would call you in long before that happens.”

Mauricio Arrivabene (Ferrari):
“A one-stop race was our plan A. We decided that at 11am, using the data the engineers had collected during the practice sessions. There was a Pirelli engineer standing in our garage and he wasn’t just chewing bubblegum. He would have intervened if the data had shown anything suspicious. Our strategy was aggressive, but not risky.”