Tuesday, May 29, 2007
"We Was Robbed"
The British Press are famously mean sons of bitches and they are so powerful that they know when somebody trys to snub them they'd rather shame them than let them get away with it. Ron Dennis has been denying the British press some access to Lewis - understandably he's so young - and the press are presumably under enormous pressure from their Editors to get the story. So it's easier to invent a story than try and explain the subtle difference between the what is allowed as strategy and what isn't in Formula 1. I have decided to write that article as it should have appeared in the press rather than the slams against Ron Dennis which have caused the FIA to investigate them. Here goes:
He is really good Lewis and I really like him, I don't think he'll even have been disgruntled really. All that's happened is F1 is starting to be interesting to sports Editors in the UK and they want a) Lewis to win and b) It to be somebody else's fault when he doesn't. It's frustrating for us, but they just want to sell newspapers. I just hope the FIA doesn't do something stupid.
Basically, Ron Dennis who runs McLaren thought there would probably be a safety car so he set up his two cars in two different strategies one for if there was a safety car and one if there wasn't. He actually gave Lewis the more likely better setup which is why Lewis was so confident going in to the race. Lewis was set up better for the scenario of a safety car period occurring which round Monaco is pretty likely (it's happened the last four times). So he thought he was sitting pretty despite being on pole. In the end two things happened, there was no safety car and Alonso drove better than Lewis. By the end of the race the McLarens were almost a minute ahead of the Ferrari. They had lapped everybody except for that car. They were mega. So after the race when asked Ron said something along the lines of, "we controlled the race from after the first pit stops, our pace was so strong that we turned down the revs and took it easy". He was partly laying down a marker "we're so much better than you that we beat you by that much and we weren't even trying" and also speaking the truth they would have been mad to have their two drivers properly racing each other when they were so far ahead of the competition. They could crash and loose their advantage. This is part of the team element of Formula 1 and is totally fair.
It sounds similar to the thing that Ferrari got in trouble for a few years ago but there is a significant difference. A few seasons ago Ferrari got penalised for getting a faster Barrichello to move over to let a slower Michael pass him and win the race for points. That's banned. In this case Alonso was faster than Lewis, drove better than Lewis and the only way that Lewis would have won is if he had been given the better strategy by McLaren. Whoever qualifies better in Q2 at McLaren gets to pick the strategy so Alonso obviously picked the one that didn't include the safety car. If Lewis had wanted that strategy he should have been faster on Saturday.
He is really good Lewis and I really like him, I don't think he'll even have been disgruntled really. All that's happened is F1 is starting to be interesting to sports Editors in the UK and they want a) Lewis to win and b) It to be somebody else's fault when he doesn't. It's frustrating for us, but they just want to sell newspapers. I just hope the FIA doesn't do something stupid.
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It is annoying that they're making a story out of their own ignorance of F1, rather than something genuinely happening.
But what about this: Lewis could have easily beaten Alonso in qualifying, but got held up, and made a few mistakes. On the grid McLaren told him 'don't try anything at the first corner, you can get him at the first stop if you like', and he agreed and slotted in behind Alonso. However, he took a bit of time to get used to the circuit, then his pit-stop came only two laps after Alonso's, and suddenly McLaren were telling him to slow down. I think Lewis was genuinely annoyed (he didn't know about Fernando's fuel saving). In the papers today is the 'rumour' that he started shouting at his race mechanic over the radio and refused to slow down. Remember Ron said after the race 'it took a bit of time' to communicate to the drivers to not race? And I'm fairly sure Lewis says somewhere 'they asked me to slow and I didn't'. I think he was pretty annoyed (and Alonso too when he say Hamilton charging behind him) but I'm fairly sure having spoken to his engineers and Ron after the race it's all been explained to him.
Incidentally, James Allen is trying to make a big thing of the second stop, but I don't think anything wrong happened there at all.
But what about this: Lewis could have easily beaten Alonso in qualifying, but got held up, and made a few mistakes. On the grid McLaren told him 'don't try anything at the first corner, you can get him at the first stop if you like', and he agreed and slotted in behind Alonso. However, he took a bit of time to get used to the circuit, then his pit-stop came only two laps after Alonso's, and suddenly McLaren were telling him to slow down. I think Lewis was genuinely annoyed (he didn't know about Fernando's fuel saving). In the papers today is the 'rumour' that he started shouting at his race mechanic over the radio and refused to slow down. Remember Ron said after the race 'it took a bit of time' to communicate to the drivers to not race? And I'm fairly sure Lewis says somewhere 'they asked me to slow and I didn't'. I think he was pretty annoyed (and Alonso too when he say Hamilton charging behind him) but I'm fairly sure having spoken to his engineers and Ron after the race it's all been explained to him.
Incidentally, James Allen is trying to make a big thing of the second stop, but I don't think anything wrong happened there at all.
Can someone explain the 'safety car setup' for the not-as-much-as-he-was-but-still-a-bit-confused-dontchaknow Newbie?
I don't think it's a setup so much as a fuel strategy. They gave Lewis enough fuel so that he would always take two stops. If a saftey car came out he could pit, and then pit later in the race. If it didn't (as we saw) he would just pit twice anyway. Apparently, for Alonso, if a safety car came out, he would've had to stop three times. Does that make sense?
It uses less fuel.
I think I can explain it like this. Lewis had 5 laps more fuel in his car which meant that his strategy could be more flexible. What does this mean?
In a normal race one driver would carry 1 more lap of fuel than his team mate so that both drivers don't have to stop on the same lap. In this case they gave Lewis 5 more laps of fuel 1 for keeping him on a different lap than Alonso and 4 cushion. Each of the two times he would pit he'd pit with that 4 laps still in the tank.
What's the point of that? Well imagine the safety car comes out and you need to pit for fuel but your rival doesn't, he pitted a lap earlier. If the safety car period takes even 4 or 5 laps to go round Lewis (who would be burning fuel at a slower rate) would be able to stop when he chose to, at the ideal time. Wheras Alonso with no margin would have to stop whenever he ran out of fuel. Basically you are carring round a reserve to take you through the safety car period. Normally 4 laps of fuel would have too much of a penalty but around Monaco it's less relevant and with the chance of a safety car it would have really helped.
Isn't that it?
I think I can explain it like this. Lewis had 5 laps more fuel in his car which meant that his strategy could be more flexible. What does this mean?
In a normal race one driver would carry 1 more lap of fuel than his team mate so that both drivers don't have to stop on the same lap. In this case they gave Lewis 5 more laps of fuel 1 for keeping him on a different lap than Alonso and 4 cushion. Each of the two times he would pit he'd pit with that 4 laps still in the tank.
What's the point of that? Well imagine the safety car comes out and you need to pit for fuel but your rival doesn't, he pitted a lap earlier. If the safety car period takes even 4 or 5 laps to go round Lewis (who would be burning fuel at a slower rate) would be able to stop when he chose to, at the ideal time. Wheras Alonso with no margin would have to stop whenever he ran out of fuel. Basically you are carring round a reserve to take you through the safety car period. Normally 4 laps of fuel would have too much of a penalty but around Monaco it's less relevant and with the chance of a safety car it would have really helped.
Isn't that it?
I am a bit more clue, I think. I hadn't fully realised that the safety car laps counted as laps of the race; I assumed they stopped the race and then continued counting where they left off. but as Alex just mentioned to me, pitting while the safety car is out is all part of the tactics, especially at crash-prone Monaco. Although not this time! Thanks chaps.
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