Verstappen critises Hamilton

[Emmcee 0]

Good on him, finally a driver speaking up and giving Lewis the hint he knows Lewis is full of himself.

 

http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/571381/Verstappen_accuses_Hamilton/

[Sakae 0]

Kerbs must change next year. That idea has now momentum.

[Emmcee 0]

I think the kerbs are fine. Just drivers who want to cut them to save a few tenths aren't liking it as the now have to adjust there driving style.

[spiral.out 0]

If you drive off the track, and your car breaks, DONT DRIVE OFF TEH TRACK>

 

JAYSSSUSSS

[Sakae 0]

10 hours ago, Sakae said:

Kerbs must change next year. That idea has now momentum.

Or, maybe not.

After Kvyat effectively trashed his car (also Perez), more drivers thought something needs to change, but new headline puts lid on it.

Verstappen made an interesting comment, while explaining that in the city like Monaco or Baku it was easier for him to drive, because buildings gave him point of reference on track limits, whereas Spielberg is more difficult with its angulations, and position of kerbs cought him by surprise.

[Emmcee 0]

So in other words he wouldn't know where to stop or be anywhere near as quick back in the 90s or so compared to now.

[Sakae 0]

MV is no dummy, and considering his age, situation, experience with top team or lack of thereof, yet him, being on a steep learning curve at RBR, and if not ahead of him, then he is not too far behind DR. I am willing - for now - to be tolerant to his quiet, cool, exuberance, with some small degree of admiration. The guy is really breeze of fresh air into series.

[Emmcee 0]

I couldn't agree more and me myself being quite vocal on him just like many before last season, have quick to realise he is no splash in the pan, he is the real deal but in some instances I feel he is trying to speed up his experience if you know what I mean and still makes some silly mistakes. But on pure pace and race craft, he is right up there with the best already IMHO. The way he is also able to be so quick while conserving tyres is astonishing.

[Massa 0]

Driver everyone hates a month ago now the favorite for criticizing the driver everyone here has hated for years over something none of us have any information to actually evaluate (that being what Hamilton's actual beliefs are—and no, second-hand hearsay from one driver saying another driver said Hamilton said something doesn't count).  I laugh.

I think safety is important.  Even if you don't have a fundamental interest in protecting drivers, fans, marshals, pit crews, etc., at a minimum, you probably have an interest in F1 existing.  And I can tell you that sponsor money is impossible to raise (and it's necessary, as we know) when the risks are too high.  After IndyCar's horror show at Las Vegas 2011, where a fiery wreck wiped out one-third of the field, killed Dan Wheldon, and sent three more to the hospital, a lot of sponsors on cars that day never, ever came back.  Many reasons, including: (1) if you're backing a certain driver, and that certain driver is at risk of a career-ending injury/death, well, that's not an investment you want to make; (2) a lot of sponsors do corporate hospitality/entertaining/deal-making at races, and the last thing you want to do is bring your special guests to what turns into a funeral; (3) a lot of companies really don't want an image associated with risk; etc.  So, like it or not, it's necessary for F1 and auto racing to care about safety, because they need financial backing to put these shows on, and the financial backers demand safety.

But . . . my personal opinions on safety are irrelevant to this, which amounts to school-children like Verstappen, Rosberg, and Hamilton—all of whom lack maturity—using the media as their Twitter or Facebook page to hurl insults.

And none of their opinions matter.  It might seem like drivers should have a say, but drivers are too biased by their personal interests to give good opinions, even when they speak honestly.  Verstappen, for example, struggled desperately at Monaco and is very inexperienced, still.  If F1 had punishing circuits and demanding cars of eras gone by, Verstappen might not be so successful.  So, if he says he wants circuits that are harder to make errors on, is that because he cares about safety, or because it benefits him?  And if Hamilton says he doesn't care about safety, is that him expressing what he thinks is best for the sport as a whole, or is that just him being bored as a driver with this era of F1?  Truthful or not, their opinions will never mean much, because they don't see any perspective of any other stakeholder but themselves.  Drivers deserve a voice, but not a controlling one.  No chance.  They have too much at personal stake to care about others.  And they're trained from day one not to care about anything but themselves.

[Sakae 0]

Ehmm, I don't think everyone hated MV a month ago, unless I don't count. 

 

Quote

Drivers deserve a voice, but not a controlling one. 

This one is tough one for a very simple reason - they do offer their lives to entertain us, yet it feels unseemly and medieval to say, that someone else has control over them. Something doesn't clicking right with that notion.

[Massa 0]

1 hour ago, Sakae said:

This one is tough one for a very simple reason - they do offer they lives to entertain us, yet it feels unseemly and medieval to say, that someone else has control over them. Something doesn't clicking right with that notion.

I think you give them too much credit.  Drivers do not offer their lives to entertain us.  Drivers do not want to be racing drivers because they want to entertain and bring joy to people.  They want to be racing drivers for the thrill, the adventure, the competition.  They want it for the glory, the fame, the victories.  They want to do it to avoid real work, to be rich, to meet attractive women.  It is not a noble profession—they're just very lucky that people like me care enough to watch what they do.

But there's no selflessness to it.

Again, my whole post makes it clear: I 100% support calls for added safety, or at least not regressing on safety the way Baku, in my view, was.  But I don't think we should care as much about what drivers say about how to run the sport as we do, because drivers give you the picture not even of the whole group of drivers, but just of their own, individual interests, which are less concerned with the good of the sport and more with giving themselves advantages or disadvantaging others.  You can't let the competitors have much of a say because they'll always have an ulterior motive to influence the competition in their favor.  You need leaders who listen to all stakeholders (including drivers, of course), not leaders who are the stakeholders.

Which brings me back to my main point on this: what drivers say to the media about how the sport should be run is just not an issue for us all to be running around deciding whether we like those drivers are not or whatever.  Because what they share might be dishonest, it might be influenced by other things, etc.  And I don't think the correct response to a bad comment from Hamilton is a bad comment from Verstappen—that's just childish to me, and an illustration of why these drivers can't control the sport.  They're too emotional, too invested in the passion of competition, and too catty in the media to handle that responsibility.

[Sakae 0]

Setting emotions aside, kerbs could be dangerous. It is easy to say - do not drive over them, but fact is, cars can driver over them for any number of reasons. Broken wings and lost of downforce is not safe journey by any standard. Based on pictures of Kvyat's car we saw, they all were lucky he didn't collect anyone. Than you have Hamilton reversing his car into incoming traffic, etc. To sum it up, there is enough of material to discuss with drivers for quite a long time, and if some of those comments at the moment sound flippant, that's because they do know no one takes them seriously. Have them however engaged, and show them in tangible form how their grown-up input makes things better, I think would definitely improve quality of their input. I think drivers, as stake-holders, should have a proportional vote in some of those decisions.

[Emmcee 0]

I think the kerbs are fine, it requires more finess when picking your line into the corner and shows who is actually quick and who is quick from using a lot more kerbs, no one cared for years when they had the double chicane at the start at monza, those kerbs were huge. You would see slow mo's or photos of the cars on two wheels through that section.