Actually it does matter. But I guess that makes me and several others look utterly foolish for wanting to see more than 2 cars on the grid be able to race without prematurely wearing out their tires. Oh well, glad to see that at least Paul Hembery acknowledges it. As long as he gets it, I'm fine with looking utterly foolish in your important eyes

https://twitter.com/NobleF1/status/333615995329597440

Surely this won't incur a penalty?

Slap on the wrist and a fine most likely. The rule was modified in 1994, where Damon didn't stop his car, but did recieve a flag at Silverstone, which technically made it a legal move. But it's now illegal to pick up any object. But flags you tend to just get a slap and a wee fine, which is ok.

..."in your important eyes" LOL

Alonso and Ferrari proved today you don't need to cruise around. That's it. Like it or lump it. Perhaps instead of being angry at the tyres, you should be angry at the teams / drivers who chose to adopt the cruising strategy?

Yes, Ferrari has made every one of the naysayers look foolish today.

But the problem isn't the number of pit stops, it's the fact that the drivers are cruising. As Brundle pointed out, there has always been conservation in some form in F1. Whether it's fuel, or reliability, and now tyres. But it's gone way beyond that and we have entire races where you can't even get close to a proper race pace. It is now faster to drive around slowly so the tyres don't die.

As long as the tires aren't boring, like the Bridgestone era, you can still have good races with 1 or 2 stops. If the tires offer the right level of grip, they can probably reduce the effect of aero grip, and help cars follow each other in the corners.

Another rule that could be altered, is that you have to use both compounds during the race. If the FIA want different strategies used throughout the race, then why are they putting everyone in the same boat? What if you brought a super soft and a super hard tire? The softs are much faster but require 3 stops, whereas the hard might get you through the race with 1 or no stops. Let the teams use whichever ones they want to. Give the teams special qualifying tires, so they don't have to worry about wearing out their race sets.

I don't know. I think it's an important skill that you conserve your car in some way, but it should be possible to drive 100% flat out at some points during the race. Maybe a shift towards 2 or 3 stops would be fine. We had a couple of cracking races earlier in the season.


And the rule about not picking up objects? No burnouts allowed? Lame. Let them celebrate. Let us see emotion!

Their performance showed that you don't necessarily need to cruise around. They tried something different and it worked very well. That doesn't mean it will work at every circuit from now on, but it does mean there are more choices than just cruising.

It's annoying that Horner and Vettel keep bitching,instead of making a consistent,more tyre saving car,and not just a rocket to fly and destroy tyres.

Alonso received no punishment for picking up the flag.

Alonsos fastest race lap was 6 seconds off the pole time. That's pretty cruising.

I hate this 'yeah well fuck you Bridgestone sucked" attitude as soon as Pirelli are criticised. Yeah, they may have done. But just because you feel Pirelli need a little tweak doesn't mean you're suddenly anti-Pirelli. I also hate this 'LOL Pirelli suck cheese tyres attitude too', and the assertion that these tyre delaminations are dangerous. People need to see things aren't black and white.

Formula 1 should always be striving to improve.

Still, when the Power Units come in, tyres won't be so much of a focus.

*Shameless plugging alert*

'Fabulous Fernando reigns in Spain'
http://www.f1zone.net/news/fabulous-fer ... ain/18885/

Also, slightly unnoticed by quite impressed that Webber somehow went from having a terrible start to only being 9s down on Vettel.