Jul 31 2016

Formula One 2016: Hockenheimring

First of all, in off, off track news, Bernie Ecclestone’s Mother-In-Law was kidnapped last Friday in São Paulo, Brazil. This is not exactly that unusual as São Paulo saw 2 or 3 cases a week in the early 2000s, but that number had declined in recent years. The ransom is reportedly $36.5 Million which, if true, would represent a record amount.

In merely off track news, Ferrari lost its Technical Director, James Allison on Wednesday. His wife, Rachel, died from bacterial meningitis after the Australian Grand Prix in March. This is especially difficult for Maranello because, while they are currently in second place in the Team Championship, they are only 1 point ahead of Red Bull, Also this year’s chassis and aero suck and Ferrari is devoting insufficient resources to 2017 when there will be extensive rule changes. Once he gets his oersonal life sorted out there are any number of Teams keen to pick him up, so he won’t be out of a job any longer than he wants to be. He will be replaced by Mattia Binotto, the Engine Boss.

Renault will stay in Formula One next year but will do no further development work on the Red Bull Engine.

About that track. Interest in the German Grand Prix has been declining for years. The site had rotated between Nürburgring and Hockenheimring but last year Nürburgring dropped its contract and because of scheduling conflicts no race was run. Negotiations are underway for the Hockenheimring to host next year’s race but Bernie Ecclectone is not optimistic and track owner’s are talking about dropping out of Formula One entirely. The problem is the exorbitant fees Eccleston charges to participate. Hockenheimring must sell 60.000 tickets to break even and so far have sold only 52,000.

Still off track but closer there are 2 developments of note. The first is that the Rules Committee has decided not to use the so-called Halo style roll cage next year. The truth is that not only is it ugly and restricts the Driver’s vision, it would also have been utterly ineffective at preventing any injury suffered in the last 20 years or more. Vettel as the Driver’s Representative blames Ecclestone claiming 90 – 95% Driver approval. This is demonstrably a lie since at least 5 of 22 Drivers have come out against it publicly and more are said to disagree in private. Vettel is an arrogant asshole anyway.

The second is that after the controversy in Hungary when Hamilton had to abort his Qualifying Lap after a wreck seconds ahead of him and Rosberg barely slowed since the track was cleared by the time he reached that location, there will be no more Double Yellow Flags for which the rules are ambiguous. Instead there will be a 1 Lap Red Flag and NO times will count.

On track, Jensen Button has recovered from picking up some carbon fiber in his eye and says he’s in tip top shape for today’s race. There is the usual amount of grid shuffling for penalties. Though Hamilton is currently 6 points ahead of Rosberg in the Driver’s Championship he is one Engine down and will have to accept the penalty for that at some point, Rosberg qualified on Pole for his kinda home race (he actually lives in Monaco and has since he was a child). Tires on offer today are SuperSofts, Softs, and Mediums. Only Force India has more than one set of Mediums, Mercedes will run 8 SuperSofts and 4 Softs, Ferrari, McLaren and Sauber will go with 9 SuperSofts and 3 Softs.

I was a little premature last week, this is the last race before the August break. For most teams (Ferrari excepted) there will be only minor development of the 2016 cars and all effort will go into getting ready for 2017.

Coverage starts at 7 am ET on NBCSports. Racing at 8 am.

rustymancuso581

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  1. Vent Hole

  2. Track analysis

  3. Hype over, 5 minutes to racing

  4. Formation lap

  5. We race

  6. Hamilton beats Rosberg at the start

  7. Gee! No more Radio Restrictions!

  8. Start replay

  9. Lap 5 of 67

    Hamilton
    Verstappen
    Ricciardo
    Rosberg
    Vettel
    Raikkonen
    Bottas
    Hulkenberg
    Button
    Alonso

  10. Sainz and Massa pit

  11. Lap 10 of 67

    Hamilton
    Verstappen
    Ricciardo
    Rosberg
    Vettel
    Raikkonen
    Bottas
    Hulkenberg
    Button
    Alonso

  12. Verstappen and Rosberg pit

  13. Pits are quick because pit lane is short

  14. Ricciardo pits

  15. Bottas, Hulkenberg and Werhlein pit

  16. Vettel pits

  17. Button pits

  18. Haryanto pits

  19. Hamilton, Raikkonen and Alonso pit

  20. Lap 15 of 67

    Hamilton
    Verstappen
    Ricciardo
    Rosberg
    Vettel
    Raikkonen
    Bottas
    Grosjean
    Hulkenberg
    Gutierrez

  21. Everyone has stopped once

  22. Nasr pits

  23. Lap 20 of 67

    Hamilton
    Verstappen
    Ricciardo
    Rosberg
    Vettel
    Raikkonen
    Bottas
    Hulkenberg
    Button
    Gutierrez

  24. Oops Gutierrez hasn’t stopped yet

  25. Lap 25 of 67

    Hamilton
    Verstappen
    Ricciardo
    Rosberg
    Vettel
    Raikkonen
    Bottas
    Hulkenberg
    Button
    Alonso

  26. Gutiererez and Palmer pit

  27. Massa and Wehrlein pit

  28. Rosberg pits

  29. Perez pits

  30. Verstappen pits

  31. Alonso pits

  32. Kvyat pits

  33. Sainz pits

  34. Lap 30 of 67

    Hamilton
    Ricciardo
    Vettel
    Raikkonen
    Rosberg
    Verstappen
    Bottas
    Hulkenberg
    Button
    Magnussen

  35. Button pits again

  36. Rakkonen pits

  37. Hulkenberg pits

  38. Magnussen pits

  39. Ricciardo and Bottas pit

  40. Hamilton and Ericsson pit

  41. Rosberg penalty for pushing Verstappen off track

  42. Lap 36 of 67

    Hamilton
    Rosberg
    Verstappen
    Ricciardo
    Vettel
    Raikkonen
    Hulkenberg
    Bottas
    Button
    Alonso

  43. Massa pits

  44. Massa is stopped

  45. Lap 40 of 67

    Hamilton
    Rosberg
    Ricciardo
    Verstappen
    Vettel
    Raikkonen
    Hulkenberg
    Bottas
    Button
    Alonso

  46. Nasr pits again

  47. Perez pits #3

  48. Rosberg and Grosjean pit

  49. Hulkenberg pit #3

  50. Verstappen pit #3

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