Perez is a tyre manager, not a race car driver
======================

interesting. it did seem like a bit of a punt taking him over a couple of other very promising candidates.

Martial, if they had the medium and hard tyre at the race, I believe Hamilton could have won the race. The first stint is where he lost the race as he did pull out over a second lead but was reeled back in.

Let's not forget, Alonso is a beast and if he can smell a win, he will do all he can to make it happen and they look to have a better car. The Lotus could have challenged him though.

The mercs are improving, from being 45 secs of the pace to within 12 secs off the pace is a massive improvement and Aldo Costa is doing a great job.

China was a great opportunity for them to notch up a win but we'll see. Canada is on the horizon, so it would be interesting to see what Hamilton can do there as he's mighty there too.

For me though, it's between Alonso, Kimi and Vettel for the championship.

Re: McLaren - I'd have liked to have seen di Resta given the drive. I do rate Perez, but this season could be a career wrecker (well okay not that bad - but certainly harm him) if that McLaren does not improve.

McLaren lack a real leader for me. I like Button, a good driver, can be excellent at times - but he's no Hamilton/Alonso.

I think it's Vettel v Alonso v Raikkonen too. Would prefer it to be Alonso v Raikkonen v Hamilton but whilst that Mercedes is clearly a car capable of podiums (and hopefully a win or two) it doesn't at this stage strike me as a multi race winner for 2013.

Button's achilles heel is that if the car isn't set up to perfection, he can't mix it with the big boys. Not sure why McLaren unsettled Hamilton.

We'll see how things develop. I'm off, Game of Thrones is on.

Later fellas, bye Martial

man unt devil

but manx -- you are the one that starts all this garbage every time -

if anybody and i do mean anybody says anything in the least way objective about hamilton you start all this pathetic rubbish every time and then blame everybody else for your very delicate hamilton senseabilities --

its a forum mate -- people are allowed to say anything that is reasonably fair and objective about any driver they like
--- nobody is doing anything wrong by posting harmless objective views and opinions about whatever driver they choose to talk about --

Actually, I worry for McLaren here - I think they could be on a down slope like 94/95.

Martial, I have no problems with people criticising Hamilton. I'm not him, he's not my brother, my son, my friend or my crush.

I actually didn't take to him when he arrived on the scene but did when I noticed all the vitriol directed his way, a lot of it unjustified.

We can talk about the merits and demerits of anyone, more than happy to do that, but when it gets petty and childish, there's really no point

Martial, your accusation about me defending Hamilton against everyone isn't true, it's just you, because I know you, remember.

Anyways, goodnight lads

man unt devil

ok manx -- no problem -- see you later

comment by .JPB.
posted 14 hours, 19 minutes ago
I think Webber's a good driver welshy. when he was with wiliams he was known as an ace qualifier
===========

Being a good qualifier doesn't mean you are a good driver. Webber's never struck me as anything special.

He should have won the title in 2010 though.

I think Webber is a very decent driver, and a good lad. But for me he just lacks a little something.

On his day, like Button he can be supreme, but like Button for me he is inconsistant. If the Red Bull has been the best car overall the past 3 and a half years then he should have done better imo.

Agreed Welshy but Webber's car has always had mystery issues with different devices that never seemed to affect Seb's car after 2010.

Now we have issues with a fuel bowser and a redbull car not fueled properly for a Q2 run.

It's a conspiracy, I tells ya

Webbers KERS seems to run on smart price batteries, its always on the blink.

Seems the China podium had two drivers with front wing issues, maybe its a new tactic

---------------------

Hamilton reckons his Chinese GP race performance had been compromised by balance issues caused by rubber debris getting caught in his front wing, although he does not believe the team had the speed to beat Alonso even without the problems.

"I don't feel we were harder on the tyres, we just generally didn't have the same pure pace," he said.

"In terms of looking after the tyres, we had a couple of problems with the front wing.

"We were losing downforce, so the balance was shifting quite a lot from understeer to balanced, and then balanced to understeer. So we need to fix that."

"It has been a good weekend. Of course I would have loved to have won, as that is what I came here to do, but we just were not as quick as the Ferraris.

"Maybe if we did not have some of the issues with the front wing then I might have been able to overtake the Lotus [of Kimi Raikkonen], maybe, but they were still very quick even though he had problems with his front wing."

bah wasn't paying attention, that fits better into the China race thread

im sure ive read that comment somewhere before ?

It happened to him last year as well. The amount of rubber on the track was ridiculous.

Do not entirely buy the argument though

I was surprised at how fast kimi was able to go with that front wing. it didn't seem to slow him down at all.

Indeed, he got lucky with the piece that was broken off.

Imagine what he would have been able to do if he didn't have a poor start or a broken wing

It seems Kimi's poor start was in part down to his team making a bad call. I doubt he would have stayed in front of Alonso but he probably would have stayed in front of Massa at the start.

I don't think he could have beaten Alonso with the same strategy.

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Brilliant. We have a lively and interesting discussion about the greatest F1 driver, and WTCBU returns to throw in some gratuitous insults and the discussion gets deleted.

Something needs to be done to stop this poster ruining the F1 discussion board.

I wondered where that thread went

good thread that was as well. fakin ridiculous.