The 3-Stop Strategy: Welcome back Williams?
Welcome to the third edition of the 3-stop strategy, a fierce weekly debate about the hottest Formula One topics of the moment. Every week 3 statements will be set and it’s up to our writers to argue for and against them, and we also want you to give tell us what you think! This week Lotus lover Philracer is setting the questions, and resident TGTB&TB author Craig, Mercedes maverick Glen Robertson and Ferrari fan Hickley will be giving us their insights into F1′s burning issues. Enjoy!
1) Heikki Kovalainen was to blame for Sunday’s crash with Mark Webber
Craig: STOP! No, no, no. It was a pure racing incident, ninety-nine times out of a hundred it would have resulted with both cars limping back to the pits for new body parts and/or retirement. Because of the tyre contact it made Webber airborne. Webber and Kovalainen were racing for position on the same lap, something that Webber may or may not have known at the time, and the Lotus driver had every right to defend the line going into the corner. Webber tried his luck with more slipstream and just got caught out, but seeing as he’s spent all season lapping these start-up teams he should have given a lot more room. Yes, the airborne moment meant Webber got more press, but Kovalainen’s race was ruined also. It’s credit to modern safety that Webber walked away from such a crash too.
Glen: STOP! Nowhere in the rule book does it say you have to let a car past if you’re fighting for position with them. Kovalainen had a right to fight for his position and a team such as Lotus – who are pushing to catch up the midfield teams – would be embarrassed at one of their cars failing to battle for a place. Webber’s manoeuvre reminded me of tailgaters on public roads. He got as close to the car as possible expecting it to pull over and left it too late to move over himself. On public roads the car that goes into the back of another is at fault and it was the same here.
Hickley: STOP! Whilst Kovalainen dilly-dathered around the track before deciding on a line, Webber had no real reason to be behind him at the point of impact. Given by the rate of knots that he had caught the Finn leading up to the corner, there was no need to steal an extra bit of slipstream. He must’ve expected that the Lotus would be braking much earlier – he’s lapped them enough times this season to know that.
Head to Page 2 where the Williams revival gathers pace…
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i totally agree, if you recall the incident webber gets well into kovies slipstream and as kovi moves to his left instead of webber staying to the right webber grabs every last ounce of the slip and follows kovi to the left and then the lotus had to brake for the corner wether webber forgot or didn’t realize who it was by this time it was to late. because of the massive differance between the performance of the cars webber was still accelerating while kovi had to brake, so to me this was a racing incident the drivers were not to blame it was the cars but a testement to the cars is that webber was able to walk away. also under the circumstances thinking about other drivers braking distances is not easy to remember while driving a few feet off some ones gear box and this is another reason why i put it down to a racing incident. unlucky for both guys they may have another DNF on their record but the thing to remember is they’re still alive and kicking ready to fight another day. while we’re on this subject the drivers may aswell get used to it because next year due to the new regs (adjustable rear wings k.e.r.s.) the closing speeds will be alot greater so we may see more of these types of accidents, hope not. lets hope these new messures will allow cars to pass quicker and safer and not increase the DNF’s.