The Official 2012 F1 Thread. Spoilers possible!

Maybe I've been too harsh on Hamilton's agents.

The Guardian claims Mercedes is offering him £20 million. But McLaren want to slash his £15 million salary by a third. In other words, they think Mercedes is offering Hamilton twice the money. That's hard to turn down.

Meanwhile, gossip has it that Vettel wants to move to Ferrari. Alonso and Vettel? I may have to find a new team to support. Yech.

Good by to a great man, we will miss you Sid

Hamilton on pole. Anybody care? :eek1
Besides me?


Vettel is all business, no fluff.
More than usual.

We're in the home stretch and Alonso is not lookin all that good....
But much better than Massa. :huh

What is that 3 in 4 for Hamilton and 4 in 4 for McLaren? They've really found something in the second half. If Waxy's story is true, it seems surprising they're asking for a pay cut for Hamilton. Unless Button already took one

Odd that Vettel's Q3 time was worse than his Q2 time. If Red Bull can't even challenge on a high downforce track, I hafta believe their car is toast for the year.

Kimi couldn't even make it to Q3, another puzzler.

McLaren definitely have their shit together. So far Alonso has been able to cobble together a lead through luck and over-achievement. But the red car is not special and it looks like Hamilton is destined to overtake him and win the title. Barring a mental meltdown, of course.

Kinda cool that Schumi out qualified Rosberg. He's in a strange place, watching his seat twisting in the wind, seemingly at the whim of Lewis Hamilton. A bit disrespectful to the champ, but that's the way it goes in sports. No room for sentiment.

Every once in a while you read rumors about McLaren's financial situation changing next season. Vodaphone may be out as the principal sponsor. Mercedes will start charging them for engines. It may be that Hamilton is unaffordable.

maybe Schumi can cut into the 40 point lead Rosberg has on him

I cannot for the life of me see why it would benefit Hamilton to move to Benz. Unless of course McLaren are considering an engine supplier change when the new 2014 regulations take effect (the Benz turbo unit is rumoured to be the most powerful of the bunch).

McLaren make their own engines for the MP4-12C. That's a 3.8 twin turbo V8. It's not impossible that they think that they can develop a 1.6 V6 turbo from that to save money now that they pay Benz for their Ilmor-MB engines. McLaren may be thinking of using such a V6 turbo as the basis for another road car (Ron Dennis is driven by his need to challenge Ferrari in areas other than on the F1 circuits).

If that's the case, perhaps Hamilton is less optimistic about championship possibilities with McLaren than Benz.

From their point of view, no-one is more bankable than Schumacher for Benz but if the rumours of his second retirement are true, they need another big name winner. Vettel would be best for them but he won't be free in the timescale. Alonso will see out his career with Ferrari. So Hamilton is the next best option and he's free at the end of this season. That would give him a year to learn the Benz way of doing things and have his feet firmly under the table when the new regulations chuck everything up in the air for everyone again.

The surprise of the day for me is Maldonado in P2, great job there. Vettel looked very unhappy in the post race interview.
I think pastor could give Hamilton fits tomorrow, he really has nothing at all to loose...time will tell. Oh, and yeah...great qualifying for Hamilton, he is on a hot streak (qualifying anyway).

I was wondering if the track was getting worse as the clock on Q3 was counting down. Even Hamilton was 2 tenths slower on his last lap at the end of the session. Maybe everyone just missed the optimum window that the tires work in with the conditions?

Should be a fun race to watch tomorrow! Hamilton better watch his back side going into turn 1.

When do you suppose Rosberg will start cutting into Schumi's 7 drivers titles? oser

Money.

Athletes in all sports jump to lesser teams for a bigger cheque. If McLaren want him to take a pay cut and if Mercedes are willing to pay him, effectively, twice as much, then the temptation to change teams must be nearly overwhelming. (The preceding assumes that the Guardian report is accurate.)

The only thing holding him back is McLaren's year-in-and-year-out competitiveness. Hamilton knows his F1 history and has ambitions greater than just padding his bank account.

Hence his dilemma and the protracted negotiations.

Do you really believe that Sid?

Hamilton may be guilty of avarice but as his prime motivation? I don't think that's it. He knows that he could walk away from F1 now and build a financially secure future just by doing what Moss has done for years (just by being Stirling Moss).

No. I think that it's more complex. Possibly to do with his sense of being less important to McLaren than his ego can accept. I think that after the Alonso affair, he was convinced that the McLaren world revolved around him, the way that Button has been welcomed by the team and the way that Button has managed to fit in due to his apparent affability, has destabilised his view of his own place at the top of the heap. Perhaps he needs to feel he is the unchallenged number one? Perhaps he's noted the way that Mercedes has put all its eggs in one basket (sidelining Rosberg in the process) and thinks that he could be the next Schumacher with Brawn's help?

He knows that his future worth will increase with more championships. There must be something more than just money that makes him feel that his chances are better elsewhere.

Yesterday's news.

It's really time for Schumi to say bye bye.
His double-wide tractor has affected race results too often by being such a dick to get past. How many races has he crashed out of this year? He's DNF'd more than finished for sure.

Agreed.

10 spot penalty for Japan.
Should have been a ban of course.

Damn, that photo makes the incident look so violent...I know it actually was, but the photo really captures it. Is it me or are the cars seemingly more prone to failure the last few races? Maybe the engineers are trying a little too hard to improve performance...:huh

Read that he lost brake pressure and when he went to slam the pedal it locked up.

No, it's not just you. Even the commentators are talking about it.

Gordo needs to send Michael an invite to NASCRASH.

Today's news: Kimi 6th. The Lotus watch goes on.