F1 Team Tactics

[joeluke]

Do team tactics in F1 mean that calling it a sport is a misnomer?

Hamilton wasn't allowed the opportunity to overtake Rosberg at the weekend because his team told him not to attempt to, due to his team wanting his teammate to win the race to secure 2nd place in the drivers championship

If I'd had a bet on Hamilton to win the race I'd have been pretty p1$$ed off to find out during the race that the best he could finish (barring Rosberg not finishing the race) was 2nd place! Or did Mercedes publicly state their tactics pre-race?

Why not just have 1 car/driver per team? Everyone would be able to race on their merits then and it could actually be called a race

Jockeys have been banned from horse racing for 'stopping' their mounts from winning races

[Canary42]

Football's a sport which uses team tactics extensively.

[joeluke]

Yes but if football matches were fixed like F1 races are the perpetrators would be banned from the sport

[Noe-schitt]

That's not what Hamilton said after the race
Hamilton said: "I had good pace but you just can't overtake here. I was behind Nico and in traffic for some time and I just killed my tyres. I don't know if there was anyone else overtaking, unless you have a huge advantage you can't get close."

[Buenchico]

Cycling uses similar team tactics in the Tour de France, etc.

[Canary42]

I still think the analogy with football is valid.

Football team decides who goes in goal, players comply.
Motoring team decides who will be lead car, drivers comply.

Not really "fixing" in either case.

[EDDIE51]

I don't think there are any team sports that do not use team tactics.
Cricket, football, rugby, hockey as well as the ones already mentioned.

[joeluke]

Cricket, football, rugby, hockey etc are not races where one of the 'team' wins

[joeluke]

Canary....football and F1 are like chalk and cheese and bare no comparison whatsoever

[Canary42]

Valid point joe.

[EDDIE51]

Cycling and athletics are team sports where 1 team member wins and team tactics decide who it will be.

[Buenchico]

>>>Cricket, football, rugby, hockey etc are not races where one of the 'team' wins

But cycling is!

Track athletics can also have similarities. Several of the entrants in a long distance race (over, say, 5000m) will be there solely to act as 'pace men' for a team mate and/or to run a (legitimate) path that just happens to block in the best runner from an opposing team. (i.e. they're told not to race to win but simply to do the best for their team)

[joeluke]

Yes Eddie, races are fixed so that only a small number of riders can possibly win, so it's not a proper race......might as well let only the chosen rider from each team ride in the race

[Milvus]

Where did you get the idea JL, that Mercedes told Hamilton not to overtake. The only thing I noticed that was a bit iffy is that Rosberg's team told him (at least twice) where Hamilton was relative to him after pit stops. This is close to a rule breach for coaching bit has not been raised since the race by Formula 1 officials or Hamilton.

[ToraToraTora]

Hamilton could not overtake if he wanted to. He was running in dirty air thus his tyres, were going off quicker. He shadowed Rosberg's tyre changes but was marginally slower in the last 2 pit stops meaning the closest he got was not in DRS range, he had no chance to overtake barring some sort of banzai move that could have cost the team both cars. There where no team orders in fact Wolfe said the drivers were free to race. Clearly you have zero understanding of motor racing, let alone F1. Odd you attack F1 when Soccer is the most disgusting cheat fest in any "sport".

[joeluke]

'Clearly you have zero understanding of motor racing'

Just slightly more than zero actually......I understand that in a lot of races the car which leads at the first corner wins the race - they might as well have the chequered flag on the straight after that first corner.

It's bland (Hamilton typifies this), I'd go as far as to say it's even more boring than cricket

It's only ever slightly interesting when it rains heavily

[ToraToraTora]

3 times WC, Hamilton is Bland, right oh!

[joeluke]

He's 'champion' in the best car, if all the cars were exactly the same it would be a more level playing field and a real champion would then be crowned 'best driver'

[ToraToraTora]

they tried that.....A1 anyone?

[EDDIE51]

^^ Yes A1 GP lasted 5 seasons then died due to lack of interest.

[cactusdriver]

I wonder if having nominated #1 and #2 drivers would work. It would perhaps allow younger drivers the opportunity to enter F1 as 'apprentices'. I would expect that the #2 driver would only be expected to yield when his team mate was right behind him. It would be interesting to see which drivers would be prepared to accept the #2 seat.