#F1 Victims of Circumstance: Hockenheim 2014 – #GermanGP



A good time to be German some might say, or Finnish, or indeed both!  Nico Rosberg proved it did not matter what super licence he drove under, he was in a league of his own out front and never looked in danger of not taking the race win.  He was, of course, aided by the lack of certain Briton at the front but he took full advantage of the situation.  While many in the media were caught up propelling superlatives in the direction of Hamilton, Rosberg was the forgotten man of the race.  It was another race with less stress on his powertrain as he coasted from lights to flag, which could count for more towards the end of the season.

That 'on top of the world' feeling

That ‘on top of the world’ feeling

So what really happened?

Lewis Hamilton: As per the rules, what happens in qualifying does not affect the outcome of the Victims report.  Whether he would have challenged Nico for pole is a debate for another time, but Lewis’ do or die lunges down the inside gained him so many places, but probably cost him the chance to take 2nd place as well.  He remains 3rd.

Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen: The expression ‘6 and two 3s’ comes to mind here as once again the Brazilian found himself out of the race on the first lap, although in this instance he was not entirely blameless.  It wrecked both of their afternoons, but in the end was ruled a racing incident.  Both remain with their original results.

Formula One safety has come so far

Formula One safety has come so far

Nico Hulkenberg: The overheating of his car was a cause for concern which cost him time.  In the end, it probably would not have made a great deal of difference as the pace simply was not there in the car this weekend.  He remains in position.

Daniil Kvyat: The inferno wagon that the Russian parked at the edge of turn 10 was nothing to do with the young pilot, whose petulant kick at the Armco barrier summed up how he was feeling.  His attempted pass of Perez around the outside showed his experience as he should have given that one up well before he was sent into a spin.  He is reinstated to 15th place.

Romain Grosjean: Such a promising weekend turned sour as the Frenchman was forced to once again park up his E22 before race distance.  He is reinstated to 14th place.

Adrian Sutil: An unfortunately positioned spin left the stewards with some head scratching as they were forced to consider whether to deploy the safety car or not.  They did not and took a risk that paid off, but why did they not lean to the side of caution here?  Had steward been injured there would have been uproar from fans and the media alike.  A brakes failure that Sutil could do little about, so is reinstated to 16th position.

Daniel Ricciardo: The smiley Aussie’s race was ruined by taking avoiding action of the tumbling Williams of Felipe Massa.  He is moved up to 5th place after being in the wrong place at the wrong time – a true Victim of Circumstance.

The Verdict
This leaves the revised results table looking like this:

Revised Race Position Driver Result comparison Points Points Difference Grid Position
Start RevisedPosition
1 Nico Rosberg = 25 = 1 1
2 Valtteri Bottas = 18 = 2 2
3 Lewis Hamilton = 15 = 20 3
4 Sebastian Vettel = 12 = 6 4
5 Daniel Ricciardo +1 10 +2 5 5
6 Fernando Alonso -1 8 -2 7 6
7 Nico Hulkenberg = 6 = 9 7
8 Jenson Button = 4 = 11 8
9 Kevin Magnussen = 2 = 4 9
10 Sergio Perez = 1 = 10 10
11 Kimi Raikkonen = 0 = 12 11
12 Pastor Maldonado = 0 = 13 12
13 Jean-Eric Vergne = 0 = 25 13
14 Romain Grosjean RETIRED 0 = 14 14
15 Daniil Kvyat RETIRED 0 = 8 15
16 Adrian Sutil RETIRED 0 = 15 16
17 Esteban Gutierrez -3 0 = 16 17
18 Jules Bianchi -3 0 = 17 18
19 Kamui Kobayashi -3 0 = 19 19
20 Max Chilton -3 0 = 21 20
21 Marcus Ericsson -3 0 = Pit Lane 21
22 Felipe Massa = RETIRED 0 = 3 22


Below, the revised World Drivers’ Championship:

Driver Revised WDC WDC Points Difference
Position Points
Lewis Hamilton 1 219 +43
Nico Rosberg 2 208 +18
Daniel Ricciardo 3 103 -6
Sebastian Vettel 4 93 +11
Fernando Alonso 5 78 -19
Valtteri Bottas 6 75 -16
Felipe Massa 7 50 +20
Nico Hulkenberg 8 46 -23
Jenson Button 9 37 -22
Kimi Raikkonen 10 29 +11
Sergio Perez 11 27 -2
Kevin Magnussen 12 25 -12
Daniil Kvyat 13 10 +6
Jean-Eric Vergne 14 8 -1
Romain Grosjean 15 4 -4
Jules Bianchi 16 0 -2
Adrian Sutil 17 0 =
Esteban Gutierrez 18 0 =
Kamui Kobayashi 19 0 =
Max Chilton 20 0 =
Marcus Ericsson 21 0 =
Pastor Maldonado 22 0 =

*Those with 0 points will not be ordered

What they would have said

Daniel Ricciardo was the only driver to opt for the outside of the colliding pair of Magnussen and Massa, at turn 1.  It is possible to argue he was pushed out there by his teammate, although more race experience would have said do not try and go around the outside.  It is perhaps a rare showing of his relative inexperience.

Those who alluded to the daring nature of Lewis Hamilton and how brave he was during the race were almost made to eat their words on many an occasion.  The Briton rode his luck as he escaped from the race with 15 points – 15 more than it could have been.  He was unhappy with the result following the race, but how unhappy would he have been if he came away with nothing?

11 points is the difference at the top as they head into the final round before the summer break.  As for the much smaller gap between the pole time for Rosberg and the rest of the field, Hungary could be an intriguing race should either one of the Williams pair take pole position.  Another track where passing is difficult, if either Bottas or Massa take pole could we see a Williams car on the top step of the podium?

Quote of the Day

This week’s quote comes from Lincoln Chafee, the US politician who became the 74th Governor of Rhode Island on 4th January 2011.  He said, “Trust is built with Consistency.”

Lincoln Chafee

Trusting in your brakes, trusting in your team and trusting in your fellow competitors were all shown this weekend.  Lewis Hamilton trusted his brakes, which failed and sent him hurtling into the barriers at high speeds.  Fernando Alonso continued to trust in his team, though the Ferrari designers look once again to have failed him in delivering something remotely competitive – even with the upgrades that came.  Felipe Massa trusted in his car to protect him as he was sent into a spin at the first corner as Magnussen made a desperate lunge more akin to a more junior formula.  Although, did Massa really expect the Dane just to back out?

11 responses to “#F1 Victims of Circumstance: Hockenheim 2014 – #GermanGP

  1. I strongly object. Two rejected safety cars, one of which forced Hamilton to pit early cost him second place.

    • Bollocks. A safety car would have been an artificial advantage. The whole point of this write-up is to take out the interferences. Under normal circumstances he had no business coming second as he threw that chance away by clattering into Button.
      And the non-deployed safety car did not force him to pit. Merc gambled and lost.

    • As TJ has said before, the safety car is almost obsolete in the dry conditions nowadays. I was surprised it did not come out for safety, as well as being disappointed for the spectacle. Let’s, for the sake of argument, assume Lewis had made it past Bottas and Rosberg, his tyres would have been so worn by the end of the race Rosberg would have been fighting to get back past him. What a spectacle that would have been!

  2. Excellent write up as always. Someone should tell Vettel about TJ13, he’d be a lot happier with his position in the table here 😉

  3. “His attempted pass of Perez around the outside showed his experience as he should have given that one up well before he was sent into a spin.”

    That’s roughly what I thought of Massa when he turned in on Magnussen by his side.. For me the two incidents were somewhat similar, and it felt funny that one of them was a veteran, and the other a rookie.

    “Magnussen made a desperate lunge more akin to a more junior formula”

    Is this really what happened? I watched the incident live, but couldn’t find any Youtube replay of it.. From memory, Magnussen backed off from trying to pass Bottas, and slotted by Massa’s side, who unexpectedly in Turn 1 decided that there was no one there and took the corner using the normal racing line, instead of a 1st corner line. But I don’t remember if Magnussen carried too much speed into the corner.. Didn’t seem so at the time.

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