The 2019 Season

[Chrill]

Don't worry, I went with a Williams due to expected attrition, but I went for the wrong one.

[Penfold]

Don't blame yourself... blame Grosjean!

[Chrill]

I kind of... don't.

Grosjean was on the outside and Russell was just unnecessarily aggressive. He did not have to leave him space, I suppose, but he could have anticipated Grosjean would not back down. Russell brought it on himself.

[Penfold]

I was being a little unkind to Grosjean.  I'd say they both contributed to their own downfall: Romain for trying to pass round the outside and assuming the other guy wouldn't staunchly defend his position; George for letting his car run out to the wall earlier than necessary.

[Penfold]

Alfauber has lost its appeal against those clutch-related German GP penalties - does anyone ever overturn these things?  Anyway, what this means is Williams & Kubica hang on to that single Championship point: https://www.racefans.net/2019/09/24/williams-keep-only-point-of-2019-so-far-as-appeal-court-rejects-alfa-romeo-protest/

[Penfold]

Time for the Russian round of that classic F1-based game: Grid Penalty!  Announced so far: five place punishments for Max, Albon, and Gasly; twenty places for Kvyat.

[Penfold]

It's going to be wet, wet, wet in Tokyo this weekend - though thankfully only a deluge of water is expected and not the irritating 'musical' outfit from Scotland.  Actually, if Typhoon Hagibis has its way it might even be too wet to race on Sunday.

[Penfold]

Heaviest rain now looks set for Saturday night through to Sunday morning; qualifying still shaping up to be rather wet but the race itself might just be somewhat damp.

[Chrill]

I've been hearing Saturday, up until today when I heard "Saturday and Sunday". If we get a soaked Saturday, we may just get a Sunday morning qualifying session followed by a regular race. If they are both wet, we could get a grid based on FP2 results, and a shortened race. When was the last time a race was cancelled entirely? Has it ever happened? Sure, the 2014 GP was suspended due to rain and the Bianchi crash, prior to that we had a shortened race in Malaysia around 2009. Before that, though? Australia 1991? I cannot recall a race ever being cancelled entirely, only shortened.

[Penfold]

The 2011 Bahrain GP was ditched due to protests against the country's rulers; I can't think of any outright cancellations due to trifling matters such as torrential rain or driver fatalities - the show must go on!

[Chrill]

Ah yes. The famous time Bernie succumbed to calls for democracy.

[Penfold]

Sunday qualifying it is, assuming they can get the circuit ready for the 10 a.m. start - it's bound to need some attention after a typhoon has swept across.  If they can't get it all shipshape for the morning then the grid will be set off P2 times, which would be great news for Mercedes but terrible for Renault who finished ahead of only the two Williams.

[Penfold]

Turned out Renault barely improved their lot in qualifying; rather odd given they were reasonably fast in the race - though possibly not legal.  Not a bad race to watch - or at least the roughly 50% of it I saw in C4's highlights programme was decent enough - and happy to see Valerie take the win, though it was a surprise that Merc. didn't stick Hammy on a set of hards to try and make it a one-stopper.

[Chrill]

Yeah, speculation around says that Mercedes forced Bottas to run two-stopper (he wanted to stop once) and then they felt it unfair to let Lewis run one stop. A sort of "Valtteri, it's James, I've got your back this time". It's not like they risked losing the championship.

[Penfold]

If that's the case then I forgive Mercedes for forcing Hamilton into a two-stopper.  I bet that's a load off their minds....