I know, I know, terribly late with starting a topic for next season.
2019 Calendar:
17 March: Australia (Melbourne)
31 March: Bahrain (Sakhir)
14 April: China (Shanghai)
28 April: Azerbaijan (Baku)
12 May: Spain (Barcelona)
26 May: Monaco
9 June: Canada (Montreal)
23 June: France (Le Castellet)
30 June: Austria (Spielberg)
14 July: Great Britain (Silverstone)
28 July: Germany (Hockenheim)
4 August: Hungary (Budapest)
1 September: Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)
8 September: Italy (Monza)
22 September: Singapore
29 September: Russia (Sochi)
13 October: Japan (Suzuka)
27 October: Mexico (Mexico City)
3 November: USA (Austin, TX)
17 November: Brazil (Sao Paulo)
1 December: Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina)
Seems Germany is sticking around for another year.
Oh good for them, they found an extra week to avoid that France-Austria-UK triple header. Sure, they achieved it by cutting into the summer holiday. This year, there was a break between 29 July and 26 August. In 2019, that's pushed back to 4 August to 1 September. Singapore-Russia back to back. Also switching of Mexico and USA. Fair enough.
When did we last have a race in December?
EDIT: In 1963. Been a while.
Morning.
Williams has adopted a different design process for next year's car: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/139439/williams-process-quite-different-for-2019-car
One would hope so.
Well what's wrong with their 2018 challenger? Oh you mean the absolute lack of pace?
:) ... and not only slow but a real bastard to drive.
More on-screen clutter, that's what F1 needs: https://www.racefans.net/2018/12/01/video-see-f1s-new-2019-graphics-in-action-including-overtake-probability/
Come on, an 'overtake probability' indicator... I just want to watch some decent racing, I don't want a chunk of the screen obscured by an AI's prediction of whether or not car B is going to pass car A.
Is the car in DRS range? Overtake probability 100%. Is the car not in DRS range? Overtake probability 0%.
Quote from: Matt on December 03, 2018, 08:28:44 AM
Is the car in DRS range? Overtake probability 100%. Is the car not in DRS range? Overtake probability 0%.
Now now, don't be so moody. I've seen at least 3 non-DRS overtakes this year, and surely one or two instances where a car has DRS without making a pass ;D
Never fear, for next year witnesses the demise of those accursed outwashing front wings, and certainly that great act will ease our overtaking woes... or maybe not: https://www.racefans.net/2018/12/07/f1s-new-2019-wings-wont-reduce-outwashing-wolff/
Oh dear, Ross Brawn and his band of Merry Men will have to be far more cunning/ruthless with the 2021 overhaul.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/williams-kubica-fighting-spirit/4310714/
We can expect Williams to change colour scheme for 2019, courtesy of PKN Orlen. PKN Orlen is a major Polish oil refiner and petrol retailer, or so Wikipedia states. They are red and white. Can we expect something similar to the 1998/1999 colour of Williams?
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4005/4378763547_f5c3157c57_o.jpg)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Williams_FW21_front-right_2017_Williams_Conference_Centre_3.jpg)
Ferrari is red, Williams is essentially blue (or white with a dash of blue). Having both teams red will just confuse my poor brain: how could I possibly tell in an instant which team is which... oh yeah, position of cars on the track, that should do it.
One will be lapping the other, so it's not too difficult to tell.
Yep.
Paddy Lowe disagreeing with Toto 'Africa' Wolff on the impact the 2019-spec front wings will have on outwashing: https://www.racefans.net/2018/12/08/new-front-wings-will-do-more-for-f1-than-higher-fuel-limit-lowe/
Either Toto was indulging in some pre-Christmas mind game fun with his rivals, or the Williams aero-department is simply not up to the job - or possibly a bit of each.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/binotto-replaces-arrivabene-ferrari-boss/4320196/
Ferrari keeps changing personnel whenever they don't win (every year, that is). Arrivabane, arrivederci! Binotto, welcome aboard. Grazie a tutti, muito bene, or whatever Vettel says. Grazie ragazzi!
They better hurry up and win, if F1 introduces any sort of budget cap Ferrari won't have a cat in hell's chance of taking a title.
Well, we really only have four teams in F1 these days, and they are divided by the engine they use. Williams and Force India do what Mercedes tell them, so too does Sauber and Haas for Ferrari. Renault is aligning McLaren under them, and surely Red Bull and Toro Rosso are one.
In reality then, a budget cap will be turned down or one of the giants will leave. Likely Mercedes, come budget cap season (2021?) they will have won everything and simply feel there is no need to suddenly compete on even terms.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/wehrlein-ferrari-f1-simulator-role/4320766/
Wehrlein will fill the development role at Ferrari vacated by Giovinazzi.
Quote from: Chrill on January 08, 2019, 01:04:19 AMIn reality then, a budget cap will be turned down or one of the giants will leave. Likely Mercedes, come budget cap season (2021?) they will have won everything and simply feel there is no need to suddenly compete on even terms.
I think we could both cope with the loss....
I'm just going to post a list of how all the teams will do in 2019:
1: Mercedes
2: Red Bull
3: Ferrari
4: Sauber
5: Renault
6: Haas
7: Force India
8: McLaren
9: Williams
10: Toro Rosso
It's a bit of a shame really, McLaren keeps falling backwards. Also sad to see Force India drop to 7th, and Toro Rosso all the way back.
This is not a guess, not an estimation. This is the actual factual result. Ferrari will have the stronger car compared to Red Bull but Vettel and Leclerc will sadly not work well together and will battle each other rather than Verstappen and Gasly. Hamilton will run away with the championship early, his closest competitor Bottas who will win 2 races to Hamilton's 10. Bottas will finish P2 a lot.
Verstappen will win 3 races, Vettel 4, Leclerc 2. Gasly will visit the podium a whopping 14 times but never win a race. Eternal P3, that lad. 11 P3 finishes, three P2 finishes. The Ferrari will be surprisingly unrealiable, with 4 DNFs for Vettel and 2 for Leclerc.
Kimi will return to the podium, in a Sauber, at the Hungarian GP.
Nice try, but this is how the teams will actually finish the season:
1. Ferrari
2. Mercedes
3. Red Bull
4. Renault
5. McLaren
6. Haas
7. Force India
8. Sauber
9. Williams
10. Toro Rosso
That is delusional. Ferrari on top? Wishful thinking.
Well, not really wishful thinking as I don't have any love of Ferrari. I actually reckon Red Bull will have the best car on the grid (though not in qualifying) but will lose too many points courtesy of engine/gearbox/turbo failures.
Do you have access to Sky? Do you have absolutely nothing to do between 1pm and 6pm on February the 18th? Well then great news, because Sky will be showing five action-packed hours of live paint drying, sorry, I mean pre-season testing, for our personal amusement. Could it get any better than this? Of course it can, for they are going to repeat the process on each of the next three days... wow! If twenty hours of pre-seaon testing doesn't turn you to drink/off F1 for life then nothing will. Happy viewing.
https://www.racefans.net/2019/01/21/f1-pre-season-testing-to-be-broadcast-live-in-2019/
Well, if Swedish TV picks this up I'll definitely watch it for a few hours.
F1TV Pro will be made available in Sweden as of this season. That means I can cancel my expensive subscription to our Swedish broadcaster and replace him with the lovely voice of Brundle. Not sure if I should, though. I'd lose Premier League too!
Guess it depends on how much of the Premier League you watch; as I don't watch any, not even the highlights these days, it would be an easy choice for me. Such a pity the F1TV thingy won't be available over here, what with Sky having bagged exclusive live rights until the end of time - also a shame that Sky's 'Now TV' streaming service is low-res, prone to buffering, and can't be recorded for convenient viewing. So that leaves me with Channel 4's extended highlights... hmm, no live (or full) races, I'm sure that won't gradually kill my interest in the sport.
Hmm, I usually compile a list of dates for the car launches but evidently I couldn't be arsed this year... however, I can just about summon up the enthusiasm to post a link through to Toro Rosso's plans (other confirmed dates also in the story): https://www.racefans.net/2019/01/25/toro-rosso-announce-earliest-car-launch-date-yet/
Well, in regards to the whole F1TV Pro thing, Viasat (owner of rights to Premier League, F1, etc.) just announced that they will air IndyCar from 2019-2021. Well, with two Swedes that was no surprise. I guess that convinces me to remain with them for the time being then.
F1, IndyCar, Premier League... sounds like you'll get your money's worth out of it - unless Viasat is hideously expensive. I take it as a bad joke that even if one were to stump up for Sky to get F1 live, you still wouldn't have IndyCar because that's a BT Sport exclusive over here.
Well, I used to work in customer service so I know how to force my way to a good deal. I re-sign for Viasat annually, with a 12-month binding contract that offers me 6 months free and 6 months with full pay. Effectively I pay 50% of what others pay. It sets me back 400 SEK, roughly 33 pounds, during the months I do pay.
?33/month would be an extremely good price to get Sky Sports bundled with their basic package which all customers must take - ?40/month probably more realistic - and the bastards would insist on that sum being paid every single month. Tack on another ?15 to ?20 per month for BT Sport should you want to watch live IndyCar. Kind of pricey just for watching motorsport....
Site insisting on replacing the Pound sign with a question mark. I could understand it for the Euro but Sterling isn't going anywhere.
Guess why I edited the pound sign to simply write "33 pounds". Silly Matt and his weird formatting. Hulkenberg and Raikkonen need themselves some umlauts.
Figured as much but couldn't be bothered to go back and change all of mine.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sauber-becomes-alfa-romeo-racing/4331468/
Sauber changes it's name to Alfa Romeo Racing.
I'm a bit sad about this. Sauber is a legendary name. Sure, so is Alfa Romeo, but why couldn't they have kept the Sauber name? Alfa Romeo Sauber Racing sounds good too!
Inevitable but 'tis a shame to see the Sauber name vanish.
My re-jigged (& re-named) 2019 Constructors top ten:
1. Ferrari
2. Mercedes
3. Red Bull (wouldn't be surprised if they had the best car - if one excludes powertrains from the equation)
4. Renault
5. McLaren (I think they may actually end up quicker than Renault but with their drivers failing to bring home as much bacon)
6. Ferrari 2 (aka Alfa Romeo)
7. Ferrari 2b (aka Haas)
8. Force India (faster car than this suggests but the Stroll factor must be considered)
9. Williams
10. Toro Rosso
I recall posting my list before, don't know if it was in this topic, but I'll revisit it and do it again:
1: Mercedes
2: Ferrari
3: Red Bull
4: Alfa Romeo
5: Renault
6: Haas
7: McLaren
8: Racing Point
9: Williams
10: Toro Rosso
I think Toro Rosso and Williams will both be scoring points every now and then, basically teams 4-10 will be closer than in previous years.
I unfollowed ?Alfa Romeo Racing? on Twitter. I only cared about them because they were Sauber. I guess there is still Williams?
Doesn't look like there'll be much joy coming from the Williams bench this year. Of course, I'm a die-hard McLaren fan - sadly no treatment known to man can cure me of this terrible affliction.
Talking of upgrades planned by teams for Melbourne, Racing Point has a massive update in the works.
Williams ran OK today, they even set almost competitive lap times.
Already after Bahrain, there will be an in-season test. As always, two days must be completed by a rookie (over the course of two in-season tests), so which drivers are eligible to take part for which teams?
Mercedes: George Russell (only for the Bahrain test)
Ferrari: Antonio Fuoco, Mick Schumacher, Davide Rigon (but he old)
Red Bull: Dan Ticktum, Juri Vips, Alexander Albon (only for the Bahrain test)
Renault: Antoine Hubert, Guanyu Zhou
Haas: Pietro Fittipaldi
McLaren: Lando Norris (only for the Bahrain test), S?rgio Sette C?mara, Nyck de Vries
Racing Point: uhm... None?
Alfa Romeo: Mick Schumacher
Toro Rosso: Dan Ticktum, J?ri Vips, Alexander Albon (only for the Bahrain test)
Williams: George Russell (only for the Bahrain test), Nicholas Latifi
So, I'm guessing teams will try to use the "only completed 2 GPs" rule to let drivers such as Albon, Norris, and Russell to be considered rookies in the Bahrain test. Racing Point need to find a rookie with money fast. How about Artem Markelov or someone like that?
Surely Williams is the team most in need of a rich rookie? Received Pronunciation should be able to float along on Stroll's sea of money.
If only some young, fabulously wealthy racer would change his name to Richard Rookie....
Sirotkin back to Renault to take on third driver duties: https://www.racefans.net/2019/02/27/sirotkin-returns-to-renault-as-reserve-driver/
This next one is not exactly a surprise: McLaren has confirmed that Alonso (remember him?) will participate in selected tests during 2019 to aid their development programme.
Williams has a rich rookie in Latifi, Racing Point has none.
Forgot about him.
I think McLaren is mismanaging the Alonso situation in a way that only McLaren could. He should not be getting any tests. All that will happen is drama that is detrimental to the team. He tests faster than their current drivers? He should replace them. The team performs well this year? He wants to come back. That much he has already said. But they have two drivers already and Monisha Kaltenborn is not team principal.
He said he was retiring, although he was somewhat equivocal even then. Make a decision and stick with it. I understand that it is impossible to do that given the size of his ego, but F1 does not need him, and he does not need F1.
No idea if this comparison will make sense to non-Americans, but it reminds me of the Leno and O?Brien situation with The Tonight Show.
Quote from: Matt on February 27, 2019, 02:58:52 PM
No idea if this comparison will make sense to non-Americans, but it reminds me of the Leno and O?Brien situation with The Tonight Show.
Team O'Brien all the way.
In regards to the Alonso situation, I agree with you. The other drivers will surely feel that "I'm only here because I was the one left over" rather than "hey, they wanted ME!". That might not make a difference over a lap, but can make a difference mentally over a season.
Alonso back in 2020, if this year's car is decent? Possible. Unnecessary but possible. McLaren would burn either Sainz or Norris for that.
I think the car would need to be of podium-level quality to tempt Alonso back into the game, but if he did return I reckon it would be at Sainz's expense - unless Norris is woeful this year.
I mean, this barely constitutes news, more a statement of inevitable reality, but 'It is I' is prepared to play the supporting role to Vettel's lead if (when) Ferrari requests (demands) such a thing: https://www.racefans.net/2019/03/14/leclerc-ready-to-be-vettel-number-two-when-asked/
Won't happen, seeing as Leclerc will be ahead of Vettel in the standings all year.
'It is I' outscoring Seb over the season is carrying odds of 7/4; Seb beating his teamy priced at 2/5.
Not to say that bookies are infallible in their predictions, although they do generally win this game. That said, I'm rather tempted to put a few quid on Mad Max winning four or more races this year, odds of 5/2 seem reasonable.
Bookies did once offer 5000 times your money back if Leicester City won the Premier League. That will be all.
Mercedes utterly dominating FP2, 8 tenths clear of Red Bull and Ferrari. Both one lap pace and long runs they are untouchable. This isn't what F1 needs, and definitely not what British media fed us after testing. ;D
Alfa and Renault look good, McLaren slow, Williams hopelessly last.
Ferrari (and likely Red Bull) much quicker than P2 times imply - unless you think their margin over Alfa & Renault is now just fractions of a second. Still, I wouldn't be too surprised if Merc has the edge in Melbourne, they do seem to run well around those streets; remember that Hammy grabbed pole position last year by quite some margin, yet Vettel still went on to take the next three poles.
My worry isn't pure lap time, but the long runs just dropped off more for Ferrari and Red Bull.
Overheating their tyres?
I'm thinking rather the opposite. Melbourne was unusually "cold" on Friday, so perhaps Ferrari isn't reaching the right temperatures. In Spain in pre-season, Mercedes came across as more aggressive and ran their tyres warmer. Perhaps they simply benefit from that, and Ferrari happens to find the sweet spot on Sunday when temperatures rise.
Nonetheless, even though it's just two practices on a Friday, the Mercedes look abhorrently fast.
Quote from: Chrill on March 15, 2019, 12:55:48 AM
This isn't what F1 needs, and definitely not what British media fed us after testing.
Last night during practice, they quoted someone from Mercedes as saying after testing that Ferrari were half a second faster than them. My reaction was timberlakestare.gif and that's even more true after these results. And, as always, the problem with saying the Ferrari and RBR have more to show in qualifying is that we don't know that Mercedes gave everything either. But we'll know in, what, about 15 hours?
Quote from: Matt on March 15, 2019, 07:52:39 AMMy reaction was timberlakestare.gif
(https://media.giphy.com/media/iRYeYT5E8gDni/giphy.gif)
For reference, in case some of you are dimwitted non-Interneters.
Who is this Timberlakestare chap?
Edit: Should've asked who is this Tim Berlake chap? Damn it.
Rough day for Kubica, probably pushing a bit too hard for a car that wasn't going to get through. But it's actually encouraging to see Russell only 1.3 seconds back of P1, even if the Mercedes and Ferraris weren't 100% in Q1.
Plus that midfield battle appears to be... every team other than Mercedes and Ferrari? RBR fell asleep with Gasly. Maybe they hired Ferrari strategists.
Merc dominant but actually about the same margin ahead of Ferrari as in qualifying last year; yep, I'm for now clinging to the hope that this enormous gap is courtesy of track characteristics rather than purely the cars.
Not too shabby for McLaren. Sainz hurt by a slow-moving Williams (Kubica with his puncture, not just a normally slow Williams), but great to see Norris in eighth.
Strong showing from Haas, looked to be easily best of the rest today - is it too soon to be thinking of switching to one of them? If only they had better/less error-prone drivers.
Spectacular performance from Bottas today. Hamilton, in need of finding excuses, blames it on "inexplicable floor damage" rather than saying "I was only second best today, Bottas simply was better".
Vettel got his strategy wrong, Hamilton covered him. Leclerc is already confirmed as the number 2 driver for Ferrari. Kubica was way off Russell and worryingly so. Also, hit the wall twice this weekend so here's hoping he merely had an unlucky start to his second F1 career.
I'll go set up a Ratings topic and then I'll rate all of them.
Kubica saying he was driving a wounded animal: https://www.racefans.net/2019/03/18/kubica-damaged-car-felt-so-bad-i-nearly-started-laughing/
You know when a one-armed man says the car is shit it really is.
So Mercedes have said Hamilton had floor damage, but when/how did he get floor damage? I find it hard to believe that the 300 cameras would have missed Hamilton going off-track at some point. Seems like a very transparent excuse for a bad race.
Maybe Bottas went at it with a hacksaw just before the race.
That extremely small piece of debris can't have cost Hamilton 30 seconds over the race, or .5 per lap. That sounds absurd.
Don't forget they pitted him 8 laps earlier than Bottas to cover Seb's move to fresh rubber, so let's allow for some time being lost through this sub-optimal (for Mercedes) strategy - though nowhere near 30 seconds. As for the rest... well, I think it goes without saying that Bottas can't have out-driven Hamilton, so obviously this huge chunk of missing carbon fibre is the answer:
(https://www.formula1.com/content/dam/fom-website/manual/Misc/Season-Preview-2019/mercedes%20HAM%20damage.jpg.transform/9col/image.jpg)
Yes, that is indeed massive.
https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/b2879a/the_ferrari_power_unit/
Some dark speculation about Ferrari and their power unit. If true, they are in trouble.
Cheers for the link. Have to keep an eye out for what sort of speeds the Ferrari-engined cars manage in Bahrain.
A spate of fatal accidents, or perhaps a deadly virus, has evidently swept through the Williams aero-department as the team is now recruiting for eleven positions: https://www.motorsportjobs.com/en/jobs/williams
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mick-schumacher-test-debut-ferrari/4358259/
Mick Schumacher to run one day for Ferrari and one day for Alfa Romeo in the first in-season tests after the Bahrain GP.
That will make his legs ache.
It's not a marathon, it's a light jog.
Ahh, so he's not going to be running for an entire day for each team. My mistake....
He will run to the car, in an effort to save time. He will then drive said car for what I can only assume is an entire day's worth of testing. Then, he may walk away from the car by the end of the day. Perhaps he will also walk away from the car if he crashes, or for lunch.
Schumacher to drive one day each for Ferrari and Alfa Romeo:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mick-schumacher-f1-test-focus-f2/4358594/?nrt=54
Callum Illott will drive one day for Alfa Romeo:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ilott-f1-test-debut-alfa-romeo/4358611/
Good for them.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/bahrain-third-drs-zone/4359231/
Since DRS is so weak this year, there will be a third DRS zone in Bahrain. God knows we need it.
That's crazy, the track quite obviously has four straights suitable for DRS. What are these guys playing at?
Williams is so short of spares that Kubica will be taking it easy over the kerbs for fear of breaking parts they can't replace: https://www.racefans.net/2019/03/28/kubica-has-to-avoid-kerbs-due-to-parts-shortage/
As in Australia. Where he crashed twice.
The Racing . is rocking a really rakey setup in Bahrain's FP1. Looks crazy.
Only seen a picture of the Racing . at Bahrain, but purely from that single photo the rakiness didn't seem especially extreme - at least not more so than some of the other very rakey cars out there.
Ferrari be fast.
Ferrari be very fast. Not as dominant in long runs, where Toro Rosso look surprisingly strong. Like "battle it out with daddy Bull" strong.
We'll see in quali tomorrow whether Ferrari have regained their Spanish advantage or whether Australia was a more accurate depiction of their capabilities.
Poor old (young) 'It is I'....
Yes, it was devastating. He dominated, and Vettel collapsed under pressure. Very much like the old Ferrari and Red Bull driver Vettel did back in 2018. Such a shame.
Leclerc's time will come, and Hamilton was gracious in victory.
The race itself was amazing. It confirmed for sure that the 2019 regulations have helped drivers get closer. Some crazy four or even five way battles for position in that there midfield. Absolutely a brilliant race. 10/10? Maybe 9.5/10, but brilliant nonetheless.
New MGU-Ks this weekend for the four Renault guys: https://www.racefans.net/2019/04/11/renault-introduce-new-mgu-k-to-fix-reliability-problems/
All the Renault runners, and Carly Sainz in particular, are now well on their way to the magical land of grid penalties.
Well, in contrast Leclerc will be running the same engine that failed on him in Bahrain. They seem to think it's fine.
He (his engine) had a short circuit on an injection control unit - isn't that what we all assumed when watching the race? - and so thankfully no damage done to the engine. Oh well, perhaps 'It is I' can get that maiden win under his belt in Shanghai.
I've never seen teams move so violently in terms of pecking order from one race to another. In Australia, Red Bull had Ferrari in their sights. In Bahrain, Renault and McLaren looked like potential Red Bull beaters whilst Ferrari (before it happened) looked like 2002 all over again. I'm very curious about what we can expect in China.
Here's one excuse, sorry I mean explanation, for why Red Bull underperformed in Bahrain: https://www.racefans.net/2019/04/12/red-bull-discover-set-up-error-compromised-cars-in-bahrain/
Excuses are useful.
So far in China, it looks real close between Ferrari and Mercedes. Red Bull (well, not Gasly) is close too but just a little bit behind. McLaren and Renault look likely to take fifth from Gasly come quali.
Yep, shaping up to get a good fight between Renault & McLaren this weekend. Oh yeah, I suppose the Ferrari/Mercedes battle might also be of interest....
Apparently the front wing endplates used by Mercedes in FP1 and FP2 was illegal (the end plate does not cover all the front wing elements when viewed from the side, it's too small), and they will either have to modify it by adding a piece of plastic/something on the top of it or revert back to the spec used in Bahrain and Australia. Red Bull and Williams have worked on similar ideas but abandoned them.
Perhaps they could tape a Jacob's Cream Cracker to the appropriate point of each end plate.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mercedes-modifies-front-wing-china/4368992/
As it turns out, Mercedes managed to modify their endplates in time for FP1 even. So they've already got plenty of running on the spec they will have to use this weekend.
So, no need for my crackers idea!
Mercedes regain their advantage of Ferrari. Last year, Chinese qualifying gave us a Ferrari 1-2. This year, it's all Mercedes. Bottas looking so very very strong here, and he had the upper hand on Hamilton in race pace too. Could we be in for a Finnish winner in the 1000th Grand Prix? It seems plausible.
Leclerc and Vettel very closely matched too, and a good start tomorrow could be their chance to battle for victory.
Half expecting Valerie to 'do a Leclerc' and be robbed of victory courtesy of some weird technical issue, thus allowing Hammy to cruise past for the win.
Not sure how the Mercs, Ferraris and Max V. compare on long-run pace. I do know that the Verstappen chap had a moan about the softer compounds degrading quite badly, but I've no clue whether it's any better for the other guys.
I think Ferrari was going to be 3-5 either way. Leclerc was not pulling away from Vettel or Max when he was ahead either. Ferrari wasn't really wrong in thinking Vettel would be faster given the consistently close gap he kept to Leclerc. And Max would have undercut whichever Ferrari was second of the two.
People just want to write off Vettel and they love Leclerc. But Vettel did outqualify him.
Vettel outqualified Leclerc, yes, and he managed to be within DRS of the Monegasque. After switching the drivers, Leclerc did not reach within a second of Vettel and thus got no DRS.
I think the problem with Leclerc is that Ferrari gave them a useless strategy. He ran too long in both stint 1 and 2, and never had the chance to catch up.
'Twas an odd decision not to pit 'It is I' the lap after Sebby stopped; at least then he would've emerged only a few seconds behind Max rather than, what was it, about 11 or 12 seconds back. He was losing something like 2.5 seconds/lap to the two Vs, no way was he going to recover that time at the end of the race just because his tyres would be five laps fresher.
Another Sunday struggle for Haas, and for different reasons (cheers Kvyat!) a rather miserable day for McLaren. Sainz working out to be a tremendous no. 2 for me....
In contrast, my weekend was successful. Hamilton-Raikkonen is a strong pairing, and Ricciardo was a good third pick. I'm sure you are thrilled for me.
Vettel did seem to be pulling away slightly after he passed Leclerc, but then he kept losing all the time he gained with mistakes. I was also surprised that they didn't pit Leclerc immediately after Bottas passed him for his final stop.
Hulkenberg is also a great second driver. I otherwise had Hamilton-Hamilton, although I missed out on 2 bonus points because he didn't win the pole.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/haas-vf19-tyre-temperature-problem/4371954/
The Haas car can't hear their tyres on low-energy tracks like China and Bahrain where many straights just cool them right down. oops.
I'd love it if Haas had given "not being able to hear our tyres" as an explanation for their current woes.
So, Baku should be fun for them....
To be fair, not hearing the tyres can be an issue too. I think drivers may well be fine tuned enough to pick up by sound when a tyre is struggling. :P
Someone is successful in social media.
(https://i.imgur.com/BwtHhEN.jpg)
Mercedes now 4 out of 4 1-2 finishes. Two each for the Bottman and the Hamman, but the Bott leads the Ham courtesy of a fastest lap in Australia. Who knows, maybe Bottas can genuinely be a contender this season? Who knows, maybe Ocon simply won't have a seat for 2020 either despite definitely earning it? Maybe Mercedes will drop their support of him and focus on Russell for 2021/2022. Ocon could go to Haas or someplace else.
McLaren has rolled up to Barcelona with the most comprehensive package of updates. Team has switched to an inboard-loaded front wing design (as used by Ferrari, Alfauber, and Toro Rosso): https://www.racefans.net/2019/05/10/analysis-mclaren-reveals-f1s-biggest-update-of-2019-so-far/
Even Williams weren't horribly adrift in FP1, mere tenths rather than seconds behind the car in front.
Well. After a really good IndyCar race last night, Spain failed to come close to matching that. I am already losing interest in this season of F1. Five 1-2 finishes in a row? At this pace, I guess Bottas will beat Hamilton in Monaco and they will return to being tied for points at the top. Vettel, Leclerc, or Verstappen will take P3. It's impressive how consistent Mercedes are, and how strong they are, but Ferrari and Red Bull are falling back toward the midfield. Haas, McLaren and Toro Rosso are all closing in on them.
Monaco in two weeks time, same as the Indy 500. My first time properly watching an oval race, so that will be exciting. Monaco? Likely not very exciting at all.
Red Bull seemed a little closer to Mercedes this week. They're traditionally good at Monaco, while it's not usually one of the best tracks for Mercedes. Maybe there's a chance?
In practice? Sure. Mercedes will probably find a half second gap come qualifying anyway :P
The Merc. was pretty slick through the twisty third sector (a half-decent indicator of Monaco performance) so I'll be surprised if they don't go extremely well round Monte Carlo, likewise for Red Bull and Max; whereas Ferrari, who last year were quickest in Barcelona sector three and carried this pace into Monaco, were a good half a second down on Merc in that third sector - they were barely any quicker than the Haas, Toro Rosso, and Renault boys. Ferrari needs something incredible to happen to their cars in the next fortnight if they're to challenge Ham/Bot/Ver.
I am with you, Penfold. Ferrari could slip back into the arms of Toro Rosso and McLaren. Renault and Haas I think will struggle in Monaco, much like Ferrari.
Ferrari concedes 2019 car concept may be wrong.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ferrari-2019-car-concept-wrong/4387513/
They just need a better front wing, and modified aero bits along the rest of the car to work with it. Sounds like the sort of fix you can bang out in a day or two... or do I mean a month or two? Yeah, that's the one.
Not so confident for McLaren in Monaco, they've been strong in the high-speed corners but their car seems more mid-pack through the low- to mid-speed turns. I do agree about Toro Rosso, a slightly off lap by Seb or Charles could see them being pipped by Daniil and/or Alex - plus Gasly will have the tools to best the red cars.
So what we are saying is Ferrari is doomed? Yeah, seems about right. Come the 2021 regulations where Ferrari will lose a large portion of their bonus (and midfield teams will get bigger chunks), I can't see Ferrari surviving at the top. They either need a massive restructuring or they should consider WEC and Formula E over F1 in the future.
Drag racing? None of those pesky corners to navigate.
More seriously, I'm right with you on future Ferrari woes if they can't massively outspend most of the field. Actually, that would be quite nostalgic for me, a throwback to Ferrari in the pre-Schumacher years when they were invariably third or fourth in the standings. Happy times. :)
Quote from: Penfold on May 14, 2019, 04:39:09 AMwhen they were invariably third or fourth in the standings. Happy times. :)
2016, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2009. All years in which they finished 3rd or 4th (2009 and 2014).
You have to go back to 1981 to find them finishing worse than fourth though. In 1981, they were 5th. In 1980, they were TENTH which was amazing since they won the championship in 1979 with Jody.
I wouldn't have guessed that they ended up third or fourth in half of the last ten seasons - perhaps it's because in years like 2013 & 2016 they were close to second place, so it wasn't like they had a woefully uncompetitive car. Whereas when I think of Ferrari in the early '90s, it's years like '92 & '93 that come to mind, where saying they were a distant fourth is being generous.
Well in 2014, Williams finished ahead of Ferrari by a whopping 100 points. Red Bull finished ahead of Williams by another 100 points. Mercedes scored 300 points more than Red Bull.
Mercedes: 701
Red Bull: 405
Williams: 320
Ferrari: 216
Ferrari actually only scored two podiums all year, you know. That is one more than Force India, and only two more than Caterham and Marussia. :P
No question that 2014 was an awful year for Ferrari, but surely not as painful for the Tifosi as '92.
Williams: 164
McLaren: 99
Benetton: 91
Ferrari: 21
Lotus: 13
Talk about also-rans.
Monaco is likely to be dry this weekend. There was me hoping for some of the wet stuff on Saturday to possibly mix things up.
Well, the question for Monaco is who will win. Is it Bottas or Hamilton? The other will be 2nd, so there's that. Who will be third? Well, Verstappen of course. Ferrari 4th and 6th. Gasly 5th.
Fourth and sixth sounds plausible, assuming Ferrari doesn't cock up anyone's (Leclerc's) strategy when the safety car is deployed after Kvyat crashes.
Oh yes, the mandatory Kvyat SC can definitely throw things around. Granted, Mercedes will not be getting it wrong because 2019 Mercedes does not get things wrong. 2019 Ferrari? Oh they very well might.
Hmm, I think Mercedes might just have this one.
The one chance the others have is a messy qualifying. Mercedes were at their fastest around their third hot lap on the same set of tyres. If Q1 and Q2 is messy, they may struggle to get a clean lap. Once in Q3, they will likely only have time to use one set of tyres so will fill up and just go around. The one chance we have is taking them out before Q3.
If that is our biggest hope for an upset in Monaco, well, we are not in for upsets.
No alarms and no surprises... that's the current Merc way. Plus, the cars are so quick they won't need a particularly good lap to get through Q2, let alone Q1. I'm assuming Max gets closest in Q3, perhaps even pip one of them if they do a middling lap, otherwise I guess third place a tenth or two off Bottas.
Alfaubers running better than I'd assumed - interesting to see if they can maintain this tomorrow; Toro Rosso looking strong as we thought - try not to crash it, lads; whilst the Renaults managed to come in below my already low expectations.
Not that I care too much about the GP right now, I'm just happy that our worst PM in modern history (if not of all time) has announced her resignation. At long last.
Well, in defence of May, she wasn't handed a very good position by Mr. Cameron, was she? Oh well, I suppose this puts a no-deal Brexit on the table again? Brave.
Back to F1, now shall we. Mercedes will run a red Niki Lauda-coloured halo for the Monaco GP.
(https://scontent.fbma2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/61146271_10156428211432411_6722081704703426560_o.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_ht=scontent.fbma2-1.fna&oh=53e41404ce61dc6bf7765326ed8ab00d&oe=5D9C71A4)
There was me thinking we'd have to wait until the race for Ferrari to screw Leclerc's weekend, but these guys are clearly masters of the art!
At least we follow the annual Monaco snore-fest with Montreal, one of my absolute favourite races on the calendar. Should be good for Ferrari given that this year's car is part drag racer, but also intrigued to see what the first Mercedes engine upgrade of 2019 delivers.
If there is any chance of Ferrari taking it to Mercedes in the coming races, it is here. Then we're likely going to have to wait until Monza and Spa.
Weather looking good, a warm and sunny race is on the cards.
Quote from: Chrill on June 06, 2019, 07:37:34 AM
If there is any chance of Ferrari taking it to Mercedes in the coming races, it is here.
So far so good. At least a Mercedes 1-2 isn't looking all that certain today.
Not with Bottas dropping the ball in qualifying. The Merc's were strong in the long runs on Friday, but it's surely going to take some of those special Ferrari tactics to get a Silver Arrows 1-2.
Superb lap from Ricky Hairdo.
With Ferrari 1-3 on the grid, if they can keep that going for the first few laps they can mess their strategy up in an attempt to get Leclerc ahead of Hamilton. In other words, I think we're looking at a Mercedes 1-3 today. Hamilton first, Vettel second, Bottas third, Leclerc made a fool by Ferrari strategy ends up 4th at best. Ricky Hairdo cannot take it to the Bulls, but finishes 6th (since Gasly DNFs and Verstappen finishes 5th).
https://www.racefans.net/2019/06/09/mercedes-racing-to-fix-hydraulic-leak-on-hamiltons-car-before-canadian-gp/?fbclid=IwAR3JEh8Oas_LV5ESoui7YajEbGXA3-WARyIJSvJufis2tu9wqizRaTcCVUA
Is the new Mercedes engine trouble? Well, Hamilton is suffering a hydraulic leak and his car has been pulled from parc ferme to fix. Mercedes expect to finish in time and expect no grid penalties.
Wow, didn't Stroller's engine blow in practice because of a hydraulic leak? Doesn't exactly bode well for the other Merc units.
Well fuck that.
Is one correct to infer that you are not 100% happy with the stewards' decision?
I would say that is a fair assumption. Virtually every former F1 driver commenting on the issue seems to agree with me, such as Nigel Mansell, Jenson Button, Mario Andretti, and Damon Hill. And Alex Wurz, Giedo Banter Garde, Felix Rosenqvist, Mark Webber, Allan McNish, Martin Brundle, Karun Chandhok. Oh, and Daniel Abt of Formula E. And Jack Harvey.
That's about all. :P
We finally had a genuine two-team battle for the win and it is taken away for a racing incident. A very clear racing incident too.
... also David Coulthard (he commentates for C4) was just slightly unhappy with the decision.
Well then.
Regardless of whether Vettel did something wrong or not, I think it boils down to what Nigel Mansell said (and I paraphrase):
Stewards are there to penalise malicious or dangerous behaviour, not intervene in accidents.
Since Vettel clearly did not mean to go across the grass, clearly this was a racing incident. In such a case, let them race. We were robbed of an exciting end to an exciting race.
For the Grand Prix of the Frenchlands, them Renault boys will bring one hot new piece of ride. Couple that with their vastly improved engine performance since Monaco (Well, we only saw it in Canada), could we be in for a Renault 6-7? They'll not match the top 6, except Gasly, that is.
https://www.racefans.net/2019/06/14/renault-bringing-new-upgrades-to-french-grand-prix/
Who knows, they might be close enough to the top 5 to be 'in the way' when that first pit-stop is due - not that they'd be more than a brief irritant against a newly shod Ferrari/Merc/Verstappen. We could also do with some more progress from McLaren to give those Renault boys someone to fight.
If Vettel decides to hit Bottas like last year, then it's not far-fetched to think Renault could be in the hunt for a podium. They just need a little bit of luck as compared to an insane amount of luck.
Honda performance upgrade arriving in time for France which should provide something of a boost for Red Bull & Toro Rosso (well, actually just for Kvyat as Albon won't be running the new unit this weekend as the team doesn't want both drivers to incur grid penalties). So, Max to be clear third ahead of Ferrari or might he even get one of the Mercs (Bottas)?
Honda upgrade linky: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.honda-to-bring-upgraded-power-unit-to-france.6ashCj5CklX28jOjjxSV15.html
Vettel penalty review tomorrow Friday:
https://www.racefans.net/2019/06/20/vettels-canadian-gp-penalty-hearing-set-for-friday/
In a completely unexpected turn of events the FIA throws out Ferrari's challenge.
What's this... Mercedes quickest in today's practice runs? Well I never.
Some big time gains at the partially-resurfaced Paul Ricard: McLaren topping the charge with a whopping 3.5 seconds knocked off their 2018 best; Renault the second biggest improver with two seconds of time found; most other teams running about 1.5 seconds ahead of last year's pace. The stragglers... well, Williams gained just over 0.8/sec, but the wooden spoon goes to Haas who came away a miserable three tenths faster.
Revised suspension set-up helping McLaren: https://www.racefans.net/2019/06/22/analysis-mclaren-follow-2019s-trend-for-trick-suspension/
What en exciting race. The top 4 finished as they started, but at one point there it looked like one of them could overtake the other. They did not, though. But still.
Norris, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, and Hulkenberg all danced around for a lap. A single lap. At the end. All thanks to Norris having a slightly broken car.
Impressively enough, Kubica finished ahead of Russell.
That's just about the highlights of the French GP. 9/10, very exciting.
Ricciardo smacked with a double penalty for this here sequence (seen from the Hulk):
https://www.facebook.com/Formula1/videos/697951223966253/
2x5 second penalty - 5 for passing Norris off-track and 5 for doing the same to Kimi.
Now, I'm onboard with the Norris penalty because fact of the matter is he only passed him because he missed the chicane. The Kimi thing, however? He slipstreamed past, admittedly off-track, but it was a straight line. There was no "corner cutting" going on, merely a "I am faster and you are leaving me no space so here we go" thing happening. Was it against regulations? Yeah. Should it be? No.
Similar to Vettel's penalty in Canada two weeks ago, I feel like F1 would be better off letting drivers race a bit more often. The Ricciardo-Norris thing, sure, a penalty, but both Vettel-Hamilton and Ricciardo-Raikkonen was simply exciting racing that hurt neither party.
Race was so exciting that I can't even put it into words.
I suppose the Raikkardo incident penalty is a safety thing - F1 not wanting to encourage people to do 180 mph (or whatever) off-track.
Oh yeah, meant to say good show from McLaren. Way, way off the top three for race pace but still a great improvement on last year - also some impressive in-season development so far. Talking of progress... when is it going to happen for Gasly?
Well, this here home race for Gasly was the nail in the coffin as far as I'm concerned. Cracks will start to show now, Red Bull cannot be satisfied with him finishing outside the points when his team mate kept Vettel at bay for P4. He is much too far off the pace. Sure, Gasly was penalised somewhat by reaching Q3 at all. Had he qualified 11th and started on hards, he'd probably finish behind Vettel in a nice P6.
Problem for Red Bull is who to promote? Experienced Kvyat has proven capable in the past, and can now be considered experienced. Still, he's clearly lacking that something. Albon, a rookie, is pretty much matching Kvyat for pace but is even less experienced than Gasly was when he got the nod. Bringing Albon up for 2020 (or mid-season!) is risky. This is where stupid rumours like "Alonso to Red Bull" comes in.
There's a chap on another F1 site whose sister-in-law's brother is dating a woman with a best friend who lives next door to the daughter of a guy who plays Sunday League football with a bloke who gets his newspapers delivered from a shop owned by the cousin of a junior Red Bull employee who swears blind that little Jack Horner has personally visited Alonso to beg him to drive for them after the mid-season break. And breathe.
Is that an actual rumour you picked up, and if so how credible would you say it is? I mean, Alonso's calendar is open.
It's definitely an actual rumour I made up. Not sure how credible I think I am.
You are not very credible. In fact, I'm not sure I know your real name. Now, how can one trust a source they do not know? :P
I don't even trust Heinz Ketchup these days; I swear it's less tomatoey than it was back when I were a lad.
I prefer Heinz.
There's a ketchup that Lidl stocks which is superior (and cheaper!) - it has more tomato per 100 grams and to me it tastes how Heinz did some years back. Sadly, Heinz is by no means alone in tinkering with products to save a few pennies: Nestle sabotaged Kit Kats by shrinking the wafer part and thus ruining the chocolate to biscuit ratio; thankfully, Sainsbury's own-brand take on Kit Kats is just like a Kit Kat of old - and their dark chocolate version is even better. Then there are the crimes against chocolate which is Mondelez's stewardship of Cadbury's.
Don't get me started on Nestle, they are one of if not the most vile food production companies.
Swedish chocolate is superior to yours, go to IKEA and buy Marabou.
There aren't that many IKEA stores in the UK and the closest to me is something like 60 miles away. I'll have a look for an online seller just to give it a try.
Until then I'll struggle by on the Co-op's Fairtrade offerings for a simple bar of milk, white, or dark; or Hotel Chocolat for pricey but delicious filled chocolates.
Umm, do you get the feeling that we've somewhat veered away from F1? Perhaps we should discuss Ferrari's chances at the Austrian GP.
Ferrari stands a chance to finish 3rd and 4th. The track will once more play to the strengths of Mercedes, and Red Bull is too far behind to take the challenge to them red riding hoods.
https://www.scandikitchen.co.uk/product/marabou-mjolkchoklad-100g/
Interesting selection of foodstuffs, thanks. I did find the chocolate from various peeps on eBay so I'll see who works out cheaper. Mind you, scandikitchen also has Marabou Premium dark chocolate with orange bites, and that sounds kind of delicious.
Sadly that does seem the likeliest outcome in Austria unless Ferrari has found a solution to its slow-corner woes. On the plus side, at least there are a few reasonable length straights on which they can claw back some time.
Those straights are often either preceded or followed by medium-speed corners. Not a Ferrari strength, that.
That's why I said the straights would help them claw back time lost in those pesky slow(ish) corners. Barring some incredible updates from Ferrari it's still going to be Merc at the front, but the gap to the red cars shouldn't be so large as it was in France. Perhaps one of them can get Bottas if he has another poor showing - 'It is I' was right with him by the end of Sunday's race (albeit helped by the VSC).
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ericsson-alfa-romeo-pirelli-test/4483044/
Ericsson to trial the 2020 Pirelli tyres for Alfauber in a post-Austria test.
Maybe they should have him try out the 2019 tyres during the British GP, and then in Germany, Hungary, Belgium....
Well, he can't do any worse than Giovinazzi. And I am biased here, but I'm also not wrong.
Correct on all counts.
Wonder if the heat and altitude will come to Ferrari's aid?
Carly Sainz & Al Albon get themselves some hefty engine penalties for Austria: https://www.racefans.net/2019/06/28/sainz-and-albon-to-get-engine-change-penalties/
... and now Hulk takes a new engine and earns himself a 10-place grid drop. Chrill wishing he'd waited until Silverstone before ditching Kimi for Nico.
New gearbox for KMag will knock him back five places. Madness.
Kimi qualifies his yearly best, too. Well fuck me.
... and then finishes a few places ahead of Hulk. Expecting Renault to run better at Silverstone.
Cracking race. Thank Christ they didn't penalize Max.
Merc performance killed by the heat: https://www.racefans.net/2019/06/30/wolff-says-it-was-painful-to-watch-mercedes-drivers-cruising-around/
Quote from: Penfold on July 01, 2019, 01:26:17 AM
Merc performance killed by the heat: https://www.racefans.net/2019/06/30/wolff-says-it-was-painful-to-watch-mercedes-drivers-cruising-around/
Well I thoroughly enjoyed Mercedes struggling. They haven't struggled this much since that one year in Singapore, was it 2016?
Sounds about right.
Paul Ricard was a fairly hot weekend and no problems for Merc, so do we assume it was the temperature/altitude combo that did for them in Austria? If so, roll on Mexico....
By the looks of it, it was a combination of heat and altitude. There simply was not enough air entering their engine, so they had to turn it down and do a lot of lift-and-coasting to keep temperatures down. This was audibly (is that a word?) visible when going onboard with either Mercedes.
This race also confirmed once more that Hamilton, when things go wrong, sort of lose his edge. He had nothing on Bottas, and probably would have struggled to finish ahead of the Finn even without his grid drop.
Also: 6th race win, still 0 pole positions for Verstappen. Plus 2nd pole position, still 0 wins for Leclerc.
I know that Verstappen holds the record for most wins without securing a single pole position, but I haven't managed to track down the record for most pole positions without any race wins. I don't suppose you've happened across that little titbit?
Edit: Jarno Trulli has four poles (can't do any scaffolding with that!) and zero wins.
Edit no. 2: Chris Amon bests Trulli's winless tally with a magnificent five pole positions - I'm pretty sure he's our guy.
Chris Amon is indeed the one you're looking for.
As it stands he is one of only five drivers to take more than one pole position without winning a race: the others being Chris Amon (five poles), Teo Fabi (three), Jean-Pierre Jarier (three) and Stuart Lewis-Evans (three).
Trulli, however, has won. In Monaco, no less. The race where Montoya and Schumacher collided behind the safety car!
Also, this stat I enjoy:
Previous driver who was lapped by his race-winning team-mate was Nico Rosberg in Abu Dhabi 2014. That time Nico had hybrid system failure.
Red Bull suffered a driver system failure. I had a brain system failure regarding Trulli winning Monaco.
Williams planning a major update in time for Hockenheim: https://www.racefans.net/2019/07/04/williams-heading-in-the-right-direction-with-major-update-coming/
My God, do they ever need one. And then another one shortly after.
Force Point Racing also bringing an upgrade package for Germany. Not before time, they ain't exactly setting the field alight this year.
Considering Racing Point halted car development for a few months during a very significant crunch period, the fact that they at least beat Williams is impressive in its own right.
I've been impressed when FIRP has beaten anyone besides the 2019 disaster zone that is Williams Racing.
Gasly says he's been playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order: https://www.racefans.net/2019/07/09/gasly-says-hes-been-fast-but-not-at-the-right-times/
So what he's saying is "I can drive this car fast, just not on Sundays". That is not great.
On the other hand, it's pretty great news if you're angling for a Red Bull seat in 2020....
The raving lunatics over at Rich Energy claim that they have terminated their contract with Haas due to poor performance at the Austrian Grand Prix. They expected to beat Red Bull but are not doing so.
https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/27162422/rich-energy-terminates-haas-sponsorship-deal
Today @rich_energy terminated our contract with @HaasF1Team for poor performance. We aim to beat @redbullracing & being behind @WilliamsRacing in Austria is unacceptable. The politics and PC attitude in @F1 is also inhibiting our business. We wish the team well #F1 #richenergy
More likely the next instalment is due on their sponsorship deal.
From what I heard back in the winter when this deal was agreed, the full year was due to be paid upfront. One can only hope, for the sake of Haas, that that is true. I'd love to see Haas offering a one-race deal to Whyte Bikes for free. Talk about a positive publicity stunt from Haas. ;D
Haas declines Rich Energy's attempts to terminate their relationship, stating that they remain their title sponsor.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/rich-energy-investors-save-haas-deal/4492346/
Rich Energy CEO William "Fucking Lunatic" Storey seems to be the one who tweeted that the deal has been terminated, but Rich Energy shareholders and Haas are trying to clear up the PR mess and says the deal is not terminated.
On Thursday, Haas issued a statement quoting team boss Gunther Steiner as saying: "Rich Energy is currently the title partner of Haas F1 Team. I cannot comment further on the contractual relationship between our two parties due to commercial confidentiality."
What a palaver. Well, assuming Rich Energy stays on board for this year, I'm sure Haas will be keen as fuck to find someone else for 2020.
Talking of title sponsors, Rokit's deal with Williams has been extended by two years and now runs to 2023: https://www.racefans.net/2019/07/11/rokit-extends-williams-title-sponsorship-deal-to-2023/
Ambitious of ROKiT to expect Williams to last that long. Also, healthy for Williams to extend their partnership so early into their stint together. Perhaps Williams are happy they failed to secure that deal with Rich Energy.
I bet they are.
Rocket might be hoping they've bagged Williams on the cheap (relatively speaking) before some sort of revival in the team's fortunes kicks in.
The Rich Energy saga continues: https://www.racefans.net/2019/07/11/rich-energy-ceo-storey-attacks-own-companys-haas-statement-as-ludicrous/
Is this just an absurd PR stunt? I mean, everyone is talking about Haas and Rich Energy, and surely that's always a good thing.
Search history for "Rich Energy" in the last 7 days:
(https://i.imgur.com/rOzqp9c.png)
And where in the world people are searching for it:
(https://i.imgur.com/u8VM3jS.png)
Yes, it's all a cunning plan to boost sales... now if only people could actually buy their product. On second thoughts, anyone I've seen comment on the drink has not been wildly complimentary about its flavour, so perhaps enabling the masses to sample Rich Energy wouldn't be such a great idea after all.
There's a Coca-Cola owned energy drink called Burn, I think they used to sponsor GeniiLotusRenault. That's by far the tastiest. Just saying.
See front wing endplate for a burning sensation.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a0/2013_Italian_GP_-_Kimi.jpg/640px-2013_Italian_GP_-_Kimi.jpg)
I suppose I'd call the race passable in terms of entertainment... :P
And just in case Silverstone wasn't enough sporting excitement for the day, we only went and won the bloody Cricket World Cup on the last ball of the super over.
It's just a shame the Safety Car robbed us of a great battle for the win. Hamilton would perhaps have made the one-stopper work to his advantage, but we will never know since Bottas was severely compromised by the SC.
Also, how could Verstappen and Vettel both survive that rather heavy collision? The penalty was fair, of course, nobody can argue against it (+2 penalty points for Vettel), but the fact they both got going? Impressive.
The race was good, with different strategies at play and all tyre configurations at use simultaneously. Also, Hamilton bagging the fastest lap on 40-something lap old hard tyres, beating Bottas who was on fresh softs? Insane. Up until that point, I thought Bottas deserved to win this race courtesy of his strong defending against Hamilton during the first few laps. Now, I guess Hamilton deserved that 6th win.
Quote from: Penfold on July 15, 2019, 12:56:37 AMwe only went and won the bloody Cricket World Cup on the last ball of the super over.
"Super over" sounds like something the Americans would say instead of "Extra time", but I guess you Brits are no better. Congratulations for the win, first one right? Only 3 to go before the boys catch up to the ladies! ;)
Each side plays an extra over, calling it anything like extra time would be weird. Officially it's a 'one over per side eliminator', for some reason the name didn't stick! Yes, it's a maiden win for the lads... they'll never catch up to our ladies!
Agree about the Safety Car, would have been fantastic to see whether Hammy could've made the one-stopper work. Ultimately a question of how fast Bottas could run on that second set of mediums: could he out-pace Lewis sufficiently to make that third stop and not have to chase down something like a 15-second deficit. Personally, I don't think Valerie had the pace to do it, but how I wish we'd had the chance to see for ourselves.
Had Hamilton pitted when he was supposed to, and under natural conditions so to speak, he was looking likely to emerge about 5 seconds behind Bottas. He would most likely have matched the Finn's speed, so I agree Bottas would have struggled to make a two-stopper work. As it stands, we cannot tell. All we know is Hamilton earned this luck by managing to run a longer first stint. Had Bottas stayed out like Hamilton and only pitted during the SC, he would have benefitted from entering the pits first, and Hamilton would perhaps have dropped behind a Ferrari or Red Bull in the pits if he was unlucky.
Hamilton seems to be consistently kinder to his tyres than Bottas, managing to eke out those extra laps whilst maintaining a strong pace.
It is becoming apparent that Hamilton could, in fact, be better than Bottas.
Quote from: Matt on July 17, 2019, 09:18:05 AM
It is becoming apparent that Hamilton could, in fact, be better than Bottas.
Crazy talk. What has Hamilton achieved throughout his career that Bottas has not? Except for the wins, pole positions, championships, fastest laps, overtakes, and masterful displays of car control in the rain?
Rumour has it that Grosjean is out as soon as the coming weeks, maybe even for Germany. Steiner is fed up with Magnussen and Grosjean's behaviour and feels the need for change. He is possibly looking at letting Mercedes "rent" the seat for Ocon.
We'll see. There are no good sources yet, apart from a person online who has proved he does have paddock access and relations to Haas, no proof he has insight in driver dealings.
I don't think Magnussen is any more deserving of keeping his seat than Grosjean, but either way a change could be good. But Ocon does not have a history of racing well with teammates either.
The problem for Haas is that there aren't two good enough candidates available mid-season. Who would they replace both with? Hartley, Wehrlein? Even Ericsson, who does have experience with modern machinery and I think would do OK at Haas, is unavailable.
Also, a double switch mid-season is probably both expensive from a contract standpoint and undesirable from a "shit, we need to understand this car fast" standpoint.
https://www.racefans.net/2019/07/19/haas-denies-rumours-grosjean-will-be-replaced-at-hockenheim/
Haas comments my commenting.
I am amazed and not a little disappointed that the anonymous individual you cited wasn't a reliable source on this Haas story. Consider my faith in the veracity of postings by random, faceless people well and truly shaken (Stevens).
Haas appears to continue using Rich Energy branding in the race previews for Hockenheim. That alone is newsworthy, I'd say.
https://www.haasf1team.com/news/german-grand-prix-preview-time-hockenheim
The German weather be crazy.
Friday, 39°C, sun (obviously)
Saturday, high-20s, rain
Sunday, mid-20s, thunderstorms
https://www.racefans.net/2019/07/25/scorching-heat-and-thunderstorms-forecast-in-hockenheim/
Rain in Germany? Well, that triggers bad memories for Ferrari fans worldwide.
Hilarity for the rest of us. :)
Lucky escape for Merc with those high temps. dropping away; now have to rely on rain to give someone a chance against Lewis - sorry, of course I mean against Mercedes... but mainly Lewis.
Rain could bring Verstappen into contention, though.
The Friday will be tough for Mercedes, and Ferrari fans across the Internet will write this down as a guaranteed victory. Then boom, 4-6 in quali and a solemn P5 in the race with the other Ferrari retiring.
That's unduly negative on the Ferrari boys, I reckon P4 is theirs for the taking.
Have we had any decent wet running this year, i.e. in qualifying or a race? I can't bring any to mind.
I have something in the back of my mind regarding a Friday raining away, but that could be from last year.
Yeah, I think there's been a spot of the wet stuff during a Friday practice this year, but it's just been bone dry at the times when it actually counts. It'll be fascinating to see how all the teams fare in the rain when running flat-out.
Williams bolted their new aero devices to Kubica's car for FP1 and he managed to lap six tenths quicker than Russell. Still behind anyone driving a car that isn't a Williams, but seems like a decent step forward nonetheless.
Well done, Ferrari. P1 and P2 for tomorrow. Oh, P10 and P20? Oh...
That was a race.
... and a half. Blimey, three cracking races on the trot - just what the Doctor ordered after the Merc. (Hamilton) dominance of the first eight races.
Whenever the front runners struggle, F1 entertains. Now why is that? It's almost as if a tight battle for the podium is a good thing.
Crazy talk. I want to know the likely podium sitters before qualifying gets under way, then you can just sit back and watch the (not so) pretty cars speeding round and round. Tres relaxing.
When Verstappen pitted for slicks at the end, and emerged behind Stroll, I realised Stroll was effectively leading the race and I begun shouting at the TV. "Stroll leads, Stroll leads!!". OK, it was in Swedish, so more like "Stroll leder, Stroll leder!!".
I don't get that excited when Bottas emerges ahead of Hamilton after a round of pit stops, you know.
No-one does. Not even his immediate family.
I'm surprised Monster Energy hasn't released a statement saying they are terminating their contract with Lewis due to "We expected to beat Red Bull but are behind Rich Energy".
Odd that you don't just speak English around the house. I get confused any time one of your Swedish Facebook posts comes up.
Facebook can translate them for you, Matt.
Georgie Porgie running updated aero bits and is ahead of someone besides Kubica. Okay, so it's only FP1 and the person in question is Lance Stroll, but it's still markedly less dire than most of Williams' 2019 outings.
Hammy hunting down Max was damn entertaining. Hungary caps what must be the best block of four races I've seen in, well, I don't know how many years.
Marks off Leclerc for chopping across Bottas.
Without looking at Chrill's spreadsheet, who is underperforming more: Gasly or Giovinazzi? Gasly is up against arguably the best driver on the grid right now, who has barely made a mistake in the last season of races, with Hamilton being the only other option for that title. Giovinazzi is up against retirement home Kimi, who might now care so little in a lower-stakes environment that he's actually driving better.
I think Giovinazzi is worse. But Gasly's performance is more unacceptable because Red Bull could be closing in on second in the standings.
That sums it up rather well: Giovinazzi failing miserably in a relatively low-pressure environment against a driver whose best days are behind him; Gasly cracking under the strain of being thrown in at the deep end against a blisteringly fast (possibly the fastest) and reliable teammate. I have sympathy for one and no prizes for guessing correctly. Of course, you're also correct that Gasly's under-performance is in one way worse because of the damage it's causing to Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship.
Red Bull could do with a Perez or Hulk in that second car to collect a decent haul of points.
I'll have a look at my own spreadsheet once I'm back home. Of course, the summer break is a great time to summarize this first half of the season. Penfold, you are very right in saying these last 4 races have offered unusually good entertainment. Brilliant, some would call it (me included).
I'd say the most disappointing drivers so far in 2019 are:
1. Pierre Gasly
2. Antonio Giovinazzi
3. Robert Kubica
Gasly has been lapped by Verstappen twice now and cannot explain why. We know he's fast, so why is it all going so badly?
Giovinazzi just doesn't have the race pace, although in qualifying he can match Kimi (who just isn't a very good qualifier).
Kubica, apart from the point he did score, just isn't able to match the rookie alongside him.
Russell, Norris, and Albon have all entered F1 in great style. Very impressed by them.
Shout-out to Verstappen (Mr. Consistent all of a sudden), Sainz, and Kvyat. Kvyat's return to F1 has gone real well so far!
I don't find Kubica disappointing merely because it would have been incredible if he was good. Forget the injury, he was out of circuit racing as a whole for 8 years. Even being within a second of Russell in qualifying pace isn't that bad considering how good all of these drivers are.
I had everything crossed that the incredible might just happen, that we get Kubica back in F1 with most of his speed somehow still intact; my disappointment is of reality once again trumping wishful thinking... apologies for using the word 'trumping', I realise it might not be a favourite of yours right now.
Regardless of expectations, Kubica is the one with the biggest qualifying deficit to their team mate. That alone warrants a p3 on my list.
Soon to be followed by a P45....
Quote from: Penfold on August 08, 2019, 01:24:17 AM
Soon to be followed by a P45....
Now this is a narrow joke, seeing as 99% of all posts other than yours are made by a Swede and an American. But P45 is synonymous with quitting or being fired.
And Bingo was his name-o.
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
And Bingo was his name-o.
After that brief musical interlude...
Ricky Hairdo has stated the obvious that Renault needs to make bigger gains in the second half of this year if the team is to meet its target of challenging for podiums in 2020. Hard to argue with that, even harder to picture Renault making enough progress this year to be fighting with any of the 'big 3' next year - or even with McLaren.
Link to what Ricky (not Spanish) said: https://www.racefans.net/2019/08/12/ricciardo-says-renault-must-make-bigger-steps-in-second-half-of-2019/
Yeah, there's no decent F1 news during the summer break.
Scratch that, Red Bull has just announced that Gasly and Albon will swap seats for the remainder of 2019: https://www.racefans.net/2019/08/12/red-bull-promotes-albon-to-team-alongside-verstappen/
I really like Albon and I hope he does well. But at the same time, this seems premature for him. His results aren't much different than Gasly's last year. I've seen some people suggesting, well, you can see if he's ready for next season and so on... but confidence is a major part of high-level racing, and there's no such thing as a low-pressure situation in F1. If he's as bad as Gasly, he probably will never get another top level drive again.
There's also talk of Red Bull's cupboard being bare, so they have to do this... but the fact that they always do this is why their cupboard is bare. Sainz, Buemi, Vergne, Alguersuari... promising young drivers that Red Bull no longer has because they ran them off as not good enough. It's not hard to see Gasly and Albon added to the list. And Ricciardo is a proven driver that Red Bull no longer has in part because of their management style (and favoritism of Max, arguably warranted).
Throughout Red Bull's F1 history, they have plenty of guys who really were failures. Klien, Liuzzi, Speed, Hartley. Although even Klien and Hartley have had pretty good success in sports cars. No idea on Liuzzi, Speed has bounced around from NASCAR to FE to rallycross. But they have more who have shown to be talented and are now racing for someone else.
Red Bull's eagerness to snatch Norris away from McLaren said it all. They'd rather have stuck this untested rookie alongside Max than promote their man Gasly who had a season and a bit of F1 under his belt. Like you say, Red Bull's cavalier approach to its talent means there aren't many guys left on their shelves - fingers crossed Albon copes better than Gasly did with promotion to the senior team.
Alfauber have called in Ericsson as their third driver for Spa, meaning he will miss this weekend's IndyCar race. He will be on standby. One can assume Kimi or Giovinazzi is feeling ill or carrying a minor injury, but so far it seems Ericsson will just be sat on the pitwall all weekend.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ericsson-raikkonen-alfa-romeo-indycar-belgian-gp/4523050/
Given the choice, I'd assume he'd rather be racing in Portland than stuck in a garage in Spa, which makes me wonder whether he has to simply drop everything whenever Alfauber calls. Of course, perhaps he's been told there's a decent chance that his services will actually be used this weekend.
My unusually quiet sources report that Kimi has suffered a minor leg injury. He can walk freely but feels the pain from it when stationary (or sitting in an F1 cockpit, one could assume). Most likely, Kimi will assess after FP1 and Ericsson could potentially replace him from FP2 onwards if Kimi deems the pain unbearable. Knowing Kimi, Ericsson will not be racing.
Ericsson should slip someone a fiver to 'accidentally' knock something weighty into Kimi's dodgy leg.
If Kimi do step aside for Spa, and Ericsson outqualifies Antonio, then the Italian's career is over.
If Ericsson does not outqualify Giovinazzi, everyone can say "Well he had almost no preparation so it was expected". If the Swede does race, he cannot lose.
Whilst I agree that Ericsson besting Giovinazzi would be another black mark against the Italian, it must irrespective of that be highly doubtful that we see Ant back with Alfauber next year.
Well, who would replace him? Grosjean? Schumacher? Hulkenberg?
Gio ran so well in GP2 that it's a surprise quite how much he's struggled in F1. Perhaps some strong races starting now could yet save him, but if not I'd quite like to see Grosjean get his seat.
Some of the usual candidates will be enjoying grid penalties this weekend: Hulk, Ricciardo, Albon, and Kvyat all taking new engines and receiving five-place drops as a reward. Wouldn't surprise me to see more names added to the list - Norris & Sainz spring to mind.
Edit: Carly Sainz will indeed be taking Renault's new spec-c engine.
Quote from: Penfold on August 30, 2019, 03:32:02 AM
Gio ran so well in GP2 that it's a surprise quite how much he's struggled in F1. Perhaps some strong races starting now could yet save him, but if not I'd quite like to see Grosjean get his seat.
Well, Gio ran strongly for 43 of the 44 laps at Spa. Then he crashed his car without even having anyone around him.
I'm not going to suggest that there's a good time to crash in F1, but when you're driving by yourself in the dry just one lap from a top ten finish, in a season where your teammate has 31 points and you have managed only a solitary tenth place, you really do not want to crash. I mean you really, really do not want to crash. In a this might be the final nail in your F1 career sort of way, you do not want to crash.
Edit: Just read that Gio might hang on to his seat for 2020 because Alfauber (Ferrari) thinks Mick Schumacher won't be ready for F1 until '21. I don't know, they might as well stick Grosjean in the car for a year if he's available, at least he'd bring home some points for the team.
I agree with you there. Grosjean and Kimi would be a very respectable pairing.
Some more on the "Ericsson to Spa" situation:
SPM boss Sam Schmidt and Marcus Ericsson were both told that Kimi was "completely ruled out" for Spa, that there was no way he could race. Ericsson was guaranteed to race, according to Schmidt.
Ericsson is, according to Schmidt, "pretty pissed off" and also adds that "Marcus have done well lately so we are also disappointed".
Learn Swedish, and you will read this for yourself. Yes, the website is Finnish, but Swedish is an official language in Finland. Medieval conquests, YAY!
https://svenska.yle.fi/artikel/2019/09/03/till-mig-sades-det-att-raikkonen-ar-helt-ute-detta-veckoslut-reserven-ericsson
Well, here's an English language article saying the same thing, so there's that:
https://www.autosport.com/indycar/news/145739/schmidt-thinks-ericsson-pretty-pissed-by-spa-events
This backs up Racer's original story too, since Robin Miller obviously got his information from the IndyCar side. Schmidt said some other things too, including that, basically, Ericsson is so far down in points that they had no problem doing Alfa a favor. Except they thought he'd be racing.
Ericsson is still ahead of Veach in points though.
Daly did not look very fast during qualifying and practice, and his race lasted about as long as my own F1 career (over before it started). That certainly did not hurt Ericsson.
He was fast in qualifying, he made the top 12 along with Hinch. As for practice, he had never driven at Portland in any type of car, not even on a sim, and he hadn't driven an IndyCar on a road course in over a year. The consensus seems to be that his qualifying performance did hurt Ericsson.
But my opinion on that is, if you look at the qualifying results, they were pretty similar to the Indy GP qualifying results. Which makes sense because they're both flat, fast road courses. And Ericsson qualified well at the Indy GP.
What do we want? Grid penalties! When do we want them? Every race in the second half of the season!
Announced for Monza thus far: Verstappen, Gasly & Norris are all taking enough new bits to drop them to the back of the grid.
Still looking like rain might play a part in Sunday's proceedings - that would throw a spanner in Ferrari's hopes for an easy(ish) race.
Very happy with the lack of rain. Man, we've had a succession of great races unlike anything in the last 10 years. F1 racing is not bad right now. I'm happy to start learning the national anthem of Monaco. 🇲🇨
Vettel had an abysmal day, and frankly I think he needs a reboot away from Ferrari. I'm just happy I had Vettel as my weekly in Spa instead of here.
Also happy that the race was dry, and that Mercedes was able to push Ferrari over the whole weekend. Not so impressed by the stewarding: Vettel running wide at Parabolica in qualifying but being given the benefit of the doubt; Leclerc crowding Hamilton off the track but getting only a warning (leniency applied because he didn't make contact with Lewis - so rewarded for the other driver taking swift, evasive action); then, when already on this warning, Charles was allowed to miss out a corner after making a mistake and yet retain his place.
Whatever, 'twas still a great race and I now look forward to seeing more drivers squeezing rivals off the road and being penalized only if the other guy refuses to veer out of the way.
Charles missing the corner and not being penalised was fair, because in fact Lewis was far closer by the next turn than he was before Charles missed it. In other words, Charles lost time by cutting across.
The Vettel-Parabolica event was fair too, since he was apparently just touching the line when viewed from above. If it is not clear, then penalising is wrong.
Vettel got a Stop/Go for crashing into Stroll, so that was fair as well. I think the stewards handled the race in an overall fair manner, and the drivers have been pushing for a "Let us race" attitude which we got here.
Charles maintained his position by cutting out the corner, that's the lasting advantage in my book. As it happens, I'd actually favour awarding the black-and-white flag for this sort of slightly naughty act, but then he'd already had one of those (when he should've got worse) and so obviously they couldn't dish out another.
Agree with the stewards on Vettel's stop/go penalty, have to disagree with the unfortunate Stroll not getting the same punishment for doing the exact same thing. Funnily enough, Stroll has made the same observation.
Masi on Vettel's qualifying incident: "In reviewing the video evidence the stewards noted that the side view showed that Vettel's car was indeed not in contact with the track, as the contact patch of his tyres was outside the line. However, on-board and overhead views indicated the 'wheels', which protrude beyond the tyre contact patch, were still atop the white line, as mentioned in the race director's notes."
So the tyres (the bits that actually touch the road) were outside of the track limits, but he gets away with it because the wheels (which don't touch the ground) were still "atop the white line" when viewed from above. That is genuinely cretinous, even by the standards of FIA's rule makers.
Haas and Rich Energy have finally officially severed ties. I'm happy to see those crazy energy drink guys leaving the sport, hopefully for good.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/haas-rich-energy-end-partnership/4536916/
"While the Rich Energy deal was the inspiration behind Haas' current black-and-gold livery, the latest decision will not impact the primary colour scheme of the VF-19, which now simply run without the branding of its now-former title sponsor."
Haas put in such a strong showing in 2018 and yet off the back of it signed with this joke of a title sponsor, seems like such a wasted opportunity.
On a sidenote, of the top 10 drivers in the Driver Standings only 3 have not come through Red Bull's junior ranks. These are the top 10 drivers at the moment, and while only 4 drive for Red Bull-run teams (impressive too, to have all 4 drivers in the top 10) three former Red Bull F1 graduates are currently in the top 10.
1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Valtteri Bottas
3. Max Verstappen
4. Charles Leclerc
5. Sebastian Vettel
6. Pierre Gasly
7. Carlos Sainz
8. Daniel Ricciardo
9. Alex Albon
10. Daniil Kvyat
Huh. Actually a fairly decent Singapore race for once. Strategies played a part, and Ferrari played it far better than Mercedes. Far, far better. Mercedes had to back Bottas up to keep Hamilton in front of him and Albon, even. Hamilton was on course for P6 before Bottas slowed.
Shame for Leclerc to lose out when he was the faster Ferrari, but Vettel needed this and kept his head cool all race long (and it was long). Ferrari 1-2 in Singapore, who would have called that just one day before first practice?
I don't know what you're talking about, it was blindingly obvious that the Singapore streets would suit Ferrari down to the ground.... ;)
I was expecting Merc to pit Hammy as soon as there was a piece of clean air to drop him into, to try and undercut 'It is I', but instead Ferrari were first to the punch with Vettel. Still, I'm happy for Seb to get a win, happy not to have another Merc victory, and happy to have an entertaining race in Singapore; not so happy that Hulk launched into Sainz and demoted my no. 2 to the back of the pack for much of the race.
Don't worry, I went with a Williams due to expected attrition, but I went for the wrong one.
Don't blame yourself... blame Grosjean!
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.
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.
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/
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Ah yes. The famous time Bernie succumbed to calls for democracy.
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.
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.
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.
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....
With Renault excluded from the Japanese GP, Mercedes technically have not yet won the Constructors World Championship. Sure, they need double DNFs in all remaining races whereas Ferrari need constant 1-2 finishes and fastest laps, BUT STILL.
More celebrations to come in Mexico then, where Hamilton could secure the championship for a sixth time. I'd guess he will achieve it in USA.
Congrats to Max for throwing away pole position - you've got to lift when you see a crashed car up the road. Oh well, should be a fun run down to turn 1 today....
It was a fun run. Max was angry, and drove like an angry kid. What a mess, and he caused it all on his own. He's been reliable this year, but Mexico was a return to his former angry self.
Guess he won't be keeping his foot down next time he drives past a car that's smashed into a barrier!
How is Ferrari achieving their insane straightline speed? Are they purposefully leaking oil from the intercooler into the engine and then burning that for extra effect? Nope, seems that this has been debunked.
https://www.racefans.net/2019/10/28/paddock-diary-mexican-grand-prix-day-four-2/
According to the lovely Dieter Rencken, Ferrari's engine remains a mystery which none of the other engine manufacturers have cracked yet. If they don't do it for 2020, Ferrari could be a difficult team to beat regardless of their aerodynamic shortcomings.
Ferrari could still be doing something funky with their intercooler, but if they are it's clearly nothing illegal - perhaps they found a nuanced way to interpret the rules?
I see Kvyat is moaning about his 10-second penalty for punting The Hulk out of the way, stating that "I disagree with it because we are told we are allowed to race". It goes without saying that Daniil is therefore "quite upset" by the penalty. Ahh, diddums.
That ranks as one of the most obvious penalties I've seen while watching F1. It was the final corner of the race and he ran into Hulk's right rear tire... There was never a passing opportunity.
Quote from: Penfold on October 29, 2019, 02:44:53 AM
Ferrari could still be doing something funky with their intercooler, but if they are it's clearly nothing illegal - perhaps they found a nuanced way to interpret the rules?
Whatever they've done, it seems to be both legal and a well guarded secret. It's unusual that someone can develop and deploy something giving such an advantage without other teams immediately copying it.
Or if the other engine guys reckon they know what Ferrari is up to, perhaps it has simply come too late for a 2019 upgrade. With Mercedes so far ahead of Ferrari in the title race this year, they didn't exactly need to risk engine reliability by rushing through any new developments.
We finally got ourselves one of them "World Champions". 6th time. That's pretty spectacular. No doubt he'll be able to go for Schumacher's 7 titles in 2020. Remains to be seen whether Mercedes is equally competitive in 2021, and if so if Lewis is still there. Equalling Schumacher? Likely. Surpassing? Possible.
Ferrari's prodigious straight-line speed seems to have wilted a little after the FIA issued that technical directive designed to stamp out any fuel flow shenanigans....
I'm not so sure about that. They lacked race pace but not quali. On a track with high speed and medium speed corners, Ferrari are bound to struggle. They set the car up with more downforce, which reduced their straight line speed. Brazil will be another test, but I'm not sure Ferrari's secret has been cracked quite yet.
Seemed like a very uneventful race from the track. Maybe there were some additional storylines on TV that didn't come through live.
I can only say that in highlights form (seeing about half of the race) there was more than enough action and intrigue to keep my attention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un5416DEHYM
Kvyat, the Torpedo, says the penalty was absoutely insane.
In my book, Kvyat has never been more wrong. Even though he crashes into Perez, Kvyat still doesn't make the corner himself. Absurd attempt, and maybe the clearest ever penalty. ;D
Wow. Lack of competition means the poor man is reduced to one-upping himself in this contest for the most deserved F1 penalty.
I can accept that Vettel might not have actually turned left into Leclerc, but letting your car drift across into your teammate's isn't actually any better: https://www.racefans.net/2019/11/19/vettel-denies-turning-left-into-leclerc/
Easily Vettel's fault, that. I did comment that perhaps this was said before he had the chance to review and reassess the situation. He did not turn, sure, but he drifted in order to compromise Leclerc's entry to the next corner. Leclerc refused to budge, and the pair came together as a result of expecting the other driver to back down.
Fault does ultimately lie with the one who wasn't going straight, but I still can't say much more than 55/45 blame to Vettel. Squeezing someone is common in racing and the car on the inside still has a responsibility to the team, even if not under the rules, to avoid contact that could damage his own car and race. If you're Vettel, sure, maybe don't race your teammate that way. But if you're Leclerc, maybe don't resolutely continue traveling in a straight line when contact is assured.
In no way does Leclerc deserve a penalty, but I wouldn't let him off if I was managing the team either.
I see where you are coming from regarding Leclerc, but the way I see it is that if he had moved aside for Vettel then that would set the tone for 2020. Vettel won't try this again, he knows Leclerc won't back down. Leclerc had to keep his line, and Vettel had to see that and stop moving over. That's why I assign blame to Vettel. Using percentages, I'd go 80/20 rather than 55/45.
Vettel was ahead though, and I think if your assumption is that Vettel wouldn't do this again, you're wrong.
Vettel clearly wasn't ahead, or they would not have touched. That's how spaces work, you know. ;) Vettel let his car drift into another car. That alone is wrong, regardless of whether it was a team mate or not.
Bottas starting at the back in Abu Dhabi after new engine bits slotted into his car. Isn't that exciting.