The F1 thread

Cols

Questions need to be asked about why Verstappen got off with the lightest of slaps on the wrist.  It wasn’t just an unsafe release, he then proceeded to smack into Bottas twice.

stickyfiddle

Cols said:

Questions need to be asked about why Verstappen got off with the lightest of slaps on the wrist.  It wasn’t just an unsafe release, he then proceeded to smack into Bottas twice.

Yup. You can't actually blame him for the release, but the team at least should be hit harder. A 3-car crash in the Monaco pitlane in particular could be really horrible.

I'd prefer a blanket big penalty (e.g. stop & go) for unsafe release applied every single time it happens. It needs to be a significantly bigger penalty than the potential gain that can be made, to ensure teams don't do it. 

prowla

stickyfiddle said:

Cols said:

Questions need to be asked about why Verstappen got off with the lightest of slaps on the wrist.  It wasn’t just an unsafe release, he then proceeded to smack into Bottas twice.

Yup. You can't actually blame him for the release, but the team at least should be hit harder. A 3-car crash in the Monaco pitlane in particular could be really horrible.

I'd prefer a blanket big penalty (e.g. stop & go) for unsafe release applied every single time it happens. It needs to be a significantly bigger penalty than the potential gain that can be made, to ensure teams don't do it. 

The unsafe release was a slam-dunk and he damaged the other driver's car and cost him a race position, yet they gave him the most lenient penalty allowed; that is probably the stupidest decision in ages.

In contrast there was a racing incident and the driver at fault there was given double the penalty.

And LeClerc drove his car 'round the track dangerously leaving debris in his wake; he should've been black-flagged for that.

sweepy

Monaco is becoming increasingly irrelevant as a venue 

prowla

sweepy said:

Monaco is becoming increasingly irrelevant as a venue 

The race itself isn't particularly good, is it?

sweepy

prowla said:

sweepy said:

Monaco is becoming increasingly irrelevant as a venue 

The race itself isn't particularly good, is it?

Only fun when it rains or there is a stupid incident, roll on Canada

thumpingrug

prowla said:

sweepy said:

Monaco is becoming increasingly irrelevant as a venue 

The race itself isn't particularly good, is it?

Can anyone remember the last time there was decent racing at Monaco

Cols

Monaco hasn’t been suitable for Grand Prix cars for several generations.  But there are plenty of other less worthy races on the calendar where overtaking is near impossible.  At least Monaco retains a scrap of charm.

Amazingly, Helmut Marko is accusing the Monaco race stewards of favouritism for giving Max a penalty at all.  You couldn’t make this shit up.

stickyfiddle

Cols said:

Monaco hasn’t been suitable for Grand Prix cars for several generations.  But there are plenty of other less worthy races on the calendar where overtaking is near impossible.  At least Monaco retains a scrap of charm.

Amazingly, Helmut Marko is accusing the Monaco race stewards of favouritism for giving Max a penalty at all.  You couldn’t make this shit up.

Sadly, its not news that Marko is a helmet...

Cols

stickyfiddle said:

Cols said:

Amazingly, Helmut Marko is accusing the Monaco race stewards of favouritism for giving Max a penalty at all.  You couldn’t make this shit up.

Sadly, its not news that Marko is a helmet...

Thing is, I’m pretty sure that if it was Gasly who’d been playing bumper cars all the way down the pit lane Marko would be slagging him off and complaining about how he cost the team valuable points through his childish, dangerous antics.

sweepy

I think the minimum penalty was applied due to the ridiculously cramped pit lane and the poor line of sight

Cols

sweepy said:

I think the minimum penalty was applied due to the ridiculously cramped pit lane and the poor line of sight

Fair enough; the drivers can see nothing behind them and they’re reliant on their pit crew - the unsafe release is totally on the team, and they did have their view restricted.  

After that it was Verstappen’s decision to steer into Bottas - twice - in a cramped pit lane teeming with mechanics.  That merits considerably more than a 5 second penalty in my book.

stickyfiddle

sweepy said:

I think the minimum penalty was applied due to the ridiculously cramped pit lane and the poor line of sight

I feel like that should be a reason for a harsher penalty, not a more lenient one. I understand the team might not have been able to see, I just don't care - unsafe is unsafe and if it had been a fraction worse it would've been a 3-car pile-up in the pits potentially also involving numerous mechanics, tv folks, photographers, FIA folk, etc.

I don't blame Max for the unsafe release, but given he drove Bottas into the wall while alongside him he shouldn't get away unscathed either.  

If the teams need to change something to be able to judge whether it's safe then they need to act on it and introduce a camera for the guy with the light controller, or whatever. But that doesn't excuse it this time. 

stickyfiddle

Also, how good was this move from Sainz - round the outside of both Toro Rossos at T3 and barely mentioned on the Sky feed.

https://streamable.com/mvnte

stickyfiddle

Not F1, but BMW and Ford both dropping out of WEC. With the hypercar stuff still up in the air the top end of the whole series is looking a bit shaky...

But Ford have excellent liveries for LeMans, based on all the previous winners. Just a shame the Gulf-ish one isn't quite orange enough.

not_the_dj

Loving those GTs.

The GT Pro battles in WEC this year have been fantastic, some of my favourite racing of any formula. 

Garthy

Heartfeltdawn said:

stickyfiddle said:

Cols said:

Imterlagos is for the chop.

Another classic track gone, to be replaced by a boring TilkeDrome.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/interlagos-to-be-dropped-from-2020-calendar/

Yeah, though there will be a chunky bit of fighting between the parties yet, I reckon. If Bernie was in charge I might suggest it was a tactic to get Interlagos to pay more, but we haven't seen enough from Liberty to know whether they're employ the same tricks.

I can understand a desire to move away from Sao Paulo, as it's a pretty dangerous spot, but the track is one of the all-time greats and has been for almost 50 years, on and off. Is there any chance of having Tilke & Co just rebuild it in Rio? 

No chance. Look what they did to Silverstone to make it F1 standard, thus ballsing up a great circuit. 

FIM changed Silverstone for MotoGP.

skullfunkerry

thumpingrug said:

prowla said:

sweepy said:

Monaco is becoming increasingly irrelevant as a venue 

The race itself isn't particularly good, is it?

Can anyone remember the last time there was decent racing at Monaco

That was probably the year that Schumi parked his car at Rascasse and then had to start from the pitlane. He nearly won, if I recall...

goldtop

Oh dear... :-/

Majorscale

Yeah, that got interesting....!!