The F1 thread

Modellista

prowla said:

Modellista said:

Hamilton’s dominance is total. He can get tyres to last forever. Got fastest lap for fun at the end when Bottas was haemorrhaging time. Vettel on brand new tyres was only fractionally quicker. Surely the championship is in the bag now.  

Shame for Norris with Ricciardo spoiling his race at the end, but a strong showing and surely a glittering career ahead. Welcome back McLaren, we’ve missed you.  

Shit track though. 

Ricciardo came back onto the track unsafely and forced Norris off = 5 second penalty.

These stewards are so inconsistent!

It was good seeing McLaren up there.

And yes - rubbish track with loads of pretend track limits.

I suppose you’re comparing this to the Vettel incident? 

The important words in the stewards’ decision this time are “and gained an advantage”.  Ricciardo was coming from behind and forced his opponent off. Not allowed.  Already being in front and defending is a different kettle of cheese.  

However I’m sure we’ve had enough of discussing penalties. 

guitars4you

Well the French GP was probably the most boring race I've seen for years - So processional

I recorded it and watched it later - glad I could go on x 2 or x 6 speed - BLAND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cols

I had a nasty feeling about this race beforehand and, for the first time in ages, made a decision to skip the full race and pick up the highlights later if it looked like there was anything interesting.

Haven’t even been tempted to watch the highlights yet.

sweepy

The circuit design gives me a migraine ! stupid bloody coloured stripes and no kerbs. It should be dropped next year along with Spain and Baku

guitars4you

sweepy said:

The circuit design gives me a migraine ! stupid bloody coloured stripes and no kerbs. 

agree - That circuit looked like something from a kids Wacky Races program - That is probably an insult to Wacky Races

HAL9000

sweepy said:

The circuit design gives me a migraine ! stupid bloody coloured stripes and no kerbs. It should be dropped next year along with Spain and Baku

Indeed. All F1 racing should be at either Montreal or Spa.

stickyfiddle

Interlagos and Bahrain can have the odd race too, please. And maybe old-Silverstone? 

The problem us we spend all of Friday and half of Saturday letting everyone test & tweak to make their cars as good as possible, then we spend Saturday afternoon working out who is fastest and putting that guy at the front, then we spend Sunday wondering why the guys behind can't keep up EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE LITERALLY ALREADY BEHIND BECAUSE THEY'RE SLOWER. 

It's madness to do all of that and expect good racing every race.

Then we have crap cars that have way too much grip so they're really fast on their own and we get lap records all the time but they're awful for racing against other cars, plus cheese tyres that mean no-one can push and it's a lottery as to which of the midfield teams has the right setup window because no fucker understands the tyres properly so they all turn up with their fingers crossed and hoping the wind is in the right direction for their car.

And crap circuits where you can overtake off the track and you need a penalty because it's just a different bit of tarmac rather than grass where we'd all be fine if someone did an overtake over the grass on a straight bit because it isn't inherently faster and takes balls of fucking steel. 

And then you give all the money to the guy at the front who is already at the front because he has all the money already, and the guys at the back go bankrupt every 3 seasons because they're forced to buy stupid expensive engines off the guy at the front who is already made of money.

That turned into a bit of a rant... 

not_the_dj

Reverse grids, success ballast and balance of performance then ;-)

stickyfiddle

not_the_dj said:

Reverse grids, success ballast and balance of performance then ;-)

You don’t need BOP if you have the others. After the mess they made of the Astons’ chances at Le Mans I’m fine without BOP..!

Doesn't the blancpain GT series do something clever? I can’t remember what..

not_the_dj

Added weight I think. Not sure if they also have additional pit stop time penalties like in British GT as well. 

Modellista

stickyfiddle said:

Interlagos and Bahrain can have the odd race too, please. And maybe old-Silverstone? 

The problem us we spend all of Friday and half of Saturday letting everyone test & tweak to make their cars as good as possible, then we spend Saturday afternoon working out who is fastest and putting that guy at the front, then we spend Sunday wondering why the guys behind can't keep up EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE LITERALLY ALREADY BEHIND BECAUSE THEY'RE SLOWER. 

It's madness to do all of that and expect good racing every race.

Then we have crap cars that have way too much grip so they're really fast on their own and we get lap records all the time but they're awful for racing against other cars, plus cheese tyres that mean no-one can push and it's a lottery as to which of the midfield teams has the right setup window because no fucker understands the tyres properly so they all turn up with their fingers crossed and hoping the wind is in the right direction for their car.

And crap circuits where you can overtake off the track and you need a penalty because it's just a different bit of tarmac rather than grass where we'd all be fine if someone did an overtake over the grass on a straight bit because it isn't inherently faster and takes balls of fucking steel. 

And then you give all the money to the guy at the front who is already at the front because he has all the money already, and the guys at the back go bankrupt every 3 seasons because they're forced to buy stupid expensive engines off the guy at the front who is already made of money.

That turned into a bit of a rant... 

All fair points. 

One simple answer. 

Formula 1.5. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Formula1Point5/comments/c4uv51/onboard_4way_check_out_the_dramatic_last_lap_of/

Modellista

^ in that alternative universe, Carlos Sainz was a worthy winner, Kimi is on the podium and Gasly is still nowhere. 

stickyfiddle

Modellista said:

stickyfiddle said:

Interlagos and Bahrain can have the odd race too, please. And maybe old-Silverstone? 

The problem us we spend all of Friday and half of Saturday letting everyone test & tweak to make their cars as good as possible, then we spend Saturday afternoon working out who is fastest and putting that guy at the front, then we spend Sunday wondering why the guys behind can't keep up EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE LITERALLY ALREADY BEHIND BECAUSE THEY'RE SLOWER. 

It's madness to do all of that and expect good racing every race.

Then we have crap cars that have way too much grip so they're really fast on their own and we get lap records all the time but they're awful for racing against other cars, plus cheese tyres that mean no-one can push and it's a lottery as to which of the midfield teams has the right setup window because no fucker understands the tyres properly so they all turn up with their fingers crossed and hoping the wind is in the right direction for their car.

And crap circuits where you can overtake off the track and you need a penalty because it's just a different bit of tarmac rather than grass where we'd all be fine if someone did an overtake over the grass on a straight bit because it isn't inherently faster and takes balls of fucking steel. 

And then you give all the money to the guy at the front who is already at the front because he has all the money already, and the guys at the back go bankrupt every 3 seasons because they're forced to buy stupid expensive engines off the guy at the front who is already made of money.

That turned into a bit of a rant... 

All fair points. 

One simple answer. 

Formula 1.5. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Formula1Point5/comments/c4uv51/onboard_4way_check_out_the_dramatic_last_lap_of/

Yes! I've been a big F1.5 follower since it got going. It's a much more interesting series!

Cols

There’s plenty of chat about how unbearably dull F1 has become.  If I recall correctly we had the same chat last year after the French Grand Prix.  And then after that, we had a good race at Austria and everyone was happy again.  Some circuits just don’t produce good racing without a splash of rain, and Paul Ricard seems to be one of them.

The differences here from 2018 are a) Mercedes are scampering off into the distance and no other team can mount an effective challenge, b) Bottas 2.0 has rolled back to Bottas 1.0, meaning we don’t even get a teammate war and c) the penalties of late have left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.  

prowla

So, it seems like the drivers & commentators want to allow a bit of on-track argy-bargy then...

GoldenEraGuitars

Leclerc was quick to move before Max started spraying the champagne. Ferrari drivers seem to be rather petulant...

TimmyO

Well that race had a bit of everything! 

Also, the long and painful seasons as a McLaren fan look like they may be being repaid at last. Recent form form looks.like they might consolidate a clear 4th team status as Renault fail to keep up in the development stakes. 

Is it just me or is Gasly seriously underperforming the car? His agent should probably start backchanneling Formula E teams... 

Majorscale

Excellent result. So happy for Max and Honda. 

When he stuttered at the start I was disappointed as it looked to be another Ferrari/Merc battle. He did good. Big nail in Gasley’s 2020 RB seat...

goldtop

Clever strategy of the day: Mercedes getting Bottas to move aside, allowing an all- fired-up Verstappen to go and get physical with a gotta-win-soon Leclerc. Almost paid off.

prowla

There are some drivers who are following the rules and there are some who think they don't apply to them.

There seems to be some pressure to change the rules, which may be the way forward.

But meanwhile it's not a level playing field.

Verstappen forced Leclerc off the track.

Leclerc should have established himself by not giving way; they would both have been out of this race, but a line would have been set.

As it is, he's just set himself up as easy meat for anybody who wants to put their elbows out.

Great drive by Verstappen though; without him, the race would've just been the normal procession.

(Interesting that both Hamilton and Vettel compromised their races by driving over the kerbs and damaging their cars.) (Plus Fezza stuffed Vettel with the pit stop.)