The F1 thread

stickyfiddle

markr76 said:

When Mercedes bought us. There was actually moans around the room. As we didn’t want another manufacturer involved. We were still sore from what happened with Honda, which was a massive shock when it happened. 

The romantic in me and a lot of the others there wanted Brawn Gp to stick around. Become the new Williams etc. 

Mercedes kind of approached f1 very half heartedly at first. With f1 you either do it or not bother!
thats why I’m always so shocked when teams like Hispania and manor turn up. It always feel like they haven’t done their homework properly! 

Which is why the expenditure needs sorting really.

Amen to that. As much as I’ve loved Hamilton’s run and enjoyed Vettel’s before it, I can’t see any disadvantages to levelling the playing field via budget caps and redistributing the prize money so you don’t have little guys 1s+ off the back of the grid and potentially going bust every year or 2. 

Obviously that is going to be difficult for the bigger teams but hopefully can be done without too much pain via a mix of moving some people to other motorsport programs and some moving from bigger to smaller teams. 

Fretwired

More on Hamilton salary saga .. Mercedes offer is a pay cut ...

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-20m-far-as-mercedes-will-go/

stickyfiddle

I doubt that sort of info would leak, but I also know how negotiations work. Mercedes are likely to be happy to keep paying roughly the same as now (30m-ish) so of course he is asking for more and they are saying a similar amount less. That's Negotiation 101

Fretwired

stickyfiddle said:

I doubt that sort of info would leak, but I also know how negotiations work. Mercedes are likely to be happy to keep paying roughly the same as now (30m-ish) so of course he is asking for more and they are saying a similar amount less. That's Negotiation 101

Mercedes haven't denied it and the £20 mill limit comment is attributed to Wolff. You can't sack staff and introduce pay cuts while the driver continues to earn a lot of cash. And leaks are sometimes deliberate.

Hamilton is also a recognised brand - he earns serious cash from promoting products. A solution could be for Mercedes to get someone else to top up his salary via some form of sponsorship deal, thus getting the team off the hook. Marco suggested Petronas could do it.

Vettel is on the market and Verstappen has an exit clause from his contract should Honda decide to leave F1 after 2021. They are down to one team for 2021. Is it worth it for them? This strengthens Mercedes hands as Hamilton gets older.

markr76

Planet f1 is like the sun newspaper of the f1 world. When they say sources close to Mercedes said. Those sources wouldn’t be in the inner circle of trust for very long. Plus I doubt anyone apart from Toto, Lewis and the Daimler board really know what the numbers are. None of them would talk!

Fretwired

markr76 said:

Planet f1 is like the sun newspaper of the f1 world. When they say sources close to Mercedes said. Those sources wouldn’t be in the inner circle of trust for very long. Plus I doubt anyone apart from Toto, Lewis and the Daimler board really know what the numbers are. None of them would talk!

They are quoting a Daily Mail interview ... in fairness to the fail they have been right in the past. Who knows.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-8488345/Take-pay-cut-Lewis-Mercedes-willing-offer-Hamilton-half-40m-salary-demands.html

More interesting is the Telegraph's interview with Vestappen ... he thinks Hamilton will be leaving F1 soon at which time he'll be top dog. Seems to indicate he thinks Hamilton is better than him .. really odd.

markr76

Well I’d like to see max in our car along side Lewis. It would be a nightmare to police! But I’d like to see who was the best in the same car. I’m biased. But I’d still put my money on Hamilton. I think he’d play mind games with max. He’s still a little immature, although he’s improved massively. But I think his head would go. Hamilton always says he’s a very emotional character. But I think he’s very strong that way. He caught rosberg out that way!

Fretwired

markr76 said:

Well I’d like to see max in our car along side Lewis. It would be a nightmare to police! But I’d like to see who was the best in the same car. I’m biased. But I’d still put my money on Hamilton. I think he’d play mind games with max. He’s still a little immature, although he’s improved massively. But I think his head would go. Hamilton always says he’s a very emotional character. But I think he’s very strong that way. He caught rosberg out that way!

I agree .. that would be great. Perhaps Mercedes could build some more cars and we could just have a Merc race to find out who is best.

Bottas did well in qualifying.

:-)

markr76

He did. I didn’t think we’d have a gap like that. I know Redbull we’re struggling to turn the softs on. But I thought they’d a lot more engine power coming for qualifying.
I won’t get too excited though as I think max will be strong tomorrow. 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

I knew Ferrari had some concerns over their new car but wow, that really was a stinker today! They'll be crying out for that update by the time it finally comes!

Although Mercedes are worryingly far ahead, it looks like things are pretty tight in the midfield, so hopefully we'll still see plenty of good racing further down the field even if the Mercs disappear into the distance!

JanekLubanski

I'm getting interested in F1 again after a 30 year or so hiatus. So many technical changes over the years. Take tyre compounds.....is there 6 or 7 different tyre types now? Just 3 when I can recall......slicks, intermediates or wets. And that's before all of this ERS and DRS stuff and the likes. Watching highlights of Austria qualifying now.

stickyfiddle

3 spot penalty for Lewis after Red Bull complained. Can't disagree with it tbh - he passed a yellow then very soon a green but if he didn't lift at all for the yellow then that should be an easy black & white penalty that applies to everyone. 

Lando starting 3rd!!  

Fretwired

stickyfiddle said:

3 spot penalty for Lewis after Red Bull complained. Can't disagree with it tbh - he passed a yellow then very soon a green but if he didn't lift at all for the yellow then that should be an easy black & white penalty that applies to everyone. 

Lando starting 3rd!!  

Slam dunk penalty .. why wasn't it spotted yesterday? Got to root for rookie Lando ..  Ham will be fired up so it should make for an interesting race.

stickyfiddle

Fretwired said:

stickyfiddle said:

3 spot penalty for Lewis after Red Bull complained. Can't disagree with it tbh - he passed a yellow then very soon a green but if he didn't lift at all for the yellow then that should be an easy black & white penalty that applies to everyone. 

Lando starting 3rd!!  

Slam dunk penalty .. why wasn't it spotted yesterday? Got to root for rookie Lando ..  Ham will be fired up so it should make for an interesting race.

Yeah, no idea tbh. Yellow flags should always be absolutely non-negotiable and "I didn't see it" is never an excuse. His 360-camera view was on youtube last night so no idea why the stewards flip-flopped tbh. Even if there was confusion it should be 100% clear - if there is a yellow you slow down even if there is also a green or whatever. 

5 mins to go!!  

stickyfiddle

Good race so far. I'll take one of the Mercs shaking itself to bits and Norris having a podium please. And Russell 12th at the 50 lap mark!  

EDIT: Lap 51. Oh shit. Sorry George...

Fretwired

Poor old Ham .. well done Norris .. Merc should have told Bottas to let Ham by .. that's what Ferrari would have done. Bottas would still have won.

Next week should be interesting ...

stickyfiddle

What a race!! Cracking last few laps. 

Same time next week?  

AustrianJohn

I don’t understand the penalty for Hamilton. (I’m not a Hamilton fan-boy.) He was on the racing line. Where was he supposed to go?

stickyfiddle

AustrianJohn said:

I don’t understand the penalty for Hamilton. (I’m not a Hamilton fan-boy.) He was on the racing line. Where was he supposed to go?

Albon was also on the racing line but most of his car was ahead. Ham should’ve turned even tighter or slowed a little. Racing incident more than anything, but I’d rather see small penalties for that than carte blanche given to the sot of elbows-out stuff we’ve often seen in recent years.

Fretwired

AustrianJohn said:

I don’t understand the penalty for Hamilton. (I’m not a Hamilton fan-boy.) He was on the racing line. Where was he supposed to go?

I think it depends on the angle you look from .. I did think it harsh. Albon showed a lack of race craft. He should have stuck to Hamilton's gearbox round the corner and then mugged him along the straight - he could have won the race.