The F1 thread

Cols

guitars4you said:

I use to watch loads of F1 - But have not seen many races at all in the last 5/6 years as you almost know who will win before the race starts - Just far to predictable and very little competition for Lewis - I might watch a BBC web site race hi-lights with the whole race in 5-10 mins

However , just feels, at the moment as though it might be different this year and more competition/excitement etc  - So am going to watch this weekend, live, and find out if I can get my taste buds working again 

After decades of faithfully watching every Grand Prix from start to finish on BBC, ITV and Sky I downgraded myself to C4 highlights last year.  Didn’t regret it for a minute.

thumpingrug

Lots of cars there within a relatively short gap of each other.  Id say it's much closer than in previous years.  Either Mercedes are carrying lead weights or they are going to have problems this year.

stickyfiddle

Interesting to hear Norris describing a lack of confidence in the car in certain areas - suggests there's even more time there. Safe to assume Merc have little more in the tanks but could we actually see a 3-way fight, at least in some races? When was the last time that happened - 2012? 

stickyfiddle

Great quali. Looks like it should be tight between Merc and RB, Ferrari are back, and Gasly & Tsunoda are looking like a great pairing in an improved car. 

And Alonso is already making Ocon look silly...

roundthebend

I like Ocon, he's a bit soft though.
Really good to see the Alpha Tauri pair right amongst it, I'm no expert but Tsunoda seems to have a bit of grit about him which will be exciting if the car continues to keep him competitive.
I'm only just getting back into F1 but this season is shaping up nicely.

thumpingrug

That was as close as it gets right to the last lap.  Its shaping up to be a good season.

boogieman

Vettel looks fucked already, I thought he might be much closer to Stroll’s time. I don’t like him but it’s a shame to see how his confidence is shot. 

Cols

boogieman said:

Vettel looks fucked already, I thought he might be much closer to Stroll’s time. I don’t like him but it’s a shame to see how his confidence is shot. 

Very disappointing.  I believe he had his last flying lap wrecked by Mazespin, but frankly he shouldn’t have been in drop zone territory anyway.

Boromedic

Just watched it, let's hope Red Bull don't get scuppered by reliability. That's been their Achilles heel at times, can't see Honda making improvements and updates through the season. Max destroyed Sergio, you can tell the great drivers by the gaps to their team mates. 

sweepy

Boromedic said:

Just watched it, let's hope Red Bull don't get scuppered by reliability. That's been their Achilles heel at times, can't see Honda making improvements and updates through the season. Max destroyed Sergio, you can tell the great drivers by the gaps to their team mates. 

Sergio was on the Medium tyre, Max on the soft so I wouldn’t write him off for a podium 

Boromedic

Good spot, in my tired state I never noticed that! Weird of Red Bull to leave him hanging out there, but I guess they were looking at alternate strategies. Max will of course be their priority as he's their best chance of a title. 

Interesting that on the Medium, low fuel, Mercedes is 3-4 tenths faster than the Red Bull a lap. Let's see what happens tomorrow, tyre wear and reliability wise it should be interesting. Max will make a gap on the softs and then he should take the win one would think. 

stickyfiddle

Yeah, Checo did fine, just got caught out on strategy as the track was evolving rapidly at the end of Q2. 

Vettel was caught by both Mazepin and Sainz's yellow flags so not as bad as it looked, though obviously not ideal. Again with conditions getting much quicker as the session went on his previous lap was never going to be enough. 

Mazepin actually overtook everyone he fucked over just before the start of the lap, so they're even more pissed off. Making as good an impression as expected... 

And Ocon apparently not affected by Mazepin but slowed for Sainz so I guess the jury's out until later today. 

Overall it's almost a shame we get a new formula next year - *just* as things are really bunching up to the point we can't guess what will happen in the race.

Cols

sweepy said:

Boromedic said:

Just watched it, let's hope Red Bull don't get scuppered by reliability. That's been their Achilles heel at times, can't see Honda making improvements and updates through the season. Max destroyed Sergio, you can tell the great drivers by the gaps to their team mates. 

Sergio was on the Medium tyre, Max on the soft so I wouldn’t write him off for a podium 

Nope, Verstappen was also on the medium tyres and 0.3s faster than Perez.  Sergio was simply slower on the same tyre.

It’s a respectably close margin, but unfortunately in this case the team gambled unsuccessfully that both cars would be quick enough to make it through to Q3 without resorting to the soft tyre.  

Meanwhile, the unloved Gasly did what Perez couldn’t and wrestled his car through to P5 on the medium tyres.

Perez has a lot of legitimately fast cars ahead of him on the grid with four of those on mediums.  He’ll have his work cut out to bag a podium today.

chillidoggy

Not a good start for Vettel. I maintain he should have retired gracefully. Stroll is gonna piss on him.

markr76

It will take Checo a bit of time to fully get up to speed with Redbull. Although I doubt he’d get the upper hand on Verstappen very often. Verstappen is exceptional. Checo is a very very good number 2. Redbull are looking very impressive to me. Car looks like it’s on rails in Verstappen’s hands.

Cols

Anyone watched Drive To Survive?

Stroll Sr does not look like a pleasant boss.  The sort of person who’s never happier than when he sees a group of employees soiling themselves in terror as he walks into the room.

markr76

Very impressed with Redbulls new rear suspension too, from an aerodynamic perspective. Very neat and tidy. Not sure how robust it will be over the season though. Could break easily with a good knock. Or a heavy curb. If they’ve worked out a way to keep it stong and stable though. It’s a really good innovation.

Cols

markr76 said:

Very impressed with Redbulls new rear suspension too, from an aerodynamic perspective. Very neat and tidy. Not sure how robust it will be over the season though. Could break easily with a good knock. Or a heavy curb. If they’ve worked out a way to keep it stong and stable though. It’s a really good innovation.

That sounds suspiciously like “Nice rear suspension, be a shame if anything happened to it...”

markr76

Cols said:

markr76 said:

Very impressed with Redbulls new rear suspension too, from an aerodynamic perspective. Very neat and tidy. Not sure how robust it will be over the season though. Could break easily with a good knock. Or a heavy curb. If they’ve worked out a way to keep it stong and stable though. It’s a really good innovation.

That sounds suspiciously like “Nice rear suspension, be a shame if anything happened to it...”

Not at all. I’m always impressed with clever innovation. Even from our competition. Just pointing out that from a structural point of view it’s not as strong/robust. Fantastic from an aero point of view. Good on them if they’ve managed to get it working properly. 

stickyfiddle

Stolen from the F1technical forum...

GoranF1 wrote: ↑
 
Vettel :i need time to adopt to the car
Perez : i need time to adopt to the car
Tsunoda: i need time to adopt to the car
Alonso......