The F1 thread

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

stickyfiddle said:

Ham and Russell currently 3rd and 1st in FP3 with 15 mins to go. Who knows about fuel and engines but they seem to be hardly porpoising compared to yesterday. Could Merc actually be in the mix?

Nope. Looks like a straight fight between Red Bull and Ferrari, at least for the first few races. Very impressive pace (by their standards) from the Alfa's and Haas. Will be interesting to see of they can keep it up in Qualy and the race! 

sweepy

stickyfiddle said:

Ham and Russell currently 3rd and 1st in FP3 with 15 mins to go. Who knows about fuel and engines but they seem to be hardly porpoising compared to yesterday. Could Merc actually be in the mix?

On Hamilton’s last run he had no DRS don the man straight  but then they have had an issue with its deployment today 

sinbaadi

"Human Error", Christian!  

stickyfiddle

sinbaadi said:

"Human Error", Christian!  

Bingo. As agreed by everyone who was paying attention that day. He tried to do the right thing in a situation that should have probably  ended under the safety car but he was keen to not let that happen and broke his previous protocols. 

The press will go nuts over it for the next 48 hours and then hopefully let it go. 

These extracts via motorsport.com speak volumes: 

"The process of identifying lapped cars has up until now been a manual one and human error lead to the fact that not all cars were allowed to un-lap themselves," added the FIA.

"Due to the fact that manual interventions generally carry a higher risk of human error, software has been developed that will, from now on, automate the communication of the list of cars that must un-lap themselves.

"In addition, the 2022 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations have been recently updated to clarify that "all" and not "any" cars must be permitted to un-lap themselves."

It's very clear the FIA are saying that Masi made a mistake that was arguable under the letter of the rules, but very difficult given he'd previously argued the exact same regs the other way in previous races. 

Most importantly they are fixing the main issues that led to it - human decision-making where none is needed, getting rid of team bosses calling the RD mid-race to whinge, and clarifying the ambiguous (i.e. not ambiguous but arguable if you have a title on the line) rules.

stickyfiddle

Anyway.. QUALI TIME!! 

Place your bets. I reckon:

Max
Leclerc
Russell
Sainz
Hamilton
Perez

..with at least one Haas in the top 10. I hope RB and Merc are the other way around but I can't see it happening.

TimmyO

Stefano Domenicali: “Human rights are always at the centre of the discussion”

The discussion: “So, human rights, how do we spin it and just carry on going to these rich countries?” 

TimmyO

FML McLaren 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Good quali session! Wonder who would have predicted a few weeks ago an Alfa, a Hass and an Alpine all in the top ten and all ahead of George Russell's Merc?!

stickyfiddle

Brilliant quali (except McLaren). 

My takeaways: 

• Sainz is every bit as good as I've always said, though Charles is slightly better
• McLaren are just plain slow
• Albon is a damn good driver - just slotted into George's seat and smashed Latifi by a similar margin
• I'm amazed how close the top 2 or 3 teams are - that doesn't happen often with such a big reg change.
• K-MAG!!@!!%!@^!##$!!

fretmeister

KMag is my cheap driver too!

Noice.

menamestom

Yeah interesting qualification.

Let’s hope relative pace differences are handicapped a bit by all that clear air and slipstream potential.

Saying that it was pretty close at the top anyway.

RiftAmps

Fully enjoyed Q, genuinely surprised that Max didn’t get pole but at the same time not surprised at CLs pace…we’ve always known he’s a cracking driver.

Biggest story for me though is Bottas making a fool out of Merc…how embarrassing for them. I’m a big GR fan but that was a cock up on all fronts. Merc race pace looks awful too. I can’t imagine they’ll be moving forwards in the race. K-MAG to finish ahead of one of them too, I’ll put my money on that.

Boromedic

Early days but Merc need to find a fix for the porpoising that's where they're losing speed. Still Lewis has showed why he's won a race in every season he's raced, outqualified the car by some margin over Russell. Which amuses me when folk thought George would be all over him just because he beat Bottas. 

Le Clerc for the win hopefully, Max looked suitably pissed off at the end so I'm happy. Plus the Ferrari looks great!

stickyfiddle

Yeah, Max will be steaming that he's got a car that even Perez can drive quicker than the Merc and he's now got 2 Ferraris to worry about. I'm nervous of Ferrari strategy failing them though.. "we are checking.." is not going to be enough if you want to fight RB for wins. 

I'm convinced Merc will still be the class of the field by the end of the year. They've hardly scratched the surface on real performance optimisation yet because they've had to focus on fixing the porpoising. Once that's under control I can easily see them gaining enough to make it a proper 3-way fight. 

markr76

RiftAmps said:

Fully enjoyed Q, genuinely surprised that Max didn’t get pole but at the same time not surprised at CLs pace…we’ve always known he’s a cracking driver.

Biggest story for me though is Bottas making a fool out of Merc…how embarrassing for them. I’m a big GR fan but that was a cock up on all fronts. Merc race pace looks awful too. I can’t imagine they’ll be moving forwards in the race. K-MAG to finish ahead of one of them too, I’ll put my money on that.

Damn Chris, there’s a lot of hate for Mercedes there! You’re not still upset about us turning you down for your dream job are you!

goldtop

markr76 said:

RiftAmps said:

Fully enjoyed Q, genuinely surprised that Max didn’t get pole but at the same time not surprised at CLs pace…we’ve always known he’s a cracking driver.

Biggest story for me though is Bottas making a fool out of Merc…how embarrassing for them. I’m a big GR fan but that was a cock up on all fronts. Merc race pace looks awful too. I can’t imagine they’ll be moving forwards in the race. K-MAG to finish ahead of one of them too, I’ll put my money on that.

Damn Chris, there’s a lot of hate for Mercedes there! You’re not still upset about us turning you down for your dream job are you!

:-o I assume there must be an in-joke. Otherwise that looks out of order!

And, I don't think @RiftAmps  ;is hating on MB - it's just an accurate round-up of where we are. 

RiftAmps

markr76 said:

RiftAmps said:

Fully enjoyed Q, genuinely surprised that Max didn’t get pole but at the same time not surprised at CLs pace…we’ve always known he’s a cracking driver.

Biggest story for me though is Bottas making a fool out of Merc…how embarrassing for them. I’m a big GR fan but that was a cock up on all fronts. Merc race pace looks awful too. I can’t imagine they’ll be moving forwards in the race. K-MAG to finish ahead of one of them too, I’ll put my money on that.

Damn Chris, there’s a lot of hate for Mercedes there! You’re not still upset about us turning you down for your dream job are you!

I knew you’d bite

markr76

goldtop said:

markr76 said:

RiftAmps said:

Fully enjoyed Q, genuinely surprised that Max didn’t get pole but at the same time not surprised at CLs pace…we’ve always known he’s a cracking driver.

Biggest story for me though is Bottas making a fool out of Merc…how embarrassing for them. I’m a big GR fan but that was a cock up on all fronts. Merc race pace looks awful too. I can’t imagine they’ll be moving forwards in the race. K-MAG to finish ahead of one of them too, I’ll put my money on that.

Damn Chris, there’s a lot of hate for Mercedes there! You’re not still upset about us turning you down for your dream job are you!

:-o I assume there must be an in-joke. Otherwise that looks out of order!

And, I don't think @RiftAmps  ;is hating on MB - it's just an accurate round-up of where we are. 

It’s an in joke. Chris is a friend. 

markr76

RiftAmps said:

markr76 said:

RiftAmps said:

Fully enjoyed Q, genuinely surprised that Max didn’t get pole but at the same time not surprised at CLs pace…we’ve always known he’s a cracking driver.

Biggest story for me though is Bottas making a fool out of Merc…how embarrassing for them. I’m a big GR fan but that was a cock up on all fronts. Merc race pace looks awful too. I can’t imagine they’ll be moving forwards in the race. K-MAG to finish ahead of one of them too, I’ll put my money on that.

Damn Chris, there’s a lot of hate for Mercedes there! You’re not still upset about us turning you down for your dream job are you!

I knew you’d bite

Lol.

goldtop

markr76 said:

goldtop said:

markr76 said:

RiftAmps said:

Fully enjoyed Q, genuinely surprised that Max didn’t get pole but at the same time not surprised at CLs pace…we’ve always known he’s a cracking driver.

Biggest story for me though is Bottas making a fool out of Merc…how embarrassing for them. I’m a big GR fan but that was a cock up on all fronts. Merc race pace looks awful too. I can’t imagine they’ll be moving forwards in the race. K-MAG to finish ahead of one of them too, I’ll put my money on that.

Damn Chris, there’s a lot of hate for Mercedes there! You’re not still upset about us turning you down for your dream job are you!

:-o I assume there must be an in-joke. Otherwise that looks out of order!

And, I don't think @RiftAmps  ;is hating on MB - it's just an accurate round-up of where we are. 

It’s an in joke. Chris is a friend. 

Phew!