The F1 thread

Cols

I prefer a spot of mechanical unreliability.  Faultless reliability makes the races predictable, and I’m happier sitting down on a Sunday afternoon not knowing how things are going to pan out.

fretmeister

That's my biggest annoyance with the current rules.

I fully understand that they can't go back to 1 engine per session, and dedicated qualifying engines that were expected to blow up 5 feet over the finish line, but an engine that has to last a third of the season is not pushing the edge of the envelope either.

chillidoggy

fretmeister said:

chillidoggy said:

I think mechanical unreliability cheats viewers from seeing the drivers duke it out on the track. I remember giving up watching F1 in the 70’s because I got fed up with so many of them falling by the wayside. The Red Bulls and Gasly failing to finish was sad, but hopefully they’ll get their act together from now on, and provide us with plenty of edge of the seat stuff.

Unreliability is a part of the constructors championship. It's really no different to a driver making a mistake.

Doesn’t change my view, though.

Boromedic

RiftAmps said:

Boromedic said:

but the reality is he outqualified Russell by quite a margin.

GR messed up T1 on his final lap, lost just under a second compared to LH. In reality, LH was only 3-tenths faster

Fair enough, I never saw that tbh, I shall take back my thoughts. 

fretmeister

chillidoggy said:

fretmeister said:

chillidoggy said:

I think mechanical unreliability cheats viewers from seeing the drivers duke it out on the track. I remember giving up watching F1 in the 70’s because I got fed up with so many of them falling by the wayside. The Red Bulls and Gasly failing to finish was sad, but hopefully they’ll get their act together from now on, and provide us with plenty of edge of the seat stuff.

Unreliability is a part of the constructors championship. It's really no different to a driver making a mistake.

Doesn’t change my view, though.

Of course not.

Personally I think having perfect cars that are not on the edge of falling apart cheats the viewers of the manufacturers properly duking it out. 

If they were allowed to run right on the edge again I'd love to see stuff like on screen temp gauges giving a hint as to when an engine might let go.

chillidoggy

fretmeister said:

chillidoggy said:

fretmeister said:

chillidoggy said:

I think mechanical unreliability cheats viewers from seeing the drivers duke it out on the track. I remember giving up watching F1 in the 70’s because I got fed up with so many of them falling by the wayside. The Red Bulls and Gasly failing to finish was sad, but hopefully they’ll get their act together from now on, and provide us with plenty of edge of the seat stuff.

Unreliability is a part of the constructors championship. It's really no different to a driver making a mistake.

Doesn’t change my view, though.

Of course not.

Personally I think having perfect cars that are not on the edge of falling apart cheats the viewers of the manufacturers properly duking it out. 

If they were allowed to run right on the edge again I'd love to see stuff like on screen temp gauges giving a hint as to when an engine might let go.

Granted, that would be a spectacle. Maybe they should wind up the engines to grenade level in those utterly pointless sprint races!

fretmeister

chillidoggy said:

fretmeister said:

chillidoggy said:

fretmeister said:

chillidoggy said:

I think mechanical unreliability cheats viewers from seeing the drivers duke it out on the track. I remember giving up watching F1 in the 70’s because I got fed up with so many of them falling by the wayside. The Red Bulls and Gasly failing to finish was sad, but hopefully they’ll get their act together from now on, and provide us with plenty of edge of the seat stuff.

Unreliability is a part of the constructors championship. It's really no different to a driver making a mistake.

Doesn’t change my view, though.

Of course not.

Personally I think having perfect cars that are not on the edge of falling apart cheats the viewers of the manufacturers properly duking it out. 

If they were allowed to run right on the edge again I'd love to see stuff like on screen temp gauges giving a hint as to when an engine might let go.

Granted, that would be a spectacle. Maybe they should wind up the engines to grenade level in those utterly pointless sprint races!

That's a great idea - no engine penalty for one going pop in the sprint races and let them see what they can really do. Extra super soft tyre option  as well. We'd see the proper speed of the cars then.

I might even be in favour of them if we had that.

Simonh

I recall talking to John Button at Silverstone when Lewis and Jenson were at mclaren together, his opinion was that Lewis would always be able to pull something extra out of the car and put it 2 or 3 places higher than it should really get, but if you wanted to be certain of the car crossing the finishing line then Jenson was the man for that.

markr76

fretmeister said:

chillidoggy said:

fretmeister said:

chillidoggy said:

fretmeister said:

chillidoggy said:

I think mechanical unreliability cheats viewers from seeing the drivers duke it out on the track. I remember giving up watching F1 in the 70’s because I got fed up with so many of them falling by the wayside. The Red Bulls and Gasly failing to finish was sad, but hopefully they’ll get their act together from now on, and provide us with plenty of edge of the seat stuff.

Unreliability is a part of the constructors championship. It's really no different to a driver making a mistake.

Doesn’t change my view, though.

Of course not.

Personally I think having perfect cars that are not on the edge of falling apart cheats the viewers of the manufacturers properly duking it out. 

If they were allowed to run right on the edge again I'd love to see stuff like on screen temp gauges giving a hint as to when an engine might let go.

Granted, that would be a spectacle. Maybe they should wind up the engines to grenade level in those utterly pointless sprint races!

That's a great idea - no engine penalty for one going pop in the sprint races and let them see what they can really do. Extra super soft tyre option  as well. We'd see the proper speed of the cars then.

I might even be in favour of them if we had that.

They’d also need to up the points on the table and allow extra in the budget incase of car damage. It’s just not worth taking the risk at the minute. Especially with the garage curfew in place. 

musicegbdf

Simonh said:

I recall talking to John Button at Silverstone when Lewis and Jenson were at mclaren together, his opinion was that Lewis would always be able to pull something extra out of the car and put it 2 or 3 places higher than it should really get, but if you wanted to be certain of the car crossing the finishing line then Jenson was the man for that.

I think that comment was correct at that moment in time but LH has moved a long way forward in nursing his car and tyres than his first  few years. Maybe he watched Button...

Boromedic

Button ain't fit to polish Hamilton's car, decent driver but lucky to win a solitary title that I'd personally preferred Rubens to have won.

sinbaadi

Breakdowns are good for headlines but not for the spectacle, in my opinion.  We were lucky to get to see the scrap between Max and Charles before the RBR fuel pump issues.  

More breakdowns means more chance that when you do get a good on track fight, it gets ruined.  

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Boromedic said:

Button ain't fit to polish Hamilton's car, decent driver but lucky to win a solitary title that I'd personally preferred Rubens to have won.

Button is the only teammate to have beaten Hamilton in his career aside from Rosberg. Button beat him by over 40 points in 2011 IIRC. He was a cracking driver when on form.

Boromedic

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Boromedic said:

Button ain't fit to polish Hamilton's car, decent driver but lucky to win a solitary title that I'd personally preferred Rubens to have won.

Button is the only teammate to have beaten Hamilton in his career aside from Rosberg. Button beat him by over 40 points in 2011 IIRC. He was a cracking driver when on form.

Stats do not make the fairest comparison, button was a journeyman who got lucky with Brawn, otherwise he'd have been a nearly man. There's a reason Williams and Benetton got rid.

musicegbdf

I remember JB interview on Top Gear. When Clarkeson asked if he would give up all the money and trappings for a World Championship. JB was so strong in his response that he would in a heartbeat. I will never forget that . He then got his world championship.

boogieman

Great to see the Ferraris back on form. 

What happened to Bottas at the start? He was going backwards when the lights went out.  

Cols

boogieman said:

Great to see the Ferraris back on form. 

What happened to Bottas at the start? He was going backwards when the lights went out.  

He got the world's supply of wheelspin and cooked the rear tyres.  Apparently Alfa Romeo have a clutch vibration problem which they haven't resolved yet.

Delighted to see Ferrari back on top, and in proper Ferrari scarlet instead of Marlboro orange.

Cols

Vettel is still testing positive, so it looks like Hulkenberg will get a second race in the Aston.

Although, given the lack of pace in Bahrain I doubt Seb will be weeping bitter tears into his pillow.

PC_Dave

Cols said:

Vettel is still testing positive, so it looks like Hulkenberg will get a second race in the Aston.

Although, given the lack of pace in Bahrain I doubt Seb will be weeping bitter tears into his pillow.

I was wondering that - maybe he took a red pen to his test and added an extra line on there  

Brio

It's the black line you need to worry about.