The F1 thread

poopot

Oooops… one Honda out already…

dazzajl

Are we all settled in for the Burt Mylander show? 

DesVegas

Go Carlos!!

stickyfiddle

No Brundle or Kravitz - anyone know why? Did they take a moral stand in advance.. I recall at least MB wasn’t there last year either

Brio

I hate Verstappen but that was a great race and a deserved win.

stickyfiddle

Yeah, cracking race and most importantly some more solid evidence that the new regs are working. 

I’d have much preferred Charles to win, but I’d rather watch my guy lose a great fight than win easily. 

More please!

RiftAmps

stickyfiddle said:

Yeah, cracking race and most importantly some more solid evidence that the new regs are working. 

I’d have much preferred Charles to win, but I’d rather watch my guy lose a great fight than win easily. 

More please!

The first thing we've agreed upon so far

Charles really is a top tier driver, such incredible racecraft and pace. Max clearly relishing the hard-yet-respectful racing against him.

chillidoggy

Stunning performance by Max, particularly as I was so sure the Ferraris were going to cruise to a 1, 2 finish. Actually, it was stunning performances by both Max AND Charles who put on an edge-of-the-seat show!

If KMag doesn't get a drive next year I'll be surprised, too.

The track's still shit, though.

sinbaadi

I don't like when the DRS is so effective that drivers slow down to make that they get it.  It feels like sandbagging in Mario kart to make sure you get the better power-ups for the last lap.

So perhaps given the new regulations apparently do make following closely through corners a bit easier, we could get rid of these double-drs sections where there is straight after straight.

goldtop

I agree on the bit about playing for DRS as a power-up. Wasn't that partly one of the factors in a LH-MV collision last year, too?

Nitefly

Now they can all follow more closely, I think they should get rid of DRS altogether.

Emiel

goldtop said:

I agree on the bit about playing for DRS as a power-up. Wasn't that partly one of the factors in a LH-MV collision last year, too?

Yep, Max was slowing down for Lewis to overtake him before the DRS line, but it seems that Lewis wasn't informed by his team on time.

Loved this race. Lots of interesting battles going on with some intelligent driving. Max and Charles aceing it again. Good to see Alpine doing well. Shame that Alonso had to stop, as well as Bottas, Ricciardo, etc. 

fretmeister

Nitefly said:

Now they can all follow more closely, I think they should get rid of DRS altogether.

It's certainly worth an experiment to see what happens.

Maybe in a sprint race at some point.

boogieman

Shit track, great race. Max deserved the win but the Ferraris look great this season. Felt for Lewis flopping round in the midfield, I hope they get his car competitive soon or I can honestly see him jacking it in at the end of this season, which would be a crap way to end his F1 career. 

stickyfiddle

I don't want to get rid of DRS entirely just yet, but it's at the risk of being a little overpowered. Having multiple zones complicates it because you have one guy getting past then the other one getting back past - as we've seen with CL and MV in both races this year.

Assuming this continues, my guess is they will start to decrease the length of the DRS zones, or reduce the amount the wings are allowed to open to lessen the effect. The important thing is the cars seem to be massively easier to chase

skullfunkerry

goldtop said:

I agree on the bit about playing for DRS as a power-up. Wasn't that partly one of the factors in a LH-MV collision last year, too?

Added to that, the telemetry after the race proved that Max brake tested Lewis as well. Dr Marko even apologised when the data was published!

I think the issue with getting rid of DRS completely would be that the slipstream effect is less pronounced with these cars, so it would make it harder to overtake again. I agree that reducing the length of the zones or the amount the flap opens might help; or yesterday it seemed that just moving the detection line to the start of the main straight instead of before the last corner would have stopped all the shenanigans.

Just read this on p-f1, too:

https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-saudi-gp-future-talks/

On the one hand I'm thinking that they won't be going back, or maybe a few of the drivers might sit it out... on the other hand, there are comments from the team principals in there that sort of read like "Yeah, we'll have a discussion about it, but I've already made my mind up that it won't change anything".

TimmyO

skullfunkerry said:

goldtop said:

I agree on the bit about playing for DRS as a power-up. Wasn't that partly one of the factors in a LH-MV collision last year, too?

Added to that, the telemetry after the race proved that Max brake tested Lewis as well. Dr Marko even apologised when the data was published!

I think the issue with getting rid of DRS completely would be that the slipstream effect is less pronounced with these cars, so it would make it harder to overtake again. I agree that reducing the length of the zones or the amount the flap opens might help; or yesterday it seemed that just moving the detection line to the start of the main straight instead of before the last corner would have stopped all the shenanigans.

Just read this on p-f1, too:

https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-saudi-gp-future-talks/

On the one hand I'm thinking that they won't be going back, or maybe a few of the drivers might sit it out... on the other hand, there are comments from the team principals in there that sort of read like "Yeah, we'll have a discussion about it, but I've already made my mind up that it won't change anything".

I think it will take a significant driver boycott to change anything - the organisers and others who benefit financially are too wed to the "our presence shines a light and brings about change" line. If that were true then the "light shone on" Russia's antics in Syria and Crimea would surely have made for changes for the better there, rather than everyone sitting around while Ukraine was invaded and war-crimed upon right? 

It's a terrible, empty justification for taking cash. 

chillidoggy

I think DRS generates a whole lot more excitement, and let's face it, lack of overtaking is what we all previously moaned about, me included. Well, we sure as shit have a lot more now, so I'm not complaining. The monumental Verstappen/Leclerc battle would have been far less entertaining without it, it certainly kept me riveted not knowing who was going to cross the line first.

TimmyO

that they'll want to tune DRS zones in light of how the new cars actually perform I think is a given 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

As gutted as I was for Checo, I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this...