The F1 thread

RiftAmps

sinbaadi said:

If you want those things, like the WDC to be won by the fastest driver, then I'd say you're a fan of the wrong series entirely.
It does feel like you're a fan of the brands moreso than the racing, though, so perhaps F1 is exactly the sport for you, you're just asking too much!

Nowt wrong with demanding close competition and unpredictable results!

Brio

There is if you're trying to find it in F1.

RiftAmps

Brio said:

There is if you're trying to find it in F1.

Why? Last year we all went into every race not knowing who'd win it, it was brilliant.

2017-2020 however, it was pretty much going to be a Merc, unless something out of the ordinary happened.

Brio

unless something out of the ordinary happened

Such as biased F1 officials?

Majorscale

RiftAmps said:

Lebarque said:

RiftAmps said:

markr76 said:

You’re all wasting your time Chris is a Mercedes hater! 

I like you though, Mark

I also hate RB.

I'll be more specific than that. I hate Verstappen and Horner. 

I like:

Verstappen
Checo
George Russell
Lando Norris
Danny Ric

K-Mag

McLaren (Under Zak Brown)

Alex Albon

Ferrari

Alonso

Vettel (post RB)

I hate:

Lewis Hamilton

Toto Wolff

Mercedes

Red Bull

Ocon

I'm indifferent to:

Charles Leclerc

Carlos Sainz

Christian Horner

Any other team

Any other driver

So as you can see, I like that MV won the championship last year, but I would have preferred it if he did so with Ferrari. I like that LH lost the title, and glad that he did so with Merc.

I hate that Merc hasn't given GR the car to fight for the title this year, but simultaneously glad that LH can't fight for it either.

I want a Ferrari driver to win the WDC, but not CL or CS.

I want Danny Ric to win a WDC, but ideally not at the expense of another Vettel/Alonso title, which I believe they deserve.

I want the WDC to be won by the driver that is the fastest, not who just has the fastest car. And I want the WCC to actually mean something to F1 fans, rather than just a cash-for-points scheme for the teams.

It's difficult, being an F1 fan

Chris, what’s the back story with the Merc hate? They are based in your home town so would have expected you to be behind them.

RiftAmps

Majorscale said:

Chris, what’s the back story with the Merc hate? They are based in your home town so would have expected you to be behind them.

Physical location has nothing to do with it...they're a great asset to the town and have played a huge part to Brackley's recovery after the 2008 financial crisis where the town was pretty much dead. Our @markr76 will remember how bad it was when the recession hit. Having a huge employer in the town that also has strong links to the community has delivered real benefits. Plus, seeing Peter Bono in Tescos does make me laugh.

I just don't like them as an F1 competitor. Seems to be a very different organisation from when Norbert Haug and Ross Brawn were in charge.

If I'm honest though, I just like to troll LH fans when it goes wrong for him.

Cols

RiftAmps said:

Brio said:

There is if you're trying to find it in F1.

Why? Last year we all went into every race not knowing who'd win it, it was brilliant.

2017-2020 however, it was pretty much going to be a Merc, unless something out of the ordinary happened.

Unless anything went wildly wrong, it was always going to be a Merc or a Red Bull winning last year.  And with the setups in both teams, that narrowed it down to Hamilton or Verstappen.  

It’s an improvement on Merc domination, but if only 10% of the grid can realistically hope to compete for a race win at any point during a season it’s not exactly unpredictable.

sinbaadi

Cols said:

RiftAmps said:

Brio said:

There is if you're trying to find it in F1.

Why? Last year we all went into every race not knowing who'd win it, it was brilliant.

2017-2020 however, it was pretty much going to be a Merc, unless something out of the ordinary happened.

Unless anything went wildly wrong, it was always going to be a Merc or a Red Bull winning last year.  And with the setups in both teams, that narrowed it down to Hamilton or Verstappen.  

It’s an improvement on Merc domination, but if only 10% of the grid can realistically hope to compete for a race win at any point during a season it’s not exactly unpredictable.

Nor is it necessarily the case that the fastest drivers are in the cars most capable of winning.

Boromedic

Wow, hating the best driver of his generation, with at least a look in at GOAT, who happens to be British too, not sure I can get with that like if I'm honest. I'm not the biggest Button fan among other Brits but I was still pleased to see him win races.

Max is a bellend, a great driver for sure but still a bellend, I'd sooner Lewis or Mercedes win all ahead of him. I'm all for anyone else winning aside from him actually, and deep down you know who really won the title last year 

As others have pointed out, you're watching entirely the wrong racing series if that's what you want, the car is always part of the package whether you like it or not. Put Max, Senna, Lewis, Fernando, Michael in the last few iterations of the Williams and they'd be nowhere near the front. Difference is they're clearly the fastest so they get the best seats, it's a driver meritocracy. Unfortunately that means some better drivers miss out as there's only 2 seats available.

P.s. Jim Clark is the GOAT imo, but Lewis is up there as are Michael, Senna, Lauda, and yes even Max too. 

Edit: strangely enough, looking at your like list I'm in complete agreement except for one, which is odd. Why do you not like Lewis, is it cos you're a Fernando fan and he showed him up in his first season? Or are you secretly a Massa fan and pissed off that Lewis beat him? Or is it cos you wanted to cuddle Jenson and stroke his hair?

Brio

Full disclosure: I'm not a Max fan. But he seems a lot more chilled out of the car this season. And we've had few corking races. Enjoying it and happy Merc are approaching the front end again.

Emiel

There is no GOAT and there will never be. You can’t compare a Fangio to a Clark or a Senna to a Hamilton. The conditions are simply too different. Yes you can say who has the most wins, championships but that’s about it. You can argue who’s the best of the generation but even this is pretty much impossible without having the stand out drivers in one the same team. Even Prost vs Senna is hard to argue really. Steve Nichols who worked with both at McLaren even said he can’t quite tell. Senna was perhaps faster but Prost more consistent.

As for Mercedes, I have heard too many stories about German manufacturers trying to to win at all costs and having the (engine) rules changed for their own benefit. Mercedes lobbied hard to get a V6 turbo in F1, Audi and Porsche succeeded to get rid of the MGU-H, Audi reworked the regulations several times in Le Mans and Dakar, VW/Seat in Touring Cars… they usually end up dominating and then eventually they’ve had enough and leave the sport. Can’t say I’m a fan.

markr76

Emiel said:

There is no GOAT and there will never be. You can’t compare a Fangio to a Clark or a Senna to a Hamilton. The conditions are simply too different. Yes you can say who has the most wins, championships but that’s about it. You can argue who’s the best of the generation but even this is pretty much impossible without having the stand out drivers in one the same team. Even Prost vs Senna is hard to argue really. Steve Nichols who worked with both at McLaren even said he can’t quite tell. Senna was perhaps faster but Prost more consistent.

As for Mercedes, I have heard too many stories about German manufacturers trying to to win at all costs and having the (engine) rules changed for their own benefit. Mercedes lobbied hard to get a V6 turbo in F1, Audi and Porsche succeeded to get rid of the MGU-H, Audi reworked the regulations several times in Le Mans and Dakar, VW/Seat in Touring Cars… they usually end up dominating and then eventually they’ve had enough and leave the sport. Can’t say I’m a fan.

It wasn’t Mercedes who lobbied to get a v6 turbo in F1 it was Renault that started it. They actually wanted a straight 4 turbo. Which suited Mercedes too. Ferrari didn’t want that and said they wouldn’t go less than v6. Mercedes we’re happy to stay v8 as the Mercedes v8 was arguably the best one. Also the cost of R&D to switch over was massive. Hence us not wanting to move away from the tech after all the money was spent. It also helped that we were dominating at the time. Not good business to let ut change without a fight. 

Honda also wanted the turbo’s back as a prerequisite for them to come back to the sport. 

People think it was Mercedes who pushed to get the v6 because we did it better than everyone else at the start of that era. 

Boromedic

Emiel said:

There is no GOAT and there will never be. You can’t compare a Fangio to a Clark or a Senna to a Hamilton. The conditions are simply too different. Yes you can say who has the most wins, championships but that’s about it. You can argue who’s the best of the generation but even this is pretty much impossible without having the stand out drivers in one the same team. Even Prost vs Senna is hard to argue really. Steve Nichols who worked with both at McLaren even said he can’t quite tell. Senna was perhaps faster but Prost more consistent.

As for Mercedes, I have heard too many stories about German manufacturers trying to to win at all costs and having the (engine) rules changed for their own benefit. Mercedes lobbied hard to get a V6 turbo in F1, Audi and Porsche succeeded to get rid of the MGU-H, Audi reworked the regulations several times in Le Mans and Dakar, VW/Seat in Touring Cars… they usually end up dominating and then eventually they’ve had enough and leave the sport. Can’t say I’m a fan.

Lol, not xenophobic in any way, watch out for ze Germans lads....... Wow, even if that was actually true, they're just doing what all teams do, trying to win in anyway possible. They've all done it, even the plucky British teams of yore. When Ferrari got the FIA to overlook them cheating a few years ago, that was the worst I've seen in F1 in a while. Are you not afraid of the Italians or does the stereotype work there as well?

stickyfiddle

@Emiel what you’re describing is professionalism and competence. The fact that the most competent teams are often German-owned isn’t really relevant - Honda have at least as much history of fucking about and quitting series when they aren’t winning. 

In any case, Merc is mostly British-staffed, as is Alpine, as is the “Austrian” Red Bull and mostly-Bahrain-backed McLaren. Ferrari is probably the major exception, but let’s not forget when they were at their winningest 20 years ago the team was run with cold calculating competence by a French boss and British technical lead and designer, with German and Brazilian guys in the car. 

Emiel

Sorry for my late night rant! I guess not being fluent in English doesn't help either! I wasn't talking about the staff of the race teams obviously and I'm not here to say all Germans suck (they really don't). I simply don't like all this lobbying by several manufacturers for a change of the regulations so they can join on an 'equal' basis (while they already have that technology at hand while the current ones might not). Ever since the introduction of the V6 turbo I cannot help but feel that the engine manufacturers have attained too much influence in the sport.

I'll shut up now and just would like to say that I truly hope Mercedes WILL join Ferrari and RB and we'll have a six tier fight! 

fretmeister

Emiel said:

Sorry for my late night rant! I guess not being fluent in English doesn't help either! I wasn't talking about the staff of the race teams obviously and I'm not here to say all Germans suck (they really don't). I simply don't like all this lobbying by several manufacturers for a change of the regulations so they can join on an 'equal' basis (while they already have that technology at hand while the current ones might not). Ever since the introduction of the V6 turbo I cannot help but feel that the engine manufacturers have attained too much influence in the sport.

I'll shut up now and just would like to say that I truly hope Mercedes WILL join Ferrari and RB and we'll have a six tier fight! 

"Several"???

They all lobby for what they need. There isn't a single one that doesn't.

It may be a sport for the viewers but for the teams it's a business and why anyone would expect a different approach to any other sort of business is beyond me.

Cols

So where do we all reckon Danny Ric is going to wash up next year?  McLaren aren’t going to be keen to keep paying him $20 million a year to get pasted by Norris every weekend.

stickyfiddle

Not F1 is my guess. I could see him going to NASCAR or Indy

Boromedic

Would Danny take a drop down the grid, and a smaller pay packet? I feel bad for him as I rate him as a driver, it's just fortune hasn't favoured him and Max showed up at the wrong time. He'd do well wherever he went I think, maybe sports cars, GT, or endurance perhaps?

No shame being beaten by Lando, who imo is a better driver than George.

Cols

Aston Martin would be a possibility - Stroll is keen on bagging Alonso, but I don’t think the feeling’s reciprocated. Apart from that it’s difficult to see a likely berth.

I agree with @stickyfiddle, most likely NASCAR.