The F1 thread

chillidoggy

The Chilli Prediction - 1st Sainz, 2nd Max, 3rd Perez. And either Ferrari will bugger-up Leclerc’s strategy, or his car will require AA/RAC Recovery service.

DesVegas

My prediction is a rather large crash at the first corner now there is gravel rather than a run off.  It's going to be very tight in there. George to be the culprit 

Cols

3rd on the grid for Alonso now that all the penalties have shaken out; that’s going to be an interesting first corner.

In the meantime, Vettel couldn’t wrestle the Aston Martin out of Q1.  I hope for Fernando’s sake that next year’s car is a bit better.

DesVegas

Lando was on plan G around lap 39

stickyfiddle

Well that’s the title sorted for Max then? 

Utterly peerless today and completely deserves the win 

dazzajl

stickyfiddle said:

Well that’s the title sorted for Max then? 

Utterly peerless today and completely deserves the win 

100% and also very dull. Meh. 

sweepy

I actually felll asleep , not a classic on anyway at all  

thumpingrug

I don't like Max, but he did really well today.  George Russel also drove well.  The Merc isn't on par with the Red Bull but it's up there with the Ferrari.

Cols

Well, that race was depressing.  Ferrari would be better off turning their race strategy over to the Marx Brothers.

Verstappen was outstanding today.  Perez must be spending this evening staring at the wall of his hotel room; teammate starts 13 places behind him and still cruises past him in short order with few extenuating circumstances.

Alonso and Hamilton’s clash was, unfortunately, all Lewis’s fault. He simply didn’t leave any room for Fernando and was the architect of his own demise.

RiftAmps

Merc are taking one step forwards, three steps back.

"These floor reg changes for Spa are going to close up the field, we know they've been cheating" said Toto at the French GP

*HAM qualifies 1.8secs off Pole, RB further ahead than ever*

Still, I'd rather have a slow Merc than a Ferrari with THAT strategy team, what a mess.

Albon was the star of the weekend for me, driving like a beast to P10. Can't wait for Monza.

chillidoggy

And, as usual, the Chilli prediction was, err….slightly off.

Max was just in a different league, never saw that one coming, what a drive!

WTF was Hamster doing with that incident with Alonso? I can only think he’s getting desperate, he’s now fallen even further behind his team mate in the points. It’s not like him.

RandallFlagg

Did you hear Ferrari asking the drivers to confirm strategy decisions over the radio chatter? Hardly instills confidence does it?

Cols

RandallFlagg said:

Did you hear Ferrari asking the drivers to confirm strategy decisions over the radio chatter? Hardly instills confidence does it?

I suspect that harsh words have been exchanged behind closed doors about race strategy, and the engineers are now nervously trying to engage the drivers more fully in decision making.  Spreading the blame, as it were.

Pitting Leclerc at the end of the race for a new set of sticky tyres and dropping him behind Alonso was just the icing on cake.  After all that, he didn’t even get the fastest lap.

Boromedic

Peerless drive from Max, up there with some of the best we've seen, credit where it's due, completely untouchable.

Lewis is just trying too hard with a difficult car, he was mostly at fault and admitted as such afterwards. Shit happens, thats racing, he'll be as mad as anyone at himself. He's never been consistently good at Spa for some reason.

Ferrari are just laughable at present, the worrying thing for them is the new technical directive has nobbled them a bit. It is a question of when not if Max takes the title now, I think the idea of it being Japan is possible although Spa suits their car more than some other circuits.

TimmyO

stickyfiddle said:

Nitefly said:

Six drivers starting at the back.  How will that work?

Penalties get applied in the order they are dished out. So driver A announces their need for parts that lead to a penalty, they go to 20th first, then Driver B comes later and gets pushed to 20th and A shuffled up to 19th. 

I don’t think they still do the thing where Driver A would take 20 places and start “30th” then Driver B gets a different penalty with a 10 place penalty and slots into “23rd”. 

Iirc some penalties  are specifically “back of grid” and then those get sorted based on qual performance 

musicegbdf

Agree with all said above.
I really dislike Horner and Max , but credit to them and Newey they are in a class of their own.
Boring race . LH , put his hand up and can guess his frustration. Merc now in 2023 mode.
Well done George,  shame Lando got stuck.
I dislike Alonso , but the old boy still has it.
Ferrari , what a wasted season.  There needs a big clear out to get ready for 2023.

boogieman

Dull race, but whatever Red Bull have done to Max’s car, it’s clearly working. Massive straight line speed plus huge grip in the corners. It looked an effortless win… I mean I’m sure it wasn’t and Max drove perfectly, but that car seemed unbeatable yesterday. 

One good thing about Lewis is he’s already talking about next season. I did wonder if he was going to jack it in after all the crap he’s had this year. 

Boromedic

I hope Lewis stays on next season too, if only to annoy those on here who don't like him for some reason.....?

musicegbdf

Sadly success seems to upset people.
OK he is a bit of a plonker off track , but can forgive him that.
Looking forward to Lando in a Merc.
That said I would live to see MacLaren back up there

Boromedic

musicegbdf said:

Sadly success seems to upset people.
OK he is a bit of a plonker off track , but can forgive him that.
Looking forward to Lando in a Merc.
That said I would live to see MacLaren back up there

Well I wouldn't say that, he lives the life he wants to live, doesn't make him any more or less a plonker than anyone else is. He's just more able to do what he wants, money buys you the time/freedom/opportunities to do that.

Most successful driver in F1 history, is also British but some Brits don't like him, seems bizarre to me. If it was Jenson or Damon a few people would be tonking off about it regularly, instead they claim it's boring etc. hmmmm??