The F1 thread

TimmyO

TimmyO said:

The main question for this race is, on which lap will the Ferrari strategy implosion occur? 

maybe not

boogieman

Well that was a shitty end to the race. 

DesVegas

boogieman said:

Well that was a shitty end to the race. 

Yeah. With the new tyres on some cars it'd been great to restart and have a 3 lap shoot out but I think there was such a hoohar when the same situation turned up at the end of last season with people losing their shit and their jobs etc the race director had no choice but to play it safe and let the safety car take them all home.. the other view of course is 'they' want Max to win the championship again

Cols

boogieman said:

Well that was a shitty end to the race. 

Yup - and in retrospect it would’ve been better to red flag the race rather than burn laps behind the safety car.

It was, however, the correct way to do things.  Imagine if they’d rushed a restart purely in order to have a lap or two of “exciting racing”, having wiped out Verstappen’s comfortable lead.  Hardly fair, and - given the safety car procedures are there for, y’know, safety - hardly safe.

YellowLedBetterMan

Big fan of Nyck De Vries after that. Think he looks like he absolutely belongs in F1

sweepy

If I was Latifi, I’d be looking for a drive elsewhere, the Albon and De Vries look like a killer combo 

crosstownvamp

Would it work if they added a new rule - so let's say if there's a safety car in the last ten laps, for every two laps under the safety car, they add one lap?

It would mess up the fuel calcs big time but they must use a lot less fuel under safety and it should add some spice.

And they need to simplify the unlapping thing. How about just the leading ten cars overtake any out of place? That should be quicker. These days with all the cameras they can have an FIA person manage each car to tell it who it can overtake or not.

dazzajl

The lapped car situation is still completely ridiculous and continues to ruin races. Why do the lapped cars not peel off into the pits once the train is established?? Hold them at the exit for a few seconds if need be till the front runners have passed. 

Or, as said, if a safety car is needed in the last ten laps, it’s an automatic red flag. 

roundthebend

Why do they need to let lapped cars unlap themselves anyway?

RiftAmps

crosstownvamp said:

Would it work if they added a new rule - so let's say if there's a safety car in the last ten laps, for every two laps under the safety car, they add one lap?

It would mess up the fuel calcs big time but they must use a lot less fuel under safety and it should add some spice.

The NASCAR rule of a mandatory two-lap sprint (even if that means extending race length) if the race looks like it'll end under caution would be a great way of doing it.

Cols

Hamilton certainly hasn’t been slow to point out that rules are rules, and there’s only one time in the history of the sport the safety car rules weren’t followed…

markr76

We got told a funny thing at the race debrief at work just. Was That Max was moaning about all the Ferrari fans letting off red flares, saying it was hard to see. He didn’t seem to mind in Holland with all the probes the week before!!

TimmyO

RiftAmps said:

crosstownvamp said:

Would it work if they added a new rule - so let's say if there's a safety car in the last ten laps, for every two laps under the safety car, they add one lap?

It would mess up the fuel calcs big time but they must use a lot less fuel under safety and it should add some spice.

The NASCAR rule of a mandatory two-lap sprint (even if that means extending race length) if the race looks like it'll end under caution would be a great way of doing it.

I hadn't heard of that but it sounds like a very good way to do both things - those things being have safety-focussed procedures that aren't traded off against entertainment, but then also provide an entertaining and competitive conclusion to the race. 

I do think it's right and proper that the red flag isn't/can't be used as a fudge to ensure a final racing lap. Judgements and procedures on safety are best left for clear and consistent application imo. 

steer

markr76 said:

We got told a funny thing at the race debrief at work just. Was That Max was moaning about all the Ferrari fans letting off red flares, saying it was hard to see. He didn’t seem to mind in Holland with all the probes the week before!!

He called out the people who were throwing flares in Holland as well. I know that F1 is almost as divisive as football these days, but I think most of us would agree that flares are unneeded, whether they are red or orange. 

AlbertC

Does anyone know why Bottas didn't overtake the safety car and remained behind Max?

boogieman

roundthebend said:

Why do they need to let lapped cars unlap themselves anyway?

To get them out of the way. Yesterday LeClerc had two unlapped cars sitting between him and Verstappen when they were under the safety car. The C4 commentator was saying they hadn’t been told to unlap themselves by the race director. Quite why not I can’t figure out, what a bloody shambles. 

fretmeister

Bin the blue flags completely.

Either they are the best drivers in the world or they aren't.

sinbaadi

Yeah street rules!

stickyfiddle

fretmeister said:

Bin the blue flags completely.

Either they are the best drivers in the world or they aren't.

I like this stance until you start thinking about junior drivers and sister teams.  

menamestom

menamestom said:

Great, thanks for all the Silverstone advice, I'll signup for the ticket alerts now.

Waited in a queue for 5 1/5 hours but when I got to the end it just said 'sold out'.  I started again with just general admission, that was much quicker, but they had gone up £100ish for the two tickets over what they would have been in the morning.

So, we are going but can't help feeling a bit ripped off.  'Buy now' just really means sit in a queue all day while the prices increase.

I'm sure we'll enjoy it but will look to Barcelona or Hungary if we go again.  

Anybody else got tickets?