The F1 thread

fretmeister

Well the Merc is not looking fast so far.

Currently 3 seconds off the fastest Medium tyre runner (Perez).

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Christ, that Red Bull first practice pace is looking seriously ominous. Could end up being a very predictable race! 

fretmeister

Mercs on softs are 1.1 off Max who was on the mediums.

I really hope Merc and Alonso were doing race simulations. I can see Max getting a new lap record here.

Boromedic

Perfect circuit for the RB though innit, looks like they've brought some upgrades too perhaps? Doesn't bode well for the others but they could be holding back, wish they'd put Dani Ric in the other RB though.

chillidoggy

Not my favourite circuit. Indicative of a less than interesting race. Impressed with De Vries, though.

Chilli prediction (which will be completely wrong, and therefore should ensure a decent race) - 

1. Max
2. Checo
3. Alonso

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Wow, 6 different constructors for the top 6 fastest cars in Q3 - that doesn't happen often! Might make for an interesting race further down the order, behind the inevitable Verstappen cruise to victory tomorrow....

stickyfiddle

Glad Lando looks like he finally has a half decent car under him again. i only caught Q3 - not sure what happened to Fernando’s pace? 

TimmyO

stickyfiddle said:

Glad Lando looks like he finally has a half decent car under him again. i only caught Q3 - not sure what happened to Fernando’s pace? 

He got extensive floor damage in Q1 

stickyfiddle

TimmyO said:

stickyfiddle said:

Glad Lando looks like he finally has a half decent car under him again. i only caught Q3 - not sure what happened to Fernando’s pace? 

He got extensive floor damage in Q1 

Ok ta. Makes sense

TimmyO

stickyfiddle said:

TimmyO said:

stickyfiddle said:

Glad Lando looks like he finally has a half decent car under him again. i only caught Q3 - not sure what happened to Fernando’s pace? 

He got extensive floor damage in Q1 

Ok ta. Makes sense

It's worth watching the replays of all the offs prior to the Q1 red flag - just for giggles 

boogieman

chillidoggy said:

Not my favourite circuit. Indicative of a less than interesting race. Impressed with De Vries, though.

Chilli prediction (which will be completely wrong, and therefore should ensure a decent race) - 

1. Max
2. Checo
3. Alonso

Take it you made the prediction before the qualies? Cos I can’t see Perez getting anywhere near the top 3 if yesterday’s miserable form is anything to go by. I wonder what’s going on with him lately? Has Horner subtly nobbled the car so Wonderboy isn’t threatened? I think (hope!) Hamilton might actually squeak into 3rd this time, he had some decent pace for a change and he loves the circuit.

Go Lando! Although he reckoned he’ll be lucky to finish in the top 10 in the actual race. 

Boromedic

Wouldn't surprise me if they had nobbled Sergio

Lando did amazingly well, not sure on Lewis getting 3rd but Ferraris race pace is always shite so he's in with a shout of 2nd even. He seemed to lack a bit of confidence after smashing his wing against George. The Mercedes looks a lot more stable mid corner now as well, so I think the upgrades are working. 

Cols

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a red flag thrown for gravel before.  F1 is getting increasingly risk averse.

The incident between Russell and Hamilton was odd - George complained to the team "You didn't tell me there was someone behind me", which.... erm... is what the mirrors are for.  The fact that he didn't see Hamilton and he's not Romain Grosjean suggests the porpoising down the straight is so bad that he couldn't see anything in the mirrors.

But aside from that, I'm baffled as to why Merc had them so close to each other on track when they were both on hot laps.  If Hamilton had made it past Russell he would have completely screwed George's lap.  And if he had stayed behind him, his own lap would have been ruined.

 Perez needed a good weekend after the shambles of Monaco, and my word, he's not getting it so far.  Half a second off Verstappen and out in Q2 on a track where Red Bull's aero advantage really shines is a sobering experience.

 Real shame for Alonso, but ultimately if he hadn't made a mistake pushing on an out lap he wouldn't have run off and destroyed his floor.  Hopefully Aston Martin are allowed to replace it in parc ferme and Fernando can have a better Sunday. 

euan

Russell had been told that the only person behind him was Sainz. He also wasn't meant to be on a hot lap, his previous lap was but got scuppered by a yellow in S1 so he was going again. Hamilton wasn't aware and assumed Russell was on an inlap having just finished his hot lap.

Still completely on him.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Well that was actually not too bad of a race by Barcelona's standards. Don't think anyone was ever going to touch Max out front, but some interesting racing up and down the pack. Don't think there's too many who would have predicted on Thursday two Mercedes on the podium!

fretmeister

chillidoggy

Meh.

Barcelona has never been my favourite. Another master class by Max, not that we saw much of him, but I was disappointed Alonso lacked performance. And as for not overtaking daddy's golden boy, one can only imagine that was some kind of career-saving move. The Merc boys showed some decent pace for a change, but one swallow doth not a summer make, and I wonder whether their cars were somehow suited to the circuit. I thought Perez did a solid job considering where he started, but RB did say they were expecting a top 5 finish for him.

Boromedic

Was nice to see loads of overtakes through the field (I know it's DRS but better than Monaco at least!), the regs have worked except Newey has, as usual, found a way of making it work too well

Hopefully Mercedes will keep moving forward, I do think it's circuit dependent though, as Barca is front limited so the Aston's lacked grip and it was cooler hence the poor show. Alonso makes me laugh, spent his entire career trying to grind his teammates into the dirt and now he's the ultimate team player, hahaha. Money talks and bullshit walks eh Nando

RB were around 3 tenths of a second per lap quicker in race trim than the Mercedes although they were all managing tyres and pace to a degree. That's a season's worth of development to close and thats if RB stay still, which they won't, let's face it. Fingers crossed for next year.

TimmyO

chillidoggy said:

Meh.

Barcelona has never been my favourite. Another master class by Max, not that we saw much of him, but I was disappointed Alonso lacked performance. And as for not overtaking daddy's golden boy, one can only imagine that was some kind of career-saving move. The Merc boys showed some decent pace for a change, but one swallow doth not a summer make, and I wonder whether their cars were somehow suited to the circuit. I thought Perez did a solid job considering where he started, but RB did say they were expecting a top 5 finish for him.

re Merc - their DRS seemed to actually work as well as the rest of the field for once, and I don't know if I'm misremembering but they seemed also to have them set up far lower to the ground than I remember seeing so far this year. 

Lando has to be the unluckiest driver there is on lap 1. So many times he's lost places just because of how things play out in front of him - it's not like he puts the car in dumb places just the natural push and pull of first lap jostling so often sees him either needing to back off and get swamped or something like yesterday. I always assume he'll go backwards at the start 

Cols

Alonso made it as blindingly obvious as he could to all concerned that he was graciously allowing Stroll to finish ahead of him; closing right up behind him before getting on the radio to say “tell Lance not to worry, I just want to build a gap to the cars behind in case of rain or anything”, and then waving to the fans on the final lap while tucked up right under Lance’s gearbox.

Odds are he would’ve had difficulty getting past, and decided it would be best to gloss over it in team player mode.