The F1 thread

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Just caught up on the highlights of the Quali - great little session, full of drama. Gutted that Hulk got a 3-place demotion, but was still a cracking effort to get that high. Grid positions should hopefully make for some interesting racing, especially if there's some rain again tomorrow.

boogieman

Shame Albon didn’t pull off that killer lap in Q3 instead of Q2. Shame for Hulk too. 

thumpingrug

Verstappen in that Red Bull really is in a league of his own at the moment, but it was nice to see that the Aston and the Merc had a good battle.

The pit lane releases did look unsafe to me and the steward's decision not to penalise surprised me.  I assume they had access to other data.

TimmyO

I think some records will fall this year. 

chillidoggy

Max looks to be untouchable, despite what Alonso said post-race, but overall I thought it wasn’t a bad race. Congrats to RB on their 100th win, too.

Cols

Food for thought - if Red Bull had two drivers both performing at Perez’s level, Hamilton and Alonso would have two wins apiece by now.

(Red Bull would still be waltzing off with the championship though)

fretmeister

Cols said:

Food for thought - if Red Bull had two drivers both performing at Perez’s level, Hamilton and Alonso would have two wins apiece by now.

(Red Bull would still be waltzing off with the championship though)

And it would be wonderful to watch the interviews with Horner.

Hopefully Max will overdo the cough syrup at some point and be slower.

boogieman

It does make you wonder why Perez is so far off Max’s pace. Is it team orders? Has RB deliberately nobbled his car after that brief bit of winning form that threatened Max’s WC lead? Or has he just lost his confidence? He should be at least mopping up podium places at every race with such a dominant car. 

I did think there might have been a different winner this time after Max’s “I think I just hit a bird!!?” but meh, it was business as usual. A grudging well done from me, but I hope RB don’t get a clean sweep this season. 

fretmeister

RB won't nobble Perez. No chance. They won't risk the constructors title and the income it brings.

But you are right - in that car he should be on the podium in every race.

chillidoggy

Interestingly, I was just thinking the same thing.

Do we think Perez will get booted at the end of the year?

Cols

He’s failed to make Q3 thrice in a row in what is the fastest car in the field by a considerable margin.  He brushed off the Montreal dropout as a case of switching to slicks too late, but even leaving that to one side he was well off Verstappen’s pace.

I’m amazed at his lack of pace in the race as well; on a track like Montreal he should have been carving through the field from 12th.  6th is not what would have been expected.

As to the ‘why?’, I think it’s been an overabundance of confidence followed by a crisis of confidence.  After Azerbaijan he was talking up a season long titanic Senna ‘n Prost duel between himself and Max.  Since then he’s had the rude awakening of:

1.  Getting trounced in the race in Miami by his teammate who’d started 8 places behind him

2.  Sticking it in the wall at the first corner in Monaco qualifying and then getting lapped in the race.

3.  Making more mistakes in Barcelona qualifying… but not making the top 10.

4.  Having to listen to his boss effectively saying “Well the pressure’s off Sergio now, he doesn’t have to worry about whether he’s got any chance in the driver’s championship anymore”.
 
He’s been through a run of street circuits at which he regards himself as a bit of a specialist and come out with very few points.  If he had been going to mount a championship challenge, these were the tracks at which he should have been building up a points buffer before getting to the fast open circuits where Max can really stretch his legs.  Understandably Sergio’s chin’s dropped and his driving’s suffering.  

stickyfiddle

My take is it’s a combination of factors. Perez is clearly not a generational talent like Max. I don’t think there’s any argument there. 

But I reckon another Newey car that’s a tiny bit tricksy to drive perfectly but is unbeatable when you get it right. It feels very similar to Vettel & Webber 10 years ago - MW could be untouchable on a good day but put him outside the top 3 and it’s much more difficult and Seb made him look crap.

What’ll be interesting is to see if they replace Perez with DannyRic at the end of the year, because let’s be honest he’s not looking much better than Gasly & Kvyat did outside that initial good run of races 

boogieman

chillidoggy said:

Interestingly, I was just thinking the same thing.

Do we think Perez will get booted at the end of the year?

I think it’s got to be on the cards if his form doesn’t improve soon. There are a lot of good drivers out there that would kill for his seat next season, even allowing for having to be number two to Max. 

goldtop

chillidoggy said:

Interestingly, I was just thinking the same thing.

Do we think Perez will get booted at the end of the year?

Not until the RB car is equalled. He's a perfect fit for Max, and Horner needs an also-ran to keep Max happy. As long as RB picks up the constructor's championship, he'll keep Perez. 

sinbaadi

goldtop said:

chillidoggy said:

Interestingly, I was just thinking the same thing.

Do we think Perez will get booted at the end of the year?

Not until the RB car is equalled. He's a perfect fit for Max, and Horner needs an also-ran to keep Max happy. As long as RB picks up the constructor's championship, he'll keep Perez. 

Particularly as he is still able to, even now, bring in huge sponsorship money from Mexican businesses.  That's the only reason he's still in F1 let alone in a Red bull.

Emiel

The post race interviews said it all imho... Verstappen stated they couldn't get the tires in the proper window so they couldn't extract all the performance out of the car (hence Alonso & Hamilton being closer), while Perez simply said 'I don't know why we weren't quick enough, I'll have to discuss this with my engineers'. Verstappen, Alonso & Hamilton are always able to pinpoint exactly what went right or wrong, while the 'lesser' drivers often can't seem to figure it out. Remember Latifi saying nearly after each race 'I don't know why but I just didn't have the pace' .

Plus Verstappen (like all great drivers really) prefers a pointy and slightly oversteery car, while Perez (like most 'good' drivers) seems to like have a bit of understeer to boost confidence but this almost always will be slower and induce more tire degradation.

By the way, I think we can expect Ricciardo in the Alpha Tauri sooner than back in a Red Bull...

chillidoggy

For me, Danny Ric and Sergio are like book-ends. 

stickyfiddle

Apparently MEI, the Ryan Reynolds/Rob McElhenney investment co, has bought a chunky stake in Alpine. I don't quite know how I should feel about this, but/... optimistic?

Cols

Alpine have been trying to offload a stake in the team for a while. And the reason is that they need to invest in order to really be competitive with the front runners; Renault have been kicking in with what they thought was sufficient, but haven’t seen the results.  That’s why the Alpine CEO was in Miami publicly tearing strips off the team; the value of that stake is diminished by the team slumping in the standings compared to last year.

Theoretically, with the cost cap it should be possible to balance the costs of running a competitive team with the income resulting from being competitive; just look at Red Bull. But in  order to actually get to that level there’s a large capital expenditure required, much of it exempt from the cost cap.  The 200 million Euro coming from the sale of the the stake gives the team a useful sack of cash to make the required investment. 

menamestom

Anybody going to Silverstone?

Heading there with my lad for the weekend, camping at woodlands.  Going on the Friday - Sunday.

Keen to hear any tips for the weekend, good viewing spots etc.  We don't have a grandstand unfortunately.