The F1 thread

Cols

Not even a case of overcooking it; just absentmindedly wandered off-track.

Red Bull’s objectives will be the constructor’s championship and both top spots in the driver’s championship.  Perez is safe until the 2nd spot is decided (should be him, but he could always implode spectacularly and lose it to any of the Ferrari/Merc drivers or Alonso).  After that, he’s on very thin ice.

fretmeister

Yuki is currently way faster than RIC.

Different tyres, but Yuki did a fantastic lap.

Cols

fretmeister said:

Yuki is currently way faster than RIC.

Different tyres, but Yuki did a fantastic lap.

Not just faster then DR, but Verstappen and Perez as well!  Medals all round!

chillidoggy

No doubt it'll take DR a while to settle in. About 2 years should do it.

chillidoggy

I see Max is down the ranks, does this mean we might see a different race winner, or is it a false dawn?

stickyfiddle

chillidoggy said:

I see Max is down the ranks, does this mean we might see a different race winner, or is it a false dawn?

I won't believe it till the end of Q3. I can believe McLaren/Merc then Alonso/Ferrari being the order of the rest but not Max anywhere but the top 2

sinbaadi

If Ricciardo is ever to get back to his best he'll do it within a race or two, but Tsunoda isn't exactly a proven benchmark, so being faster doesn't really count for all that much.  

stickyfiddle

Well DR was 1.5 tenths ahead of Yuki in FP3, so it looks like he's getting the hang of it. 

stickyfiddle

stickyfiddle said:

Well DR was 1.5 tenths ahead of Yuki in FP3, so it looks like he's getting the hang of it. 

stickyfiddle said:

chillidoggy said:

I see Max is down the ranks, does this mean we might see a different race winner, or is it a false dawn?

I won't believe it till the end of Q3. I can believe McLaren/Merc then Alonso/Ferrari being the order of the rest but not Max anywhere but the top 2

Yeah happy with that! 

chillidoggy

Stentorian effort by Hamster, and the Macs!

Finally, Max has some serious competition. Circuit is a bit shit, and the race might be a bit processional, though. I’m hoping it’ll be a clean race between the top two.

thumpingrug

Great to see Lewis back at the front, got to feel for George though.  But was this pure pace or due to the change of format?  Was it just that the Redbull didn't like the soft tyres?

markr76

thumpingrug said:

Great to see Lewis back at the front, got to feel for George though.  But was this pure pace or due to the change of format?  Was it just that the Redbull didn't like the soft tyres?

I think redbull have just been having an off weekend. Their race pace looks good though, so it’s going to be hard to keep them behind. 

The McLaren is looking very racy too. So it’s going to be a hard day at the office I think. It’s very hard to overtake there though. So as long as Lewis can get off the line quicker and stay there for a few corners, who knows! I’ll certainly have everything crossed!!

stickyfiddle

I don’t think the format change made any difference at the front. 

Aside from George not being there, which was down to traffic & crap timing, not tyres there weren’t any real surprises. 

I agree this is likely RB having an off day rather than the others’ updates meaning they can be right on it for the rest of the year, but I hope I’m wrong. 

I wouldn’t mind at all if the one guy who stops RB winning every race this year was Lewis…  

dazzajl

Sadly, I don’t think anyone has the package to beet Max over the race distance. So the question that’s intriguing me is will Max have the maturity to stay put until the pit stops if needed and take the lower risk path to 1st. 

The other question is whether the McLaren is actually a match for the Mercedes? Lando is the driver I’d most like to see so we’ll today. 

markr76

I know Toto isn’t a big fan of the new tyre format. I’m not a fan of the constant tinkering with things mid-season. The only time I don’t mind is if something is quite obviously not working. I’m not sure what has prompted this particular change though. I think they touted sustainability or something like that. Trying to reduce the amount of tyres  used over a season. 

The situation with George though was embarrassing. I’ll have the chance to chat to James Allison tomorrow hopefully. But the biggest thing we can do as a team is improve the car. That way there’s less likelihood of being caught out in Q1&2. 

menamestom

RB don’t have the balance of the car right after introducing their new side pod design.  They have not yet found the right set up, so this might play a factor in the race.  

They are that far ahead, changes like this are not a massive risk, but they will want that record and a dog fight with their main rival when the car is not well balanced is not something they would have wanted.

Perhaps the predictable will happen and the race will last until DRS is enabled, but I’m hoping  it’s a bit more than that and they genuinely have work to do.

stickyfiddle

markr76 said:

I know Toto isn’t a big fan of the new tyre format. I’m not a fan of the constant tinkering with things mid-season. The only time I don’t mind is if something is quite obviously not working. I’m not sure what has prompted this particular change though. I think they touted sustainability or something like that. Trying to reduce the amount of tyres  used over a season. 

The situation with George though was embarrassing. I’ll have the chance to chat to James Allison tomorrow hopefully. But the biggest thing we can do as a team is improve the car. That way there’s less likelihood of being caught out in Q1&2. 

Yeah, I'm not against trying new things occasionally but I'm struggling to see how the bosses think the fixed compound per session thing can possibly improve the show. In practice surely all it means is the back half of the grid now can't use softer tyres than the big boys in Q1 so have even smaller chances of an upset. I'd rather they just mandated soft tyres for every session so we can see every car properly on it. Or a quali-specific tyre that's a bit less made of cheese but gives plenty of grip...? 

dazzajl

I understand and totally support the idea that F1 wanted a big sustainability win to parade for the media. We all want less waste. The trouble with doing that in F1 is it’s such a large machine that when you feed an idea in one end, by the time it’s filtered through every stage and cost, politics and logistics have all had a say, what comes out the other end is often a far cry from the original idea and a bit pointless. 

menamestom

A drop in the ocean compared to the team and spectator logistics.  

Cut the number of races if you want to make a less damaging impact.  24 is too many.  

skullfunkerry

Lap 52... not exactly been a thriller, has it?