The F1 thread

Cols

There’ll be a service of Thanksgiving for the life and work of Sir Stirling Moss at Westminster Abbey on 8th May.  Seems a bit belated, but The Greatest Driver Never To Win A World Championship (tm) passes away during the pandemic and this is the first opportunity to give him a proper send off.

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/aubreypeck/1187061

Cols

Johnny Herbert claims that Verstappen to Merc is a done deal (I have my doubts, I reckon he’s just trying to shake a few more shillings out of Red Bull’s wallet).

If he does go, what do we reckon for the other moves?

I’ll hazard a guess at Alonso to Red Bull and Sainz to Aston.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

I doubt Herbert has any kind of insider knowledge. Probably trained in the Eddie Jordan school of "make up any old shit to say to the media to still sound knowledgeable and relevant."

Verstappen saying to the media today that he's happy at Red Bull, so make of that what you will...

https://twitter.com/Formula_Nerds/status/1770709367035248819

HAL9000

Just heard (second hand) that Albon has written off his car in practice. No time to get it repaired. Not a problem - he’ll still be driving this weekend (but his teammate won’t!).

Cols

HAL9000 said:

Just heard (second hand) that Albon has written off his car in practice. No time to get it repaired. Not a problem - he’ll still be driving this weekend (but his teammate won’t!).

From a purely logical perspective that makes sense - Albon is always quicker than Sargent, and having him driving on Sunday represents the team’s best chance of scoring points - but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that Logan will be sitting it out on Sunday because his teammate has stuck it in the wall.

Nitefly

If only they still had t-cars! 

stickyfiddle

Cols said:

HAL9000 said:

Just heard (second hand) that Albon has written off his car in practice. No time to get it repaired. Not a problem - he’ll still be driving this weekend (but his teammate won’t!).

From a purely logical perspective that makes sense - Albon is always quicker than Sargent, and having him driving on Sunday represents the team’s best chance of scoring points - but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that Logan will be sitting it out on Sunday because his teammate has stuck it in the wall.

Yeah this. Incredibly hard on Sergent, but while you've got one driver potentially capable of points and another likely to end up 15th a team like Williams probably hasn't much choice. 

stickyfiddle

As for qualy, Crofty's supposed 6-way battle quickly became a typical "Max is 0.3 up on everyone" situation once again. I dont' know why they'd even suggest otherwise 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Cracking performance from Sainz to get on the front row a couple of weeks after surgery! 

Lewis looks a bit all at sea at the minute. I saw his interview with Sky yesterday after P2 and it was the flattest I've ever seen him, so want surprised to see him not even get into the to 10.

stickyfiddle

Lolz Checo has a 3-place drop for impeding Hulk in Q1

Cols

stickyfiddle said:

Lolz Checo has a 3-place drop for impeding Hulk in Q1

He can console himself with the knowledge that it looks like the old Ricciardo is gone, and he’s not coming back.

stickyfiddle

To give Ricciardo a tiny bit of defence and god knows he needs it)... he's always been shit at his home race. So, er... yeah? 

Cols

stickyfiddle said:

To give Ricciardo a tiny bit of defence and god knows he needs it)... he's always been shit at his home race. So, er... yeah? 

The problem is, there’s a pattern.  

Tsunoda’s shown him a clean pair of heels this year.  After DR came back from his wrist injury last year, he “acquitted himself well” in the final races rather than blowing Yuki into the weeds.

I rate DR highly - in his Red Bull days I would have put him in the ‘world champion in waiting’ bucket - but I’m afraid that on current performance he’s not too many races away from being benched to see if Lawson shows more promise.

stickyfiddle

Yep completely agree. For Red Bull to drop Perez they need to have one of th le RB drivers clearly better than the other and also nipping at Checo’s heels at least semi-regularly. So far that just ain’t happening, especially for DR

stickyfiddle

Well that was pretty uneventful, despite the various events. 

Glad for Carlos - he's equipping himself extremely well to get his pick of available seats for 25. 

And Yuki continues to do a great job while Perez & DR continue to be bang average. 

thumpingrug

It was a better race for Max not being in it - but Perez should have taken advantage and been much further up the finish positions.    Still trying to understand what happened with George.

I have to agree that Danni Rics days are rapidly numbered.

Boromedic

Loving it, bye bye Max, fair play to Carlos

TimmyO

A good day for Sainz's manager!

Oddly, the same thing that happened to Max happened to me on the M4 this week (brake siezing on) . Mine didn't explode but it was quite worrying and smoke-making. 

TimmyO

Alonso demoted (presumably for brake testing Russell and causing the crash )

boogieman

I bet Lewis can’t wait to get into the Ferrari, the Mercs are looking lousy at the moment. 

Well done Carlos, well deserved.