Formula 1

[PepeLePew]

I thought Vettel would have got a penalty for going off track when passing Massa. Seems not to apply to Ferrari

Even though Lewis has wrapped it up with 2 races to spare it's been an excellent ChShp.

Red Bull were blisteringly fast in race trim.....well one car was........ Lets hope it's not a sign of things to come though I wouldn't put it past Jos. If I was Danni Ric I'd be keen to sign elsewhere asap.

[jerry]

3 hours ago, PepeLePew said:

I thought Vettel would have got a penalty for going off track when passing Massa. Seems not to apply to Ferrari

Even though Lewis has wrapped it up with 2 races to spare it's been an excellent ChShp.

Red Bull were blisteringly fast in race trim.....well one car was........ Lets hope it's not a sign of things to come though I wouldn't put it past Jos. If I was Danni Ric I'd be keen to sign elsewhere asap.

If Red Bull (Renault) is able to make this engine a bit more reliable the championship can get very interesting next season . Max has shown over the last few races he's able to give the big names serious competition as long as his engine doesn't go up in smoke . 

The only options Ric has are another year with Red Bull (but it seems Max is getting the best stuff first) or a step back to Torro Rosso or Renault . With Ferrari or Mercedes he will be second driver anyway as long as Hamilton and Vettel are around .  

[PepeLePew]

5 hours ago, jerry said:

If Red Bull (Renault) is able to make this engine a bit more reliable the championship can get very interesting next season . Max has shown over the last few races he's able to give the big names serious competition as long as his engine doesn't go up in smoke . 

The only options Ric has are another year with Red Bull (but it seems Max is getting the best stuff first) or a step back to Torro Rosso or Renault . With Ferrari or Mercedes he will be second driver anyway as long as Hamilton and Vettel are around .  

Ric is already signed up for 2018 at RB so his options start from 2019.

RB traditionally put a lot of effort into end of Chpshp development, even when they are not in the running, unlike other teams who tend to start dropping staff from the current car in favour of next years effort if they can, so the car is looking good now.

Ferrari yes, he'll be Vettels toy. Anyway, although he denies it the rumour is that Vettel has a veto on the No2 and Ric wouldn't sign up to that job anyway.

Mercedes, no. Rosberg showed that either driver can fight and win. That said things seem to be chugging along nicely with Bottas, Lewis is certainly happier when he's not being challenged from within and if he's faster than the other guy he'll happily share all his data and findings. He was hiding stuff last year which didn't help the car development and I think management like the new atmosphere arrangement. That said I think Merc is Danny Rics best bet.

Of course we don't know what any 2019 car is like. The Mclarens could be up there, Renault is likely to make a step forward, Merc might drop to the midfield..... time will tell so he's right to wait and see a while. Though not too long as every time Max beats him his stock falls.

Jos is an arse, I've said that before a few times lol. He signed up to be Schumachers bitch then whined and moaned about the way he was treated. Thing is from that he learnt how to do thing the Schumacher way and I suspect he is lining up RB to be Team Verstappen which means the No2 is just there for the numbers. Sad way to go racing but for some its what they do. Max is clearly talented but I don't see him as the second coming that many do. He was equalled by Sainz at TR and only got the bump up due to his young age and some back room politicking.

[mbamber]

Massa has announced he is retiring from F1 at the end of the season this time his decision is final.

[PepeLePew]

And Ferrari have threatened to leave F1 if they don't like the 2021 changes.

Ferrari needs F1 more than F1 needs Ferrari, it's about time the owners called the bluff of the biggest diva in the sport imo

[mbamber]

50 minutes ago, PepeLePew said:

And Ferrari have threatened to leave F1 if they don't like the 2021 changes.

Ferrari needs F1 more than F1 needs Ferrari, it's about time the owners called the bluff of the biggest diva in the sport imo

I wholeheartedly agree with that, they get a special financial deal ! And they treated Masa like shit maybe if they did not treat him as a 2nd driver in 2008 he might have won the Championship. 

[soi16]

Since LH is world champion already, do you think he helps WB reach the second place? WB is 15 points after SV. Your thoughts?

[jerry]

4 hours ago, soi16 said:

Since LH is world champion already, do you think he helps WB reach the second place? WB is 15 points after SV. Your thoughts?

Pretty sure HAM will give up a win to help BOT get passed VET if the occasion is there . 

[PepeLePew]

6 hours ago, jerry said:

Pretty sure HAM will give up a win to help BOT get passed VET if the occasion is there . 

I agree, he would. I think it's an unlikely situation though.

 

Something I found interesting. In Mexico once Max got out in front Merc told Bottas to turn his engine down. They figured chasing Max wasn't worth it and that as the Renaults were breaking down better to have Valteri in a solid 2nd ready to inherit rather than risk all in the hope of an unlikely overtake. Manufacturer ChShp was in the bag and Driver Cshp was in lewis's hands so not much to gain from attacking a very fast RB. Similarly Ferrari gave Kimi a similar engine mode instruction. Again not a lot of point chasing the Merc, he was better off holding station so as to be in a position to concede a place to Seb should the occasion arise.

When the world championship was announced and started in the 1950's Sir Stirling Moss said it would ruin the art of racing a Grand Prix as teams and drivers would sacrifice hard racing for the larger picture.............

[Kim Jong Il]

Oh dear Lewis......that didn't last long!

[Kim Jong Il]

Bottas quickest from Vettel and Raikonnen.

No big surprises considering Mercedes have been the fastest in practise.....other than Hamilton's crash out on his first quick lap.

Weather tomorrow could be a factor and could make things lively if it does rain.

 

[PepeLePew]

Lewis looked a bit miserable lmao.

Odd incident though, car just snapped for no apparent reason.

The commentators mentioned how nice it was of Lewis to go to PF and congratulate Bottas the moment he got out of the car. I think it was clever mind games. It looked good but the underlying message was 'It would have been me were it not for that moment, you are just keeping my place warm'

[Kim Jong Il]

So we finish

Vettel

Bottas

Raikonnen

I guess the race for best of the rest is done barring a disaster for Vettel in Abu Dhabi.

Good race non the less. Some good overtaking at times. Good drive from Hamilton to finish fourth only a second behind third. If those tyres had another 5 laps of good performance he could well have been threatening for first.

Blistering lap from Verstappen to set fastest lap, albeit on new tyres and very low fuel load.

So its off to the sand pit for the last race of the season with not much to race for at the front and still a few millions up for grabs in the constructors for the lower teams.

 

 

[PepeLePew]

Very enjoyable race. Considering he started from pit lane I wonder how many seconds ahead of the pack he'd have finished if he hadn't stacked it in qually?

[gusincebu]

It was great that the telecast focused on Hamilton and Ricciardo a lot , plus quite a few of the back marker contests . So much more overtaking that I've seen in many an F1 .. exciting and interesting stuff .
Great drive by Hamilton , and who knows, if Danny Ric had not been spun out, and gone from 14th to last in the first lap , how he would have gone overall.

Sent from my SM-T535 using Tapatalk

[PepeLePew]

Forgot to mention. Was nice to see Massa actually finish his final Brazilian GP and in a decentish position unlike last year.

I vote Kubica

[Kim Jong Il]

We finally arrive at the last race of the season with almost nothing to play for.

The grid will be  Bottas

                             Hamilton

                             Vettel

Nothing exciting in Quali, more or less as we would expect the the top few to be.

Merc's seem comfortably ahead of the rest.

Bottas needs to win with Vettel finishing no higher than 9th in order for Bottas to take second place.

Few constructors battles to play out for the last few £millions and that's about it.

Will it be exciting nail biting stuff tomorrow.....somehow I doubt it, but we shall see.

 

[Kim Jong Il]

Final race over, season done and dusted.

Bottas

Hamilton

Vettel

Bit of a Sunday afternoon stroll for the two Merc's who were never even challenged let alone under threat.

Renault managed to get above Torro Rosso in the constructors.......would like to be a fly on the wall when those two teams bosses meet up! Bit ironic in a way but.....last week Renault accuse Torro Rosso of not knowing how to install their engines correctly so hence the reliability issues and this week Renault demonstrate that they don't how to put a wheel on!

As a season goes it ended up being quite easy for Mercedes in the end. Up to the summer break it was looking as if it could be a bit of close run thing but since then Merc's haven't really put a foot wrong whereas Ferrari have shot themselves in the foot a few times.....Singapore crashes, spark plug failures (haven't had one of those since I had a moped when I was 16) 

So. what will next season bring.

I would expect Mercedes to be very strong again, but if Ferrari can up their game a couple of % then it could be very close, assuming of course that Mercedes don't improve their car from this season.

If Renault can increase a few % and sort out the reliability then maybe Red Bull could also be in contention.

Possibly McLaren could be a bit of surprise package, especially if Renault can improve the engine as above. I bet they will be well happy to see the back of Honda.

Will Honda surprise everyone and have a cracking good engine next season in the Torro Rosso.

Time will tell!

Anyway, thank you to all who have contributed to this thread over the season.

This time next week I will be sunning my in Pattaya so if any of you guys, or the Moto GP thread guys want to meet up for a beer and put a few faces to names then please drop me a PM.

 

Edited November 26, 2017 by Kim Jong Il
typo

[mbamber]

52 minutes ago, Kim Jong Il said:

Final race over, season done and dusted.

Bottas

Hamilton

Vettel

Bit of a Sunday afternoon stroll for the two Merc's who were never even challenged let alone under threat.

Renault managed to get above Torro Rosso in the constructors.......would like to be a fly on the wall when those two teams bosses meet up! Bit ironic in a way but.....last week Renault accuse Torro Rosso of not knowing how to install their engines correctly so hence the reliability issues and this week Renault demonstrate that they don't how to put a wheel on!

As a season goes it ended up being quite easy for Mercedes in the end. Up to the summer break it was looking as if it could be a bit of close run thing but since then Merc's haven't really put a foot wrong whereas Ferrari have shot themselves in the foot a few times.....Singapore crashes, spark plug failures (haven't had one of those since I had a moped when I was 16) 

So. what will next season bring.

I would expect Mercedes to be very strong again, but if Ferrari can up their game a couple of % then it could be very close, assuming of course that Mercedes don't improve their car from this season.

If Renault can increase a few % and sort out the reliability then maybe Red Bull could also be in contention.

Possibly McLaren could be a bit of surprise package, especially if Renault can improve the engine as above. I bet they will be well happy to see the back of Honda.

Will Honda surprise everyone and have a cracking good engine next season in the Torro Rosso.

Time will tell!

Anyway, thank you to all who have contributed to this thread over the season.

This time next week I will be sunning my in Pattaya so if any of you guys, or the Moto GP thread guys want to meet up for a beer and put a few faces to names then please drop me a PM.

 

Watched it in the Metro Bar LK Metro season over looking forward to next year could be a lot closer.

[PepeLePew]

It was a bit of a snoozefest for a finale. Most exciting thing was all the donuts at the end. I bet Bernie was having apoplexys!

Did lewis chill out and not make too much effort to beat Bottas or was he truly outclassed? We'll possibly never know but the last time he got beaten by a team mate at the final race the next season didn't go too well for him.

So, who will Williams pick. We should find out pretty soon. Kubica will be an amazing story but the pressure to perform and prove he is more than a marketing tool will be huge!

[PepeLePew]

Sirotkin over Kubica

Ugly halo

No grid girls

Uk coverage going behind a paywall from 2019

I think I just gained my Sunday afternoons back

[eXplosief]

.....

Starting times will vary more. 

The race will start 10 minutes past the hour. 

 

What else?

[gmingot]

44 minutes ago, PepeLePew said:

Sirotkin over Kubica

Ugly halo

No grid girls

Uk coverage going behind a paywall from 2019

I think I just gained my Sunday afternoons back

Sirotkin = cash for williams, not sure either of them are worthy of the seat, there are better drivers out there and I believe Williams will be end up paying the price for not having an experienced driver in either car

The UK coverage is effectively behind a pay wall already. All races are on Sky (payment required) but in my opinion the coverage is very good including pre-race and post-race. Channel 4 shows a few live races, sometimes qualy and sometimes highlights but coverage and broadcasting times are inconsistant. The hosts and analysists are not as good as Sky either. If you are a real fan and want to watch all races then having a few on C4 is no good as you are going to have to pay for Sky anyway. C4 is only for the casual fan

[PepeLePew]

On 01/02/2018 at 18:11, gmingot said:

Sirotkin = cash for williams, not sure either of them are worthy of the seat, there are better drivers out there and I believe Williams will be end up paying the price for not having an experienced driver in either car

The UK coverage is effectively behind a pay wall already. All races are on Sky (payment required) but in my opinion the coverage is very good including pre-race and post-race. Channel 4 shows a few live races, sometimes qualy and sometimes highlights but coverage and broadcasting times are inconsistant. The hosts and analysists are not as good as Sky either. If you are a real fan and want to watch all races then having a few on C4 is no good as you are going to have to pay for Sky anyway. C4 is only for the casual fan

Sirotkin by all accounts was quicker at the final test, on long runs but more importantly over 1 lap. Now of course Williams are in the position of needing a substantial budget from their drivers however the decision did come down to speed in the end. Sirotkin brinbgs more cash to the table but a Kubica fairytale would have brought more sponsorship opps.

IMO Sky caters to a much broader church. I have access to both but always prefer the C4 coverage as it feels targeted at the long term fans. Sky presenting, with the exception of JH and MB feels a bit 'breakfast TV' to me. I guess they have to try and bring in new viewers somehow and being a bit too techy would put a lot of channel switchers off. I'm lucky enough to get free SKY but apart from my dislike of HCNC I'd happily pay if there was premium features to be had. I did pay for Bernievision in 02 but that was crap. MotoGP offers better timings etc on their app I believe and I suspect Liberty are looking at offering something similar however my dislike of 100% pay wall is a matter of principle rather than preference. I love F1 and don't want to see it die like boxing has (in viewer numbers terms). My parents were neither wealthy nor interested in motorsport so my love of it would not have been sparked as a child if it was 100% ppv. I worry that we will alienate the next generation. that said it's a very different world now and Liberty are the billionaires who seem to know it better than I do!

[PepeLePew]

On 01/02/2018 at 17:48, eXplosief said:

.....

Starting times will vary more. 

The race will start 10 minutes past the hour. 

 

What else?

 

I think a lot of the euro races will start later, 3pm rather than 1pm