Formula 1

[butterfly bob]

Vettel needs to improve or he will become the most expensive number 2 driver in F1 history.  

Michael Masi has compared this season's black/white warning flag to football's yellow card system. A yellow card for the first offence and nothing for the second (if you're Man City at home).

Edited September 9, 2019 by butterfly bob

[Ah dinnae ken]

Big day for Renault with Riccardo giving a lot of credit to the boys building the engines. Looks a positive sign

[butterfly bob]

On 31/08/2019 at 20:35, Taa_Saparot said:

What a horrible crash that was in Spa today  

It's looking like the halo saved two F2 drivers lives, or at the least prevented very serious injury. They both drove through flying debris at high speeds.

[PepeLePew]

On 31/08/2019 at 22:50, Randomrobot said:

I wonder how much following he'll have in thailand if he's successful? I saw a poster of him in a watch shop  but not much else yet. 

His mother does seem like an interesting character. Quite a few shady characters have passed through F1 over the years. Must have been really distracting for Alex as junior driver knowing your mum's been sentenced to jail.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2219641/amp/Businesswoman-masterminded-9m-luxury-car-fraud-funded-lavish-lifestyle-moated-country-house-flash-holidays.html

 

Completely ruined his season and in doing so nearly destroyed his career. He alludes to it a little in this interview

 

[cbmgolfer]

On 09/09/2019 at 15:02, butterfly bob said:

Vettel needs to improve or he will become the most expensive number 2 driver in F1 history.  

Michael Masi has compared this season's black/white warning flag to football's yellow card system. A yellow card for the first offence and nothing for the second (if you're Man City at home).

Well, there you go !

[butterfly bob]

On 24/09/2019 at 02:53, cbmgolfer said:

Well, there you go !

Yeah, a race win in Singapore and driver of the day in Russia. Maybe the car suits him a bit more now after the upgrade? He has matched Leclerc on race pace since. He is still the same 0.4s off him in qualifying. That is a huge difference.

[butterfly bob]

Congratulations to Lewis on winning his 6th World Championship. He has been clearly the best driver on race days over the season. His qualifying hasn't been as strong as normal. He made up for it by winning a lot of races when he wasn't on pole. 

[Fire Bar Matt]

I’m pretty excited F1 has finally returned this weekend. Mercedes looking very strong, potentially dominant. Ferrari seems to be way behind and possibly only Red Bull can challenge early in the season. 
 

No matter what (and I’m a die hard Ferrari fan) it’s just great to have the pinnacle of four wheel racing back. 

Edited July 5, 2020 by Dr No

[cbmgolfer]

I was excited that F1 started, but afraid it’s another Merc walkover.  
 

Red Bull was disappointing.

[PepeLePew]

Albon was set to win that. Would have been a dream result for the lad. Crazy that Lewis got a penalty for the contact though. Stupid decision race 1 doesn't bode well for rest of seasons stewarding

[WTV]

Great race and looking forward to the rest of the shortened season. Go Danny Ric!

[Fire Bar Matt]

11 hours ago, PepeLePew said:

Albon was set to win that. Would have been a dream result for the lad. Crazy that Lewis got a penalty for the contact though. Stupid decision race 1 doesn't bode well for rest of seasons stewarding

I agree with the penalty, considering his front wheel made contact with Albons rear wheel he had to have known he was there and should have given him room as per the rules. That being said Albion should have been more patient and not put himself in that position of potential contact. He had new reds on vs old blacks on both the Mercs and as you said, he was set to win it, he just needs to learn where to make the passes. 
 

I think the thing is that Hamilton hasn’t become a six time champion by just rolling over and letting people pass, he’ll fight very hard and not give any room, there’s just too much at stake to be nothing but ruthless. 

[PepeLePew]

24 minutes ago, Dr No said:

I agree with the penalty, considering his front wheel made contact with Albons rear wheel he had to have known he was there and should have given him room as per the RULES. 

I'd agree except for 2 things, Albon hit Hamilton and there was plenty of room given. There was room for 2 cars to go around at the same speed in those positions. There was room for Albon not to hit Hamilton, he had a metre of track to his left. Ridiculous penalty. Stewards said they decided to penalise because Albon had completed the move before the contact. I'd like to hear what the stewards thought Hamilton should have done!

[Fire Bar Matt]

Who doesn’t love a wet qualy? I know I certainly do, it’s the great equaliser of sorts. 
 

Hamilton and the Merc come out on top and Verstappen in 2nd. Not a real surprise but Sainz in 3rd and Ocon then Norris 5th & 6th just shows what can happen when it rains. 
 

Sadly my beloved Ferrari’s are slow even in the wet and we may as well just right off 2020 already I think. 
 

I hope the rain continues for tonight’s race, just take make it different and possibly very interesting. 

[Fire Bar Matt]

Anyone knows what happens with tyre choice if it’s a wet qualifying vs a dry race? The rules say you start the race on the tyres which you set your best lap in Q2 but if it goes from wet in qualy to dry on race day what happens? 

[jerry]

10 hours ago, Dr No said:

Sadly my beloved Ferrari’s are slow even in the wet and we may as well just right off 2020 already I think. 

You had a bad night i guess ...  ... 

 

[Fire Bar Matt]

6 hours ago, jerry said:

You had a bad night i guess ...  ... 

 

Watched it early this morning, yeah not good at all. I think Sebastian will be happy to be leaving if the rest of the season is anything like the first two races. 
 

A pretty boring race really, with the exception being the last lap and Norris making some great moves. 

[PepeLePew]

On 12/07/2020 at 08:16, Dr No said:

Anyone knows what happens with tyre choice if it’s a wet qualifying vs a dry race? The RULES say you start the race on the tyres which you set your best lap in Q2 but if it goes from wet in qualy to dry on race day what happens? 

Free choice

[OKAY]

Is there some doubt as to who wins most points this year? What is going to be the list of manufacturers (teams) points ?  I'm betting it is the same as last year, and probable several prior years. Every race day is Ground Hog Day in F1.

[PepeLePew]

1 hour ago, OKAY said:

Is there some doubt as to who wins most points this year? What is going to be the list of manufacturers (teams) points ?  I'm betting it is the same as last year, and probable several prior years. Every race day is Ground Hog Day in F1.

Nope, unless you are only interested in the winner.

Ferrari are floundering this year and both Racing point and McLaren are a whisker away from providing a challenge to the RedBull (well the 2nd one anyway)

Renault is 1 good upgrade away from joining them and Alpha and Alpha are not far behind them.

IMO only being interested in the headline results is like just eating the cherry off a trifle.

[butterfly bob]

On 08/07/2020 at 08:37, Dr No said:

I agree with the penalty, considering his front wheel made contact with Albons rear wheel he had to have known he was there and should have given him room as per the RULES. That being said Albion should have been more patient and not put himself in that position of potential contact. He had new reds on vs old blacks on both the Mercs and as you said, he was set to win it, he just needs to learn where to make the passes. 
 

I think the thing is that Hamilton hasn’t become a six time champion by just rolling over and letting people pass, he’ll fight very hard and not give any room, there’s just too much at stake to be nothing but ruthless. 

It was hardly ruthless and not in the same league as incidents which were unpunished last season. Lewis entered the corner first and left more than a car's width on the outside. He slowed, allowed for a second car on the outside but drifted into Albon on his exit. I was surprised that was enough for a penalty when it was still in the corner. On the straight it would have been a slam dunk.

It's good news if the stewards aren't going to be as soft as last year. It felt like a precedent was set then allowing drivers to take liberties for the rest of the season.

[butterfly bob]

Last year Ferrari had the most powerful engine by some margin. The other teams were suspicious by their rate of improvement. Late in the season tricking the fuel flow meter (more fuel = more power) was ruled illegal. Ferrari have never admitted to doing that but they had an immediate performance drop after the ruling .Verstappen said "that's what happens when you stop cheating".

In Austria every team was as fast as last year, or faster, except for all 3 teams with Ferrari engines. They were all significantly slower even with aero development. Ferrari has gone from having the most powerful engine to possible the least powerful. Hmmm.

[PepeLePew]

On 18/07/2020 at 19:46, butterfly bob said:

Last year Ferrari had the most powerful engine by some margin. The other teams were suspicious by their rate of improvement. Late in the season tricking the fuel flow meter (more fuel = more power) was ruled illegal. Ferrari have never admitted to doing that but they had an immediate performance drop after the ruling .Verstappen said "that's what happens when you stop cheating".

 

One of the things that some teams were doing before being stopped was installing a very flexible fuel pipe after the meter. This pipe would expand under pressure when not so much fuel was needed and the extra fuel could be utilised when accelerating. I love this element of racing.

One of my favourite 'rule get arounds' was many years ago in NASCAR. They standardised the size of fuel tank allowed thereby limiting the amount of fuel a car could hold. 1 guy kept winning because he could always go much longer without a fuel stop and that was a huge advantage. He had the correct fuel tank and it took a few races before they found a false floor in the car and under it was the fuel line running from tank to engine. It was 2" wide and snaked from side to side all the way to the front of the car  

[JamesA]

So far not a good year for Ferrari fans as yet another race they performed poor and finish the Belgian GP on 13th and 14th and  I think they might not finish in top 3 if same performance going on.

[keepitfun]

Renault finishes 4th and 5th......Our man Ricciado kicking himself yet?