The Official F1 Thread

[Sandstorm]

A Canadian who most people think is a daddy's boy with little talent got the car into Q1 and scored points with it. All is not lost yet.

I’m not writing the Aston off - the point I hoped to make was that some, including me, feel that Seb in and Checo out was a poor decision in terms of competiveness. Yes, the Merc / AMG links are influential and I’d say Aston’s future is all about the SUV for the next year or two imo. I think sharing the Safety Car role is smarter business than signing Seb.

Agree, the safety car role is very good business for them. From a brand perspective, AM probably would have got a lot more value going for a British driver rather than Vettel - I can understand the appeal of getting a 4x WC in, but for a brand like AM it's limited when it's an underperforming German

George Russell. Brit; faster than Seb and not a dick.

[Saint]

I’m not writing the Aston off - the point I hoped to make was that some, including me, feel that Seb in and Checo out was a poor decision in terms of competiveness. Yes, the Merc / AMG links are influential and I’d say Aston’s future is all about the SUV for the next year or two imo. I think sharing the Safety Car role is smarter business than signing Seb.

Agree, the safety car role is very good business for them. From a brand perspective, AM probably would have got a lot more value going for a British driver rather than Vettel - I can understand the appeal of getting a 4x WC in, but for a brand like AM it's limited when it's an underperforming German

George Russell. Brit; faster than Seb and not a dick.

Would be the obvious choice - part of the Mercedes programme as well. Of course, you have to buy him out of his contract at Williams (and given that they;re not as financially limited as they were pre-Dorilton that's not so easy) and I suspect Russell would be looking at it and thinking it's not really a step up, given there's a decent chance the works team is calling next season anyway.

At the end of the day, there's not many free agent Brits out there (barring Lewis), so it's weighing up whether an underperforming 4x WC German will do better for the brand than an outperforming Mexican. Maybe Vettel is bringing a level of engineering feedback to the team that we're not seeing, but I'd question that given his time at Ferrari

[Kawazaki]

Vettel is a disaster. All that guff about him being a great engineering driver is just white noise to try and find a silver lining. Anyone who has read Adrian Newey's book will know that engineers and designers don't actually like drivers who try to advise engineers what they should do, they much prefer drivers who are consistently fast and on the limit so the data is consistent.

[sturginho]

http://mazesp.in/

[sturginho]

[Saint]

http://mazesp.in/

I was wondering how long before someone created something like this

[Saint]

Interesting FP so far. Mercedes struggling to switch the soft tyres on, but the car looks much more planted than in Bahrain. Verstappen's car breaking down. Perez having a major incident in FP1

Gasly very fast in the AlphaTauri, emphasising just how good the Honda engine is

[Sandstorm]

http://mazesp.in/

0d 03h 25m 21s
since last spin

[Dinsdale Piranha]

http://mazesp.in/

0d 03h 25m 21s
since last spin

The new Pastor Maldonado!

[fishfoodie]

http://mazesp.in/

0d 03h 25m 21s
since last spin

The new Pastor Maldonado!

Haas is going to have to hire extra people to keep up with the rate he keeps destroying parts.

Whatever money the Russians are giving them; it's not enough.

[Mr Bungle]

http://mazesp.in/

I was wondering how long before someone created something like this

They’ve even used the official F1 font.

[ScarfaceClaw]

It’s up over a day now so that’s a positive surely.

[Saint]

It might only be on the Soft tyre, but Norris has got that McLaren really hooked up this weekend

[Saint]

Hamilton
Perez
Verstappen
LeClerc
Gasly
Ricardio
Norris
Bottas
Ocon
Stroll

Norris was provisional 2nd before his time was deleted for track limits

Reverse of the last race - 2 Red Bulls to 1 Mercedes.....

[Kawazaki]

99th pole for Hamilton. And he's definitely not in the fastest car on the grid any more. On a power circuit, the next best car with a Merc engine is back in 6th.

[Sandstorm]

Track. Wet.
Mazaspin. Fucked.

[tcc_dc]

Looking forward to the Mercedes/Red Bull and Ferrari/McClaren battle.

Also, looking forward to the Haas/track battle

[tcc_dc]

slip sliding around...cannot tell if Mazepin was at fault for Latifi crash...

Hamilton has damage from the start with his battle with Max

[salanya]

Great start!
Not sure how they can drive competitively in that spray.

Mazespin hasn't actually spun yet

Schumacher takes out his own car.

[tcc_dc]

And the Latifi wreck was not Mazepins fault...

Poor Schumacher....and poor Haas..

Daniel up to 5th...

[tcc_dc]

wow...Russell...terrible...him and Bottas out...

Hamilton with a big mistake...

Max's race now...

[tcc_dc]

Red Flag...

Max
LeClerc
Norris
Perez
Sainz
Ric
Stroll
Kimi
Hamilton
Tsu

To start....34 of 63 laps done

[Saint]

Mazapin got his spin in just when I was starting to worry.

Good recovery drive from Hamilton

[sturginho]

I knew the red flag was gonna cost Ferrari their podium

[sturginho]

Mazapin got his spin in just when I was starting to worry.

Didn't want to let down his fans

[Insane_Homer]

Another great race drama throughout. Massive shunt, 70% on Bottas for me. Lewis' luck is astounding. So happy for Norris, a really great drive.

http://mazesp.in/

[Slick]

Bottas looked like a guy thinking “do I really want to do this any longer” as he sat on the side

[assfly]

That was a very entertaining race. Had the whole family hooked from start to finish.

[fishfoodie]

The only disappointing aspect of it was the way Hamilton was able to so comfortably able to get back to 2nd; after such a massive mistake, & at a track where it's not exactly easy to overtake. The gap between the perfomance of the Mercs, & RBs, & the rest is just too wide.

[Insane_Homer]

The only disappointing aspect of it was the way Hamilton was able to so comfortably able to get back to 2nd; after such a massive mistake, & at a track where it's not exactly easy to overtake. The gap between the perfomance of the Mercs, & RBs, & the rest is just too wide.

The timing of the red flag was unbelievably lucky. Without it he'd very likely have been 2 laps down before re-joining.

It was out while he was on his way to the pits where the stop would've taken ages as he need a new nose, added to the ~30 seconds he was stationary in the gravel and the slow return to the pits with a badly damaged front wing.

At the point of the red flag he was in 9th but a lap down on the leaders and losing ground while limping to the pits, it's not clear how close those behind him were to catching/passing him?

With the race stopped he got a free pitstop to repair the nose and then got to un lap himself while the 8 ahead of him were stationary on the grid.

So at restart at least 70+ seconds was wiped away, at the restart all he had to do was stay with the cars in front until DRS was re-enabled and it was done deal.

I don't think the red flag un lap scenario was designed to give someone this much of an advantage, it was there to get slow cars out of the mix at the front.

[Kawazaki]

Another great race drama throughout. Massive shunt, 70% on Bottas for me. Lewis' luck is astounding. So happy for Norris, a really great drive.

http://mazesp.in/

Nah, that was all on Russell. He's been a bit of a prick with his outbursts about it too.

[Saint]

The only disappointing aspect of it was the way Hamilton was able to so comfortably able to get back to 2nd; after such a massive mistake, & at a track where it's not exactly easy to overtake. The gap between the perfomance of the Mercs, & RBs, & the rest is just too wide.

The timing of the red flag was unbelievably lucky. Without it he'd very likely have been 2 laps down before re-joining.

It was out while he was on his way to the pits where the stop would've taken ages as he need a new nose, added to the ~30 seconds he was stationary in the gravel and the slow return to the pits with a badly damaged front wing.

At the point of the red flag he was in 9th but a lap down on the leaders and losing ground while limping to the pits, it's not clear how close those behind him were to catching/passing him?

With the race stopped he got a free pitstop to repair the nose and then got to un lap himself while the 8 ahead of him were stationary on the grid.

So at restart at least 70+ seconds was wiped away, at the restart all he had to do was stay with the cars in front until DRS was re-enabled and it was done deal.

I don't think the red flag un lap scenario was designed to give someone this much of an advantage, it was there to get slow cars out of the mix at the front.

Under a safety car he would have been allowed to unlap himself, although I agree he would probably have been further back and he gained a huge amount unexpectedly - although how he then went about taking advantage was Senna-like.

As for comments about the competitiveness of the Red Bull an the Mercedes vs the field, I think that's unfair. Bottas wasn't doing all that much all race (he was being overtaken by a Williams FFS) and Perez wasn't exactly pulling up trees all race. Max and Lewis are at a very different level; the Mercedes has become far more unpredictable with it's loss of downforce, and while the Red Bull has improved (and the Honda engine is probably the PU to have right now), that's still not the most stable chassis. But both have more top end in them with the right driver at the wheel

[Insane_Homer]

Another great race drama throughout. Massive shunt, 70% on Bottas for me. Lewis' luck is astounding. So happy for Norris, a really great drive.

http://mazesp.in/

Nah, that was all on Russell. He's been a bit of a prick with his outbursts about it too.

All fine until Bottas front right crosses the pit exit line...

[sturginho]

Another great race drama throughout. Massive shunt, 70% on Bottas for me. Lewis' luck is astounding. So happy for Norris, a really great drive.

http://mazesp.in/

Nah, that was all on Russell. He's been a bit of a prick with his outbursts about it too.

All fine until Bottas front right crosses the pit exit line...

Bottas is just following the dry line, and there's still a car width there. Russel has now apologised, but I reckon he's properly fucked up his chances of a Mercedes seat

[Kawazaki]

Another great race drama throughout. Massive shunt, 70% on Bottas for me. Lewis' luck is astounding. So happy for Norris, a really great drive.

http://mazesp.in/

Nah, that was all on Russell. He's been a bit of a prick with his outbursts about it too.

All fine until Bottas front right crosses the pit exit line...

The track into the Tamburelo chicane isn't straight, it bends to the left. Bottas is just keeping on the dry line which naturally moves to the right. Russell made a big mistake by overreacting and put his tyres on the grass, then he doubled down the mistake by rushing over to Bottas's car (who, unknown to Russell, might well have been injured as well) to make a public display of blame and then tripled down on his mistake by continuing the blame game afterwards. Russell has seriously shit on his own doorstep here.

[Sandstorm]

Nah, that was all on Russell. He's been a bit of a prick with his outbursts about it too.

All fine until Bottas front right crosses the pit exit line...

Bottas is just following the dry line, and there's still a car width there. Russel has now apologised, but I reckon he's properly fucked up his chances of a Mercedes seat

I disagree. Russell showed some fire on race day, Bottas was a wimp in the wet and Toto was watching.

[handyman]

Russell is still very young, he is going to make mistakes. Even Hamilton made a mistake on Sunday.

Bottas is done now and following Vettel fast.

[Insane_Homer]

Bottas is just following the dry line, and there's still a car width there. Russel has now apologised, but I reckon he's properly fucked up his chances of a Mercedes seat

Nope, At the start of the move Bottas front right is 2 tyres widths inside the 'dry' line. From the onboards you can see the dry line, with the damp/dark patch to the right that follows the pit exit line, Bottas puts both his right tyres onto that dark patch to squeeze Russell.

[Mr Bungle]

Bottas is just following the dry line, and there's still a car width there. Russel has now apologised, but I reckon he's properly fucked up his chances of a Mercedes seat

Nope, At the start of the move Bottas front right is 2 tyres widths inside the 'dry' line. From the onboards you can see the dry line, with the damp/dark patch to the right that follows the pit exit line, Bottas puts both his right tyres onto that dark patch to squeeze Russell.

You need to factor in the curvature of the road and the fact the natural racing line in the dry is what Bottas is following. There is plenty of dry to Russell’s side in the last shot. It almost looks like maybe Bottas is keeping left a little.

I’m not blaming Russell, I think they’re both at part fault. But maybe Bottas was surprised by Russell’s speed, was unprepared to be overtaken and didn’t quite allow enough room?

[Insane_Homer]

You need to factor in the curvature of the road and the fact the natural racing line in the dry is what Bottas is following. There is plenty of dry to Russell’s side in the last shot. It almost looks like maybe Bottas is keeping left a little.

I’m not blaming Russell, I think they’re both at part fault. But maybe Bottas was surprised by Russell’s speed, was unprepared to be overtaken and didn’t quite allow enough room?

I did, he didn't follow the dry line, the 'dry' line is to the left of the pit exit line.

dryline 3.JPG (55.12 KiB) Viewed 1177 times

Watch every other pass in the same place in the highlights package, no one else cuts over the pit exit line as early as Bottas does on this occasion.