The Official F1 Thread

[fishfoodie]

This Miami track is very strange.

There are bits that you could go 4, or 5 cars wide comfortably, & then a sequence of slow corners that rival the Monaco hairpin for narrowness, where I predict many, many issues during Qualification

[fishfoodie]

Another weekend where Sainz smashes his Ferrari, & puts himself & his crew under enormous pressure.

[Guy Smiley]

The FIA have suddenly developed an obsession with drivers wearing jewellery and underwear while driving with the first mention of stricter scrutiny coming at Jeddah, I think it was. Hamilton in particular reacted to this saying he had certain jewellery items that couldn't be removed.

This weekend has seen a more authoritarian stance from the FIA with Seb quoted as saying it looked like LH was being singled out. Then these two things happened...



Seb strolling around the pits with his underwear outside his driving suit, and



LHwears THREE watches and ALL of the jewellery for the press conference.

[sturginho]

Another weekend where Sainz smashes his Ferrari, & puts himself & his crew under enormous pressure.

I hope they remembered to put an escape clause in his new contract!

[Guy Smiley]

Another weekend where Sainz smashes his Ferrari, & puts himself & his crew under enormous pressure.

I hope they remembered to put an escape clause in his new contract!

You're being unfair and inaccurate. Sainz was taken out through no fault of his own last time out... that's just bad luck.

Likewise, today is the first day of practise at a brand new (street) circuit. Plenty of drivers are having issues with the surface. One corner has seen 4 cars off, two spins and a crash.

It seems to be the way of F1 that 'fans' leap to the latest sensation without any real consideration. It's bad luck for Sainz and he'll be feeling pressure as a result... without any need for help from the armchair experts.

[fishfoodie]

Another weekend where Sainz smashes his Ferrari, & puts himself & his crew under enormous pressure.

I hope they remembered to put an escape clause in his new contract!

You're being unfair and inaccurate. Sainz was taken out through no fault of his own last time out... that's just bad luck.

Likewise, today is the first day of practise at a brand new (street) circuit. Plenty of drivers are having issues with the surface. One corner has seen 4 cars off, two spins and a crash.

It seems to be the way of F1 that 'fans' leap to the latest sensation without any real consideration. It's bad luck for Sainz and he'll be feeling pressure as a result... without any need for help from the armchair experts.

I think he knows he's in a car that can win most GPs, & he's watching his team mate demonstrate that, & the pressure is showing !

[Guy Smiley]

Ok m8. You go with that.


Meanwhile...

link

The “racing will be bad” in Formula 1’s inaugural Miami Grand Prix, drivers have warned after the first day of on-track action at the Miami International Autodrome.

Spins and crashes were plentiful during the opening two practice sessions with Valtteri Bottas crashing his Alfa Romeo in FP1 and Carlos Sainz suffering another crash in his incident-strewn second year with Ferrari.

There’s little grip outside of the racing line on the freshly resurfaced Miami GP circuit, leading to warnings that the passing opportunities on Sunday could be poor.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who spun twice in FP2, lamented the amount of grip offline and believes that will limit the quality of the racing.

“It’s really disappointing that there’s no grip off-line, racing will be bad because of that,” Perez said after FP2.

“As soon as you go off-line, there is no grip, it’s done. It’s sometimes wet on that side and sometimes off-line, it feels very gravelly so racing will be hard.”

Norris called the track “extremely tricky” and echoed Perez’s ire at the lack of grip off-line, something which will limit passing places.

“It’s very bumpy in some places, which we were not expecting,” Norris said.

“I think everyone was expecting it to be very smooth and beautiful. But it’s not.

“The surface is very tricky, you go off-line anywhere and it’s pretty much game over, you spin, you end up in the wall. It’s punishing. That’s why you’ve seen a lot of people ending up in the barriers.


“If you go off-line, it’s just terrible. I’m hoping they can do something a little bit better. I don’t know what.

“When they clean the track, it helps, like this morning there was a lot of marbles and stuff and as soon as you went off-line it was game over.

“In FP2 it started better but then as soon as there was a little bit of marbles, it was terrible. It’s not going to be great for racing.

“It’s like one line you’ve got to stick to and that’s it. It’s restricting, you can’t do many differences compared to other people, so it limits you a little bit.”


Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton joked “you think that people in this day and age should be able to make a flat road relatively easy” in reference to the “big, big, big bumps in so many places” on the track.

“I don’t know if they will be able to grind that at night and improve it,” Hamilton said of the bumps.

“Otherwise the track’s quite nice to drive – except for the chicane. That might be the…I don’t want to put that quote out there actually so I’ll hold onto that…but it’s so tight.

“It reminds me of being in a B&Q car park when I was six-years-old in the go-kart going between cars.

“It’s a corner that maybe in future they can remove that one and it will improve the track.”

Prior to the weekend, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda described the final part of the track – which includes the chicane Hamilton detests – as ‘a Formula E sector’.

[sturginho]

I had a quick drive round the track in assetto corsa, and i understand why the drivers think it's shit

[sturginho]

Front row lock out for Ferrari after max messes up his hot lap. Bottas out qualifies Hamilton

[Insane_Homer]

My enthusiasm for this track is not matching the hype.

FP1-3 where meh, Quali was a bit better.

I don't think the racing is going to be overly dramatic. high probability of red flags.

Side note: The action and drama at the WEC 6hr @ Spa yesterday was awesome.

[Insane_Homer]

Best car crash of a grid walk ever. most entertaining thing that's happened so far.

shyte track, boring as fuck race, prayers for rain.

[fishfoodie]

All of a sudden, on low fuel the Ferrari is rock solid, & the RB is pogoing away like a mad thing

[Guy Smiley]

All of a sudden, on low fuel the Ferrari is rock solid, & the RB is pogoing away like a mad thing

Sainz really feeling that pressure, you reckon?

[fishfoodie]

Fucking chaos from Race Control in Monaco

[Biffer]

Fucking chaos from Race Control in Monaco

They seem to be dead set on making F1 an absolute shit show. This is nonsense. Why do you have wet tyres at all?

[fishfoodie]

Well they seem determined to remove all the tracks where they have rain from the calendar

[Biffer]

As Brundle just said, the tyre trolleys have done a greater distance than the cars so far.

[Biffer]

James Hunt would have finished this race and been in bed with three women by now.

[Lobby]

Alonso taking the piss as well, going slower than a mobility scooter at the moment.

[Dogbert]

James Hunt would have finished this race and been in bed with three women by now.

James Hunt's first ever F1 race was in Monaco (1973 ) - His last ever F1 race was in Monaco 1979.

He failed to finish a single F1 Monaco GP ....

The reason he would have been in bed with three woman before any other driver would be because he stuffed the car into a barrier

[Biffer]

James Hunt would have finished this race and been in bed with three women by now.

James Hunt's first ever F1 race was in Monaco (1973 ) - His last ever F1 race was in Monaco 1979.

He failed to finish a single F1 Monaco GP ....

The reason he would have been in bed with three woman before any other driver would be because he stuffed the car into a barrier

Yeah, but still.

[Dogbert]

The greatest qualifying lap I ever saw at Monaco was Senna in 88 ( yes & he also stuffed it into the barrier that year )

Senna posted a time of just under 1 :24 - Prost in second , was nearly 1 and a half seconds slower

Leclerc posted at time this year of 1:11 .3 - that's 13 seconds faster - on the slowest race of the year.

13 seconds

The control / accuracy / speed of thought of these drivers is outstanding

Monaco is what it is , and in my opinion it is still magnificent - maybe not the the 'race' - but to watch drivers showing the skills around a track with barriers ready to jump out and bite - there is probably no better track , I would miss it of it was not on the calendar

[Insane_Homer]

Monaco deserves its place on the calendar.
The delays were annoying, but race was entertaining.

Ferrari shat the bed good.

Great win for Cheko, Pato O'ward nearly made it a Mexican double in the Indy 500, pipped by former F1 driver, swede, Marcus Ericsson.

interestingly, without the RB team orders 1-2 switch last week, Cheko would be 1 point behind Max in the Championship.


Greatest race of them all, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in 2 weeks time

[fishfoodie]

Monaco deserves its place on the calendar.
The delays were annoying, but race was entertaining.

Ferrari shat the bed good.

Great win for Cheko, Pato O'ward nearly made it a Mexican double in the Indy 500, pipped by former F1 driver, swede, Marcus Ericsson.

interestingly, without the RB team orders 1-2 switch last week, Cheko would be 1 point behind Max in the Championship.


Greatest race of them all, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in 2 weeks time

And the TT is back this year !!

[FalseBayFC]

Praying for this to come through. The Kiwis will be completely apoplectic with envy!

[Guy Smiley]

The Kiwis will be completely apoplectic with envy!

Really?

Why?

[FalseBayFC]

Hey look I hooked one in less than 19 minutes!

[FalseBayFC]

Sorry just my dumb South African attempt at humour. Whenever our self esteem is a little low we say something like... "first xyz in the Southern Hemisphere" Aus has a F1 Grand Prix so we can't claim that.

[Grandpa]

Hey look I hooked one in less than 19 minutes!

Well I'm jealous.. and I don't even live in NZ any more

[FalseBayFC]

Hey look I hooked one in less than 19 minutes!

Well I'm jealous.. and I don't even live in NZ any more

I was well jealous that LOTR was filmed in NZ with an NZ director. I was a leading member of the Tolkien society at school. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein after all.

[Guy Smiley]

Hey look I hooked one in less than 19 minutes!

Well I'm jealous.. and I don't even live in NZ any more

There's nowhere NZ could host a GP unless yet another street circuit was created. We haven't really been into hosting large scale motorsport since... before the mists of time rolled in.

F1 under its current ownership is doing a lot of

talking

about new circuits or reviving old ones. The rush to get Americans on board means there will be 3 GPs on mainland USA this year in an overcrowded calendar that has many talking about the need to trim it down, which means either all of these mooted 'new' GPs won't really happen, or some traditional circuits will be ditched.

Good luck getting rid of Spa and Monaco.

Kyalami has had a lot of money spent on it to bring it up to required standard. As usual, there's a lot of talk coming out of Africa about a deal being done but it's hard to see how it's going to fit while the only real reason to add it would be to boast a race on every continent.

Remains to be seen. For mine, I'm glad NZ has nothing to do with it... aside from the Flying Kiwi adorning one of the most famous and iconic names and teams in the sport.

I imagine the Saffas must look at that and...

[Grandpa]

Hey look I hooked one in less than 19 minutes!

Well I'm jealous.. and I don't even live in NZ any more

There's nowhere NZ could host a GP unless yet another street circuit was created. We haven't really been into hosting large scale motorsport since... before the mists of time rolled in.

F1 under its current ownership is doing a lot of

talking

about new circuits or reviving old ones. The rush to get Americans on board means there will be 3 GPs on mainland USA this year in an overcrowded calendar that has many talking about the need to trim it down, which means either all of these mooted 'new' GPs won't really happen, or some traditional circuits will be ditched.

Good luck getting rid of Spa and Monaco.

Kyalami has had a lot of money spent on it to bring it up to required standard. As usual, there's a lot of talk coming out of Africa about a deal being done but it's hard to see how it's going to fit while the only real reason to add it would be to boast a race on every continent.

Remains to be seen. For mine, I'm glad NZ has nothing to do with it... aside from the Flying Kiwi adorning one of the most famous and iconic names and teams in the sport.

I imagine the Saffas must look at that and...

I'd like to see a GP from Te Anau to Milford Sound... No laps... Just one long race with spectacular corners...

[Grandpa]

Hey look I hooked one in less than 19 minutes!

Well I'm jealous.. and I don't even live in NZ any more

I was well jealous that LOTR was filmed in NZ with an NZ director. I was a leading member of the Tolkien society at school. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein after all.

My parents used to live near Hobbiton as well

[FalseBayFC]

There's absolute massive support for and rabid interest in F1 amongst South Africans of every type. I don't think people realize just how significant it is in Africa that there is a black F1 champion driver. That and we're completely desperate for any type of foreign investment to kickstart economic growth here.

[Grandpa]

There's absolute massive support for and rabid interest in F1 amongst South Africans of every type. I don't think people realize just how significant it is in Africa that there is a black F1 champion driver. That and we're completely desperate for any type of foreign investment to kickstart economic growth here.

I wonder if Lewis attracts support from the American black community as well?

[FalseBayFC]

There's absolute massive support for and rabid interest in F1 amongst South Africans of every type. I don't think people realize just how significant it is in Africa that there is a black F1 champion driver. That and we're completely desperate for any type of foreign investment to kickstart economic growth here.

I wonder if Lewis attracts support from the American black community as well?

That's exactly what I'm talking about. I watch rugby, soccer and F1 in a pub with black South Africans, black Zimbos, Malawians, Congolese and immigrants from all over the continent. They are hugely proud of Africans and people of African heritage who excel in the soccer, F1, basketball etc. Hamilton is a massive hero for them.

[Grandpa]

There's absolute massive support for and rabid interest in F1 amongst South Africans of every type. I don't think people realize just how significant it is in Africa that there is a black F1 champion driver. That and we're completely desperate for any type of foreign investment to kickstart economic growth here.

I wonder if Lewis attracts support from the American black community as well?

That's exactly what I'm talking about. I watch rugby, soccer and F1 in a pub with black South Africans, black Zimbos, Malawians, Congolese and immigrants from all over the continent. They are hugely proud of Africans and people of African heritage who excel in the soccer, F1, basketball etc. Hamilton is a massive hero for them.

Probably why they want more F1 races in the US!

Bloody annoying this bouncing though.

[Mr Bungle]

There's absolute massive support for and rabid interest in F1 amongst South Africans of every type. I don't think people realize just how significant it is in Africa that there is a black F1 champion driver. That and we're completely desperate for any type of foreign investment to kickstart economic growth here.

I wonder if Lewis attracts support from the American black community as well?

Lewis lives in New York for part of the year. He's also close to the Williams sisters, Lebron amongst others.

I just hope they don't cram the calendar with yet more races. i think the number they have now in the year is enough.

[Grandpa]

There's absolute massive support for and rabid interest in F1 amongst South Africans of every type. I don't think people realize just how significant it is in Africa that there is a black F1 champion driver. That and we're completely desperate for any type of foreign investment to kickstart economic growth here.

I wonder if Lewis attracts support from the American black community as well?

Lewis lives in New York for part of the year. He's also close to the Williams sisters, Lebron amongst others.

I just hope they don't cram the calendar with yet more races. i think the number they have now in the year is enough.

Good point. Was thinking David Beckham was the UKs most famous sportsman.. but it's probably Lewis...

[Guy Smiley]

There's absolute massive support for and rabid interest in F1 amongst South Africans of every type. I don't think people realize just how significant it is in Africa that there is a black F1 champion driver. That and we're completely desperate for any type of foreign investment to kickstart economic growth here.

I wonder if Lewis attracts support from the American black community as well?

That's exactly what I'm talking about. I watch rugby, soccer and F1 in a pub with black South Africans, black Zimbos, Malawians, Congolese and immigrants from all over the continent. They are hugely proud of Africans and people of African heritage who excel in the soccer, F1, basketball etc. Hamilton is a massive hero for them.

That's pretty cool man, I can totally get onboard with you on that