The Official F1 Thread

[Sandstorm]

Stroll crash. Second red flag.

[And 1 guest]

This is a load of fun!

[A6D6E6]

After the last two races, CVC Capital is sure to introduce a number of innovations taken directly from Mario Kart.

Unfortunately, Vettel will take out Le Clerc with a green shell only to fall into a lava pit at the same time.

[sturginho]

From the Italian commentary team: "almost all the other teams have brought new parts with them this weekend whilst Ferrari have changed the colour on the car and thought "yeah that'll do""

[Un Pilier]

From the Italian commentary team: "almost all the other teams have brought new parts with them this weekend whilst Ferrari have changed the colour on the car and thought "yeah that'll do""

Ouch!!

[Insane_Homer]

From the Italian commentary team: "almost all the other teams have brought new parts with them this weekend whilst Ferrari have changed the colour on the car and thought "yeah that'll do""

Ouch!!

pfft! first time both cars have finished in the points this season

[sturginho]

From the Italian commentary team: "almost all the other teams have brought new parts with them this weekend whilst Ferrari have changed the colour on the car and thought "yeah that'll do""

Ouch!!

pfft! first time both cars have finished in the points this season

And they only needed 8 cars to crash in order to achieve this!

[Saint]

Slightly mental race. 12 drivers been given a telling off by the stewards, presumably because they didn't have the patience to work out who had been more stupid

[sturginho]

Slightly mental race. 12 drivers been given a telling off by the stewards, presumably because they didn't have the patience to work out who had been more stupid

I read that Magnussen and Kivyat had been summoned by the stewards?

[Saint]

Slightly mental race. 12 drivers been given a telling off by the stewards, presumably because they didn't have the patience to work out who had been more stupid

I read that Magnussen and Kivyat had been summoned by the stewards?

The stewards ultimately decided that no single driver was to blame, but 12 drivers in total were partially to blame. So they gave all 12 a warning. They ended up speaking to a lot of drivers

[Saint]

Apparently the FIA are investigating Hamilton for his pre-race t-shirt, but they can't say what rule he might have broken. Strange

[Sandstorm]

Apparently the FIA are investigating Hamilton for his pre-race t-shirt, but they can't say what rule he might have broken. Strange

Bit too political in nature?

[fishfoodie]

Apparently the FIA are investigating Hamilton for his pre-race t-shirt, but they can't say what rule he might have broken. Strange

Bit too political in nature?

Getting in there early before someone wears a "Political", T-Shirt about want a bunch of cunts are in Quatar/Russia/China, etc, etc, etc !

Just another spotlight on how hollow anyone in F1 claiming to give a fuck about human rights is.

[Saint]

Apparently the FIA are investigating Hamilton for his pre-race t-shirt, but they can't say what rule he might have broken. Strange

Bit too political in nature?

That would be the why, the problem being the rules don't appear to cover thsy

[fishfoodie]

Apparently the FIA are investigating Hamilton for his pre-race t-shirt, but they can't say what rule he might have broken. Strange

Bit too political in nature?

That would be the why, the problem being the rules don't appear to cover thsy

and the reason there's no specific rules, is because the FIA doesn't want to codify what, "Political", expression is, & isn't acceptable to them; because that would expose how hypocritical they are.

How many hundreds of workers died building stadia for the Dubai World Cup ?; will Lewis take a knee for them ?; will the FIA allow drivers to wear T-Shirts protesting about the indentured slavery that those workers live within ?

Is Slavery a Political comment ?, or just common decency ??

[Un Pilier]

Eventful Quali in Sochi - pretty tense given red flags etc. Lewis on pole but on soft tyres - Verstappen and Bottas on mediums. Jos might be feeling racy.

[Saint]

Eventful Quali in Sochi - pretty tense given red flags etc. Lewis on pole but on soft tyres - Verstappen and Bottas on mediums. Jos might be feeling racy.

Hamilton's compromised Q2 makes life potentially interesting. If he can make it to the first corner in first place it's likely all over - but there's a strong chance of being out-dragged at Sochi, and he could well struggle to hold first.

Realistically Max won't be able to hold onto second in race conditions. It was a phenomenal effort to split the Mercedes cars, but I suspect even holding third may be beyond his abilities tomorrow.

[Guy Smiley]

Max and Lewis to tangle on the run into the 1st corner?

Bottas to lead into the 2nd lap?

[Saint]

Incidents galore

[Un Pilier]

I thought one 5s penalty for LH was probably right. Two, whilst I could see the logic, seemed a bit harsh. The two points on his super-licence though, taking him one incident from a race disqualification, seemed designed to create drama in an otherwise done and dusted world championship. Not impressed.

[sturginho]

So apparently after Lewis told his engineer that he didn't want to hear Verstappen's lap times any more, the engineer started radioing him Perez's times instead

[Bimbowomxn]

I thought one 5s penalty for LH was probably right. Two, whilst I could see the logic, seemed a bit harsh. The two points on his super-licence though, taking him one incident from a race disqualification, seemed designed to create drama in an otherwise done and dusted world championship. Not impressed.

This

[Saint]

I thought one 5s penalty for LH was probably right. Two, whilst I could see the logic, seemed a bit harsh. The two points on his super-licence though, taking him one incident from a race disqualification, seemed designed to create drama in an otherwise done and dusted world championship. Not impressed.

Super license points have been rescinded and replaced with a 25,000 Euro fine for the team - the basis being it was the team that told him to do it

[Rhubarb & Custard]

Seeing as the drivers wanting to practice starts is a standard and with each track having its own characteristics it seems a little odd they're not setting out what areas can be used and when. Not that I feel much sympathy with Hamilton, the stewards were a little finickity today in a number of instances but if you mayn't like a ruling don't give them a chance

[Slick]

Is Albon just a bit rubbish?

[Saint]

Seeing as the drivers wanting to practice starts is a standard and with each track having its own characteristics it seems a little odd they're not setting out what areas can be used and when. Not that I feel much sympathy with Hamilton, the stewards were a little finickity today in a number of instances but if you mayn't like a ruling don't give them a chance

The issue with having a set area to practice starts, especially at a street track, is the you end up with an area that's massively rubbered in, and bears little to no relation to the conditions of the starting grid. The team certainly didn't believe that the rules prohibited this, although apparently the race director had prohibited it - which then went and made all the possible penalties entirely discretionary, as it wasn't I. either the sporting or technical regulations

[Saint]

Is Albon just a bit rubbish?

I think that the car is still VERY unpredictable unless you're an absolute top level driver, it still appear to understeer/oversteer at random

[sturginho]

Just seen the F2 highlights, mahoosive crash, thankfully both drivers walked away ok

[Sandstorm]

Is Albon just a bit rubbish?

I think that the car is still VERY unpredictable unless you're an absolute top level driver, it still appear to understeer/oversteer at random

You have to be a fearless loon to drive the Red Bull at 100% for 70 laps. Albon isn’t that guy....

[Mr Bungle]

What was up with Lewis' timing at the end? Lap 47/48 he's 10 sec behind, then he jumps out to 18 sec. Then a few laps later he's back at 10 sec behind. Then he winds down on the last lap to be 22 sec behind.

[Saint]

What was up with Lewis' timing at the end? Lap 47/48 he's 10 sec behind, then he jumps out to 18 sec. Then a few laps later he's back at 10 sec behind. Then he winds down on the last lap to be 22 sec behind.

Presumably the timing circuits malfunctioned

[Saint]

Is Albon just a bit rubbish?

I think that the car is still VERY unpredictable unless you're an absolute top level driver, it still appear to understeer/oversteer at random

You have to be a fearless loon to drive the Red Bull at 100% for 70 laps. Albon isn’t that guy....

There's only 2 or 3 drivers that might be. Red Bull are lucky to have one of them

[Guy Smiley]

Seeing as the drivers wanting to practice starts is a standard and with each track having its own characteristics it seems a little odd they're not setting out what areas can be used and when. Not that I feel much sympathy with Hamilton, the stewards were a little finickity today in a number of instances but if you mayn't like a ruling don't give them a chance

The issue with having a set area to practice starts, especially at a street track, is the you end up with an area that's massively rubbered in, and bears little to no relation to the conditions of the starting grid. The team certainly didn't believe that the rules prohibited this, although apparently the race director had prohibited it - which then went and made all the possible penalties entirely discretionary, as it wasn't I. either the sporting or technical regulations

Apparently the race director had specified the practise area quite clearly and Toto stretched the truth a little in saying it hadn’t been clearly communicated. Then when LH asked the team if he could use the spot further down the pit lane exit they were unsighted and didn’t know how far down he’d stopped.

I thought the Turn 2 instruction to use the bollard exit was terrible myself... precisely because of what happened with Sainz. The angle and proximity of the wall there made any attempt to run the correct line more difficult than it needed to be as we saw later with Gosjean taking them out entirely


Crofty is an embarrassment. FFS... it’s like he’s desperate to emulate the standards of Murray Walker with added volume.

[Mr Bungle]

What was up with Lewis' timing at the end? Lap 47/48 he's 10 sec behind, then he jumps out to 18 sec. Then a few laps later he's back at 10 sec behind. Then he winds down on the last lap to be 22 sec behind.

Presumably the timing circuits malfunctioned

The only obvious answer, really. Initially when he dropped back by 8 secs I thought he'd had an off.

The final lap was just him going easy.

[Saint]

Seeing as the drivers wanting to practice starts is a standard and with each track having its own characteristics it seems a little odd they're not setting out what areas can be used and when. Not that I feel much sympathy with Hamilton, the stewards were a little finickity today in a number of instances but if you mayn't like a ruling don't give them a chance

The issue with having a set area to practice starts, especially at a street track, is the you end up with an area that's massively rubbered in, and bears little to no relation to the conditions of the starting grid. The team certainly didn't believe that the rules prohibited this, although apparently the race director had prohibited it - which then went and made all the possible penalties entirely discretionary, as it wasn't I. either the sporting or technical regulations

Apparently the race director had specified the practise area quite clearly and Toto stretched the truth a little in saying it hadn’t been clearly communicated. Then when LH asked the team if he could use the spot further down the pit lane exit they were unsighted and didn’t know how far down he’d stopped.

I thought the Turn 2 instruction to use the bollard exit was terrible myself... precisely because of what happened with Sainz. The angle and proximity of the wall there made any attempt to run the correct line more difficult than it needed to be as we saw later with Gosjean taking them out entirely


Crofty is an embarrassment. FFS... it’s like he’s desperate to emulate the standards of Murray Walker with added volume.

Sainz smashed his car because he decided to keep his foot to the floor and it understeered. The point of the chicane was that a driver would lift to actually be sure they could make the turn. It was a full on Grosjean piece of stupidity from Carlos

Ironically, Grosjean for once did it right - went for a much more extreme entry to the chicane, pulled of the gas massively, still couldn't make it, so smashed some polystyrene boards that were designed to be smashed if needed. End result Sainz tried to avoid the penalty and took himself out, Grosjean took the penalty and stayed in the race. That’s actually how it's supposed to work

[Saint]

What was up with Lewis' timing at the end? Lap 47/48 he's 10 sec behind, then he jumps out to 18 sec. Then a few laps later he's back at 10 sec behind. Then he winds down on the last lap to be 22 sec behind.

Presumably the timing circuits malfunctioned

The only obvious answer, really. Initially when he dropped back by 8 secs I thought he'd had an off.

The final lap was just him going easy.

Final lap he went purple first sector going for fastest lap before his engineer called him off saying the engine couldn't take it. I suspect Turkey/Bahrain/Imola is causing the teams some concerns

[Mr Bungle]

Presumably the timing circuits malfunctioned

The only obvious answer, really. Initially when he dropped back by 8 secs I thought he'd had an off.

The final lap was just him going easy.

Final lap he went purple first sector going for fastest lap before his engineer called him off saying the engine couldn't take it. I suspect Turkey/Bahrain/Imola is causing the teams some concerns

[Guy Smiley]

I didn’t have an issue with the penalty for missing the chicane Saint... my issue was with the alignment of the bollards and the proximity of the wall there. Anyone having to use that corrective exit was necessarily going to be working to recover a mistake at the chicane and from that have to negotiate another difficult chicane again. I thought a better alignment could be made.

As for Albion and the Red Bull... I think it’s fair to say he’s in a difficult car. You see Max having a lot of slides when pushing that you don’t see with other cars. The Merc is just on rails generally and the Renault always looks smooth as does the McLaren. The RB is a different beast.

[Slick]

Thanks guys re Albon. The comment was perhaps more facetious than intended and I didn't realise how bad the Red Bull is.

Max is some driver also seems like a very likeable chap

[Un Pilier]

I didn’t have an issue with the penalty for missing the chicane Saint... my issue was with the alignment of the bollards and the proximity of the wall there. Anyone having to use that corrective exit was necessarily going to be working to recover a mistake at the chicane and from that have to negotiate another difficult chicane again. I thought a better alignment could be made.

As for Albion and the Red Bull... I think it’s fair to say he’s in a difficult car. You see Max having a lot of slides when pushing that you don’t see with other cars. The Merc is just on rails generally and the Renault always looks smooth as does the McLaren. The RB is a different beast.

I have to say I thought the layout looked questionable prior to the race. However, I noticed that Sainz came at the wall / bollard gap at a much tighter angle than others like Grosjean who took a wider line. This reduced the margin of error quite substantially. I agree he misjudged it quite badly.