Formula One thread

[Vostre Roy]

Leclerc's car is down, transmission issues I believe. Kid's luck at his home GP is inexistant.

Also, first time in year that I actually sit to watch a race.

 

[StevenC]

This is the worst day of my life.

 

[SD83]

Watched the highlights yesterday and a bit more today, sadly didn't have the option to watch the full race... what a horrible day for Leclerc and Bottas.
But that aside, the season seems to remain exciting. I never thought I'd see Vettel finish ahead of Hamilton again. Not sure what's up with Ricciardo, the gap between him and Norris is insane...

 

[StevenC]

Watched the highlights yesterday and a bit more today, sadly didn't have the option to watch the full race... what a horrible day for Leclerc and Bottas.
But that aside, the season seems to remain exciting. I never thought I'd see Vettel finish ahead of Hamilton again. Not sure what's up with Ricciardo, the gap between him and Norris is insane...

With regards Norris/Ricciardo, and all teammate swaps, drivers this year had soooo little testing to get used to the new cars. A day and a half. They're only now approaching the mileage they're used to preseason. It takes a while to figure it out, and you can see it with all of them: Alonso, Vettel, Perez, Tsunoda, Ricciardo. Except Sainz.

With the cars being so similar to last year it's very dramatic and effecting all new drivers the same way. Except Sainz. Ricciardo was complaining off no confidence in the traction under braking this weekend. Not only is that a big thing for his driving style, but it's a big deal in Monaco. I think he's still winning the Quali battle though, and really outperformed Norris in Spain.

We're seeing other drivers adapt at different rates. Vettel is building slowly; Ricciardo is piecing things together; Alonso and Perez seem to yoyo on their deficit every week; and Tsunoda has to deal with being a rookie on top of it all.

Presumably Sainz has adapted so well either from the Fiorano test days with older cars being a benefit, or the car suits him/is similar to the McLaren.

 

[BenjaminW]

I'm thinking I'm gonna get back into F1.

I used to sorta watch it and pay attention to it when I was younger because my dad and brother are big Ferrari fans, and had the chance to go to the first US Grand Prix in Austin when I was 9 which was pretty damn cool. I've got a couple relatively interesting stories about my time there that I'd be down to share.

My brother had some of his friends over I think around the time of the Monaco GP, and decided I'd watch some old Michael Schumacher videos because he was a favorite in my household (obviously considering I live with Ferrari fans), and more recently learned about the F2004 and how great that car was, and how amazing he drove that car.

So I figured I'd go ahead and give it a shot again especially considering that I've also been getting back into cars the last couple months and it's been a little bit of a hidden thing I enjoy to put it that way.

 

[StevenC]

This is once again the worst day of my life.

What did I just watch?

 

[Vostre Roy]

This is once again the worst day of my life.

What did I just watch?

Consider yourself lucky that you could watch it, every damn interesting race happens when I'm up north working...

Sucks for Stroll, saw the replay and seems like his rear left tire just burst for no reason? Have yet to see Verstappen's incident but I read he also had tire issue in the same area.

That being said, its nice to see a top 3 where both season leaders are out of the points. And Bottas better step his game up or he'll loose his seat sooner than later

 

[StevenC]

Something drastic needs to be done about Michael Masi. He's had over 2 years now to figure out how to direct an F1 race and just hasn't gotten any better.

Now drivers are breaking double yellows again and he's not penalising them and rarely if every uses the VSC. Takes ages to call a SC when drivers are sitting vulnerably on incredibly dangerous parts of the circuit that need to be cleared. He has no consistency and bends to the whims of media pressure because he doesn't have his own ideology of how to safely direct a race.

Instead of driver safety the only thing we ever hear from Masi is track limits. I hope something is done before it ends in tragedy.

 

[Mathemagician]

Did you hear the audio from when Redbull called the directors? Straight up said “call a red flag, no evidence of prior puncture”.

Exact same issue on two different cars around similar laps on the tires too I think? Man Pirelli fucked UP. But they announced that the tires weren’t the issue of course.

 

[Bodes]

The graphics on screen were showing both Hamilton and Perez (?) had sweet little grip left at around the 30 lap mark.

Commentators were saying they weren't sure how the percentage of tire wear left was worked out, as well as saying if those % were to be believed, Pirelli has been telling a few fibs about the performance of the hard tyres.

Most were complaining from about 26 laps of wear... Pirelli really overstated their tyres or misunderstood the tyres to the point of being dangerous.

 

[Mathemagician]

Yeah hards were rated at 40 laps. In a 51 lap race.

 

[StevenC]

The graphics on screen were showing both Hamilton and Perez (?) had sweet little grip left at around the 30 lap mark.

Commentators were saying they weren't sure how the percentage of tire wear left was worked out, as well as saying if those % were to be believed, Pirelli has been telling a few fibs about the performance of the hard tyres.

Most were complaining from about 26 laps of wear... Pirelli really overstated their tyres or misunderstood the tyres to the point of being dangerous.

I'd be hesitant to read anything from the AWS tyre graphics because they seem to be based on magic dust more than anything. They're as reliable as Lewis saying his tyres are dead.

I'm not convinced on the tyres for now. Some drivers did 41 laps on the hards this week without incident, but it looks like Hamilton had a giant cut in his from debris. At the minute it seems more likely that Max and Lance got very unlucky with their failures. Compared to Austria 2016 as an example with a real outlying stint and failure.

But it is a bad look that they brought the softest tyres and appear to have only red flagged the race to give the rest of the field a chance to change tyres to make the finish.

 

[Bodes]

But it is a bad look that they brought the softest tyres and appear to have only red flagged the race to give the rest of the field a chance to change tyres to make the finish.

100% this.
Although it was a fun restart/finish to watch, it had zero integrity to it, apart from Perez winning.

 

[StevenC]

He really is a Schumacher, brings a tear to my eye.

 

[Mathemagician]

He really is a Schumacher, brings a tear to my eye.

Bro the qualies had a lot more going on than I expected going into this go-cart looking track.

 

[BenjaminW]

Bro the qualies had a lot more going on than I expected going into this go-cart looking track.

Just put a couple item boxes and boost pads around, then you've got yourself a real go-kart track.

 

[StevenC]

My brain was just melted by the end of that race, no wonder Bottas was so angry. I had to lie down for 2 hours.

 

[StevenC]

George's time will come

 

[r33per]

George's time will come

Here's hoping...

Some good stuff from Lando and Charlie today. Max & RB just owned it from turn one.

 

[Werecow]

With how well Lando is doing versus Daniel, and how well Carlos is doing against Charles, i'm beginning to think they were both carrying that Mclaren car for their time together there.

They were mostly closely matched at Mclaren, and both expected to be beaten soundly by their new team mates. Carlos against Charles is impressive in that it's the new car for Carlos. Lando v Daniel is impressive in the sheer gap between them.