or a harbour perhaps?

Filled with sharks with lasers on their heads.

Vastly preferable to referring things to the stewards all the time.

I agree also! Better because it’s instant and consistant

Albeit it’s ‘only’ free practice, but it’s good to see ALO posting a vaguely competitive lap and finishing FP2 7th. McLaren must be heartened to see the Red Bull pace too, especially as they seem to say that their chassis is up there with the other top running teams.

I for one, will be glad to see Alonso back at or mixing it with the sharp end of the grid next year.

Unless any of you more informed peeps know otherwise?

I guess even though Kvyat did better he’s a known quantity (and on the way out), whilst Hartley is a potential future prospect

Potential future prospect = has a bigger chequebook than Kvyat 😉

Going back to the track limits argument I think Trump has missed a trick there. Instead of the orange speedbumps he could have taken some bricks and concrete to the Mexico circuit and done a bit of work on some of the corners then given them an invoice.

Probably his only chance of building a wall and making Mexico pay for it.

Vettel and Verstappen side by side with Hamilton behind? I am so looking forward to turn 1.

Potential future prospect = has a bigger chequebook than Kvyat

I don’t think Hartley has ever come with a big chequebook.

Vettel and Verstappen side by side with Hamilton behind? I am so looking forward to turn 1.

This race is Verstappens – Vettel can’t afford to run into anyone so will have to be really careful. And Hamilton can play the waiting game and pick them off if his pace allows.

Disagree.
No point in Vettel coming second now. He needs to win and Hamilton fail or he loses the championship. And if he loses the championship only wins matter from here on in.
Vettel cannot afford anything but the win.

Such things are meaningless with RB/TR – money isn’t an issue for them at all, I don’t think they’ve ever had a pay driver. All they’re interested in is performance and potential – Hartley has far more of the latter than Kvyat, even if that’s only because he’s more of an unknown.

Potential future prospect = has a bigger chequebook than Kvyat

They have the same chequebook (the Red Bull marketing budget). Hartley had access to it 10 years back but pissed them off so they switched it to Kvyat. Now he’s fallen from favor and Hartley seems to have matured and gets the chequebook back. Whether he keeps it or not will depend on results. Red Bull are pretty ruthless in their driver selections, but they do seem to be fairly meritocratic.

Now we have a race on!

Vettel hit Max and then Hamilton, just as bad as Kvyat 😆
Hamilton asking the team if he hit him on purpose
Incidents have been “noted” no investigation necessary

Brundle dismissed the idea that Vetel would deliberately hit Hamilton, assuming that it could only be a calculated manoeuvre.

Or did Hamilton try to damage Vettels car on the basis that if neither finished then the WC was still his?

Vettel had already damaged his front wing hitting max so was going to have to pit, decided to ram some broken carbon fibre into Hamiltons rear tyre to force him to pit as well
Not saying that he did it on purpose, but it is feasible

You’d have to be an absolutely superb driver to pull that trick off with minimal damage to your own car.

This ‘podium’ is all a bit odd!

You’d have to be an absolutely superb driver to pull that trick off with minimal damage to your own car.

or a hothead with a track record of making rash decisions in the heat of battle.

It seems that Hamilton thinks Vettel tagged him on purpose.

Hamilton, as well as being an excellent driver, is a bit of a whinger.

Pity the season kind of fizzled out over the last few races – typified by today where the guy in 9th beat the guy in 4th to the championship.

It was looking like a vintage year earlier in the season – sad that it couldn’t go to the wire.

It seems that Hamilton thinks Vettel tagged him on purpose.

I feel that he did that as well. He had already broken his wing on VES car so he had literally nothing to lose. He didn’t get a penalty as the FIA wanted to take the show to the last race IMHO.

I disagree. Max came across Lewis forcing him to lift and Vettel didn’t react in time, which is hardly surprising.

You don’t tend to try to tag others with your fragile wing.

And Lewis just asked the question.

His wing was already broken though.

Klunk’s frame grab might look incriminating but if you watch the video in slow motion you’ll see the context, which is that Vettel is sawing at the wheel all the way from turn 1 through turn 3, and the overhead shot makes it clear that at the point shown he’s correcting for oversteer. A misjudgement of his right foot, most likely—no doubt frustrated to see himself slipping into third when he needed the win—but I think there’s nothing in there to suggest it was deliberate contact.

No way was that deliberate- even though it worked out to be slightly in Vettel’s favour, he wouldn’t have known that and it could have just as easily have taken him out and not Hamilton. Just a racing incident.

Just a racing incident.

Exactly, and who cares anyway now that the title is wrapped up?

Simply simply loveleh.

Looks like Max uses whatsapp 😆

not deliberate, IMO, but certainly clumsy and ruined a potentially good race (on a poor track).

Vettel is brittle in high pressure situations. Something he has shown in a number of races this year.

Some people here certainly think Vettel’s reasoning powers and reaction time are superhuman.

shit driving then.

no holds barred for the next races though, Lewis will either cruise or go for it, vettel will be out to prove something and Max is 110% always anyway. should be great

Here’s hoping it rains again in Brazil and we get a Hamilton vs Verstappen battle up front 🙂

no holds barred for the next races though, Lewis will either cruise or go for it, vettel will be out to prove something and Max is 110% always anyway. should be great

…and the Force India drivers are free to crash into one another! 😀

Yep, the last two races should be really exciting! No more Ferrari team orders, Red Bull very much in ascendence and everyone with something to prove and nothing to lose!! 🙂

Bottas still in the running for second in the championship and Hamilton to potentially help him out….

But that would just show that Hammy only won cos he had the best car…

rOcKeTdOg – Member
Lewis will either cruise or go for it

Do you remember Hammy cruised for the last few races of 2015 and Rosberg won the last 3? 4? races. He (Rosberg) then won the first 3? in 2016. That head of steam Hammy gifted to Rosberg I think had an awful lot to do with Rosberg winning the F1 WDC last year.

Let’s hope Hammy doesn’t descend into party mode this year…

So what do we think of the proposed engine regs then?

If the driver has control of when to deploy MGU-K power, perhaps we can get rid of DRS and have overtaking in different places.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/41820129

But please give them more engines so we don’t get stupid grid penalties!

I can’t see grid penalties staying beyond this season in their current form: I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t think they’re totally inappropriate as a response to mechanical issues. I’m not sure more engines is the right answer, and it goes against the objectives of cutting costs and levelling the playing field, but something like constructor points penalties might be.

As for the engine regs, dropping the MGU-H should help reliability, but I’m a little ambivalent about the bigger MGU-K. It still feels a little Wacky Races to have what is effectively an overtake button, even if the use of it becomes part of the driving skill. But I suppose DRS hasn’t killed off wheel-to-wheel action, so it’ll probably be fine; and the MGU-K seems like useful technology to develop for road cars, which the MGU-H doesn’t.

Mind you, 2018 looks like my last season of watching F1 anyway, as I’m not going to pay Rupert Murdoch for the privilege. Hey ho.

Cautiously optimistic over the new regs. Seems like Ross is on it.