[Closed] F1 2017 (Bound to contain spoilers!)

😆

Don't know if any of you watch the BTCC, but a 17 year old lad, Billy Monger, in the F4 support race was in a horror crash and has had to have both of his legs amputated.

A just giving page was set up to try to raise £250000.

The current raised after 24 hours is at £542152 including two £15000 donations, one from Jenson Button and one from Max Verstappen.

Thats terrible news for the kid and the parents.

A friend of mine races sidecars at the IoM and other places, his 11 yo son is a rising star in Mini Moto GP. Last year he was in a terrible crash, coma and many broken bones albeit he made a full recovery. My mate was inconsolable not only about the direct issue but because of the fact he encouraged and supported him to follow on from his dad and felt directly responsible. His son is now back into it 100%

I can't think how that ^^ situation must feel, thoughts with the kid & his family.

Bit more reading if anyones interested. Hate looking at it as he looks like a boy in the picture and I saw the crash live and it still makes me feel sick, but some positives in the article...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-39651283

Stay away from the other thread about Billy Monger you guys, it's pretty unpleasant over there - at least you guys are sympathetic...

Awful seeing that onboard footage, he didn't stand a chance seeing the car he hit.

Tragic for anyone let alone someone so young.

Auto Motor und Sport - German web site

Is there an option to read this in English? Or are you guys multilingual?

Google translate page. Am

Back to topic a puff piece on BBC for why Ferrari have improved today has an interesting piece about how the drivers are great but like their cars just so. I found the wording a little strange as by definition a Great Driver will drive the wheels off whatever he's given and won't grumble that it isn't just so, he/she will also win regularly in sub-optimal (to them) machinery. By this yardstick the drivers referenced would not appear to be Great. (Compared to me and my sub-'STW Driving God' status they are light years away in ability).

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39647299 ]Source[/url]

The contentious passage I base my comment on

Vettel is a great driver, but he needs a car to behave in a certain way to be at his best. If a car won't do what he wants, he can get into a downward spiral, as happened last year and in 2014, his final season at Red Bull.

I agree that the true greats win races that the car isn't really up to but to suggest that they're not fussy or complain is wrong. Some do, some don't. Different people, styles, skills, etc.

I haven't read the article but I agree with the passage you quoted. I'll try and find a great post I saw on on PH or F1T a while back analysing what setups each driver preferred/needed, and their relative performance. I think it said Rai likes a very pointy car, i.e. tending to oversteer where as Vettel prefers a planted rear.

Makes sense when you consider how well he did with the EBD, and assuming the car is now setup more to Vet's liking, how Rai's relative performance now seems to have dropped off.

On the subject, insight to what makes Hamilton a great.

http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/october-2014/30/decoding-enigma

And the top post here provides several quotes on the subject too.
http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8843&start=960

(and also to the point about greats, gives some insight as to why Schumacher struggled on his return with Merc)

Surely part of being a great driver is explaining to the engineers what is good or bad about the car and what they can tweak to allow you to get the thing around the track even faster.
Most of the "great" drivers seem to spend a lot of time with their mechanics and engineers - the ones who tweet from the hotel before the race is finished... not so much perhaps?

I reckon there are too many different types of great to look into things too much. Fangio for example was known for jumping between teams to make sure he got the best car. whereas Schumacher worked with Brawn (and Byrne) for years to sort out the garbage that Ferrari were churning out at the time

Surely part of being a great driver is explaining to the engineers what is good or bad about the car

Really? I thought it was winning races 🙂

Slightly facetious but presumably that's aimed at Hamilton who when you read from people in the know is not the person that the media (and to some extent he himself) like to portray. I'd argue that just spending more time on something is not the sign of greatness - in fact, it's being able to distinguish what the line is between gaining something and being effective rather than just getting into a spiral that doesn't benefit any more.

Surely part of being a great driver is explaining to the engineers what is good or bad about the car and what they can tweak to allow you to get the thing around the track even faster.

Nemesis - not pointed at Hamilton. I cannot warm to Hamilton (he may be lovely in person but I've never met him) however he is undoubtedly a fantastic driver.
The comment was more that driving what you've got fast is good, but working with the engineers to turn what they've got into what you want is also good (if it's fast for you).
Of course given the choice you'd want both.

I love him as a driver, less so as the person we get to see though I think this year has shown a marked change in him - Maybe there was just too much niggle with Rosberg and that made things prickly. We'll see how things go the first time he and Vettel tangle... 😉

Sochi this weekend, race is live on C4 from 12:00.

Bottas was quick here with Williams last year, so hopefully he'll be keeping Lewis honest 😀

[img] [/img]
Courtesy of https://www.formula1.com/en/championship/races/2017/Russia.html

[url= https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2016/races/941/russia/race-result.html ]2016 Results[/url]

McLaren have confirmed that Alonso's Indy 500 car will be in the proper orange livery, therefore making the F1 dog look even worse than it already does

Another Honda failure for McL.. Bet FA can't wait to get to Indy... (though it was Stoff's engine today)

[quote=nemesis ]Another Honda failure for McL.. Bet FA can't wait to get to Indy... (though it was Stoff's engine today)

Which means he'll be getting grid penalties for using too many engine parts over the course of the season - at the 4th race!

I'm curious - if JB has new engine parts at Monaco, do they count towards FA's allocation?

15 place drop... Probably won't really try quali to save the next engine in a vague hope of actually finishing a race...

Meanwhile, each driver is permitted to use only four of the six power unit elements ( during a single season. Should a driver use more than this, a grid penalty will be imposed. The six elements are the internal combustion engine (ICE), the motor generator unit-kinetic (MGU-K), the motor generator unit-heat (MGU-H), the energy store (ES), turbocharger (TC) and control electronics (CE).

So it's tied to the driver, not the car.
https://www.formula1.com/en/championship/inside-f1/rules-regs/Licenses_driving_protocol_and_penalties.html

Thanks - it did just occur to me as another reason to sub FA out for a race! 😈

They can give JB a brand new race almost every session and try out a load of upgrades (assuming they have any) without penalty.

Yeah, I suppose they could use it to try out a new spec of engine in JB's car without penalty but really given where they are it's a pretty marginal benefit compared to trying to keep FA happy...

So it's tied to the driver, not the car

I think its the opposite, did this not come up last year and the PU is tied to the car?

Edit: IIRC when Verstappen and Kvyiat were swapped they each took on the others PU allocation.

What happens with power unit usage?
The Sporting Regulations state 'if a driver is replaced at any time during the Championship season his replacement will be deemed to be the original driver for the purposes of assessing power unit usage

It'll be intetesting to see if the new regs concerning burning oil as an extra fuel will have an effect on Mercedes' special power-up Q3 engine mode..

Button will pick up where Alonso leaves off in terms of power units, according to radio 5

Button will pick up where Alonso leaves off in terms of power units, according to radio 5

Yes, this is the case. Also confirmed by JAonF1 and Channel 4

Top 4 separated by half a second in final practice - qually should be good! Merc need to top up those oil tanks! 😉

I would love to see Kimi grab a race win this year.

And Red Bull only a teeny bit faster than a retired bloke in a Williams (and 1.5s off the pace at the front) - Mr. Newey is losing his touch it seems.

Power track innit? Impressed that Red Bull are as high as they are tbh, says a lot for the handling

Another poor drive by Palmer, bad mistake to make that.

Shocker!! 😯

Nice work from Massa too. Stroll needs to step up a little! 🙂

Another poor drive by Palmer, bad mistake to make that.

Palmer's a funny one, he really seemed to have the whole F1 one thing sorted by the end of the last season, but he's started this one very poorly. He's in my team too!! Pull it together JP! 🙂

Boom - game on!

It's going to be interesting watching Lewis implode this season. Nico was a known quantity - he can do nothing about Vettel. And if Bottas out qualifies him on a regular basis that will really get to him.

It's going to be interesting watching Lewis implode this season.

I think it's already started! His penultimate flying lap was a total mess. Bailed out of a lot free practice laps too. I think we're definitely going to see some Hamtrums this weekend 😉

Yeah I can see a few let me pass orders to keep him Ham happy. Ham not at the races today but should make a bit of progress when Bottas' tyres go off. That is if Verstappen doesnt have a torpedo moment.

Sauber have finally announced a Honda deal for next year. Wonder if they'll be the only team using them?

The same Sauber that (kinda) brought Mercedes into modern F1, maybe they'll do a better job of it 😉

Alonso not even finishing the warm-up lap.

Sauber have finally announced a Honda deal for next year.Wonder if they'll be the only team using them?

Eddie Jordan is absolutely certain that this will be the case (for whatever that is worth!)

JP out Alonso in for Spain!!??? 😆