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don't think merc will be too worried looks like their car has even more advantage over the ferrari than last year. at least 0.5 in quali and a better race pace
I'd think they will be really worried about Bottas and the speed of Red bull and Kimi. Hamilton will be working hard without his rear gunner.
Go Fernando!
nope, f1 is still dead to me. illl stick to wrc and the dh when its back on.
Yeah, yet to hear anything that makes me want to bother watching. Will catch a 5min ‘highlight’ vid on YouTube and start getting my hopes up for 2019
3rd in the Singletrack Fantasy League. That's going to be as good as it gets I think!
21st out of 22nd in the league!
I was feeling pretty smug with Hamilton in my team, Haas as my constructor, both Haas drivers, and Grosjean as my talent driver.
Then Haas forgot how to put a wheel on a car and ditched the whole lot of them!
On another note, and trying to avoid patriotic bias, it does seem a bit stupid when the 3rd best driver on the weekend ends up winning because he got lucky with a virtual safety car. The whole drive as fast as you like in the pit approach rule seems like an easy loophole to first of all spot, and then fix. Cracking post race comment from Brundle was:
"Why wouldn't you go through the pit lane every lap of a virtual safety car if you're allowed to drive faster"?
The fact that he's right tells you that the rule is nonsense!!! If Hamilton had done a "drive through" on Vettel's pit lap then he'd have won. How stupid is that.
Saying that, I'd much rather being in Hamilton's spot right now. Second place and a car that's half a second quicker is a better macro position, even if the micro didn't go for him today.
On another another note I wish they would crank up the mechanical grip, get rid of those ridiculous front wings and sticky out bits everywhere to cut the aero effect, remove DRS, and make the cars both look better and easier for a faster car to overtake naturally. If you can't get within 100m of a car round a corner because of "dirty air" then the balance is wrong . Also overtaking someone because you have a different rear wing temporarily isn't that inspiring. Let cars come out of a corner just behind each other and get back to the good old days of slipstreaming and organic overtaking.
/rant
Exactly, bring back the good old days.
European GP 1993 Senna got fastest lap (lap record?) going through the pits without stopping. No speed limit in those days of course.
Got away with it once, might have been frowned upon if he'd done it every lap.
1998 British GP - Schumacher won it by going through the pit lane on the final lap.
https://wtf1.com/post/that-time-michael-schumacher-won-a-race-in-the-pit-lane/
Got away with it once, might have been frowned upon if he’d done it every lap.
went in, realised team weren’t ready and just kept it planted iirc
Well that was shite.
Brilliant tactics from Ferrari. Get a 12 second gap before their tyre change then order their B-team to create a VSC incident. It took them 2 goes, but it worked.
Does anyone else find the new font on the infographics or whatever they call them as well as the infographics themselves a bit shit?
I used to find it really easy to see who was on which tyre etc but struggle now (although it doesn’t help that I’m colourblind). It feels like its all gone a bit American which I was hoping it wouldn’t.
Felt sorry for Haas, they must be gutted.
Interesting race, gutted for Lewis but it's made for an interesting start to the season, best car/driver combo not winning 🙂
Man, that was one dry hump of a race.
If you can’t get within 100m of a car round a corner because of “dirty air” then the balance is wrong.
That's one thing, but what's even more of a concern is that it seems they're now so marginal on cooling that they frequently can't even follow a slipstream on the straights. That doesn't bode well.
Does anyone else find the new font on the infographics or whatever they call them as well as the infographics themselves a bit shit?
Yeah, someone with a grasp of typography and accessibility should have given them a bit of advice there, I think. Seems like the marketing department had too much free rein.
i've had enough of F1 now - since the 80's ive been watching, but the likes of WEC/FE/MotoGP etc i wonder why i waste my time watching it....its all feeling a little bit.....sh**....
sh** halo
sh** graphics
sh** in car camera nobbled by sh** halo
sh** rules that are not thought out
sh** cars that cannot follow behind each other
sh** aero winglets all over the place making cars look sh**
sh** fuel saving
sh** structure that means nobody changes anything because they all want just to keep the CA$$ flowing and those that do want the change have no power to do so
monday morning +1 hour GMT rant over!
you forgot
shit engine saving
Those onboard shots are crap now.
Used to love the over the shoulder cams that gave a drivers perspective of speed etc.
Also those ‘MAJOR INCIDENT’ pop ups are awful.
I hope that most of my disappointment yesterday was down to my high expectations of the season (and the fact I'd only had 3 hours sleep!).
1st thing that should be done is that pit stops should be banned under VSC. Something is wrong when a driver can come from a relatively distance 3rd to lead the race when places are meant to be neutralised. And Renault lost out badly too.
Halo - It's shit. I know it's been done and done - but if MotoGP riders can travel at speeds of 200mph with hardly any safety features then F1 drivers should be able cope with some risk. This FIA 'threat of being sued' should be dealt with when drivers sign up to race in F1. No waiver, no racing.
TV Graphics - has their designer recently been playing WipeOut on his PS1! Unlegible at times - and no chance if you have a small telly without HD.
Aero - It's just got to be dealt with - and not by 2021. There was no chance for anyone to overtake yesterday unless they had a massive car advantage. What's the point of making the diffuser bigger if you then allow even more complex front-end aero.
agree agree agree agree agree!
Problem with it is - Bernie handed a lot of control to the F1 teams rather than the owners and they cannot do anything without full consent from the big teams, and if they are up front, they dont want anything to change - why would a Merc works team want to level the playing field so someone like Haas or Force India could compete with them at the front.
VSC should just be banned totally (indeed i thought it was for 2018?) - they want to spice up the show, just always have a the full safety car and bunch up the field again.
i have to also say, i feel the C4 coverage is almost like watching QVC - lets sell sell sell sell that this is most fantastic thing ever and its all great and fantastic and great and .....fantastic.
when in reality it was humdrum boring race showing the serious flaws of F1.
Yeah, the VSC is a shit idea and always has been. The pit entry/exit loophole is just the bluebottle on the turd.
Point of order.
Vettel was in first place when the VSC occurred. Hamilton and Raikonnen having already pitted for their single stop.
The reason pit stops works under the VSC is that you lose less time relative to the field as they are circulating more slowly. You can also speed up on the entry and exit to the pits as the fact you will be stationary in the pit lane means you won't breach the minimum time for that sector.
So instead of losing 20-25 seconds for a stop, you lose 10-15 seconds.
If you're opponent pitted in normal racing it can mean a net 10 second gain.
The way to eliminate it is to speed limit the cars so they can't make up so much time
Yeah, the VSC is a shit idea and always has been. The pit entry/exit loophole is just the bluebottle on the turd.
Lol'd at your description here.
Not sure I agree about the VSC though, in some circumstances it's a good option to have available.
And let's face it, without the clever pitstop there wouldn't have been much to talk about after the race..!
Point of order.
It's a very good point as well. I misread the situation.
It's not faster to go through the pit lane when there's a VSC it's that the rest of the field is travelling slower when you're stationary. Same net outcome however where it becomes an advantage based on luck rather than judgement or skill.
Overall solution seems to be no tyre changes on a VSC. Done.
A load of nonsense talked on here, there is nothing wrong with VSC, it's a valuable safety tool. Also pitting under safety car conditions is part of motosport and has been used by teams for decades to gain an advantage. Only reason Merc didn't do it, is by their own admission their calculations were wrong and they thought Hamilton would still be ahead. Yesterday Ferrari outsmarted Merc that's sport get over it, on another day it'll be the other way around.
Overall though it was a shockingly boring race, and a bad omen for the upcoming season.
A load of nonsense talked on here, there is nothing wrong with VSC, it’s a valuable safety tool.
Not really - VSC is meant to [b]neutralise[/b] the race so no-one changes position and no-one gains. If there is a loophole to that it needs closing. If they can't make it fair it needs scrapping.
Normal safety car is a different matter entirely.
Ferrari got lucky - they admit it - no outsmarting was needed.
Ultimately the Race Control is to blame - they should have known there was no way that car could be recovered without a normal safety car.
Intersting that the 3 Renault powered teams seem the closest grouping (based on one race) than the Merc or Ferrari teams. Yeah Haas were up there but Sauber are waaay off, and Williams/FI aren't showing any sign of getting the most out of the Merc PU.
One decent engine upgrade from Renault could make things very interesting - possibly pushing RB ahead of Merc/Ferrari and putting McLaren & Renault above Haas and causing trouble to Merc/Ferrari. Now that would be worth a watch...
I guess the key things I'm waiting for this year are confirmation of the '21 specs (please control the aero!) and news of the non-live streaming service from Liberty so I can watch some races next year.
Only reason Merc didn’t do it, is by their own admission their calculations were wrong and they thought Hamilton would still be ahead.
Merc didn't do it because Hamilton had already pitted. Vettel was already in front of Hamilton before the VSC. Because of the VSC he stayed in front because he lost a handful of seconds rather than 20
A load of nonsense talked on here
Yep
[i]richmtb wrote:[/i]
Merc didn’t do it because Hamilton had already pitted.
Merc didn't do it because KR had already pitted, forcing Hamilton to pit to avoid the undercut. So you could suggest clever tactics by Ferrari, but it relied on the luck of getting the VSC at the right point. Doesn't mean it's not silly being able to get an advantage like that - really they need to change the VSC rules regarding pitting as currently it doesn't even seem to be making drivers slow down on some parts of the track which is a safety issue.
19th!! I bet heavy on Haas and Verstappen lol 🙂
Watched the highlights package on Ch4, it didn't go un-noticed that all the adverts were for Pensions, River cruises, Meals on wheels, Window replacement....I guess it's now afternoon telly for oldies to fall asleep in front of after Sunday lunch.
It's a little bit embarrassing now really
Indeed, adverts are telling when it comes to demographics ...
Not a good idea sign
"Halo – It’s shit. I know it’s been done and done – but if MotoGP riders can travel at speeds of 200mph with hardly any safety features then F1 drivers should be able cope with some risk. This FIA ‘threat of being sued’ should be dealt with when drivers sign up to race in F1. No waiver, no racing."
The problem you've got there is that you're talking balls. Death is never an acceptable risk - nack-all to do with being sued, just let's not needlessly kill people. What's shit about halo? How it looks? You'll get used to it, like you did every other change they made that had folks frothing about how they don't look like racing cars any more, then forgot about a fortnight later.
This is all true, there are many more shit things in F1 than the halo
BTW, the Youtube highlights are 6mins, still feels like a stretch
I can’t find them now, but on Sky they had last years Melbourne race stats. The number of on track overtakes was something obscene like three.
Melbourne has always been a bit of a damp squib so I’m praying the rest of the season will be better.
there is nothing wrong with VSC, it’s a valuable safety tool
As are waved yellows and the full safety car, one of which allows racing on most of the lap and the other of which creates entertainment. The VSC does neither.
The problem you’ve got there is that you’re talking balls. Death is never an acceptable risk – nack-all to do with being sued, just let’s not needlessly kill people. What’s shit about halo? How it looks? You’ll get used to it, like you did every other change they made that had folks frothing about how they don’t look like racing cars any more, then forgot about a fortnight later.
As they would say in Parliament - with greatest respect dear fellow, you are talking balls too. Death hasn't been regular part of F1 for decades. Even serious injury is very rare. A jockey takes more risks every day of the week.
Yes it is looks of the Halo - it looks bloody awful. And no amount of tweaking it will make it look better. I've been trying to get used to it since they started testing it last year. And when was the last safety improvement that had such a radical effect on the look of the cars? I can only think of the headrests after Senna's death.
And frankly the Halo scares me too. I can see a time when a driver is trapped upside down with the car on fire and there will be no way to extract him quickly. It may have partially solved one problem, but to me it creates others.
And yes I'll admit it - to me danger should be part of the sport.
Well said TMM
The other thing that concerns me about the halo, is what if there's an incident like Massa's and the loose object deflects off of the halo, away from the crash helmet and into the drivers unprotected chest - law of unintended consequences and all that. Or like the crash with Alonso where Grosjean (iirc) went over him, what if another car gets entangled in the halo, how do you extract the driver then.
As far as I can tell it was introduced due to there being a series of accidents with loose wheels/large debris striking drivers in lower formulas/indycar - what's telling for me is that indycar has gone in a different direction.
TMM - fire hasn't been a factor in F1 crashes for years either, so the whole "trapped under a burning car" argument is spurious. Doesn't make a jot of difference to the halo looking rubbish, though I'm more bothered about it making driver id almost impossible.
Anyhow we're judging the season on one event that's rarely delivered good racing - shame there's more like it in the calendar but we can look forward to Canada and Spa.
Identifying the driver is easily fixed. Paint the halo in his helmet colours or put his number on it. Next!
thepurist
Subscriber
TMM – fire hasn’t been a factor in F1 crashes for years either, so the whole “trapped under a burning car” argument is spurious. Doesn’t make a jot of difference to the halo looking rubbish, though I’m more bothered about it making driver id almost impossible.Anyhow we’re judging the season on one event that’s rarely delivered good racing – shame there’s more like it in the calendar but we can look forward to Canada and Spa.
chinny reckon, there have been plenty of fires in recent years e.g.
[url= https://s7.postimg.org/uhx0ttt5j/f1-german-gp-2014-daniil-kvyat-toro-rosso-str9-renault-his-car-c.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= https://s7.postimg.org/u55mnnilj/f1-malaysian-gp-2016-the-burning-car-of-kevin-magnussen-renault-.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= https://s7.postimg.org/gbh9yl2uv/Nick-_Heidfeld-2_2629555.jp g" target="_blank">
there is no reason at all to think a ruptured hydraulic line cannot drip on the exhaust when the car is upside down, in fact it's even worse now as we also have a very hot electrical system, turbo and a lithium battery to deal with.
Also it is not just when the car is upside down, the allowed max extraction time has been increased for when the car is right side up. That's right - halo means they had to relax a previous safety limit.
Does anyone else find the new font on the infographics or whatever they call them as well as the infographics themselves a bit shit?
Yup! Really struggled with it. Seemed simultaneously have too much going on whilst showing less information lol
Accidentally recorded it in SD and it's a bit tricky to read, must say I quite liked it though, vaguely reminiscent of wipEout