Christ, this is mental.
Gutted for Bottas. Sport can be cruel.
I would love to be a fly on the wall in the RB offices. Definitely an “interview without tea and biscuits”
Don't see how Verstappen can be blamed for that RB crash.
Gutted for Bottas.
Good to see LM suitably subdued for a lucky win.
Don’t see how Verstappen can be blamed for that RB crash.
He's an annoying dick. I don't care if it was his fault, he was there, that's good enough for me.
He’s an annoying dick. I don’t care if it was his fault, he was there, that’s good enough for me.
Agreed. It did pain me to type the above. He does have a very punchable face. So I'll change my mind - all MV's fault.
Shame for Bottas.
But Vettel eh, couldn't have happened to a nicer person. Yet again his head got to him, I wonder if now with Hamilton ahead Vettel will be able to reign his mental rage back in...
Perez third place under investigation for improper use of drs..... Ferrari International Assistance to the rescue again 🙂
regardless as to who was at fault for the crash Max Crashstappen does seem to be involved in a lot of "racing incidents" At what point do the team say enough is enough ?
In a statement issued by the stewards, they noted that Verstappen had made two moves to defend his position - but they added Ricciardo also played his part in what happened by braking so late.
"Both drivers contributed to the collision," said the statement. "The driver of car 33 [Verstappen] made two moves, both of which were relatively minor.
"The driver of car 3 [Ricciardo] admitted he left his move to overtake on the left, too late.
"It was obvious to the stewards that although the incident had its origins in the moves by car 33, the driver of car 3 also contributed to the incident.
"Both drivers expressed regret about their respective contributions to the incident, during the stewards' hearing."
they were both very naughty boys!
The Red Bull clash looked potentially on the cards from the off, really appreciate the team allowing them to fight but that was proper moody. Ric was reckless in committing to the inside but both of them had been properly at the limit as they went backwards and forth - the door was open when Ver switched, he made the move that made the collision inevitable.
Yep. Max was weaving the whole length of the straight. Daniel didn't break any rules, Max did. He's been defending like that for ages, it's been an incident waiting to happen. Again.
However..... as Ricciardo has admitted he made an arse of the braking point, there’s a very good chance he would’ve wiped out Verstappen as he turned in anyway
If Max had left an appropriate amount of room, he would have seen Dan skate past like Bottas did Vettel.
Only got round to watching this late last night - but ruddy 'ell - what a race!
Can't believe how Alonso got that car back with only 2 wheels. Maybe he should defect to MotoGP.
Next driver's briefing will almost certainly bring up the topic of swerving left and right in the braking zone. That accident was waiting to happen. Grid penalty for Max next race for new gearbox?
And Grosjean? thought he grew out of stupid manoeuvres?
Ch4 showing highlights at all?
Don't know about highlights but you can see the whole thing on All 4.
That was an epic race, so far it’s the only one in 2018 that I’ve watched live. Felt enormously sad for Bottas to have a win snatched from him thanks to a puncture, he drove superbly and he deserved the silverware. Hamilton being late to the podium because he took the time to console his team mate was a great gesture.
Max and Daniel’s collision had been on the cards for several laps, both drivers needed a good result and ultimately the team paid the price for it. I agree that blame was shared, Verstappen’s weaving under braking has been the subject of criticism ever since he made his debut, Ricciardo was too aggressive with the do or die move. I would imagine that both of them had to endure a bollocking from Helmut Marko.
First points for Williams, Leclerc’s mature drive in the Sauber and Alonso wrestling a damaged car home to score points added to the drama. The ongoing crisis at McLaren is clearly going to result in Fernando walking away unless it’s resolved, there are fundamental problems with the MCL33 that will have long term strategic ramifications - do McLaren throw everything at fixing it to the detriment of the 2019 car, thus keeping Alonso on board and -more crucially- keeping shareholders happy, or do they go for broke in 2019 with Vandoorne and Norris knowing that the near rookie pairing will hurt further development next year?
And has Grosjean’s off track sojourn spelled the end of any hopes he had of sitting in a potentially vacant Ferrari seat?
This is how you sell a dummy...
I don’t understand, that car came out of a corner behind another car? I thought there was a mandatory 2 second safety gap?!
I saw it as Verstappen's fault, because he moved twice
Regardless of who’s fault it was (100% max ime)...
I never, EVER want to be the subject of anything that makes Christian Horner transcend to ‘beyond angry’. Calm, collected, but you know that the slightest wrong move and he will stab you in the face and won’t stop until he can no longer lift his arm, yet his face never conveys a single hint of emotion... (watch any of his post Azerbaijan interviews to see what I mean)
still got to see how this 3 engine thing plays out, 3 races for these current motors too go though I imagine most will take new motors a race early for canada and the italian gp (or 2 earlier for spa) later in the season hoping that the season is won by mexico.
If Red Bull sign up for Honda engines from next season I can see Ric and Max crashing into each other as they race through the factory as fast as they can to reception and get jammed together in the exit door! 🙂
Palmer calls it as I would:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/43955451
I'm a big fan of Ricciardo but there was no way he was going to make that stick even if he hadn't been trying it on the hardest defender on the grid and the one guy who can match him on the brakes. When Verstappen moved left the already fag-paper thin gap vanished and Rocciardo had the chance to reconsider the move for what seemed to be about a second before the braking point, but he didn't react.
Anyway, kudos to everyone: those two guys sure make F1 more watchable, and the fact that Red Bull let them fight it out is awesome.
More of this, please 🙂
Looks like the FIA & Liberty have pushed through some amends to front aero to enable closer following, and giving drs a bigger effect (hmmm). This comes from their work looking at the 2021 regs so hopefully is based on more than bernies ideas were. Good to see the organisers exerting authority over the teams too.
Any thoughts on Seb's safety car restart? Seemed to Go and Stop and couple of times and Hamilton very nearly went into the back of him on one occasion.
Surely contravenes the safety car rules?
According to some sources within Red Bull, there's a 12hp power defecit between the Honda and Renault engines.
Granted that doesn't tell the full story (are they referring to the internal combustion engine only, what about driveability, fuel management, torque, MGU management and battery tech etc), but Honda seem to have sorted reliability this year.
Surely contravenes the safety car rules?
All over the commentary as well, FIA rules apply though!
Honda seem to have sorted reliability this year.
Really? Looks like the only driver worse off at the moment is Ricciardo, lots of Merc/Renault/Ferrari still on their first of everything, both Hondas on 2nd TC & MGU-H.
https://maxf1.net/en/2018-f1-power-unit-elements-usage/
Though FWIW I think Honda should take a few penalties to allow them to bring updates quicker, especially now the pressure to perform is off.
Alonso wins! That'll cheer him up. Though it was probably only really a question of which Toyota would win so he had a pretty good chance.
Though FWIW I think Honda should take a few penalties to allow them to bring updates quicker
One of the complaints that McLaren had about Honda was that they were really slow in producing updates. They kept promising big improvements and then not delivering. The schedule for introducing updated engines will have been worked out months ago, so unlikely they can just move things forward much.
Great story here about Renault being cheating (but very clever) French b******ds.
In action:
Great story here about Renault being cheating (but very clever) French b******ds.
I've never heard that before but its absolutely awesome 😀
That is beyond awesome!
Great stuff!
To be fair Alonso normally passes 3-4 cars at the start anyway!
Lol'd at Ferrari's new mirror/wing solution
There needs to be a rule banning any aero fiddly bits outside of the "shell" of the car. Those bunny ears look ridiculous and getting the engineering aerodynamics right first time should be rewarded rather than spending mega-bucks in wind tunnels throughout the season to cover up faults.
Eg:
or
OMFG! I thought the Halo couldn't get any worse...
Hmm, now that explains why there was an FIA clarification about attaching mirrors to the halo. Hopefully they'll get the car all setup and FOM will ask them to run mirror cameras (forcing the reversion to the other style).
The problem with banning spending on certain things is that the money will still be spent, just on other things. Its like squeezing a sausage balloon. It bulges somewhere else.
Also, if you restrict development at a later date it doesn't allow other teams to catch up. One of the reason its more exciting now is that the rules have been fairly stable, so the gaps have closed up.
Aero will affect overtaking, so altering the way it exits the car by narrowing its affect will help. But it wont save money.
I'm skeptical about the proposal for a budget cap. Inevitably there will be some "creative accounting" to sidestep the problem, or that there will be offshoring of the manufacturing process.
As for money saving.....
You could cap aero development.
at the start of the season each team submits
3 x front wings (low downforce, medium downforce and high downforce)
3 x rear wings
3 x side pods
3 x barge boards etc
Thats all they can use all season in any configuration but cannot be develop further.
Could introduce token system on the above too?but once token is used (or part updgrade modified) you cannot keep the older version.
And much simple wings....there’s about 30 winglets on the right side of a front wing along. So define it as 3 elements only.
well that’s my 2p
The development race is very much part of F1, it would feel weird without it!!
It would but it can still be reigned in a bit. Just imagine the crazy shapes that would appear if you limited the number of front wing elements
at the start of the season each team submits 3 x front wings (low downforce, medium downforce and high downforce
The difference is that Ferrari has it's own wind tunnel, and a team of designers, so they can spend all winter making sure that their 3 wings are the best they can possibly be, as it doesn't matter how many iterations it takes to get there. The likes of Williams meanwhile rent space at the wind tunnel at Brackley, and they have enough money to make sure their one design works first time, as they can't afford to make more.
Limit wind tunnel time?
Mclarens new nose looks different! Not in a good way either!
Wind tunnel time is already limited!
If wind tunnel time is limited surely then it’s irrelevant if they have there own one or not? Having one makes it easier I guess.
As some one above said it’s about the teams of designers they have and the cfd they chuck at it.
@rick draper - mclarens new nose looks platapus Esque
groves and spoon shapes all over it!
Hmmm
L.L.Liam has made a good case for slowing down the development of aero to coincide with the gearbox/engine regs. If a driver has only used one power unit two-thirds of the way through a season then there could be a corresponding allowance made for a forthcoming aero package. It has a good tactical way of evening out the grid during the early races.
Somewhat extreme from McLaren, there's definitely been a lot of remedial (rather than scheduled) work done to improve the aero performance of the slowest Renault powered car on the grid. Will there be any unexpected consequences to the handling balance of the car?
Will there be any unexpected consequences to the handling balance of the car?
Biggest danger is probably that, if it's a dog, Alonso will throw his toys out of the pram and stomp off to Indycar mid-season, then his replacement won't be able to drive around the limitations of the car the way Alonso has been doing so everyone will see how unbalanced it is.
More seriously, unless the McLaren really improves in the next few races, I can see Alonso deciding that a 2019 Renault is a better bet than staying put.
@nickc - Williams have their own wind tunnel - in fact they have 2, a full scale and a 60%! (and other people rent space off them)
Force India, on the other hand, don't. They use Toyota's in Cologne.
I can see Alonso deciding that a 2019 Renault is a better bet than staying put.
At which point Mclaren will get their sh*t together and win some races in 2019 as Renault flounder in the mid-field!
There's one career rule in F1 - make the opposite decision to Fernando
EDIT: Do swear filters not work automatically here anymore? - Manual filter added by me.
Something tells me that the issue is with Mclaren's overall basic design and not the engine. Can't polish a turd - this appears to be trying to roll one in glitter:
As I said earlier, you ban or cap one thing and money is spent elsewhere. Limit wind tunnels and they spend the money on CFD. I don't think capping costs will work.
We just need to get the money for winning distributed fairly and via regulations and track design, make it easier to overtake.
We all want a race and part of racing is the development of the cars. That's engine, tyres and aero, so let them race.
Both Williams cars seem to be a terrible proposition. I gather that the team have parted ways with the chief designer, but this season looks like a complete write-off.
McLaren have gone from floundering around the midfield to floundering around the midfield with a new nose. That’s probably slightly unfair, given that there will be a lot of work going on to learn about that new nose and how it integrates with the rest of the car outside of a wind tunnel, the real test will be during Saturday’s qualifying.
Can’t polish a turd – this appears to be trying to roll one in glitter
I disagree, looking at that front wing head on you can see exactly what they are trying to do and it seems to be heavily designed with energizing the floor in mind.
The central hole for their s-duct, the holes either side to feed air on to the floor area via the two side planes and I would presume then on to the diffuser area, the inside of the wing again looks to be directing air to the floor and the outside dealing with moving it away from the front tyres. It might not look good but if it works you'd better get used to it cause it'll appear in various guises up and down the pit lane!
Never been a Mclaren fan but F1 needs Alonso up front fighting with the best, I really hope this update propels them and him forward.
Something tells me that the issue is with Mclaren’s overall basic design and not the engine.
They seem to have an inefficient aerodynamic setup, especially in qualifying trim. Their straight-line speed is quite a lot down on Red Bull, which means that they have too much drag, but without any payoff in downforce. However, in races, the car is much closer to Red Bull, so it seems to be related to one-lap pace. The new nose they ran in first practice today does seem to have improved things. Keep in mind that last year, Red Bull got things badly wrong with their car at the start of the year, but were massively improved once they understood where they went wrong and introduced new aero parts. Also, Renault will be introducing improved engines soon, so it's quite likely that both Red Bull and McLaren will close the gap to Ferrari and Merc. My guess is that McLaren will stay in 4th place, but will move clear of the mid-field teams and edge closer to the top three.
no one can seem to get the softest tyre to hook up and it looks like Kimi has blown an engine!
Offf, that won’t buff out. Brendan might want to contribute his pocket money to the repair costs.....
I disagree, looking at that front wing head on you can see exactly what they are trying to do and it seems to be heavily designed with energizing the floor in mind.
I understand what they are trying to do, however such big changes mid season does point to not having got close to it first time which, in the absence of being able to make big changes to the monocoque, points to them trying to rehash something without the full ability to do it properly. All that air being moved around in such a convoluted fashion surely can't be the most efficient way to do things.
In the words of Kelly Johnson, "If it looks ugly, it will fly the same."
I understand what they are trying to do, however such big changes mid season
You also understand that they're running late with the development programme and those parts should've been on the car in Melbourne? It's normal for the first major updates to arrive for the start of the European season, so can't see how this is a sign of desperation (yet)
It’s hard not to argue that the late season engine change hurt the balance of the MCL33 during the design phase. The Toro Rosso being as competent a package as it is will be down to either advance planning for a Honda engine at the conceptual stage, or a lot of collaborative effort.
McLaren is also running new fuel.
Cheers Liam, id forgotten that was on this weekend!
found a live stream so bed will have to wait 🙂
Rain rumoured for Barca....fingers crossed!
should make it exciting!
Agreed! Sounds like it's a bit cooler too, so quite possible those starting on the soft tyres wont get away with just one stop? Thinking that through, maybe the super soft starting tyres for Alonso will be more advantageous for him in the early stages as he won't have to concern himself with the increased degradation?
This season thus far deserves Alonso on the podium for this race!
Well that wasn't a great race
Amusingly bad tactical call by Ferrari for Vettel there. They didn't even have the excuse of being caught napping like Mercedes did. They really really thought about it....then made a shocking decision to bring him in under the VSC!
One of those races where cars simply can't get close enough coming on to the straights because of the aero wake in the proceeding corner.
Not great. Could have done with a bit of rain.
this is turning into a season of attrition, kimi engine and a force india merc went bang today. Bottas's motor was sounding pretty rough by the end. Begs the question have ferrari being stressing there engines more to gain early advantage (which for what ever reason has not materialized) and have mercedes been a bit more circumspect with theirs (or have more room "margin for error in their"/durable engines)
Begs the question have ferrari being stressing there engines more to gain early advantage (which for what ever reason has not materialized) and have mercedes been a bit more circumspect with theirs (or have more room “margin for error in their”/durable engines)
This is a very good question. It's going to be a long season for those engines.
I hope it doesn't lead to boring processional racing where everyone is preserving their motors...
trying and win (or for the most part) the season in 15 races would mean running them at the same levels as last year then hanging on or taking penalties in race 16 but a fresh engine for the final 5 races. Actually saying that I think that will be the plan for all teams (assuming engine don't fail early) the russian gp is going to be anyones 🙂
Is Grosjean the worst driver on the grid?
Grosjean the worst driver on the grid
He's really not very good. I'm amazed he's still gets race seats every year.
He is costing Haas so many points this season.
They're getting competitive at Haas…
Gasly: "Magnussen's the most dangerous driver I've ever raced against."
Leclerc: "Magnussen needs to understand he's not alone on track. Every time, it's him."
Grosjean: "Hey Kevin, hold my beer."
Seriously, what the hell was Grosjean thinking? I've never seen anyone do anything like that. Lucky to get away with a grid penalty if you ask me.