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I like how prominent Rich Energy is in the pic of Grosjeans decrepit front wing above. Is that the kind of advert they were hoping for?
Eddie Jordan's wig looking especially wiggy today on CH4 qualifying ///
Ferrari (well, Leclerc, obvs) looked fast today. Hopefully they haven't stiffed him on the strategy again!!
If anyone is at Silverstone, am at post 1. This year is my 10th GP as a flag marshal, only this year I have nowt to do as the blue flags have been automated.
Woodcote hasn’t been flat out since the seventies – it certainly wasn’t flat in ’85 with the chicane in.
I watched Lola T70s side by side there in the 60s - pre chicane. That was a proper corner.
Woodcote hasn’t been flat out since the seventies – it certainly wasn’t flat in ’85 with the chicane in.
I watched Lola T70s side by side there in the 60s - pre chicane. That was a proper corner.
By the way was I dreaming or did Haas still have Rich Energy on their cars today?
They’ve got the logotype but not the deer’s head logo.
Well done Vettel!
FFS Vettel is a danger to the other drivers.
Does that give Bottas enough time for a stop now?
Now that was a great race!
Vettel a prize prick yet again. And that penalty has no affect on him worth worrying about, so is worthless.
Great racing though throughout, and for once Hamilton gets he plus side of the strategy.
vettel is becoming a liability.
Great race today, Max and Lec were awesome, Vettel......not so much lol
Did anyone watch the Channel 4 coverage? on the grid walk when DC was talking to Geri Horner and Mel B, Mel B said to DC "we go way back" as she touched his arm, DC seemed to not like this and suddenly just said now the national anthem and it cut away, i wonder if they have had a drunken moment together in the past at a Horner party lol
Bunga bunga Horner as he’s known in the paddock?
I'm guessing that from the above letter that Haas has already received in the region of ~£8 million, assuming that there is an approximate rate of £14-£15 million a year?
Brilliant race. Watching Max and Charles at it lap after lap was great viewing.
I’ve said it before, but no Sunday is complete without getting to laugh at Vettel going off the track backwards in a cloud of smoke.
And that last lap from Lewis, on 30 odd lap old hard tyres!
Fiver on Vettel coming through Brooklands backwards on lap 1?
Bollocks! Club on lap 37!
*tears up betting slip, storms out of bookies*
Bez - if you're still in the bookies it might be worth putting a fiver on Vettel leaving before the end of the season.
It's tragic that Ocon isn't driving this year but Grosjean and Kubica are.
Not sure I can see Vettel jumping mid-year, I dunno. Maybe it's more interesting to ask how Ferrari's brass see their line-up for next year.
It's certainly tragic that Grosjean's driving, but then Haas's decision making process generally seems to come from another planet anyway. Kubica, hmm, certainly he's well behind Russell, but to be fair there were probably so many unknowns that rolling the dice was understandable. It's not as if he doesn't have proven talent.
One of the more interesting questions, I think, is just how keen is Toto to get Ocon a seat? Will Bottas do enough to keep his? Will Mercedes want to risk derailing the Hamilton gravy train? If we get to the end of the year and Bottas is still strong, and he and Hamilton still get on, then is it worth risking a driver swap for the last year before the regulations change; and what will Ocon be doing in 2020 if he doesn't have a race seat at Mercedes?
what will Ocon be doing in 2020 if he doesn’t have a race seat at Mercedes?
Merc (OK, Toto) have said they'd cut Ocon's ties with Merc if it meant he got a race seat next year. So various silly season thoghts are Ferrar (no, they wouldn't have two young drivers at the same time), Renaul (to replace Hulk) or of course Williams as part of a deal for cheaper engine (and gearbox?)
Eddie Jordon was predicting Maclaren are shifting to Merc engines next year! Maybe Ocon is involved with that? I quite like both their drivers so would be mixed feelings from me if Ocon replaced one of them.
McLaren have recently signed Norris and Sainz for next year, both are better options than Ocon IMHO.
Interesting that Hamilton had to go off script to beat Bottas, pushing hard from the start, and not stopping for the planned 2nd stop. It's hard to imagine that he's not happy there, but clearly both drivers are getting equal treatment and the differences in driving ability seem to be getting smaller.
As above Hamilton knows he can beat Bottas, and Bottas is good enough to bring in the constructors championship. I don't think he's going anywhere! 🙂
How long is Raikkonen signed for?
Interesting that Hamilton had to go off script to beat Bottas
He didn’t have to. He felt his tyres were good at the end (and they clearly were, he took fastest lap even though Bottas went for it on fresh rubber) and didn’t feel the need to risk a stop (which, if it went to plan, would still have brought him out ahead of Bottas). Seems prudent to me.
Even without the free pit stop under the safety car he was at worst right in the hunt.
Regardless of the 'free' stop, if they all discussed and agreed strategy (i.e. 2 stops) and then Lewis went off script, you'd imagine Bottas would be less than impressed. What's to stop them spoofing each other deliberately again in the future and therefore damaging whatever trust there is between them?
I'm pretty sure Hamilton was on a one stop from the start
Regardless of the ‘free’ stop, if they all discussed and agreed strategy (i.e. 2 stops) and then Lewis went off script, you’d imagine Bottas would be less than impressed.
But the safety car threw any original script out of the window. As soon as that was deployed, the script for Hamilton wrote itself: come in for a set of hards and then have the option of any compound at the second stop, or if the tyres held up, stay out.
Bottas simply didn't have that option: he'd recently stopped for a second set of mediums so he was committed to a second stop.
The only "script" Hamilton deviated from was when the team thought he should pit at the end and he thought he shouldn't. But at that point it was purely a matter of managing risk: a fault-free stop would still have brought him out in the lead.
I’m pretty sure Hamilton was on a one stop from the start
Reading around, it seems that in the post-race press conference Hamilton said "medium" when he meant "hard" for his second set, and it sounds like he'd chosen to deviate from the theoretically (and marginally) fastest medium-medium-hard to go medium-hard-maybe medium. So I think his intention was to have the option of a one-stop or a two stop by taking the hards at the first stop. Either way, it worked out.
Caught up with the highlights last night - what on earth was Vettel thinking there? Fair enough he admitted he was at fault, but that was a dreadful error. I can see him walking away from F1 if this continues as he is clearly not in a good place mentally.
Interesting how Coultard compared it to schumacher’s return when he kept running into people - he was the common denominator.
Just shows how skilled they are to not hit each other most of the time. Doesn’t take much de-focus for it all to go wrong. V needs to look at lec and ver to see how to race. Ham and bot were great too, despite the stupid director cutting to some people waving at the height of the action.
It would be amusing to have Rosberg around in this field as he would be outraced by most of them.
I can see Seb possibly walking before the end of the year, his head seems to have gone - he knows he can't beat Hamilton (and so does Hamilton!). Ferrari won't like it but I can't see him carrying on next year. If the rumors regarding Max being available for next year are true Ferrari should snap him up - IMHO both Max and Lewis would be winning races in the Ferrari.
Ocon to Williams makes sense, the Kubica story isn't going to have a happy ending.
I still think Lewis will be the one to go to Ferrari if a place becomes available. I can't see him spending another 4 or 5 years in the same Merc environment.
Win this years title - head to Ferrari next year to settle in before new 2021 regs come into force.
Boom - 7th World Title with Ferrari and total legend status guaranteed! 🙂
(...and nice free company cars till the end of time!)
I still think Lewis will be the one to go to Ferrari if a place becomes available.
No driver on the grid would swap a seat at Merc for one at Ferrari right now. This year's Ferrari has fundamental technical problems that the team don't seem to fully understand. Next year's car is unlikely to be a title contender unless they figure out the problems with this year's car. No driver is going to walk away from the best car on the grid in the hope that Ferrari might get their shit together a couple of years down the track.
Nah, Lewis wants most wins and world titles so it makes sense to stick with Merc, then, if Ferrari have a seat available, he may jump, but not until he's got the records.
Lewis walked away from McLaren when they were considered a top team and Merc were mid-fielders. Everyone said he was crazy.
Lewis, Max and Leclerc could all win in the current Ferrari. Leclerc could have had 2 wins already.
...he may jump, but not until he’s got the records.
If Max jumps first to Ferrari and Leclerc is there already there won't be a place available for a good few years.
We don't know how his minds works - maybe legacy is valued higher to Lewis than stats. Senna is still considered by many to the best of all time. But if stats were the guideline then Vettel is a better driver and I doubt many people would agree with that! 🙂
Lewis, Max and Leclerc could all win in the current Ferrari.
Win races, yes. Championships, no. Probably Ricciardo, Sainz, Perez, Hulkenberg, and others on the grid would be good enough to win races in this year's Ferrari on the tracks where its weaknesses are masked. Vettel is a very fast driver when he has a car that suits him. He's good enough to win races in this year's Ferrari if the team can sort out their technical problems. He's not good enough to win a championship with it because the car is fundamentally flawed. LH and MV know that. They want to win championships, not a few races here and there.
No driver is going to walk away from the best car on the grid in the hope that Ferrari might get their shit together a couple of years down the track.
A relatively successful driver on the past won back to back championships then did exactly that. If Ferrari could convince him that the support is there then being part of a rebuilding project would be a huge achievement (not that the current Ferrari situation is anywhere near as bad as the one referenced earlier in this post)
I seem to recall Hamilton mentioning a vague desire to drive for Ferrari at some point.
One interesting point is that, as far as I can recall, it's only Fangio that's won championships with more than two constructors, so to win with three would be almost unique. (Plus, anecdotally it seems that Fangio achieved it largely by being able to simply pick the best car every year, rather than helping to build a championship-winning outfit.)
Inevitably with Schumacher it wasn't just him that created the dominance: Brawn, Byrne and Todt ended up with him. To create similar dominance would require a similar group of individuals, and it's not obvious where Hamilton could pull them from. Allison's unlikely to go back, Wolff has no reason to move… And even then teaming up with Leclerc, who is on the way up to his own championship titles, is a very different prospect to having Eddie Irvine as an (albeit highly capable) wingman.
I dunno, I think it just doesn't add up for Hamilton to go there. Nor Verstappen, who's now got a team revolving around him and is sitting on an ever-improving power unit.
Who knows, though? I mean, Eddie Jordan says it'll happen 😀
Hamilton says it's nonsense, he's the guy that will decide.
https://formulaspy.com/formula-1/hamilton-on-ferrari-rumours-difficult-to-see-me-anywhere-else-61302
A relatively successful driver on the past won back to back championships then did exactly that.
Took him five years and the best team and technical directors on the planet - other notables have failed.