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To be fair the Spanish GP is pretty much a dull-fest every year. Teams just have too much data about the circuit.
Here's hoping Monaco brings Red Bull into the mix.
Thought it was an alright race TBH. Probably cos I went into it thinking it would just be a good opportunity for a kip.
Corker of a lap from Hamilton after the SC finished. Think DC said he put 2 seconds between him and Bottas.
Had to laugh at Grosjean's antics. Max seems to have got his head down, think he's third in the WDC at the moment.
IMHO i think Merc have a secret team order - looks to me like whoever is leading in the first lap then thats it for the race - because although no one seemed to mention it in the coverage (well the crap C4 coverage) why did merc pit Bottas when Hamilton had the big blister on the tyre, and bottas was cloasing at 1 second a lap - he could have stayed out while Hamilton pitted and stayed out with a 20+ second gap and probably win with some tyre management, or at worst, second which is where he was anyway. - although all of that would have been scuppered when the safety car came out, but Merc did not know that at the time of pitting Bottas.
Corker of a lap from Hamilton after the SC finished. Think DC said he put 2 seconds between him and Bottas.
I think it was more like 4 seconds. Both drivers with fresh tyres decided to go for the fastest lap point, so Hamilton got his tyres prepped up and went for it. Bottas hung back as much as he dared to get a gap behind Hamilton and then went and pulled back a lot of the time he'd lost. I think at that point they had decided which of the two was going to cross the finish line first as by hanging back to get clear air Bottas screwed his chances of catching Hamilton.
Bottas was pitted to cover off any undercut threat from Vestappen not to give the race to Hamilton (Hamilton wasn't driving to any secret team orders @ Baku chasing down Bottas) .
The first corner was great... and after the safety car it was a great couple of laps.
Hmmm.
Modified HAAS sponsor incoming when the rest of the Rich Energy snake oil evaporates.
Have we done 'Merc deliver F1 car to terminally ill child"?. I'm torn between it being an amazing gesture from Hamilton vs a great bit of PR. If it was genuinely pushed by Lewis then that's proper good.
Not a good day at the office
Ouchy - wasn't kidding when he said he lost the front aero.
so F1 looking at a Morocco race - just like the last throws of Bernies reign , Liberty are finding anyone and anywhere to host a race that will pull in some flippin great wadges of cash without having any history or (i assume) much local interest in the locals and the race.
it also seems C4 coverage now has to specifically state by the hosts that the F1 race is LIVE ON SKY F1 HD numerous times in all of their highlights coverage.
"World's Greatest Driver" fails to qualify for Indy...
https://www.racefans.net/2019/05/20/racefans-round-up-20-05-2/
First year of McLaren actually running the car, thinking they might have bitten off more than they realised?
The McLaren Racing team made wholesale changes to the No. 66 McLaren Racing Chevrolet with some assistance from some of the top teams in the NTT IndyCar Series paddock
The Mclaren entry this year was partnered / assisted by Carlin who are in their second ever year in Indycar and their fortunes at Indy were just as bad - they were the other two cars failing to qualify.
Last year with Andretti building and running the car there was far more engineering experience and seasoned drivers providing setup data etc whereas Carlin is running a rookie and Max Chilton who has not really got the best championship pedigree.
I think Mclaren's inexperience caught them out big time, maybe if they had a full season programme or even run from the start up to Indy they would have had a far easier time reacting to car rebuilds, engine changes and general setup.
Think I missed the Carlin link, not that it seemed to be helping. I knew they were no longer Andretti with a McLaren badge though
jamesy01
Member
Modified HASS livery incoming?…
Whyte 1 – Rich Energy 0
Peter Windsor did an interview with the bearded Rich Energy dude recently where he said something like "They're just some obscure mountain bike company, who's ever heard of them?".
Whyte apparently saw that and followed up with this tweet:
https://twitter.com/WhyteBikes/status/1129772100204601344
Better news for Carlin in Pau though, with Billy Monger taking his first win after being dead last.
expect alonso to be back in McLaren F1 this season then, seeing as they are stronger than last year (which is not that hard) and he's not going to be doing anymore WEC...?
expect alonso to be back in McLaren F1 this season
Really? I'd expect Alonso to part company with McLaren after the Indy fiasco...
Alonso will never be back in F1 - no big team would take him. His time in F1 has passed.
Alonso will never be back in F1 – no big team would take him. His time in F1 has passed.
I think you're probably right, but Ferrari must be looking at Vettel's performances over the last couple of years and wondering how things might have turned out if they had Alonso in that car.
I’d expect Alonso to part company with McLaren after the Indy fiasco…
I'd expect him to stay as long as McLaren say they'll keep funding goes at the 500. This attempt could show how real their appetite is
A man with Alonso's experience should know that you can't just turn up at Indy once a year and expect to win, especially with a new team. Those racing these cars week in week out will always come out on top.
But a man with Alonso's ego might think it possible
He wasn't far off last time tbf
IMHO he'll be in at 1 race, the Monaco GP in a McLaren in 2019.....what else is he going to do - even if he leaves McLaren that leaves him mid season with nothing to do.
Something fairly serious must happen in the next 3 days if he was going to drive Monaco!
I really hope he gets a full Indycar season next year with McLaren next year, he has no other racing commitments after the WEC super season concludes at Le Mans and he only needs a few points to wrap up the championship there.
Bob Fernley parts company with Mclaren. Salutary lesson in making sure your gear shifters are compatible when you order stuff online:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/motorsport/48341341
RIP Niki Lauder. One of the sports legends gone, sad times.
Sorry to see him go, proper character and what a man. 🙁
hols2
Member
Bob Fernley parts company with Mclaren. Salutary lesson in making sure your gear shifters are compatible when you order stuff online:
> https://www.bbc.com/sport/motorsport/48341341
Amazing. Wonder why they wanted to make their own wheel in the first place? Arrogance or?
$50k - $100k each and they've made them before. So why not?
Amazing. Wonder why they wanted to make their own wheel in the first place? Arrogance or?
My assumption is that they're just used to making everything in-house, so basically just arrogance. I'm sure that you'd want to do your own stuff once you were established so that you could wring every last millisecond out of the car, but buying stuff in when you're starting from scratch is just commonsense, surely.
eddiebaby
Subscriber
$50k – $100k each and they’ve made them before. So why not?
Well because there's already an off the shelf solution that's known to work and used by a lot of other teams, and also because being a new team, you might experience delays, run out of time to get your steering wheel working, order one last minute from Cosworth only to find out that the wrong one was ordered leaving you with no gear shifters. 🤦♂️
My assumption is that they’re just used to making everything in-house, so basically just arrogance. I’m sure that you’d want to do your own stuff once you were established so that you could wring every last millisecond out of the car, but buying stuff in when you’re starting from scratch is just commonsense, surely.
Exactly!
Oh, man. I'd have paid the $50-100k just to be a fly on the wall when they opened the parcel from Cosworth.
Ah...the McLaren Indy debacle that serves to prove that McLaren's hitherto weakness for gross incompetence hasn't entirely been forgotten, but seemingly grasps to Fernando's coattails like shit to a blanket.
Perhaps the first question that I'd ask is why would the Indy campaign be headed by proven F1 maestro Bob Fernley, while the F1 campaign is co-managed by Indy maestro Gil De Ferran? It's easy to point towards isolated incidents like the steering wheel, but this leads me to suspect that the relationship between McLaren and Cosworth was dysfunctional, I can't believe that Cosworth didn't ask "what about the gear levers?".
Something is clearly very wrong with the Indy management structure, either Fernley was unaware of fundamental problems like the spare car being at the paintshop and not at the circuit, or he was unable to ensure that such problems were addressed. We've seen this before at McLaren and are seeing it now at Williams; poor communications across departments lead to fundamental and insurmountable problems.
Credit to Fernando though - he declined the offer of having a seat further up the grid bought for him, which would have been an affront to sportsmanship.
We’ve seen this before at McLaren and are seeing it now at Williams
You forgot to add Sick Bikes to the list.
Blimey Mercedes! Let’s hope Max can keep them honest...
I saw an article that said it looked like Mercedes had improved this year on one of their main weaknesses; low-speed corners, so would probably be quick at Monaco where they have traditionally struggled.
in some snippet of an autosport utube video there was the suggestion that the red bull high rake may not work as well with the new aero rules
"with the new aero rules"
proposed new aero rules - dont think its been signed up to yet...
On the subject of the speed Merc have found at Monaco, Maximum Verstappen said in Spain that Red Bull were no quicker than them anywhere in Spain. Fast and medium speed corners Merc were faster as usual, but in the tight Monacoesque final sector where Red Bull have traditionally been faster, the were pretty equal. With the proper Monaco setup Merc have found something else.
It might be closer in qualifying if we're lucky. Merc have just refined their car year after year, smoothing off all the rough edges (not without some errors along the way of course). Ferrari seem to have gone the wrong way this year and are getting left behind, Red Bull, maybe lacking Newey's undivided attention and having to adapt to a new engine, just aren't really there.
We need a wet race or 10. It's a silly sport really, and it's always had dominant teams, but it really could do with being a lot closer.
the red bull high rake may not work as well with the new aero rules
This was posted earlier, but Merc are the only team that haven't just been following Red Bull's aero philosophy for quite a few years.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/47838557
They're also the only team to have won championships for quite a few years. The Mercs have generally been very fast, but difficult to set up, especially regarding tyre management. However, Merc put a lot of effort into understanding the tyres and seemed to have sorted it out last year. The tyres were changed this year, with a thinner tread, so that's apparently caused problems for Ferrari.
However, Ferrari's tyre problems may also be related to aero - they designed a lower drag setup than Merc, but that seems to have limited their options on balancing the front and rear downforce to address the tyre problems.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/47527705
proposed new aero rules – dont think its been signed up to yet…
my mistake, I ment this....
A simplified front wing with standardised endplates, tweaked dimensions and no upper flaps. This will encourage aerodynamicists to direct more of the flow to the underbody (where it is less sensitive to the disturbed wake of the car in front) than the outer body
The deletion of the upper flaps at the outer ends of the wing will make it impossible to create the vortices that are generated by the current, highly complex endplates to enhance the outer-body aerodynamics. This will further encourage the so-called ‘inwash’ aero philosophy of directing airflow to the underbody, rather than the current emphasis on ‘outwash,’ which is highly sensitive to the air from the car ahead and therefore makes it harder for cars to follow one another closely
Tweaks to the front wing’s dimensions and the limiting of under-wing strakes to two each side to further discourage outwash aerodynamics
Winglets mounted on the brake ducts currently play a part in directing the flow to the outer part of the body. These are banned from 2019, as are blown axles, which currently use air directed out of the centre of the wheel at high speed to energise the flow down the outer surfaces of the bodywork further back
Barge boards are lowered by 150mm (to make them less powerful in directing the airflow) and moved forwards by 100mm to make them less sensitive to the airflow being disturbed from the car in front
The rear wing endplates will no longer be permitted to have horizontal gills. These equalize the pressure between the inner and outer faces of the endplate to give a faster flow over the top of the wing for more downforce, but they introduce an extra disturbance to the wake, which worsens the performance of the car behind
The DRS opening will be increased from 65mm to 85mm. Together with an increase in width and height of the wing, this will make the DRS around 25-30% more powerful so as to allow it to be effective on those circuits with too short a straight for the current system. The FIA will also review the length of DRS zones at every circuit in order to maximise the effect of the changes
The increased height of the wing will take the 'rooster tail' wake coming off the back of it higher into the air than currently. More of the energy from that wake will be diffused into the free air around it before it returns to the level where it will be affecting the following car
which are obviously not new rules
oops finger boy sticks it in the barriers
oops finger boy sticks it in the barriers
Damn, I missed that!
Monaco is normally only worth watching for the crashes, it's often one of the dullest races on the calendar.
Edit: just seen it on Twitter. Still dull.
Wonder if they have time to fix it before qualifying...?
another fiasco at team vettel
It's like they're doing it on purpose!
Finger boy bottles it again.
Excellent.
mr pole strikes again.
Finger boy bottles it again.
Being 1 place lower than possible is bottling it these days? I would rather he was able to give Mercedes a run for their money.
Stuffing it into the barrier in FP3, nearly going out in Q1 and hitting the barrier in Q3 I’d say is bottling it.
I’d rather Ferrari be taking it to Merc but Vettel cracked under pressure as usual. Just a shame LeClerc went out in Q1.
I’d rather Ferrari be taking it to Merc but Vettel cracked under pressure as usual. Just a shame LeClerc went out in Q1.
LeClerc to come through the field from 16th and take out Vettel.
Hamilton and Bottas to cruise off into the distance for another 1-2.
I hope someone can keep Merc honest come the race but I can’t see it.
Ironically, wasn’t it Vettel that bumped LeClerc into the bottom 5 in Q3? What stopped LeClerc getting out again?
Im guessing Ferrari thought they'd done enough for LeClerc to get though.
They miscalculated and thought his lap was enough apparently.
Was watching it on the sky app on a tablet that is scabbed off the inlaws account (to tight to pay for it myself) and an ad break came on during the last few minutes (thought it was strange) then after the ads the football was on?! So I missed Hamilton's lap and switched back over just in time to see him getting out the car
Well the race might be a procession but you have to admit watching an F1 car round Monaco is pretty exciting.
Just don't understand Ferrari's reasoning with regards to LeClerc, the set the quickest time in FP3, said to the team "we need to go out again". And the statistician just ignored him. Almost as though they want him to fail.
Apparently, the statistical model didn't include the other drivers trying really hard when elimination loomed.
Any chance of rain during the race? I’m getting conflicting reports depending on where I look.
Monaco is up there with Melbourne for the borefest factor but I’m hoping the weather might spice things up a bit.
about 10%
Apparently, the statistical model didn’t include the other drivers trying really hard when elimination loomed.
Worst. Statistical. Model. Ever.
Never been a fan of Monaco, I remember years ago (i think Mika Salo in a tyrrell?) Loosing a part of his front wing and staying out as he would have lost more time stopping during a wet Monaco race.
I only really try and watch Spa and Suzuka these days.
I'm the opposite daviek - I love Monaco. I just love to see the cars being driven so close to the edge. The slow motion shots of them skimming the barriers are fantastic.
Even a dull race can turn with one mis-judged corner.
I think Monaco would be much more exciting as a different format. The race itself is usually boring because overtaking is virtually impossible so the leader can just cruise along and conserve his tyres, but seeing an F1 car being driven flat out is exciting.
Instead of having all the cars on track at the same time, use a flying lap elimination format. Each driver would have three timed laps (plus an untimed warmup and cool down lap). Cars would be released onto the circuit one at a time, one lap apart, so there'd be three cars on flying laps at any given time. After the first session, the slowest four drivers (totaled over three laps) would be eliminated and the surviving sixteen would repeat, with another four eliminated, and so on until there were just four left fighting for the win. This way, drivers would have to push flat out on every single lap, so there would probably be plenty of cars stacked into the walls and a good chance of an upset by top drivers in a lower-ranked team.
Will never happen, of course, but I think something like that would be much more exciting than a bunch of cars cruising around line astern because it's impossible to pass anyone.
Yep - dull as hell! 🙂
I was screaming "SLOW DOWN CHARLES!!"
Gutted he's retired
Come on Lewis!!!
He’s going to need a miracle to win this, his tyres are shagged.
LeClerc was daft with that puncture, he saw his arse and drove too fast on the in lap.
monumental drive if he does it
edit: oof, champions drive that
Thought it was game over when Max sent one up the inside!
Niki would have approved of that
damn tense that
Hmmmm.
Listened to that on radio whilst doing something else. It's an odd kind of race when the winner wins by driving just fast enough to keep the next person on track at bay without really getting close to the potential of the car and someone in 4th in an identical car deliberately drops 2-3 seconds back so that he can make a big enough gap to the person in 3rd to have a go at a fastest lap before rejoining the train, closing back up in a single lap seemingly at will. Whilst impressive to keep the door shut at a muted performance for countless laps it's no advert for motorsport.
@hols2, that’s what’s known as Sprinting, all part of the speed event discipline which includes hillclimbing, tarmac against the clock stuff. Always a wide variety of cars from modified production cars, Caterhams to F1 style single seaters and everything in between, motorbikes too.
Much much better spectator sport than processional circuit stuff. IMHO of course.
@hols2, that’s what’s known as Sprinting, all part of the speed event discipline which includes hillclimbing, tarmac against the clock stuff. Always a wide variety of cars from modified production cars, Caterhams to F1 style single seaters and everything in between, motorbikes too.
Much much better spectator sport than processional circuit stuff. IMHO of course.
Hmmm - not sure about that. I raced in the ASWMC series for a while many years ago and dragged my wife to quite a few windy circuits. Not sure she'd agree that it was better than F1.
JP
Like Convert I listened rather than watched and actually really enjoyed it, I thought having the commentators explaining more made it much more interesting and tense, quite what it would have been like watching the procession I'm not sure that would have been as good.
Lewis being a drama queen (if that's an allowed expression) about tyres was a bit of a bore but he's done it before and no doubt will again.
Shades of ‘92 there.
The race did at least highlight one of the feathers in Monaco’s cap: teams and drivers have to roll the dice. Red Bull releasing Verstappen, Leclerc throwing it into Rascasse… and to be honest I’m surprised the C4 team were so hard on Leclerc. It was the team that had put him down in 15th, what was he supposed to do but go for it? It’s a fine line at Monaco between hero and zero… Leclerc on Hulkenberg got unlucky, Verstappen on Hamilton didn’t, it’s a capricious venue.
Had to chuckle at the post-race observation that Hamilton is now two points behind Ferrari 🙂