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Fair play to the Abu Dhabi guys, some significant changes being made to the track for this year
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/new-banked-corner-part-of-abu-dhabi-f1-track-changes/6602969/
I'm unconvinced that those changes are going to spice up the racing that much - the turn at the end of the back straight was already a passing opportunity but probably needed tightening up to give a bigger braking area rather than feeding into a banked turn which will reduce the braking demand. The change tp the other hairpin is more likely to give passing, but I'd have thought they'd want to slow the cars down round the hotel so the people paying $$$$ for those suites get a better view 🙂
Yeah sounds like they've had a good crack at it within the space available. Wonder how 'banked' it will actually be?
Wall of death banked hopefully 😁
No SAFER barriers mentioned, so not very I'd guess. Certainly they are saying all the right things, would be a shame if they've put in some nice changes and accidentally reduced it to 1 overtaking area....... theres a thought, its DRS into that banking. That could be quite interesting. More Super Speedway style overtaking rather than doing it under hard braking.
Heres's hoping anyway
For some reason (possibly that the only excitement it’s provided has been the possibility of championship-deciding overtakes that haven’t actually happened) I’ve never even really noticed what the Yas Marina layout is. Hopefully it’ll be worth paying attention to now.
Yas Marina was one of those frustrating tracks where a better layout was already there on the ground. All they really needed to do was remove the chicane before the hairpin. Fair play for taking a look a the whole circuit and making some more changes too.
Now if someone could have a similar word with the guys at Barcelona
So, in his continuing bid to lose his seat, Bottas spun in the pit lane in FP2...could have taken out the Mclaren pit crew. He's been summoned to the stewards
Here.
Looks like he's ruined a set of tyres of tyres in about five yards
Oopsie! That is really quite bad.
With skills like that he's sure to get a seat at Haas next year - Mazepin Sr would pay Bottas a fortune to make his kid look good 😀
45 seconds in, just gives you an idea of the speed those things get up to in the first second or so. And that's practice so I guess not really gunning either!
Amazing what perceptuons different camera angles can create, the usual shots dont look that fast
Has anyone managed to spin a car in the pit lane before?
Lucky to get away with a 3 place grid penalty
I cant recall anyone doing it in practice or when leaving the box.
There's been a few hit the pit entry walls on the way in during a race and a few bumping other cars or the front jack man
Are we sure Toto wasn't giving Mazaspin a test drive?
😃😃😃
Places to not try something new: 1. A busy pit lane
I don't buy the excuse that the wheelspin was more in second than they expected, normally you go a gear higher to reduce the wheelspin risk. Maybe they were trying to lay some rubber down on the concrete for better traction and he just overcooked it.
I cant recall anyone doing it in practice or when leaving the box.
There’s been a few hit the pit entry walls on the way in during a race and a few bumping other cars or the front jack man
Might give C4 an excuse to roll out the clip of Coulthard binning it on the way into the pitlane at Adelaide though 🤣
(which I believe was put down to a sticking throttle)
I don’t buy the excuse that the wheelspin was more in second than they expected, normally you go a gear higher to reduce the wheelspin risk.
I think he had to do a fairly brutal clutch release to avoid stalling, the wheels started spinning and it just got away on him. The first gear ratio will be optimized for standing starts, second will be too high (otherwise they'd just use the second gear ratio for first gear). Pretty embarrassing mistake for a world champion team.
I've realised that the reason I don't want Max to win isn't cos I don't like Max (I think he's matured a lot over the last couple of years)...it's cos I can't stand Christian Windbag Horner
The sky commentary was particularly unbearable today.
which part of the commentary? Caught brundles grid walk which just seemed like a filler and davidson's review on the skypad was all over the place. Otherwise really enjoyed the race, superb recovery by Leclerc and Bottas.
I’m fairly sure I was promised a fingernail biting season of close racing tension as RedBull and Mercedes fight it out for the season championship…wake me up when that all kicks off
Gutted for Russell and Williams
I’m fairly sure I was promised a fingernail biting season of close racing tension as RedBull and Mercedes fight it out for the season championship…wake me up when that all kicks off
Don't hold your breath...Merc have stopped developing this year's car
Russell, Norris and the Ferrari boys were all very impressive. And fair play to Red Bull, they had all of Mercedes’ options completely covered.
Let’s hope the weather breaks next week, though…
Really hoping Ricciardo figures out what the issues are. With the sheer amount of data these guys have to hand McLaren must have an idea. Lando is on fire at the moment, as is Carlos Sainz. The latter keeps a calm head and out of trouble to bring his race home time and time again. Very impressive.
the Ferrari boys were all very impressive
Ignoring LeClerc simply driving into Gasly of course - surprised he didn't even seem to get as much as a warning for that one, seemed really odd
Yeah, ignoring that. Like Coulthard says, he’s exceptional but still makes really silly errors from time to time.
Ricciardo is a conundrum: he’s been with five teams now, so it’s not like he’s never had to adapt to a new car. But to be fair he started the race well before he had the PU issue.
From what I've been reading about Ricciardo, his overtaking moves rely on braking very late and then rotating the car very sharply on turn in, but the McLaren can't be driven like that and requires a more progressive easing off the brakes as the car is rotated into the corner. If Ricciardo's been driving like that for years, it's going to be very hard for him to change. He also struggled at first with Renault, but they developed the car to suit how he drives. This seems to be where Hamilton, Alonso, and Verstappen have an edge - they can adapt their driving to the car, whereas Ricciardo and Gasly seem to be really fast when the car suits them but struggle when it doesn't.
I thought he started really well yesterday and looked to be on course for a sixth place finish until his PU played up. Finishing fifth and sixth is pretty much McLaren's goal, so that really was about as good as could be expected from the car.
[i]Ignoring LeClerc simply driving into Gasly of course – surprised he didn’t even seem to get as much as a warning for that one, seemed really odd[/i]
You're not suggesting Ferrari might get preferential treatment from time to time are you?
Still can't fathom why Merc didn't take a punt on stopping Lewis earlier and trying what Max did at Ricard, they gave up for fastest lap so why not roll the dice and earlier and give Lewis 20 laps to make up the 25 second gap after the pit stop, he would have finished second and probably still got fastest lap at worst, or have been closer to Max at the finish rather than have him cruise to the finish. They're going to need to be more aggressive if they want a chance I think if they have truly stopped bringing new parts to the car...
One thing that did pop into my mind the other day that I thought was interesting, was the lower grid always going for a good allrounder after Williams have come out and said they've gone for more peaky downforce so their form might ebb and flow over the season. I was reminded of 2009 when the Force India was super strong at Spa and Monza and thought, hang on, why not just build a car for a specific type of circuit and maximise your one or two chances through the year and hang on for the rest? With all the will in the world, Williams et al will be lucky to score a handful of points this year, so if they built a car purely for straight line speed so they'd be a genuine threat at Spa/Monza they could get a couple of strong points finishes or even a podium or win if the stars align? It's not a long term strategy, but worth a shout if you find yourself at the back and need some cash from a better constructors placement at the end of the season?
Still can’t fathom why Merc didn’t take a punt on stopping Lewis earlier and trying what Max did at Ricard, they gave up for fastest lap so why not roll the dice and earlier and give Lewis 20 laps to make up the 25 second gap after the pit stop, he would have finished second and probably still got fastest lap at worst, or have been closer to Max at the finish rather than have him cruise to the finish.
Because Max was 5 seconds ahead and would have just pitted next lap to cover. Hardly rocket science.
Regarding Christian 'windbag' Horner, he used to come out and big up Max by making snide remarks about Lewis Hamilton and trying to play mind games.
I think the reason Max has got a lot better both on and off the track is that he's stopped looking to his boss for advice and started to learn from Lewis instead.
End of last season, when Russell performed so well in the Merc when Lewis had Covid, Max was asked 'does it matter who the driver is when it's all about the car' (obvious dig at Lewis) and Max replied, "yes, because he will make the right decisions at the crucial moments".
He won me over with that comment. When you consider Hamilton had his father, Ron Dennis, Nikki Lauda and Toto Wolf as mentors, and Max had his own (psychopathic) father and the afformentioned windbag as mentors I think Max has matured pretty well over the last year or so.
Agree I think Max has matured a lot in the last couple seasons. I used to think he was a petulant teenager and very cocky but he has mellowed a lot and gives some sensible answers now.
His on track behaviour is also much better too; he used to have a habit of causing crashes from very optimistic overtaking opportunities. He appears to be much better at wheel to wheel racing and avoiding accidents.
I used really dislike him but I quite like him now and don’t mind congratulating him on his recent achievements. I wouldn’t be too upset if he won the drivers championship this year.
Because Max was 5 seconds ahead and would have just pitted next lap to cover. Hardly rocket science.
But at least it puts Red Bull under pressure to perform and ace everything. They'd already fluffed one pit stop for Perez, not at all saying they would do the same again, but even if they had a 99.9% chance of acing it, that's still better odds than the 100% chance of not getting anything else from it if they don't force them to stop at all. Red Bull won at Ricard because they were aggressive, Mercedes have won before being aggressive, hence why I was confused they didn't even attempt to force the issue and apply a bit of pressure. Sitting back and letting Max streak away just felt like they'd given up, which is not how you win championships...
I used really dislike him but I quite like him now and don’t mind congratulating him on his recent achievements. I wouldn’t be too upset if he won the drivers championship this year.
This
I think part of Max's maturity is that he now has a fully competitive car so he's not forced to take silly risks. He was always impressively fast but it was win or bust because he wasn't fighting for the championship so getting race wins meant more to him. Now that he's fighting for the championship, he needs to score points consistently rather than risking it all for to win one race. As above, I think he learned a lot from watching Hamilton operate.
Merc stopping development doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have a bundle of new parts in the pipeline already - I wouldn't write them off just yet.
thepurist
Merc stopping development doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t have a bundle of new parts in the pipeline already – I wouldn’t write them off just yet.
True, I do think Merc/Hamilton are seeming pretty rattled though. On Missed Apex podcast they said Hamilton spent 5 hours in the sim working on setup, and he apparently normally does the bare minimum amount of sim work.
But at least it puts Red Bull under pressure to perform and ace everything. They’d already fluffed one pit stop for Perez, not at all saying they would do the same again, but even if they had a 99.9% chance of acing it, that’s still better odds than the 100% chance of not getting anything else from it if they don’t force them to stop at all. Red Bull won at Ricard because they were aggressive, Mercedes have won before being aggressive, hence why I was confused they didn’t even attempt to force the issue and apply a bit of pressure. Sitting back and letting Max streak away just felt like they’d given up, which is not how you win championships…
Lewis didn’t have any new medium tyres available whereas Max did so he was always going to be at a tyre disadvantage to a clearly faster car. If Lewis had pitted earlier it would have given Max the chance to pit as well. Not only would Max still have won but he would also have got a chance at (and almost certainly got) fastest lap. By pitting Lewis with only 2 laps to go Max couldn’t counter it so Lewis was pretty much guaranteed the extra point. It also meant Lewis was in a position to capitalise if Max had any issues until the last moment.