. Im not sure Kimi even knew Oscar was there as he was focused on Charles
The on-camera showed Kimi looking in his left mirror immediately before and during the crash, so he was definitely focussed on Oscar. Charles was much further out and had left plenty of room.
Odd comment from the Ferrari boss - and yes 2nd is in constructors now out of reach. Your car doesn't work and Max and the Mercedes pair are regularly scoring points!...
lol You know he's talking bolleaux when he says the engineers are doing a good job. Just listen to their onboards. The drivers are being nagged the whole time to manage car issues - plank wear, tyre temps, brake temps, it's ridiculous. I mean the arrogance to tell a 7x WDC to "focus on driving" when the car is this shite and has stayed the same all season 😂
Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, Leclerc ... where are the championships? Oh right, nothing in nearly 20 years. Maybe the drivers aren't the problem after all.
But this wasn’t a move that was out of control, it wasn’t a move that would send him across to the outside of the track on exit; it was a move that would have been controlled—even if only just—had Antonelli left space.
I think you could justify this if Piastri hadn't been complaining all weekend about a lack of grip, and more generally Piastri's inability to control the Maclaren's [new] habit of sliding at the rear. One of the reasons he's doing less well now against Norris is that he can [deal with the sliding] I think Piastri was hoping that he'd both get to corner ahead of Kimi, and that Charles would've backed off earlier. It didn't work out that way I do agree with you that the use of guidelines to hand out time penalties doesn't add much to the racing.
The whole Piastri, Kimi, Le Clerc corner thing is simple. A Ferrari was knocked out of the race so someone must be punished.
Have things changed that much in F1 since the Bernie days?
A bit of mental arithmetic says that if Max wins the last 3 races and the sprint he ends up on 424 points.
That's 34 ahead of Norris' current score so if Norris finishes 5th in everything (3x10 + 4) they'd be tied on points but Max would take the title on the number of wins.
Similarly Piastri would need 69 points to beat Max but even placing 2nd in everything would only net him 3x18 + 7 = 61 points.
So TLDR is that a resurgent Max is actually really good news for Norris.
Can’t help but think of BAR.
Did the render stop loading halfway through?
Looks like a cut'n'shut before they paint both ends the same colour. Or possibly... 
Looks like MBS has been taking election tips from Vlad and is the only candidate in the "free, fair and transparent" FIA election process. Wonder what will happen if the courts uphold the appeal that the rules effectively make it impossible for more than one person to stand.
Wonder what will happen if the courts uphold the appeal
Where are the courts? Who are the judges? What are their retirement plans after they leave their modest public servant salaries?
Not sure I'm feeling a 4am start on Sunday!!... 😬😬🤣
...but stupid NowTV doesn't show race re-runs for ages after. So it's live or C4 highlights. 🤔
Sorry to spam the thread, Daughter and me want to go to GP next year, has anyone got any advice re travel packages. Ticket/transfer deals etc etc
Thinking if Barcelona, but if anyone's got any experience of others would be welcome
...but stupid NowTV doesn't show race re-runs for ages after.
Looking at the TV guide Sky F1 channel race re-run is at 7.55am with build up show re-run from 7am. That feels like the perfect time for me to still be able to avoid spoilers. Caveat assumed that that is dependant on no major delays during the race.
Woah, crazy qualifying.
I presume Ferrari are going to give Lewis a new engine turned up to 11 for reliability reasons
I presume Ferrari are going to give Lewis a new engine turned up to 11 for reliability reasons
He was quick in FP3 so hopefully they change it back to that spec. He did make a mistake but the car was awful, risky strategy as well.
I presume Ferrari are going to give Lewis a new engine turned up to 11 for reliability reasons
Forecast is for a dry race so obvious thing is to fit new engine and change to a dry weather setup.
I presume Ferrari are going to give Lewis a new engine turned up to 11 for reliability reasons
…that would be far too sensible and go against Ferrari’s ethos of being completely useless!!! 🤣
Oh yes, new motor and wings, pit lane start and carve through the field.
Or more likely, send him out on full wets with half a tank of fuel
I woke up for a pee and here I am in front of the TV!! 🤣🤣
Jesus, if Piastri can't do better than that, McLaren are going to have to impose team orders and ask Lando to help him secure 2nd place in the championship.
Can't see this ending well for McLaren.
https://twitter.com/ChrisMedlandF1/status/1992496353210151002
Only a race win behind then
If they are thrown out of the race, Norris, who finished second to Red Bull's Max Verstappen, would be 24 points ahead of both the Dutchman and Piastri going into the penultimate race of the season in Qatar next weekend
It's open and shut isn't it, if they're over the wear limit then it's disqualification
It's amazing how this seems to happen when there's a chance of the title might not be decided in the final race
FFS!!
It's amazing how this seems to happen when there's a chance of the title might not be decided in the final race
McLaren didn't dispute the facts, their plank was worn below the legal limit, they argued there were mitigating circumstances. The rules are very clear and McLaren have only themselves to blame for this, the other teams managed to keep their cars legal.
At least Mclaren have kept it fair with the papaya rules and DQ both cars
I don't know how close a car would typically be to the wear limit after a race but it seems mad that McLaren would be taking any risks when they dont need to be winning races. Perhaps the wet qualifying didn't help with setup
Perhaps the wet qualifying didn't help with setup
That was basically McLaren's argument for mitigating circumstances. Practice was disrupted and they didn't get time to do long runs with a full fuel load so they had to guess on car setup. Problem is, all the teams had the same limitation and the others managed to keep it legal. This is purely on McLaren screwing up.
Plank explained here - 2yrs old somethings may have changed
Do McLaren get a bonus if they makede the championship go down to the last race? Its the nly explaination for such a silly error given that they can afford to set the car up conservativley now
I'd be soooo pissed off with the team if I was Lando now. That's put so much pressure on him that really wasn't needed.
Fair enough MV still needs wins but all the pressure is on Lando now, he had some space so pressure wasn't massive but now it's ****ing huge.
If he gets a win in the next race and more or less secures the championship he'll thoroughly deserve it.
Well I spotted which celebs in Las Vegas had been eating all the pies.
The wear on Lando's blocks was over the limit by 0.07 to 0.12mm - how can they measure a worn block to that accuracy?
I guess there must have been a significant benefit to running low or they'd have not pushed it so close. Maybe if they'd run even a little higher they would have finished lower down.
The wear on Lando's blocks was over the limit by 0.07 to 0.12mm - how can they measure a worn block to that accuracy?
Start with a go/no-go gauge then get your verniers out. It should be fairly simple to do. If there was a flaw in the measuring system the teams would’ve kicked off long ago
Doubt they wanted to push closer to the limit more than any other team and/or race. Just got their calculations wrong, particularly with regards to experiencing more porpoising than expected.
They're not the first to be caught out by plank wear and won't be the last.
all the pressure is on Lando now
He's leading the championship and, by my calculation, can finish third in both remaining races and fourth in the sprint, whereas Max and Oscar basically need to win all three. Pressure's on Max and Oscar.
I guess there must have been a significant benefit to running low or they'd have not pushed it so close.
Yes, the ground effect increases massively the close you can run the car to the ground. Running it a few millimeters lower is the difference between being on pole and being on the third row. All the teams will run the cars as low as they think they can get away with, it's just that McLaren misjudged it this time because they didn't get time to do high fuel runs in practice.
"It's a terrible result. There is nothing positive to take from today," Hamilton told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"I'm eager for it to end, I'm looking forward to it ending. I'm not looking forward to the next one."
Asked if that meant he was not looking forward to the next race in Qatar, Hamilton replied: "Next season."
Man, Hamilton sounds like he's really spiraling at the moment. He really needs a good result now to finish the season with some positivity.
It feels similar to the weird couple of seasons when he leaked the data etc.
I need to rewatch quali, but I don't understand how he ended up in that position. Obviously we know about the bollard and aborted final lap, but before that, did he keep messing laps up, or did Ferrari keep him in the garage despite being at risk? If the latter, I don't know why they would do that, plenty of drivers were just setting lap after lap until they got a clean one.
Running it a few millimeters lower is the difference between being on pole and being on the third row. All the teams will run the cars as low as they think they can get away with, it's just that McLaren misjudged it this time because they didn't get time to do high fuel runs in practice.
Yeah, it's very fine margins. Also with the cold weather, this was probably even more important because downforce affects tyre temps.
Possible they also misjudged the impact of the 'expanding skid blocks' trick that got blocked last race.
He had a triple header of issues
Any of the three things that went wrong for Hamilton at the end of Q1 could have been enough to derail his qualifying. So he had no chance of surviving all three.
Getting caught out and hitting a bollard at the end of his prep lap, and it getting stuck under his car for an unknown amount of time, was not a great start and compromised his pace on what turned out to be his final lap.
Encountering yellow flags on that lap, when it was potentially marginally good enough to sneak into Q2, spoiled the attempt.
And then immediately aborting his last lap, thinking he had not crossed the line in time before end of the session, was a potentially costly confusion seemingly born from the timing line being located just before the main gantry that houses the lights he saw turn red.
Do we think if pre-season testing goes badly he'll walk away?
I can't see him slogging through another season of mid-field racing.
