It would be fine in touring cars… 😉

Hamilton does seem to have an issue with people driving into him. If it’s not Rosberg, it’s Vettel.
On real roads his insurers would have said stop being unlucky and bumped his premium up.

Scathing blog on Ferrari by Darren Heath (saught out after reading Joe Sawards blog)…

http://www.darrenheath.com/blog/disgracing-themselves

Good blog that. Thanks

He’s got £275m to play with!

If I was him I’d keep it in my pocket.

from the blog:

Ferrari really are a horrible team right now. Dismissive of interest, completely devoid of any grace, charm or humility, they exude an aggressive arrogance that is bitter in its mien and wholly unpleasant to experience. From team management to press staff through to the aggressive and often looking-for-a-fight mechanics, this bellicose attitude is projected with a focused zeal; and, sadly, it appears to have infected Vettel’s on-track demeanour.

Just flicking through the usual crap on Friday night tv only to see DC on Crystal Maze.

Fingers crossed he doesn’t make it out.

I see birthday boy is due in Paris today for a chat with Todt.

Looking forward to hearing to the excuses for no further action.

Well what a surprise…no further action against Vettel

Not quite – first off he admitted being a dick and apologised, and he’s effectively got to do community service for the FIA at a bunch of other events over the next year, has been barred from endorsing any FIA road safety message and has effectively got a final written warning about his future conduct.

Is that the final final warning? I reckon the letter from his mum did the trick with the FIA

We all know he’s a dick anyway.

Can’t say I’m surprised but I was hoping for something. Imagine if it was Verstappen ramming Vettel?

There’d be utter pandemonium from Vettel/Ferrari/the Italian press etc.

Its great seeing the Italian spirit affecting the German. Thats the whole common market ethos at work.

I’d have been more impressed if he’d admitted he was a dick and apologised before being forced to by FIA

What would Senna have done?

Another test for Kubica, and he’s been working in the simulator too – possible return after the summer break, otherwise what’s is all for?…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/40492882

So then – what are we expecting from todays race? Should be a good one.

If Bottas can win, I can easily see this developing into a 3 way fight for the title. He isn’t that far behind and seems to have settled in nicely now at Mercedes.

And a chance of rain to spice things up!

Kubica can’t return without his Super Licence, so without driving in a championship under F1 he can’t get it.

I fancy Vettel today, but Verstappen should do well if it rains.

Kubica can’t return without his Super Licence, so without driving in a championship under F1 he can’t get it.

He can be granted one by the FIA – there are loopholes for exceptional circumstances. I think we covered this a few pages back <<<

Found it…

If the driver hasn’t made at least five F1 race starts the previous year or at least 15 starts within the previous three years he/she must have accumulated at least 40 points during the three-year period preceding the application.
or in exceptional circumstances, those who have not met those criteria but have demonstrated “outstanding ability in single-seater formula cars” and achieved 300 kilometres (190 miles) of running in a Formula One car.

Not quite sure how Kyat is still in F1 – Red Bull must have better drivers in their development programme.

Not a massively exciting race

Ha Ha shoey for brundle maybe

Not quite sure how Kyat is still in F1 – Red Bull must have better drivers in their development programme.

I’m not a big fan of his, but I think he’s faster than many give him credit for, so maybe Red Bull think he’s faster than the alternatives. He’s compared with Vettel, Ricciardo, Verstappen, and Sainz, all of whom are absolutely first rate. I suspect his habit of crashing into things is overdriving. Still, I can’t imagine they will want to keep him on for next year.

Not the best race I’ve ever seen, shame we didn’t get a bit more rain to spice it up a bit.

Congrats to Mart P who is winning the STW fantasy league, GT9000 in 2nd and Dooos UK in third.

Do you have a link to the league site. My old one is broken so can log In to make changes.

Thanks

Started watching last night at about 9. Fell asleep twice then gave up and went to bed. Might try again tonight.

Kvyat has never really recovered from his unceremonious punting from Red Bull last year. He’s not shining as brightly as Sainz – himself the subject of speculation that he may be departing, I’d be willing to bet that Kvyat will be moving on by the end of the year or leaving F1 entirely.

Pretty boring race I thought. It might have been spiced up a bit if Vettel had caught Bottas and Hamilton had caught Ricciardo 10 laps earlier.

Vettel is getting more ****-ish by the race…..boo hoo, he jumped the start….erm, no he didn’t…..well they say he didn’t, but we all know he did……boo hoooo. Div.

Can anyone explain why Seb wouldn’t just admit Bottas didn’t jump the start once the data came in? Seems a binary decision to me, he either did or he didn’t – no room for opinion – and the data show he didn’t. I used to quite like Vettel but he’s fallen in my estimation over the last couple of seasons.

Red Bull obviously see something in Kvyat that we don’t!… 🙂

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/kvyat-new-toro-rosso-contract-928978/

I have nothing serious to add, other than somehow I managed to top the global league for the round. How the hell that happened, I have no idea! 😀

Oi Londonists – want to see some F1 tomorrow?

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-to-hold-london-street-demo-on-wednesday-929347/?s=1

Meantime I’m struggling to book my parking for Silverstone on Friday…

I wonder if Silverstone are hoping some other circuits might take a stand to overturn Bernies old fee structure?

Oi Londonists – want to see some F1 tomorrow?

Wow, wish I’d known about that before I’d cycled in this morning. Tempted to go for a look anyway en route home.

The Honda plot thickens – Sauber Honda deal now looks to be off, and if McLaren dump them they could be without a team next season.

There seems to have been a softening of words from McLaren recently, so possibly sticking with them after all!?

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sauber-honda-engine-deal-called-off-929575/

Interesting. One of the things that has hurt Honda’s development programme is the lack of on-track mileage compared with rivals.

Despite the bellicose hitherto comments from McLaren, it’ll take a long time for Honda to put together a competitive engine. At the very least, they need to design, build and commission a dynamometer that replicates on track conditions at the factory. There’s a great deal of puzzlement from Honda engineers as to why improvements gained in the R&D dept don’t translate to on-track successes. I can’t see Honda making much headway in 2017, which will inevitably lead to Alonso’s exit by the end of the year. McLaren’s tone towards Honda changed noticeably at Austria, perhaps at least both parties have agreed a development roadmap for the months ahead.

It’s a compelling story, more exciting than some GPs of late.

Looks like Kubica is edging closer to a proper Renault seat

http://www.planetf1.com/news/another-step-closer-for-kubica/

Would be amazing to see Kubica back at Renault.

I note the rumour on Planet F1 about McLaren making a Ferrari switch next season as an attempt to retain Alonso. I’ll believe that when I see it.

My money is on McLaren keeping Honda again next year and Alonso either being with them or quitting to set up his bike racing team.

Interesting rant-ette from Joe Saward about Sauber’s ownership:

Notebook from Trafalgar Square

ThePurist… sat in The Clarence right now…. next to it.

So what do we think of the Shield then? I’m not offended by how it looks – and a million times better than the Halo – and in some angles it looks pretty cool…

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2017/07/14/first-pictures-shield-action-track/

Quite like that, it’s rather cool.