Yeah agreed that was mind numbingly boring. I don’t get to watch a great deal of sport at the weekends, but I sacrificed missing the last couple of Dauphine stages so the missus would let me watch the qualifying and the GP. What a waste.

It just seems a case of the race is now who gets Pole, after that its then who is best at managing their tyres and engines. The drivers know they can’t overtake, or even get close enough to overtake, so they sit far enough behind in the clean air and manage their race.

You know it’s bad when even the highlights are boring….turned it off & went to bed.

I fell asleep watching the highlights, looks like I didn’t miss anything

At what point do the fans finally realise they’re paying top dollar to watch a series of procession laps and look for a more interesting form of motorsport?

That was breathtakingly dull. Gutted, I’ve always got high hopes for Canada!

FFS. I managed to avoid social media and stayed up well past my bedtime to watch the highlights because Canada normally throws up a good race. I fell asleep, then woke up a bit later and everyone was in the same positions!
Also, I can’t understand why Channel 4 choose to have Monaco, a known procession with no excitement, live and then Canada, normally a good race which would be on a Sunday evening prime time, with highlights only in the middle of the night!

Would have been nice if someone at the channel had decided to get the highlights over in 5 minutes and then show some old classics instead to fill the time.

So Red Bull have gone with Honda – maybe a deal done out of necessity rather than choice?

Interesting.

I think that it’s safe to say that the gap between Honda and Renault has narrowed this year, Honda certainly seems to have solved it’s reliability issues.

Perfect fit – Red Bull have always been so supportive of their engine suppliers! 🙂

Renault wanted to to retain Red Bull so I don’t think it was out of necessity.

I think that being a works team and not a customer is the major factor.

If they keep Torro Rosso as well they’ll have double the amount of pre-season testing time that they did during the Mclaren years too.

That’s got to be a big factor with the in-season penalties now.

Yep, that’s now double the data for Honda.  It’s why they tried to do a deal with Sauber to help support engine development.  You have to feel a little sorry for McLaren in that they have been through a great deal of pain, but the performance of the MCL32 has come as something of a shock for them.

It’s clear that McLaren have fallen a long way behind in chassis/aero development and that like Williams, there’s no quick and easy fix.  I wouldn’t bet against Boullier and Zac Brown being restructured out by the end of summer.

Meanwhile, will Ricciardo stay with Red Bull Honda or will he jump ship to Ferrari? If he does go, will Sainz or Gasly replace him at Red Bull?

Meanwhile, will Ricciardo stay with Red Bull Honda or will he jump ship to Ferrari? If he does go, will Sainz or Gasly replace him at Red Bull?

Cant imagine Vettel would enjoy having Danny Ric as a teammate again, wonder if he has any kind of veto in his contract.

Renault wanted to to retain Red Bull so I don’t think it was out of necessity

“wanted to retain” is a bit strong.  After initially telling RedBull they weren’t getting any PUs in 2019 Renault had softened their line (marginally) to being willing to supply them as long as a decision was made by the end of May.

An old story in F1 terms as it dates from April, but the rumour has been rife for some time:

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/23312540/daniel-ricciardo-2019-stick-twist

I can’t see Ricciardo going to Mercedes, Bottas is a strudy wingman to Hamilton and it’s quite obvious that Mercedes have a long term plan around Ocon.

“wanted to retain” is a bit strong

Very fair. Were willing to retain more accurate.

Well, you can see Red Bull’s point. The Renault is only the 3rd best engine, which must be frustrating. By switching to Honda, if they’re lucky, they might end up with the 3rd best engine. Makes perfect sense.

Well there is no chance RB’ll get the merc or fezza engines, and renault have a works team so RB will always be playing second fiddle. Whereas with Honda they’llbe able to lead the direction of development. Remember the success with cold/hot blowing etc they were able to achieve as the top renault team…

If Fernando goes to Indycar in 2019, this will be quite some bookend to his consistent terrible strategic judgement in F1 if Honda represent a step up for Red Bull next year.

Dont see RB Honda doing anything next season, Honda have not produced a good engine in recent F1 history and I don’t see a deal with RB changing anything.

Remember the success with cold/hot blowing etc they were able to achieve as the top renault team…

Which is a good argument for staying with Renault.

So no chance of Aston Martin getting someone to build an engine and sticking their badge on it then ?

Was wondering the same thing Trimix – RB were pushing hard for an independent engine supplier post 2021 so either this is a 2 year Honda deal or they’ve shelved those plans. Rumours were that mclaren were also interested in badging a new engine as their own, but doubt they’ll choose to fund it in isolation.

This is a 2 year Honda deal

hols2

Remember the success with cold/hot blowing etc they were able to achieve as the top renault team…

Which is a good argument for staying with Renault.

No, I think you missed my point – Renault will be doing everything they can to help their own works team not RedBull who are their direct competitors.  Where as RB can direct Honda’s development to meet their own needs.

The RB/McLaren plan was always for any new engine to be ready for 2021, as the regulations are to be relaxed to allow for simpler (read considerably cheaper) engines.

It would make absolutely no sense to design and build for the current regs at huge expense when they will be replaced in three years.

Well, that was pretty good. Bit unfair on the penalties front when you consider how much Bottas was affected by the finger pointy one yet again, but then I guess we all know what FIA stands for….

I must have been watching a different race, ‘cos I thought it was yet another snore-fest….

I keep watching with false optimism that the next race will be more exciting than the last. I’m actually starting to feel quite pleased that F1 is going to be only on Sky from next year, as it’ll mean I’ll stop watching for good and will gain back a few hrs every other weekend.

I was so interested in this race and England’s match beforehand, that I went for a ride at ~1330. This modern era of F1 is just so dull, but then the rules change by the “think tank” 😆 they made was always going to do this… Wide cars, narrow tracks, soft tyre compounds that last far too long.

I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing anything else but watch F1 races live in the past, unless they were at a silly time in the early hours.

Well, that was pretty good.

No, no, it really wasn’t. Vettel’s overtakes were good (if generally easy) and Kimi rescued his reputation, but otherwise, meh. As stumpy01 says, won’t need to watch it from next year. That’s a bit sad considering I’ve followed F1 since the 60s, but I did the same with rallying when that got dull, so hey ho. There are lots of great cycle races to watch.

Each to their own, highlights kept me occupied for an our

The cars are now the same width as they were in 1995-1997 IIRC, I’m not sure that the width of the cars themselves is as much of an issue as the sensitivity to aerodynamics.  I’m all for simplifying the aero, maybe using standardised front wing components and dropping bargeboards.

T’was a bit dull.  I liked the circuit – I think the retard strips are better than gravel traps as they allow folks to get going again.   Plenty of overtaking lower down the field, so quite good.

Another one who found it a bit boring and formulaic, never been a fan of DRS passes.  Was great when McLaren came up with the F-duct but now it’s just boring.

Not a fan of the retard straps either, no real loss for mistakes but then it keeps more cars on track so swings and roundabouts.

Hopefully the rest of the season will be good as I want to enjoy the last season before it disappears behind the sky pay wall.  More riding time next year to look forward to after 25 years of only missing 2 races!

If the race tomorrow is anything like today’s F2 race it should be a belter (kiss of death).

Definitely going to pay more attention to F2 from now on.

I don’t really follow F1…

… is Mercedes’ tactical nous as non-existent as it seems ?

Aye that was a big error not pitting under the VSC. The other teams had time to prep and execute a double stack so not sure why Merc didn’t pull him in. Apparently the last time Merc double DNF’d was Italy 1955. Bad Sunday for Merc.

BAF – I wa thinking exactly the same after watching the F2 feature race yesterday. It was absolutely incredible! That last corner overtake by Markelov was stunning.

Be interested to see where Louis was when VSC was deployed.

Davidson on Sky Sports 44 reckoned that the VSC flashed up before LH passed the pit entrance but there wasn’t much in it.

Either way it was odds on there’d be a VSC so I’m surprised that Merc didn’t pre-empt it.

nickewen – The commentators come across well too, really enthusiastic like on the super bike stuff which helped.

Not that it really mattered as it was pretty likely that his car would have died whether he pitted or not