F1 2019 (spoilers obviously)

Perez and Ocon weren’t exactly the best of buddies as teammates…

I’m skeptical about Stroll. I’d probably be more enthusiastic about him if he hadn’t had to rely on his wealthy family background to get him thus far. Granted, he hasn’t gone the full Maldonado but I expect fireworks if Racing Point hold Perez back in any championship battle between the two.

Haven’t really watched F1 for years but having watched the Netflix documentary I’d love to see Ocon succeed and Perez and Stroll (and many of the rest of them including that deplorable Dutch git) fail.

Looking forward to this mind! Really hoping LeClerc hands Vettel his arse at some point this season. I can see finger lad hoying his toys oot the pram if he does!

I’m hoping both the Ferraris and Mercs have good race pace today and it’s a close battle.

Vettel is a No 2 from now on

Certainly looks like Vettel is no.2, LeClerc 1st down to third and back to first.👏👏

strange from mercedes

Vettel: Bottler!

Excellent!

lol he’s not having a good day

Scary the way that front wing come off! Literally shook it off the car

Absolutely gutted for LeClerc

Nooooooo! (And I’m a Lewis fanboy). Poor LeClerc

Hoping it finishes under SC for LeClerc

Got to laugh at Finger Boy.  Petulance on his part.  Sad for LeClerc though, but humble words from Lewis to him behind the scenes, nice touch.

interesting pace differential between LeClerc and Vettel (were they trying to squeeze more out hence why it went bang). And between Hamilton and Bottas. Pretty even stevens between Lewis and Seb. LeClerc Losing and ebgine part this early in the season is going to hurt down the line.

Unlucky for Vettel and LeClerc today, but I think Hamilton drove superbly. Everyone on the left side of the grid got a good initial getaway and then bogged down. In fair racing Hamilton has proven that he’s more than a match for Bottas and Vettel. I’d really like to see Hamilton and Verstappen racing on equal terms.

Regardless, today was a great Grand Prix.

Had to chuckle at DC’s inability to hide his amusement while conmentating on Vettel binning it 😀

Another race like that and there’s a half-arsed Freddie Mercury tribute act out there who’s going be looking down the embarrassing barrel of some team orders sooner or later.

Ferrari reporting that it was a proper engine failure – piston damage, not the hybrid system.

…jeez how many DRS zones can you fit into 1 circuit to “spice” up the show………..
imagine how crap F1 would be without them , started out as 1 zone, now every circuit has them at the start of every straight………….

Vettel is finished IMHO – he cannot handle pressure any more and he’s got it not only from merc but now his own teammate – if history of this guy is anything to go by, he’ll try too hard , make mistakes and throw wobblers – ferrari wont take anymore of his mistakes with a driver like LeClerc able to perform !

Totally agree Tony – The new (3rd) DRS zone at Bahrain wasn’t really needed as there had already been plenty of overtakes there without it in the past.

Also on Vettel – I can absolutely see him having a total meltdown this year and losing his seat. He bottled a fair few high-pressure situations last year and like you say the context this year is even worse for him. Gone are the days of him disappearing into the sunset in his RB for 4 seasons in a row!

maybe they should just let the drivers use DRS whenever they like…

Ross Brawn was on about getting rid of DRS as his ultimate goal, yet they just keep putting in more zones because FIA are scared of no overtakes and boring races. it makes it all seem a little false to me seeing drivers unable to defend against the massive difference in speed.
it also means once a driver is passed he can go off into the distance pretty quickly – in the old days he might be stuck behind for ages and be desperate to lunge/pass in order to not ruin his race or get up to the next driver in front.
they want close racing, yet they allow drivers to easily pass each other!

I confess I’ve always disliked DRS (taking the Wacky Races argument) but I think there’s are valid arguments that if you’re going to have them then more are better than fewer.

For one, it means that anyone who’s firmly out of position can get back more easily, so anyone taking engine penalties or suffering a botched pit stop doesn’t have their race ruined quite so much.

But more compellingly it means that if you have two drivers racing closely, if one passes the other a bit too easily under DRS then they may become vulnerable at the next zone. At one or two tracks drivers have occasionally used this, choosing not to pass in the first zone and instead doing it in the second so that they can pull away before becoming DRS prey themselves.

I think as a stopgap until 2021 it’s a reasonable tactic. If Brawn’s claims of reducing following-car downforce losses from 50% to 5% are accurate then DRS’s days are certainly numbered.

Twodogs

Subscriber

maybe they should just let the drivers use DRS whenever they like…

on one hand that could be quite good to see who is brave enough to hit the button early. On the other, the car in front would be able to deploy it meaning fewer overtakes again

If Brawn’s claims of reducing following-car downforce losses from 50% to 5% are accurate then DRS’s days are certainly numbered.

Granted, Ross Brawn does know a little bit more about it than I do, but that sounded to me more like an aspiration than a real goal. It would be great if they could achieve that, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

on one hand that could be quite good to see who is brave enough to hit the button early. On the other, the car in front would be able to deploy it meaning fewer overtakes again

I think the solution would be to have a laser pointer and gunsight mounted on the front of each car, plus a target mounted on the back. If you can get your laser to hit the target on the back of the car in front, his DRS is disabled. Otherwise, drivers can choose to use DRS anytime they want.

Now you’re talking Liberty Media’s language!

The reason for the Ferrari straight line pace this season…

If you can get your laser to hit the target on the back of the car in front, his DRS is disabled.

even better…enable his DRS..just as he goes into a fast corner

so they are using the clutch as a supercharger.

If that’s not an april fools it’s insane genius.

If it is, then it’s a good one (and why has no-one tried it!)

I am wondering if the new front wing airflow design of the Ferrari has shown up an inherent weakness (as predicted in this BBC article) and a combination of the strong headwind on circuit and the washout caused by Hamilton’s overtake caused the sudden instability which sent him spinning?

Granted, Ross Brawn does know a little bit more about it than I do, but that sounded to me more like an aspiration than a real goal. It would be great if they could achieve that, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Apparently they’ve achieved it in CFD and a wind tunnel. I agree, my initial reaction was that it seemed a little optimistic, but I didn’t look into the details (eg how close a gap they were using as a reference point).

To be honest I think the risk in that approach is that we end up with an over-prescriptive formula. But then I’d say that once CFD matured as a technology F1 was never going to claw back the mad old days of the late 60s to the mid 80s with the hit-and-miss ideas and visually distinctive cars that kind of defined it for a couple of generations: whether by innovation or by regulation, computers doomed us to a grid full of largely homogeneous basic shapes adorned with whatever ugly appendages could be fitted in around the rules.

If that’s not an april fools it’s insane genius.

“AF Duct”…….. think about it!

Also it should be reasonably obvious that you don’t just add RPM together 😉

Plus 0104% as in 1st of April

Comment of the week? Step forward, Monsieur Grosjean, who seems to have forgotten most of 2012:

As the pair limped back to the pits, Grosjean took to team radio to vent his displeasure. “Look at the damage. Stupid,” he yelled at his engineer, adding, “they can’t f***ing take a Turn 1 without crashing.”

😂

Never mind that horrendous display of stupidity at Barcelona last year that could have ended so much worse… How he still has a race seat I don’t know.

Grosjean – i dont understand how he’s keeping that seat , esp. after last year – is he bringing truck loads of cash?

Good race.
Anyone know what’s going on with Gasly? He was quite good in the TR last year, poor in both races so far. I honestly thought he’d be nipping at Max’s heels.

Yes, Red Bull seem pretty ruthless about promoting and discarding promising young drivers. What’s the chance of Kvyat winding up back in the A team before the end of the season?

To be fair to Gasly though, the Red Bull seems to be a bit of a dog and M.V. was lucky to finish so high in the points. Red Bull are looking a bit like McLaren with their “wonderful chassis let down by a terrible engine” claims, then finding that the chassis was actually pretty poor once they changed engines.