F1 2019 (spoilers obviously)

Anyone else get the same brief excitement at seeing a Ferrari in the wall and then the crushing disappointment of realising it was the wrong one? 🙂

Yep, same here!
Difficult to tell how this one will pan out – the first race at Baku in 2016 was dull as ditchwater but since then it’s been quite exciting. Much more so than Monaco. I’m not a fan of the street circuits although Baku does have some nice architecture to look at.

Formula E races may be like Mario Kart – but for me I can’t get excited if Frijns beats Lotterer. I have no interest in these drivers. I look down the entry list and it’s a whole bunch of F1 Simulator drivers, or drivers never quite good enough.

Just watching the second F2 race. It’s mayhem!

Haha aye the Safety Car is getting some decent mileage out of the F2 lot! Glad they restarted at the end rather than finishing under SC 👏

Uuuh, the FE cars use road tyres iirc, so there’s no need for them to pit, as they’ll easily last a race distance.

I don’t follow FE, but unless they use control tyres, it’ll end up like production car racing where a tyre company sponsor would make street legal race tyres that would only last 20 laps and offer them for retail at 10K per corner, then supply them only to their sponsored teams who would then destroy anyone silly enough to use proper road tyres.

Leclerc now 8th

He’ll be on the front row in an hour

but unless they use control tyres

They do

😴 most exciting bit was the sofa in the post race room

Team Vettel had another shocker, can’t see the Nerd lasting to the end of the season at this rate.

😴 most exciting bit was the sofa in the post race room

Whilst i get that from the Sofa angle, some of the in car shots of how quickly those corners came up and drivers having to trust a suddenly unseen car doesn’t slow / stop was pretty hair raising.  I can’t imagine pushing to he limit with that level of trust and commitment, it must be hell of an adrenaline rush in the car.

IMO it’s a bit like and amateurs go pro MTB video, rarely does the outsider understand the true involvement / experience.

Could Ferrari have managed LeClerc’s race any worse?

Kryton57

Whilst i get that from the Sofa angle, some of the in car shots of how quickly those corners came up and drivers having to trust a suddenly unseen car doesn’t slow / stop was pretty hair raising. I can’t imagine pushing to he limit with that level of trust and commitment, it must be hell of an adrenaline rush in the car.

IMO it’s a bit like and amateurs go pro MTB video, rarely does the outsider understand the true involvement / experience.

Oh yes, no doubt it’s a cracking track to drive, but I was talking about the racing.
Actually to be fair it was pretty good with Charl Eclair coming through the pack at the start and a bit of dicing in the midfield. But I was hoping for a safety car or two in the second half to close the pack up and mix up the strategies of the front runners.

Ferrari’s strategy was a bit baffling. Initially I cynically assumed they were just throwing Leclerc’s race under a bus to back the Mercs up to let Vettel catch them, but then once all three were past they still kept him out for a couple of laps more. So maybe, as Webber said, they were just asleep.

It’s always hard to predict strategy when you’re watching highlights, and I’ve not seen a pace chart from the race yet, but I suspect there must have been a point when Leclerc’s pace would have started dropping off enough to make a two-stop look like it’d get him on the podium. I think they’re just scared of him showing Vettel up.

Stellar performance from Bottas. Less so from Ricciardo… must have been feeling like a major nutsack after that one. Shame there wasn’t much else going on. Hey ho…

Boring race to watch… Bottas seems to have the measure of Hamilton at the moment.

Seems like since Ferrari admitted vettel is number 1 they are just trying to prove a point by sabotaging leclerc to make sure he doesn’t best him…

I think Ferrari were concerned about Leclerc’s tyres not lasting to the end. But let’s face it, Ferrari aren’t getting the best out of their car and keep making desperate strategy calls to try and compensate, while Merc just seem to be doing everything perfectly.

For me Ferrari lost it in qualifying sending them out on mediums and softs.

Hamilton’s going to have to more aggressive if he’s going to get the front. Any one other than Bottas next to him in turn one and he’d off squeezed him wide

Also, DRS off backmarkers seems like a odd way to aid overtaking. Especially on a circuit where the tow is so important for overtaking
Should surely only activate when the following car is on the same lap, if you’re getting lapped surely the car lapping you is already considerably faster without an open wing!

I think one of the motivations behind DRS was that it would prevent backmarkers scuppering people’s races (though, let’s face it, that was always an intriguing element back in the 80s) but getting DRS off backmarkers does seem to often do just the reverse, yesterday being a prime example: if the following car is over a second away then that’s their overtaking opportunity gone.

The close racing is a tricky call in Baku. They’d have looked a right pair of plums if they’d stuck each other in the wall within the first two corners and had the entire field pile into them. Hamilton did an impressive job of keeping it clean; he was just arguably a little over-cautious on the brakes into turn 1. But with cold tyres on the dirty side of the track…

TBH I think Hamilton’s driving on the first few bends shows his maturity. Thinking of the the team rather than just himself. I’m sure he still feels he can have Bottas over the season. That may change as the season progresses and LeClerc starts getting points as then he’ll not be happy hsaring swapping wins with Bottas.

I had high hopes, but definitely a dull race. Given the whacky races-esque actions of the last couple of years – side swiping, people binning it under safety car, team mates taking each other out, and with qualifying looking ‘interesting’ I thought it would be great. Shame. Ferrari do seem to be trying to prove Vettel is best by screwing CL over, really weird. Bottas has definitely upped his game, pleased to see him winning although I’d sooner see Lewis take another title in November.

Kubica must be gutted, all the fanfare around his amazing comeback and he’s trundling around seconds off the pace right at the back. I reckon the safety car could go quicker!

(@eddiebaby) Yeah, agree with all that. I think he’s comfortable that this won’t be 2016 again, the whole dynamic is different, but equally I think he knows that some measured aggression in the first two corners could have seen him 13 points ahead rather than one behind.

Finger boy has a whinge:

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel says Mercedes consistent success in Formula 1 is “boring”.
The world champions have taken one-two finishes in the first four races of 2019 – after winning the past five drivers’ and constructors’ titles.
“Boring, isn’t it?” Vettel said. “So boring. It’s not just four races. It has been four years, more or less.”

This is the guy whose technique with RedBull was to qualify first, blast out of DRS range and then just sit there with no fights against anyone (because he didn’t win them.). Most boring and bland winner in history for four years. Cockwomble.

He’s right though isn’t he? Unless he’s saying his 4 years weren’t boring? You make it sound like he should’ve done something to be less good at his job of being fastest all the time.

That’s sorr of what he’s complaining about with Mercedes.

Most boring and bland winner in history for four years.

Jenson Button was right up there in the boring and predictable lists.

He’s right though isn’t he?

Dunno, some of the Hamilton vs Rosberg scraps were among the best I’ve watched. A team’s dominance is hardly a measure of a dull season: 1988 being perhaps the most obvious illustration, when no-one could touch McLaren but the championship battle was titanic.

The irony in Vettel’s comments is not merely that he spent the same amount of time, four years, in a dominant team.

It’s the fact that the main challenge during his period of dominance came from one man in particular: Alonso, who was capable of wrestling a completely underwhelming Ferrari into a position to challenge for the championship for two of those years.

Vettel now has a Ferrari that’s widely recognised to be faster in a straight line, and generally over a full lap, than the Mercedes, yet both this season and last he (with some help from the strategists, admittedly) has let them run away with it.

Jenson Button was right up there in the boring and predictable lists.

You’re probably right, not the sort of driver you’re going to get really excited about, but for me, coming from plum last to win in the rain was one of the greatest drives I’ve ever seen

coming from plum last to win in the rain was one of the greatest drives I’ve ever seen

He had to come through the pack twice after pittting after the collision with Hamilton. Didn’t he have a drive through as well? No wonder BBC viewers voted it greatest F1 race ever.
Finger Boy blowing it under pressure on the last lap didn’t hurt the viewing pleasure either…
I watched it from start to finish and even in the long waits for the rain to stop it was good TV with Jake and the lads filling time well enough.
And all free to air.

Wasn’t that one of the first races that vettel lost it under pressure?

That race was amazing, and Button was almost always exceptional in changing wet conditions, but to be fair to the original comment his championship year wasn’t anything like as memorable.

Cant believe it was 25 years ago. I can still remember that day like it was yesterday.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/48093513

Same – crazy, terrible weekend. And where the F have 25 years gone?

It was unbelievable just how many bad things happened that weekend—many of which, like the runaway wheel in the pits that injured several mechanics, have been overshadowed and forgotten.

I still wince whenever I see the marshals tipping Barrichello’s Jordan upright with no regard for potential injuries.

Can’t imagine how hollow the entire paddock must have felt when it was finally time to pack up and go home.

1994 was just a bad year all round 🙁

i totally forgot the GP was on for the Sunday, and when the interwebby spoiled it on BBC home page, i could not be bothered to chase down the poor C4 highlights show

FIA WEC at Spa this weekend i think – yum yum , you want to see overtaking watch this race!

Not the best race of the season and who at C4 thought it was a good idea to bring eddie jordan back for another season? He really is awful and never says anything relevant to useful

Merc’s domination getting so boring that nobody even bothers to comment anymore?

The first corner was great, the Ferrari tactical decisions looked like a team torn over favouring fingerboy or letting their fast new driver through, and after the safety car it was a great couple of laps.
Being honest I like this season and the rivalry at Mercedes will I think produce some amazing races between the top two.

It’s not just Merc being good, it’s Ferrari not delivering on early season promise and having to factor LeClerc into race strategy rather than just leaving Kimi out to dry, it’s RB only having one car in the game and still evolving with Honda, then everyone else hanging on for the scraps.  So Merc are being flattered at the moment, but they’ve got the momentum.  But Monaco has always been a challenge for Merc, so I’ll be tuning in (to highlights grrrr) to see how it develops.

It was an OK watch yesterday – it’s interesting that the article on the BBC from ‘the secret aerodynamicist’ hinted Ferrari might have backed themselves into a corner with their front wing-design while Mercedes should have more room for development as the season progresses.

Mercedes seem to be pipping Ferrari in almost every area at the moment (apart from perhaps outright engine power).
The body language is definitely changing between Bottas & Hamilton. After Bottas’ win at Baku, they seem less like pals and more like adversaries.

It was great to see Max beat the two Ferrari’s and get on the podium and I quite enjoyed the mid-field racing towards the end of the race as Grosjean started to go backwards.

Poor old Williams were nowhere again – I can’t even recall seeing one of their cars on track and don’t remember them getting a mention.