Formula 1 2024 – WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

They’re really at risk of looking like mugs if this is The Another Season They Threw Away

FTFY.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Formula_One_World_Championship#World_Drivers’_Championship_standings

The chances of Lando and Max finishing 1 – 2 in the remaining races are slim to zero.

Merc can win again if the track suits and I don’t discount Ferrari for a win or two in the remaining races.

Haas’s trucks have been impounded at Zandvoort due to the dispute with Uralkali.

They still think they’ll be at Monza on time.

Just thought you’d like to know

Nine races to go. If Norris wins them all and Verstappen is second then (fastest laps aside) Norris will finish seven points off the WDC. Precisely the number of points they took from him in Hungary. Now they need at least two one-two finishes, and they need them in the right order.

You now have Piastri on-side, so you can ask him to play the team game and finish P2 to Lando for the rest of the year, which is what they need him to do to help Lando catch Max.

And still they’re doing baffling things: why would they ask Norris early in the race who he thinks he’s racing against?

Dont take all of the radio messages literally. Many of them can be code for something agreed pre-race.  It could have easily been “are you cruising with plenty of pace in hand?”.

The chances of Lando and Max finishing 1 – 2 in the remaining races are slim to zero.

Of course. But that’s kind of the trend and then luck can intervene either way (and if Ferrari or Mercedes jump McLaren at occasional races then that only makes McLaren’s job harder): the point is that Hungary opened the door to the WDC by just a crack, and McLaren didn’t seem to get excited by that. They’ll get the constructors’, but it seems they want to wait for 2025 to go for the WDC. I find that odd. But then I’m sitting on a sofa, not running an F1 team.

Ideally Norris/McLaren need bodies between himself and Verstappen to mount a realistic challenge to the WDC. They’ve just surprised themselves at how quickly they’ve developed the car.

And still they’re doing baffling things: why would they ask Norris early in the race who he thinks he’s racing against?

That was after Lando had just done a fast lap. I took it as the engineer asking why he’s pushing at that stage of the race.

Out a DNF or 2 in for Max and the championship is much more achievable as there are 2 Mclarens against 1 Red bull (and Perez).

If Max can not longer drive AWAY from others, he has a history of driving THROUGH others which doesn’t always end well for either side. I guess Lando just need to be sure not to be part of one of Max’s ‘race incidents’.

Credit where it’s due to verstappen too, the car looked real crap, he did well to hang on to second.

There’s a rumour doing the rounds that Verstappen wasn’t pressing on the ‘go’ pedal quite as hard as he could’ve done and let Norris go without much resistance as a sort of ‘hurry up’ to the team to provide him with a faster/better car.

Verstappen wasn’t pressing on the ‘go’ pedal quite as hard as he could’ve done

I did wonder this from a different perspective – no point unnecessarily straining the engine and other components more than you need to. If you’ve got 2nd safe and realistically know that you’ve no chance of catching Norris. But then again, I don’t think Verstappen is mentally able to not go for the win and he would have stayed closer if he could have just incase of a error or problem for Norris.

The lack of resistance to Norris’ overtake on lap18 was startling, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Max give away position so easily like that before.

I don’t think Max is entirely convinced that the team know what they’re doing, especially running two very different spec cars in the same race.

Russel has now admitted he lost some weight and didn’t tell the team so whilst I agree the team should bare some of the responsibility not telling the team your lighter is pretty dumb

I’m doubting that – their physical condition is very closely monitored [by their PT] …. I’d say there’s very little chance the team didn’t know how much he weighed.

, especially running two very different spec cars in the same race.

I missed that. And Checo was closer than he’s been for a while, (fastest in Q1 IIRC?)  Were they different specs at Spa too when he got the front row? He clearly likes a different kind of car to Max

He is quoted as saying it several reliable sources.

Of it get close towards the end of the season  if i was lando i would asking for bumpers to be fitted to protect the car from max

Out a DNF or 2 in for Max and the championship is much more achievable as there are 2 Mclarens against 1 Red bull

I think if Merc get more consistent, some DNFs are more likely, going by past history and Hamilton has little to lose.

Also Honda are on their 5th ICE iirc.

It’ll be interesting to see how desperate Max gets if he keeps conceding points. Especially with Singapore up in a couple of races time.

There’s a rumour doing the rounds that Verstappen wasn’t pressing on the ‘go’ pedal quite as hard as he could’ve done and let Norris go without much resistance as a sort of ‘hurry up’ to the team to provide him with a faster/better car.

wouldnt the team know how hard he was trying from the telemetry?

The lack of resistance to Norris’ overtake on lap18 was startling, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Max give away position so easily like that before.

I was expecting him to make it harder, so perhaps he is trying to  force the team into trying harder. Though I can’t imagine that they aren’t trying their best  already.

Williams have announced that academy driver and F2 racer Franco Colapinto will contest the remainder of the season with the team, replacing Logan Sargeant as Alex Albon’s team mate from the Italian Grand Prix.

Williams have announced that academy driver

To be fair, Williams could have announced that a Police Academy* driver was driving for them and it would have been an improvement.

*The comedy movie from long ago

To be fair, Williams could have announced that a Police Academy* driver was driving for them and it would have been an improvement.

Zed or Tacklebury I reckon.

*The comedy movie from long ago

That I’m currently watching on ITV4+1 🙂

Also Honda are on their 5th ICE iirc.

Yes, the Merc engined teams should all be able to make it to the end without exceeding the limit. Red Bull cannot afford to blow an engine or gearbox.

https://www.f1-fansite.com/2024-f1-season/2024-used-f1-power-unit-elements-gearboxes/

Nice chart, I wonder if Mclaren might run a new engine for Monza? Add pressure to RedBull and keep momentum.

Some of the ICEs which have been swapped out are not necessarily beyond redemption – often just not at peak power so can be but back in to service without taking a penalty if required.

Monza is always interesting with the setup and the potnetial to run a banzai straight-line-0nly minimum downforce setup. I dont think Mclaren will go all in on this, but its Williams who often do. This would be good for the new guy to get a really strong qualifying perfomance, even if the race result is back of the pack (which would be acceptalbe to the team, I think).

Albon with the highest measured trap speed and getting into Q3 would be not unexpected for me.

There’s a lot of people saying that Logan had ability/pace just hadn’t been able to show it. Never saw it myself and I’m glad he’s gone. Franco can’t be any worse.

Every crash he had is money out of the cost capped budget to replace parts. That’s money taken away from potential upgrades and development. There’s also the time aspect of the people who have to make the replacement parts. They could be working on making upgrade parts. Given that they just brought a big update to the last race I’m guessing they don’t have a huge amount of spare upgraded parts sat around for when he smashes it in to a wall in Monza.

It’s also right to bring a rookie from their own development programme in. Even if he doesn’t score any points as long as he keeps it on the track then he’s doing a better job. Giving a seat to Lawson or Schumacher is just giving your potential future rivals chance to practice and improve themselves at your expense.

Absolutely – it gets to the point where he’s potentially holding Albon back too, where he might have had some go-faster bits developed and made by now and that is not on.

Giving a seat to Lawson or Schumacher is just giving your potential future rivals chance to practice and improve themselves at your expense.

Both Toto Wolff and Horner said no to Antonelli and Lawson respectively, Horner because they might want him back ‘quickly’ (!) and Wolff because they have a very carefully laid out development plan for Antonelli inc practice days in the 2022 car etc which they don’t want to have disrupted

LOL!… 🙂

F1 Safety Car crashes in practice run before Italian Grand Prix

Nice that Sargeant got a new job so quickly 😉

Ooof, Antonelli has binned the Merc already

That’s 1-0 to Franco Colapinto then

Antonelli failed at rookie rule number 1 – keep it on the black stuff.

All he needed was top 10 and everyone would have said “yeah, solid start” but seems he was going banzai on his second flying lap and it has bit him.

Interestingly (or not) Alonso almost binned it at the same corner that Antonelli did.

New track surface seems to be very low grip

That’s 1-0 to Franco Colapinto then

Colapinto has the rest of the weekend to build up his speed though.

Surprised to see Kimi take Woody’s car and not Lewis’s though.

“Surprised to see Kimi take Woody’s car and not Lewis’s though.”

I think that had been scheduled some time ago, his next outing will be in Lewis’s car.

Colapinto has the rest of the weekend to build up his speed though.

And also almost binned it at the same corner.

Interestingly (or not) Alonso almost binned

Add Sainz to the list too