The Official Formula 1 Racing Thread

[Rey C.]

Thanks, Ivy. Say, I think it must have been cold in the room when you took that picture. Nice.

I got home late yesterday and as I sat down to start the TiVo recording, NBCSports was on the live channel and the replay was on. So I saw the result first thing. I fast forwarded through the race and I'm kind of glad that I didn't sit through that. That's usually a blasphemous thing for me to even think. But I wasn't in the best mood yesterday anyway, so adding to that with a blah race wouldn't have done me any good. Hamilton didn't seem to have his focus all weekend. I had a feeling he'd screw this one up. And he did. I also hear that the Mercedes team screwed him over again too. Something about leaving him out for an additional lap when they didn't have to, and that guaranteed Rosberg a gap or something? I didn't see that, so :dunno: It doesn't matter. He should have nailed the start and he wouldn't have had to worry about it. He's screwed around and played too much between races, IMO. Hamilton may idolize Senna. But Senna would have knocked Rosberg out by now. He wouldn't have been playing as long as there was work to be done.

 

[Supafly]

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[The Identifier]

Well, I think it's safe to say this will be Kimi's last year in F1. I was only talking about him a few posts ago but he lost control of the car again. Come to think of it, he did the same at Silverstone last year and hit the wall. It's an all too common occurrence.

Hamilton didn't seem to have his focus all weekend. I had a feeling he'd screw this one up. And he did. I also hear that the Mercedes team screwed him over again too. Something about leaving him out for an additional lap when they didn't have to, and that guaranteed Rosberg a gap or something? I didn't see that, so :dunno: It doesn't matter. He should have nailed the start and he wouldn't have had to worry about it. He's screwed around and played too much between races, IMO. Hamilton may idolize Senna. But Senna would have knocked Rosberg out by now. He wouldn't have been playing as long as there was work to be done.

I really don't think Mercedes did anything to affect his prospects of a win. After his poor start, the only way he would get the jump on Nico is if there was a problem with one of the pit stops. As a general rule, whichever Mercedes is first heading into the first corner/end of the first lap - they are going to win the race. Whoever's behind complains about not being able to get anywhere near them, and pushing hard only serves to damage the tyres as they follow the other driver, so they effectively just end up holding position. (**** it, but it's what happens) Hamilton driving over the white line on the pit exit got him a 5-second penalty (time added on to his final race time as opposed to in this pits) which scuppered any slight hope he would have had. He could have ****** Nico and still finished 2nd as he'd have had to build a considerable gap with that time penalty hanging over him.

Lewis is not running away with the championship as anticipated. Indeed, he's lost that air of invincibility about him. He's OK when everything's going his way but when it isn't he doesn't handle it well. You don't want to finish 2nd if you're him but he doesn't half put a sulk on. You may have a point, maybe he has been losing his focus doing all kinds of other stuff between races or has just become a bit complacent.

As for the race as a spectacle, it was quite good compared to Canada! It was more about what was happening behind the Mercedes, but then again - it always is.

 

[dpantski]

Well, I think it's safe to say this will be Kimi's last year in F1. I was only talking about him a few posts ago but he lost control of the car again. Come to think of it, he did the same at Silverstone last year and hit the wall. It's an all too common occurrence.


I really don't think Mercedes did anything to affect his prospects of a win. After his poor start, the only way he would get the jump on Nico is if there was a problem with one of the pit stops. As a general rule, whichever Mercedes is first heading into the first corner/end of the first lap - they are going to win the race. Whoever's behind complains about not being able to get anywhere near them, and pushing hard only serves to damage the tyres as they follow the other driver, so they effectively just end up holding position. (**** it, but it's what happens) Hamilton driving over the white line on the pit exit got him a 5-second penalty (time added on to his final race time as opposed to in this pits) which scuppered any slight hope he would have had. He could have ****** Nico and still finished 2nd as he'd have had to build a considerable gap with that time penalty hanging over him.

Lewis is not running away with the championship as anticipated. Indeed, he's lost that air of invincibility about him. He's OK when everything's going his way but when it isn't he doesn't handle it well. You don't want to finish 2nd if you're him but he doesn't half put a sulk on. You may have a point, maybe he has been losing his focus doing all kinds of other stuff between races or has just become a bit complacent.

As for the race as a spectacle, it was quite good compared to Canada! It was more about what was happening behind the Mercedes, but then again - it always is.

Yeah its not looking good for Kimi but this was a particularly bad weekend for him, qualified extremely poorly (slower than BOTH McLarens) and lost the rear end coming out of turn 2. I'm not entirely sure how he lost control as the car seemed to have come out of the corner ok and he was moving straight or close enough while accelerating. I guess the Ferrari has a very twitchy rear end (at least the way he sets it up).

Full props to Rosberg for winning the race, he was the more comfortable Merc driver all weekend really and had a bad blip in the final qualifying session. But he got the start right (on the dirty side as well to boot) and he was never truly challenged all race. I don't think Hamilton would've ****** him even without the penalty scuppering any real hopes of a win, since he was never able to get within 2-3 seconds after the pitstop. Hamilton really blundered quite badly this weekend and was lucky to get pole. He got the start wrong and made a rookie error crossing the line out of the pits, no one else made that mistake in the race and he was perhaps fortunate that Vettel had his pitstop problem and couldn't be competing for 2nd. I don't think Vettel quite had the pace to be within 5 seconds of Lewis at the end of the race but we'll never know.

I never expected Lewis to run away with the championship, Rosberg is a good driver and isn't going to roll over and let Lewis win every pole position and so on. However if I was a betting man (I'm not!) I'd still wager on Lewis winning the title because I think he's got just a little more talent and will to win than Rosberg. On the other hand he's also prone to make more errors IMO and with Mercedes strategy calls being suspect who knows if they'll lose him another race or two this year.

The race itself was dull up front since the top 4 were static and on passes were made after the first lap (except the bad Ferrari pitstop). Bottas showed he could make up for his poor start with some solid passes but he'll be disappointed that Massa did a better job than him. Hulkenburg needed an upturn in performance and the Le Mans win seemed to give him some confidence as he was back to his old self being best of the rest after the top 3 teams. Verstappen and Maldonado had strong weekends especially the latter who had to battle through the field and managed to avoid hitting someone for once. Redbull were probably somewhat happy with a 10th place considering their pace and Kyvat was hindered all race with damage to his car. McLaren will hopefully get their engine improved sooner rather than later since the Honda bosses were there in person to see how slow the car is.


So if Redbull, Toro Rosso and McLaren all had Mercedes engines where would they be? I think Redbull would be on Williams pace, Toro Rosso would be close to Ferrari and McLaren might be a little ahead of ***** India. Those teams can complain about their lack of horsepower all they want but none of them have produced a car that would win races with the right engine IMO unless they got lucky.

 

[The Identifier]

Verstappen and Maldonado had strong weekends especially the latter who had to battle through the field and managed to avoid hitting someone for once.

Maldonado should know now not to make any sudden movements left or right when DRS is activated having almost lost it on the straight.

I had already learned not to do that from playing the F1 video game

 

[larss]

I think Kimi lost control having a rear stray onto the green stuff slightly. That cooled the tyre and caused the tank slapper under acceleration, picking up poor old Alonso on the way.

It wasn't the most exciting race after that. Lewis just doesn't like that circuit - Nico does. Apparently a ***** issue with the double clutch caused the launch problems which saw him go into the first corner in second (very nearly third). Such tiny margins are victories based on in F1. I still think that Lewis will win the championship again this year but Nico is not going to just let him do it. He was lucky in Monaco but drove a great race in Austria this weekend. I did enjoy seeing Felipe come in 3rd in front of Vettel. It's good to see Williams coming back after years in the F1 wilderness.

Verstappen is impressing me - at 17 he has a lot of talent and has a ex-F1 driver ****** that helps keep a good head on his shoulders. He will make mistakes (as at Monaco) but he is definitely one to watch.

 

[Supafly]

I would be partly happy, yet ANOTHER Qatar sports involvement? I still remember what they did during the Handball WM they hosted:

- Bought together a team of superplayers, build up a infrastructure from nothing except massive money
- Hire the complete fans of one spanish Handball team, flew them in and gave them the fulltime jobn to cheer hard for Qatar's team.
- (To me) Mysteriously, they won the championship!

Here’s who could be teaming up to buy Formula One

It could help the global sport break into the U.S. market.

Stephen Ross, the 75-year-old co-founder of RSE Ventures and the owner of the NFL’s Dolphins, is looking to partner with Qatar to buy Formula One in a deal worth about $8 billion.

The investment would mean CVC Capital Partners, the private equity firm that currently owns the motor racing sport, would sell its 35.5% stake to RSE Ventures and Qatar Sports Investments, according to The Financial Times. At the moment, CVC has declined to comment on any discussions, and the FIA, the sport’s regulator, has yet to receive an application to approve the transaction.


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[Supafly]

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[Supafly]

The results of the survey are out!

Formula 1 2015: Grand Prix Drivers Association releases findings from Global Fan Survey

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[dpantski]

After reading that my first thought is "fans want exactly the same they have always wanted, but in this case have no concrete ideas of how it could be achieved".

People can complain F1 is boring right now if they like, its not something I disagree with, but I would probably have different reasons to them.

1. F1 isn't as exciting when one team is dominant, we've had a single team be a level above the competition since Vettel won his 2nd championship which was in 2011. So its been 5 years since 2 or more teams at the front were really competitive and closely matched.
2. F1 thrives on cars being evenly matched and fighting one another. This year there has been a reasonable amount of good racing but its been towards the tail end of the points positions or outside of those spots.
3. Races are more exciting when the positions are decided by the drivers performance. This year so many races and places have been decided by pitstop mistakes and poor team calls. This year Rosberg and Hamilton have performed much the same as last year but this time there's been no wheel to wheel racing between them. I think Mercedes letting the driver in front come in first every time plays a big part in this (not sure if this was the case last year) since they can usually use the fresh tyres to extend their lead by a second or so.
4. Yes McLaren having both drivers with 25 place grid penalties is stupid. But this is not the fault of the rules which have existed for sometime but the team/engine in question. I haven't yet heard a good alternative punishment for teams who rack up multiple penalties.
5. No wet races so far this year.

Kimi being the most popular driver tells you that fans want to see drivers cut the PR bullshit and say what they think. That popularity almost certainly comes from his comments on team radio rather than his bland interviews with the Ferrari PR officer over his shoulder.

One thing that keeps getting brought up (not in this particular article though) is wanting to see less management from the drivers. Saving tyres and saving fuel does not help the spectacle at all, I do wonder how much time is lost due to fuel saving and how much of a difference in the end result there would be if they filled the cars up enough to that the drivers could push flat out all race. As for tyres I'm not sure what the solution is, currently the softer tyres are great for 2-3 quick laps, then slowly wear down over 10-15 more laps and finally lose significant grip after that. The harder tyres don't seem to really have a period where they produce great grip but their period of wearing down is longer to compensate. What will introducing wider tyres do? The cars should have more grip and post faster lap times, will they pick up punctures more often since there's more surface area?

I don't subscribe to the belief that quieter engines has made F1 cars less exciting, for one thing you can hear the pundits in the pitlane and on the grid now. But on a more serious note, F1 engines were loud to the point of giving you a headache before (I only heard an engine when I visited the Arrows factory many years ago and it was loud enough from 20-30 metres away) and I've never been excited by something just because its loud enough to make conversation impossible.

 

[larss]

I don't subscribe to the belief that quieter engines has made F1 cars less exciting, for one thing you can hear the pundits in the pitlane and on the grid now. But on a more serious note, F1 engines were loud to the point of giving you a headache before (I only heard an engine when I visited the Arrows factory many years ago and it was loud enough from 20-30 metres away) and I've never been excited by something just because its loud enough to make conversation impossible.

I couldn't agree more on the engine noise. I really don't see (or should that be hear) the problem. The engines are still loud just not as loud as the bigger throatier 8 and 12 cylinder engines of old and I don't see that as a bad thing. You can hear other things now, such as the screeching of the tyres.

Opening up to more tyre manufacturers could help with the competition and also open up the selection of tyres to the teams rather than just prime and option that are selected by the tyre company.

A return to refueling seems to be popular but I am not really sure why. All it means is room for more fuckups in the pits. Overtaking on the track is what we want to see not the ubiquitous undercut.

 

[Supafly]

Absolutely. Louder = more attractive? Hell no!

A fatter sound, with more bass and grumble to it, is more appealing, and in times where the actual sound of cars and motors are very changeable to match the taste of the customers, I guess they could change it. Or we just get used to the fact that the days of the gas guzzlers are gone. New days, new sounds.

 

[saschaxx]

..daaammned Hamilton ....loool . :angels::angels:
Not bad babe, .... but it´s not over ( yet ) ...smile

 

[larss]

That was a great race. The Williams both got a fantastic start with the Mercs both getting bogged down with too much wheelspin.

Inspired tyre change from Hamilton at the end - luck or judgement - I guess a bit of both.

 

[saschaxx]

....yep @ larss, that was a hard race ! I´m very lucky to see Hamilton won his home - race , Rosberg is very close behind him + there´s the possibility to change rankings in no time . May the betterone win the championship, I don´t care, who it is ....

 

[Rey C.]

That was a great race. The Williams both got a fantastic start with the Mercs both getting bogged down with too much wheelspin.

Inspired tyre change from Hamilton at the end - luck or judgement - I guess a bit of both.

I agree. In the interview, it sounded like Lewis admitted that his record of picking the right tire at the right time has been suspect, to say the least. But he certainly got it right yesterday. As for the skies opening up at almost exactly the same time that he was getting the intermediates fitted, that was a whooooole bunch of luck. And I have to admit, I really wanted to see Massa take second... at least get a podium. It's been such a long time since Williams was able to compete against the top teams based on strategy though. Mercedes, Ferrari and even Red Bull seem to be the teams that can pull a rabbit out of the hat by using a dynamic strategy, while both Williams and McLaren seem more likely to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory over the past five or six years.

BTW, is anyone taking bets that Ron Dennis goes on a shooting spree before the end of the season? Now, I suspect that he'll use a water ******. But I say it will happen if one more Honda fizzles out.

 

[The Identifier]

May I be the first to say RIP Jules Bianchi. Very sad but sadly inevitable from the moment the incident happened. It's a shame things like this have to happen in order to open people's eyes to things. Why have barriers and tyre walls around the track that are safer than ever if you're going to stick a recovery truck in front of it? F1 had simply been getting away with it for too long. There are several examples of near misses.

Superb race last time out in Britain. Great and extremely refreshing to see the Williams not only get the jump on the Mercedes at the start but stay in front of them. However, once again - not used to be fighting at the front they let themselves down massivley on the strategy. They were so off the pace in the wet thought that it didn't really matter in the end. However, if it had've remained dry - they still would have thrown the chance of a victory away. We still ended up with the same three drivers on the podium but as long as the races are as good as the British Grand Prix then I don't mind.

 

[Supafly]

Here is the starting grid for today's Grand Prix of Hungary, and as usuak, Hamilton is just the hungariest of them all (ba-da ching)

Qualifying
Hungary
Pos. No. Driver Team
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes
3 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull
5 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari
6 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams
7 26 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull
8 19 Felipe Massa Williams
9 33 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso
10 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus
11 27 Nico Hulkenberg ***** India
12 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso
13 11 Sergio Perez ***** India
14 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus
15 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren
16 22 Jenson Button McLaren
17 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber
18 12 Felipe Nasr Sauber
19 98 Roberto Merhi Marussia
20 28 Will Stevens Marussia

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It's live on RTL here in Germany, pre-show from 13:00 hours CET, 14:00 Hours it'***! Can hardly wait. That Hungaroring always makes for some grade-a racing.

 

[The Identifier]

Another great race. Ferrari did a Williams at the start! ...or should I say, Mercedes had another poor start. It was a shame for Kimi though. It never quite seems to work out for him whether it is his fault or not.

No Mercedes drivers on the podium for the first time in forever. It's amazing what taking them out of the picture can do... Kvyat in 2nd (I bet he can't believe his luck), Ricciardo in 3rd (could have even won it in the end), Verstappen in 4th and Alonso in 5th! (Both McLaren's in the points!)

Hamilton had a shocker but he got away with it. Incredible considering it looked like he was going to go into the break behind Rosberg in the Championship but as it transpires he extended his lead despite only finishing 6th.

 

[dpantski]

I'm torn between who had the worst race.

Hamilton had a terrible start and went from 1st to 4th, then he outbraked himself behind Rosberg and went off (not before putting the blame on Rosberg). He then drove reasonably well until the safety car to get himself back into 4th and then got terrible drive off the last corner to give a Red Bull a chance of overtaking him. He then drives right into the side of Ricciardo because his tyres are cold (unlike everyone elses?) and somehow inexplicably he gets to extend his championship lead.

Maldonaldo had 3 penalties during the race, how do you even manage that? I can understand 2 if you're unlucky or your pitlane speed limiter is broken but 3 suggests someone who isn't cut out to be a F1 driver.

Well done by Ferrari and Red Bull though, their competitors made plenty of mistakes but that shouldn't detract from the fact that they did everything right in the race and Ferrari probably would have finished ahead of at least 1 Merc even in a more normal race.