The F1 thread

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

menamestom said:

Boromedic said:

Not watched it but looked on the Beeb, get in Charles, great lap from Lando who I think is a better driver than Russell. Fingers crossed for a Ferrari double world title this season. 

Yes but to be fair to Russell he’s pushing Hamilton hard.  Perhaps a gap will appear as the car settles down but at the moment it’s not clear on the track who has the 7 world championships.  

I wonder if one of the reasons George is so close to Lewis so far is that George has spent his whole F1 career (barring that 1 race in Imola) having to adapt and get the most out of a dog of a car. Hamilton has been blessed for the past several years with absolute rocketship that looks as though it's cornered on rails. It's perhaps a bit of a culture shock for Lewis, having to wrestle with a car so much?

Boromedic

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

menamestom said:

Boromedic said:

Not watched it but looked on the Beeb, get in Charles, great lap from Lando who I think is a better driver than Russell. Fingers crossed for a Ferrari double world title this season. 

Yes but to be fair to Russell he’s pushing Hamilton hard.  Perhaps a gap will appear as the car settles down but at the moment it’s not clear on the track who has the 7 world championships.  

I wonder if one of the reasons George is so close to Lewis so far is that George has spent his whole F1 career (barring that 1 race in Imola) having to adapt and get the most out of a dog of a car. Hamilton has been blessed for the past several years with absolute rocketship that looks as though it's cornered on rails. It's perhaps a bit of a culture shock for Lewis, having to wrestle with a car so much?

That's definitely a possibility, although the 2019 Mercedes was a diva as well, not as big a one as a shitty Williams like!

stickyfiddle

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

menamestom said:

Boromedic said:

Not watched it but looked on the Beeb, get in Charles, great lap from Lando who I think is a better driver than Russell. Fingers crossed for a Ferrari double world title this season. 

Yes but to be fair to Russell he’s pushing Hamilton hard.  Perhaps a gap will appear as the car settles down but at the moment it’s not clear on the track who has the 7 world championships.  

I wonder if one of the reasons George is so close to Lewis so far is that George has spent his whole F1 career (barring that 1 race in Imola) having to adapt and get the most out of a dog of a car. Hamilton has been blessed for the past several years with absolute rocketship that looks as though it's cornered on rails. It's perhaps a bit of a culture shock for Lewis, having to wrestle with a car so much?

#blessed  

But yes, that's a fair theory. George has been well used to hustling his entire time in F1 so far. I don't think Lewis is doing any worse than he is, but comparatively Russel is still driving a better car than last year's (and one on another level compared to 2020), while Lewis clearly isn't. 

stickyfiddle

skullfunkerry said:

stickyfiddle said:

TimmyO said:

stickyfiddle said:

Good to see Merc nudging up the grid, but you have to think Alonso and Sainz would’ve both been ahead if not for Alonso’s crash. 

Surely Stroll is on for a penalty after his incident with Latifi - yet again he manages to stumble into someone while on a slow lap. 

Any news of possible penalties for Perez and Max for their respective yellow flag shenanigans and impeding Ham?

Re Strol I dunno - a car pulls over to let you pass then goes to whizz by - an unlucky one 

Yeah, maybe. But he has a history of similar not-looking-in-mirrors crashes 

https://streamable.com/6c5soi

To be fair some of them really aren't his fault. He reminds me of a friend of mine though who has fairly regular car accidents: they're never his fault as such, but he doesn't seem to have the awareness of what's going on around him to stay out of trouble.

Yeah I agree. Everyone knows someone like that. We knew a colleague who moved out here from Germany and his wife has something like 8 accidents in a year. Never technically her fault, but I'm 100% sure they could have been avoided if she'd had more nous. Conversely, I've been driving here 8.5 years and never had a single one because I'm super alert and defensive. 

Admittedly driving in the Middle East is an art form at times, but there is a definite divide between folks who never have trouble and those who have regular bumps.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Dear me, what an absolute shocker for Sainz! I was hoping to see him fighting his way back up toward the pointy end and winning me some points for my Fantasy Team! 

Cracking start for Lewis!

stickyfiddle

Yeah, gutted for Sainz. 

Haas both going forward which is good. And the Astons looking like utter garbage this year

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Wow, two shockers in three races for Max/Red Bull!

Working out nicely for Russell. Not so good for Alonso - he should be up in P5 with some better luck.

stickyfiddle

Russell will be P2 in the standings!!! And presumably Leclerc will be about 50 points ahead of him. 

TimmyO

Could Horner sound any less happy that his least-favourite stepchild did well? 

TimmyO

Lando had a stinker of a start but they are looking like the solid 4th team now 

musicegbdf

Way to go Mclaren . Great to see other teams up there.
Mercedes leading constructors how weird. Just shows finishing brings results. 
3 brits in top 5 , yeah.

stickyfiddle

TimmyO said:

Could Horner sound any less happy that his least-favourite stepchild did well? 

He's also lost his ability to throw the engine partner under the bus - he can't function without someone to blame. It's not the first time Newey has built a quick but fragile car

Charles was peerless today - proper Grand Slam with pole, win, fastest lap and every lap led. 

TimmyO

stickyfiddle said:

TimmyO said:

Could Horner sound any less happy that his least-favourite stepchild did well? 

He's also lost his ability to throw the engine partner under the bus - he can't function without someone to blame. It's not the first time Newey has built a quick but fragile car

. 

Yes so he resorts to “Ferrari were untouchable” rather than say we were not good enough 

Boromedic

Not seen the race, just watching quali. The Red Bull is planted, more than the other cars but clearly doesn't have the raw pace. The Ferrari is rapid and interestingly not a stable as the RB, but must have speed to burn as they can't get near it, despite it having serious high frequency porpoising that's nearly as bad as Mercedes. If Ferrari eliminate that they'll walk this season (I hope they do), Mercedes are right to say that their issues aren't just porpoising having seen the Ferrari pretty much doing the same and yet still fast. 

Mercs porpoising seems more low frequency than the Ferrari, the car seems unstable through the corners too. Lots of work to do, I've seen the result today so race pace is still best of the rest which is good for Merc. Can't see them recovering this, Lewis's record of a win in every season could be on the line. 

musicegbdf

Still some questions about Ferrari having the advantage of fuel testing.. 

Boromedic

musicegbdf said:

Still some questions about Ferrari having the advantage of fuel testing.. 

Links? Ta

chillidoggy

Not watched the race, but after turning the 'box on this morning only to see the race results in front of me, I won't bother now.

Bollox. Big hairy bollox.

Boromedic

Hate it when that happens, trying to avoid the result is a nightmare sometimes 

chillidoggy

Boromedic said:

Hate it when that happens, trying to avoid the result is a nightmare sometimes 

To be fair it's my own stupid fault. The wife called me a twat. Not that that is unusual, just it's for a different reason this time.

And congrats to Leclerc.

markr76

Boromedic said:

Not seen the race, just watching quali. The Red Bull is planted, more than the other cars but clearly doesn't have the raw pace. The Ferrari is rapid and interestingly not a stable as the RB, but must have speed to burn as they can't get near it, despite it having serious high frequency porpoising that's nearly as bad as Mercedes. If Ferrari eliminate that they'll walk this season (I hope they do), Mercedes are right to say that their issues aren't just porpoising having seen the Ferrari pretty much doing the same and yet still fast. 

Mercs porpoising seems more low frequency than the Ferrari, the car seems unstable through the corners too. Lots of work to do, I've seen the result today so race pace is still best of the rest which is good for Merc. Can't see them recovering this, Lewis's record of a win in every season could be on the line. 

One of the big problems that the Redbull has, the same as we have (amongst other problems) is the cars are over the weight limit by a good amount in F1 terms. The Ferrari is pretty close to the weight limit. Maybe a couple of kg over. But that can be worth 0.4-0.5 sec in lap time. 

So one way to look at it is Ferrari can’t gain much advantage here whereas Redbull can gain by putting the car on a diet. The same as us. But from the other point of view, Ferrari don’t have to waste too many resources lightening the car, they can just concentrate on improving what they already have.

There might come a time when Ferrari do need to worry about the bouncing, even though this doesn’t seem to bother them at the minute. But this isn’t a normal season. There’s so much potential for upgrades this year with the new regs. It might only take 1 decent upgrade from any of the teams and it puts them ahead.