The F1 thread

euan

I wonder if they will stick on the old bendy floor back on for Monaco. It was giving them supreme speed in the slow corners, which is basically all Monaco and they won’t really be going fast enough for the porpoising to be an issue. 

Brio

Aye, not like overtaking is going to be their focus at Monaco. 

menamestom

Hamilton's pace was really the first glimpse of Merc being truly competitive this season.  If they keep progressing and get in the mix it could be an interesting season.  I was hoping Leclerc was going to win to halt Verstappen's resurgence and seemingly inevitable dominance, so it's a pity they had the power unit failure.

Ultimately this was a race about what could have happened rather than what did happen.   On paper, a RB 1/2 looks ominous but it could have panned out differently had Hamilton not been hit and CL not having the engine failure.  Also Monaco next where the RB straight line speed advantage wont be as relevant.  Merc have more upgrades as well, so it's all set up nicely for an interesting next few races. 

markr76

stickyfiddle said:

What @Cols said. Merc understand the porpoising issue and the next couple of races should only see them get quicker as they finesse the setup. I'd happily bet they'll be winning races before the summer break. 

George was particularly fantastic yesterday, but so was Lewis. I'm looking forward to watching both of them go forwards through the rest of the season. 

This 100%. Our goal with this update was purely to fix and get a full understanding of why the car was bouncing. If it turns out to be the right direction we have taken. We can start really knuckling down and add raw pace to the car. Which we should have been doing since the start of the season. 

From what I’ve been told it’s very hard to replicate bouncing in the wind tunnel. Hence why so many teams got caught out. It’s due to a few different factors apparently. 1 the teams aren’t allowed to run their tunnels quick enough to replicate it. 2. The rolling road on tunnels has a slight amount of give in it. No matter how tight you tension the belt. Whereas an actual road is solid and doesn’t move. 

McLaren didn’t have bounce from the start and if you ask them they aren’t sure why. Also redbull fixed/bettered their bouncing with their first update. But from what I’ve been told. There was a good amount of luck involved. Although I’m sure they have a good understanding of it now. 

RiftAmps

markr76 said:

You’re all wasting your time Chris is a Mercedes hater! 

I like you though, Mark

I also hate RB.

Fretwired

boogieman said:

I wonder what Merc will do now George is seemingly the better bet at getting points? Do they still honour Lewis being the number 1 driver? 

As others have said Mercedes don't have a number one driver. Team orders will only come into play later in the season if one driver stands a chance of winning the championship whilst the other is out of contention.

George is probably benefiting from his time with Williams - he became an expert at extracting the maximum performance from an awful car that was difficult to drive. His defending against Max yesterday was a masterclass in how to position your car and how to deploy your battery. I see him as a future world champion - he's an exciting talent. Seeing Max having a meltdown was also entertaining - pushing a button to open his DRS and then closing it again because he wasn't listening to his engineer.

Lewis needs a car that suits his driving style (he's not good at adapting) - you can see he is struggling, but at least yesterday he seemed to switch his car on and he had a great race pace. Quali seems to be a problem for him at the moment. George has the upper hand.

I just want the Ferraris and Mercs to win to wipe the smile off Horner's face and send Verstappen into a mad ranty meltdown.

musicegbdf

Merc pit stops slow. 3.4 vs RB 2.4 . Couldn't see if they had to tweek as highlights didn't show.
For Merc now it must be go for constructors using talent of both and some reliability.

euan

As usual Hamilton set up for race pace over quality pace. If he hadn’t been hit he would have been well ahead of Russell once all the pit stops were done 

https://the-race.com/formula-1/mark-hughes-ferrari-rescued-its-weekend-then-lost-anyway/

TimmyO

Managed to stay off t'internet all day yesterday (was stuck on a train with rubbish wifi yesterday) and watch early this morning - entertaining race! 

Will be interesting to see how quickly Mercedes are able to recover the lost optimisation time now that their porpoising is cured/better understood - but worrying for them on the cooling front surely - another distraction that could slow down improvements elsewhere. 

I liked that in the post race interview, when the interviewer tried to tempt Max into criticising George's defending, Max just waived it off. 

I missed whatever was going on with Ricciardo to give him such a meh race - anything happen to him?

Boromedic

Fretwired said:

boogieman said:

I wonder what Merc will do now George is seemingly the better bet at getting points? Do they still honour Lewis being the number 1 driver? 

As others have said Mercedes don't have a number one driver. Team orders will only come into play later in the season if one driver stands a chance of winning the championship whilst the other is out of contention.

George is probably benefiting from his time with Williams - he became an expert at extracting the maximum performance from an awful car that was difficult to drive. His defending against Max yesterday was a masterclass in how to position your car and how to deploy your battery. I see him as a future world champion - he's an exciting talent. Seeing Max having a meltdown was also entertaining - pushing a button to open his DRS and then closing it again because he wasn't listening to his engineer.

Lewis needs a car that suits his driving style (he's not good at adapting) - you can see he is struggling, but at least yesterday he seemed to switch his car on and he had a great race pace. Quali seems to be a problem for him at the moment. George has the upper hand.

I just want the Ferraris and Mercs to win to wipe the smile off Horner's face and send Verstappen into a mad ranty meltdown.

Agree on some points, disagree on one, Lewis needing a car to suit his driving style, that's more Vettel than Lewis. Hence why he's won in every season despite not having the best car.

chillidoggy

euan said:

As usual Hamilton set up for race pace over quality pace. If he hadn’t been hit he would have been well ahead of Russell once all the pit stops were done 

https://the-race.com/formula-1/mark-hughes-ferrari-rescued-its-weekend-then-lost-anyway/

“If”.

If my auntie had had balls she’d have been my uncle. And if Leclerc’s Ferrari hadn’t carked it, he’d have won the race, and if Perez hadn’t let Max by……………..etc, etc.

stickyfiddle

Boromedic said:

Fretwired said:

 

Agree on some points, disagree on one, Lewis needing a car to suit his driving style, that's more Vettel than Lewis. Hence why he's won in every season despite not having the best car.

Yep. Lewis needs a car he loves driving to win 6 titles in 7 years, but he can get results in almost anything style-wise. I wouldn't put him quite up with Max & Alonso for that but he's streets ahead of a Vettel or Button in that regard. 

Lebarque

RiftAmps said:

markr76 said:

You’re all wasting your time Chris is a Mercedes hater! 

I like you though, Mark

I also hate RB.

I'll be more specific than that. I hate Verstappen and Horner. 

Fretwired

Lebarque said:

I'll be more specific than that. I hate Verstappen and Horner. 

Don't forget Marko ... the way he has treated most of Red Bull's drivers (bar Max) is shocking.

stickyfiddle

I don't hate Horner. He's a knob, you need a comedy villain in F1 and he knows he's it for most folks. You feel like he plays up to it half the time and has fun sticking the boot in. He reminds me of Arnold Rimmer if anything

Marko is a POS though.

RiftAmps

Lebarque said:

RiftAmps said:

markr76 said:

You’re all wasting your time Chris is a Mercedes hater! 

I like you though, Mark

I also hate RB.

I'll be more specific than that. I hate Verstappen and Horner. 

I like:

Verstappen
Checo
George Russell
Lando Norris
Danny Ric

K-Mag

McLaren (Under Zak Brown)

Alex Albon

Ferrari

Alonso

Vettel (post RB)

I hate:

Lewis Hamilton

Toto Wolff

Mercedes

Red Bull

Ocon

I'm indifferent to:

Charles Leclerc

Carlos Sainz

Christian Horner

Any other team

Any other driver

So as you can see, I like that MV won the championship last year, but I would have preferred it if he did so with Ferrari. I like that LH lost the title, and glad that he did so with Merc.

I hate that Merc hasn't given GR the car to fight for the title this year, but simultaneously glad that LH can't fight for it either.

I want a Ferrari driver to win the WDC, but not CL or CS.

I want Danny Ric to win a WDC, but ideally not at the expense of another Vettel/Alonso title, which I believe they deserve.

I want the WDC to be won by the driver that is the fastest, not who just has the fastest car. And I want the WCC to actually mean something to F1 fans, rather than just a cash-for-points scheme for the teams.

It's difficult, being an F1 fan

Lebarque

RiftAmps said:

Lebarque said:

RiftAmps said:

markr76 said:

You’re all wasting your time Chris is a Mercedes hater! 

I like you though, Mark

I also hate RB.

I'll be more specific than that. I hate Verstappen and Horner. 

I like:

Verstappen
Checo
George Russell
Lando Norris
Danny Ric

K-Mag

McLaren (Under Zak Brown)

Alex Albon

Ferrari

Alonso

Vettel (post RB)

I hate:

Lewis Hamilton

Toto Wolff

Mercedes

Red Bull

Ocon

I'm indifferent to:

Charles Leclerc

Carlos Sainz

Christian Horner

Any other team

Any other driver

So as you can see, I like that MV won the championship last year, but I would have preferred it if he did so with Ferrari. I like that LH lost the title, and glad that he did so with Merc.

I hate that Merc hasn't given GR the car to fight for the title this year, but simultaneously glad that LH can't fight for it either.

I want a Ferrari driver to win the WDC, but not CL or CS.

I want Danny Ric to win a WDC, but ideally not at the expense of another Vettel/Alonso title, which I believe they deserve.

I want the WDC to be won by the driver that is the fastest, not who just has the fastest car. And I want the WCC to actually mean something to F1 fans, rather than just a cash-for-points scheme for the teams.

It's difficult, being an F1 fan

Blimey. I wouldn't want to be your Mrs asking you what you want for Christmas, Chris. 

Is this the equivalent of a customer who wants a valve combo which is loud enough for Wembley, but sounds great at bedroom levels, has 4x12 ceramic speakers, but is light as a feather, uses 2x6v6 to produce 200 watts etc. etc? 

Ps. I don't actually mind Toto, although I do refer to him as the dark lord.     

stickyfiddle

I like Toto. I think he'd be a much more interesting guy to have dinner with. Also he reminds me of Rainier Wolfcastle which is excellent. 

Alonso used to be Dick Dastardly but in recent years he's more like a Dolmio puppet

I don't think I have the energy to hate anyone except Marko. I'm not a fan of Max's fans as they tend to be obnoxious wherever they go - I feel more strongly about them than I do about Max himself. 

RiftAmps

Lebarque said:

Blimey. I wouldn't want to be your Mrs asking you what you want for Christmas, Chris. 

Is this the equivalent of a customer who wants a valve combo which is loud enough for Wembley, but sounds great at bedroom levels, has 4x12 ceramic speakers, but is light as a feather, uses 2x6v6 to produce 200 watts etc. etc? 

Ps. I don't actually mind Toto, although I do refer to him as the dark lord.     

This year is actually pretty easy for me, just like last year. I want MV to win the WDC but more importantly, I want to see LH lose it again. If that happens (and Ferrari win the WCC) then I'll be happy.

sinbaadi

RiftAmps said:

Lebarque said:

RiftAmps said:

markr76 said:

You’re all wasting your time Chris is a Mercedes hater! 

I like you though, Mark

I also hate RB.

I'll be more specific than that. I hate Verstappen and Horner. 

I like:

Verstappen
Checo
George Russell
Lando Norris
Danny Ric

K-Mag

McLaren (Under Zak Brown)

Alex Albon

Ferrari

Alonso

Vettel (post RB)

I hate:

Lewis Hamilton

Toto Wolff

Mercedes

Red Bull

Ocon

I'm indifferent to:

Charles Leclerc

Carlos Sainz

Christian Horner

Any other team

Any other driver

So as you can see, I like that MV won the championship last year, but I would have preferred it if he did so with Ferrari. I like that LH lost the title, and glad that he did so with Merc.

I hate that Merc hasn't given GR the car to fight for the title this year, but simultaneously glad that LH can't fight for it either.

I want a Ferrari driver to win the WDC, but not CL or CS.

I want Danny Ric to win a WDC, but ideally not at the expense of another Vettel/Alonso title, which I believe they deserve.

I want the WDC to be won by the driver that is the fastest, not who just has the fastest car. And I want the WCC to actually mean something to F1 fans, rather than just a cash-for-points scheme for the teams.

It's difficult, being an F1 fan

If you want those things, like the WDC to be won by the fastest driver, then I'd say you're a fan of the wrong series entirely.
It does feel like you're a fan of the brands moreso than the racing, though, so perhaps F1 is exactly the sport for you, you're just asking too much!