The F1 thread

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

TimmyO said:

Alonso demoted (presumably for brake testing Russell and causing the crash )

Didn't hit the brakes but lifted off 100m earlier than on any other lap the whole race apparently. Real dickhead move if true...

Wonder if Ferrari are wondering if they've backed the wrong horse - Carlos is looking  as strong if not stronger than Leclerc at the moment! 

DesVegas

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

TimmyO said:

Alonso demoted (presumably for brake testing Russell and causing the crash )

Didn't hit the brakes but lifted off 100m earlier than on any other lap the whole race apparently. Real dickhead move if true...

Wonder if Ferrari are wondering if they've backed the wrong horse - Carlos is looking  as strong if not stronger than Leclerc at the moment! 

Ferrari will be thinking they have two great horses rather than the wrong one

RiftAmps

Thoroughly enjoyed Guenther’s interviews at the end of the race. Certainly wasn’t on my bingo card for the weekend.

RiftAmps

Cols

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

TimmyO said:

Alonso demoted (presumably for brake testing Russell and causing the crash )

Didn't hit the brakes but lifted off 100m earlier than on any other lap the whole race apparently. Real dickhead move if true...

Wonder if Ferrari are wondering if they've backed the wrong horse - Carlos is looking  as strong if not stronger than Leclerc at the moment! 

That’s really disappointing.  I always had Alonso as a driver who, other faults aside, was very clean in racing.  But this one’s a slam dunk; lifted off early, downshifted, then upshifted and accelerated to the corner.

Alonso does have a tendency to be unpredictable in defence by altering his line each lap.  This was a step too far though.

Hamilton looks like he’s played a blinder by cashing in with a lucrative Ferrari contract just before going into snooze mode on the racetrack.  And Sainz is making sure he’s on every team’s shopping list for next year - absolutely stellar weekend.

Penn

Best race for ages.  

TimmyO

Odd - normally I'm the one making apologies for what other folk call a boring race but I found that one quite tedious - very few tyre offsets that resulted in jeopardy for anyone - few chase-downs - I'll take a race with Max galloping away to a dull win but that has action behind any time 

stickyfiddle

Yeah I thought it was overall quite dull tbh. Apart from Max and George there was very little real action

stickyfiddle

In WEC news, Seb Vettel did some chunky mileage in the Porsche 963 hypercar a couple of days ago.

I'd love to see him at Le Mans. Here's hoping!

https://www.racefans.net/2024/03/26/vettel-completes-porsche-hypercar-test-at-aragon/

skullfunkerry

Cols

Well, FP2 was an unrepresentative washout and few surprises in FP1 (apart from Stroll being almost 2s slower than Alonso).

stickyfiddle

Cols said:

Well, FP2 was an unrepresentative washout and few surprises in FP1 (apart from Stroll being almost 2s slower than Alonso).

Stroll presumably spent half the session trying to work out how to brake 100m and end up faster through the next corner... 

boogieman

Hope the race throws up some surprises again. Alonso, the McLarens and Mercs looked to have some decent pace in the qualies.  

Cols

stickyfiddle said:

Cols said:

Well, FP2 was an unrepresentative washout and few surprises in FP1 (apart from Stroll being almost 2s slower than Alonso).

Stroll presumably spent half the session trying to work out how to brake 100m and end up faster through the next corner... 

Well, he closed the gap to Fernando impressively overnight, to a mere 0.8s deficit by the time Q1 was done.

Stellar effort by Perez to make Verstappen work a bit for the pole slot.  For tomorrow, I’m hoping for rain and the two Red Bulls to take each other off on lap one.

bobblehat

This season is shaping up to be just as tedious as last year    Not sure how many more DRS overtakes I can watch.

sinbaadi

bobblehat said:

This season is shaping up to be just as tedious as last year    Not sure how many more DRS overtakes I can watch.

It's not great when essentially a driver thinks either: 
A.  I'm faster, but not fast enough to pass, so I'll stay back a bit further to look after my tyres. 

B:  I'm fast enough to pass, so I'll wait for the DRS zone and use all of my energy and DRS so that I'm past before the next corner, and then drive away with my significant advantage.

Later in the race that can change, or if it's strategically important to get past, but the cars can follow more closely (albeit not that much more closely) and yet the DRS zones and efficacy have not been changed much anywhere. 

Removing a zone completely just puts all the passing opportunity at the one remaining.

danishbacon

https://www.planetf1.com/features/japanese-grand-prix-2024-conclusions

dazzajl

I love Suzuka, it’s an incredible track and a fabulous place for F1 cars to show off. I’m not going to pay for races this season, so it’s all about the C4 highlights. 

Except I caught the results on the news accidentally and rather than being disappointed, I was actually relieved i didn’t need to watch it. That kinda sums up this this year for me

rlw

I am so glad I recorded this race and watched it at a civilised hour.  Wasting three hours sleep would have been a big mistake.

RiftAmps

Obviously, I'm loving the RB/Max dominance again this year BUT I have to admit I'm more excited by the Ferrari vs McLaren fight over anything else. Nail it down further? Sure...it's the Sainz vs Norris battle that's really got my attention. I'm a big fan of both drivers so watching them duke it out is brilliant.