2019 Formula 1 Season Thread

[Akrapovic]

I 100% support the penalty. He was told on the radio, he drove through a yellow flag, he admitted it, and the other drivers in front of him slowed.

You do not play fast and loose with the safety of people who could be exposed on an open race track.

 

[Glideslope]

If he’d just backed off he’d have been on pole.

So either

• He didn’t see the flag (there was no yellow light on his wheel)
• He didn’t care and thought it didn’t apply to him.
• He could see the crash and figured he’d be able to avoid it without backing off.

None of which are great. Admitting he’d not slowed down didn’t really leave the stewards with any choice.

Precisely. Boxed himself into a corner. Max still needs to work on his self control. He has a great chassis and power plant under him. Take advantage of it.

 

[CWallace]

And Lewis proves once again why he is the best of the best. 50% older tires and still holds off Seb for the win.

 

[Akrapovic]

Ferrari are pretty good at finding new ways to lose a GP. Split the strategy to be safe - get both of them wrong.

 

[CWallace]

Ferrari are pretty good at finding new ways to lose a GP. Split the strategy to be safe - get both of them wrong.

Yeah they probably should have put LeClerc on softs, but they might not have held up. And the scruffy stop did not help. And they kind of had to cover Albon with a two-stop.

Seb I think was just out-classed by Lewis. He did lose some time due to the McLaren-TR scrap, but still with tires 15 laps fresher he should have been able to run Lewis down.

 

[Akrapovic]

Seb was out classed, but Ferraris tyre call was ridiculous. There hasn't been a "cliff" for a good couple of years, and as Brundle pointed out, they stick the hards on every week and are surprised at how good they ever - every single time. Mercedes knew that the tyres would plateau and equal out. Ferrari should've pitted Seb with Lewis. You could also tell that they didn't have a clue what to do - once again, Seb was having to help them make that call from in the car. They were completely unprepared.

With Leclerc, it was just plain wrong. One stop was faster - everyone knew it, and it was talked about pre-race. They pitted the fastest car, from the lead, on a worse strategy. That was nothing but a reaction without thought, rather than coming up with the best plan. And then they made a mess of the pit stop, and Leclerc started over-driving.

Lewis was brilliant, but Ferrari threw this one away.

 

[2984839]

I wonder when Ferrari will stop using an octopus to decide their race strategy.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I wonder when Ferrari will stop using an octopus to decide their race strategy.

I thought it was dice?

 

[nebo1ss]

Both Hamilton and Vettel made very direct and damning comments about Verstapphen driving style and the need to give him extra room to avoid being taken out. I would love to see a response from Christian Horner who has previously claimed that Max is the best driver in F1.

 

[Akrapovic]

Both Hamilton and Vettel made very direct and damning comments about Verstapphen driving style and the need to give him extra room to avoid being taken out. I would love to see a response from Christian Horner who has previously claimed that Max is the best driver in F1.

Well, Horner may (or may not be) right. You could be the best driver in F1, but also be difficult to race against.

Senna used this as a trait. He would try and scare you out of the way. And if you jumped out of his way, then he'd won. He then knew that every time he showed you his nose, you'd get out of his way.

Verstappen is no Senna (yet). But he's already got Lewis and Vettel saying things like, you have to give him extra room. He's probably not doing it on purpose (he doesn't think things through...as we just seen at Mexico). But he's having the same effect.

 

[2984839]

Both Hamilton and Vettel made very direct and damning comments about Verstapphen driving style and the need to give him extra room to avoid being taken out. I would love to see a response from Christian Horner who has previously claimed that Max is the best driver in F1.

I think Max is the best driver, but it's close with Hamilton. I give the edge to Max because Lewis has a tendency to fall apart and just mentally check out if things don't go his way.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I think Max is the best driver, but it's close with Hamilton. I give the edge to Max because Lewis has a tendency to fall apart and just mentally check out if things don't go his way.

I don’t think Hamilton has cracked like that for quite a few years now to be honest. I think he’s developed into a very cool and intelligent racer and have no doubt he’s the best of this generation. Verstappen has some fantastic raw talent, but lacks the maturity yet. Mark Webber once said drivers are very cocky and push the limits (much like we see with Max) until they have ‘that big one’. Webber has his in F3 at Spa pre F1. Drivers like Vettel and Hamilton aren’t intimidated by Max’s often reckless driving style, they are intelligent enough to play the long game and not risk their own races IMO.

 

[Akrapovic]

I give it to Lewis because he has shown the ability to manage situations rather than crack. Mexico was one where he needed to manage it perfectly, and he did.

Max might be faster. And he might pull off more awesome overtakes. But he still does stupid things and costs himself more than he gains.

Vettel is one where he's the best, when the stars align. When the car suits him perfectly (which the V6s do not), he is unstoppable. But his style is very particular, and hard to utilise with the V6s. If F1 went back to V8s and V10s then Vettel would move back to the top of the ranks. He has the potential to be the best, but isn't as adaptable as Max and Lewis.

 

[2984839]

I don’t think Hamilton has cracked like that for quite a few years now to be honest. I think he’s developed into a very cool and intelligent racer and have no doubt he’s the best of this generation. Verstappen has some fantastic raw talent, but lacks the maturity yet. Mark Webber once said drivers are very cocky and push the limits (much like we see with Max) until they have ‘that big one’. Webber has his in F3 at Spa pre F1. Drivers like Vettel and Hamilton aren’t intimidated by Max’s often reckless driving style, they are intelligent enough to play the long game and not risk their own races IMO.

I thought Lewis showed this problem in Austria and Hockenheim this year. Better results were possible, but it seemed like he just wanted to bring the car home and move on.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I thought Lewis showed this problem in Austria and Hockenheim this year. Better results were possible, but it seemed like he just wanted to bring the car home and move on.

He’s fighting for a world championship so bringing the car home to maximise points rather than gambling is where the better drivers are ahead. Hamilton isn’t a 5 time WDC because he cracks under pressure at the vital time. These guys are all human too.

 

[Akrapovic]

I thought Lewis showed this problem in Austria and Hockenheim this year. Better results were possible, but it seemed like he just wanted to bring the car home and move on.

Isn't that not cracking? That's collecting points.

Cracking is Max deciding it was worth fighting Ocon to keep him a lap down, despite Ocon sign-posting that he was going to do something daft.

 

[BenTrovato]

He’s fighting for a world championship so bringing the car home to maximise points rather than gambling is where the better drivers are ahead. Hamilton isn’t a 5 time WDC because he cracks under pressure at the vital time. These guys are all human too.

I agree. Mercedes qualified fourth behind Ferrari and RB so you would think it was critical to gain as many positions as possible at the start but Hamilton did what he could to stay in the race. Even when he was wheel to wheel with Sainz for fourth on lap 1, he calmed down and lived to fight another day. I feel like Max would have hit Carlos in the same battle. Then Hamilton goes on to win the race.

As far as the comments on Max, I really don't think it's as people say that Max is in their head. Max is really good, could be the best one day but the comments aren't about that. These guys are saying they need to give Max more room to draw attention to his recklessness. Hamilton has turned into one of the best at making comments to draw attention somewhere so that if they come together in the future, he's already made it clear that he's given him more room in the past.

I thought it was timely how Brundle in the commentary notices how Max was driving with anger on lap 5 and then he suffers the puncture on lap 6. Sure it wasn't entirely his fault but I feel like Max doesn't manage his emotions well yet from start to finish. He's gotten a lot better but for example in Mexico, if he was cool and collected from the start, he could have won the race despite losing the place to Hamilton in the first few corners.

 

[Glideslope]

Informative Clip:

 

[MOFS]

A couple of news items.

2021 regulations agree
Looks like the FIA got most of their wishes. Should be interesting to see what the cars look like.


McLaren buy Schmidt IndyCar Team
This is actually pretty old, but they’ve been rebranded as Arrow McLaren, though oddly have chosen two rookies. No news yet whether Alonso will do the Indy 500.

 

[Akrapovic]

This is actually pretty old, but they’ve been rebranded as Arrow McLaren, though oddly have chosen two

They're determined to find new and interesting ways to fail.

 

[apolloa]

the FULL briefing of the financial and technical regulations for 2021 including the new car design mock up, sounds interesting and I like their aim for these new rules.

we may actually get back to some proper racing.

 

[apolloa]

Today was yet more proof, I cannot wait till 2021, then we’ll see just how good these drivers ’actually’ are. I want a grid where all runners can attack the front, not the front 4 or 5 leaving a gap of nearly 40 seconds to the rest of the field making it a completely 2 tier race like we’ve had! It’s going to level this field beautifully, great to see if ’anyone’ is caught cheating the financial restrictions then they will have their championship and I presume points taken off them.

And if the drivers didn’t cheat and actually stayed in the track limits, maybe your suspension wouldn’t fail eh??

 

[Akrapovic]

Today was yet more proof, I cannot wait till 2021, then we’ll see just how good these drivers ’actually’ are. I want a grid where all runners can attack the front, not the front 4 or 5 leaving a gap of nearly 40 seconds to the rest of the field making it a completely 2 tier race like we’ve had! It’s going to level this field beautifully, great to see if ’anyone’ is caught cheating the financial restrictions then they will have their championship and I presume points taken off them.

And if the drivers didn’t cheat and actually stayed in the track limits, maybe your suspension wouldn’t fail eh??

Not to be a dick here, but that's unreasonable. Every car is over the bumps on that corner, and only one has failed. Track limits are defined on a per corner (seriously) basis by the race director for each weekend. It is not the drivers to blame. And it certainly isn't Vettels fault that his car broke - he isn't even the worst "offender" for it.

New rules won't close the performance gaps between the cars. Just makes them easier to follow. If you think this is spread out then go back to the 90s without rose tints and read the results. Cars being 2-3 laps down was completely normal.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Congratulations to Lewis on his sixth world title. Sad to have to learn of it through a notification as F1 is no longer on television in my country but hey. Great for motorsport and British sport in general. The second most successful Formula One pilot in history, proud to have followed this guy for many years.

 

[nebo1ss]

Congratulations to Lewis on his sixth world title. Sad to have to learn of it through a notification as F1 is no longer on television in my country but hey. Great for motorsport and British sport in general. The second most successful Formula One pilot in history, proud to have followed this guy for many years.

Congratulations to Lewis and Mercedes. Do you not have access to Now TV. I took a three month subscription to Sky sports on now TV at a special price of £16 per month just to watch the F1 racing.