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After the opening lap Red Flag I didn't even try to stay awake to watch the rest of the race. I caught a few laps here and there, but it seemed like very little was happening overall.
Red Bull continues to look unbeatable. That doesn't seem to be in danger of changing any time soon.
There was more passing than usual because of the various tire strategies. But 1st and 2nd was never in doubt. Nice to see them have to pit more than once.
You got to get a video recorder. lol
I caught the evening replay on ESPN and watched the whole thing. There was more action than I had thought as you said.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
Daniel's best racing days seem pretty far in the rear view mirror. I wonder if he'll keep his seat the whole season at his current form.
Hamilton looked strong in the Sprint race, but then pooched it in qualifying for the real race! I think he's already mentally checked out of his Mercedes seat. Talk of Max going to Mercedes to replace Lewis is insane...why would Max leave the dominant car for arguably the 4th or 5th best car?
Red Bull finishing 1, 3 in the Sprint, and starting 1, 2 in the main event tomorrow. I would imagine the race for the win won't be in doubt, but maybe the fight for the rest of the podium/points positions will be good.
2:00AM race Central Time. I think I'll just catch the highlights.
Yeah I don't see why Max would go anywhere, doesn't make sense.
I try to look forward to the races but it's getting harder. Unless Red Bull make has a major mistake/failure it'll be a RB 1 and 2. Not really sure what to expect from the McLarens, they're hard to read. Mercedes performance really has dropped off, think it was just the wet track that made Lewis look good in the sprint.
People tend to value themselves highly, especially if they are winning. Just from reading this thread, I get the impression that a good driver in an excellent car will always beat a good driver in a mediocre car (barring accident), but does the good driver KNOW that? If not, then they may believe their success will follow wherever they go, in which case money is the key.
I've been babysitting an "about to cease working, but needs to hang on for just a few more days" boiler water circulation pump in the boiler room of the building I live in. By happenstance, the pump started squealing, indicating that it needed to be oiled _again_, at 10 minutes past 2 this morning.
So, once that was done, I settled in and watched the race from lap 3 or so, up until probably around lap 40. The Safety Cars certainly shook things up mid-race. The Max win wasn't really in doubt, but it did add some uncertainty, and the rest of the points positions were shuffling around a bit too, which made it interesting.
What odds would anyone give that Lewis is dumped by Mercedes before the end of the season? 20:1? 100:1? 1000:1? He's obviously very unhappy with the car, and Mercedes has zero incentive to try to appease him any longer.
I'd say Max is an exceptional driver. At the F1 level they're all good drivers. But Max's teammate has basically the same car but consistently finishes 20 seconds behind him. Maybe someone could temp him with money but he's already getting $55 million a year. He chased Hamilton for several years when Mercedes had the dominant car, I think he realizes the value of the car.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
I wish he would change teams, it would make the racing a lot more interesting.
Pffft. How can he live on such a meagre sum?
He gets to drive te company car. That helps save money.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
My take on who the better driver is.
Lewis is old. Max is the better driver now than Lewis, hands down. Max now vs. Lewis 10 years ago, put in the same cars? No idea.
But then consider this. Nico Rosberg beat Lewis for the driver's championship in the second Mercedes. Is there any talk of Nico being the best ever? Look at how many races Bottas won in the second Mercedes. Is there any talk of Bottas being in the list of elite F1 drivers?
How many times has Max been beaten by his teammate in a non-incident race for Max? I would say his dominance vs. team mate record is higher than Hamilton's.
Frankly, I don't think either of them are the best F1 driver ever. Max would have to keep racing for many more years to be in contention. Lewis is clearly the most successful, and Max could eventually be the most successful if he chooses to race long enough.
HA! Good point.:D:lol::lol::lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
Adrian Newey (Chief Technical Officer) is leaving Red Bull.
Christian Horner and Dr. Helmut Marko have also been in the rumormill of leaving Red Bull.
Rumors of Mercedes offering Max $Texas to leave Red Bull and come to their team.
How crazy would it be if in a year or two none of those 4 people are still at Red Bull?
Not gonna lie, I got a little misty eyed for Lando winning his first ever F1 race. He certainly deserved to finally win one. Tough break for Piastri, though, otherwise it would have been an even better day for McLaren.
Even from the start, Max didn't look great. He wasn't pulling away at all like he has been normally doing in the past couple years.
Otherwise, Mercedes looked a tiny bit better than they had been lately, and Aston Martin looked a bit worse.
I feel bad for Logan Sargeant, but I think Williams would be best off getting someone else in that seat to start getting them experience. Logan just can't seem to avoid incidents.
Nice to see someone else win besides Max and it's cool it was a first time winner.
I think the stewards were still upset with Mags from the sprint. But it doesn't seem to be consistently a penalty when there's contact in the corners. Mags front tire was just behind Sargent's front tie and Sargent ran into him. A lot like the Sainz/Piastri collision. These calls seems strange to me, I'm use to NASCAR. lol
Right, haven't posted in this thread in a long time.Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
What you are talking about is the so called T-Car ("Training-Car").
Up until Season 2007 (included) each Team was allowed one spare T-Car additionally to the 2 "regular" Cars.
In case of an accident, the driver could switch cars, provided his starting number to be on the car
From Season 2008, they changed the rules, mainly to stop the "Budget-Explosion" which disadvantaged the smaller teams.
Rumor has it, that Ferrari had a Budget of 500M USD per Year in their M. Schumacher Hey-Days!
From 2008:
Each driver has a total of 5 Engines for the whole season, and a T-Car would circumvent that regulation.
Hence: T-Cars not allowed anymore (officially!)
Despite that, there are still Teams bringing a T-Car as a backup, but usually without Engine!
In case of an accident, they install the next engine (if the original is too damaged) in the T-Car, "graciously" accept the move-back of 10 positions on the Grid (Change of engine during a race-weekend), and off they go.
That said: I think the last race i actually watched on TV was in the days, when M. Schumacher came back to Mercedes.
I think that was before L. Hamilton?
Because, frankly, F1 is not racing anymore.
I still remember the "duels" between M. Schumacher and M. Hakkinen, or MS against Damon Hill (the infamous race in Adelaide? Or was it Melbourne?),
or the infamous races in Belgium (rain and mass-accident after first corner), or the "three-wheeled Ferrari", or the Monaco-Race in the rain with only 6 drivers finishing (I think it was O. Panis who won)
Nowadays, F1 is for me like "The Team with the best car wins" (Exceptions not withstanding of course)
I think the really last "exciting" season was the one with Ross Brawn being the Boss of the precursor what later became Mercedes.
Jenson Button won the Championship i think?
Then you missed 2021. First year Max won the championship. It came down to the last race and a last lap restart with Max and Lewis battling at the front.Quote:
I think the really last "exciting" season was the one with Ross Brawn being the Boss of the precursor what later became Mercedes.
Definitely no excitement about the championship since then. Total domination by Max and Reb Bull.
Qualifying in 12 hours or so. Red Bull looks vulnerable. Quali order is basically the race at Monte Carlo, so it should be interesting. I could see Red Bull starting something like 9th and 11th Sunday.
That would make things more interesting. Especially at this race, the most boring race of the year, no way to pass. But I've seen this before and then Max ends up on pole. Hope your right.Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
Perez P18. Yikes!
Yeah, Perez isn't doing much to impress this year. I don't know what he has left on his contract but he better start picking up the pace or he'll be gone.
Except for lap 1, it was the typical Monaco snooze fest. The announcers tried to find something interesting that might happed but in the end they finished as they started.
It's a shame that here in the US they choose to show this race on a major channel (ABC I think), usually it's on ESPN2. There are much better races they could pick to show.
Indy 500 was great.
F1 Monaco - boring.
Indy 500 - Well worth the wait.
Coke 600 - Ruined by weather.
Overall, for the biggest racing day of the year, it was largely disappointing.
I fell asleep during Monaco... woke up... only to be disappointed it was only lap 37... I checked out again until 5 laps remained.... annnnd... yeah... Qualifying in Monaco is def more exciting than the race itself.
It's the cars... they're too large now for the current course. Either they need to find a way to make the cars smaller so that passing is possible, or... and this is going to be sacrilegious I know but, redesign the course so that it is on larger street that can handle the larger cars... Or just have qualifying and a 10 lap parade... because that's largely what it has become, a parade.
Indy was def worth the wait. It usually is. Glad to see Newgarden win a second in a row. Those last 4 lap with Pato were fun to watch. But man... I feel for Pato... three times in a row coming in second like that... I hope he's able to break what ever curse he's got next year.
I only checked into the 600 just long enough to see if Larsen made it ... not usually a NASCAR watcher.
-tg
a shame Lewis or Lando is not in the other Red Bull:)Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
I'm glad they're not, it would make Reb Bull even more dominating. I think Max is happy just the way it is. But it would be interesting to see Max and Lewis in the same car. I think Max would win.Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisE
I'm surprised Perez was given another 2 year contract with Red Bull. I hope he drives well enough to have earned it. It would suck if Red Bull loses out on the constructor's championship because of an inconsistent Perez.
Yeah that would be some fight, I do hope that next year the Ferrari with Lewis will make the F1 more interesting. kinda sick of these 4 to 5 Years of dominance that some Teams haveQuote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
2 Years? did not know that, must be his dad with some money for Red BullQuote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
Jacques Villeneuve has annoyed me ever since he threw a tantrum about Charles LeClerc wanting to wear a Gilles Villeneuve tribute helmet last year. Now he's talking trash about Danny Ric. No idea why he's part of the broadcast team today*, he adds nothing IMO.
*Yes, I know the track is named for his dad. But until he shoehorned his way back into "racing news" in the last year or so, he hadn't been relevant in the world of racing for a long, long time.
Well, that was certainly an interesting race. Max got incredibly lucky that his punctured tire somehow managed to somewhat adhere back to the wheel instead of tearing apart like Lando's did. That ended up saving 5th place for Max.
I'm happy that George got the win, but I wish Oscar would have been able to overtake him. Nice to see Haas get a solid double points finish.
The rest of the season looks like it should be exciting up front.
Nice to not have Max winning every race by 20 seconds. McLaren seem to have the second best car now and they've closed the gap to Red Bull. Perez just keeps looking mediocre.
Yay, HAAS. lol
Edit: Never mind.
I always use TVRacer.com for race listings. They show it on ESPN2 at 9:55 and later on ESPNEWS at 7pm.
Hmm. My on screen TV guide is now saying that the race is on ESPN2. It still shows that it is also on ESPNU. I swear earlier it showed other programming (Wimbledon?) on Sunday morning on ESPN2...Oh well, lucky me I guess!
I'm quoting myself from about 1 year ago because now there is confirmed chatter about Perez potentially being dropped soon and Daniel taking his seat. His crash in Q1 a few minutes ago isn't helping his cause one bit.Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
https://www.planetf1.com/news/liam-l...-rumours-swirl
I could understand replacing Perez but not with Daniel. Why go from one mediocre driver to another.
Yes, it is a pickle. This current Perez meltdown seems worse than the one he had last year, probably because so many other teams are closer in performance to Red Bull this year than last year.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
They basically have three options, none of which are good:
Daniel - his best years seem far behind him
Tsunoda - he's a competent driver, never done anything overly impressive IMO
Liam Lawson - rookie, very inexperienced
Of those three, Daniel makes the most sense. But the best outcome would be that Sergio gets back to not sucking so they don't have to make the switch.
But I don't think Red Bull can wait that out too much longer, especially not if the Constructor's championship becomes in jeopardy. Right now, Max winning and three other teams sharing the remaining big points positions is allowing Red Bull to "coast" with their current constructor's championship lead. But that can vanish fast.
Part of me wonders if the reason Carlos Sainz is waiting to sign a new contract somewhere else is because of the possibility of Perez losing his seat to Daniel for the rest of this year, and then Sainz being signed on to Red Bull for 2025+. I don't know how likely that is, but I would imagine it is at least a remote possibility. I hope in the end Liam Lawson has a seat somewhere, he seems like he might have some talent.
Great race.
McLaren needs to get a handle on their strategy. They are competing for wins each race now. When you're competing for 5th's, and you pooch a strategy decision and end up 7th, it is not great, but it is a bit of a ho-um. When you are competing for wins, finishing 3rd instead of a win is unacceptable when strategy is the cause.
They had a chance at a 1-2 or 1-3. Their first mistake was not orchestrating a double-stack stop first. Leaving Piastri out cost him almost 20 seconds, since Lando had caught all the way up to Oscar once Oscar pitted the following lap. That ruined Oscar's race.
Then, leaving Lando out the extra lap when everyone went back to slicks was horrific.
Finally, putting Lando out on Softs instead of Mediums was strike three. Oscar had already done 3/4 of a lap on Mediums when Lando pitted, so they should have had the data to know that that was the right tire.
George retiring due to mechanical issues sucked. Red Bull and Ferrari messing up the strategy for Perez and LeClerc was also embarrassing.
Haas with another 6th place finish was cool for them. Races with a little rain need to happen more often.
12 races so far this year. In the last 6 races, Nico Hulkenberg has outscored Sergio Perez, and Sergio Perez has outscored Lance Stroll by 1 point. Let that sink in.
Adios, amigo. G'day, mate.
I'd like to see sprinklers come on in the midfield areas that soak the track for 5 laps. They come on when the leader passes a midfield line, and turn off when the last place car passes it for the 5th time... and if they've been lapped.... <evil grin>Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
-tg
Yeah, rain does spice things up. The NASCAR Chicago race also had rain and it's was a great race. A real guessing game of strategies.
You're not Bernie Ecclestone, are you? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ly-future.html
Any chance Perez had of keeping his seat for the rest of the year is likely gone after that Q1 crash.
You can tell the teams are looking forward to their 1 month summer break soon. Holy crap, tensions are high all over the place. I feel bad for Lando for having to pull over to give Oscar the win, and I feel bad for Oscar for that to be how he got his first win. At some point, the team has to take responsibility for their own strategy decisions, and they can't just put the onus on the driver to "do the right thing". It's a race, for crying out loud.
Yeah, I'm still not sure what was behind that strat...
In other news. holy crap the Indy race in Toronto today...
-tg
Yeah, good thing no one got hurt. That was scary around a blind corner and no one slowing down because they hadn't thrown a yellow in time.Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
There wasn't any need for that Norris situation. There was plenty of time gap to Lewis to pit Oscar first.
That was a bonehead move by Power that cost him lots of points and took out a teammate.
I hope they keep him. There is starting to be a real manufacturers battle. lolQuote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
Ha, that is one way to look at it.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
If you had to assign the percent chances of the top 4 teams (Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes) winning the championship this year, I'm curious how you would rank them? Right now I think I would put it at something like this:
McLaren: 49%
Red Bull: 38%
Mercedes: 10%
Ferarri: 3%
If Red Bull dumps Perez for someone like Liam Lawson for the 2nd half of the season, then I would put it at around 50/50 between McLaren and Red Bull.
The chaos at Red Bull between Newey leaving, papa V vs. Horner, Horner's "impropriety" (which we still don't know what he was accused of doing), and Helmut Marko's earlier fence sitting on if he was going to stick around or not seems to have severely impacted their race weekends of late. Earlier in the season they seemed to be able to compartmentalize it away from race day, but not any more.
I'd still put RB @ 60% and McLaren @ 39%. The others <1%.Quote:
McLaren: 49%
Red Bull: 38%
Mercedes: 10%
Ferarri: 3%
RB still has a large lead and Perez is capable of contributing more. RB is suppose to be coming out with some upgrades and I'm not convinced yet that McLaren will have a dominate car week in and week out. We'll see. I just want a close battle, it helps make the racing more interesting.
Great race, I'm glad George's call to do a 1 stop worked out.
The second half of the season is shaping up to be epic.
I think Max still has enough of a lead in the Driver's championship to comfortably hold on to it, but the Constructor's championship is going to be getting tighter and tighter by all appearances.
Indeed a great and enjoyable race
George might be DQ'd for his post-race car being underweight. That would be criminal.
George DQ'd. Everyone else moves up a spot. What a disaster.
How does that even happen? Don't they weigh the cars before the race before they fuel them?
Thought McLaren had a good chance to get around Max by pitting Lando before Max. Lando had the hard tire that could have went longer.
Tire deg... a second stop would have put fresher tires on, which would have had more weight by the end... It wasn't something they had accounted for.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
-tg
Would that really be 1.5 kilo?
Shrug... maybe... maybe not... they also didn't do a cool down lap so he wouldn't have had a chance to pick up and clag like they normally do.
https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/4...ing-belgian-gp
Re-reading that, I think I may have misinterpreted Wolf's comments at the end of the article. Pretty sure tho the excessive deg played a role... how much of a role?
-tg
Weight requirements should be calculated without any tires on. Shouldn't be punished for extra tire wear, shouldn't be "saved" by post race clag accumulation. Too much room for shenanigans with the tires being part of the weight calculation. Hopefully that will change eventually.