It's like they're still using the strategies they've used the last 5 years when they ran mid-pack ... It's like they've forgotten how to run a proper strategy from the front.
-tg
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It's like they're still using the strategies they've used the last 5 years when they ran mid-pack ... It's like they've forgotten how to run a proper strategy from the front.
-tg
Vettel retiring - I wasn't overly surprised.
Alonso announcing he's taking over Vettel's seat - Very surprising to me. Certainly not a step up performance wise currently. That said, I really hope he does well there.
I think these drivers are at potential risk of losing their current seats at the end of this year (note that I'm not taking into account any of their potential contract statuses that may "guarantee" their seat in 2023):
Daniel Ricciardo
Yuki Tsunoda
Nicholas Latifi
I don't expect any seat changes at Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, Haas*, or Alfa Romeo.
*Unless some higher tier team lures Mick away from Haas.
That surprises me. He's better than last year but I haven't seen anything special. Mags has out preformed him.Quote:
*Unless some higher tier team lures Mick away from Haas.
Stroll hasn't kept Vettel, but then again, his dad has lots of money. lol
I agree it's time to let Ricciardo go. That is, if there's a better prospect. I don't follow any other European base racing so I have no idea who the new up and comers are.
Right, but as long as he's a competent driver, which he's demonstrated he is, he's essentially destined for a higher level team because of his name alone. There's no way he spends a couple more years at Haas and then just falls out of F1. I don't expect him to be elsewhere next year, but wouldn't rule it out.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
Meanwhile, in other news, Hamilton is now part of the new ownership of the Broncos. ... Hmm... I mean that's OK, I'm a Broncos fan, not a fan of Hamilton, don't hate him, just don't like him... anyways... the new playbook now includes: "Tyre Deg", "Box-box, Box-box", "Ok Hamilton, we'll look into that" and "Green flag".
-tg
Alpine: Piastri will be driving for us in 2023.
Piastri: NOPE
2 days into the summer break and things are already off the rails for next year. As long as Max is still with Red Bull and George is still with Mercedes next year, I'll be happy. Beyond that, it seems like there might be significant seat swapping in the works.
Meanwhile...
McLaren: We've signed Alex Palou...
Chip Ganassi Racing: We just invoked Palou's contract extension...
Palou: I think I'll look good in Orange Papaya...
CGR: We'll see all y'all in court.
So it seems the silly season has started early and is starting to cross racing leagues...
-tg
Yeah, interesting that McLaren is the "poacher" in both of these cases.Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
When they last-minute pitted LeClerc trying to get the fastest lap and he lost a position right out of the pits...I mean, you do that move when you have a comfortable enough lead where even a hiccup in the pits doesn't lose you a spot. Then, when he doesn't get the fastest lap after all, AND gets penalized for speeding in the pit lane and therefore losing a position...I was laughing pretty hard at the absurdity. Those last two laps sum up Ferrari this year. And yet, they still publicly deny that they've made strategic mistakes this year.
And I guess whiny "woe-is-me" Lewis is what we get when he's not winning. Almost broke his back, he says, but walks away and refuses medical attention. Anyone want to bet that he fakes a hate crime against himself within the next two years? :rolleyes:
Alonso's instant line about Lewis only knowing how to drive when out front was harsh, but he's certainly got enough experience racing against Lewis to say that.
I hope Perez has accepted he's not at the same level as Max. I know earlier in the season he was bristling at team orders to let Max by, but his continued qualifying pace disparity and his spin out at the end of today's qualifying demonstrate that he's second fiddle to Max, albeit a good second fiddle, which pretty much any other driver would be as well in his seat.
I'm hoping to see Russell on the podium tomorrow. Maybe Lewis can make it to lap 2 this race.
Yeah, everyone is second fiddle to Max. Though it's hard to say for sure, in F1 there seems to be a wide performance range between cars. The car can make a good driver look great or the opposite. But I think Max is the real deal.
It would make F1 a lot more interesting if the cars were equal. 2 or 3 seconds a lap difference is to much.
Happy for Max and George. Alpha Tauri/Tsunoda need to be penalized heavily for whatever nonsense happened with his stop on track, restart seatbeltless, pit, and then stop on track again. I can't imagine it was done as a gift to Max to screw up Mercedes strategy, but it was really strange and suspicious.
It sucks for Lewis that their strategy imploded from both the VSC and the safety car later.
And, of course, Ferrari doing Ferrari things. Tire carrier missing, unsafe pit release. If they lose out to Mercedes in the constructor's championship, then they need significant changes in team leadership.
Hard to believe that a tire not being ready could even happen. Only other time I can remember was Riccardo in Monaco.
Maybe they need more pit crew members. lol
It's a shame that a year that started out looking like it would be an exciting championship battle has turned into a snooze fest. Probably real fun for the Max fans. lol
I got nothing against Max but these races would be a lot more fun to watch without him. lol
That's why lately I've taken to just recording the race, watch it later, and skip 75% of the race... unless I see a yellow come out... then I'll back it up and start watching it to see what's going on. At that rate it only took me a little over an hour to watch the Mona race. And then there was the yellow flag finish - yawn. Looking to next weekend though. I've enjoyed the races at Singapore in the past.
-tg
Gonna have to wait around 3 weeks for Singapore.Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
I always record the race. They usually start @ 5 or 6 am my time. I don't like any sport enough to watch it that time of day. lol
I'm admittedly a Max fan. If it was known it was going to be a runaway season, of course I would want it to be Max in the lead, but I would much, much prefer a season like last year.
Now, I'm rooting for Russell to get 2nd in the driver's championship, and Mercedes to to get 2nd in the constructor's championship, so that at least provides something to closely follow as Max/Red Bull close in on locking up their respective championships with several races to go.
I hope Mick has a seat next year, but it is looking more and more like that may not be in the cards. Latifi's seat needs to be given to someone else, maybe he ends up there.
What's up at HAAS?Quote:
I hope Mick has a seat next year, but it is looking more and more like that may not be in the cards. Latifi's seat needs to be given to someone else, maybe he ends up there.
I wish I knew ... the last two years they kept saying "just wait, we're pouring our development into the new cars for 22, be patient" ... annnnnnd... here we are ... not much has changed.
-tg
Rumors are:
Pierre Gasly -> Alpine
Nick De Vries -> Alpha Tauri
Latifi -> Gone
Mick Schumacher -> Williams
I believe that means that there would still be an open seat at Haas, and that doesn't take into consideration Yuki Tsunoda seeming to be on thin ice at Alpha Tauri.
Is Mick leaving HAAS by choice or is HAAS releasing him? Because Williams isn't really an upgrade.
It was announced several weeks ago he was no longer a Ferrari Academy driver. Someone from Haas, probably Gunther Steiner, recently said his results have been way too inconsistent. So, it seems like Haas is likely to release him. And yes, I agree that from Haas to Williams seems like basically a horizontal move performance wise. But a seat is a seat.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
I'm curious if Daniel Ricciardo ends up driving next year. I can't see him in a Haas seat, I would imagine Ferrari would rather promote someone new up into any potentially open Haas seat. He seems unmotivated to me, so him not taking up a seat is probably a good thing for F1 as a whole when there is other talent out there.
I agree, Ricciardo's performance has been poor. Time to give someone else a chance.Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
HAAS was looking pretty good at the beginning of the year but lately it seems most teams are improving and moving pass them. I don't know what being a Ferrari Academy driver has to do with HAAS, I basically just watch the races. We don't get much F1 press around here. Plenty of NASCAR news. lol
Haas is what I believe is called a "Ferrari customer" team. They use Ferrari engines. I believe their agreement with Ferrari is that one of the Haas seats will be available each year for a driver that is part of the "Ferrari Academy", which is basically a pipeline of drivers that come up through the lower tier Formula 4, 3, and 2 series and drive for Ferrari affiliated teams.
And the Nascar race tonight has been wild and crazy. I don't believe for a second that all these tire failures are just because of aggressive setups. I think the tires this year are flawed.
Just posting this here for any Nascar fans. Holy crap, they need to figure out why tires are failing constantly. This is getting embarrassing. It is totally ruining the playoffs at this point. A huge black eye for Nascar, worse than that race years ago where they had to throw phony "preemptive" yellow flags at Indianapolis every 12 laps because tires were blowing out like crazy then as well.
I remember that Indy race. Track was like sandpaper.
It may not be all the fault of the tire. Reddick's tires ran 0ver 60 laps, on the winning car. This new car has everyone guessing on how to setup the car and what air pressures they can run. NASCAR has never ran a low profile tire before this year. NASCAR will figure out whether it's the tire, camber, air pressure....
I think it's been a great year, but if I was a car owner I don't think I'd be to happy. But the races have been fun to watch.
Right, it could be setup related, in which case it falls (at least partly) on the team and not completely on Goodyear. But I get the impression that teams really don't understand why it keeps happening, so who knows.
Wild race today. 1st through 3rd was a procession, behind that was 2 hours of chaos.
Was a good race. I was surprised that even when they went to slicks and Leclerc had DRS he still really never came close to being able to make a pass.
The race I really enjoyed was the Talladega race. But those super speedway races are always entertaining. From lap 1 to the checkers is constant action.
I stayed up late for all that? Fell asleep with about 20 minutes to go in the race, then learned that all the talk about point distribution tiers was wrong, because the new partial points distribution rules only affect a race that is red flagged and never restarted.
Apparently, as the new rules are written, if a race starts for 1 minute, is then red flagged for, say, 2 hours and 49 minutes, and then restarted for a final 10 minutes of racing, that still counts as a full points race. I highly doubt that was the intention of the new rules.
And the whole "recovery vehicle on the track that Gasly drove by under red flag" controversy is like as close to 100% blame on Gasly as possible. The safety car was already out for a time, then the red flag comes out, he's flying down the course, approaching the area of the Sainz crash, in wet conditions. I would imagine that if you were to examine the timing of past incidents of a crash -> safety car deployed -> recovery vehicles on track, there is no way this incident was indicative of the recovery vehicle jumping the gun as far as entering the track "early".
I hate that this was the race that Max clinched the title. At least there still is a tight race for the rest of the top 6 driver positions.
I agree, it was completely Gasly that caused the unsafe situation. You got double yellows, then a red flag and it was pouring rain. He was going way to fast.
I guess the announcers had to find something to talk about during the delay.
It was quite disappointing that, for the hugely hyped USA Grand Prix weekend, considering that F1 is gaining popularity in the USA in a big way, only FP1 was available to watch on "traditional" ESPN cable channels, while FP2, FP3, and Qualifying were all only available on the "fringe" pay-for ESPN channels. Very, very disappointing. I get that College Football is more popular than F1, but still. Very, very disappointing.
I was rooting for Lewis to hang on and get his likely only win this season, but Max with the comeback was fun to watch also. Alonso's crash was really scary, a lot of drivers were lucky to avoid the chaos there.
I know Red Bull has a really good car but Max is just dominating. I know Lewis dominated for several years but the Mercedes was a far superior car. The Ferrari performance is very close to Red Bull but Max is in a league of his own right now. That's great for Max but I'd like to see someone else win once in a while. lol
I certainly made the right choice to focus on the Nascar race and just check in with F1 during commercials. Ross Chastain's last lap move will live in infamy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3hBPzmre2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOY9p5gFa5Q
I dare say that this is Nascar's equivalent to the "The band is out on the field!" Cal-Stanford play almost 40 years ago.
It was incredible. I've never seen anything like that before. It almost didn't look real. Think Hamlin was a little stunned.Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
Mick Schumacher finishing dead last in qualifying while Kevin Magnussen gets the pole has certainly destroyed any tiny lingering chance Mick may have had for retaining his seat next year. Assuming Nico Hulkenberg gets Mick's seat, Haas should hopefully do well in the midpack battle next year.
Yeah, I was surprised when I turned on the qualifying sprint and Mag was on pole. How did that happen? Was weather involved? He wasn't competitive with the top three teams during the race.
Prior to qualifying, it had been raining a bit. I believe teams had been using the intermediate tires for the first part of qualifying Q1, but then they started to change to slicks late in Q1 I believe. But then it started to rain a bit again towards the end of Q2, and it was up in the air if everyone would be starting Q3 on intermediate tires or slicks.
KMag was first in line to go out in Q3, and the weather was getting a bit worse. 9 of the drivers were still on slicks, and LeClerc was on inters (and none too pleased about being the only one on inters). Everyone got a chance to get 1 qualifying lap in, KMag nailed his lap, the other drivers seemed a bit tentative or had brief moments of traction loss because of the conditions. Then, Russell came in way too hot to a turn, went off straight and got stuck in the gravel. Red flag to get him out, and by the time it went back green, the track was way too wet for slicks, and since the intermediate tires are like 8+ seconds a lap slower than slicks, no one could possibly get a better time than any that had already been set, so no one even tried, and the last 6 minutes or so was empty track and loud Haas fans in the crowd cheering on KMag.
I was thrilled that George got his first win, and that Lewis got 2nd.
The late VSC->Safety Car definitely caused some shuffling in the positions behind that because of varying tire ages/compounds/strategies.
Max gets the B* of the day award by a longshot. Him not giving the place back to Perez on the last lap was a giant dick move, regardless of whatever "reasons" he's apparently given the team in the past about not asking him to swap positions with Perez. Everything Max can achieve has been locked up, the only remaining award from Red Bull's standpoint is the 2nd place driver, and Max absolutely owes it to the team to give that position back to Perez to help him with the battle for 2nd with LeClerc. Very disappointed.
I believe Perez and LeClerc go into next week tied in points. And Mercedes are still within striking distance of overtaking Ferarri for 2nd in the constructor's championship. That should make things interesting. Max can get booted on lap 1 next week for all care.
I am so dissapointed about Max, her sure did forget that he once call Checo "A Legend".Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
very very sad Day for Red Bull
Yeah, selfish move by Max. Hurt his team.
Well, it took Mercedes a little longer than I thought to get a handle on this new car but they are definitely a contender again. Sort of a shame that's there is still just three teams that are contenders and it's the same three teams. But I do like the new car, seems to have improved the racing.
There's a bit of poetic justice that Lewis holding up Perez for a couple laps is probably what kept Perez from passing LeClerc at the end for 2nd place in the driver's championship.
What a great season. Mercedes seem primed for consistently competing for wins and podiums come next year, so having three teams and 6 drivers in the mix up front each race is hopefully in the cards.
Let me be the first to offer congratulations to Max on a 3rd straight driver's title, and Red Bull on back to back Constructor's titles.
Ferrari starting off in 2023 doing 2022 things...
I'm officially rooting for Aston Martin to be 2nd in the constructor's championship this year. The Aston Martin/Ferrari/Mercedes battle for 2/3/4 in the constructor's race should at least be competitive throughout. I don't see any of the other teams being a "close" 5th place.
Yeah, I think the battle this year is going to be fore 2nd & 3rd, possibly 4th with Aston Martin doing pretty good.
But. What the heck was going on with Ocon? A total of 35 seconds in penalties? O.o
-tg
That was a pretty dominant Red Bull showing. Except for the Aston Martin surprise, it looks a lot like last year. Not sure where McLaren fits in, both cars were basically out of it early. Could be pretty boring at the front.
Doesn't look like the HAAS team is improving, I was hopeful after qualifying but that didn't last long.
Meet the new Haas, same as the old Haas.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
Wash, rinse, repeat ad nausium.Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
-tg
WOW, yeah, I thought Sunday's race was incredible. Being old enough to be Alonso's father, I was thrilled to see the old guy on the podium. I couldn't believe the passes he made. I was literally clenching my gut, on the edge of my seat, watching him do that.
And yeah, I've been a Verstappen fan for a few years, and it was good to see him win. But his wins are starting to get as boring as Hamilton's wins in prior years. It looks like Red Bull is just going to run away with it again this year.
It's going to be delightful to see Alonso fight with Ferrari and Mercedes through the year though. And WOW, Alonso is an incredible team player. I've never been a Lance Stroll fan (and still making up my mind about his dad), but Alonso support of Lance has me taking a second look at him. Yeah, maybe he sort of "cheated" (using daddy) to get an F1 seat, but so did Nikki Lauda (for whom I have enormous respect). So, if Lance can step it up, I'll support him.
Also, geez, Aston Martin, the original car of James Bond, it's hard to not support a team with that name. :)
Max and Charles both starting way back in the pack should make for some exciting moments. If Max struggles to make his way to the front, I'll be 100% rooting for Alonso for the win. Hopefully it is a clean race.
Yawn ... I stopped watching around lap 30. MAx was in 2nd at the time. I'm assuming i didn't miss anything and MAx won ...
-tg
No, Max had some mechanical gremlins and basically coasted to 2nd place with Perez getting the win. Alonso was on the podium, then he wasn't because of a crazy post-race assigned penalty, then the penalty was rescinded and he was back on the podium.Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
The Safety Car was absolutely BS. The excuse apparently was that the GPS on the car indicated that it was still out on the track? ***. There's cameras everywhere and stewards everywhere, how about using eyes instead of GPS? It was 99% behind a wall, and in a position where it would be impossible to be hit by another driver in the race without breaking the laws of physics. Clearly there didn't even need to be a VSC let alone a full Safety Car. Two stewards could have pushed it forward from the front wheels without ever being anywhere near danger.
The results probaly would have been the same. The Red Bull cars are so much faster than everyone else. I don't know what was up with Max's car, not sure he was going to catch Perez, but he put in a blistering last lap to get the fastest lap point. He must have harvested as much energy as possible before the last lap.Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
HAAS got a point. Good day. lol
I'm really surprised at the performance of the Aston Martin. It looks like the first race wasn't a fluke.
I couldn't stay awake for the entire Live broadcast and missed a good portion of the second half of the race. I woke up in time to be partially awakt for the Red Flag shenanigans for the last few laps.
ESPN2 replayed the race this morning (in a 2.5 hour broadcast window, with commercials), but for some reason they completely cut out chaotic the 2-lap-to-go restart that resulted in the Alonso spin, and Alpine's crashing.
They basically went from K-Mag's crash->Red Flag->Final lap behind the Safety Car. The dumb thing is they kept in the entire Red Flag coverage earlier in the race, which was like 15 minutes of pointless discussion, and then they cut out arguably the most impactful piece of the race? I don't get it. I was half asleep for all of the live broadcast discussion of how they were going to line up for that final "restart", and for the discussion of the Sainz penalty, and I was hoping to be able to see it again.
Oh well, it was a very crazy race, but for being a crazy race, it was quite boring.
The ending was strange. I don't know how you ignore the positions of the cars when the flag came out. HAAS lost out on several points. Hulk was shown in 4th.
The F1 rules seem more like suggestions. Then the stewards do what they want. lol
OP1 you got to get a DVR. ;)
I paid the $80 bucks this year to get a subscription to the F1 app. I like it. When the race is going on, it's got both the F1-specific and the international feeds, so you can take your choice. Also, you can drop into any driver's overhead car camera (and hear their radio) anytime you want (sort of becoming your own producer). Occasionally, they even forget to turn off the individual car feeds, and you can hear the mechanics talking when they're in the pits (or garage).
Not to be a salesman for it, but I like it. :)
And the Australian race? I've become a Fernando fan so I was thrilled with the way they did it. Hey, it's racing, and stuff happens. And poor ole Stroll got to come in behind Fernando. I'm not totally convinced Lance should be out there, but hey ho ... Aston Martin is looking exciting this year. And who can't root for James Bond's car. :)
It's the regulations ... they sate that if there is an incident where there is a question as to the order of the cars at the time a red flag happens, the last timed setting should be used. Because the red flag was called before the cars crossed the Sector 1 timing line, they went back to the oder of the last know timing... which was the start line from the restart. They also had as part of that regulation to do it as quickly as possible. Otherwise, they could have gone to the video and examined exactly where everyone was at the moment the red flag was thrown. But that would have taken some time. And they were on the verge of approaching the 3hr time limit... HASS then argued that the SC2 line should be used. I think they declined that because not all cars had fully crossed it by the time the flag came out (I could be wrong about that)... It was kind of a messed up situation with no real way to make everyone happy.Quote:
Originally Posted by wes4dbt
-tg
Ernst Blofeld has a digit for you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Elroy