Hamilton 5x World Champion ?

[wes4dbt]

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.

[wes4dbt]

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.

[OptionBase1]

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.

[techgnome]

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

[ChrisE]

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.

a shame Lewis or Lando is not in the other Red Bull

[wes4dbt]

a shame Lewis or Lando is not in the other Red Bull

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.

[OptionBase1]

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.

[ChrisE]

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.

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 have

[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.

2 Years? did not know that, must be his dad with some money for Red Bull

[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.

[OptionBase1]

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.

[wes4dbt]

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

[OptionBase1]

Edit: Never mind.

[wes4dbt]

I always use TVRacer.com for race listings. They show it on ESPN2 at 9:55 and later on ESPNEWS at 7pm.

[OptionBase1]

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!

[OptionBase1]

I'm starting to wonder if Daniel Ricciardo's tenure at Alpha Tauri is going to be a brief couple of races, getting back up to speed in an F1 car, with the intention of replacing Perez at Red Bull next month. It would make a bit of sense, since apparently a different Red Bull Junior driver was expected to take the Alpha Tauri seat after De Vries was let go, so that could still happen yet if the above takes place. With the crash Perez had this morning literally seconds into the first practice, I don't see Red Bull letting this Perez absolute meltdown continue to play out for the rest of the season.

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.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/liam-l...-rumours-swirl

[wes4dbt]

I could understand replacing Perez but not with Daniel. Why go from one mediocre driver to another.

[OptionBase1]

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.

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.

[OptionBase1]

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.

[OptionBase1]

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.

[techgnome]

Races with a little rain need to happen more often.

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>


-tg

[wes4dbt]

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.

[OptionBase1]

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>


-tg

You're not Bernie Ecclestone, are you?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ly-future.html

[OptionBase1]

Any chance Perez had of keeping his seat for the rest of the year is likely gone after that Q1 crash.

[OptionBase1]

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.

[techgnome]

Yeah, I'm still not sure what was behind that strat...


In other news. holy crap the Indy race in Toronto today...


-tg

[OptionBase1]

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.

[wes4dbt]

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.

[wes4dbt]

Any chance Perez had of keeping his seat for the rest of the year is likely gone after that Q1 crash.

I hope they keep him. There is starting to be a real manufacturers battle. lol

[OptionBase1]

I hope they keep him. There is starting to be a real manufacturers battle. lol

Ha, that is one way to look at it.

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.

[wes4dbt]

McLaren: 49%
Red Bull: 38%
Mercedes: 10%
Ferarri: 3%

I'd still put RB @ 60% and McLaren @ 39%. The others <1%.

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.

[OptionBase1]

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.

[Arnoutdv]

Indeed a great and enjoyable race

[OptionBase1]

George might be DQ'd for his post-race car being underweight. That would be criminal.

[OptionBase1]

George DQ'd. Everyone else moves up a spot. What a disaster.

[wes4dbt]

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.

[techgnome]

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.

-tg

[Arnoutdv]

Would that really be 1.5 kilo?

[techgnome]

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

[OptionBase1]

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.