The Official Formula One Thread!

[Jackie Daytona]

Going for a Perez primarily, but man that hurt watching Verstappen.

[GoingPlaces]

Just saw that, brutal for Max. So sorry to see.

[texasmade]

Wow Lewis blew it!

[Jackie Daytona]

Originally Posted by texasmade

Wow Lewis blew it!

Couldn’t believe he overcooked the brakes waiting on restart. I was really worried about that restart as historically Hamilton has been fantastic in those moments.

[enjoythemusic]

And that's why we run the races.

Brake Magic was brake fried.

[Mifune]

Originally Posted by texasmade

Wow Lewis blew it!

Once again...

[texasmade]

Apparently he accidentally flipped a switch to move the brake bias forward which screwed his front brakes.

[SDGT3]

What an entertaining race - they should swap out Singapore for Baku and run it back to back. This circuit has everything.

Congratulations to Sergio Perez, Vettel and Gasly. All three really drove exceptional and kept their heads to be where they ended up. It was interesting to see Max as the clear dominant driver today as he was able to put space between himself and Perez even after the restart. Bad luck for Max for sure and again, GREAT luck for Hamilton as the race was pretty much over and Max had a 15 pt. lead with 5-6 laps left. Even with Lewis' mistakes and no points, it's only a 4 point lead for Max so again, somehow, Lewis' luck seems to have worked out for him. Max's tire issue had nothing to do with driver error.

All that being said, that's 2 HUGE mistakes for Lewis in 5 races (Imola, Baku) and Max should have been about 40 pts. clear of Lewis at this point, but again, the guy was born with a horse shoe up his arse and that's just the way it goes. Interesting to see how Lewis is handling the pressure when someone has a halfway decent car now and he doesn't have the wingman like Max did.

Speaking of wingmen, Bottas seemed uninspired today after being hung out to dry on Saturday's qualifying session... Mercedes didn't score any points today and they are going to need Bottas' help to get back into the constructors championship. Mercedes will bounce back in France in two weeks, they always do, but if Perez is now comfortable with the Red Bull as he seemed today, RBR has the better driver line up as compared to Lewis and Bottas. I highly doubt they would bring up Russell after the summer break, but if Bottas can't perform, then who knows.

Once again, a great race....

PS: Anyone seen Mick Schumacher draft Mazespin down the back straight on the last lap and Mazespin turn in and squeeze MS to the wall? Mick nor the team was impressed. This guy might kill someone and/or himself....

[denmanproject]

What a race! I was literally on the edge of my seat at the restart. Gotta love a result other than HAM - VER - BOT

Enjoyed seeing Seb as happy as he was

[Rashid.bk]

Originally Posted by Mifune

Once again...

True, but no matter what, Lewis has blown away so many records and stats that MS is far in the rear view mirror.
But mistakes happen, with so many buttons and switches on a steering wheel and some which are scarcely used, it seems common to forget a procedure or activate a wrong sequence under pressure. Look at how many had a problem putting the car in reverse, seems a simple task for an elite Formula 1 driver right. Under pressure normal hand eye coordination movements become fine motor skill tasks.

Happy for the results. Always rooting for the seeming under dogs. Happy for Vet, and Gastly and well deserved for Perez.

[dba]

Originally Posted by denmanproject

What a race! I was literally on the edge of my seat at the restart. Gotta love a result other than HAM - VER - BOT

Enjoyed seeing Seb as happy as he was

What was really neat was everyone seemed to be happy for Seb.

Gutted for Max; glad both he and Stroll are ok, but Pirelli has some explaining to do.

[enjoythemusic]

Originally Posted by Rashid.bk

... with so many buttons and switches on a steering wheel and some which are scarcely used, it seems common to forget a procedure or activate a wrong sequence.

i wonder how drivers would hold up if we removed all the electronics other than everyone being sanctioned to only use matched 'basic' electronic / electrical systems.

or...

Maybe one day F1 will be drive-by-wire from my home. This way everyone can race a physical car without any safety worries.

[jatco]

It was a wild race for sure and tough break for Max. He had it in his pocket until the tyre failure. What a killer and for Stroll. Bummer..!!
Surprised as hell to see Hamilton blow the restart..but sheit happens.
Kudos to Perez, Vettel and Gastly.

[Sleepy996]

Couldn't be happier for Seb and Perez. Awesome race but Pirelli has some questions to answer this week, smh.

[jatco]

Pirelli claims debris was the cause.

[enjoythemusic]

Originally Posted by jatco

Pirelli claims debris was the cause.

Uh huh... Suuuuure it was.

Reminds me of USA F1 when Mich and Pirelli... One tire manufacturer had tires that could not endure the track.

[Jackie Daytona]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

Uh huh... Suuuuure it was.

Reminds me of USA F1 when Mich and Pirelli... One tire manufacturer had tires that could not endure the track.

Feeling exactly the same.

Pirelli had this problem when they first returned to F1 as well, and had sporadically had the same issue through the years. Not sure how they can’t nail it down after this much time.

Bridgestone wasn’t perfect, but during their period I recall far less spontaneous tire issues.

[SDGT3]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

Uh huh... Suuuuure it was.

Reminds me of USA F1 when Mich and Pirelli... One tire manufacturer had tires that could not endure the track.

It was Michelin and Bridgestone in 2005 when F1 changed the rules in an attempt to stop the Schumacher/Ferrari dynasty with the 1 tire per entire race rule. It worked to stop the win streak, but the Michelin tires could not withstand the lateral loads on the banking of Indianapolis Motor Speedway as evidenced by Ralf Schumacher going into the wall in his BMW Sauber. All Michelin runners went out on the parade lap, but went straight into the pitlane and retired leaving only 6 Bridgestone runners to race that day.

Pirelli hasn't had the stellar record with tires in this current era and I suspect they are going to go more conservative moving forward in the way of more hard compounds for race weekends as well as higher PSIs.

[enjoythemusic]

Thx guys... And for correction.

[jatco]

Wonder what will happen when 18" come into effect ..what is it, next year 2022..?
"

[asloper6001]

Originally Posted by Dontknow

Feeling exactly the same.

Pirelli had this problem when they first returned to F1 as well, and had sporadically had the same issue through the years. Not sure how they can’t nail it down after this much time.

Bridgestone wasn’t perfect, but during their period I recall far less spontaneous tire issues.

Not defending Pirelli, but the cars have changed drastically also. I just hope they solve it before someone gets really hurt. Blaming it on debris and not focusing on the problem at hand is bothersome to me. I really hope that was just for PR and they are doing some major testing behind the scenes. Fingers crossed.

[enjoythemusic]

So.... Tire strategy. Discuss.

[walds11]

Easy discussion…Redbull and Max two stops for the win!

[bremersm]

I love seeing MB implode.


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[enjoythemusic]

I'm glad to see some serious competition out there both at the pointed end of the grid and mid-field.

Poor Kimi tho......

MSC... (deep sigh)

Now we need a 'team Brabham / Benitton' type to come out of nowhere and suddenly be competitive. Hey, a man can dream.

[77T]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

So.... Tire strategy. Discuss.

Let’s not forget aero set-up. I think it was the deciding factor and HAM concurred in post-race pressers. Only he said, they owned us on the straights.

RB chose less downforce and had the advantage in straight line speed at Paul Ricard.

This, I believe, led to VER nearly losing the rearend in T1 on First lap.

MB cars had more downforce (I believe because during Qually, HAM was underperforming in corners).

Even if MB had let BOT go to a split strategy for 2-stop, I think VER would have been P1 - but podium would have switched to VER-BOT-HAM.

As I see it, Perez was the biggest beneficiary of the different strategies. He showed what could be done.


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[Dr.Brian]

I said at the beginning of the year wouldn’t it be amazing if the Honda engine had an “11” that they could turn up to after a few races prove that the engine is reliable and stable. It looks like they just might based on performance in the last couple races. That is a game changer. Obviously you can’t discount strategy, aero, luck, etc. but Honda may just go out on top with their new design.
And what’s going on with Lewis this season. Lots of little errors, critical errors. Maybe he’s not the unfailing machine he seemed to be over the last several years. With a dominant car and without a real challenge from Bottas, he’s not had to go the last percent closer to the edge and now we see some slip ups?
Could be carnage in the 3rd corner with Bottas having to deal with staying ahead of the best of the rest trying to pip him. Should be another good race. And hats off to George for another great Saturday for P11. Bottas should be nervous.

[texasmade]

Lewis has been a machine from 2017-2019 (I’m discounting 2020 because the car was so dominant it didn’t matter).. He is getting older now and Max cleaned up his driving style the past couple of seasons by improving his risk assessment while entering his physical prime.

[SDGT3]

Originally Posted by Dr.Brian

I said at the beginning of the year wouldn’t it be amazing if the Honda engine had an “11” that they could turn up to after a few races prove that the engine is reliable and stable. It looks like they just might based on performance in the last couple races. That is a game changer. Obviously you can’t discount strategy, aero, luck, etc. but Honda may just go out on top with their new design.
And what’s going on with Lewis this season. Lots of little errors, critical errors. Maybe he’s not the unfailing machine he seemed to be over the last several years. With a dominant car and without a real challenge from Bottas, he’s not had to go the last percent closer to the edge and now we see some slip ups?
Could be carnage in the 3rd corner with Bottas having to deal with staying ahead of the best of the rest trying to pip him. Should be another good race. And hats off to George for another great Saturday for P11. Bottas should be nervous.

Lewis is a very good racer, there is no question about that, but his car flatters him. This is exactly what former F1 drivers and people who have followed F1 for a long time have said for years. There have been dominate cars in the past, but the current MB is statistically the most dominant in the history of F1. When you look at how Lewis compared to Button at McLaren, he was not that impressive.

Lewis hasn't really raced anyone for years and has perhaps the weakest #2 possible (and I say this based on how George Russell came in and bested Bottas last year). The one year RBR has a competitive car with a fantastic young driver that is still climbing with a much higher ceiling challenges him, Hamilton starts to unravel.

That being said, it's a long season, Hamilton and Mercedes are a wounded animal right now with a lot of resources and experience to continue to fight long into December. Never count them out.

[enjoythemusic]

Bring George Russell back to Mercedes. Pay off Botas' contract.