The F1 Thread

[sophia]

6 hours ago, Boo Khaki said:

Verstappen, Sainz, Perez all charging through the field, Latifi predictably going backwards at a rate of knots, and Hamilton dawdling around going nowhere and undoubtedly whinging down the radio 

I've had a look and I can confirm that Hamilton, having started in nineteenth, secured a fifth place finish.

Edited September 11, 2022 by sophia

[peasy23]

[Mr. Brightside]

2 hours ago, Boo Khaki said:

Pretty sure Shumi won the 2004 title in August at the Belgian GP. He won 12 of the 1st 13 races. This season is nothing close to the least competitive.

Hamilton won the 2020 season by fucking miles too.

[die hard doonhamer]

Whilst the sky sports seethe is hilarious, I do think that F1 could alter the regs slightly. If a safety car comes out with 2-5 laps left (or is in place with 5 left and not about to restart), then call red flag, and restart with a rolling start. Then it’s the same restart, and you get to finish under green. 

[parsforlife]

If we truly wanted safety cars to not affect races then the regs would be a hell of a lot tighter, but in terms of a spectacle you can see why they are there.  When and how long a safety car will last is about the most unpredictable part of the sport.  If you remove that guessing game the strategy would be a lot easier to commit too and final positions would be easier to predict earlier on in races, the broadcasters don’t really want to remove that, tho you could see why they’d like more re-starts as that does bring excitement.

[Boo Khaki]

Given that DR's car was parked on a straight part of the track and there was no debris or fluid anywhere, I thought that really could have been handled with a virtual SC at worst, and probably even perfectly safely with double-waved yellows through that and the previous section. Nobody is going to be caning it at 110%, screw up the corner, and go so far down the wrong side of that straight that the marshals would be in danger. Ok, that wouldn't bunch the field up the way a physical safety car does, but you don't have the nonsense of trying to figure out who has to unlap themselves and tour around, and at least the race would likely have ended under full green conditions rather than the SC pulling off after the final corner of the final lap. I think they were just a bit too quick to reach for the nuclear option after it was clear the track marshals couldn't just wheel the car back behind the barriers themselves.

[afc_36_0]

I really dont get the red flag it to make it a spectacle in the last few laps chat. Like winning a game of football 5-0 then making the last 10 mins next goal the winner to make it exciting…. fine for playground antics but not exactly making it a fair sport.

[flyingscot]

15 hours ago, afc_36_0 said:

This has been one of the worst years of f1 ever in terms of championship. I dont ever recall a driver being so far ahead with a chunk of the season to go?

13 hours ago, Boo Khaki said:

Pretty sure Shumi won the 2004 title in August at the Belgian GP. He won 12 of the 1st 13 races. This season is nothing close to the least competitive.

Schumacher was massively dominant. 2002 was done in July with 6 to go and 2004 he won 12 out of the first 13 races and only dropped 34 points all season. When you consider winning only got 2 more points than 2nd and it was his teammate Barrichello in second who wasn't really a challenger, he'd was miles ahead.

Mercedes were massively dominant too in the 2014-2016 seasons with only an internal battle keeping any interest. They virtually won all but 2 or 3 races a season for a while. 

Verstappen this year would have been challenged, but Ferrari's and Leclerc's incompetence has cost them massively. The gap to Verstappen was only 9 points after 7 races in Monaco (where Ferrari pitting cost them a win). Since Leclerc binned it in France, Verstappen has had the cigars out. Indeed since Monaco he's gained more points on Leclerc than Russell since then! Ferrari and Leclerc bottled it. 

[Mr. Brightside]

2 hours ago, afc_36_0 said:

I really dont get the red flag it to make it a spectacle in the last few laps chat. Like winning a game of football 5-0 then making the last 10 mins next goal the winner to make it exciting…. fine for playground antics but not exactly making it a fair sport.

It's the latest in the line of "things that need to change in F1" that Twitter and YouTubers are bringing up this year. From "the Super Licence system is stupid" to "they need to do something about qualifying penalties" and to now "no race should ever finish under safety car". There's always something these folk want changing, they're never happy.

[afc_36_0]

Im aware there have been other periods of dominance but this championship was over in the summer break which is very disappointing as a fan. Red bull have just nailed the new regulations and although ferrari seemed to be good qualifiers they cant get near max in the race. Verstappen drives past folk without drs such is the difference in speed.
Found myself supporting de vries yesterday who is now surely worth a seat in f1.

[flyingscot]

4 minutes ago, Mr. Brightside said:

It's the latest in the line of "things that need to change in F1" that Twitter and YouTubers are bringing up this year. From "the Super Licence system is stupid" to "they need to do something about qualifying penalties" and to now "no race should ever finish under safety car". There's always something these folk want changing, they're never happy.

It's been mentioned before and I have some sympathy with it. Races finishing under a safety car when there ae 5 or 6 laps to go is a bit mince. Nascar of course has 'green-white-checker' rule but that impacts fuel and doesn't get lapped cars out the way (unless I have it wrong).  

[MrWorldwideJr]

5 minutes ago, Mr. Brightside said:

It's the latest in the line of "things that need to change in F1" that Twitter and YouTubers are bringing up this year. From "the Super Licence system is stupid" to "they need to do something about qualifying penalties" and to now "no race should ever finish under safety car". There's always something these folk want changing, they're never happy.

Most of the things they want changed are things which were only brought in because 'something had to change' as well.

The super licence points were brought in because people moaned about a super licence being too easy to get and now the same people are moaning about it because a driver they want to see can't get one.

The same has happened in the past with the rules on driver coaching, the season or two when the Pirelli tires gave us about 4 stops a race, the period when drivers weren't allowed to change their helmet design etc.

Can guarantee that if some sort of green-white chequer situation was brought in, there would be loud moaning about how it ruined the purity of the racing within about 2 years and we would be back to where we are now within 3.

[Mr. Brightside]

4 minutes ago, afc_36_0 said:

Im aware there have been other periods of dominance but this championship was over in the summer break which is very disappointing as a fan. Red bull have just nailed the new regulations and although ferrari seemed to be good qualifiers they cant get near max in the race. Verstappen drives past folk without drs such is the difference in speed.
Found myself supporting de vries yesterday who is now surely worth a seat in f1.

The dominance has really only been true since Spa, up until then Ferrari and Red Bull were very close in terms of performance.

[Boo Khaki]

1 hour ago, Mr. Brightside said:

It's the latest in the line of "things that need to change in F1" that Twitter and YouTubers are bringing up this year. From "the Super Licence system is stupid" to "they need to do something about qualifying penalties" and to now "no race should ever finish under safety car". There's always something these folk want changing, they're never happy.

The penalties and how they impact Quali is farcical and something definitely does need to change. So Perez (for arguments sake) rocks up to the GP weekend knowing he's taking a penalty that will put him near the back of the grid, yet he still competes all the way through to Quali 3, meaning the guy who finishes 16th in Quali 1 doesn't get to go to Quali 2 despite knowing he'll start ahead of Perez, Perez gets into Quali 1 at the expense of the guy in 11th place after Quali 2 despite that guy also knowing he'll start ahead of him, then to top it off, Perez sets fastest time overall in Quali 1 yet it's all moot because the guy in 2nd will be on Pole

Magnify that by a scenario like we've just seen at Monza where half the grid decides to take a penalty beforehand, and you have an entire Quali hour that is more or less a waste of time and largely for the purpose of just having cars circulating for the TV cameras more than anything else.

The quali format is also absolute shite in any case, but it's made even more so by having drivers who are starting at the back regardless still participating right up to the chequered flag.

[flyingscot]

42 minutes ago, Boo Khaki said:

The quali format is also absolute shite in any case, but it's made even more so by having drivers who are starting at the back regardless still participating right up to the chequered flag.

I think the format is OK actually. The penalties should be applied after every session, so you are knocked out at the appropriate stage. 

 

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

That sounds like a scary situation for Albon. It'll be some effort for him to be healthy enough by Singapore.

 

 

 

[scottsdad]

5 hours ago, flyingscot said:

Schumacher was massively dominant. 2002 was done in July with 6 to go and 2004 he won 12 out of the first 13 races and only dropped 34 points all season. When you consider winning only got 2 more points than 2nd and it was his teammate Barrichello in second who wasn't really a challenger, he'd was miles ahead.

Mercedes were massively dominant too in the 2014-2016 seasons with only an internal battle keeping any interest. They virtually won all but 2 or 3 races a season for a while. 

Verstappen this year would have been challenged, but Ferrari's and Leclerc's incompetence has cost them massively. The gap to Verstappen was only 9 points after 7 races in Monaco (where Ferrari pitting cost them a win). Since Leclerc binned it in France, Verstappen has had the cigars out. Indeed since Monaco he's gained more points on Leclerc than Russell since then! Ferrari and Leclerc bottled it. 

The sport always goes through these peaks and troughs. 

Just think, from 2006-2010 we had a different champion every year. Then you get runs when one car and one driver sweeps up. 

For F1 to be really competitive, they need to loosen the development rules a bit. Let Merc develop their car more and catch up. Let Ferrari...um...sack everyone. 

But for now, Verstappen and RB are just in their own league.

[flyingscot]

7 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

The sport always goes through these peaks and troughs. 

Just think, from 2006-2010 we had a different champion every year. Then you get runs when one car and one driver sweeps up. 

For F1 to be really competitive, they need to loosen the development rules a bit. Let Merc develop their car more and catch up. Let Ferrari...um...sack everyone. 

But for now, Verstappen and RB are just in their own league.

Agreed, I don't think we're there with Verstappen and Red Bull to be honest. Ferrari and Mercedes aren't that far away from Red Bull, they are just performing well. It's like Vettel when he went on that run after the summer break in 2013. 

I think Mercedes have inched closer but their car is clearly not suited to all tracks and Ferrari are their own worst enemies. We're not seeing any team like Ferrari in early 2000s or Mercedes in the mid 2015s where them rocking up, pole, 1-2 and away is happening consistently. 

 

[Raidernation]

1 hour ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

That sounds like a scary situation for Albon. It'll be some effort for him to be healthy enough by Singapore.

 

 

 

The exact same thing happened to me when I had my appendix removed.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Tbf I've found this season quite good fun, between Mercedes unending tears about Abu Dhabi and Ferrari's race by race strategy binfires.

Throw in Crofty being a seething mess most weeks and it's made for decent viewing imo.