Formula One - 2017

Nice, Val. Ferrari just about made the right tire decisions, although at the time I thought they had blown it.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Nice, Val. Ferrari just about made the right tire decisions, although at the time I thought they had blown it.

I thought so too- especially when Valteri started pumping off fastest laps. But when Vettel started to really push the tires hard, and they kept up- that was pretty interesting.

Wonder why Hamilton has such a tough weekend...

Funny to hear the McLaren/Mercedes rumor, again, especially after Sauber announced that next year they will go to Honda. Horrible that Alonso didn't even get to start the race. Geez, Honda.

Haas is really struggling with brakes. Badly. To the point they are really floundering out there. They have a LOT of work to do.

Nice to see Renault make big strides- given how close they are to Red Bull, it makes one wonder how good the RB13 really is (or isn't).

And other than Ferrari and Mercedes- the most consistent team is Force India. Quite the opposite situation of their owner, ironically.

I know this entertainment, but how can that be when the top four have two seconds on the rest of the field??? ok ok that's right cubic $$$$$ always rule, but can you imagine the top 12 within 1.5 sec's of each other...can you say Alex i'll take passing for the podium?

I think once Lewis was fourth after turn two, he knew he was done on that track. Might as well save the car for next weekend.

759NRNG wrote: ok ok that's right cubic $$$$$ always rule

Fernando Alonso would disagree with that.

Great drive by Bottas. He got a good pitstop and was never in trouble. By lap 12 it was over. I thought Hamilton would get Kimi but the overheating from 2015 era came back.

Just watched Australia highlights. The new cars look a lot better.

Someone needs to remind Vettel that other racers are actually racing and have a right to be on the tract as well. Such a brat.

red_stapler wrote:

759NRNG wrote: ok ok that's right cubic $$$$$ always rule

Fernando Alonso would disagree with that.

for the frontrunners it seems to.....Fernandos' ability to remain sane thru all this is commendable. When is his current contract up?

In reply to 759NRNG:

Racing is like performance art. Some love and rave about the latest Marvel superhero movie with computer generated action and loud noises. Others love the city troop theatrical production of Gan Tian Dong Di Dou E Yuan with the subtle actor's motions and quietness.

Enjoy what you like. Having multiple first place passes seems contrary to my own racing experience as well as just feels....contrived. With F1 I don't mind paying attention to the teams' efforts to get to the finish line first. Whether it be the driver trying to stretch out that extra 2 seconds for the pitstop or on the converse trying super hard not to over do the tires to battle the impending end race battle or the pitstop itself. In all automotive competition I have taken part in, I have always had to watch the tires and stategize. All of F1 is fun for me to watch. I enjoyed the battle at the front while I wished there was more coverage of the mid pack this time.

Advan046 wrote: Great drive by Bottas. He got a good pitstop and was never in trouble. By lap 12 it was over. I thought Hamilton would get Kimi but the overheating from 2015 era came back.

I think that once again, the Mercedes are engineered to lead. They just don't like dirty air.

markwemple wrote: Someone needs to remind Vettel that other racers are actually racing and have a right to be on the tract as well. Such a brat.

Except that Massa was a few seconds behind Hulk, so he wasn't going to gain or lose anything if he go out of the way. Massa is also one of the biggest babies and Vettel was pretty cool about it on the podium.

Only took Bottas a few races to figure out how to win. He catches on quickly. Appears to me there's going to be a decent Ferrari vs. Mercedes fight in 2017. I thought Massa did an ok job of getting out of the way. Seemed to me that Vettel just caught him at a bad part of the track to get around quickly and cleanly. I also wouldn't fault Massa for holding him up just enough to help out a former teammate.

759NRNG wrote:

red_stapler wrote:

759NRNG wrote: ok ok that's right cubic $$$$$ always rule

Fernando Alonso would disagree with that.

for the frontrunners it seems to.....Fernandos' ability to remain sane thru all this is commendable. When is his current contract up?

I believe his contract runs out at the end of this season.

ncjay wrote: Only took Bottas a few races to figure out how to win. He catches on quickly. Appears to me there's going to be a decent Ferrari vs. Mercedes fight in 2017. I thought Massa did an ok job of getting out of the way. Seemed to me that Vettel just caught him at a bad part of the track to get around quickly and cleanly. I also wouldn't fault Massa for holding him up just enough to help out a former teammate.

Massa seemed genuinely happy for his ex-teammate as they made their way to the podium. It was pretty cool to see. Two Finns in the green room does not make for a chatty place, though

So for a long time, Honda's problems were blamed on the electrical power system of the cars...

Well, this weekend, to me, showed otherwise. Alonso was fast, until the engine blew apart.

It IS the engine.

And I find this incredibly ironic.

Japan, especially Honda, were some of the first major adaptors of quality, optimization, and failure prevention methods. IMHO, this showed itself in F1 during 80's when Honda was capable of making a very powerful and reliable engine. Whether they found a trick or not to make the power is not important- they did AND the car didn't fail that often.

So all of these methods were adopted by everyone else. For F1, that resulted in incredibly reliable V10 and V8 era, and while the hybrid era started off bad- it got reliable and powerful pretty quickly. Relative to Honda's progress, light years faster for Renault. Mercedes got it right out of the box, Ferrari wasn't too far behind and has caught up, and Renault is back among the other two. Honda STILL struggles.

It's amazing that Fernando made it to Q3 today, and qualified darned well. But Honda in the 2010's is very, very clearly not the Honda of the 80's and 90's. Not even close.

P7 for Alonzo is insane. That backmarker pig in 7th. Holy cow!!!

In reply to markwemple:

Everyone P8 and below should be ashamed of themselves.

In reply to Spoolpigeon:

Yeah, right. Because being slower than the best pilot in F1 is a bad thing.

T'was a joke. Should have added one these:

I was thrilled to see him finally make a decent qualifying position in the biggest turd on the grid. That really shows how good he is. Hopefully the car will actually finish the race tomorrow.

Finish for real, not just because of number of laps completed.

I find Lewis Hamilton's ability to run forever on soft tires amazing.

Alonso finished, but thanks to Massa, out of the points. WTF, Massa? OTOH, nice duel between Hammy and Vettel.

Ok y'all look out ......two time world champion in an indescribably pathetic F1 effort that for some reason cannot grasp this series....goes to Indy because he can and all the F1 honks (team principals, ex/current drivers, etc.) are up his arse 'cause he coulda scored points at Monaco!?!?!?!!!!??? WTF, if I'm at this level in my motor racing journey, the last thing I would be seeking is POINTS!!!!.....it's podiums or PISS OFF....what the berkeley has this become....fair, fun, F1 for the whole viewing audience?