I will freely admit that Hamilton is the best driver in the sport and mostly error-free. That said, it seems like whenever he does make a mistake, there's a safety car or full-course restart within seconds and it costs him way less than it should. The luck he has is unbelievable. In a sport where an extra 3 seconds in the pits can cost you 10 places, he sits in the mud for two whole minutes and busts up his front wing trying to get out, then ends up back in 2nd place like it ain't no thing.
It was fun to watch F1 in the morning then IndyCar in the afternoon. It really impresses upon you how different the F1 cars are from one another from a performance standpoint, because there's actually action and passing. Good cars can't seem to fail despite huge mistakes, and bad cars couldn't win if a meteor hit the top half of the field. Indy is basically a Spec series and nobody ever passes anyone else unless a huge mistake is made, but the back of the field is still pretty competitive with the front.
ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:
I will freely admit that Hamilton is the best driver in the sport and mostly error-free. That said, it seems like whenever he does make a mistake, there's a safety car or full-course restart within seconds and it costs him way less than it should. The luck he has is unbelievable. In a sport where an extra 3 seconds in the pits can cost you 10 places, he sits in the mud for two whole minutes and busts up his front wing trying to get out, then ends up back in 2nd place like it ain't no thing.
It was fun to watch F1 in the morning then IndyCar in the afternoon. It really impresses upon you how different the F1 cars are from one another from a performance standpoint, because there's actually action and passing. Good cars can't seem to fail despite huge mistakes, and bad cars couldn't win if a meteor hit the top half of the field. Indy is basically a Spec series and nobody ever passes anyone else unless a huge mistake is made, but the back of the field is still pretty competitive with the front.
Not sure I would agree with the last line- Jimmy Johnson, a great racer with massive talent, finished a couple of laps down. And he drives for one of the best of the best teams. About as good as Schumi Jr.
That, and there has been bad cars that have won races- see Seb Vettel in a Minardi.
Mercedes V Red Bull is pretty closed to Penske vs Ganassi Racing, with Andretti - Rahal being the same as the midfield F1 bunch.
That being said, that IndyCar race was pretty fun to watch. Especially how O'Ward closed right up at the end for the 2 vs 3 stop group.
adam525i said:
Better start the Perez replacement rumors so he can get thrown off to the point of failing the rest of the season lol.
"Gasly rumored to replace Perez by French GP!"
"Perez season a disappointment to RedBull......" Clickbait and the story is actually about RedBull sale materials featuring Perez were damaged in transit to RedBull Mexico.
"Albon and Gasly are eager for seat fitting for RedBull given no improvement by Perez"
About what you wanted?
ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:
The luck he has is unbelievable.
I would take luck over skill any day. All the skill in the world means nothing if you're unlucky. Look at how unlucky Alonso has been with all his team choices since 2006
loosecannon said:
ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:
The luck he has is unbelievable.
I would take luck over skill any day. All the skill in the world means nothing if you're unlucky. Look at how unlucky Alonso has been with all his team choices since 2006
Fast guys can make their own luck, and Alonzo has made bad choices, which eventually ended up at no choices because of his prissy little snits.
Kimi got screwed out of points!
Still processing that race:
- Lap 31-restart a lot happened with pitstops and crashes and off track situations. I was surprised that Hamilton ended up lapped given the camera coverage I didn't think Max got that far around track but then the timing chart seemed to confirm all of this.
- Sainz had so many problems as he pushed himself with his new Ferrari and like Hamilton I am surprised he made it up to 5th.
- Alonso got a point?!?!? I know there were penalties but he seemed no where all race. But I have learned since Bahrain that Alpine got jammed with the pandemic rules changes such that they are still using their 2019 chassis. So a step above HAAS I suppose
- Haas like was posted earlier is doing a Williams of just surviving at the back of the grid.
- Russell (sigh) he might have been better settling for 10th. Just to guarantee a point. Just sit and get that POINT!
- Norris is backing up his jokes now. Similar to Ricciardo at RedBull. Joke all you want as long as you get up front.
Also, given the helicopter vantage point. It was obvious the moment Hamilton pulled off the dry line that he hadn't slowed enough before leaving the dry line and didn't have enough room to the gravel. Maybe just needed less than 0.2 s of additional slowing on the dry and he would have made the corner.
I wonder if they actually practice that reversing from a gravel trap in the simulator. He had to just get the clutch engagement right in reverse and not go careening onto the track with tiny dirty side mirror, impressive.
In reply to ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) :
I think you have a perception of him being lucky because after his mistake, unlike Bottas or Nico or Vettel, he drives around and damage on his car and gets passes done. His passing skills have been overshadowed by his and MB domination allowing him to run at the front. But he makes passes happen when others can't. So he has had some good luck but the key is regardless of the luck he gets, he climbs back up.
Agreed. He's got the mental fortitude these days to be able to deal with setbacks. He might have an initial reaction (as we all would) but then he goes into damage limitation and strategy mode and figures out how to minimize the damage on the long term.
And yeah, he can pass. The commentators pulled out the whole "the Mercedes is a car that can't pass" chestnut again when that's been proven to be wrong for several years.
Backing out of that gravel trap, though - have we ever seen that before? That was the race saving move right there. It would have been so easy to just shut down the car and climb out, or bury it to the floor.
Post race interview with Lewis was fun. "As soon as I pulled over to pass, I knew I should have been more patient". Yeah, we all knew that at the same time.
Asked what he did during the red, he said something like "I got all my E36 M3 together and put everything I didn't need in my head aside "
Very complimentary to Max and Lando.
He absolutely had luck. Twice, really. The obvious one with the red, but when Charles let Lando out of drs range, it opened the whole situation up for him. Had the drs train stayed engaged, I think he was fourth.
Charles getting out of DRS range was going to happen, he just couldn't seem to close up so he was sitting right around the threshold and was going to be a fraction of a second out of range at some point. So it was just a waiting game of staying close and being able to take advantage when the opportunity presented itself. That's making your own luck.
Lando did a great job of keeping that red car behind on a set of fading softs though. He and McLaren should be really happy with what they pulled off all around.
Streetwiseguy said:
He absolutely had luck. Twice, really. The obvious one with the red, but when Charles let Lando out of drs range, it opened the whole situation up for him. Had the drs train stayed engaged, I think he was fourth.
I will give you the red flag as being a bit lucky as he got his lap back for sure. But I think he was close enough, not the DRS train 2 seconds back, that Leclerc probably had to change his battery deployment strategy from keeping up with Lando to defending against Hamilton. If Hamilton was not able to close within 1.5 seconds then Leclerc would just hold his strategy to the end. Then the lap that Leclerc took a defensive line was the lap he fell out of DRS range of Lando.
I thought for years you could only have one race per country. It's why we had a "San Marino" GP, because then Italy got two. Obviously that went out last year, but I can see how the US would get one race and one race only.
Bernie may be gone, but F1 still likes to play games. There's SO much money involved.
So IF this becomes a race, here's the track https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZQrprQNS-c&ab_channel=FORMULA1
Reminds me too much of Sochi. Which is to say characterless and flat. Even the "hill" just looks like the on-ramp that it is.
As a fan, I would much rather see them in Austin, where the track has some character vs this one- which could be in any metro area in the world. Well, the palm trees kind of give it away. But it's not a race I would go and try to see in person.
Money still talks in F1 louder than anything else.
Keith Tanner said:
I thought for years you could only have one race per country. It's why we had a "San Marino" GP, because then Italy got two. Obviously that went out last year, but I can see how the US would get one race and one race only.
AIUI there's never been an explicit "one race per country" limit, but each race is supposed to have a unique name. I have read that the name "San Marino" GP was because it was sponsored by an organization in the nearby San Marino principality.
During the late 70s the US had both east and west GPs, at Watkins Glen and Long Beach, so it's not even unprecedented. It really depends on whether or not there's enough ticket demand to make the race promoter willing to pay FOM's fees.
Just to clarify the "one race per country" as it pertains to the article and COTA. In the case of COTA the state of Texas is putting up a lot of $$$ - millions. But the state's contract specifies they only spend the $$$ if there is only "one F1 race per country".
If that clause remains in the next TX/COTA contract (starting in 2022) then contractually there cannot be a Miami Fi race.
But there's more. Aside from the above, there is possibly another shoe to be dropped. The people of Miami could sue to stop the Miami race from happening.
I will believe Miami is happening when we are a month out from the race.
Vietnam GP was obliterated in a very short time. NY GP got the same hype and just faded.
I hope COTA gets a long term deal as the track seems to be the best fit right now for F1 and the whole concert during the race thing is a wonderful idea. Montreal and Spa have similar community relatable diverse events.
I still remember the one and only Lemans race in Washington DC. Maybe half the people there were just excited locals that barely watched the race. But they got exposed to racing and the biggest issue was there was almost nothing to do outside the stands. And it was located in an isolated part of the city so not ideal.
Seeing rumors about Haas' future....
Gene will sell the team to Mazepan. Which makes Mazipan jr lead driver forever.
And Mazapan will call Story for a title sponsor.
Sounds like a solid plan..... for failure.
Rich Energy/ UralKali Chemical F1 team.
(the 3 spellings was intentional)
It's pretty easy to imagine that scenario. They're basically Marzipan Racing now. It would doom the team to perpetual mediocrity at best.
But simply having a team is worth a lot of money, especially with the new high-dollar payout to the other teams to start a new one. So they'll just keep evolving into something else until they turn into a powerhouse in 20 years :)
https://youtu.be/LpMLOmBD_Fc
Monaco Historic Grand Prix is live right now.
Keith Tanner said:
They're basically Marzipan Racing now.
They are Marzipan Racing because they have plenty of dough.
wae
UberDork
4/25/21 9:49 a.m.
I'm a little bit shocked and a lot disappointed in how Haas has turned out. I don't know if there's any one thing that I'd look to as "The Cause", but I think Ferrari's engine woes contributed as did the Rich Energy fiasco. MAG and GRO weren't the strongest drivers in the world, but they weren't completely awful, either. I would expect that either one of them would be in the points at least a couple times a year if they were in the Alfa or the Renault of last year, for example. Heck, one year Haas managed 5th in the constructor's standings, which is nothing to sneeze at, but now they're only able to out perform Williams. This may come from being a child of the Cold War, but seeing the Russian colors on an ostensibly American team's car doesn't really give me the warm fuzzies either, even if it doesn't have anything to do with their racing performance.
At least I can root for Williams as my favorite American team now?
The Russian colors look a lot like good ol' American red white and blue. Or is it French? I forget ;)
