Right on! Are on T12a all weekend? Wife and I have seats at T12 Sunday.
Right on! Are on T12a all weekend? Wife and I have seats at T12 Sunday.
Yeah. All weekend. Basically my team covers all of the grass area on drivers right from the turn 12 run off to turn 15. Quiet day today.
Interested to see how fast qualifying is tomorrow with hammy already breaking the track record today in FP2.
I haven't looked at any times yet, but I would have to imagine the track record will be obliterated with the new spec car. 3-4 seconds?
Hamilton on pole, but not by much. Vettel 2nd, Bottas 3rd. Hard to believe on a 3.43 mile track but Raikkonen and Ricciardo both set a lap time of 1'33.577". Watching Verstappen move through the field after a grid penalty should be fun.
Easy pole for Hammy. He's been fastest all weekend. Ferrari won't have the pace. I can see a red bull coming in 2nd.
Hammy clocked a 1:33.1 the last session. It's his race to lose with everyone being .4 a lap slower.
Curious to see how are new weekend drivers Gerald, Hartley, and Leclerc do. Looking forward to rookie F1 shenanigans...
MAX VERSTAPPEN
759NRNG said:MAX VERSTAPPEN
Finishes 4th. Amazing drive to come from 17th to get there.
What is kind of ironic about the pass he got penalized for- Kimi gave him enough space to keep two tires on the track. It would have been REALLY close, but I'm sure he would have made it stick just fine.
Between him and Ocon, the future is very bright.
And huge props to Sainz- for his first weekend at Renault to do that well- he'll do well there. If Renault can keep getting faster, and if McLaren can come back... Could be an interesting season next year.
Great race. Vettel’s pass on Bottas at T1 was great. Verstappen’s drive to 4th was pretty awesome too. I kinda hate how so many people drove outside of the track limits yet max got the penalty. I guess it only counts when you pass someone. It needs to be equal penalties across the board or none at all.
Spoolpigeon said:Great race. Vettel’s pass on Bottas at T1 was great. Verstappen’s drive to 4th was pretty awesome too. I kinda hate how so many people drove outside of the track limits yet max got the penalty. I guess it only counts when you pass someone. It needs to be equal penalties across the board or none at all.
Just replying to make sure that line is repeated.
Track limit penalties are a function of track design - especially on tracks like COTA which are basically several square miles of asphalt with a squiggly line painted across it. Make a real penalty for going outside track limits and it will no longer be a problem. For example, Laguna Seca has really rough kerbing with "wheel breaker" chunks of concrete inside. Outside, you're into the dirt if you go past the kerbs. So going off track isn't really an option other than potential shenanigans with the pit exit, and that would be a relatively easy thing to solve if it was desired.
It's not that unusual for a front runner to end up in the top 5 after starting at the back. I'm guessing that's because of the gulf between the top teams and the rest. But it does always make for some fun racing.
Seated at T12 today, I had the privilege of watching Mr. Hamilton pass that Ferrari for what would be the rest of the race.
Also happened to be at T17 when Verstappen passed Raikkonen, a spot where I never imagined a car could pass. If you notice, t17 doesn’t have much room and no setup. It looked from my angle like he just pointed the car and floored it with reckless abandon for human life. I was standing in front of turn 17 when It happened, and was like “wtf!”
Alonso looked like a possible 6th. Darn Honda! Max is looking very impressive.
Verstappen's penalty was complete B.S. Kimi's tires were done and there wasn't much he was going to do to keep Max behind him.
Couldn't agree more Keith.
Having been to way too many events at COTA, There is no sense of danger in exceeding track limits. So what is a violation vs just normal racing? Well, It's a steward's call and most of the time no one likes the answer they give. Lauda agrees. Stuff like this and the phantom debris calls in nascar just devalue the racing product.
In reply to bmw88rider :
Hey I looked for you, but you guys all look alike in those costumes. Lol. Did you catch hammy’s pass on T12? It was beauty.
I can't believe they did that to Verstappen. I turned it off after the race was over, and didn't see it until I got online a bit ago, crazy.
haha yeah we all look the same. It was a quiet weekend overall for our team. Bummed that Riccardo broke so early and that he took a left and not a right. haha. But year, saw the hamilton pass for the lead.
ncjay said:Verstappen's penalty was complete B.S. Kimi's tires were done and there wasn't much he was going to do to keep Max behind him.
In that case, Max should have passed him without going out of bounds. :)
The rule is against exceeding track limits and gaining an advantage. Going a few feet across the lines when you're by yourself usually isn't much of advantage, so they don't worry about it (and on tracks with corners where it is, they usually make a big deal out of it). Going a few feet across the lines in order to execute the pass isn't legal. This penalty was totally appropriate, and I'm glad they were fast enough to fix the order before the podium, rather than moving the trophy around after the fact.
As for making serious consequences for going out of bounds, they certainly used to have those kinds of things on many tracks. The problem is that it results in driver errors taking cars out of the race (in some cases into walls), which is both unnecessarily dangerous and unfair to the fans who came there to see that driver.
IMHO they should have an automated system where the car detects that you've gone four wheels off and applies an in-race penalty, limiting the boost in the next DRS zone or something like that.
All in all a great race this year. One of the best IMO. Lots of passing and wheel to wheel racing. Good stuff. I have never really been a big fan of Hamilton until now. He gets out there, stays out of trouble and gets the job done. So many races everyone is crashing into each other and Hamilton just motors away. Well done I say. And Max...............a rising star for sure. Can't be too long until he's world champion.
codrus said:As for making serious consequences for going out of bounds, they certainly used to have those kinds of things on many tracks. The problem is that it results in driver errors taking cars out of the race (in some cases into walls), which is both unnecessarily dangerous and unfair to the fans who came there to see that driver.
On the part of the track that he executed the pass- all they really need to do is have some nice soft grass inside the ruble strips. No way anyone would try passing with all 4 in the grass like that. Or like other track, higher rumble strips inside what would be a nominal car width.
Certainly don't need a wall to prevent someone cutting the corner that much.
The hard part for Verstappen- other cars gained advantage on him after driving 4 wheels off during the race. Botas did it a few times. So those should be enforced, too. I really don't see a difference between running wide or short cutting a corner- if you gain advantage, you gain.
Max V fourth!?!?!!! shut it off after the finish........ WTberk!?!????. I thought the demented dwarf was gone(bernie E), this sorta thing was prevalent during his tenure.....shakin my head.
Keith Tanner said:Make a real penalty for going outside track limits and it will no longer be a problem. For example, Laguna Seca has really rough kerbing with "wheel breaker" chunks of concrete inside. Outside, you're into the dirt if you go past the kerbs. So going off track isn't really an option other than potential shenanigans with the pit exit, and that would be a relatively easy thing to solve if it was desired.
The problem for the tracks is that any sort of penalty is going to reduce grip and potentially lead to an incident. We've seen accidents where they've added strips of artificial turf to prevent running wide on corner exit.
codrus said:ncjay said:Verstappen's penalty was complete B.S. Kimi's tires were done and there wasn't much he was going to do to keep Max behind him.
In that case, Max should have passed him without going out of bounds. :)
The rule is against exceeding track limits and gaining an advantage. Going a few feet across the lines when you're by yourself usually isn't much of advantage, so they don't worry about it (and on tracks with corners where it is, they usually make a big deal out of it). Going a few feet across the lines in order to execute the pass isn't legal. This penalty was totally appropriate, and I'm glad they were fast enough to fix the order before the podium, rather than moving the trophy around after the fact.
As for making serious consequences for going out of bounds, they certainly used to have those kinds of things on many tracks. The problem is that it results in driver errors taking cars out of the race (in some cases into walls), which is both unnecessarily dangerous and unfair to the fans who came there to see that driver.
IMHO they should have an automated system where the car detects that you've gone four wheels off and applies an in-race penalty, limiting the boost in the next DRS zone or something like that.
You don't need a bunch of technology that will confuse casual viewers and all of the people in the stands.
I remember one track that had a 1 foot rubber hose sticking up to mark pit in (was it Malaysia?)
Something like that which will take a chuck out of the front wing or diffuser, but won’t cut a tire down or cause a DNF. If Max can still hold the position without an endplate on his front wing, then he deserves the place.
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