Formula One - 2018

Streetwiseguy said:

alfadriver said:

wae said:

Up until the TRs came together, it really seemed like we were in for a really boring race.

And Mercedes and Ferrari both dropped the ball reacting to that.  Sure, Bottas and Vettel could not do anything, but both Hamilton and Raikkonen were behind Verstappen- so they could have pitted and made a race of the end.  I don't understand why they didn't.  

Good question.  Toto said, "Well, 30 minutes after the race, it seems obvious.". Red Bull, with Danny especially, had nothing to lose.  They knew they needed tires, and somebody made a super gutsy call.  Super gutsy because there was no time to discuss, not gutsy strategy.

The old "hindsight is 20-20" excuse.  Sorry, Toto, I don't agree with that.  That's VERY much a contingency in every race, so you should know the pace of your car, and every car around it.  Plus, until the SC picks up the leader, the pace is much lower- which gives you a pretty well known time/ loss to deal with.  

Heck they should always have the right next set of tires ready to go, even if they are never used- which gives them just enough time to run out to the pits if one of the cars have to come in- in theory, Lewis could have made the call and they should have been ready.  Once Max went, that was also a big key point to make the stop.  

Sure, all of those calculations are very dependent on how much race is left, but, again, that's a very well known entity.  

It would not be hard to have a running game plan ready for the entire race.  Almost seems like Mercedes has spent too much time out in front to really think about those things.  Almost seems like that- the reality is that Mercedes has not exactly reacted to SC and VSC situations very well for the past 4 seasons.  They have thrown away wins by making bad calls.  in spite of having the fastest car out there.

Ferrari have no excuses. They have the fastest car. That's clear. Yet poor decisions keep screwing them. Think back to all the bad calls that prevented Alonso from winning 2 or 3 WDCs with them. And backing Vettel over Kimi, not good. This year Kimi looks faster overall. It's really nice to see Kimi getting back to speed. Also nice to see Alonso make passes during the race, not just at the start.

Peter Windsor interviews a guy who wants to buy Force India.  He's an owner of an energy drink....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDdB2yJoHeI

I have been smiling since the race, it was a much need win for Danny.

Good race start to finish. Again MB just can't seem to get VSC/SC tactics down. Since the current turbo power units they have usually failed. I think this is the only place Rosberg seemed to help the team. But only for himself. He did make gains or at least didn't lose out during those events. 

Vettel has never been a "fair" guy to pass. But he can be passed. Verstappen just tries every time with a threat of let me pass or I will take you out. Ricciardo at least 70% of the time makes sure he is along side of who he is passing BEFORE they would reach the turn in point. That way if he out braked himself he just goes sailing by.  I hope they really try to calm Verstappen down. He has both Hamilton and Ricciardo to watch to learn how to pass his current competition. It isn't just about you, you have to tailor moves to who you are trying to pass.

Hamilton had a tough weekend. All he needed was fresh tires at the SC. I actually hoped he would push super  hard after his first pitstop on a two stopper. Bottas did all he could. I actually don't think the SC notification came out until he was passed the pit entry. The MB  pitwork gave him the lead. Really nice teamwork up to the SC. 

McLaren seems to just have missed the mark. They now write that we should wait for the Spanish GP to see their real car. REALLY!?! legend of the sport can't get their real car to the first event? Sad times for one of my favorite teams. 

It will be interesting in Baku.

Not sure who will be fastest. Any guesses?

markwemple said:

Ferrari have no excuses. They have the fastest car. That's clear. Yet poor decisions keep screwing them. Think back to all the bad calls that prevented Alonso from winning 2 or 3 WDCs with them. And backing Vettel over Kimi, not good. This year Kimi looks faster overall. It's really nice to see Kimi getting back to speed. Also nice to see Alonso make passes during the race, not just at the start.

Yes definitely Ferrari's biggest mistake this year is not backing Kimi sufficiently.

Advan046 said:

markwemple said:

Ferrari have no excuses. They have the fastest car. That's clear. Yet poor decisions keep screwing them. Think back to all the bad calls that prevented Alonso from winning 2 or 3 WDCs with them. And backing Vettel over Kimi, not good. This year Kimi looks faster overall. It's really nice to see Kimi getting back to speed. Also nice to see Alonso make passes during the race, not just at the start.

Yes definitely Ferrari's biggest mistake this year is not backing Kimi sufficiently.

If Ferrari loses either championship, they will likely have earned it.

Thanks to the Red Bull team not having team orders, this race is turning into a real mess.

Should be interesting to see this end, with the Mercedes faster in the areas you can pass, and the Ferraris faster in the rest of the areas.

Terrible for Grosean for crashing out on his own during a SC time, and then blaming a car that was nowhere near him.

In reply to alfadriver :

I'm hoarse from yelling at Grosjean through my TV.   Max and Danny was bad, but at least they had a little help from each other...

Ooh!  And a little Guttierez action from Romain when he gets back!

Well, if anyone in Vegas bet those three would be on the podium they're pretty well off, I imagine. Feel bad for Bottas. Vettel made his own bed. I want to be a fly on the wall in the Red Bull suite.

Verstappen is a menace. 

Vettel gambled for the lead and ended up off the podium. 

Bad luck for Bottas, but why did he run over an obvious. Hunk of debris that everyone else avoided?

What a heartbreaker for Bottas.  Nothing he could have done about that - but you would have thought that with all the safty car-ing that went on, they would have spotted that.   So, Hamilton is up by 4 points over Vettel and then it's 18 points back to 3rd place but having both cars in the points granted Ferrari a 4 point lead in the constructors' standings.  The real loss is that Red Bull gets nothing and remains third but by 55 points.   Danny and Max were what?  4th and 5th?  So that's 22 points they'll never get back with McLaren chasing them down, although their average points haul is only 8/race to Red Bull's 14.  And that's with two races netting Red Bull zero points, so McLaren better hope that when the "real" car makes its debut in a couple weeks it's as good as they think it is.  I kind of predict that Red Bull is going to take this opportunity to get their house in order and McLaren is going to wind up ruing the missed opportunities with Bahrain and Baku:  If it turns out the "real car" has serious pace (which, honestly, I'm not that hopeful for, but I'm trying to remain optimistic), having it in the two races where Red Bull brings home goose eggs would have been a lot easier than chasing them down in the remainder of the races.

For Merc, the question is going to be if this win gives Lewis a bit of a reset and gets him back on-song.  Maybe it's just what they're choosing to broadcast, but this season so far, he has seemed a lot more agitated and struggling in the car.  Maybe it's that Ferrari has really gotten that much better, maybe it's that Lewis is just not in his right head.  Well, it's a combination of both -- even on his worst day a couple years ago he might only be able to pull out a 25 second lead over the rest of the field instead of 32 seconds.  Whatever Ferrari have done, though, it has paid off in spades when it comes to being able to watch exciting racing.  There are still definite back-markers out there, but for the most part there's action to watch all the way through the grid.

I just want to give Bottas a hug. On the upside, Vettel lost.

Renault was strong today, at least during the early part of the race. 

Max should have let Danny by way way earlier. He didn't have the speed. 

Grosjean had to have some sort of brake issue.  That spin just came from nothing, really.

"Ten pints of beer and I'll be fine."

Hahahahaha

Two rules in racing. #1 Do NOT hit your teammate. #2 Do NOT hit anything. It's really difficult to find success if you break either of these rules. You'd think guys that reach this level would understand this.

T.J. said:

Verstappen is a menace. 

Vettel gambled for the lead and ended up off the podium. 

Bad luck for Bottas, but why did he run over an obvious. Hunk of debris that everyone else avoided?

I think that section of the track isn't totally flat, so he may not have seen it until the last moment.  

The other question- why was the chunk even there?  I know Wolfe was blaming the stewards for missing it, but any of the drivers should have seen it on the track under the SC, and they were mentioning that the track was clear.  Which makes me think that the debris was not there when the race went green again.

I think they are going to have to check the cameras to see how it was even there.

For the Verstappen/Ricciardo incident- it seems as if most think that Max double moved.  Which is fair.  Once he moved back over, a good post race analysis pointed out that it was all over then, as Daniel had no downforce, so no front brakes. Max also bumped Daniel during some other attempted pass, so it's not as if he was 100% clean for the race.

Seeing Vettel take himself off the podium does not break my heart.  :)

Going backwards- great race, again, for Sauber.  They looked good all day.  Great race for Force India- getting Perez on the podium like that.  Good race for Williams, too- with Stroll having a very good weekend.

Sucks for Haas for Grosean to crash out like that.  

Have to say, I'm starting to like that track.  Having the longest WOT section and some serious likelihood for a SC really mixes it up.  And having the extra issue with tire choices vs the track and the weather, not a bad race at all.  Makes up for that super narrow section in the middle.

After what Vettel did last year, his 4th was a tiny bit of karma. Glad to see Alonso finish where he should have but not in that fashion. Would rather less accidents and more passing from all. Redbull blew it by not giving team orders. I feel the worst for Bottas and Ocon. Both should have scored well and Bottas deserved the win. Well driven race. 

Haas needs to be consistent if they stand any chance of improving in the standings at the end of the year.  They'll regret the double DNF from AUS most, but Baku was just disappointing.  Romain is occasionally an idiot....I don't think there was anything other than himself to blame for his SC crash.  Not sure what happened with Kevin, he was squarely in the points until the restart, must've pitted and didn't have the pace/temp to fight up.

Gutted for Valtteri and Niko.  Niko was on pace for the drive of his career.  I think Seb should've waited a lap.  Max moved twice, he was being kind of a dick all day, but that's racing.  They just wasted time fighting with eachother.  

Was pretty cool to see 8 teams in the points.  I'm not sure that's happened in a decade or more.

stylngle2003 said:

 Not sure what happened with Kevin, he was squarely in the points until the restart, must've pitted and didn't have the pace/temp to fight up.

He lost a barge board and took some floor damage early on.

Late in the race he did something to put Gasly in the wall as well.

stylngle2003 said:Max moved twice, he was being kind of a dick all day, but that's Max. 

Fixed that for you.

HAH - this was an awesome race overall.  Lots of drama, lots of strong moves, and a few unintended consequences.  The Hamilton and Vettel lockups were surprising from guys at this level.  The Grosjean crash was so sad - looked like cold tires and impatience with a long safety car.  

For the Redbulls I was amazed at Riccardo's self control with his team mate for most of the race.  There were multiple times he conceded a spot rather than letting Verstappen take them both out.  

Max drives like he is in a golden figure 8 race. How much money did that stunt cost? 

It cost a whole lot of manufacturer points, which are worth real money at the end of the season - so more than just the repair costs for the two cars. I wonder how much longer RB is going to put up with his current behavior.