Formula One - 2018

Not so eventful after lap 1. Hartley and Erricson were a fun fight. Unfortunately Spa didn't deliver a lot of action. 

As an aside. I understood exactly what Hamilton meant about Ferrari having a trick car. It is frustrating that some think he meant it has some kind of cheat. He could have said "nice", "sweet", "swift" or "FN Fast". Click bait stuff there I guess. 

Ferrari was quick I wonder if Kimi could have won this over Vettel. They crushed MB this event. Monza should be even fight though. I hope MB can get Hamilton something to fight with. 

In reply to Advan046 :

Monza will be interesting, but I really expect more of the same.  Really, since Monza is Ferrari's home track- my gut tells me that the speed we saw at Spa is more intended for Monza.  

Horner is funny- especially since he's been complaining of the speed of Ferrari and Mercedes for many years, now, and really whining for years over his motor's lack of power.  For Hamilton to complain about Ferrari's power must have been a kick in his balls.  And given how Red Bull has treated Renault, he's earned it.

So much has been made of Lewis using the word "trick" and I don't know if it has another meaning in other parts of the world but since I was a kid in the 80's, we used "trick" to describe anything that was cool or special. I wonder if Ferrari's speed means a new era of Vettel championsships?

Yeah, I'd take "trick" as meaning "tricked out". I was thinking that he was so silent on the radio that nobody would be able to say he was whining, but there you go - one word in a post-race interview and everyone's all over it again.

It's taken me a long time to warm up to Vettel. I think his racecraft has improved since the Red Bull days - I really liked that move he pulled on Hamilton on lap 1. Nicely set up, especially with the two Force Indias also coming in and messing with Hamilton at the same time. That move made the race, especially since he was able to boogie out and get clear enough to avoid Lewis coming back on him with a tow. I don't think I would have made him Driver of the Day, but that usually just goes to Verstappen or the winner automatically anyhow.

Ferrari's had the better car all year, but they just haven't been able to crush Mercedes. For all the talk of how "hopeless" MB is at strategy, they've somehow managed to take the lead in both drivers and constructors championships. It's looking to be a hard-fought second half for sure.

Bottas must be sick of having to work his way through the field. He's done it over and over, but I'll bet he'd much rather be fighting for the win. At least he didn't finish the race on cords for a change.

Ferrari clearly has the pace this year, their strategy blunders and Lewis' pure ability are the only reason Vettel isn't running away with this thing. If Lewis manages to hold on and win #5, it will be his greatest feat as a driver, IMO.

What has Hulkenbuerg said about taking out a quarter of the field on the first turn?

Hits Alonso, launching him into and over Le Clerc, Alonso's car destroys Ricciardo's rear wing, Ricciardo hits Kimi and gives him a puncture and maybe DRS damage, Alonso then goes to land on Le Clerc and of course the Hulkster himself is out. Five cars, although two of them soldiered on for some laps before giving in.

EDIT: I just watched the post race interview with Hulkenberg. At least he came right out and took the blame. Basically said he thought there would be more grip and he misjudged his braking point. E36 M3 happens I suppose. I'd like to know what his mistake costs in terms of repairing/replacing the cars, plus whatever points could've been won by the drivers who had to retire.

T.J. said:

EDIT: I just watched the post race interview with Hulkenberg. At least he came right out and took the blame. Basically said he thought there would be more grip and he misjudged his braking point. E36 M3 happens I suppose. I'd like to know what his mistake costs in terms of repairing/replacing the cars, plus whatever points could've been won by the drivers who had to retire.

E36 M3 happens, especially on the first lap at La Source.

20 years ago, these sorts of first corner crashes happened every third race or so.  Typically they'd red flag the race, and a red flag within 2 laps of the start meant that drivers could get into the spare car and take the restart.  So you'd often see 3 or 4 drivers sprinting back to the pit lane after that kind of incident. :)

Advan046 said:

As an aside. I understood exactly what Hamilton meant about Ferrari having a trick car. It is frustrating that some think he meant it has some kind of cheat. He could have said "nice", "sweet", "swift" or "FN Fast". Click bait stuff there I guess. 

 

THIS!!! You should see some of the crap people are saying on other boards- basically typical "dog whistling" that goes on when racist want to stay incognito. 

We all know that Lewis spends A LOT of his free time in L.A. where the word "trick" is a staple and the word is meant to acknowledge just bad-ass, cool stuff. SMH!

In reply to codrus :

Definitely a E36 M3 happens type incident. Things like that will always happen from time to time in racing as long as humans are behind the wheel.I liked that he basically said he screwed up instead of pulling Grosjean.

T.J. said:

EDIT: I just watched the post race interview with Hulkenberg. At least he came right out and took the blame. Basically said he thought there would be more grip and he misjudged his braking point. E36 M3 happens I suppose. I'd like to know what his mistake costs in terms of repairing/replacing the cars, plus whatever points could've been won by the drivers who had to retire.

Well, those points did get taken by other drivers, so it wasn't really a "cost". The carbon shops are going to be busy for a while. That McLaren looked incredibly beat up with the sidepod peeled away and coolant jetting out the side.

Seeing Red Bull send Ricciardo back out with the new wing just in case was kinda cool. That's proper racing for you. Had there been a safety car that would have let him unlap himself, he could have made it into the points and picked up a lot of attention.

Keith Tanner said:

Well, those points did get taken by other drivers, so it wasn't really a "cost".

Tell that to Ferrari and Reb Bull. The points correlate to prize money at the end of season, so getting taken out by a competitor certainly has some cost associated with it in terms of the points race from a team's perspective.

Yes, and someone else got them. They're just redistributed, they're not actually lost.

All that bodywork, it was lost as it does not redistribute well.

Seriously wondering how much that one incident cost in terms of just car damage. Alonso's car in particular did not survive very well. Maybe the others were not nearly as much damage. What is the cost of a replacement floor on one of these cars? I suppose the big cost is in the development and the design. Once they have a design, getting the carbon shop to create another example is small dollars in comparison, but big dollars in terms of regular people.

Keith Tanner said:

Yes, and someone else got them. They're just redistributed, they're not actually lost.

All that bodywork, it was lost as it does not redistribute well.

With that type of logic, maybe you could give half of your salary....since you wouldn't be losing anything.

I wouldn't be losing as much as you'd think!

But I think you get my point. Some people MAY have lots points in that fracas. Or they may not have. And some others got points they probably wouldn't have. We'll never really know. Points weren't really "lost" overall, but we can come up with scenarios where they might have ended up with different people. Getting around the first corner is no guarantee of points. Verstappen might have had a relapse and taken them all out one by one.

Car repair costs, that's a loss. The paddock as a whole had to spend a lot of money to deal with the results. I'll bet that was one really, really expensive accident just for parts, never mind the wasted investment made by the teams to transport those cars and their support structure to the race.

Keith Tanner said:

Verstappen might have had a relapse and taken them all out one by one.

Too funny not to quote, I'm in the Netherlands right now so trying to bite my tongue about Max.

Adam

So Honda at Spa, good fight with Sauber powered by Ferrari. 

No smoke

No whinny GP2 engine stuff. 

H

Tom_Spangler said:

Ferrari clearly has the pace this year, their strategy blunders and Lewis' pure ability are the only reason Vettel isn't running away with this thing. If Lewis manages to hold on and win #5, it will be his greatest feat as a driver, IMHO.

I came here to discuss this.  If Lewis manages to get his fifth, it will certainly be a great feat, but... If Seb doesn't manage to quit berking up and take the championship, I think it could be seen as one of the great failures in F1.  Without going back and rewatching the season, I would suggest Seb should be 25-50 points up on Lewis just now, with most of those points gone because of his, or Ferrari's mistakes. 

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

So true, Vettel would be leading the championship by a nice chunk if it weren't for his own mess ups. I do a lot of racing and so often the victory goes to the driver who makes the least mistakes, not the quickest driver or car.

In reply to Streetwiseguy : No I think Massa in 2008 had the most epic loss of the championship.

loosecannon said:

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

So true, Vettel would be leading the championship by a nice chunk if it weren't for his own mess ups. I do a lot of racing and so often the victory goes to the driver who makes the least mistakes, not the quickest driver or car.

If it always went to the fastest car, we wouldn't have to actually race the races!

Kimi the freekin 'Iceman' has thrown a beatdown on Monza qualifying....1.19.119 @ 163.75mph !!!! 

I didn't used to be a huge Kimi fan,but the last two seasons have shown that he is still very, very fast, and with a little better luck (or maybe "luck" i.e. better/more even team management) could still win (i.e. "he knows what he's doing").  His qually times are always very, very close to Seb (and sometimes quicker).  I know all the talk is for Lecretc at Ferrari next year, but I think the Scuderia would be well served to keep Kimi, no one else is demonstrably quicker.  If they let him go, I'd love to see him at Haas and maybe put a hurt on some of the drivers of the "big three".

Jim Pettengill said:

I didn't used to be a huge Kimi fan,but the last two seasons have shown that he is still very, very fast, and with a little better luck (or maybe "luck" i.e. better/more even team management) could still win (i.e. "he knows what he's doing").  His qually times are always very, very close to Seb (and sometimes quicker).  I know all the talk is for Lecretc at Ferrari next year, but I think the Scuderia would be well served to keep Kimi, no one else is demonstrably quicker.  If they let him go, I'd love to see him at Haas and maybe put a hurt on some of the drivers of the "big three".

Remember his time at Lotus not too long ago??? hmmmm Haas sounds very interesting

Pits: "That's pole"

Kimi: "Thank you."