Formula One - 2018

I don't understand the fascination with Kimi-he's sooooo boring? Like Massa without the personality. I fast forward every interview with him, the drone puts me to sleep. I'm glad I won't have to listen to him on the podium anymore

loosecannon said:

I don't understand the fascination with Kimi-he's sooooo boring? Like Massa without the personality. I fast forward every interview with him, the drone puts me to sleep. I'm glad I won't have to listen to him on the podium anymore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvc4fJEhQpY

That was some entertaining qualifying. And if anyone saw P2 yesterday, you saw Seb hit the wall, which ruptured his cooling system- so they had a lot of work to do last night to fix that.  Ouch.

For Lewis to get a pole when everyone is pretty sure that Ferrari has a clear advantage, and by that much is pretty something.

And other than the crashes, that was the entertaining part of this race.

Is there coverage on the radio or internet radio ?    BBC Radio 5 had it but its blocked in the USA , maybe there is some other feed in English that we do not know about it. 

Or is there a cheap/free VPN that will tell the website I am in Britian ?

Thanks for your ideas

If you have a TV provider, you can watch it free via the ESPN app. I'll often just put it on in the background so I can listen.

Watching the race...

Missed the start- didn't realize that the start was 8 instead of 9- given qualifying was at 9...  So I missed the crash that caused the SC.

But did see Ferrari make a strategic mistake, and let Verstappen pass Vettel in the pits.  And then Vettel questioned the team strategy- that will go a long way.

Those tires that Ferrari gave Vettel had no chance of really challenging to the end, and Bottas *should* have been able to close on him at hte end of the race.  But Bottas spent WAY to many laps trying to lap Hulkenburg- complaining about no blue flags, even though he was nowhere near the 1.2s limit for that.  And this whole time, Vettel had to back off to save the tires.  Dude, you should have been able to pressure Seb to force him to either make a mistake or pit, but you didn't even come close to that.  Not a great drive by Bottas, by any means.

On the other hand, pretty great weekend for Hamilton.  Stunning pole time, got the start, and just managed the race to perfection.  And leaves with a 40 point lead.

In reply to alfadriver :

Well, if you get to see the start, you're going to see a Force India driver by the name of Perez seeing red and directing his anger towards his teammate. They called it a racing incident, but I clearly saw Checo jink right and place his teammate into the wall. 

 He then removed all doubt that he likes to punt people off the road with his trying to punt Sirotkin after a hard fought battle. He ended up worse off this time with a flat tire, and a penalty-thank goodness!

In reply to 2GRX7 :

I generally like Checo, but that's pretty bad.  But not quite bad enough for Force Canada to re-think the second driver to Stroll.

In reply to alfadriver :

Yeah, he's not one of my favs, but fun to watch. I just have a feeling, even though he didn't get a penalty for running into his teammate, I'm positive the team's going to go back to the telemetry to see if he was recovering from loosing traction, or if that very visual jink was him giving Ocon a, "backoff" he could feel!

Wow! from both being in the points to nothing!

So... I think the Merc engineers have pretty much neutralized the Ferrari start and speed advantage.  

The lap 40ish backmarker situation  showed why Lewis is a better overall package than Seb.  The guy has such amazing situational awareness.

In reply to Streetwiseguy : I agree, not taking away from Lewis domination, but I really wish Rosberg would have stayed around. Bottas is becoming the next Eddie Irvine.

More than ever I want LCH to finish his carrier with a WDC in a red car, just to shut up the Hamilton haters over on Ferrari Chat.  LCH is driving beyond the car while Seb and the Ferrari pit wall take it in turns to screw Ferrari's chances.  I wonder how LCH would/will fair at Ferrari where they seem to embrace the stereotypes of passion over cold hard logic and discipline as demonstrated by Toto, Niki and Co. over at Merc?

I don't wish Nico were still there at MErc.  I'd prefer they signed Ocon or someone truly hungry.  Bottas is good, very good certainly, but he lacks that last tiny bit to make him a hungry shiny happy person that's needed to be a true winner at the top of the sport.  He's had a couple of years and is running Lewis no where near as close as Nico or Button did.  Let alone the fact that those two actually beat him at times.  People have been calling for Kimi's head for a long time, but right now he's comfortably outperforming Bottas yet people aren't calling for Bottas to go for some reason.  Yes he lost a certain victory in Baku, but other than that he's not appeared dominant anywhere.

Finally, is Max getting his act together?  A few months ago I would have predicted tears on lap one as Seb passed him.  The 'old' Max would rather they both exited on lap one rather than see Seb get past.  I wonder if now Daniel has signed for Renault he feels he's got the team 100% behind him and he can really settle down to the job of winning races.  It's a real shame RB will be saddled with Honda anchors next year.  It's going to be really interesting to see how Sainz does at McLaren and Danny does at Renault, both with Renault engines compared to Max in what will certainly be an outstanding chassis with a most like E36 M3ty engine.  Both Carlos and Daniel can make a legitimate case of being able to say they were Max's equal when they were team mates. 

In reply to trigun7469 :

I made comments on Bottas already, but no, he'll never be a big enough self opinionated utter A hole to ever be compared to Irvine.

Adrian_Thompson said:

More than ever I want LCH to finish his carrier with a WDC in a red car, just to shut up the Hamilton haters over on Ferrari Chat.  LCH is driving beyond the car while Seb and the Ferrari pit wall take it in turns to screw Ferrari's chances.  I wonder how LCH would/will fair at Ferrari where they seem to embrace the stereotypes of passion over cold hard logic and discipline as demonstrated by Toto, Niki and Co. over at Merc?

I don't wish Nico were still there at MErc.  I'd prefer they signed Ocon or someone truly hungry.  Bottas is good, very good certainly, but he lacks that last tiny bit to make him a hungry shiny happy person that's needed to be a true winner at the top of the sport.  He's had a couple of years and is running Lewis no where near as close as Nico or Button did.  Let alone the fact that those two actually beat him at times.  People have been calling for Kimi's head for a long time, but right now he's comfortably outperforming Bottas yet people aren't calling for Bottas to go for some reason.  Yes he lost a certain victory in Baku, but other than that he's not appeared dominant anywhere.

Finally, is Max getting his act together?  A few months ago I would have predicted tears on lap one as Seb passed him.  The 'old' Max would rather they both exited on lap one rather than see Seb get past.  I wonder if now Daniel has signed for Renault he feels he's got the team 100% behind him and he can really settle down to the job of winning races.  It's a real shame RB will be saddled with Honda anchors next year.  It's going to be really interesting to see how Sainz does at McLaren and Danny does at Renault, both with Renault engines compared to Max in what will certainly be an outstanding chassis with a most like E36 M3ty engine.  Both Carlos and Daniel can make a legitimate case of being able to say they were Max's equal when they were team mates. 

Please, no. I hope Hameeeeeeeeelton finishes his career at Mercedes with 8 WDCs.

I remember SCREAMING at the TV his rookie season when he beached it going into the pits at the Chinese GP and losing the WDC as a rookie.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again...  Hamilton is head and shoulders above any driver in F1 right now.  I’d place Kimi second, and it’s a shame Ferrari can’t see how much better at race management, and more importantly, stress/pressure management, Kimi is than Vettel.

Rossberg’s WDC was a “go(ing) away” present from Mercedes.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson : Bottas is not a playbody either Lolz. I don't buy into the matra of the merc car being inferior to Ferrari especially when Lewis has been in the back of the field carving up cars like they are from the F2 series. The difference probably has to be determined by a high powered machine. Lewis might be the best but he isn't doing it in a McLaren or Williams, he has the best team on the grid with the a teammate that is focused on his success. Success should be celebrated and can create dynasties, but it's not exciting to watch someone dominate and turn down their engine.

In reply to racerfink :

Hammy is currently, the best in the sport, hands down! I still watch Alonso and what he's capable of doing in that McLaren, and it saddens me that he was so badly steered by the Biatore Managment Co. during the Spygate mess. For some reason, Biatore really believed his M. Shuey formula for success (a CLEAR #1 and #2 driver hierarchy) was going to work for Alonso. Wrong team-wrong time!  This guys supposed to have three more championships under his belt right now!

I truly believe Hamilton proved he was a faster driver than Alonso in the 07' season-not necessarily the most well rounded-just the fastest. It would be great to see a Hammy/Alonso team together again just to see who's grown/develop the most.

Adrian_Thompson said:

 

Finally, is Max getting his act together?  A few months ago I would have predicted tears on lap one as Seb passed him.  The 'old' Max would rather they both exited on lap one rather than see Seb get past.  I wonder if now Daniel has signed for Renault he feels he's got the team 100% behind him and he can really settle down to the job of winning races.  

You say that, and then there was that temper tantrum a couple of races ago when he refused to take the strategic view of his 5 second penalty and lost himself 4th place because of it. Someone definitely had a talk with him about crashing - maybe the mechanics took him out back for a little persuasion - but he's still not mature enough to see the big picture. Hamilton wins championships because he plays the long game, evaluating strategy moment by moment on a season-long timescale. Until Max starts doing that, he's going to losing to someone who is.

The Mercedes is certainly a top level car, but it's not dominant the way it was in the early days of the hybrid era. Lewis is earning his wins now, and it's showing some really interesting differences between Vettel and Hamilton.

Hamilton and MB put it together for Singapore. I don't think Ferrari dropped the ball or made mistakes. They were straight beaten by a team that figured out their car for this street venue. The whole keep the rear tires cool engineering changes were a cool moment of seeing part of why a car got better.

Hamilton's pole lap was incredible. Reminded me of Jarno Trulli's 2004 Pole lap at Monaco. Full use of the traction circle at every moment. 

I just can't understand why Ocon tried to go outside of Perez on lap 1. On lap 2 or later it would be reasonable to think Perez would know he was there. I worry Ocon's stability is failing given the unfair chance of him being without a drive next year. WTF. 

I understand the idea of putting Vettel in ultrasofts but it was a bit of a long reach in my mind. 

I have to say it but I think it will hurt my brain.... Verstappen drove a good race, fought well when needed and held back at appropriate times.

Raikkonen to Sauber? He was my favorite driver for many years. But Ferrari couldn't slot in any new blood? I don't get how it is a plus for Sauber. Yes he has experience but...IDK. Go Kimi!

Keith Tanner said:

The Mercedes is certainly a top level car, but it's not dominant the way it was in the early days of the hybrid era. Lewis is earning his wins now, and it's showing some really interesting differences between Vettel and Hamilton.

Yeah.  Back in 2014 or so, either Hamilton or Rosberg could start DFL and finish 2nd.  They'd breeze past every car in the field.  Today they're on a tier with Ferrari and (usually) Red Bull.  Start DFL and tthey'll breeze through up to 10th or so, get a bit of challenge at that point, and probably finish 6th barring mistakes/misfortune from one of the other top tier cars.

I am pretty sure Lewis was trying to trade trophies with Valteri on the podium.

I totally understand team orders.  I also feel bad, really, for both drivers.

And, wow Max.  What a drive, dude.

Interesting race more from how little I felt I got to see of the midfield battles. Yes the race for the win was on but still all we got was some quick shots of torro rosso spins and a couple of replays of passes. I would have like more of the story of how the cars got to where they were. No footage apparently of the 1st lap incidents for Ricciardo and a couple other drivers hitting a bunch of debris. I didn't think Ricciardo would drive that slowly without some damage but we didn't know anything until they changed his wing at the pitstop. 

Bottas will be gutted, but MB handled the win as best they could after the race. Muted celebrations. Bottas knew from last year that Hamilton has him just beat. Heck even Vettel is starting to realize that even in equal cars Hamilton might just be simply faster. Over the seasons there were a few tracks where Hamilton falters but Bottas can get the win for MB and that is probably why they signed him. He is going to just have to look into a mirror this week and realize he needs to beat Hamilton for real early in the season, take a win whenever Hamilton stumbles or better yet beat Hamilton at his best tracks. This year Bottas just had bad luck from a tire puncture and engine failure during races that he was on path to win plus another loss from bad pit tactics. 

Force india may be saved by money but I really hope they don't go the way of McLaren and lose their spirit and focus. The Force India leadership had to have some part in making the team what they have been. It seems from the outside that the politics of the change are already denting their capability to punch above their size.

Streetwiseguy said:

I am pretty sure Lewis was trying to trade trophies with Valteri on the podium.

Yeah, but the FIA likes to hand out expensive fines if you mess with the podium ceremony.

I am wondering how Liberty feels about the last races of 2018. I feel bad for people who paid a ticket and watched Q2. Lewis has the championship locked up. Vers turned down his engine instead of tracking down Kimi in the last race. The only articles being stirred up is Bottas pulling over, which is standard protocol in F1.

God Almighty, when I watch the race highlights on YouTube I want to stuff my fist and forearm down the throat of that shrill Bob Costas spewing E36M3 during the entire first lap of the race.   Why, for once, can he not let the inherent drama of the first lap carry itself and shut the berkeley up!