Formula One - 2018

Keith Tanner said:

T.J. said:

 O fine, no docking of constructors points and no grid penalties. Just make them only have two guys on the left rear for all pitstops for a couple races. 

I like that one. Hurt a guy, you don't get to replace him until he's cleared to play.

I don't know about all this.  I can practically guarantee nobody on the Ferrari team, from cranky manager dude down to the floor sweeper, wanted Kimi to bust his tire carriers leg.  One of the pieces of the deal that makes it an adrenaline game, is the possibility of Kimi missing the brake pedal and driving through you.  A pittance of a fine, or a billion Euros isn't going to change that.  We are not talking about cars bursting into flame here.  We are talking about an athlete who will mostly recover, just like Joe Montana.

Sometimes E36 M3 happens.  When it happens, you go through your processes, and try to make it less likely that such a thing will happen again.  If you do the inspection properly, you may also notice something else that could go wrong, and fix that too.  Really, the fact of F1 making the drivers stop and abandon their car after noticing a loose wheel is greater punishment, because it removes point scoring, which could end up costing the team many millions of dollars in manufacturers points at the end of the year.

I like Tom's suggestion of docking constructor points for an unsafe release.  I also still stand by my suggestion of going to Indy car style one person per corner and air jacks for safety.  Although if anyone watched the (outstanding) Phoenix Indy car race from Saturday night both Alexander Rossi and Sebastian Bourdais both locked up entering their pits (it was dusty and it was the first stop of the race) and slid into their respective left front tire guys.  Neither were hurt and both got up and changed the tires.  Both drivers also suffered both a very slow stop which cost them position (race lead for Seabass) and then had to do a drive through penalty which was I feel appropriate.

RE: The Ferrari pit stop.  The commentators said that the left rear on the car (as shown on screen) was the yellow soft tire and that it had not been removed.  But other sources are saying that the wrong tire(yellow soft) had been brought out rather than the red supersoft that was supposed to be put on.

Has anyone heard anything about this.  Either way it was probably the cause of the incident.

Woo-hoo, all 2018 F1 races (and qualifying) to run commercial free! Bravo ESPN and Mothers...

Formula One with no commercials

According to Jalopnik, Mothers has stepped up to provide commercial-free viewing for the rest of the season on ESPN.

Now I just have to figure out how I can watch it without a cable subscription.

Hal said:

RE: The Ferrari pit stop.  The commentators said that the left rear on the car (as shown on screen) was the yellow soft tire and that it had not been removed.  But other sources are saying that the wrong tire(yellow soft) had been brought out rather than the red supersoft that was supposed to be put on.

 

Has anyone heard anything about this.  Either way it was probably the cause of the incident.

The dude that got run over was the tire putter-onner, and he had a red tire in his hands.  The yellow never came off.  He got run over because he was waiting to put his tire on, and it never happened.

Ricciardo's troubles continue in China. Red Bull is not getting 2018 started in a good way.

Thank god they had Anthony Davidson talking about the driving. I can never understand the words coming out of diresta mouth.

What are Renault saying about their engines, this is rough, they have 3 each for the year and so far 3 are damaged? Is that correct?

Last year Renault got pissed when Red Bull called them out on the engine issues, this year is off the great start for them to redeem their name.   NOT

This year is starting in a familiar way, isn't it?  Other than Hammy getting the penalty in Australia, Seb was quicker on the first few tracks last year, so it all kinda adds up the same.

Or not?

Well, Red Bull's engine contract with Renault is up soon.  The Honda in the Toro Rosso is a trial run.  If the Honda keeps delivering anywhere near what it did in Bahrain and the Renault keeps failing...   Ill bet that Red Bull will join Toro Rosso in the Honda camp next year. 

Bottas outqualifies Hamilton!! Well now, that doesn't happen very often. All Ferrari front row. That doesn't happen much, either.

Hamilton seems a bit shaky so far. Blew the hairpin and aborted his lap. 

Keith Tanner said:

According to Jalopnik, Mothers has stepped up to provide commercial-free viewing for the rest of the season on ESPN.

Now I just have to figure out how I can watch it without a cable subscription.

If you figure it out, please let me know.  Granted, I've now entered "do stuff outside" season, so I'm rarely in the house when the races are on TV unless it happens to be raining.

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

Wow, what a helluva comeback! If the rest of the 2018 season goes like this, it's going to be epic. Nice to see actual racing in F1.

Driver of the day: Ricciardo

Pass of the day: Alonso

Crybaby and Bob Costas of the day: As always Vettel

I hope they shut him down for the bs moves like driving Kimi off at the start

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.  

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.

Wow!   Another exciting race!

Congrats Daniel and the RB team great call to capitalize on tire strategy.

From a bad Saturday and possibly starting in the back to a great pit call and a win!

Fantastic!

I bet that getting past Vettel will somewhat recharge Alonso's batteries, he wasn't one of my favorites but is a great driver, good to see him move forward.

Vettel sniveling about getting block passed is a spoiled brat response. He has made the same move thousands of times. The guy has skills but sheds too many tears.

Verstappen made a mistake getting into Vettel, but if you watch the replay it was almost like Vettel baited Verstappen into it by limping into turn one wide and slamming the door after Verstappen was committed. At that point Verstappen was late braking and on the grip threshold and could not have braked any more to stay off Vettel.

It would have been a fantastic result to see RB finish 1 - 2!

Great comparison between Danny and Max.  Don't get to see racing like this much in F1, but Danny has shown time and time again, that when the chips are down,he'll go for the pass and most of the time pull it off.  Max, not so much.  If Max ever learns to steady out, he'll be great, but he's had enough time in the seat now, it's time t step up and start making mature decisions.  He's bloody fast, but it also takes judgment.  I'd say Danny will have several choice seats offered in the next few months.

Today makes Danny's comments on Bottas at the last race ring true - and he would probably have made itt stick.

markwemple said:

Driver of the day: Ricciardo

Pass of the day: Alonso

Crybaby and Bob Costas of the day: As always Vettel

 

I hope they shut him down for the bs moves like driving Kimi off at the start

Passes of the day: Danny Ric, even on fresher tires the passes he made on the Mercedes were incredible, on Hamilton he was literally 3-4 car lengths back getting into the braking zone. Didn't lock up, didn't run wide, didn't crash someone...........ahem......Verstappen.......ahem.

Boring race....

Till it was awesome!

All the pole sitters pull that move at the start. And they're all whiners. 

As many others have said, Max has burned through his "he's still young" period. At this point, he should know better than to keep trying these low-percentage moves.