I'm sitting a couple of hours away from Montreal right now. If I didn't have a family thing going on this weekend, I'd be at the track. Argh!
I'm sitting a couple of hours away from Montreal right now. If I didn't have a family thing going on this weekend, I'd be at the track. Argh!
So far, aside from the Mercedes dominance the season has been pretty good. The Midfield is tight and I like to see a small resurgence from the McLaren boys.
Monaco is always a race that can cause havoc, and a bit of rain would have changed the whole thing, too bad it didn't happen. Here are my takes so far on what we have seen.
1. Mercedes has the car to beat. They will always say they don't, but in the end the team has done some great work to make the car bullet proof. Barring any unforeseen mental breakdowns in their drivers, the constructors crown and drivers crown is in their pocket.
2. Ferrari has put all their eggs in the Vettel basket, and they have not given him the car to make it happen. Add to that some poor strategy calls and they are in a position to come 3rd in the constructors championship behind the RedBulls.
2.a) They have a great talent in LeClerc. Ferrari need to get Vettel to mentor him so that LeClerc can grow and mature faster. This kid has talent. If it wasn't for the mechanical issue he had in the 2nd or 3rd race, LeClerc would have won that one.
3. Verstappen has grown up and matured, Immensely. I have not been a huge fan of his, but we have seen some great patience and driving from Max this year. I think Jos has had a talking to his son and it is showing.
4. WHERE THE HECK DID HONDA COME FROM!!! Honda was no where with McLaren and here they are in 2019 with 2 teams, comparable power and reliability to Ferrari. Watch them, they are coming and want to win races. They may surprise in Austria.
5. Renault has gone backwards. I am disappointed. I wanted to see Riciardo doing better, and thought Renault would give him the car. There is time, but McLaren has a better car at the moment, and are using it to their advantage. Even though they are down on power and reliability.
6. Being a Mclaren fan, I will end on this one. With the addition of Andreas Sidel from the Porsche 919 I call a McLaren Resurection. Only good things to come from this team.
Ok, I'm done. Can't wait to see what happens in Montreal.
Is anyone heading up to Montreal? I last went in 2010, heading out after work tomorrow for the weekend. Looks like a nice warm and dry race.
Things seemed clear after fp1. Not so much after fp2.
Also, Google couche-tard, select English, and tell me what it means when it gets to the Williams ad.
So, F1 released a video titled "How Vettel Beat Hamilton to Pole in Canada." It shows a replay of the cars in sector 3 and a nice graphic of where they are relative to each other, but there's no commentary actually speaking about the "how" of the lap. There is no data about throttle position or anything else. It looks like there is, for all intents and purposes, nothing between them for the entire sector with the exception of the straight from the hairpin to the final chicane. It's also the only part of the track where I could see the two driver's lines were notably different.
What say GRM? Why did Seb do so much better after seeming to miss the apex a bit? I'm currently thinking the track is just a bit grippier on Seb's line, but it could also have to do with a straighter exit or keeping the engine in its power band a bit better.
I'm not really a particular fan of Ferrari or Better, but five seconds for that seems like a garbage call.
I almost turned it off when they announced the 5 second penalty against Vettel, disgusted
Considering that Hamilton lost a race to Ferrari for a lame penalty a decade ago, a least the FIA is consistent. But we knew this time before the end of the race that there was a penalty, vs when Lewis passed Kimi after letting him by for a bad corner- and we didn't hear about it until after the race.
Now will be the real mental challenge to Seb. Can he mentally recover from this or not?
Seb got screwed. Nice that he stuck his hand out to Lewis. I wonder what the FIA will do, if anything about him moving the #1 and #2 signs. That gave me a laugh.
In NASCAR that would just be a racing incident.
I don't know, I wanted to see it happen on the track, but it was an unsafe return, he didn't have control of the car when he came back on track, and just went straight to the racing line. If I had done that in a WRL or Champcar race, I would have probably gotten a black flag and had to come in for an ass chewing. These guys are the best of the best, should they not be held to the same standards?
Let me start by saying that I don't like Seb, and I think he's a bit of a douche.
In this case, he got screwed. If he had come on track backwards, he would be re-entering the track unsafely... He woulda bounced it off the wall and collected Lewis, but he wouldn't have got a penalty.
Too bad they can't appeal.
Not really invested in F1 but I watched the race with a group. That last little twitch to the outside by Vettel looked egregious, not to mention it wouldn't have even happened if he hadn't blown the turn a second back. He put himself in that position and twitched out to keep his lead. At least, that's what it looked like on tv.
Really dumb decision on the stewards part. Narrow track, walls on both sides. I guess they thought Vettel should’ve crashed instead?
No, he should have lifted until he got back on track but then he would have given up the lead.
In reply to iceracer :
Looked like he pretty much slid back on track and wasn’t completely in control until Hamilton had to brake.
I can understand the penalty. It suckers but I get it. They have to have the rule in place as it is or the drivers would get back on track with out regard for on coming traffic and just claim they were not in control of the car. Just bad luck for Vettle
iceracer said:No, he should have lifted until he got back on track but then he would have given up the lead.
But, but, in the lead. Lift? No one there is gonna lift at that level when P1 is on the line. And replays show the twitch largely resulting from the transition back to the track. I put this on par with The Pass at Laguna Seca by Zanardi. Hamilton would have done the same.
HoserRacing said:I don't know, I wanted to see it happen on the track, but it was an unsafe return, he didn't have control of the car when he came back on track, and just went straight to the racing line. If I had done that in a WRL or Champcar race, I would have probably gotten a black flag and had to come in for an ass chewing. These guys are the best of the best, should they not be held to the same standards?
If he was "out of control" (your words) then Vettel's car ending up on the racing line was fate and physics.
oldsaw said:HoserRacing said:I don't know, I wanted to see it happen on the track, but it was an unsafe return, he didn't have control of the car when he came back on track, and just went straight to the racing line. If I had done that in a WRL or Champcar race, I would have probably gotten a black flag and had to come in for an ass chewing. These guys are the best of the best, should they not be held to the same standards?
If he was "out of control" (your words) then Vettel's car ending up on the racing line was fate and physics.
That, and his steering correction put him there. Either way, he got back on track and forced another car to take action- if he was out of control that is unsafe, if he was in control it was forcing another car off the track. No matter which is chosen, it's not good for Seb.
I am a huge Hamilton fan.
That penalty was garbage. It shouldn't even apply. That penalty is for coming back onto the track after an incident that you need to purposely rejoin. I would argue that it was one incident and that ruling shouldn't apply.
Meaning, like they said on the race broadcast, if you spun, don't pull out on the racing line in front of a car at speed.
I don't think it should apply to a hairy moment where the incident took you off track for a split second and generally back on where you would have been.
wvumtnbkr said:I am a huge Hamilton fan.
That penalty was garbage. It shouldn't even apply. That penalty is for coming back onto the track after an incident that you need to purposely rejoin. I would argue that it was one incident and that ruling shouldn't apply.
Meaning, like they said on the race broadcast, if you spun, don't pull out on the racing line in front of a car at speed.
I don't think it should apply to a hairy moment where the incident took you off track for a split second and generally back on where you would have been.
The problem is that then drivers can leave the racing surface (cut corners) and use it to hold the lead. Like I said it sucks but they have to have the rule. At this level these drivers would exploit it if the rule was not in place.
The FIA really stepped on their own dick today.
dean1484 said:wvumtnbkr said:I am a huge Hamilton fan.
That penalty was garbage. It shouldn't even apply. That penalty is for coming back onto the track after an incident that you need to purposely rejoin. I would argue that it was one incident and that ruling shouldn't apply.
Meaning, like they said on the race broadcast, if you spun, don't pull out on the racing line in front of a car at speed.
I don't think it should apply to a hairy moment where the incident took you off track for a split second and generally back on where you would have been.
The problem is that then drivers can leave the racing surface (cut corners) and use it to hold the lead. Like I said it sucks but they have to have the rule. At this level these drivers would exploit it if the rule was not in place.
I'm not an fia rules expert, but isn't that what the leaving the track and gaining an advantage is for? That should have been the call there (if they had to call anything).
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