FORMULA ONE - 2019

I think Norris was on mediums pretty early, yes. They didn't show his second stop, it happened about the time that Sebastien had his little whoopsie so everyone was distracted.

Formula One at it's best for sure and yes Virginia even 4 time world champions get it really wrong from time to time. 

Poor Bottas; I can hear is inner Homer Simpson voice "Stupid Safety Car".

As a Hamilton fan I'm rooting for his 6th championship but does it have to be clinched by August? At this rate it seems like it's going to be but if the races continue to be this good then I won't care.

Two (2) many gas bag commentators.....but the TV coverage of the leaders and the back marker racing was great!

Rog

759NRNG said:.

What instances of 'head to head' are you refering to .....pre Ferrari?

Did you actually watch those races?  Ferrari won 5 in a row, yes, but it was really only 2002 and 2004 that were runaway dominant.  2003 ended with a 2 point gap between Schumacher and Kimi, and don't forget 98 and 99 when Mika won.

Schumacher was actually not a great qualifier, he's got ~ 40% more wins than poles (91 to 68).  Vettel has slightly fewer wins than poles (52 and 56), as does Hamilton (80 and 86).

Tom1200 said:

Poor Bottas; I can hear is inner Homer Simpson voice "Stupid Safety Car".

I tend to think Hamilton would have won the race even without the safety car.  He had way more pace than Bottas did.

I like how a few races ago Vettal was some sort of calculating machine that could put his car exactly where he wanted to the mm while sliding through the grass to block Hamilton while looking through the back of his head and this race he literally rear ends the car in front of him.

Javelin said:

I like how a few races ago Vettal was some sort of calculating machine that could put his car exactly where he wanted to the mm while sliding through the grass to block Hamilton while looking through the back of his head and this race he literally rear ends the car in front of him.

I'd say both events were similar in cause- He outbraked himself.  Difference is, once he gained an advantage by going off track, and in the other, he didn't.  Both cases, he got a time penalty.

Streetwiseguy said:

Javelin said:

I like how a few races ago Vettal was some sort of calculating machine that could put his car exactly where he wanted to the mm while sliding through the grass to block Hamilton while looking through the back of his head and this race he literally rear ends the car in front of him.

I'd say both events were similar in cause- He outbraked himself.  Difference is, once he gained an advantage by going off track, and in the other, he didn't.  Both cases, he got a time penalty.

Which is to say that Vettel is having a lot of mental issues dealing with the pressure.  Now that he's 100 points behind, will he relax and start driving, or pressure more, and we will see him crash even more?  Lest we forget, the race on the 27th is the anniversary of him throwing away a win in Germany.  After that happened, he's really done nothing but give us reasons to question him.

@codrus I to think Hamiton would have won either way but in the moment it happened......."Stupid Safety Car"

As for the comments on Vettal......we're a tough crowd. As an amateur racer I'm always a bit trepidatious about  making comments  on drivers.  Vettal got it really wrong, but from the in car he simply came up about a foot short then locked up the brakes and then it al went to hell.

codrus said:

Tom1200 said:

Poor Bottas; I can hear is inner Homer Simpson voice "Stupid Safety Car".

I tend to think Hamilton would have won the race even without the safety car.  He had way more pace than Bottas did.

 

The Autosport analyst agrees with you. Even if the safety car had not happened, Lewis was doing a medium/hard strategy and Bottas was locked into a medium/medium/hard strategy and if the safety car had not happened, Bottas would have had to pit a second time anyways and Lewis didn't need to. Lewis himself said as much after the race. Bottas was destined for 2nd place regardless, or 3rd if Max hadn't been punted off the track

That was a good race. I noted the cuts to the crowd as a European tv director trend that hopefully will wane. But actually noted that the director made some good choices of focusing on the right  cluster of cars. We got to see the Hamilton Bottas fight, the Max Leclerc battle into and out the pits. Riccardo's McLaren duels. Vettel Max bash. Etc. I forgave the one crowd shot. 

It sometimes is the camera guy missing their queue. Anyhow.

The race was great. Hamilton had the race pace from the start to win.

Vettel saw a gap, based on his on board it looked as if Max was going to leave a gap. So I felt it a justified move. Then he noticed it wasn't going to be room at the corner. He tried to abort but couldn't get right of Max. NP.

Perez into Hulk was not fun. And the Haas guys can't even battle Williams. My joke prediction unfortunately is coming true for them.

Bottas has to crush Hamilton in a race soon to have a chance. Like pull a 20 second gap. 

Leclerc and Gasly did  wonderful races!

In reply to Advan046 :

What gap?  Max made a mistake in the previous corner, so he was going to protect the inside line the whole time.  He never left any more than a half car to the edge of the track, and would have never pulled to the racing line.  That's where I don't understand Vettel's move.  Stay on the racing line, and you may have gotten him on the outside of the corner- or at least been able to blame him for pushing you off the track.  Instead, he saw something that wasn't there.

On the Haas front- I think I posted this question before- I wonder how much of their problem is dealing with the Ferrari suspension concept, but not fully understanding it enough to get race pace.  They are forced into the same concept, since they buy all of the suspension parts from Ferrari, and it's not really as if Ferrari has a clear understanding.  Just look at the end of the race yesterday- seeing both Mercedes cars drive away from the Red Bull and Ferrari quartet was really amazing.  And both teams knew they had to keep up enough to keep Bottas outside of a pit window.  The only races where Mercedes has problems is when it's so hot they can't use full power.  Then add to the Haas problems the massive drama of Rich Energy- takes away a lot of focus to make new stuff- and one wonders if promised money has not shown up, so the car is delayed in it's development program.

On the other hand, it's certainly nice to see Williams make progress.  If they can actually fight for a position by the end of the season, that would be huge progress.  For them, I really wonder where in the process the system failed...  Model, wind tunnel, manufuacturing- something drifted off the right path.

A large part of HAAS problems revolve around Grosjean.

 Crashes constantly and never stops whining about everything.

 Seriously his time is up.

In reply to kevlarcorolla :

Both drivers have had their issues, sure.  But that does not explain why they have totally lost race pace.  The car is decent for qualifying, but can not maitain tire temps more than a handful of laps, and then it's pretty useless- which forces both drivers to push harder and make dumb mistakes.  And I'm betting they are getting really frustrated with the car issues, which contributes to the mental weight.

I don't see changing drivers fixing the car problems Haas has this season.

In reply to alfadriver :

True as well,I for one think there's too much younger talent for Grosjean to stay.....I can't see his attitude helping the team overall.

 Only 20'ish cars on grid,they should cycle thru those not performing/offering something special a little quicker in some cases.

In reply to kevlarcorolla :

If they could find someone like George Russel, Haas should jump all over that, as I see him as an integral part of Williams improving. 

Other than that, I’d shy away from messing up a career. 

 I agree except the career bit,they get their shot.....if no other teams want the driver that says they don't really deserve the F1 career.

 Move to sportscar with the rest of the has beens

Hmm,where'd the remainder of my post go above?.

 Should've had smiley after the has been bit.

 And its time for Ocon to be back on the grid.

Agreed, but he's tainted with Mercedes cooties so it's unlikely a Ferrari team would be willing to take him.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

 Didn't mean to imply ocon had to be in a HAAS,not many options if he can only go with mercedes powered cars though.

 Bottas is doing a much better job of actually racing Lewis then Nico ever did so hard to see him lose the seat at the end of the season.

Not only is he racing Lewis, he's doing so without a poisonous team atmosphere. It would be pretty difficult to come up with a justification for letting him go, and I can't see him deciding to go anywhere else. The seats in the Mercedes teams all look pretty solid.

In reply to alfadriver :

Yes upon the initial replay from in car I saw what looked like Max leaving a gap to prepare to go right in order to have the inside line on the double right hander. This Vettel and he would end up side by side through the left hand corner. 

My initial gut was that Max MUST have moved left under braking but his onboard showed he was holding a relatively constant gap to the track edge. 

Yes it was essentially an optical illusion that Vettel and I succumbed to. But my racing instincts drove me to that conclusion that Max had left a gap. 

In reply to Advan046 :

But at the same time, given the lack of a mistake by Seb, if all he did was take the normal racing line, he probably would have passed him.  There was no need to take the inside line with Max being there- gap or no gap- you had the speed advantage just by taking the corner better- and would have been inside for the very near next corner.

A lot of drivers made passes by starting on the outside Sunday.  Unless Vettel had no confidence in his car, he should have been able too.

So the Haas Rich Energy saga has taken a big turn https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/haas-sponsor-saga-rich-energy-renamed/4496401/

Old CEO and long time logger Richard Storey is out.  Rich Energy is now  "Lightning Bolt"- so instead of antlers on the car next weekend, we can expect a lightning bolt. 

How long until Gatorade does not like the shape of that? (not that I know how it looks).

So will this let Haas get on with it?  To kevincorolla's point- the two drivers meant that Haas was not able to do a race long study of the Australia v Spain aero package.  So will they allow it to happen in Germany, although by then it will be Australia vs. the latest update.  The big thing that happened with the car was that the Spain update was faster than the base package, but that only was for one lap.  After that, it was considerably slower.  Silverstone was to help figure out why.  

I'm still concerned that the Ferrari concept is still hanging them out.  Yes, Ferrari has gotten faster, in qualifying.  But race pace is still lacking- which was starkly shown after the SC Sunday when the two Mercedes just drove away.  We will never know if they could have cleared Vettel and Verstappen enough to let Bottas get a free stop- but all 4 cars had a vested interest in keeping up with Bottas and Hamilton- to gain a position when Bottas stopped for his set of different tires.  So seeing Gasley and LeClerc not able to keep up as well should not be glossed over.

Haas is suffering, as they have far less resources than Ferrari to fix the concept problem that is illustrated in the Ferrari suspension.  

And that is the risk of buying parts from other teams.  For the most part, it's worked quite well for Haas- but if Ferrari makes a small mistake, their customers really pay for it.
 

It's actually "Lightning Volt" whatever that is or looks like.

Adam