FORMULA ONE - 2019

Watching the very beginning of FP1- and the FIA has announced that all events for Saturday have been canceled.  

edit- Qualifying will be 10am local Japan time on Sunday.  So if you are home at 9pm EST, you can watch qualifying live.

Is there an announcement of whether ESPN will broadcast qualifying Saturday night? Or will it be streamed online?

Idk the weather data I see seems to imply the storm will stick around into Sunday morning. 

FP2 might define the grid. 

Yeah it's absolutely pouring rain here. Not going to the race but landed in Tokyo last night. Most things are just straight closed today and won't be open till noon Sunday.

I wasn't entirely awake when I sat down on the john with my phone and opened Facebook.  Unfortunate that I hadn't watched the race yet. At least I'm not sure who ends up second yet.

Still a fun race to watch, at halfway through.

Is the word schadenfreude, for how I feel about Seb?

I wonder whether it was a mistake to pull Lewis in for the softs? He had 20 seconds on Seb with 20 laps to go.  I presume the Merc guys have a better idea than me, but still...

And, nice job Valteri.  Never a question from lap one.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Bottas gave such a great interview on beyond the grid recently. Made me like him even more!

Beyond the Ape was the background for the podium.  I then googled, and discovered they sell $250 sweatpants, which made me ask, why are they so expensive?  Answer, Because they are.

Separating stupid people from their money. Jeez...

Edit: A Bathing Ape.

Streetwiseguy said:

I wonder whether it was a mistake to pull Lewis in for the softs? He had 20 seconds on Seb with 20 laps to go.  I presume the Merc guys have a better idea than me, but still...

The second half of this season has seen a lot of poor strategy calls for Hamilton.

Streetwiseguy said:

I wonder whether it was a mistake to pull Lewis in for the softs? He had 20 seconds on Seb with 20 laps to go.  I presume the Merc guys have a better idea than me, but still...

Agreed. He didn’t seem to be struggling, and it was clear he was going to lose track position. He could have driven a pretty wide Mercedes to keep Vettel behind even if the tires fell off.

Maybe Mercedes was playing the team game and didn’t want to take any chances with sewing up the double. If Lewis had been out there on lap 50 with dead tires trying to fend off a Ferrari, there’s a chance he could have fallen off the road and lost all his points. The softs were a safe call in that regard.

Keith Tanner said:

Streetwiseguy said:

I wonder whether it was a mistake to pull Lewis in for the softs? He had 20 seconds on Seb with 20 laps to go.  I presume the Merc guys have a better idea than me, but still...

Agreed. He didn’t seem to be struggling, and it was clear he was going to lose track position. He could have driven a pretty wide Mercedes to keep Vettel behind even if the tires fell off.

Maybe Mercedes was playing the team game and didn’t want to take any chances with sewing up the double. If Lewis had been out there on lap 50 with dead tires trying to fend off a Ferrari, there’s a chance he could have fallen off the road and lost all his points. The softs were a safe call in that regard.

 

If you are JUST thinking about this race, you all may have a point.

But with the points they got, Mercedes won BOTH the constructor's and driver's championships.  The only drivers left are Bottas and Hamilton.  So the safe bet was to get 1st and 3rd with one of them fastest lap.  And it should be noted that Bottas did keep LeClerc from getting fastest lap, since Charles never got clean air to run in.

The safe bet was to take the points and the championship pair.

That’s basically what I was thinking. It was a long term strategy call. 

I agree it was the safe call.  It's just that he would have finished third, at worst, if his Pirellis had suddenly turned to a set of Super-lastic Supreme snow tires.

There is a piece of my brain that thinks Merc didn't want to risk Valteri having to pass Lewis. Toto and the Brain trust don't want a Nico situation.

Plus, it's to everyone except Lewis benefit for Valteri to win the rest of the season.  He could still be caught by Max or Charles for second.

My phone capitalized Brain in "Toto and the Brain".  My thoughts immediately flashed to:

"What are we going to do tonight, Brain?"

"Same as every night, Toto.  Plot to take over the world."

Shockingly accurate, for a tiny part of the world.

Fun race. I didn't see any coverage as to why Grojean went to last so quick. 

Verstappen is getting what he deserves now. When he first came into the sport he drove with the attitude of putting himself in the way and daring others to hit him. Now they are chosing to hit him. 

I will step on the soapbox and say I wish the race director would have shown a black flag to LeClerc for driving around with a clear chunk of wing hanging off. I wish the stewards would have been very strong in the penalties for driving an unsafe car. The damage caused to Lewis's car could have been to his head instead. The drivers need to sit him down for a talk. 

Watching Ricciardo and Leclerc charge through the field was fun. Albon did a good job really. 

Hamilton would have won the race. MB wanted to lock things up so they can commit more resources to the 2020 car. So they forced the issue with both being on a 2 stop. Otherwise Bottas would have to charge hard up to Hamilton before Hamilton did his one stop. Then both MBs would be on very used up tires. And if a safety car period happened they might have been beat by Vettel. The way they did it was the max insurance of one of them winning. Bottas took the hit on the first put so to be fair they forced the pit for Hamilton. Hoping Hamilton could get a move done on Vettel was too wishfull.

Mexico next, curious who can handle the high altitude. MB will be hoping for cold weather. Don't want to repeat Austria.

In reply to Advan046 :

I agree with everything you just said. As a former kart racer, you have to establish your reputation with other drivers. If you show weakness in wheel to wheel, they will drive all over you. If you establish a reputation that you will fight hard, other drivers will think twice before attempting a pass and sometimes that is all you need to win

In reply to Advan046 :

Frustrating to see the the Ferraris get away with two bad infractions. F1 is gonna F1, I guess.
 

I also had some good Max schaudenfreude. It is pretty rich to complain about being punted out of the race on turn 2 by a young, fast, aggressive up and comer after he did the exact same thing at Spa. The arrogance will be his downfall... F1 is an engineering sport after all, and you can't win without the best car. He seems to think he can bully his way to wins!

Leclerc did get hit with a post-race penalty of 5s for pulling a Verstappen and 10s for driving around with the damaged wing. 

Actually, that damage to Lewis’ car might have been another reason Mercedes chose not to have him defending against Vettel with trashed tires. He had lost half his mirrors, and it could have easily led to a collision because he wouldn’t have seen a move coming. That’s a much worse result than third. 

Keith Tanner said:

Leclerc did get hit with a post-race penalty of 5s for pulling a Verstappen and 10s for driving around with the damaged wing. 

Actually, that damage to Lewis’ car might have been another reason Mercedes chose not to have him defending against Vettel with trashed tires. He had lost half his mirrors, and it could have easily led to a collision because he wouldn’t have seen a move coming. That’s a much worse result than third. 

The last part is why Ferrari and LeClerc should have gotten a bigger penalty.  That was very dangerous- and is the point of some very specific rules.  He should have replaced the wing on that opening lap.  And given how the race finished, LeClerc's penalty was nothing-  losing two points (it looks like they dropped one spot, right?)...  come on FIA.  

Okay, okay, I know I should be getting excited about a second US race happening in Miami at this point.  But, if we can live in the fantasy for just a moment, this looks like a pretty wild track layout:

^I like it. Definitely will be two huge passing opportunities per lap. 

Interesting track. Unfortunately I don't know if there is enough revenue to support another race in the USA. 

In reply to Advan046 :

I said we were going to live in the fantasy world!  Stop being such a buzzkill, coming in here with your facts and stuff!

wae said:

Okay, okay, I know I should be getting excited about a second US race happening in Miami at this point.  But, if we can live in the fantasy for just a moment, this looks like a pretty wild track layout:

Wait wait wait, is that track run counter-clockwise?!??

Edit - Where the berk is the pit lane?