Formula 1 Discussion - And favourite driver?

[New Fag]

Oh boy, 90s version of Bottas weighs in, I'm sure on the edge of my seat with this one!

What's that saying about barks and bites?...

Anyway onto some decent stuff

Mick Shumacher is crooked

https://archive.md/MLdab

Ferrari Mercedes International Asistance jumps in to slow down rivals pitstops

https://archive.md/pdcMd

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Ferrari Mercedes International Asistance jumps in to slow down rivals pitstops

https://archive.md/pdcMd

This is complete horseshit, fuck FIA. Might as well just put mandatory wheel clamps on every car from a team whose name doesn't start with an M and ryhmes with Bercedes.

 

[New Fag]

This is complete horseshit, fuck FIA. Might as well just put mandatory wheel clamps on every car from a team whose name doesn't start with an M and ryhmes with Bercedes.

Yes, even plebitors aren't having it.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Yes, even plebitors aren't having it.

We've had a few failed stops where a wheel wasn't propperly attached and the car needed to be stopped, but this is a solution in want of a problem.
The few times a car had a loose tyre it stopped pretty much right after leaving the pits or even within the pits (like Mick recently, who got wheeled back to his pit and the wheel propperly attached).

They'd do far better not changing anything and forcing teams to work properly. Fuck, with this stupid new rule, they might as well make it mandatory for pitstops to have a minimum duration of 5 seconds or something equally shitty.
RB has the best pitstops, Mercedes were less efficient cause they didn't need to be, thanks to their cars dominance. Now that the air is becoming thinner FIA is suspiciously putting a stop to anything that gives any non-Merc car an advantage. Boggles the mind. How can that be. Now, if only I could put 1 and 1 together, cause fuck me if that riddle in front of my eyes isn't worthy of Sherlock fucking Holmes.

It's not even just that it panders to a specific team that has been running the show for the majority of the past decade, it's also a very shitty rule that makes the sport less interesting as a whole.
This is the kind of stuff that slowly whittles away my investment in the sport as a whole. If this shit continues and 2022 doesn't shake up F1, I'll just punch out for a few years until the sport either dies or becomes less of a shitshow.

 

[LiveFromNS]

Might as well chime in with some babble.

I knew I should have dropped Ferrari/drivers from my Fantasy teams before Q in France. I didn't of course. I am definitely doing a clean sweep of both teams this weekend. I check the standings after each race (sometimes after Q LOL) and its surprising how big the gaps are throughout. I thought we'd all be within 200 of each other and be battling it out. Weird.

Coulthard/Vettel contretemps. That reminded me of Johnny Herbert. I have a soft spot for Johnny knowing about his serious crash and being able to come back and win 3 races in F1, including for Jackie's team. I watched F1 all through 90s so am very invested in that era. So, was so cool to see that win by Johnny. Anyway, Herbert a few years back said Fred should retire (during the pitiful years he spent with Button at McL) and I remember Fred coming up to him on air and berating him a bit about it. HAHA I felt bad for Johnny, but a race ort two letter he was on the parade lap truck and him and Alonso hugged it out, so that made me feel better! BUT, to finally get to the point, when Johnny said that, I think he just meant he should retire because the fucking car sucked and it'd be better for Alonso to leave then go through that. Not that Alonso himself sucked.

I saw that pitstop changes article (at least it is not until after Hungary, so still 3 races before it comes into play) and yeah, it just seems very suspect to do that. Just take a look at the top pitstops this year, and it is easy to see why it looks like something else to advantage Mercedes.
Fastest pitstops of 2021 so far

Pos.	Team	Driver	Event	Time (sec)
1	Red Bull	Verstappen	BAH	1.93
2	Red Bull	Verstappen	AZE	1.98
3	Red Bull	Verstappen	POR	1.98
4	Red Bull	Perez	BAH	2.00
5	Red Bull	Verstappen	MCO	2.02
6	Red Bull	Perez	FRA	2.04
7	Aston Martin	Stroll	POR	2.08
8	Williams	Russell	AZE	2.13
9	Alfa Romeo	Raikkonen	AZE	2.13
10	Aston Martin	Stroll	ESP	2.16

So, we have the first of two in Austria starting tomorrow. A fully wet Q and Race would be nice! Have a normal weather race next weekend. Had a quick look and from an article today, here is forecast:

Friday is set to see cool track temperatures with an 80% chance of rain and also thunderstorms being predicted in the afternoon.

For qualifying on Saturday, things will be cool again though the threat of rain is a lot less, currently standing at a 40% chance for the afternoon.

On Sunday, meanwhile, we're currently on course for a dry afternoon with things likely at their warmest for the whole of the weekend.

Also, final note, the W Series will be supporting F1 this weekend. Unless weather does come in to play, the W races may be better than the F1 race. Austria is pretty much a normal type track isn't it? Doesn't produce many spectacular races, but isn't Monaco either. I can't really recall if Austria is a track that one should get overly excited for is it?

 

[Full Race Replay]

austria, i think the circuit is on the better side although not the best...short length, many quick turns. But if Max does well the orange crowd is gonna be electric which is exciting in itself.

 

[Coccxys]

Remind me FIA how many unsafe releases have we seen this season for this new pit stop rule to be pushed through now? If I recall all of 1, and the car never left the pits. Its just blatent bullshittery. What next, no energy drink sponsorship because they're bad for you? Wouldn't suprise me.

 

[Balr0g]

austria, i think the circuit is on the better side although not the best...short length, many quick turns. But if Max does well the orange crowd is gonna be electric which is exciting in itself.

If the FP1 is any indication Mercedes will have 4 Red Bulls to compete with (Red Bull and Alpha Tauri). though of course that was just the Free Practive. Imagine Lewis angry noises if Yuki would make his life difficult

 

[The Grognard]

Remind me FIA how many unsafe releases have we seen this season for this new pit stop rule to be pushed through now? If I recall all of 1, and the car never left the pits. Its just blatent bullshittery. What next, no energy drink sponsorship because they're bad for you? Wouldn't suprise me.

I wouldn't be surprised if energy drinks end up on the same chopping block that tobacco was in the 2000's soon. There's been some noise from various nanny-staters for more restrictive sales and marketing for them.

 

[Full Race Replay]

I wouldn't be surprised if energy drinks end up on the same chopping block that tobacco was in the 2000's soon. There's been some noise from various nanny-staters for more restrictive sales and marketing for them.

to be honest i always thought energy drink title sponsors were just as bad as tobacco to begin with. I just wish we could get the classic mid 90s Williams tobacco livery back. If only those social justice warriors focused their energy on middle eastern oil sponsors.

This will always be the most beautiful F1 livery.

2nd edit: Istanbul is being added back to the calendar from October 1-3, the date of the singapore grand prix
Epic news. Hope we get to see the boys go around turn 8 at full speed this time.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Remind me FIA how many unsafe releases have we seen this season for this new pit stop rule to be pushed through now? If I recall all of 1, and the car never left the pits. Its just blatent bullshittery. What next, no energy drink sponsorship because they're bad for you? Wouldn't suprise me.

The thing is... and I know it sounds a bit bad, but: Even if there was an unsafe release, I don't see the issue.
For this to become a risk, you'd have a long list of shit that needs to go wrong:

• Failure to attach tyre correctly
• car drives off
• car actually leaves the pitlane
• tyre wrenches itself loose from the car
• tyre rolls far enough to end up on the track
• someone crashes into it

Don't get me wrong, if all that happens, it's a massively shitty thing, but the entire chain of events is so unlikely, they might as well add lightning rods to the cars.

If FIA is so afraid of a loose tyre, why not try to come up with a system that doesn't change the pitstop itself, but rather gives instant feedback when the car moves and the tyre isn't propperly attached? Or something that will retain the tyre even when it's not perfectly set?

The only rulechange involving tyres and pitstops should be this: Free tyre selection during a race, no mandatory pitstop. If someone wants to run an entire weekend on softs or just try a no-stop on hards or whatever, let him.

All this comes with one massive caveat on my side though:

Spoiler

FIA takes safety very seriously and thank fucking god for that. I just need one gif to point out why.

Originally, I thought that the Halo was a stupid idea and I could not have been more wrong about them. Since their implementation, there have been a couple crashes where it's very likely that the Halo prevented serious injury and in case of Grosjean, he would simply not be around without the Halo.
FIA knows what they are doing, trying to prevent loose tyres rolling down the track is a very good thing... I just dislike the way they want to do that and it (once more) benefits Mercedes and fucks over their competition.

 

[Full Race Replay]

It’s amazing how far we have come from the 1996 mcclaren which had some foam padding on the steering wheel (where the screen is today) so that the drivers head would be slightly cushioned when it would be flung forward.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

It’s amazing how far we have come from the 1996 mcclaren which had some foam padding on the steering wheel (where the screen is today) so that the drivers head would be slightly cushioned when it would be flung forward.

A piece of equippement, that's entirely underrated for being in use so long: The HANS system. I've pointed out how much of a lifesaver the Halo turned out to be, the HANS system is even more impressive.
One major factor that lead to widespread use of the device was Dale Earnhardt's tragic fatal crash.
It's still so weird watching the crash, since it looks nowhere near as bad as it turned out. It looks deceptively tame, but much like Bianchi and the Halo, it was a tragedy that lead to the adoption of a new safety feature that has saved many lives in the past.

Kubica would not have survived his 2007 crash without HANS I think. Many more such crashes in the past 18 years.
Watching footage from the 90s and up to 2003, it makes me cringe to see drivers' heads being slammed back and forth during a crash.

 

[Balr0g]

Bottas got a 3 place grid penalty for his little spin. Ouch

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Wait what?
I'm not watching FP atm, so did he spin so stupidly, FIA gave him a penalty?

 

[New Fag]

Wait what?
I'm not watching FP atm, so did he spin so stupidly, FIA gave him a penalty?

Did it in the pit lane, McLaren crew pushed him around so he could get out, must watch very funny big slide.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

You did not lie, the footage is quite funny.
damn... poor Bottas, his days are so fucking numbered

Kubica would not have survived his 2007 crash without HANS I think.

Speak of the devil, the glorious indestructible Pole is filling in for the flying Finn.

 

[Balr0g]

Wait what?
I'm not watching FP atm, so did he spin so stupidly, FIA gave him a penalty?

Yeah the stewards gave him a penalty for endangering mechanics and other team personel in the pit lane. Remember Grosjean a few years back?

 

[Coccxys]

> merc cry other teams are doing pit stops in a way that is dangerous.
> merc car spins in the pits with others around.

Yup checks out. Mercedes are really coming apart at the seems. If they are beaten outright by the RedBulls this weekend I fully expect Hambone and Toto to go full dummy spiting. We all know Hamilton can't handle an actual challenge without screeching and it appears Toto is cut from the same cloth. I expect a comedy of errors for the rest of the season if things stay as they are championship wise.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

> merc cry other teams are doing pit stops in a way that is dangerous.
> merc car spins in the pits with others around.

Yup checks out. Mercedes are really coming apart at the seems. If they are beaten outright by the RedBulls this weekend I fully expect Hambone and Toto to go full dummy spiting. We all know Hamilton can't handle an actual challenge without screeching and it appears Toto is cut from the same cloth. I expect a comedy of errors for the rest of the season if things stay as they are championship wise.

After the French GP, someone said that if RB can take on Mercs on there and come out on top, they can beat them on every other track.
I feel this week's GP will put that assessment to the test and we haven't yet seen teams really throwing out their top performance yet... but everything points in favor of RB so far.
Bottas' grid penalty will leave Hamilton fighting for himself while RB has Verstappen, who is a devil behind the wheel driving the shit out of his RB, supported by Perez, who could keep up with Verstappen and keep pesky Mercs out of his hair . . . even if you gave him rectangular lumps of liquorice instead of wheels. Dude is a wizard when it comes to pace and tyre management. You could not invent a driver more suited to the demands of RB and it is a shame Perez isn't their #1 driver, cause he deserves a title. He's this generation's Massa/Barrichello.

Im terms of Mercedes, I don't wanna make the call too soon, maybe Mercs just have had a small stretch of bad luck, one simply never knows, but Mercedes and their drivers are making *a lot* of mistakes recently and only time will tell if they'll get their shit together or not.
Ther recent track record is abyssmal: Bad calls with their strategy in France, sacrificing their secondary driver in qualifying (which leaves him stranded and useless in the race) in Baku, topped off by a complete rookie mistake by their golden goose, both their drivers simply being utterly out of their league in Monaco... it is eerie.
It seems RB got Merc on the back foot and under a lot of pressure for the first time since 2018 and Mercedes just implodes completely.

A lone swallow doesn't make a summer as we say in Germany. Mercedes might still bounce back, but Bottas seems to be in a position where his contract status next year is rather questionable and his performance so far doesn't really help him which in turn feeds the negative feedback loop of him performing bad under pressure, which is bad for any future contract... and so on.
That whole shitshow ties into RB being much closer to Mercs, meaning Mercs has to sacrifice Bottas, which again makes him more prone to errors and also leaves Hamilton without a supporting driver, once their Qualifying gamble helps Hamilton get a decent lap time, but makes Bottas end up way too far back on the grid to support LewBloo.

I'd wager a guess that Mercedes is going to perform lackluster this week with Bottas being a lame duck before Qualifying even started, he'll get a setup tailor made to act as an aerodynamic snowplow to provide slipstream to Hamilton, which will make him end up even further down the pack with his penalty and make him struggle to keep up with the leaders.

Next week won't be much better and Mercedes will need the summer break to get their shit back on track - if indeed they manage to get their shit back on track, that is.