Formula 1

[Crazyfool01]

23 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

Nothing's going right for Hamilton these days, I feel for him. Part of me thinks he should retire now as it doesn't feel like it's gonna get any better for him 😞 

He’s not doing too bad considering he’s not got the car under him to challenge … hopefully merc can close the gap between seasons … it’s a bit dull with a verstappen procession …. Or any procession for that matter … 

[charlierc]

21 hours ago, crazyfool1 said:

Verstappen is gonna win this 

It's kinda scary to think how dominant Verstappen would've been yesterday if he hadn't needed to start the race 14th due to his penalty. Driver and car were miles ahead of everyone else and Ferrari didn't even get close for their strategy team tying themselves in knots again to affect the race win as it did at France and Hungary.

[DareToDibble]

Has anyone given the F1 Manager game a go? I got it on pre-release and it's great fun. A couple of big issues that need fixing but fairy confident they'll get fixed soon. But for any gamers - it's great fun.

[charlierc]

Piastri to McLaren confirmed then after F1's legal team ruled the legitimate contract was one he signed with them the day after the British Grand Prix two months ago, and interestingly was before Ricciardo put out a big social media post saying "I'm staying at McLaren in 2023", which... awkward.

The driver market is certainly still intriguing. I thought Alpine might go for Mick Schumacher but apparently they want to prize Pierre Gasly from Alpha Tauri, with Dr Marko saying it's close to being done. Plus no room for Drugovich despite him being miles ahead in F2 seems harsh, if in keeping with how F2 champions are finding roadblocks to seats of late.

Certainly more of interest than the title fight, given Verstappen will probably be official champion by Mexico at the latest.

[charlierc]

On 9/1/2022 at 7:11 PM, DareToDibble said:

Has anyone given the F1 Manager game a go? I got it on pre-release and it's great fun. A couple of big issues that need fixing but fairy confident they'll get fixed soon. But for any gamers - it's great fun.

Not yet but it looks pretty awesome.

[Ozanne]

Of course there's a virtual safety car to save Max Verstappen.

He's the luckiest sportsperson I've ever seen.

Edited September 4, 2022 by Ozanne

[Crazyfool01]

Lucky Lewis in response for those crying about verstappen 

[Ozanne]

Ah yes another safety car to give Max the chance to get onto quicker tyres.

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, Ozanne said:

Ah yes another safety car to give Max the chance to get onto quicker tyres.

If you aren’t happy turn it off .. you said you’d not watch it again anyway 

[Ozanne]

Just now, crazyfool1 said:

If you aren’t happy turn it off .. you said you’d not watch it again anyway 

I'm watching to support Hamilton. Sadly it doesn't feel like a fair sport anymore, golden boy Max continues to get everything gifted to him.

[Ozanne]

Now Mercedes have fucked it too, everything goes in Max's favour.

[Ozanne]

Lelerc is finding this out this season that when you go up against Max Verstappen you'll realise that the stars align to ensure that Max wins.

[Crazyfool01]

Just now, Ozanne said:

Lelerc is finding this out this season that when you go up against Max Verstappen you'll realise that the stars align to ensure that Max wins.

Or he’s just been clearly the best driver in the best car all season … but of course you wouldn’t know because you’ve not been watching 

[Ozanne]

Just now, crazyfool1 said:

Or he’s just been clearly the best driver in the best car all season … but of course you wouldn’t know because you’ve not been watching 

I've watched a few races now, not sure why you are so bothered by my watching habits.

Fuck Mercedes, Hamilton won't even get a podium now. The guy can't catch a break, he should retire.

[Ozanne]

The glee in the commentators voice. F1 is the only sport that treats their GOAT like complete crap.

[Ozanne]

Questions need to be asked about Alpha Tauri and their rather suspicious activities that led to the VSC. This being the FIA, no one will ask anything. 

[charlierc]

Alpha Tauri have been summoned to the stewards to explain themselves. I suspect the FIA are not going to be impressed.

I appreciate why people will adopt conspiracy narratives with it because it's just a perfect narrative - sister team stage managing the issue, though I don't 100% buy it because just having the VSC there/then when he initially stopped gets the same result without such baggage.

Listening to his radio, it feels like they weren't listening to the driver that the problem wasn't just a loosely fitted tyre and they didn't realise until he left the pits the second time at a very slow pace, by which point it was too late and having him stop in the pit lane itself would've had it's own problems with how tight Zandvoort's exit is. It's not great either way for them - if it's not a deliberate thing, it reflects extremely poorly on them as Alpha Tauri should have not released him back out.

Tbh I think Verstappen would've passed Hamilton if that was a race without VSC/SC drama and Mercedes borrowing Ferrari's British Grand Prix strategy by giving the driver running second in sequence the better strategy.

[Ozanne]

25 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Alpha Tauri have been summoned to the stewards to explain themselves. I suspect the FIA are not going to be impressed.

I appreciate why people will adopt conspiracy narratives with it because it's just a perfect narrative - sister team stage managing the issue, though I don't 100% buy it because just having the VSC there/then when he initially stopped gets the same result without such baggage.

Listening to his radio, it feels like they weren't listening to the driver that the problem wasn't just a loosely fitted tyre and they didn't realise until he left the pits the second time at a very slow pace, by which point it was too late and having him stop in the pit lane itself would've had it's own problems with how tight Zandvoort's exit is. It's not great either way for them - if it's not a deliberate thing, it reflects extremely poorly on them as Alpha Tauri should have not released him back out.

Tbh I think Verstappen would've passed Hamilton if that was a race without VSC/SC drama and Mercedes borrowing Ferrari's British Grand Prix strategy by giving the driver running second in sequence the better strategy.

I doubt the FIA care too much, it means at the very least they’ve had more ‘entertainment’ today but also it has gifted their boy another race win.

F1 is basically WWE nowadays. 

[charlierc]

21 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

I don't agree - I think without the VSC it would of put the cards hugely in Hamiltons favour.  Anyway - all ifs and buts now...

Toto Wolff said on Sky he thinks Verstappen would've caught them in the last six laps. If nothing else, it would've made for a fascinating duel to see him try to close up, not least given if he had done, there's every possibility that Verstappen would've caught Hamilton on fresher mediums compared to worn hards.

At the very least, Mercedes did look closer to Red Bull here. Or at least they seem to be able to do so on circuits like this and the Hungaroring, which means I have higher expectations for them at Singapore or Suzuka than I would have for Monza next week.

Edited September 4, 2022 by charlierc

[charlierc]

3 hours ago, Ozanne said:

I doubt the FIA care too much, it means at the very least they’ve had more ‘entertainment’ today but also it has gifted their boy another race win.

F1 is basically WWE nowadays. 

Eh. There's been more controversial afternoons than this imo. Not least as Hamilton was actually slowly catching Verstappen (15 seconds behind after the Tsunoda VSC indeed, 10 behind when Bottas' engne broke down again). Maybe not by enough to win, but enough to maybe get within range. Hamilton himself also said post-race he wasn't fully set up for the restart with the car in a wrong engine mode, which also didn't help with Verstappen basically passing him straight away.

Tsunoda has been given a reprimand for driving with loose seatbelts for a lap, something that Leclerc got away with a few years back in a real oversight by the-then race director, though the warning also turns out to be his 5th of 2022 and means a grid penalty for the next round.

For LH44 and his teammate, parallel is the British Grand Prix. Ferrari were 1-2 with Leclerc from Sainz when Ocon breaks down and needs a safety car to be cleared. CL opts to stay on worn hards, Sainz insists on new tyres, gets them and gets ahead while Leclerc drops backwards. Here, Russell asked for new tyres, got his wish and got the advanced position. It is what it is.

Edited September 4, 2022 by charlierc

[Ozanne]

21 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Eh. There's been more controversial afternoons than this imo. Not least as Hamilton was actually slowly catching Verstappen (15 seconds behind after the Tsunoda VSC indeed, 10 behind when Bottas' engne broke down again). Maybe not by enough to win, but enough to maybe get within range. Hamilton himself also said post-race he wasn't fully set up for the restart with the car in a wrong engine mode, which also didn't help with Verstappen basically passing him straight away.

Tsunoda has been given a reprimand for driving with loose seatbelts for a lap, something that Leclerc got away with a few years back in a real oversight by the-then race director, though the warning also turns out to be his 5th of 2022 and means a grid penalty for the next round.

For LH44 and his teammate, parallel is the British Grand Prix. Ferrari were 1-2 with Leclerc from Sainz when Ocon breaks down and needs a safety car to be cleared. CL opts to stay on worn hards, Sainz insists on new tyres, gets them and gets ahead while Leclerc drops backwards. Here, Russell asked for new tyres, got his wish and got the advanced position. It is what it is.

It's not on Russell but the team should've made the call to stay on the same tyres and then give Hamilton the chance to defend with Russell in-between him and Max. Lewis did so much work for the team earlier in the season with different setups to gather all that data which allowed Russell to race with the optimum setup and this is how the team replay him. I fully understand his anger in the closing stages off the race as it seems these days that nothing goes Lewis' way, yet the sea parts for Max Verstappen.

Then you have it when certain events happen like this weekend with Perez magically crashing at exactly the right time then the Tsunoda incident in the race which all align perfectly for Max. You'll probably say coincidence but I'm not so sure, it happens all too frequently for it to be coincidence in my mind.

[DareToDibble]

We really need to stop with this rhetoric that the universe is on Max’s side. It’s nonsense. I grant the end of last season wasn’t ideal for the sport as it was far too controversial but this is a new year. I didn’t hear anyone saying how lucky Max was when he was having the engine problems at the start of the season?

Lewis dominated the sport for years, these things go in circle. It seems like it’ll likely be Max for the next few years now. Nothing more to it than that.

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, DareToDibble said:

We really need to stop with this rhetoric that the universe is on Max’s side. It’s nonsense. I grant the end of last season wasn’t ideal for the sport as it was far too controversial but this is a new year. I didn’t hear anyone saying how lucky Max was when he was having the engine problems at the start of the season?

Lewis dominated the sport for years, these things go in circle. It seems like it’ll likely be Max for the next few years now. Nothing more to it than that.

I also don't think it helps that yesterday was perhaps the closest since the end of last year to what happened in Abu Dhabi with the same protagonists and there's still a few fresh wounds from that afternoon. Though the irony is the Bottas safety car actually proved more useful to Verstappen than Tsunoda's - Hamilton was quicker in between the two incidents and was catching Verstappen until Bottas broke down. Whether he would've won is a different issue given Mercedes just have a slower car in 2022, but it would've been interesting.

Some drivers just do get the luck. I can think of a few races in Hamilton's dominant streak where he got fortunate decisions going his way and seemed to get them more often than not, and conversely, other times it just didn't go his way, such as a close 2016 title fight being decided by when his engine blew up in Malaysia when a win that day would've ultimately made him that year's world champion (to say nothing of the mayhem that was the last 2 races in 2007). Plus as said, Verstappen's had some unlucky races (DNF in Bahrain, running over debris at Silverstone that damaged the car). If anything, Ferrari have helped Red Bull more than Alpha Tauri this year.

[Ozanne]

2 hours ago, DareToDibble said:

We really need to stop with this rhetoric that the universe is on Max’s side. It’s nonsense. I grant the end of last season wasn’t ideal for the sport as it was far too controversial but this is a new year. I didn’t hear anyone saying how lucky Max was when he was having the engine problems at the start of the season?

Lewis dominated the sport for years, these things go in circle. It seems like it’ll likely be Max for the next few years now. Nothing more to it than that.

I mean it seems pretty obvious that he is extremely lucky, so many things go his way and even when they don’t something else will happen to his closest rivals. Yes he had engine problems at the start of the season but so did Ferrari and that’s exactly what I mean; it’s never just him.

Clearly going by my reaction and the bulk of LH fans online yesterday Abu Dhabi has left massive wounds on many so much so that the instant reaction is one of extreme emotion. I don’t think F1 will ever be the same after the end to last season and you’ve got the head of the FIA saying it’s about ‘entertainment’ so it’s hardly not a surprise to see people jump to these conclusions.

[charlierc]

What a surprise - some idiots on Twitter take it too far.

It can be tbf that a fault can take longer to show up on data - the fuel system failure that put Verstappen out of the season opening round in Bahrain took a couple of laps until they spotted it. Ditto the aero parts damage he sustained at Silverstone that was also initially misdiagnosed as a puncture and took him out of win contention. Even further back, when Lewis Hamilton missed the "pit lane closed" sign at Monza and got a stop-go penalty that took him out of contention for the win, that came due to Mercedes not noticing the message until too late.

But I think it's time we move on from this episode tbh. It's been debunked and there's a race on Sunday for some fresh controversy to come along. Possibly.