2022 F1 Season News and Discussion Thread

cougar15 · Thu Mar 31, 2022 10:54 am

StarAC17 wrote:
cougar15 wrote:
:old: Interesting scenario for Lewis. Bagged your 7th and are struggling..... Reminds me of a certain Mr Schumacher in 2006. That wicked 8th.... seems to be a touch one.......:

Considering that the Merc is clearly 3rd Lewis had a decent race getting up to 6th at one point. It was bad luck that when he needed to pit both Riccardo and Alonso had failures that blocked the pit lane. Under the VSC afterwards the pit lane was closed. Had this not happened he would have held his position more than likely.

I think Lewis's future might be dependent on how quickly Mercedes can turn it around. If they are competitive as the season goes on and perhaps don't win this year but have a chance next year, Lewis will stay. If they can't fix the issues then he might retire.

None of us know what Lewis is thinking. Only he does.

With you all the way, I do have favourite drivers, but am objective and sportsman enough to worthy a good drive when my favourite driver does not win because the other guys was better.
Thrilled about Ferrari, as per above, it is good to finally stir the kettle a little and a change of the guard. What a great show we would have if Merc sorted their sheiks and we would have 3 teams up there. I was very subjective of the new rules, but they seem to be working, I Enjoyed these 2 races, lets see if this type of racing will stay with us for the season.
Also loving what last years backmarkers are doing, again - the pot is being stirred ATM and I am loving it.

TheFlyingDisk · Thu Mar 31, 2022 11:05 am

Las Vegas returns in 2023, it feels like the 1980s, what with America having three races on the calendar. Thankfully, it won't be run in a carpark this time.

And it will be a race on Saturday night. Finally, an American race where Asians, Australians & New Zealanders can watch at a decent time!

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... r8TQg.html

A look at the future track - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-KMdOBjS7c

StarAC17 · Fri Apr 01, 2022 4:12 pm

Interesting Read from the Race. Which race gets the scrap next year with Vegas confirmed and China and Qatar back on the calendar.

The current deal doesn't allow any more than 24 races. Which these 3 races and Russia out its at 25. This article states that Spa. Monaco or France is at risk (pleas bin the latter) and perhaps Mexico might be on the chopping block with another US race. I am a new F1 fan as of last year and the one thing that frustrated me (besides the end) was not getting a proper race at Spa.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/which-gp ... -rotation/

My question to all of you is.

What should stay and what should go?

My keeps.
- Brazil
- Great Britain
- Monza
- Monaco
- Spa

My get rid of or go on a rotation
- Barcelona
- Zanvoort
- France
- China (political reasons)
- Saudi (political reasons)
- Abu Dhabi (rotate and stop it from being the last race)

Grizzly410 · Fri Apr 01, 2022 6:22 pm

StarAC17 wrote:
Interesting Read from the Race. Which race gets the scrap next year with Vegas confirmed and China and Qatar back on the calendar.

The current deal doesn't allow any more than 24 races. Which these 3 races and Russia out its at 25. This article states that Spa. Monaco or France is at risk (pleas bin the latter) and perhaps Mexico might be on the chopping block with another US race. I am a new F1 fan as of last year and the one thing that frustrated me (besides the end) was not getting a proper race at Spa.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/which-gp ... -rotation/

My question to all of you is.

What should stay and what should go?

My keeps.
- Brazil
- Great Britain
- Monza
- Monaco
- Spa

My get rid of or go on a rotation
- Barcelona
- Zanvoort
- France
- China (political reasons)
- Saudi (political reasons)
- Abu Dhabi (rotate and stop it from being the last race)

It would be a shame to remove Spa now they reworked Eau-rouge.
As french I'm happy to have a GP, but Paul-Ricard is just awful... Magny-cours was fine but too much countryside and lacks proper hospitality (not only on the circuit itself, no proper hotels around for VIPs etc..).And there's no way around that. So yes, frenchGP may be a good candidate to remove.
Or Monaco, there is no point to run 800kg cars with 1000hp in such tiny track. Being the opposite of Magny-Cours, perfect place for VIPs it won't go away any time soon though.
And then, I'm not quite sure the F1 circus enjoyed last GP very much after the friday events and the long pilots meeting. If the rumor is true that the were threatened to have problems leaving the country in case the event was canceled, I could understand F1 management, or even FIA, to cancel future events in Saudi Arabia.

For me the balance would be between Jeddah and Paul-Ricard.

Francoflier · Fri Apr 01, 2022 10:06 pm

The FIA and Formula One group are just as corrupt and greedy as FIFA or the IOC.

I wouldn't expect the Saudi, Chinese or Emirati or any of the more politically questionable hosts to be dropped for as long as they can make it rain on the F1 circus...
They just don't care.

Missile attacks near the track and outright threats against drivers are the least of this corrupt bunch's worries...

I'm pretty sure they would have been happy to keep Russia had it not been for the overwhelmingly negative press it would have bought them. Too bad they couldn't get away with creating a 'Russian Racing Committee'.
:sarcastic:

Just watch them run back to the Russian sponsors as soon as this little 'misunderstanding' is over.

I could see the French GP go as there are no adequate tracks or facilities there, nor real will to create some, but I'll be p*ssed right off if they dare getting rid of Spa.

zkojq · Fri Apr 01, 2022 11:39 pm

TheFlyingDisk wrote:
Las Vegas returns in 2023, it feels like the 1980s, what with America having three races on the calendar. Thankfully, it won't be run in a carpark this time.

I know I should think otherwise in this day and age, but I like to think that F1 would be much too classy to race at trashy places like Las Vegas... :lol:

TheFlyingDisk wrote:
And it will be a race on Saturday night. Finally, an American race where Asians, Australians & New Zealanders can watch at a decent time!

We do need more timed like this tbh.

TheFlyingDisk wrote:
F1 went to South Africa at the height of apartheid, went to China & Singapore, both of which is well known for its lack of human rights, and has three races in the US which had committed its own human rights abuses.

Let's not pretend that the human rights issues in Singapore or the USA are in any way comparable to the human rights issues in China and Saudi Arabia.

StarAC17 wrote:
My question to all of you is.

What should stay and what should go?

Sacred Cows (which must stay at all costs):

- Spa
- Monza
- Monaco
- Hungary
- Australia

Get rid of:

- Brasil
- Saudi Arabia (human rights reasons)
- China (human rights reasons)
- Azerbaijan (human rights reasons)

Francoflier wrote:

I'm pretty sure they would have been happy to keep Russia had it not been for the overwhelmingly negative press it would have bought them. Too bad they couldn't get away with creating a 'Russian Racing Committee'.

Just watch them run back to the Russian sponsors as soon as this little 'misunderstanding' is over.

Yes but let's not pretend that the Russian GP cancellation had anything to do with issues other than Russia's removal from SWIFT and the difficulty that would cause for recieving payment. Had it not been for that, they'd be spinning the GP as some kind of bridge that's "uniting hostile powers" through "sporting comradary" or whatever.

TheFlyingDisk · Sat Apr 02, 2022 12:05 am

zkojq wrote:
TheFlyingDisk wrote:
F1 went to South Africa at the height of apartheid, went to China & Singapore, both of which is well known for its lack of human rights, and has three races in the US which had committed its own human rights abuses.

Let's not pretend that the human rights issues in Singapore or the USA are in any way comparable to the human rights issues in China and Saudi Arabia.

Human rights issues are human rights issues. There's no level to which a human rights issue can be ignored. Being hypocritical and only judging certain countries in this matter is merely a new form of imperialism.

I'm not a big fan of MBS as much as the next guy, but I'm not unfair enough that I hold only them to a higher standard but not others.

TangoandCash · Mon Apr 04, 2022 10:31 pm

StarAC17 wrote:
Interesting Read from the Race. Which race gets the scrap next year with Vegas confirmed and China and Qatar back on the calendar.

The current deal doesn't allow any more than 24 races. Which these 3 races and Russia out its at 25. This article states that Spa. Monaco or France is at risk (pleas bin the latter) and perhaps Mexico might be on the chopping block with another US race. I am a new F1 fan as of last year and the one thing that frustrated me (besides the end) was not getting a proper race at Spa.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/which-gp ... -rotation/

My question to all of you is.

What should stay and what should go?

My keeps.
- Brazil
- Great Britain
- Monza
- Monaco
- Spa

My get rid of or go on a rotation
- Barcelona
- Zanvoort
- France
- China (political reasons)
- Saudi (political reasons)
- Abu Dhabi (rotate and stop it from being the last race)

Races I would get rid of:
Mexico, I've never liked the baseball stadium.
France, just bland.
Monaco, it's a parade at best. (Yes I know this will never happen because history)

Races I would definitely keep:
Austria
Spa
Monza
Singapore
Austin
Canada

I'm curious how the Miami arrangement will work... and if the casinos in Vegas will put up with the weeks-long disruption of tourist traffic as the circuit is set up along the strip for 2023.

F1 will continue to race in unsavory locations because money.

StarAC17 · Wed Apr 06, 2022 4:45 pm

TangoandCash wrote:
I'm curious how the Miami arrangement will work... and if the casinos in Vegas will put up with the weeks-long disruption of tourist traffic as the circuit is set up along the strip for 2023.

Miami is going to look very gimmiky based on what I see especially if you know the Miami area.

There are doing things like a yacht club and other things in between the track to make it look nice when its in a parking lot. They are going to make it look like its around South Beach when it is in Suburban Miami Gardens. The track might create good racing though so we will see.

https://jalopnik.com/this-whole-yacht-w ... 1848703315

IIRC with Vegas the strip will remain open when racing sessions aren't happening. I know this happens in Monaco and most of the Australian GP track remains open while under construction (well not this week obviously as its race week).

TangoandCash · Wed Apr 06, 2022 8:13 pm

StarAC17 wrote:
TangoandCash wrote:
I'm curious how the Miami arrangement will work... and if the casinos in Vegas will put up with the weeks-long disruption of tourist traffic as the circuit is set up along the strip for 2023.

Miami is going to look very gimmiky based on what I see especially if you know the Miami area.

There are doing things like a yacht club and other things in between the track to make it look nice when its in a parking lot. They are going to make it look like its around South Beach when it is in Suburban Miami Gardens. The track might create good racing though so we will see.

https://jalopnik.com/this-whole-yacht-w ... 1848703315

IIRC with Vegas the strip will remain open when racing sessions aren't happening. I know this happens in Monaco and most of the Australian GP track remains open while under construction (well not this week obviously as its race week).

Thanks--I'm not familiar with the Miami area, and from the renderings I've seen, it does look like they're trying to disguise the parking lot aspect. Including a fake yacht club apparently... I'm fine with that, as long as it creates good racing.

StarAC17 · Mon Apr 11, 2022 2:29 pm

Takeaways from the Australian GP.

It looked like an awesome environment and broke COTA's record for total attendance.

Winners.

- Ferrari and Charles Leclerc. They look unstoppable as of right now.
- Alex Albon - doing the whole race on hard tyres and managing to get in the points in 10th.
- Mercedes and Russell - They have a much improved pace and are staying in the fight so that if they can make their car competitive they may be able to make a comeback. Good podium by George.
- McLaren - a double points finish

Losers.
- Aston Martin - The look like they will be last.
- Canadian F1 drivers. - Both Latifi and Stroll have crashed a lot this year and into each other. Stroll also was running in the points but weaved on the pit-straight and got a penalty.
- Red Bull - While Checo got P2, Max's engine failed again. Every car using the RB/Honda power unit has at at least on failure this year. RB needs to get a handle on this. I might not like the team but I don't want to see them retiring every week.
- Also a bad weekend for the Spanish drivers, both Sainz and Alonso had horrible luck this week.

scbriml · Mon Apr 11, 2022 3:59 pm

TheFlyingDisk wrote:
Human rights issues are human rights issues. There's no level to which a human rights issue can be ignored. Being hypocritical and only judging certain countries in this matter is merely a new form of imperialism.

I'm not a big fan of MBS as much as the next guy, but I'm not unfair enough that I hold only them to a higher standard but not others.

If you're going to refuse to race in any country that has ever had a human rights issue in its history, then F1 is pretty much dead. With missiles hitting a refinery close to the circuit, I would have supported the drivers refusing to race on safety grounds. For them and their teams to be threatened if they didn't race is totally unacceptable.

When Guenther Steiner was interviewed on Sky before Saudi qualifying, he basically said (with as much diplomacy as he could muster) they should race that weekend but future races were very much a separate discussion. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Saudi Arabia dropped, contract or not.

scbriml · Mon Apr 11, 2022 4:06 pm

Francoflier wrote:
The FIA and Formula One group are just as corrupt and greedy as FIFA or the IOC.

I wouldn't expect the Saudi, Chinese or Emirati or any of the more politically questionable hosts to be dropped for as long as they can make it rain on the F1 circus...
They just don't care.

We'll see just how much power the teams have - they will not quickly forget being threatened with "travel difficulties" if they refused to race in Saudi Arabia. Per my other post, Guenther Steiner already hinted to Sky that there will be serious discussions about future races there.

scbriml · Mon Apr 11, 2022 4:42 pm

StarAC17 wrote:
Winners.

- Ferrari and Charles Leclerc. They look unstoppable as of right now.

After three races, they look pretty good, but it is a very long season.

Certainly Verstappen doesn't look too happy with how his defence of the WDC has started

Source: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/519 ... 9f55_n.jpg

StarAC17 · Mon Apr 11, 2022 9:15 pm

scbriml wrote:
StarAC17 wrote:
Winners.

- Ferrari and Charles Leclerc. They look unstoppable as of right now.

After three races, they look pretty good, but it is a very long season.

Good point.

IIRC Ferrari was ahead of Mercedes at the summer break in 2018 and 2019 and lost both titles both years to Mercedes.

TheFlyingDisk · Tue Apr 12, 2022 2:48 am

Three races on I think the cars have clearly improved racing. There had been more overtakes in this year's Australian GP than the last three races there combined!

Granted, it's not a fight for the lead (Ferrari just romped away this time), but the midfield bunching up sure looks exciting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRKwq-TgitY

PHLspecial · Tue Apr 12, 2022 6:52 am

TheFlyingDisk wrote:
Three races on I think the cars have clearly improved racing. There had been more overtakes in this year's Australian GP than the last three races there combined!

Granted, it's not a fight for the lead (Ferrari just romped away this time), but the midfield bunching up sure looks exciting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRKwq-TgitY

It's certainly much easier to follow and I love it. Still going to hate Monaco unless they should up with go-karts. But the rest of the tracks should be great!

scbriml · Tue Apr 12, 2022 7:00 am

PHLspecial wrote:
TheFlyingDisk wrote:
Three races on I think the cars have clearly improved racing. There had been more overtakes in this year's Australian GP than the last three races there combined!

Granted, it's not a fight for the lead (Ferrari just romped away this time), but the midfield bunching up sure looks exciting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRKwq-TgitY

It's certainly much easier to follow and I love it. Still going to hate Monaco unless they should up with go-karts. But the rest of the tracks should be great!

Monaco will be, well Monaco - more of a social event than a race. If it were my decision, it would have been dropped years ago. With bigger, heavier cars, it will probably be even worse than normal - I'm actually expecting a lot of crashes as drivers will get frustrated being able to follow very closely but not overtake.

StarAC17 · Tue Apr 12, 2022 3:01 pm

PHLspecial wrote:
TheFlyingDisk wrote:
Three races on I think the cars have clearly improved racing. There had been more overtakes in this year's Australian GP than the last three races there combined!

Granted, it's not a fight for the lead (Ferrari just romped away this time), but the midfield bunching up sure looks exciting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRKwq-TgitY

It's certainly much easier to follow and I love it. Still going to hate Monaco unless they should up with go-karts. But the rest of the tracks should be great!

If you want good racing in Monaco, watch Formula E.

ChrisKen · Tue Apr 12, 2022 4:44 pm

StarAC17 wrote:
If you want good racing ~~in Monaco~~, watch Formula E.

Corrected it for you. miles ahead of Formula Snore and it's jury-rigged, poorly stage managed, manufactured "excitement".

TheFlyingDisk · Wed Apr 13, 2022 12:25 pm

ChrisKen wrote:
StarAC17 wrote:
If you want good racing ~~in Monaco~~, watch Formula E.

Corrected it for you. miles ahead of Formula Snore and it's jury-rigged, poorly stage managed, manufactured "excitement".

Please. Formula E is really Formula Snore.

T18 · Thu Apr 14, 2022 11:58 pm

TheFlyingDisk wrote:
ChrisKen wrote:
StarAC17 wrote:
If you want good racing ~~in Monaco~~, watch Formula E.

Corrected it for you. miles ahead of Formula Snore and it's jury-rigged, poorly stage managed, manufactured "excitement".

Please. Formula E is really Formula Snore.

Or at the very least, Formula CarPark. Geez is the track design terrible for FE with almost no exception every course has a large section of 1 lane chicanes and switch backs for no real good reason.

flipdewaf · Fri Apr 15, 2022 8:27 am

Is formula E the one that’s like mario cart with power boosts and other nonsense? It might be entertaining but so are the spice girls so…

Fred

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

ltbewr · Sun Apr 17, 2022 11:32 am

The race in Miami, scheduled to be held in 3 weeks, is facing a lawsuit to stop it by some in the community near the track site over 'noise' issues. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/ ... li=BBnb7Kz

flipdewaf · Sun Apr 17, 2022 9:46 pm

ltbewr wrote:
The race in Miami, scheduled to be held in 3 weeks, is facing a lawsuit to stop it by some in the community near the track site over 'noise' issues. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/ ... li=BBnb7Kz

Can’t the residents of Florida just turn their hearing aids down a notch for that weekend?

Fred

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

zkojq · Mon Apr 18, 2022 5:05 pm

I'd love to be excited/interested in Formula E, but the tracks are all visually awful. I don't know why people find racing Infront of big concrete blocks appealing....

Meanwhile, visually speaking, the Albert Park circuit for example is visually stunning.

Francoflier · Mon Apr 18, 2022 7:50 pm

zkojq wrote:
I'd love to be excited/interested in Formula E, but the tracks are all visually awful. I don't know why people find racing Infront of big concrete blocks appealing....

Meanwhile, visually speaking, the Albert Park circuit for example is visually stunning.

I also find the proliferation of street circuits annoying.
Unfortunately, F1 is a business, and it goes where the money is... The racing experience is the least of their concern.

I'm starting to think my dream of seeing F1 race around Laguna Seca will never happen... :duck:

At least there's Spa. Please don't let these greedy b#stards get rid of Spa.

StarAC17 · Mon Apr 18, 2022 8:27 pm

Francoflier wrote:
zkojq wrote:
I'd love to be excited/interested in Formula E, but the tracks are all visually awful. I don't know why people find racing Infront of big concrete blocks appealing....

Meanwhile, visually speaking, the Albert Park circuit for example is visually stunning.

I also find the proliferation of street circuits annoying.
Unfortunately, F1 is a business, and it goes where the money is... The racing experience is the least of their concern.

I'm starting to think my dream of seeing F1 race around Laguna Seca will never happen...
At least there's Spa. Please don't let these greedy b#stards get rid of Spa.

Looked on Wikipedia, Laguna Seca is an FIA Grade 2 track and needs to be a grade 1 track to host F1. That would be an 85 lap race considering the length of the track which is short for F1 standards. Most F1 tracks are at least 4km long (Monaco being an exception). This is 3.6km long and for those who don't know the race distance is 305km + 1 lap.

One of the things F1 is looking at is the facilities to hold tourists which shouldn't be a problem considering its near Carmel and PGA events happen regularly at Pebble Beach but F1 does draw much bigger crowds than golf.

If they take Spa out of the calendar and even rotate it people hopefully will be outraged. They should rotate the following 8 European tracks and leave the rest on the calendar.

- Imola - Nürburgring
- Barcelona - Portimao
- The Netherlands - France
- Hungary - Turkey.

TheFlyingDisk · Mon Apr 18, 2022 11:00 pm

StarAC17 wrote:
If they take Spa out of the calendar and even rotate it people hopefully will be outraged. They should rotate the following 8 European tracks and leave the rest on the calendar.

- Imola - Nürburgring
- Barcelona - Portimao
- The Netherlands - France
- Hungary - Turkey.

Why not Great Britain - France ? :duck:

Also, Singapore - Malaysia would be nice, if only a pipe dream.

StarAC17 · Wed Apr 20, 2022 6:00 pm

TheFlyingDisk wrote:
StarAC17 wrote:
If they take Spa out of the calendar and even rotate it people hopefully will be outraged. They should rotate the following 8 European tracks and leave the rest on the calendar.

- Imola - Nürburgring
- Barcelona - Portimao
- The Netherlands - France
- Hungary - Turkey.

Why not Great Britain - France ?

Also, Singapore - Malaysia would be nice, if only a pipe dream.

Would you rather see a race at Paul Ricard or Silverstone??

They should add Malaysia this year now that a back to back Singapore GP is being floated to replace Russia.

TheFlyingDisk · Wed Apr 20, 2022 11:14 pm

StarAC17 wrote:
Would you rather see a race at Paul Ricard or Silverstone??

To be fair to Paul Ricard, 2021's race was a nailbiter. Okay maybe it's an outlier (I mean, even Sochi had a great race), but with the current crop of cars who knows, maybe we'll get exciting racing!

StarAC17 · Thu Apr 21, 2022 3:44 pm

TheFlyingDisk wrote:
StarAC17 wrote:
Would you rather see a race at Paul Ricard or Silverstone??

To be fair to Paul Ricard, 2021's race was a nailbiter. Okay maybe it's an outlier (I mean, even Sochi had a great race), but with the current crop of cars who knows, maybe we'll get exciting racing!

Barcelona was good too.

With these new cars it could make racing better at both tracks that medium/high speed corners. There were only a few bore fests last year, most races were good and 2022 has had it continue.

Narfish641 · Sun Apr 24, 2022 11:14 am

That Sprint race was something else I tell ya. Max and Charles duking it out on the final laps in Imola. Today's race is gonna get real crazy! Can't wait! Also Mercedes is going down hill fast! It's a shocker to see the team down far in the grid after so many years of domination. Not looking good for the Mercedes at all. I hope they can bounce back once they get the fixes done and we can have a 3 way fight for the championship (If possible)!

Francoflier · Sun Apr 24, 2022 12:25 pm

About 50% chance of showers throughout the race... :stirthepot:

Let the chaos begin.

Francoflier · Sun Apr 24, 2022 3:42 pm

Nevermind... snoozefest.
Except that Leclerc's f#ckup and Sainz's curse are now bringing RedBull and VER back in the race for the title.

chimborazo · Sun Apr 24, 2022 7:43 pm

StarAC17 wrote:
TheFlyingDisk wrote:
StarAC17 wrote:
If they take Spa out of the calendar and even rotate it people hopefully will be outraged. They should rotate the following 8 European tracks and leave the rest on the calendar.

- Imola - Nürburgring
- Barcelona - Portimao
- The Netherlands - France
- Hungary - Turkey.

Why not Great Britain - France ?

Also, Singapore - Malaysia would be nice, if only a pipe dream.

Would you rather see a race at Paul Ricard or Silverstone??

They should add Malaysia this year now that a back to back Singapore GP is being floated to replace Russia.

Cadwell Park please!! Although I’m not sure you can get 2 F1 cars side by side around most of the track… be fun to watch though

TheFlyingDisk · Sun Apr 24, 2022 11:48 pm

Francoflier wrote:
Nevermind... snoozefest.
Except that Leclerc's f#ckup and Sainz's curse are now bringing RedBull and VER back in the race for the title.

Snoozefest for the lead perhaps, but there were plenty of racing in the midfield, though what's up with Hamilton? Russell was miles ahead of him.

Speaking of Russell, I just wished Bottas would have just sent it into Tamburello & overtake him. Probably the best FU statement he could have made to Toto had he done so, especially since Russell took him out of the race last year at the same place.

Francoflier · Mon Apr 25, 2022 1:41 am

TheFlyingDisk wrote:
Francoflier wrote:
Nevermind... snoozefest.
Except that Leclerc's f#ckup and Sainz's curse are now bringing RedBull and VER back in the race for the title.

Snoozefest for the lead perhaps, but there were plenty of racing in the midfield, though what's up with Hamilton? Russell was miles ahead of him.

Speaking of Russell, I just wished Bottas would have just sent it into Tamburello & overtake him. Probably the best FU statement he could have made to Toto had he done so, especially since Russell took him out of the race last year at the same place.

Well that's the thing. Imola isn't an easy track for overtaking and the race direction stubbornly refused to allow DRS for much too long. Hamilton was stuck in traffic the whole time.
Not that it explains his poor performance vs Russell... Being lapped by the lead of the race must have been a strange new experience for him.

StarAC17 · Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:27 pm

TheFlyingDisk wrote:
Francoflier wrote:
Nevermind... snoozefest.
Except that Leclerc's f#ckup and Sainz's curse are now bringing RedBull and VER back in the race for the title.

Snoozefest for the lead perhaps, but there were plenty of racing in the midfield, though what's up with Hamilton? Russell was miles ahead of him.

Speaking of Russell, I just wished Bottas would have just sent it into Tamburello & overtake him. Probably the best FU statement he could have made to Toto had he done so, especially since Russell took him out of the race last year at the same place.

Russel was able to gain places at the start being in the right place when Riccardo and Sainz went off to get the additional places. I don't think that Russell's pace was a whole lot better and if it was in might be because he was in clear air for most of the race where Lewis was not.

Toto did make this point after the race that George shows that Mercedes does have decent pace when in clear air.

Speaking off Bottas, he would have likely got 4th had he not had a slow Pitstop (or even another lap), this seems to follow Valtteri around.

Nicoeddf · Tue Apr 26, 2022 12:37 pm

StarAC17 wrote:
TheFlyingDisk wrote:
Francoflier wrote:
Nevermind... snoozefest.
Except that Leclerc's f#ckup and Sainz's curse are now bringing RedBull and VER back in the race for the title.

Snoozefest for the lead perhaps, but there were plenty of racing in the midfield, though what's up with Hamilton? Russell was miles ahead of him.

Speaking of Russell, I just wished Bottas would have just sent it into Tamburello & overtake him. Probably the best FU statement he could have made to Toto had he done so, especially since Russell took him out of the race last year at the same place.

Russel was able to gain places at the start being in the right place when Riccardo and Sainz went off to get the additional places. I don't think that Russell's pace was a whole lot better and if it was in might be because he was in clear air for most of the race where Lewis was not.

Toto did make this point after the race that George shows that Mercedes does have decent pace when in clear air.

Speaking off Bottas, he would have likely got 4th had he not had a slow Pitstop (or even another lap), this seems to follow Valtteri around.

Bottas is driving superbly at the moment. Must be a satisfaction for him.

Regarding Lewis and George I am honestly a bit annoyed by Mercedes. So many excuses for Lewis while George's superior performance seems to go a bit unnoticed. All good and well with Toto asking Lewis dramatically for absolution for providing such a "bad" car on the radio for anybody to hear. George however constantly delivers. Not such a bad car for him, it seems. Yes, not championship winning at the moment. But hardly a backmarker in George's hand either.

TangoandCash · Tue Apr 26, 2022 7:43 pm

Nicoeddf wrote:

Regarding Lewis and George I am honestly a bit annoyed by Mercedes. So many excuses for Lewis while George's superior performance seems to go a bit unnoticed. All good and well with Toto asking Lewis dramatically for absolution for providing such a "bad" car on the radio for anybody to hear. George however constantly delivers. Not such a bad car for him, it seems. Yes, not championship winning at the moment. But hardly a backmarker in George's hand either.

This is what I don't understand. Toto has basically fallen on his sword for giving Lewis an "undriveable" car. It's not the dominating Mercedes of the previous era, but Russell seems to do ok with the same car. Not a championship winning car, but Russell didn't get lapped by a Red Bull.*

*Yes, I know different circumstances and Lewis was at the back of the pack from the beginning of the race, but I still fell off my chair laughing when Max cruised by. I wonder if any waves (one finger or otherwise) were exchanged...

Nicoeddf · Wed Apr 27, 2022 10:41 am

TangoandCash wrote:
Nicoeddf wrote:

Regarding Lewis and George I am honestly a bit annoyed by Mercedes. So many excuses for Lewis while George's superior performance seems to go a bit unnoticed. All good and well with Toto asking Lewis dramatically for absolution for providing such a "bad" car on the radio for anybody to hear. George however constantly delivers. Not such a bad car for him, it seems. Yes, not championship winning at the moment. But hardly a backmarker in George's hand either.

This is what I don't understand. Toto has basically fallen on his sword for giving Lewis an "undriveable" car. It's not the dominating Mercedes of the previous era, but Russell seems to do ok with the same car. Not a championship winning car, but Russell didn't get lapped by a Red Bull.*

*Yes, I know different circumstances and Lewis was at the back of the pack from the beginning of the race, but I still fell off my chair laughing when Max cruised by. I wonder if any waves (one finger or otherwise) were exchanged...

Agreed. And even acknowledging the different circumstances, and without wanting to be unduly unfair to Lewis:

1. He was at the back of the pack because he, again, qualified horribly in general and worse than Russell and couldn't make any progress in the sprint
2. He wasn't able to capitalize from the race because he couldn't even challenge Gasly for P12. He seems to be incapable to do any on-track overtaking at the moment
3. Russell seems to qualify better and more consistently, effectively uses the cars' race pace and limits the damage of the W13s subpar one-lap performance

So you certainly wonder if Lewis somehow lost his mojo. He seems incapable of extracting anything more than the absolute minimum of the car. Astonishing, for all the talent.

petertenthije · Wed Apr 27, 2022 10:53 am

Nicoeddf wrote:
So you certainly wonder if Lewis somehow lost his mojo. He seems incapable of extracting anything more than the absolute minimum of the car. Astonishing, for all the talent.

Either he no longer cares and is just sitting out his contract, or he is just an average driver who was really lucky having the best car and favourable team orders.

My guess would be he no longer cares.

Nicoeddf · Wed Apr 27, 2022 11:23 am

petertenthije wrote:
Nicoeddf wrote:
So you certainly wonder if Lewis somehow lost his mojo. He seems incapable of extracting anything more than the absolute minimum of the car. Astonishing, for all the talent.

Either he no longer cares and is just sitting out his contract, or he is just an average driver who was really lucky having the best car and favourable team orders.

My guess would be he no longer cares.

I go for a combination of all the aspects you listed. Incl. the fact that he seemingly doesn't care as much anymore.

TheFlyingDisk · Wed Apr 27, 2022 3:32 pm

If Lewis truly doesn't care anymore, then he should emulate Niki Lauda's action back in 1979 and withdraw from the season. It's highly demoralizing for the team to be working hard, only to have the driver having a couldn't care less attitude.

ltbewr · Sun May 08, 2022 3:07 pm

The Miami F1 race track is apparently has a 'joke surface' as will be impossible to pass due to need to strictly stick to the track lines. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-s ... li=BBnb7Kz

Francoflier · Sun May 08, 2022 5:40 pm

Did they even resurface the parking lot it's built on?

F1 is walking a fine line by adding all these city tracks at the expense of more established and better suited proper racing circuits.

petertenthije · Sun May 08, 2022 7:03 pm

Francoflier wrote:
Did they even resurface the parking lot it's built on?

I think they were too busy building a fake marina. Promotional/commercial considerations are more important then the basics such as asphalt.

Francoflier · Sun May 08, 2022 7:10 pm

petertenthije wrote:
I think they were too busy building a fake marina. Promotional/commercial considerations are more important then the basics such as asphalt.

Gosh, how tacky is that marina thing...

As for the rest, I'm afraid you're right. Monetizing races seems to have become more important to F1 than the racing itself.
We'll soon find out.

TheFlyingDisk · Mon May 09, 2022 12:50 am

Francoflier wrote:
As for the rest, I'm afraid you're right. Monetizing races seems to have become more important to F1 than the racing itself.
We'll soon find out.

F1's owners are American. Isn't that the American way? Besides, no doubt the team won't be complaining if they get more money coming their way from the share of the revenue.

So how was the race? Didn't watch it as it was just too damn late in my neck of the woods.

Who is online

Popular Searches On Airliners.net