The Official Formula 1 Racing Thread

[larss]

Lewis smashed the lap, Valteri smashed the car.

Stunning qualifying lap from Lewis.

Loved the comment Lewis made in the press conference afterwards. Lewis said that there was no extra "party mode" button.

Seb: What were you doing before, then?
Lewis: I was waiting to put a good lap in. Plus, wipe the smile off your face

 

[Chopper3000]

Great from Lewis. Let's hope he does it in the race tomorrow.

 

[Supafly]

I see a lot of you guys are fired up, too.

Do you watch the race live? If so, can you share what time it is aired in your area, and which program or whatever platform you view ot?

Here in Germany, we go to "Summer Time" sunday morning, so the race will beginn with the "Countdown", 60 minutes pre-race show, info about the track, the cars, the drivers, etc., and the GP will be off at 7:00 in the morning (Again, think about setting your clocks an hour forward before going to bed tonight )

https://www.rtl.de/cms/sport/formel-1.html

1 Lewis Hamilton Großbritannien Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1:21,164
2 Kimi Räikkönen Finnland Scuderia Ferrari +0,664
3 Sebastian Vettel Deutschland Scuderia Ferrari +0,674
4 Max Verstappen Niederlande Red Bull Racing +0,715
5 Daniel Ricciardo Australien Red Bull Racing +0,988 Strafe: +3 Plätze
6 Kevin Magnussen Dänemark Haas F1 Team +2,023
7 Romain Grosjean Frankreich Haas F1 Team +2,175
8 Nico Hülkenberg Deutschland Renault Sport F1 Team +2,368
9 Carlos Sainz Jr. Spanien Renault Sport F1 Team +2,413
10 Valtteri Bottas Finnland Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team ogV
11 Fernando Alonso Spanien McLaren Honda 1:23,692
12 Stoffel Vandoorne Flagge Belgien McLaren Honda +0,161
13 Sergio Perez Mexiko Sahara Force India F1 Team +0,313
14 Lance Stroll Kanada Williams Martini Racing +0,538
15 Esteban Ocon Frankreich Sahara Force India F1 Team +1,094
16 Brendon Hartley Neuseeland Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:24,532
17 Marcus Ericsson Schweden Sauber F1 Team +0,024
18 Charles Leclerc Monaco Sauber F1 Team +0,104
19 Sergej Sirotkin Russland Williams Martini Racing +0,390
20 Pierre Gasly Frankreich Scuderia Toro Rosso +0,763

 

[Rey C.]

Bottas, Bottas, Bottas...

Great job by Lewis and the Merc team. Good show by Ferrari too, especially Kimi. Should be an exciting race. Let's see how they get off the line and what Red Bull's alternate tire strategy does to the order after about 12 laps. What do you guys figure? Is that about how long those marshmallow softies will last?

 

[Supafly]

I am extremely curious how those pink "hypersofts" play out. Making a much more risky gamble possible, where tires can literally make or break a winning run, that will be fantastic.

 

[Supafly]

The race is thru, and it looks like we will indeed have a season of good - on-the-same-level competition between Red and Silver, with the mystery of the Red Bulls, who have to get their package sorted out. Great potential for being #3 in the lead fight, though!

 

[larss]

Lucky, lucky, Seb.

and Kimi was the better driver through the weekend in the Ferrari team.

 

[Supafly]

Double Ferrari front row for the Bahrain GP

... and Bottas third to start ^^

 

[dpantski]

I don't know what Vettel is using as a good luck charm this year but its definitely working!

3rd best in Australia and got a lucky incident which gives him a cheap pitstop and now he runs the soft tyres way beyond what was recommended and they somehow hold out (to be fair they've been punished for this many times before). Also its his teammate that gets unlucky with a botched stop.

As for Verstappen... I asked my friend whether Redbull would ever consider dropping him like they did Kyvat, he spun in the first race, followed it up by crashing in qualifying and then being far too aggressive with Hamilton and breaking his car. I fear he's been mollycoddled for being a prodigy too much and no one will tell him straight up that he needs to calm the hell down and stop trying to be a superstar all the time. Its not going to be helped by the fact that his car may have reliability issues and unforced driver errors are putting a serious dent in Redbull's points haul. The fact that McLaren and Alonso are ahead of them in the championship (albeit after 2 rounds) is embarrassing when their car is over a second a lap faster.

On a more positive note, Gasly drove perfectly this weekend and took full advantage of others misfortune/mistakes. It was very reminiscent of Sainz last year, which reminds you that Hulkenburg is still getting the better of him in their interteam battle. Hulkenburg to replace Bottas next year? I'd pick him but I strongly suspect Mercedes will pick their golden boy Ocon.

 

[Supafly]

Here are some of the best examples of Verstappen, to be polite, being "overambitious", and appearing to lose good judgement of what is possible with all partakers coming out in one piece out of those situations. He seems to systematically push in those moments to get the other racers to pull back, to not get wiped out. I am sure that this is a strategy of his.

 

[Supafly]

Tomorrow, the Grand Prix of Aserbaidschan starts

Just look at the first three rows. This - along with the city layout - will deliver a great race, with a LOT of fights

 

[Chopper3000]

Maybe Vettel will 'brake test' Hamilton this time.

 

[dpantski]

Wow

If anything this race was even more incident filled that last years! So much went on that I want to cover each driver.

Hamilton got his break of luck that he gave up in Australia, he was faster than Bottas but with the tyres taking so long to warm up he was going to end up behind him. Cue safety car, Vettel going off, Bottas puncture and he ended up looking somewhat sheepish as the winner. Without looking great he leads the championship, at some point this year you feel he'll be dominant and this result could prove pivotal.

Bottas drove alright and kept his tyres in good condition as he went very long on his first stint hoping for a safety car (I'll refer to it as SC from now on), it worked out and he ended up in the lead. He kept his cool when Vettel outbraked himself at the restart and was undone by a piece of debris. Unlucky for sure and deserved a podium.

Vettel had his share of luck the first couple of races and now Lady Luck has collected her debts with him not winning or even finishing on the podium the last 2 races. He was going to take a relatively comfortable win before the SC put him behind Bottas, an overly aggressive attempt to take the lead at the restart backfired and hurt his tyres and he ended up off the podium in 4th.

Raikkonen was arguably the fastest driver at Baku but had a mistake riddled weekend, he ballsed up qualifying and made a poor start and got tangled up with Ocon. After that he put on the soft tyres and made slow progress through the pack and looked to be heading for a lonely 6th place. After the SC, like Hamilton he picked up the pieces and should be relieved to take 2nd.

Oh boy, now onto the Red Bulls....

Ricciardo outqualified Verstappen but ceded the position early on. After that he was able to stay close enough to make full use of the incredible tow you get at Baku and made multiple attempts to pass Verstappen which didn't work. You could see after one wheel banging that Ricciardo started to make more aggressive moves and eventually got past him just before their pitstops, maybe he had a bad outlap on the cold tyres but Ver came out ahead. In the end he whacked Verstappen right up the butt and put them both out of the race.

Verstappen made a good start but struggled for pace seemingly compared to his teammate in the race. He somehow ended up in front after the pitstops and defended very aggressively throughout the race. The crashtappen nickname sticks for now.

Of the other drivers, I'll talk about a few.

Grosjean.... dear oh dear. This is looking like his last year in F1 unless he brings serious sponsorship money or pulls his act together. He's hindered his teammate a couple times this year and now he's crashed behind the SC. These mistakes will not have gone unnoticed.

Leclerc was the driver of the race, he kept out of trouble, made clean moves and ended up in 6th. I see a bright future ahead of him providing he outperforms Ericsson this year.

Perez despite finishing on the podium had a mixed race, he got a penalty (not sure what for?) but was able to take advantage of Vettel's mistake and keep him behind for 3rd place.

Ocon on the other hand left Raikkonen no room on the inside on the 1st lap and retired, he screwed up and paid the price. Hopefully he reflects on this and doesn't expect drivers to magically vanish out of his way next time.

Alonso was old reliable, 1st lap incident put him in a tough position but ended up taking solid points.

Anyone else? I think Sainz was solid and did a good job getting past the Red Bulls early but then dropped off, Hulkenburg may have caused a first lap incident then later retired when he lost control and hit the wall. Stroll scored what might be the teams only points this year but I still think Kubica would be achieving more with the car.


Now that that's out of the way, what about the Red Bull incident? Who's fault was it?

80% Verstappen, 20% Ricciardo.

Now this is going to be a divisive issue. Max fans will argue that Daniel wasn't going to make the corner / went for a gap that wasn't there. Those arguments are probably legitimate, it looked like it was on a par with Vettels super late braking that cost him places at the restart. If you focus on this you can convince yourself that Daniel an experienced racer went too deep and should've exercised more restraint.

On the other hand Verstappen was very aggressive in defending all race, he almost pushed Ricciardo into the wall earlier on (when Daniel left him a lot of room, take note Ocon) and he weaved on the main straight a few times to break the tow. Its also arguable that he made multiple defensive moves and that when there was a small gap up the inside, Daniel was fully entitled to go for it since Max was never going to cede the position easily and some risk was necessary to make the pass and Max had already made defensive moves and from Daniels point of view couldn't move again to cover it.

IMO Verstappen took the defensive driving too far and his previous actions forced Daniel to take more risks in order to get past. I don't agree with weaving on the straights to break a tow, its very close to or can be defined as a defensive move so Max is also culpable in that regard from my perspective. I do however agree that Daniel braked too late and probably did so out of frustration knowing full well that he had to make a risky move to retake 4th. There was certainly a gap up the inside when Daniel turned that way but Max turned that way at almost the same time and Daniel had nowhere to go at that point.

 

[dpantski]

Christian Horner interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNc5cud2Wb8

 

[Supafly]

All in all, this new GP should be discontinued, but given the way the game works, it won't. Courses in inner cities, with rectangular corners with almost no stretches to roll out when you make a mistake are just wrong.

And Verstappen probably got - as düantski said - whacked by Riccardo, and I think that was a good idea. Crashstappen needs to learn that his strategy of overtaking by forcing other drivers to either make space or leave the track or crash has to be stopped.

Remeinds me of Rosberg taking out Hamilton - or rather, not making space, as usual - in Spain, 2016. He needed to make that clear, he won't automatically save himself to keep on racing and let Lewis slip by, like before

 

[larss]

I believe that Perez's penalty was for overtaking before the SC line after once the race restarted.

About time Lady Luck smiled on Lewis. Remember what happened in Azerbaijan last season - apart from Vettel's petulance for which he got a slap on the wrist penalty - Lewis's headrest came apart and he had to make a stop to get it sorted out.
I feel for Valtteri - he had that in the bag before hitting track debris.

 

[MILF Man]

Hamilton = Luckiest Bastard Ever!

 

[Supafly]

Come friday, the 11th of may, F1 is back to Europe, in Spain, the GP of Barcelona

 

[Supafly]

 

[Chopper3000]

Nice one Lewis.