And so off to Monza in Italy. Two of the all time classics in the space of a week - we're spoiled sometimes. Will it be the last time F1 goes to Monza? God, I hope not. (Rumours of a new deal to save the race continue to abound, thankfully.) Will we see yet another round of Max vs Kimi? Probably. Just so long as everybody walks away...
I sincerely hope someone has had a word in Max's shell-like. Christian Horner was quick to point out to Max that turn 1 at Spa was not Kimi's fault, and was pretty cagey about the "hard but fair" thing - in public of course he wants to stand by his driver but I wouldn't put it past him, at least, to have had a few words with Max in the days since.
I do wonder if Red Bull will make the problems with Verstappen worse. They're either incredibly harsh with their drivers, or if you're Helmut Marko's chosen one you can get away with murder and the team won't say a word about it. Just look at Vettel during his time there for example. Verstappen needs a good dressing down but I doubt Red Bull will give it to him.
Having watched it again a few times, Kimi should have known Max woulden't let him pass that easy. You are allowed to change your line once to defend, nowhere does it say you have to guess instead of waiting for your opponent to pick a side.
Was it reckless? probably
I think RB is not going to complain. They wanted a very agressive driver and they got one.
F1 drivers are supposed to pick a line and defend it. Max did not do this, he waited until the last possible second before moving across to block, this is not against the rules but is frowned upon because it can cause an accident. Indeed, one was only averted because Raikkonen was experienced enough to avoid it. Kvyat was just as aggressive but had the misfortune to hit someone (twice) and so was demoted.
Kimi didn't bother to fake, Max defended agressively.
And with all the extranous safety measures, it would seem odd that FIA would allow situations that are inheritly dangerous. To me it seems that they expect attacking drivers to anticipate.
Kimi didn't bother to fake, Max defended agressively.
And with all the extranous safety measures, it would seem odd that FIA would allow situations that are inheritly dangerous. To me it seems that they expect attacking drivers to anticipate.
The American announcers made a decent point that because of how safe the cars have become the drivers are not a lot less risk averse than they were, and they already were rather low on that scale to begin with. There is still a small chance that a bad action could lead to a drivers death, but it's so incredibly rare now that drivers will take risks now that drivers from the 70's and 80's are flabbergasted over, such as Max's defensive driving or his turn 1 dive inside of the apex.
Expect more driving like his in the future, not less.
Kimi didn't bother to fake, Max defended agressively.
And with all the extranous safety measures, it would seem odd that FIA would allow situations that are inheritly dangerous. To me it seems that they expect attacking drivers to anticipate.
The American announcers made a decent point that because of how safe the cars have become the drivers are not a lot less risk averse than they were, and they already were rather low on that scale to begin with. There is still a small chance that a bad action could lead to a drivers death, but it's so incredibly rare now that drivers will take risks now that drivers from the 70's and 80's are flabbergasted over, such as Max's defensive driving or his turn 1 dive inside of the apex.
Expect more driving like his in the future, not less.
Watch some old Senna or Schumacher races, those guy were agressive as hell and as you say, it was far more dangerous back then.
Only just managed to watch the race. Exciting race, great result for Alonso, and what a frikken bit of bumper cars the first few laps were.
That T1 incident was exactly the one in China earlier, just with the drivers swapped. Someone dives from the inside, Raikkonen has to leave a car's width, and Vettel doesn't know he has to leave two car lengths instead of one because of the late dive. He was expecting to push Raikkonen to hug the corner even more, but he couldn't because car.
And those words after the race? I remember a certain Russian who did something similar.
Of course, his last name wasn't Verstappen.
I really enjoy aggressive driving, but I dislike dumb, dangerous driving because even though we have all the amazing safety features around (just ask Magnussen) shit happens.
Also, I have been really surprised by Wehrlein lately. At first it seemed like his DTM experience just wasn't translating, but these last few races he's pulled some magic tricks in arguably the slowest car in the grid. That guy needs a fast car soon.
Felipe Massa is retiring at the end of this season. Gonna miss the guy, as I think will the whole paddock; but I hope that makes this year's Brazilian GP a big ol' party. The Brazilian fans never do anything by halves and he's by far their best and most loved driver since Senna.
However, it seems the "obvious" replacement at Williams might not be going there. Seems like the team have tired of Jenson Button's indecision. So will McLaren effectively force Button's retirement by giving Stoffel Vandoorne the drive, as seems likely? And who takes the Williams?
So, maybe I was just not very good at Australia, because I woke up this morning and managed to grab pole at Bahrain with relatively minimal practice (at least not as much as I did on Australia). Considering it was the first time I've picked it up since my vacation, this is a good sign.
I'm pretty sure Bernie was asked to keep his current role for another three years under the new management. However, he is allowing Liberty Media to start expanding F1's participation in social media (about goddamn time too).
I'm pretty sure Bernie was asked to keep his current role for another three years under the new management. However, he is allowing Liberty Media to start expanding F1's participation in social media (about goddamn time too).
Well, as long as they stop alienating young people for not having money...
I wonder if we'll see any changes anytime soon to the rules to get some consistency and maybe, just maybe, more competitiveness.
EDIT: Also fuck it, we need an online ticket pass for streaming season's races.
This deal should have no impact on the rules and regulations at all. The responsibility for that stuff generally lies with the FIA, whereas this deal only concerns the Formula One Group, the commerical rights holder.
While I'd love to see it, a global F1 online streaming service won't happen any time soon, there is no way the various contracts FOM has with broadcasters around the world would allow for that. Even MotoGP's VideoPass, which is pretty much the gold standard for how this stuff should be done, is subject to some regional restrictions depending on deals with local broadcasters. And since there is no way the income from a streaming service would be anything close to what the broadcasters are paying FOM at the moment...
Best case, the new owners look at F1's plummeting ratings and start prioritizing reach when negotiating with broadcasters. In practice, this would probably mean more deals with free-to-air/free-to-view channels, which in turn might be more open to FOM offering a supplementary streaming service, like the restricted MotoGP VideoPass offerings in some regions. But even that is probably far too optimistic.
F1 alone with all other sports need to get on the streaming stuff. But, I'm sure cable realizes, as soon as sports are available online streaming, people like me are dropping them like a bad habit.
Ok, so I'm planning my trip to Austin. I know there are locals here that can give advice on how to go about it. How do we go about driving in and parking. Looking at the map it looks like two ways in? How would we set up a shuttle if we decide to go that route. I haven't picked a hotel yet, but as you can imagine, it's not going to be anywhere close, lol. It looks like it might be someplace close to UT or there-abouts.
Ok, so I'm planning my trip to Austin. I know there are locals here that can give advice on how to go about it. How do we go about driving in and parking. Looking at the map it looks like two ways in? How would we set up a shuttle if we decide to go that route. I haven't picked a hotel yet, but as you can imagine, it's not going to be anywhere close, lol. It looks like it might be someplace close to UT or there-abouts.
Last year they had a shuttle from downtown, a handful of miles from UT, for like $25 a person a day.
Versus parking and taking a shuttle for about the same price per vehicle.
I can't find anything about the shuttles for this year, but I think it would be the less stressful route to go.
It looks like there are three shuttle options. The one that looks the most promising is the convention center one. It looks like, from the map to be right down 35 from one of the hotels I'm looking at.
It was a pretty poor weekend from Hamilton, but he did have to deal with his car (once again) being broken for most all of the practice sessions. He was fastest in P1 and it was downhill from there. Fair play to Rosberg, he drove a good race - although I would have loved to see Danny Ric catch and pass him at the end, if only because it was an actual fight for P1 with a driver going flat out rather than worrying about fuel saving or tyre management. It does not surprise me that the traffic that held him up was Guttierez, who seems to love ignoring blue flags and holding up the leaders whenever he can.
Have to mention the Ferrari drivers (if not the strategists). Kimi drove a great race until strategy killed off his podium place. It was amazing that Ferrari didn't seem to know how to deal with Hamilton coming in. They'd heard the same radio messages, they knew he was going to come in and yet when asked they didn't know if Kimi should pit or not until the last second. If they'd reacted immediately and told Kimi to use up the last of his tyres he might have stayed ahead. Vettel also drove a great race to finish 5th from last on the grid.
To elaborate on the Sainz thing, he was given a black and orange flag which means "there's something dangerous on your car, pit to fix it". This time it was a loose barge board that the stewards decided was at risk of flying off. I'm amazed they actually issued one since they've been content with all sorts of ridiculous bits of bodywork hanging on by a thread before but they still issued one (for possibly the first time that I can actually remember). After that Sainz drove past the pits at least once, maybe more, before coming in to try and pit during the tyre window. I consider that unacceptable since the black/orange flag is a safety issue. You don't get to ignore it until it suits you - you're still unsafe until you pit! For that reason alone I'd have disqualified him to send a message.
Somehow I'd missed that the track in Malaysia has had a few tweaks, apparently including a reprofiled final corner?
Yeah, it's a little shorter, and it's off-camber now. Apparently it's better for MotoGP, which is also apparently way more popular in Malaysia than F-1. Also the track was entirely re-surfaced, so it's way smoother now. Also its fresh pavement, so it's more slippery, but also easier on tyres.
Well that's the championship decided, all because Merc can't build Hamilton a car that bloody works. Likewise we see Rosberg once again unable to make a competitive overtake and resorting to using the other car to turn. A pity the 10s penalty was effectively nullified.
At the very least I'm glad Danny Ric won ahead of Verstappen.
Posts
I sincerely hope someone has had a word in Max's shell-like. Christian Horner was quick to point out to Max that turn 1 at Spa was not Kimi's fault, and was pretty cagey about the "hard but fair" thing - in public of course he wants to stand by his driver but I wouldn't put it past him, at least, to have had a few words with Max in the days since.
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Was it reckless? probably
I think RB is not going to complain. They wanted a very agressive driver and they got one.
And with all the extranous safety measures, it would seem odd that FIA would allow situations that are inheritly dangerous. To me it seems that they expect attacking drivers to anticipate.
The American announcers made a decent point that because of how safe the cars have become the drivers are not a lot less risk averse than they were, and they already were rather low on that scale to begin with. There is still a small chance that a bad action could lead to a drivers death, but it's so incredibly rare now that drivers will take risks now that drivers from the 70's and 80's are flabbergasted over, such as Max's defensive driving or his turn 1 dive inside of the apex.
Expect more driving like his in the future, not less.
Watch some old Senna or Schumacher races, those guy were agressive as hell and as you say, it was far more dangerous back then.
Max is getting there.
Mind you, Maldonado deliberately rammed Hamilton into the wall at Spa a few years ago and got away with it.
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That T1 incident was exactly the one in China earlier, just with the drivers swapped. Someone dives from the inside, Raikkonen has to leave a car's width, and Vettel doesn't know he has to leave two car lengths instead of one because of the late dive. He was expecting to push Raikkonen to hug the corner even more, but he couldn't because car.
And those words after the race? I remember a certain Russian who did something similar.
Of course, his last name wasn't Verstappen.
I really enjoy aggressive driving, but I dislike dumb, dangerous driving because even though we have all the amazing safety features around (just ask Magnussen) shit happens.
Also, I have been really surprised by Wehrlein lately. At first it seemed like his DTM experience just wasn't translating, but these last few races he's pulled some magic tricks in arguably the slowest car in the grid. That guy needs a fast car soon.
EDIT:
Everyone's face watching those first few laps
https://www.facebook.com/Formula1/videos/655297427960576/
"He said sorry. I said ok. We go forward"
Well, that's...
that's a wing alright.
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However, it seems the "obvious" replacement at Williams might not be going there. Seems like the team have tired of Jenson Button's indecision. So will McLaren effectively force Button's retirement by giving Stoffel Vandoorne the drive, as seems likely? And who takes the Williams?
Silly season continues!
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/37268226
Jenson effectively retires with McLaren, but there's an "option" for 2018 if McLaren need it.
A Bottas/Nasr lineup would be good at Williams, but considering how well he has been doing, Wehrlein should be getting a look as well.
I saw one comment effectively say "so if the 2017 McLaren is rubbish and Alonso bails, they've got someone to drive it".
I hope it's not honestly quite that cynical, but...
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well Bernie is still the ceo, so same as always.
nothing major will change until he's gone.
Agreed, but it seems like this might be a path to getting him out!
Well, as long as they stop alienating young people for not having money...
I wonder if we'll see any changes anytime soon to the rules to get some consistency and maybe, just maybe, more competitiveness.
EDIT: Also fuck it, we need an online ticket pass for streaming season's races.
While I'd love to see it, a global F1 online streaming service won't happen any time soon, there is no way the various contracts FOM has with broadcasters around the world would allow for that. Even MotoGP's VideoPass, which is pretty much the gold standard for how this stuff should be done, is subject to some regional restrictions depending on deals with local broadcasters. And since there is no way the income from a streaming service would be anything close to what the broadcasters are paying FOM at the moment...
Best case, the new owners look at F1's plummeting ratings and start prioritizing reach when negotiating with broadcasters. In practice, this would probably mean more deals with free-to-air/free-to-view channels, which in turn might be more open to FOM offering a supplementary streaming service, like the restricted MotoGP VideoPass offerings in some regions. But even that is probably far too optimistic.
Steam | XBL
Last year they had a shuttle from downtown, a handful of miles from UT, for like $25 a person a day.
Versus parking and taking a shuttle for about the same price per vehicle.
I can't find anything about the shuttles for this year, but I think it would be the less stressful route to go.
Have to mention the Ferrari drivers (if not the strategists). Kimi drove a great race until strategy killed off his podium place. It was amazing that Ferrari didn't seem to know how to deal with Hamilton coming in. They'd heard the same radio messages, they knew he was going to come in and yet when asked they didn't know if Kimi should pit or not until the last second. If they'd reacted immediately and told Kimi to use up the last of his tyres he might have stayed ahead. Vettel also drove a great race to finish 5th from last on the grid.
To elaborate on the Sainz thing, he was given a black and orange flag which means "there's something dangerous on your car, pit to fix it". This time it was a loose barge board that the stewards decided was at risk of flying off. I'm amazed they actually issued one since they've been content with all sorts of ridiculous bits of bodywork hanging on by a thread before but they still issued one (for possibly the first time that I can actually remember). After that Sainz drove past the pits at least once, maybe more, before coming in to try and pit during the tyre window. I consider that unacceptable since the black/orange flag is a safety issue. You don't get to ignore it until it suits you - you're still unsafe until you pit! For that reason alone I'd have disqualified him to send a message.
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Yeah, it's a little shorter, and it's off-camber now. Apparently it's better for MotoGP, which is also apparently way more popular in Malaysia than F-1. Also the track was entirely re-surfaced, so it's way smoother now. Also its fresh pavement, so it's more slippery, but also easier on tyres.
At the very least I'm glad Danny Ric won ahead of Verstappen.