I enjoyed that, Lando Norris was particularly impressive, and I like what I am seeing from the McLaren. But oof on the Williams cars... They seem like they could be borderline dangerous to have on the track.
Dirt 2.0 update... No update! Have to hang up the racing gloves for a bit. The baby arrived early and we just got out of the hospital yesterday, so may be a while before we get a routine in place.
+4
Options
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
I wouldn't worry too much yet
This is a Mercedes track. Especially one lap pace wise. I think Ferrari are still going to challenge big time for the race victory and there are plenty of tracks coming up that suite their package. Or should at least.
I enjoyed that, Lando Norris was particularly impressive, and I like what I am seeing from the McLaren. But oof on the Williams cars... They seem like they could be borderline dangerous to have on the track.
Dirt 2.0 update... No update! Have to hang up the racing gloves for a bit. The baby arrived early and we just got out of the hospital yesterday, so may be a while before we get a routine in place.
I don't think I can sigh large enough for my feelings right now. I feel like I could probably make a lot of money correctly predicting the exact finishing order of a majority of the races right now
With a little more time to reflect, I do have a little bit of hope left for a tight season
The aero is VERY different this year from last year, and the two lead teams have very clear differences in philosophy in terms of how they've adopted this new package
Mercedes has a history of purpose building their car for 1 lap speed and clean air running
Ferrari has an INSANE amount of support on the grid with both Haas and Alfa looking like the clear best of the rest, I expect to see MANY pick operations and strategy shenanigans from these teams to help Ferrari
if all this amounts to Vettel being able to get the Mercs in dirty air, then we might have a season
The Merc is spooky fast, but it also looks like it's wound extremely tight, and does not accept curbs AT ALL, like... at all. Hamilton kissed a curb in Q2 and it nearly went into orbit. If any pressure can be applied, then it could turn out that maybe this car just doesn't handle well in battle situations
0
Options
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Are we counting the 1000 Miles of Sebring as the 12 Hour in this case? I'm fine with it I suppose, but the actual 12 Hour is happening right now.
Oh I went by what my brother told me this is the imsa weather tech race tho? He was in the WEC
Didnt realize there was 2 nifty!
Yeah, WEC drove yesterday as the 1000 Miles of Sebring (8'ish hour race). The classic 12 Hours of Sebring is going on right now, about 4 hours to go. It is indeed an IMSA race.
So there is a way of looking at it to say that Alonso won the endurance triple, since he's now won an endurance race at Sebring...but it wasn't THE race at Sebring. People will have their own opinions on those semantics hehe.
Rumour has it that Ferrari are running the engines detuned due to reliability concerns. Apparently the cooling hasn't been able to cope with the heat. For Ferrari, this meant running a low downforce setup to compensate for the lack of power. The engine problem may affect all of the Ferrari powered cars.
C4's coverage has changed slightly; Fleetwood Mac's iconic "The Chain" is no longer the theme music, which was jarring. But on the plus side, Stefano Domenicali and Billy Monger have joined the presenter line-up, which unfortunately is still led by Steve Jones, but I guess you can't have everything! But, even though they only get to do live coverage of one race this year (Silverstone) they're still out there, still doing their thing.
Rumour has it that Ferrari are running the engines detuned due to reliability concerns. Apparently the cooling hasn't been able to cope with the heat. For Ferrari, this meant running a low downforce setup to compensate for the lack of power. The engine problem may affect all of the Ferrari powered cars.
This would be very interesting if true, because Ferrari has kind of led the charge on smaller side pod inlets and odd shaped overhead inlets. To the point where we constantly heard that everyone else was coping them but Mercedes was still doing their own thing in those areas.
Me as the new watcher: "Why does everyone say Valterri Bottas is a robot? Seems ok on radio."
*watches interview*
"Ah, yeah, ok"
+1
Options
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
edited March 2019
What in the hell Ferrari? That was shameful. 51 seconds adrift of the Merc? Yikes. I stand corrected about Ferrari's pace. I really expected them to have decent race pace, but 51 seconds is just..ouch.
I was listening to Vettel's engine on some of those onboards and I wonder if the rumor @altid pointed out is true, because his engine sounded de-ratey as hell at the end of any full throttle section. It just didn't sound good.
At least Haas didn't throw it away with both cars again this year, but another wheel issue causing a retirement? Just really sad for them.
What the shit happened to Ferari in the middle of the race?
Everyone give up?
I'm almost positive Vettel had an engine problem. His engine sounded like dog shit the last few laps on every on board and he was losing 7/10th's a lap to his teammate.
Merc hardly dominated last year - that was Ferrari throwing away an advantage.
Bad start, bad pace and awful strategy for Hamilton. He looked like Bottas from the end of last season.
Giovanazzi acting as a mobile chicane/tyre wear testbed in the race was poor form. Legal I know, but his tyres were long past dead and his blocking incredibly aggressive. Surprised it didn't result in a shunt.
Lost interest half way through, fast forwarded through to the end and even that was a waste of time.
Something seems very wrong with the Ferrari. The car looks like dogshit in motion
Alain Prost once said.... "If I look like I'm going fast, then I'm going slowly, and if I look I'm slow, then I'm going fast".... exactly the opposite is true right now. The Mercedes looks like a runaway fighter jet and has a clean second over the field, the Ferrari looks like an ice cream truck and was outclasses by the Red Bull easily
The broadcasters theorized that maybe the heat could be to do with it, but historically it's been the Merc that has suffered in high temperatures.
There's many variables to process here... there are in fact new tires which the teams don't seem to confident in, etc.... but overall this is looking more like Merc/Red Bull than Merc/Ferrari
+1
Options
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
edited March 2019
Some new info about Hamilton's pace
Apparently he picked up floor damage around lap 4 and was struggling with rear grip the whole race. That explains why he was just falling backward and complaining about the rear of the car all race.
Also should scare the shit out of the rest of the field. If Bottas was 21s up the road, and Hamilton was able to relatively easily hold off Max with a damaged floor. Woowee. We may be in for 2015 all over again.
It was still dull as hell, even by Aus standards. I mean I love the atmosphere it has, especially with the opener, and the track is great to watch cars go around - but it's absolutely horrible for on track action.
To be fair to Bottas, he had a really good race. Didn't put a foot wrong outside of qualifying. He's showing a more aggressive attitude but I'll reserve judgement until he keeps up performance over a whole season. I would have liked to see Hamilton closer at least, but the strategy call was dire. Stop massively early to cover off a Ferrari that has shown no sign of challenging you yet? At the very least use a bit of your buffer to see if new tyres have given Vettel pace before reacting. What may be interesting is that the 'new' mediums weren't anywhere close to on pace for a few laps. Could mean the undercut doesn't work anymore, but this is a data point of 1 (Hamilton), so will have to see if it's more general. Throwing away the extra life and pace in the softs also made the mediums need more management for the rest of the race than others. Terrible call.
Ferrari clearly had some serious issue bugging them all weekend. A pity for Danny Ric on his Renault debut. Not great pace and basically ruined his race mostly on his own.
0
Options
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
It was still dull as hell, even by Aus standards. I mean I love the atmosphere it has, especially with the opener, and the track is great to watch cars go around - but it's absolutely horrible for on track action.
To be fair to Bottas, he had a really good race. Didn't put a foot wrong outside of qualifying. He's showing a more aggressive attitude but I'll reserve judgement until he keeps up performance over a whole season. I would have liked to see Hamilton closer at least, but the strategy call was dire. Stop massively early to cover off a Ferrari that has shown no sign of challenging you yet? At the very least use a bit of your buffer to see if new tyres have given Vettel pace before reacting. What may be interesting is that the 'new' mediums weren't anywhere close to on pace for a few laps. Could mean the undercut doesn't work anymore, but this is a data point of 1 (Hamilton), so will have to see if it's more general. Throwing away the extra life and pace in the softs also made the mediums need more management for the rest of the race than others. Terrible call.
Ferrari clearly had some serious issue bugging them all weekend. A pity for Danny Ric on his Renault debut. Not great pace and basically ruined his race mostly on his own.
Hamilton had floor damage, Mercedes confirmed after the race. While I agree the mediums fell off hard, Hamilton was still able to hold off a charging Verstrappen who had fresher tires and no damage. Yes Max helped with the lawn mowing session, but more than once Max got within a second of Lewis and couldn't get past. I do think they pitted Lewis too early in hind sight, but they had no idea Ferrari would fade like that and I genuinely believe they believed Ferrari was going to be the strongest package this year. I think this is Bottas race regardless once he got the jump at the start, but I think without floor damage you would have seen Lewis only a few seconds behind Bottas and much farther away from Vettel and Verstrappen.
One positive change from last season I think we can all agree on, those shiny new tires are the best.
+2
Options
Nova_CI have the needThe need for speedRegistered Userregular
There was basically no overtaking the entire race. If Hamilton ran that race with damage, and his real pace is akin to Bottas', then it looks like Mercedes have no challengers this year.
0
Options
Nova_CI have the needThe need for speedRegistered Userregular
One positive change from last season I think we can all agree on, those shiny new tires are the best.
I like the tire changes, as well as the fastest lap point. The fastest lap introduces a lot more uncertainty with regards to strategy and that can only make the races more interesting.
Watching the race got me in playing mood. Started a season in F1 2018 with Renault. Gotta love the manual handling of the ERS, it's just so much fun to juggle that, fuel, driving and getting Jeff to tell me what I want to know.
Posts
that was.... very disappointing.
Dirt 2.0 update... No update! Have to hang up the racing gloves for a bit. The baby arrived early and we just got out of the hospital yesterday, so may be a while before we get a routine in place.
'Grats!
Steam | XBL
He also apparently broke the lap record by 3 seconds.
He is very good at driving cars.
The aero is VERY different this year from last year, and the two lead teams have very clear differences in philosophy in terms of how they've adopted this new package
Mercedes has a history of purpose building their car for 1 lap speed and clean air running
Ferrari has an INSANE amount of support on the grid with both Haas and Alfa looking like the clear best of the rest, I expect to see MANY pick operations and strategy shenanigans from these teams to help Ferrari
if all this amounts to Vettel being able to get the Mercs in dirty air, then we might have a season
The Merc is spooky fast, but it also looks like it's wound extremely tight, and does not accept curbs AT ALL, like... at all. Hamilton kissed a curb in Q2 and it nearly went into orbit. If any pressure can be applied, then it could turn out that maybe this car just doesn't handle well in battle situations
Are we counting the 1000 Miles of Sebring as the 12 Hour in this case? I'm fine with it I suppose, but the actual 12 Hour is happening right now.
Oh I went by what my brother told me this is the imsa weather tech race tho? He was in the WEC
Didnt realize there was 2 nifty!
Yeah, WEC drove yesterday as the 1000 Miles of Sebring (8'ish hour race). The classic 12 Hours of Sebring is going on right now, about 4 hours to go. It is indeed an IMSA race.
So there is a way of looking at it to say that Alonso won the endurance triple, since he's now won an endurance race at Sebring...but it wasn't THE race at Sebring. People will have their own opinions on those semantics hehe.
Steam | XBL
Am excite!
This would be very interesting if true, because Ferrari has kind of led the charge on smaller side pod inlets and odd shaped overhead inlets. To the point where we constantly heard that everyone else was coping them but Mercedes was still doing their own thing in those areas.
there's a law that says that the most italian guy possible must be running the team, and this new guy obviously has him beat clean
the round rim glasses finish it off
Everyone give up?
But yeah, that point thing is awesome.
Good for Red Bull.
What the heck, Ferrari?
Fucking sucks for Ricciardo.
*watches interview*
"Ah, yeah, ok"
I was listening to Vettel's engine on some of those onboards and I wonder if the rumor @altid pointed out is true, because his engine sounded de-ratey as hell at the end of any full throttle section. It just didn't sound good.
At least Haas didn't throw it away with both cars again this year, but another wheel issue causing a retirement? Just really sad for them.
The Gasly - Kyvat battle was pretty good, but God damn, Gasly looked really timid.
Also love Gio's defensive work on those older tires... Really well done.
Maybe you'll all be right one year.
Giovanazzi acting as a mobile chicane/tyre wear testbed in the race was poor form. Legal I know, but his tyres were long past dead and his blocking incredibly aggressive. Surprised it didn't result in a shunt.
Lost interest half way through, fast forwarded through to the end and even that was a waste of time.
REDEMPTION FOR DANY
Alfa Romeo is ahead of racing point???
Steam | XBL
Something seems very wrong with the Ferrari. The car looks like dogshit in motion
Alain Prost once said.... "If I look like I'm going fast, then I'm going slowly, and if I look I'm slow, then I'm going fast".... exactly the opposite is true right now. The Mercedes looks like a runaway fighter jet and has a clean second over the field, the Ferrari looks like an ice cream truck and was outclasses by the Red Bull easily
The broadcasters theorized that maybe the heat could be to do with it, but historically it's been the Merc that has suffered in high temperatures.
There's many variables to process here... there are in fact new tires which the teams don't seem to confident in, etc.... but overall this is looking more like Merc/Red Bull than Merc/Ferrari
Also should scare the shit out of the rest of the field. If Bottas was 21s up the road, and Hamilton was able to relatively easily hold off Max with a damaged floor. Woowee. We may be in for 2015 all over again.
Nah, if this pace was real, the field is in trouble.
To be fair to Bottas, he had a really good race. Didn't put a foot wrong outside of qualifying. He's showing a more aggressive attitude but I'll reserve judgement until he keeps up performance over a whole season. I would have liked to see Hamilton closer at least, but the strategy call was dire. Stop massively early to cover off a Ferrari that has shown no sign of challenging you yet? At the very least use a bit of your buffer to see if new tyres have given Vettel pace before reacting. What may be interesting is that the 'new' mediums weren't anywhere close to on pace for a few laps. Could mean the undercut doesn't work anymore, but this is a data point of 1 (Hamilton), so will have to see if it's more general. Throwing away the extra life and pace in the softs also made the mediums need more management for the rest of the race than others. Terrible call.
Ferrari clearly had some serious issue bugging them all weekend. A pity for Danny Ric on his Renault debut. Not great pace and basically ruined his race mostly on his own.
I like the tire changes, as well as the fastest lap point. The fastest lap introduces a lot more uncertainty with regards to strategy and that can only make the races more interesting.