I think Albon deserves mad props for pulling off that defence, given the age of his tyres it's remarkable to me he managed to keep Ocon behind at the end (though I think Norris' last minute dive forcing Ocon to defend sealed the deal)
It's not like DRS wasn't working either as there were few passes in the zone, he just managed to really make the most of the car so hats off to him
Surprisingly good showing from Ferrari as well
Initially it looked like Ferrari may have botched it again with not pitting during the first safety opportunity but ultimately it worked for them.
I didn't have a problem with the two Ferrari cars and Perez staying out during the safety car, since they were on the hard compound and it was way too early to move away from it. I'm glad it worked out for them for once, I think this is the first race in a while where they didn't make any obvious strategy mistakes. Granted, LeClerc got screwed over in qualifying when they told him to bank a lap on the inters instead of switching to softs, so they still botched it.
I think Albon deserves mad props for pulling off that defence, given the age of his tyres it's remarkable to me he managed to keep Ocon behind at the end (though I think Norris' last minute dive forcing Ocon to defend sealed the deal)
It's not like DRS wasn't working either as there were few passes in the zone, he just managed to really make the most of the car so hats off to him
Surprisingly good showing from Ferrari as well
Initially it looked like Ferrari may have botched it again with not pitting during the first safety opportunity but ultimately it worked for them.
I didn't have a problem with the two Ferrari cars and Perez staying out during the safety car, since they were on the hard compound and it was way too early to move away from it. I'm glad it worked out for them for once, I think this is the first race in a while where they didn't make any obvious strategy mistakes. Granted, LeClerc got screwed over in qualifying when they told him to bank a lap on the inters instead of switching to softs, so they still botched it.
Weren't th Ferraris on mediums at that point?
Huh, I think they were. I guess sometimes you just get lucky then.
I was actually pretty impressed with the pace of Norris in the McLaren, if he hadn't been stuck in that DRS train behind Albon (and didn't earn a 5s penalty) he could have finished with decent points.
Stroll, on the other hand, is looking increasingly lost. When your teammate is comfortably finishing second (including making a pass on track for second) and you are struggling to get into the points that is generally a bad sign. He's obviously a talented driver, or he wouldn't be in F1 at all, but he is just so consistently outclassed by his teammate and it looks bad for him.
+3
Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
Stroll and Perez are both looking pretty poor at the minute.
Perez is driving what is, by far, the best car on the grid but hasn't really challenged for a podium spot in the last three races.
Stroll is driving the overall second best car (so far) but hasn't even threatened a podium at any point.
Stroll and Perez are both looking pretty poor at the minute.
Perez is driving what is, by far, the best car on the grid but hasn't really challenged for a podium spot in the last three races.
Stroll is driving the overall second best car (so far) but hasn't even threatened a podium at any point.
Marko might be busy during summer break if de Vries and Perez keep performing like they are.
I think Albon deserves mad props for pulling off that defence, given the age of his tyres it's remarkable to me he managed to keep Ocon behind at the end (though I think Norris' last minute dive forcing Ocon to defend sealed the deal)
It's not like DRS wasn't working either as there were few passes in the zone, he just managed to really make the most of the car so hats off to him
Surprisingly good showing from Ferrari as well
Initially it looked like Ferrari may have botched it again with not pitting during the first safety opportunity but ultimately it worked for them.
I didn't have a problem with the two Ferrari cars and Perez staying out during the safety car, since they were on the hard compound and it was way too early to move away from it. I'm glad it worked out for them for once, I think this is the first race in a while where they didn't make any obvious strategy mistakes. Granted, LeClerc got screwed over in qualifying when they told him to bank a lap on the inters instead of switching to softs, so they still botched it.
weren't the Ferrari's on Mediums? I would have liked to see them split their strategies, but it did work out so credit to them. I was also a bit disappointed how early they told LeClerc that Sainz wouldn't attack.
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Red Raevynbecause I only take Bubble BathsRegistered Userregular
Stroll and Perez are both looking pretty poor at the minute.
Perez is driving what is, by far, the best car on the grid but hasn't really challenged for a podium spot in the last three races.
Stroll is driving the overall second best car (so far) but hasn't even threatened a podium at any point.
I'm more inclined not to fault Perez because of the consistent reporting on how tuned for Verstappen the RB is. It's not like anyone else who isn't Verstappen has done better than him with it. He's had a few bad weekends, but I think overall he's had a good season. Then again I'm probably too soft about it. And it was once others like Merc found pace that he fell off the front. Did I just talk myself out of my own point?
Stroll and Perez are both looking pretty poor at the minute.
Perez is driving what is, by far, the best car on the grid but hasn't really challenged for a podium spot in the last three races.
Stroll is driving the overall second best car (so far) but hasn't even threatened a podium at any point.
I'm more inclined not to fault Perez because of the consistent reporting on how tuned for Verstappen the RB is. It's not like anyone else who isn't Verstappen has done better than him with it. He's had a few bad weekends, but I think overall he's had a good season. Then again I'm probably too soft about it. And it was once others like Merc found pace that he fell off the front. Did I just talk myself out of my own point?
Full 100% unadulterated Pérez fanboy speaking here:
Sort of reminds me of his first season with the team, in that the car was working completely against what his preferences are. I'm guessing the latest changes to the RB are similar in nature, just keep moving it away and away from his style.
And it's going to keep on being that way because they want to keep Max happy in the team and they won't do anything that would challenge him away from #1 spot.
So it sucks, a lot...
Does that speak bad of him as a driver? I wouldn't say so: he basically is doing his best against the flow, and the flow is basically all about keeping Max happy. Any other driver in that seat would face the same.
Could other drivers that like looser cars do better in that particular car? Maybe. Probably.
It's the sad nature of the sport, in a way: the sport wants to have "teams" that fight for a WCC, but also have individual drivers that fight for a WDC, and chances are the teammates are fighting each-other for that because it's common enough to have dominant cars.
( < . . .
+1
Red Raevynbecause I only take Bubble BathsRegistered Userregular
By the way, did anyone watch the Riccardo and Arnett commentary, was it particularly funny? I've been out of town so I only watched the highlight from the race.
By the way, did anyone watch the Riccardo and Arnett commentary, was it particularly funny? I've been out of town so I only watched the highlight from the race.
I had to turn it off after like five minutes. Neither seemed to have any real energy. It was bad.
All the cars and drivers in my fantasy team have gone up in value since the start of the season, which is awesome - except for one, Sargeant. After a promising start to the season, clearly the more lacklustre performance of late has diminished his value slightly. Still, it was worth taking a punt on him considering what else it let me afford at the start of the season.
I had just enough left in the kitty to replace him with Piastri, so we'll see how that goes.
And for the first time in several races I've at least remembered to put in some "banker" predictions. My drop down the rankings has very much been down to me forgetting - I was running out of mental bandwidth, quite frankly.
I didn't realize how the fantasy team change cost worked, and blew through all my changes last week. My current team is significantly worse and I need to figure out how I can buy more changes.
0
SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
you can make more changes but you (afaik) incur a points penalty on the next race
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
+1
Red Raevynbecause I only take Bubble BathsRegistered Userregular
Aw doggone it. I wish they'd let me assign default predictions, I'd rather have even Ham Ver Bot than nothing when I don't remember in time. Here I was happy I'd thought of it midday Friday.
dang, too bad for perez, but hey at least he's "good on his tires"... right??? right???????????
At least it's a sprint race weekend, so he could make up the ground and end up with a good result. I can't believe every single lap in Q2 was deleted, that's just ridiculous.
dang, too bad for perez, but hey at least he's "good on his tires"... right??? right???????????
At least it's a sprint race weekend, so he could make up the ground and end up with a good result. I can't believe every single lap in Q2 was deleted, that's just ridiculous.
Isn't the new sprint format wholly separate from the GP?
dang, too bad for perez, but hey at least he's "good on his tires"... right??? right???????????
At least it's a sprint race weekend, so he could make up the ground and end up with a good result. I can't believe every single lap in Q2 was deleted, that's just ridiculous.
Isn't the new sprint format wholly separate from the GP?
Yeah I had totally forgotten that the entirety of Saturday is its own self-contained thing now. Mostly because I hate it.
Perez really screwed himself with this one, the bosses at Red Bull have to be getting pretty pissed by now. Especially since he had the pace to challenge for pole, and failing that secure a front row start. Let's not forget he won two races earlier this year, so clearly he's able to compete. Just his last four races have been just terrible, it's pretty astonishing that Hulkenberg has gotten into Q3 more often than Perez.
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
I don't understand hating self contained Saturday sprint. It no longer compromises the main show, it's just free extra track running in anger instead of free practise.
Oddly enough I preferred it when the sprint race results directly translated to the main race. I'm probably in the minority here, but it feels weird and wrong to have effectively two separate events in the same race weekend.
It does also mean that you cannot strategically take engine / gearbox grid penalties on a sprint weekend because unlike last year, you can't make up for the poor grid position in the sprint. So I definitely understand why they went to this format, but I'd rather have a traditional race weekend than either sprint format anyway.
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
I didn't mind the previous format (for the same reason that I'll take even the worst on track racing action over free practise sessions) but the people who said it was functionally a 24hr red flag weren't wrong, either. This allows it to be its own self contained racing action. Not everything has to build to Sunday.
Solid action, but mostly because of the changing conditions. I was gutted for Norris having to back out so much (and maybe get hit by anti-stall) that he ended up out of the points. The McLaren definitely looks solid in mixed conditions, and has at least decent one lap pace, I'd love to see what it can do in dry conditions over a race distance with their latest upgrades.
(I am pretty sure they'll still have horrible race pace, but a man can dream)
+1
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
I wanna see hulks last lap -he made up eight seconds on ocon in a lap and a bit
for me more track time is just objectively better than less. the bar to be better than FP3 and FP2 is "don't be free practise".
it's the best way to get more race time without overworking and overtravelling teams
It's all personal preference, to be honest.
To me, personally, I'd even prefer a 90 minute P1 on Saturday morning, Qualy on Saturday afternoon and single race on Sunday.
F1 seems to want to have more action, more races and so on. I'm decidedly tired of having 20+ races on the year, with half of them being in random street circuits. And now we add sprints? It feels like dilution of the Sunday race just to be able to sell weekend tickets at stupid prices.
It's perfectly fine to like what they're doing, but at least for me they're driving me away little by little.
The track limits thing is getting out of hand though. They really need to do something for next year about that. I think 6 or 7 drivers got a penalty already and we are a bit over half distance.
The track limits thing is getting out of hand though. They really need to do something for next year about that. I think 6 or 7 drivers got a penalty already and we are a bit over half distance.
Eh, disagree on that.
The lines are there, the drivers can see them, and not everyone is getting the penalties.
I'd rather it be like this than some nebulous "gained advantage" thing that gives us races like Bahrain VER vs HAM senselessness.
I don't mind it in a vacuum but it's pretty weird to have this one race be super harsh about track limits and almost all of the rest treat them as mere guidelines.
Also it still didn't feel evenly applied through the course of the full GP. I only got the broadcast angles but at the start when they played Lando complaining about Hamilton going over the limits they kept showing shots of the Ferrari's way outside the lines. Probably using some reasoning like they're teammates and not actually racing right now but still seemed bullshit, especially in light of how much of the grid got penalized for it
Verstappen didn't lead every lap! He did, however, have the margin to make a late stop for soft tires to snag fastest lap (and also spoil my winning margin prediction). Pretty impressive drive by Perez to get onto the podium from 15th on the grid. I also liked the performance from Ferrari, still not in Red Bull's league, but better than the rest by a decent margin. Mercedes struggled a lot more than I expected, and Aston Martin didn't look all that great either. McLaren, at least in the hands of Norris, looked much improved which is nice to see. Did Piastri not have the upgrades that Norris had, or was he just having a rookie race this weekend?
Very high tire degradation this weekend, they probably shouldn't have brought out the three softest compounds but there was some pretty solid action on the track so I can't really complain too much.
Posts
I was actually pretty impressed with the pace of Norris in the McLaren, if he hadn't been stuck in that DRS train behind Albon (and didn't earn a 5s penalty) he could have finished with decent points.
Stroll, on the other hand, is looking increasingly lost. When your teammate is comfortably finishing second (including making a pass on track for second) and you are struggling to get into the points that is generally a bad sign. He's obviously a talented driver, or he wouldn't be in F1 at all, but he is just so consistently outclassed by his teammate and it looks bad for him.
Perez is driving what is, by far, the best car on the grid but hasn't really challenged for a podium spot in the last three races.
Stroll is driving the overall second best car (so far) but hasn't even threatened a podium at any point.
Sort of reminds me of his first season with the team, in that the car was working completely against what his preferences are. I'm guessing the latest changes to the RB are similar in nature, just keep moving it away and away from his style.
And it's going to keep on being that way because they want to keep Max happy in the team and they won't do anything that would challenge him away from #1 spot.
So it sucks, a lot...
Does that speak bad of him as a driver? I wouldn't say so: he basically is doing his best against the flow, and the flow is basically all about keeping Max happy. Any other driver in that seat would face the same.
Could other drivers that like looser cars do better in that particular car? Maybe. Probably.
It's the sad nature of the sport, in a way: the sport wants to have "teams" that fight for a WCC, but also have individual drivers that fight for a WDC, and chances are the teammates are fighting each-other for that because it's common enough to have dominant cars.
I had to turn it off after like five minutes. Neither seemed to have any real energy. It was bad.
Thank Fuck TSN just copies the sky sports stuff and we're not cursed with ESPN.
In actual F1 news, apparently hot off the success with Wrexham, Ryan Renolds and Rob McElhenney are putting some money into Alpine
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Plus Michael B. Jordan and some other investors as well. Overall, putting $200 Million in, for 24%, thus valuing Alpine for around $900 mil.
Can't wait for Reynolds marketing genius to take on F1.
He is just gonna slap aviation gin logos everywhere and do a netflix series called welcome to Enstone.
I had just enough left in the kitty to replace him with Piastri, so we'll see how that goes.
And for the first time in several races I've at least remembered to put in some "banker" predictions. My drop down the rankings has very much been down to me forgetting - I was running out of mental bandwidth, quite frankly.
Steam | XBL
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
10points per change. Which would mean 40points to return to my lineup from two races. Which is a serious point loss.
I had thought you got 6 weekends of changes, not 6 change’s in total.
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
Perez really screwed himself with this one, the bosses at Red Bull have to be getting pretty pissed by now. Especially since he had the pace to challenge for pole, and failing that secure a front row start. Let's not forget he won two races earlier this year, so clearly he's able to compete. Just his last four races have been just terrible, it's pretty astonishing that Hulkenberg has gotten into Q3 more often than Perez.
It does also mean that you cannot strategically take engine / gearbox grid penalties on a sprint weekend because unlike last year, you can't make up for the poor grid position in the sprint. So I definitely understand why they went to this format, but I'd rather have a traditional race weekend than either sprint format anyway.
https://the-race.com/junior/18-year-old-formula-regional-driver-killed-in-spa-crash/
Still don't like the disjointed "2 events in one weekend!" thing.
it's the best way to get more race time without overworking and overtravelling teams
(I am pretty sure they'll still have horrible race pace, but a man can dream)
It's all personal preference, to be honest.
To me, personally, I'd even prefer a 90 minute P1 on Saturday morning, Qualy on Saturday afternoon and single race on Sunday.
F1 seems to want to have more action, more races and so on. I'm decidedly tired of having 20+ races on the year, with half of them being in random street circuits. And now we add sprints? It feels like dilution of the Sunday race just to be able to sell weekend tickets at stupid prices.
It's perfectly fine to like what they're doing, but at least for me they're driving me away little by little.
The track limits thing is getting out of hand though. They really need to do something for next year about that. I think 6 or 7 drivers got a penalty already and we are a bit over half distance.
The lines are there, the drivers can see them, and not everyone is getting the penalties.
I'd rather it be like this than some nebulous "gained advantage" thing that gives us races like Bahrain VER vs HAM senselessness.
Also it still didn't feel evenly applied through the course of the full GP. I only got the broadcast angles but at the start when they played Lando complaining about Hamilton going over the limits they kept showing shots of the Ferrari's way outside the lines. Probably using some reasoning like they're teammates and not actually racing right now but still seemed bullshit, especially in light of how much of the grid got penalized for it
Very high tire degradation this weekend, they probably shouldn't have brought out the three softest compounds but there was some pretty solid action on the track so I can't really complain too much.