Not a bad race all round really. It was a bit dry at times but that's F1 really, you don't expect passing every other lap.
A hard way to lose out for Norris. He had a (mostly) great day up until then though. I reckon he might have been quicker than Sainz if given a free track and he was probably a bit too cautious into the first corner at the start but it was clear from early on they weren't exactly where they wanted to be on race pace. The passing at the end got messy though and will have to be looked at.
Hamilton was just in a class of his own, just a pity he couldn't hold fastest lap in the end. Bottas wasn't on pace and nearly lost out to Leclerc because of it. Ferrari seem to just be falling away from Merc as the season goes on.
Red Bull continues to be interesting. Verstappen is putting the car pretty firmly in the third best slot, Gasly on the other hand... I feel sorry for him but he just isn't there. Finishing outside of the points while your teammate is in a relatively comfortable 4th is just poor. Red Bull will likely be at least thinking of a swap with Kyvat or Albon by now.
Also a note to how well Kimi did. Finishing 8th in the Alfa is a very good result all things considered. It also demonstrates just how tight the midfield is this year. With the exception of Williams (and, at the minute, Haas) nearly any team can be in the points depending on driver skill and how well the track suits them.
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Ferrari seem to just be falling away from Merc as the season goes on.
Cannot agree with this. The last two races are the closest Ferrari has been since Leclerc's cylinder failure at Bahrain cost them that win. If not for that and the Canada penalty Ferrari would have won two races.
They're not going to come close to winning, but they are getting closer at least, not further away.
Ferrari seem to just be falling away from Merc as the season goes on.
Cannot agree with this. The last two races are the closest Ferrari has been since Leclerc's cylinder failure at Bahrain cost them that win. If not for that and the Canada penalty Ferrari would have won two races.
They're not going to come close to winning, but they are getting closer at least, not further away.
Fair point, but at the same time these would have been "Ferrari circuits" at the start of the year (or at least that's the impression I got). For this race in particular Ferrari were nowhere and reportedly had to scrap some updates to the car because they didn't work. It paints a picture of a team struggling to stay in touching distance of Merc who are pushing on as strong as ever.
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Fastest lap spoilers
Last lap pace Hamilton; 1:32.764
Last lap pace Vettel; 1.32.740
Vettel pitted for fresh softs while Hamilton was on 30-lap-old hards and Vettel only barely got it by less than two hundredths.
Red Bull continues to be interesting. Verstappen is putting the car pretty firmly in the third best slot, Gasly on the other hand... I feel sorry for him but he just isn't there. Finishing outside of the points while your teammate is in a relatively comfortable 4th is just poor. Red Bull will likely be at least thinking of a swap with Kyvat or Albon by now.
Not gonna lie, I'd love to see Albon in a Red Bull. He's been one of the revelations of this season for me.
And he comes across as a thoroughly nice bloke in interviews, too.
Last lap pace Hamilton; 1:32.764
Last lap pace Vettel; 1.32.740
Vettel pitted for fresh softs while Hamilton was on 30-lap-old hards and Vettel only barely got it by less than two hundredths.
Post race interview from Vettel said there was issues with the car. Not sure what the problem was, but he said they were very lucky to get that lap down.
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
And in the 1995. Australian GP Damon Hill lapped the second place car. Twice.
What's your point? This is F1, it is incredibly rare when 1 car/driver doesnt dominate.
Okay, well for another, wilder lapping-related statistic;
at the pace they were on in the closing laps, Verstappen would have lapped Gasly in less than ten more laps.
Dhalphir on
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
edited June 2019
Also I'm not sure the 1995 Aussie GP is a great example. Only eight cars finished that race, and of those eight cars only Hill was in a competitive car. The Constructor's standings that year went Benetton>Williams>Ferrari>Mclaren and both Benettons, both Ferraris, and one each of McLaren and Williams retired, with Hill in the remaining Williams and an unremarkable Mark Blundell in the remaining McLaren.
To compare it to the race we just had, the 1995 Aussie GP was like if;
Bottas, both Ferraris, both Redbulls, both Renaults and one each of the McLarens and Alfas retired
Full disclosure, I didn't watch that GP, just going off the info I found looking it up.
You don't have to look that far back to get a race where the leader lapped nearly everyone. I went looking in the 2013 season and found Vettel had lapped everyone up to 5th in the Canadian GP that year.
Dominant seasons happen but what surprises me about this one is that I didn't think it would play out this way. A year after a competitive Ferrari season, an engine that looked on par with Merc, they looked good in testing, looked strong in Bahrain and it looked like it would be a back and forth on car strengths for each track - but now we're a third of the season in and Merc haven't lost a race yet. Bottas, despite looking a bit punchy at the start of the season, has fallen off and (fastest laps excluded) Hamilton could have a 50 point gap within two races. It's an astonishing start to a season and not one I saw coming.
Overall going as expected. Most interesting part were the last few laps of Lando Norris, where he was getting the arm workout of the week. Sad that he got passed in the last lap.
Good race for LeClerc, only got his nose on the gearbox in the very last lap. Who knows what would've happened with a few more laps.
...has a 10 second penalty (2 sets of 5 each) for exceeding track limits in that last lap scrap with Raikkonen, Norris and Hulkenberg. I did think he should have backed off in the first instance, and he did deliberately try to overtake off-track in the second, so, you know, fair enough. It means he drops to 11th.
Makes it slightly less of a blow for Norris, who did a damn fine job with a wounded car.
Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
The fuck? There's an Opel Manta racing in the 24 hours of Le Mans in this, the year of our disgusting and filthy Lord Nurgle, two thousand and nineteen (2019)?
...has a 10 second penalty (2 sets of 5 each) for exceeding track limits in that last lap scrap with Raikkonen, Norris and Hulkenberg. I did think he should have backed off in the first instance, and he did deliberately try to overtake off-track in the second, so, you know, fair enough. It means he drops to 11th.
Makes it slightly less of a blow for Norris, who did a damn fine job with a wounded car.
The fuck? There's an Opel Manta racing in the 24 hours of Le Mans in this, the year of our disgusting and filthy Lord Nurgle, two thousand and nineteen (2019)?
...has a 10 second penalty (2 sets of 5 each) for exceeding track limits in that last lap scrap with Raikkonen, Norris and Hulkenberg. I did think he should have backed off in the first instance, and he did deliberately try to overtake off-track in the second, so, you know, fair enough. It means he drops to 11th.
Makes it slightly less of a blow for Norris, who did a damn fine job with a wounded car.
It also means Gasly gets a point which, yeah.... still not a good look.
There was grumbling about it (in the sense of general heavy-handedness by the stewards) on C4 after the race, but you know, the second of those incidents would not have been possible if it was (to my mind) a proper racetrack with grass at the side, or a street track with a wall there, and not a massive great car park with blue stripes painted on it (however abrasive they are).
I get the disgruntlement with the rules and stewards and so on these days and I agree that it needs paring back a bit in places. But however entertaining Ricciardo was on that last lap, I do think those at least were fair penalties.
And yeah, that onboard clearly shows as well how the first bit pushed Norris off the track through no fault of his own.
...has a 10 second penalty (2 sets of 5 each) for exceeding track limits in that last lap scrap with Raikkonen, Norris and Hulkenberg. I did think he should have backed off in the first instance, and he did deliberately try to overtake off-track in the second, so, you know, fair enough. It means he drops to 11th.
Makes it slightly less of a blow for Norris, who did a damn fine job with a wounded car.
It also means Gasly gets a point which, yeah.... still not a good look.
There was grumbling about it (in the sense of general heavy-handedness by the stewards) on C4 after the race, but you know, the second of those incidents would not have been possible if it was (to my mind) a proper racetrack with grass at the side, or a street track with a wall there, and not a massive great car park with blue stripes painted on it (however abrasive they are).
I get the disgruntlement with the rules and stewards and so on these days and I agree that it needs paring back a bit in places. But however entertaining Ricciardo was on that last lap, I do think those at least were fair penalties.
And yeah, that onboard clearly shows as well how the first bit pushed Norris off the track through no fault of his own.
This gives me perfect opportunity to grumble about sky's commentary again! There are certain things they just will not give over about. Today it centred around the Perez incident.
So on the first lap, Perez lost it into the first corner and cut the chicane, driving around the escape road and bollard to make a safe re-entry. In the process he overtook two cars, did not let them re-pass and was subsequently handed a 5 second penalty. The sky commentary team were told about this by Antony Davidson, who pointed out he overtook two cars in the process. Brundle and Croft then ignored that and continued to bang on about safe re-entry as if following that procedure made literally everything else perfectly fine. I certainly got a vibe that, since they were on the wrong side of the stewards decision in Canada, they were harping on about that rule as an absolute. Even after they were told (again) that it was because he overtook two cars by cutting the corner they continued to complain. They changed tactic to "well what was he supposed to do" and complaining about "conflicting rules". It was incredibly tedious to listen to as you'd think they'd have got the concept that you can't overtake people by cutting the corner. The bollard is there to feed the driver back in relatively safely and anyone who had followed F1 for any length of time knows the procedure when you pass somebody off track is to give the position back.
It all came across as tedious and a bit of a whinge to me.
Their other constant whinge is "get rid of blue flags!", since watching the lead cars get caught up in dirty air trying to get past a stubborn backmarker is what everyone wants, right?
...has a 10 second penalty (2 sets of 5 each) for exceeding track limits in that last lap scrap with Raikkonen, Norris and Hulkenberg. I did think he should have backed off in the first instance, and he did deliberately try to overtake off-track in the second, so, you know, fair enough. It means he drops to 11th.
Makes it slightly less of a blow for Norris, who did a damn fine job with a wounded car.
It also means Gasly gets a point which, yeah.... still not a good look.
There was grumbling about it (in the sense of general heavy-handedness by the stewards) on C4 after the race, but you know, the second of those incidents would not have been possible if it was (to my mind) a proper racetrack with grass at the side, or a street track with a wall there, and not a massive great car park with blue stripes painted on it (however abrasive they are).
I get the disgruntlement with the rules and stewards and so on these days and I agree that it needs paring back a bit in places. But however entertaining Ricciardo was on that last lap, I do think those at least were fair penalties.
And yeah, that onboard clearly shows as well how the first bit pushed Norris off the track through no fault of his own.
This gives me perfect opportunity to grumble about sky's commentary again! There are certain things they just will not give over about. Today it centred around the Perez incident.
So on the first lap, Perez lost it into the first corner and cut the chicane, driving around the escape road and bollard to make a safe re-entry. In the process he overtook two cars, did not let them re-pass and was subsequently handed a 5 second penalty. The sky commentary team were told about this by Antony Davidson, who pointed out he overtook two cars in the process. Brundle and Croft then ignored that and continued to bang on about safe re-entry as if following that procedure made literally everything else perfectly fine. I certainly got a vibe that, since they were on the wrong side of the stewards decision in Canada, they were harping on about that rule as an absolute. Even after they were told (again) that it was because he overtook two cars by cutting the corner they continued to complain. They changed tactic to "well what was he supposed to do" and complaining about "conflicting rules". It was incredibly tedious to listen to as you'd think they'd have got the concept that you can't overtake people by cutting the corner. The bollard is there to feed the driver back in relatively safely and anyone who had followed F1 for any length of time knows the procedure when you pass somebody off track is to give the position back.
It all came across as tedious and a bit of a whinge to me.
Their other constant whinge is "get rid of blue flags!", since watching the lead cars get caught up in dirty air trying to get past a stubborn backmarker is what everyone wants, right?
Coulthard actually handed Jones his microphone and walked off. They cut to something else, and when they came back Jones said Coulthard actually had walked off and not come back.
Webber then joked that because of that, Coulthard was now under investigation.
Webber is a complete treasure. He was always good value as a driver, and now he's a brilliant presenter & commentator.
Speaking of great presenters, the ever-impressive Billy Monger had a post-race interview with Vettel, and it's worth checking out.
My favorite part of F1 today was seeing Jackie Stewart after the race mingling with the podium drivers.
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Perez was
also quoted as saying "I followed the rules and got a penalty" later on.
To be honest, perhaps this is an issue of miscommunications, but I'm really struggling to see why so many people are missing the obvious. The trip around the bollard is purely a mandatory action to ensure a safe re-entry to the track. The only reason it exists is because otherwise safely re-entering at that corner is difficult. It's not a magical act of penance that wipes away all previous sins, and on any other corner if you cut the corner and then re-enter ahead of people, you give the places back or get a penalty.
also quoted as saying "I followed the rules and got a penalty" later on.
To be honest, perhaps this is an issue of miscommunications, but I'm really struggling to see why so many people are missing the obvious. The trip around the bollard is purely a mandatory action to ensure a safe re-entry to the track. The only reason it exists is because otherwise safely re-entering at that corner is difficult. It's not a magical act of penance that wipes away all previous sins, and on any other corner if you cut the corner and then re-enter ahead of people, you give the places back or get a penalty.
The issue with that is that in some other tracks it works like that. I can't recall which tracks do have that, but some have this weird pseudo-chicane if you skip a corner. Or speed bumps that make you slow down or risk breaking the car.
The issue here, as with a lot of things F1, is that there is no consistency.
( < . . .
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
edited June 2019
It's true that some tracks the escape roads happen to slow you down enough that it's more or less impossible to illegally overtake doing so, but that's coincidental, the only purpose of escape roads is to ensure safe rejoins that aren't 90 degrees or worse.
The thing is that there are two rules at play here, one is "you must safely rejoin the track if you leave it" and the other is "you may not leave the track to gain an advantage"
The bollard is only designed to interact with the first rule, not the second. The FIA's instructions of following the road around the bollard ensures you don't fall foul of an unsafe rejoin, but it is not a magical cure-all against gaining an advantage, it's up to the driver to know he illegally overtook and hand the positions back like any other situation.
Perez came out alongside two cars and powered ahead of them, it would not have been difficult to ease off a tiny bit and slot in behind them again. Presumably, the reason he didn't do so is that he also was under the incorrect assumption that the instructions to go around the bollard were to protect against both rules.
also quoted as saying "I followed the rules and got a penalty" later on.
To be honest, perhaps this is an issue of miscommunications, but I'm really struggling to see why so many people are missing the obvious. The trip around the bollard is purely a mandatory action to ensure a safe re-entry to the track. The only reason it exists is because otherwise safely re-entering at that corner is difficult. It's not a magical act of penance that wipes away all previous sins, and on any other corner if you cut the corner and then re-enter ahead of people, you give the places back or get a penalty.
The issue with that is that in some other tracks it works like that. I can't recall which tracks do have that, but some have this weird pseudo-chicane if you skip a corner. Or speed bumps that make you slow down or risk breaking the car.
The issue here, as with a lot of things F1, is that there is no consistency.
It's true that some tracks the escape roads happen to slow you down enough that it's more or less impossible to illegally overtake doing so, but that's coincidental, the only purpose of escape roads is to ensure safe rejoins that aren't 90 degrees or worse.
The thing is that there are two rules at play here, one is "you must safely rejoin the track if you leave it" and the other is "you may not leave the track to gain an advantage"
The bollard is only designed to interact with the first rule, not the second. The FIA's instructions of following the road around the bollard ensures you don't fall foul of an unsafe rejoin, but it is not a magical cure-all against gaining an advantage, it's up to the driver to know he illegally overtook and hand the positions back like any other situation.
Perez came out alongside two cars and powered ahead of them, it would not have been difficult to ease off a tiny bit and slot in behind them again. Presumably, the reason he didn't do so is that he also was under the incorrect assumption that the instructions to go around the bollard were to protect against both rules.
I would suggest something like tyre barrier (or polystyrene marker boards) chicanes on the escape roads. Like the turn 1 escape road at Monza. That goes straight on and it's impossible to go faster through that than on the track.
Ricciardo’s drinking tube disconnected part way through the race, I wonder if he was getting a little delirious at the end? It was blazing hot on track, who knows what was going through his head. Maybe he was just making the case for proper track edging.
I’m starting to question Danny ric’s driving in close contests a bit. Between this race and potentially questionable defending vs Bottas on the straight in Canada I wonder if he might be too aggressive on track. It's only a minor thing at the moment but if it keeps happening, and other drivers aren't as quick to adjust...
Oh he’s super aggressive. He was just paired up with peak Verstappen long enough to make him look conservative in comparison.
He is also the type of aggressive that will try to push not only the limits of the car, but also the track. If it weren't for the penalty in Canada, there is a decent chance that Ricciardo wouldnt have been penalized. He will take that chance every time you give it to him.
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
There was surprise in motorsport today as Formula 1 bosses announced that they are to "Just get this season over with" by the end of next week.
"Mercedes winning all the time is really harshing our buzz, man. So screw it, we're gonna get this whole damn thing wrapped up next week and move on, okay?".
Under the accelerated season plan, the next race will take place in Austria this Sunday as scheduled, but then teams will have to pack up quickly and get to the nearest port in order to arrive at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix which will happen the following afternoon.”
Once the Singapore race is done there will be no time for further travel so the remaining races will take place there in a variety of forms spread across Saturday and Sunday of next week including Scalextric, running around the nearest park for a bit and "Maybe something to do with dogs".
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
So the rumor mill is starting up pretty hard, as the early silly season gets underway. Lots of rumors Gastly...I mean Gasly is out at Red Bull after Austria. Rumor has it Red Bull has been sniffing around Nico Hulkenburg, who is out of his contract at the end of this year, for a shortish term deal (probably until 2021) because they don't think Albon is ready and don't want to promote Kyviat again.
So, if that rumor is true, this is the proposed silly season I see coming: Hulkenburg goes to Red Bull (and finally gets his first damn podium), Bottas is out at Mercedes but takes Hulk's seat at Renault, Ocon gets promoted to the Mercedes race seat next year and we'll get to see just how good he really is next to Hamilton.
It would be so nice to see Hulkenberg on the podium. The guy is top-tier (or near as makes no difference) and with a top-three car under him he really could show it.
I appreciate that the days of him being mooted as a future champ are long gone, but he could still make his mark in a pretty substantial way. A win, at least? I can hope.
And one of my favourite ever F1 drivers, Jean Alesi, only ever scored one win. As did Heikki Kovalainen, another I always liked and also the only F1 driver I've ever actually communicated with (it was over Twitter, admittedly, but he replied, so it counts, dammit!). So he'd be in good company...
It has quite the raft of new features, and some of them feel pretty meaty - the F2 cars in particular are a real change, but still plenty fast. Their power delivery in particular is a bit different and it's easy to overcook it on a corner exit.
The menu system has been completely overhauled, and a few things have moved around. There's plenty to dive into. The Championships in particular have a wealth of stuff to do, too. And a cool new feature is being able to see your avatar previewed in 3D, as well as your helmet when you're twiddling with the colours. The car showroom is nice, too. Small and long overdue, but welcome.
The F1 cars are taking a bit of re-adjusting to, they definitely feel different, often slightly more squirrelly than last year. Small adjustments seem harder now but that might be a controller calibration issue, I'll have to look into that further.
Sadly the 1995 Ferrari - the last of the V12s - has vanished from the classic car lineup. That gave me a bit of a sad (it was also the car that gave Alesi that solitary win). No idea why, the others are all still there. (Edit: apparently the 2002 Ferrari has left too.)
Senna v Prost mode is severely undercooked but it's there. It's probably too much to hope that criticism of it will lead to it getting expanded at all. No word on if it will be offered as DLC later on if you get the regular Anniversary edition. The two 1990 cars are cool additions, and you get Senna & Prost themed multiplayer liveries and race suits too, but I'm really not convinced that this mode is worth the very steep price of admission at the moment. It should have been a fiver extra at most. A few extra licensed drivers from the era or a couple of classic tracks from back then would have gone a long way towards bolstering it.
Also the framerate seems slightly off; sometimes the game seems to be running in 30fps, but not always. This is on an Xbox One X, so that seems weird even despite the graphical upgrade. This may well improve with a patch but it's strange after recent entries' rock-solid 60fps. (And I am talking entirely about gameplay, I know the framerate used to drop for replays etc).
I haven't started career yet, so can't comment on that. But I did manage to get a top 10 time (and it was 10th) on one leaderboard - F2 time trial in Hungary - so that makes up for my previous best ever video game leaderboard position, which was 11th in one challenge in PGR2 - never could crack the top 10 in that so this is :cool:
With Gasly it really is a case of "when" rather than "if". The problem is, as you say, there isn't a clear replacement in line. It probably won't cost them anything bar embarrassment to keep Gasly in there but that has got to be soul destroying. I can't see Hulkenberg switching mid season, especially as Renault equally wouldn't have an obvious replacement and, unlike Red Bull, having two good drivers actually matters to them. Next season is a possibility though, if he was prepared to play second fiddle to Verstappen.
As for Merc and Bottas I don't know how that one plays out. At the end of last season I'd have said he was gone from Merc, no question, but he has moved back into the "good enough to pick up second place, but not enough to challenge Hamilton much" territory. Mostly. He's starting to fall back again. If he's in that zone and works well with the team then he stays until he decides to leave. If there's an actual challenge between constructors and he isn't good enough to beat at least one of (for the sake of argument) the Ferrari's, then he isn't doing well enough to keep the seat. There is the outside possibility of moving him out of the way to make room for Hamilton's eventual successor but I don't think Ocon is that guy and Hamilton has plenty of time left.
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A hard way to lose out for Norris. He had a (mostly) great day up until then though. I reckon he might have been quicker than Sainz if given a free track and he was probably a bit too cautious into the first corner at the start but it was clear from early on they weren't exactly where they wanted to be on race pace. The passing at the end got messy though and will have to be looked at.
Hamilton was just in a class of his own, just a pity he couldn't hold fastest lap in the end. Bottas wasn't on pace and nearly lost out to Leclerc because of it. Ferrari seem to just be falling away from Merc as the season goes on.
Red Bull continues to be interesting. Verstappen is putting the car pretty firmly in the third best slot, Gasly on the other hand... I feel sorry for him but he just isn't there. Finishing outside of the points while your teammate is in a relatively comfortable 4th is just poor. Red Bull will likely be at least thinking of a swap with Kyvat or Albon by now.
Also a note to how well Kimi did. Finishing 8th in the Alfa is a very good result all things considered. It also demonstrates just how tight the midfield is this year. With the exception of Williams (and, at the minute, Haas) nearly any team can be in the points depending on driver skill and how well the track suits them.
They're not going to come close to winning, but they are getting closer at least, not further away.
Last lap pace Vettel; 1.32.740
Vettel pitted for fresh softs while Hamilton was on 30-lap-old hards and Vettel only barely got it by less than two hundredths.
And he comes across as a thoroughly nice bloke in interviews, too.
Steam | XBL
What's your point? This is F1, it is incredibly rare when 1 car/driver doesnt dominate.
Edit: Before Merc is was red bull. Before red bull it was Ferrari, before Ferrari it was McLaren...
Okay, well for another, wilder lapping-related statistic;
To compare it to the race we just had, the 1995 Aussie GP was like if;
Full disclosure, I didn't watch that GP, just going off the info I found looking it up.
This is the crazy one.
Edit: with 5 to go in the indy race,
NASCAR road race at Sonoma after, green flag in about 45 minutes
Good race for LeClerc, only got his nose on the gearbox in the very last lap. Who knows what would've happened with a few more laps.
And yeah, up to 6th place lapped is kinda sad.
Steam | XBL
Makes it slightly less of a blow for Norris, who did a damn fine job with a wounded car.
Steam | XBL
An Opel Manta?!?
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.ricciardo-handed-two-post-race-time-penalties-loses-french-gp-points.6oCa3OCCGfyBOTEC1Nvvv3.html
It also means Gasly gets a point which, yeah.... still not a good look.
https://tiremeetsroad.com/2019/06/23/why-is-the-kissling-opel-manta-foxtail-at-the-24-hours-of-nurburgring-so-important/
The chassis has been on tracks for races since 1994 apparently.
I get the disgruntlement with the rules and stewards and so on these days and I agree that it needs paring back a bit in places. But however entertaining Ricciardo was on that last lap, I do think those at least were fair penalties.
And yeah, that onboard clearly shows as well how the first bit pushed Norris off the track through no fault of his own.
Steam | XBL
This gives me perfect opportunity to grumble about sky's commentary again! There are certain things they just will not give over about. Today it centred around the Perez incident.
It all came across as tedious and a bit of a whinge to me.
Their other constant whinge is "get rid of blue flags!", since watching the lead cars get caught up in dirty air trying to get past a stubborn backmarker is what everyone wants, right?
Coulthard actually handed Jones his microphone and walked off. They cut to something else, and when they came back Jones said Coulthard actually had walked off and not come back.
Webber then joked that because of that, Coulthard was now under investigation.
Webber is a complete treasure. He was always good value as a driver, and now he's a brilliant presenter & commentator.
Speaking of great presenters, the ever-impressive Billy Monger had a post-race interview with Vettel, and it's worth checking out.
Steam | XBL
To be honest, perhaps this is an issue of miscommunications, but I'm really struggling to see why so many people are missing the obvious. The trip around the bollard is purely a mandatory action to ensure a safe re-entry to the track. The only reason it exists is because otherwise safely re-entering at that corner is difficult. It's not a magical act of penance that wipes away all previous sins, and on any other corner if you cut the corner and then re-enter ahead of people, you give the places back or get a penalty.
The issue here, as with a lot of things F1, is that there is no consistency.
The thing is that there are two rules at play here, one is "you must safely rejoin the track if you leave it" and the other is "you may not leave the track to gain an advantage"
The bollard is only designed to interact with the first rule, not the second. The FIA's instructions of following the road around the bollard ensures you don't fall foul of an unsafe rejoin, but it is not a magical cure-all against gaining an advantage, it's up to the driver to know he illegally overtook and hand the positions back like any other situation.
Barcelona, for just one example.
I would suggest something like tyre barrier (or polystyrene marker boards) chicanes on the escape roads. Like the turn 1 escape road at Monza. That goes straight on and it's impossible to go faster through that than on the track.
Steam | XBL
Fair enough, I get that too.
Steam | XBL
Fair enough for the first infringement, sure. But the second one was just overtaking off-track, come on Riccy mate
Absolute legend, glad he's still such a fixture in the paddock.
Steam | XBL
And only he can get away with a matching hat and pants tartan like that. It just looked right on him. Anyone else and it would look silly
Probably nothing though.
He is also the type of aggressive that will try to push not only the limits of the car, but also the track. If it weren't for the penalty in Canada, there is a decent chance that Ricciardo wouldnt have been penalized. He will take that chance every time you give it to him.
So, if that rumor is true, this is the proposed silly season I see coming: Hulkenburg goes to Red Bull (and finally gets his first damn podium), Bottas is out at Mercedes but takes Hulk's seat at Renault, Ocon gets promoted to the Mercedes race seat next year and we'll get to see just how good he really is next to Hamilton.
Fun stuff to speculate about!
The tussle of Charles hair was legendary. Giving him crap for barely sweating and Hamilton with the banter about how he's just a kid lol.
I appreciate that the days of him being mooted as a future champ are long gone, but he could still make his mark in a pretty substantial way. A win, at least? I can hope.
And one of my favourite ever F1 drivers, Jean Alesi, only ever scored one win. As did Heikki Kovalainen, another I always liked and also the only F1 driver I've ever actually communicated with (it was over Twitter, admittedly, but he replied, so it counts, dammit!). So he'd be in good company...
Steam | XBL
It has quite the raft of new features, and some of them feel pretty meaty - the F2 cars in particular are a real change, but still plenty fast. Their power delivery in particular is a bit different and it's easy to overcook it on a corner exit.
The menu system has been completely overhauled, and a few things have moved around. There's plenty to dive into. The Championships in particular have a wealth of stuff to do, too. And a cool new feature is being able to see your avatar previewed in 3D, as well as your helmet when you're twiddling with the colours. The car showroom is nice, too. Small and long overdue, but welcome.
The F1 cars are taking a bit of re-adjusting to, they definitely feel different, often slightly more squirrelly than last year. Small adjustments seem harder now but that might be a controller calibration issue, I'll have to look into that further.
Sadly the 1995 Ferrari - the last of the V12s - has vanished from the classic car lineup. That gave me a bit of a sad (it was also the car that gave Alesi that solitary win). No idea why, the others are all still there. (Edit: apparently the 2002 Ferrari has left too.)
Senna v Prost mode is severely undercooked but it's there. It's probably too much to hope that criticism of it will lead to it getting expanded at all. No word on if it will be offered as DLC later on if you get the regular Anniversary edition. The two 1990 cars are cool additions, and you get Senna & Prost themed multiplayer liveries and race suits too, but I'm really not convinced that this mode is worth the very steep price of admission at the moment. It should have been a fiver extra at most. A few extra licensed drivers from the era or a couple of classic tracks from back then would have gone a long way towards bolstering it.
Also the framerate seems slightly off; sometimes the game seems to be running in 30fps, but not always. This is on an Xbox One X, so that seems weird even despite the graphical upgrade. This may well improve with a patch but it's strange after recent entries' rock-solid 60fps. (And I am talking entirely about gameplay, I know the framerate used to drop for replays etc).
I haven't started career yet, so can't comment on that. But I did manage to get a top 10 time (and it was 10th) on one leaderboard - F2 time trial in Hungary - so that makes up for my previous best ever video game leaderboard position, which was 11th in one challenge in PGR2 - never could crack the top 10 in that so this is :cool:
Steam | XBL
As for Merc and Bottas I don't know how that one plays out. At the end of last season I'd have said he was gone from Merc, no question, but he has moved back into the "good enough to pick up second place, but not enough to challenge Hamilton much" territory. Mostly. He's starting to fall back again. If he's in that zone and works well with the team then he stays until he decides to leave. If there's an actual challenge between constructors and he isn't good enough to beat at least one of (for the sake of argument) the Ferrari's, then he isn't doing well enough to keep the seat. There is the outside possibility of moving him out of the way to make room for Hamilton's eventual successor but I don't think Ocon is that guy and Hamilton has plenty of time left.