Formula 1 - 2017 Season

[MiniDave]

Everybody expects Singapore to be a fight, if the Mercs are as dominant there as they were today, this season is over.....it may be anyway.

[BruceK]

It's never a good thing for the sport when it is a foregone conclusion at the start of each race that the winner will be one person.   It sucked for many seasons when it was Michael and Ferrari. And now it sucks not with Lewis and Mercedes. 

[MiniDave]

You can't fault Mercedes for building a winning package, but.......

It was the same with Vettel when he was with Red Bull....remember the year he won 9 in a row to close out the season?

Gene Haas said it in his interview, if no one else has even a shot a winning a race except the 'big three", why are the rest of the teams even there?

Well, the simple answer to that is they make a lot of money, but he's right it does make the racing fairly boring, and it's been this way in F1 for a LONG time now.....

[gr8kornholio]

Why not make the "power unit" something simple.  Here's your displacement and your fuel system, make it go fast.  Lose all the complicated no one else can figure it out crap and just put basic screaming combustion engines back in them.  If Honda can't figure it out after 2 years of throwing the kitchen sink at it, then exactly what does anyone else stand a chance.

[Jims5543]

You can't fault Mercedes for building a winning package, but.......

It was the same with Vettel when he was with Red Bull....remember the year he won 9 in a row to close out the season?

Gene Haas said it in his interview, if no one else has even a shot a winning a race except the 'big three", why are the rest of the teams even there?

Well, the simple answer to that is they make a lot of money, but he's right it does make the racing fairly boring, and it's been this way in F1 for a LONG time now.....

Yes, and where was Mark Webber? 

How many Red Bull 1-2's were there in Qualifying and races?

Go back and look and you may be amazed to see Red Bull and Ferrari were not as dominant as you think they were.  People called the "Red Bull years" boring?  Shit, RBR had nothing on Mercedes.

I posted this before:

Schumacher years:

1999  Was a Mika year not schumacher but put it here so you can see.
Wins - 9 out of 16   (9/16)
1/2 finishes 3 out of 16   (3/16)

2000
Wins - 9/17
1/2 - 5/17
Rubens had 1 win so 10/18 Ferrari wins

2001
Wins - 9/17
1/2 - 4/17
Rubens had no wins

2002
Wins - 11/17
1/2 - 8/17
Rubens had 4 wins so 15/18 Ferrari wins

2003
Wins - 6/16
1/2 - 0/16
Rubens had 2 wins so 8/18 Ferrari wins

2004
Wins - 13/18
1/2 - 8/18
Rubens had 2 wins so 15/18 Ferrari wins

Vettel Years:

2010
Wins - 5/19
1/2 - 1/19
Mark had 4 wins 9/19 RBR Wins

2011
Wins - 11/19
1/2 - 6/19
Mark had 1 win so 12/19 RBR wins

2012
Wins - 5/20
1/2 - 1/20
Mark Webber had 2 wins so 7/20 for RBR

2013
Wins - 14/19
1/2 - 4/19
Mark had no wins so RBR had 14/19 wins

Hamilton Years

2014
Wins - 11/19
1/2 - 11/19
Notable Rosberg  took 5 wins making Mercedes wins 16/19

2015
wins - 10/19
1/2 - 11/19
Notable Rosberg  took 6 wins making Mercedes wins 16/19

2016  Rosberg WDC
Wins - 9/21
1/2 - 8/21
Notable Hamilton took 10 wins 19/21

I stopped watching, it is just not interesting to me hoping for a Mercedes screw up so anyone else may have a chance.  I did not even bother yesterday. I know RBR and Ferrari had no chance at all. If I see there is an upset I may go watch a replay.  I think I have watched 2 races so far this season.

[MiniDave]

Singapore this weekend.....and so nice to have Bob Varsha instead of Leigh Daffey on the mic.......

[BruceK]

So it will be a Red Bull or Ferrari day tomorrow.  Could be an interesting race. 

[MiniDave]

Well, I don't think we'll see a Mercedes or McLaren on the top step, but who knows? Given a big enough kerfluffle in the first turn, and at least one safety car - maybe more - in some ways it's anyone's race.

But I think that if Vettel gets a good start, the race is his, if he doesn't I'm betting on Danny Ricky Bobby to come thru.

[gr8kornholio]

I would expect some fireworks in turn 1.  MadMax is going to go in there hot and brake late like a super confident young guy.  Maybe he wipes them both and Ricky Bobby gets to do a shoey. 

[MiniDave]

Didn't even make it to turn one......what a waste - Vettel may have thrown away the whole championship this weekend.

[BruceK]

So it will be a Red Bull or Ferrari day tomorrow.  Could be an interesting race.

I was wrong on all counts.  Especially the interesting race part.

[gr8kornholio]

Disappointed in Ricky Bobby. Was how much faster in qualifying and history shows way better driver in wet conditions and looked SLOW. Only got close when they told Lewis not to get much lead in case another safety car came out.

Ferrari max sandwich. Just a bad situation. I'd say Kimi probably should have lifted. Only cause he was initially 3rd. But also Vettel moved way left and pinched the track. Think Max said it best glad they all were out.

Poor Alonso. Would've been fighting with hamster for lead. Of course his luck the car would have broke.

[MiniDave]

I wonder if he got some damage in the melee, that slowed him down? He said he was going as fast as he could but you're right, he looked slow....slower than he should have been.

They said Vettel went over to keep MadMax from getting the line into the corner and did not know Kimi had made such n awesome start and could not see him on the other side of Max. No excuse, but it does make sense that he had no idea Kimi was there......

[MiniDave]

More cool aero explanations......

[BruceK]

More cool aero explanations......

Fascinating stuff. Very cool to have the graphics explain everything. 


Now, let's get rid of all those damn wings. 

[MiniDave]

Poor HAAS,, if they didn't have bad luck.......today in FP2 they hit a loosened drainage grate and tore up Grosjeans car something awful.....

Ferrari and Red Bull both look very strong in practice today, MBZ not so much, but we'll see what happens in qually tomorrow.....

Wonder if this is real? I wonder if they could bill them for the damages?

[MiniDave]

Wonder if Ferrari will be submitting a bill like this to Williams after Stroll took Vettel's rear wheel off on the cool down lap......

What a tough weekend for Ferrari. when they were clearly the fastest cars on the track this weekend, with great race pace......first Vettel's car fails and can't qualify, then Kimi's car fails on the warm up lap and can't even start the race!

Vettel had one hell of a drive to come from dead last to 4th, but in the end just couldn't manage to pass Dannny Ricky Bobby, and even falls back over the last few laps.

Fun race to watch, but like all F1 races these days, the leader simply drove off and left the rest......all the racing was behind him.

[BruceK]

I was kinda hoping it was going to rain during the race - that always shakes things up.    But it was amazing watching Vettel tear through the field.    Great to see not-Hamilton win. 

[pbraun]

 :D  Go, Max, Go!   71.gif

[BruceK]

I just heard news that F1 coverage in the US will be leaving NBC and moving to ESPN next year.   Not sure what that will mean for the quality of coverage - I've never watched anything on ESPN before, but I understand it's become a network increasingly concerned about politics lately.  Hope that doesn't carry into F1. 

I'm guessing this will be David Hobbs' last season covering F1, which sucks.


https://blackflag.jalopnik.com/formula-one-will-move-to-espn-next-year-1819135364

[MiniDave]

I'm surprised at all the support for Lee Daffey, I find him so over the top and absolutely insufferable.....and he just can't shut up. I was so happy to hear Varsha's voice again the other week instead of his......

It will be sad to lose Hobbo, but I'm not sure he really adds all that much any more. In fact, I don't know why we need so much commentary - are the races that boring that we need incessant chatter to keep peaole watching? Same with all sports on TV these days - the commentators just never stop talking thru the entire broadcast - and then they cut away to some cutie down on the sidelines breathlessly giving us the medical report on the player they just carted off the field.....back to you Dick and Dan!

I'm not sure I care what channel carries it, as long as my DVR can find it and record it for me........

[MiniDave]

Conspiracy theory of the week - Malaysia

Supposedly Vettel was out of fuel and couldn't make the requirement of 1qtt left at the end of the race, so he hit Stroll.......from Stroll's camera he (Stroll) did not change his line in the corner.......

As Ferrari's season continue to implode Mercedes just gets on with it. However, what about the drop off in Bottas' performance? Where he used to be the equal of the Hamster, now he's well behind in both qually and race pace.

Is the fix in for the Hamminator's 4th title?

Oh, and it's raining at Suzuka....imagine that!

Have we ever had a race at Suzuka where it did not rain?

[MiniDave]

Well, it dried up enough to get qually in at Suzuka and no surprise - Hammy walked off with pole again by about .5 sec. Vettel came 3rd but Bottas has a grid penalty so Vettel will start front row next to the Hamster. I really don't  see any hope for Vettel winning the title this year, and Mercedes is so far ahead in the constructors that it's a done deal there too. Now it's just a matter of finishing out the season.......

The more things change the more they stay the same.

This will be Joylon Palmer's last race for Renault, Sainz will take over the last 4 races, so we'll get a preview of how he will do against the Hulk next season....hope they don't have a Perez/Ocon situation develop where they bang into each other every race.

So Kvyat comes back to Torro Rosso along side new kid Pierre Gasly, it will be interesting to see how these two get along, and whether Kvyat can return to his old form and actually place in the top 10 again. If Gasly outperforms him I don't see any way they can justify keeping him, even with the cubic Russodollars he brings to the team. He has to have a bit of an attitude after being first demoted, then kicked off the squad completely in favor of the new kid.

[gr8kornholio]

Well if it wasn't over after qually it is now.  Ferrari did a good job pacing the mercs this year, but the reliability monster seams to be rearing it's ugly head.  Guess they pushed the equipment too hard.  Growing pains suck. 

Driver shuffle is on in full swing.  So Massa retires last year.  All the fanfare and celebration.  Gets called back to fill a spot, and now, wants to stay past this year?  What?  Really don't see it happening with all the drivers floating around, announcers even stating there is no way Strohl will go with his family money.  Probably shouldn't state the obvious on national TV.   :-X

As good as it looked on TV I doubt the Red Bulls are that close to the Mercs.  Vettle broke, Kimi got shuffled, Bottus had a penalty.  I think Max was close to Hamster because he had all this info and wasn't pushing the car any harder than he had too and Max was well Maxed.  Good to see Ricky Bobby get another podium in the process!

[MiniDave]

Brenda who?















Oh sorry, Brendan..............  ;D