Formula 1 - 2018 Season

[MiniDave]

Truthfully, it wasn't much of a race other than the possible drama of engine failures and such.......pretty much typical F1....get out in front and drive home.

[MiniDave]

Watching FP3 in Canada right now, looks like Vercrashen has this one by the throat, if he can stay on track and out of other people's wheels and off the walls he may get his first win of this season. He's led all three practice sessions this weekend. Only a tenth of a second between the top 4 drivers!

The red jammies boys are right there with him tho, less than half a hundredth of a second behind.

I noticed Ferrari has come up with yet another mounting for the mirrors, hanging them off the aero hoop now.

The Mercedes boys are close, about 1/2 second off the leader's pace.

[MiniDave]

Ferrari comes thru in qually.......well, at least Vettel does - to take pole in Canada. Kimi was on a flyer buy went wide in a corner and ended his last chance to take it from his teammate.


Bottas was ahead till the last lap when Vettel got a 10th on him to take pole away.

Max came 3rd and the Hamster 4th, so the first turn should be interesting tomorrow.

Nice to be able to watch these things at "normal" times instead of have to record them......

[BruceK]

Nice to be able to watch these things at "normal" times instead of have to record them......

If it was on a normal times but with commercials I would not have watched it live.  But thanks to Mother's Polish it was commercial-free!!  4.gif 

I refuse to watch any commerical network broadcast live.  Much more efficient to record it and zap through the commercials.   

[gr8kornholio]

Since tomorrow is on network tv I'm pretty sure it's going to have commercials.  I always record them anyway cause I can rarely have time to watch live.

[BruceK]

Since tomorrow is on network tv I'm pretty sure it's going to have commercials.  I always record them anyway cause I can rarely have time to watch live.

Well that is an unpleasant twist, especially since the Sky broadcast does not break for commercials it becomes extremely awkward and amateur-ish if ABC tries to slam them in.   Plus, you miss any action that happens during the commercial and there's no recap of what was missed.   

Hmmmm.  I see there will be a second showing of the Canada race on ESPN2 at 2:30am CDT Monday morning.    I wonder if that will be the full Sky broadcast without commercials?

Here's my plan: I will start watching the ABC broadcast and if any commercials are encountered, I'll bail and count on the ESPN broadcast to be commercial free. Fingers crossed.

[BruceK]

Still underway, but a big Thumbs Up to ABC for the no-commercials race broadcast.  Much appreciated!   And thanks Mothers!!

[BruceK]

The race is over now.   My jaw hurts from yawning so much.

[MiniDave]

Same o same o, pole driver leaves the rest behind and the only fight is in the mid pack.

This time the leader lapped all the way up to 6th place - that's pretty impressive and discouraging at the same time.
Leclerc got 10th in the Sauber - I don't know if that was his driving or the fact that they now have current Ferrari engines instead of 2 year old ones but Sauber now have 12 points on the year.

Poor old Fred, if it wasn't for bad luck...... I strongly believe he'll be in an Indy car next year. If he wins LeMans this year too, then all he'll have left is to win Indy.

Renault can't be happy about being lapped by a customer car, but they sure have to feel better than Big Mac.......

[gr8kornholio]

This race is all that is wrong with open wheel racing.  All those straights and braking zones and no passing?  How is that possible.  Then Ricky Bobby sets fast lap on the last lap?  Where was all that speed the previous 69?  It's all the settings and options and tire preservation and engine use restrictions and on and on and on.   I enjoyed the commentator comments about get rid of all the excessive fancy aero and over complicated drivetrain along with tires that last 70 laps.  Slick, simple cars that need pit stops would increase the excitement of racing. 

And was glad to see it go commercial free, even on ABC.

[gr8kornholio]

For those wanting to follow Alonso in his 24 hour quest Velocity channel is airing 25 hours of coverage starting tomorrow at 7 am. Part of me wants to plant it and watch from start to finish. But that ain't goin to happen.

[MiniDave]

For 2020 rules they're eliminating the MGU-K and the fuel restrictions, and changing the wings to a much simpler design so they're headed the right way if we all don't fall asleep forever watching the current formula.

[BruceK]

Fuel restrictions?   You mean refueling will again be allowed?

[MiniDave]

Not necessarily, they no longer will restrict the amount of flow or the maximum amount carried on board........

[MiniDave]

Another ho hum F1 race, the leader (the Hamster) just drives around and the rest follow. Vettel got a fantastic start but hit Bottas at the first corner, so they started the race from the back. Vettel charged pretty hard to get back to 5th but Kimi on fresher tires managed to get to the podium.

All in all, a typical F1 race.

[BruceK]

Another ho hum F1 race, the leader (the Hamster) just drives around and the rest follow. Vettel got a fantastic start but hit Bottas at the first corner, so they started the race from the back. Vettel charged pretty hard to get back to 5th but Kimi on fresher tires managed to get to the podium.

All in all, a typical F1 race.

Yeah it's getting really really boring.  Even more than normal!    My ears perked up when I heard it might rain because that always makes things interesting but alas it stayed dry. 

[MiniDave]

F1 Austria, quallly....40% chance of showers.

But alas no rain, so business pretty much as usual - with one small exception.....


Bottas
Hamster
Vettel
Verstappen
Raikenenenenenenen
Grosjean
Ricky Racer

The rest........

Will Brenda Harley be an F1 driver after this weekend? I think not - they have other up and coming young drivers in their pool, and just like they did with the Russian, they can send him packing at any time. I think it might be time.......

[MiniDave]

Well, that was fun!

Rather unexpected finish too, but if it wasn't for bad luck it would have been business as usual I think.

Bad day for Mercedes.

Good day for Red Bull and Ferrari..............and HAAS!

Not to mention both Saubers in the top 10, when was the last time that happened, if at all?

One interesting point - the top 3 lapped everyone else.

Ferrari are now leading both the constructors and drivers championships

The last time the Mercs lost both cars in a race was in 1955, according to the announcers -

Insult to injury dept, Gasly in the Honda powered Toro Rosso passed Alonso in the MacLaren. Alonso noted the fact as Gasly went by too....all credit to Alonso to finish 8th from the pit lane start tho

[BruceK]

Finally a good race to watch!  Dave you summed it up very nicely. 

[MiniDave]

But, if the Mercs hadn't broken, it could have been Merc 1-2, don't you think? Bottas had a terrible start, and the Hamster easily passed into the lead and was pulling away till the safety car debacle. Bottas also came right back and passed everyone that had passed him at the start and it was Benzer boys 1-2 til they both failed.

However, once again, when the Haminator gets behind he becomes a whiny little bitch.

[Vikram]

I don't think it would have been a 1-2. Hamilton's race was severely compromised by the team not pitting him under the virtual safety car.
Great to see Ferrari on top though...

[Jims5543]

How to win by Max Verstappen:

[MiniDave]

No question Max drove a great race, both to get to the lead and to nurse his tires over 50 laps and stay there.

But, again it shows the state of F1 these days, if you can get to the front (and don't break down or be the victim of poor strategy by your team) chances are you have the race.

[BruceK]

However, once again, when the Haminator gets behind he becomes a whiny little bitch.

He sure does.  Every single time.    I would love to see him melt down if he had to race in a Force India or Williams. 

Honestly, I wondered this with Schumacher (at Ferrari) and again with Vettel (at Red Bull) and with Hamilton (at Mercedes):   Does winning actually feel like winning a race if you simply lead from pole and just get the checkered flag first?  I mean it's not really racing, is it?   It can't really be fun or challenging or feed your racing soul.   

[Jims5543]

He sure does.  Every single time.    I would love to see him melt down if he had to race in a Force India or Williams. 

Honestly, I wondered this with Schumacher (at Ferrari) and again with Vettel (at Red Bull) and with Hamilton (at Mercedes):   Does winning actually feel like winning a race if you simply lead from pole and just get the checkered flag first?  I mean it's not really racing, is it?   It can't really be fun or challenging or feed your racing soul.

I always looked to the #2 car in the team. If the races are all 1-2's then its the car and it is more who is the better driver of the 2. When the #2 car is 5 positions back then I feel like it is the driver more than the car.  There were Red Bull seasons when it was the car, there were Ferrari seasons when it was the car, if you go back and look you will be surprised to see the #2 driver was not up front with the WDC.

Of course if you look at the Mercedes years it was typically 1-2 Mercedes most races or at the least 1-3.  It was a rare race in the Roseberg / Hamilton years when it was not a Mercedes 1-2.

In those cases I see it as more the car than the driver.

I still think the Mercedes is the fastest car on the grid, I think Ferrari and Red Bull have caught up to be within 0.2 to 0.3 per lap in qualifying.  I think Max, Seb and Dan are all excellent drivers.

I hate Max but he does have amazing raw speed when he does not dive bomb (he got away with one of his signature moves Sunday) he can run up front with the best of them. I am still not sure he is WDC material, he is kind of screwed in the head, I guess we will see.