F1 2020

[MiniDave]

Such as it is......

Once again, Mercedes shows that they have it all figured out - dead on reliability and a great chassis.

Red Bull have a fast car, but they're still half second slower than the Mercs.

Ferrari has gone down the wrong road with their aero package and are slower than last year with no straight line speed - where they shined last year. They also do not show the engine power that they did last season, so clearly something has changed there too......

McLaren has settled back into the front of the mid Pack.

Racing Point has built a 2019 Mercedes in pink and looks to be the best of the not-Mercedes or Red Bulls.

The rest of the teams seem to have resumed last years form....Renault is unreliable (no wonder Riccardo changed to McLaren - they'll have Mercedes power next year) The "Alfatory" is a 9-10th place car, the Haas has lost all the magic of the first two seasons and I doubt they'll be here next year, the other "Alfa" team is running around the back, just ahead of the Williams - in their usual place dead last.

So, the story of the first race of 2020 will be who manages to finish.

I hope the rest of the season improves but I'm not hopeful at this point.,

[MiniDave]

Well, that was a hell of a finish - crashes, engine failures, penalties......

So, Bottas clearly has the measure of the Red Bull Ring track and drove a great race.

I haven't learned why Hamilton had a 3 place grid penalty and started 5th but when he punted
Albon they gave him a 5 sec penalty which let Norris get his first podium at the end.

Vettel recovered from a spin to manage to finish a miserable 10th out of 11

LeClerc showed why he is Ferrari's new golden boy coming from way back to finish 2nd!

Lots of broken cars, Williams almost had a car in the points by virtue of there only being 10 other cars left at the end.

Going to be interesting to see which teams recover quickly from this one, and to see who makes a good race of it next weekend when they come back for the second round.

Lot of rumors that Mick Schmidt will replace Giovannazzi soon.....

Lando Norris has a sponsor called "Splunk"?

Podium ceremonies just aren't the same these days, are they?

Does Monaco have it's own anthem, or do they use the French? Italian?

So next weekend, same track, same players. the only thing that might change is the weather. Will the Hamster get out in front this time, or will Bottas again get to run the race? Maybe mad Max will get to run the whole race this time? If the Reds Bull are able to stay on track, will they push the Ferraris back down to where there qualified for this one? Lots of lessons were learned in this race, not the least of which - stay off the effing curbs!

[MPlayle]

I read an article this morning that Hamilton was penalized for ignoring a yellow flag during the last qualifying session.

[MiniDave]

Right, I saw that too, this morning after I posted. But they didn't give him the penalty till one hour before the grid, they had ruled yesterday that they weren't going to penalize him, then Red Bull protested and they reversed themselves. I don't like that......make a decision and stick with it, otherwise it smacks of politics and favoritism....especially since they were on Red Bull's track......it just looks like bad sportsmanship to me. who knows how the race might have gone had they not penalized him? Remember, I am NOT a Ham-fan, but fair is fair....either it's a penalty or it isn't.

However, after his hit on Albon that penalty was well justified IMHO.

[MPlayle]

Here is the article I read:
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-hamilton-handed-three-place-grid-penalty-for-austrian-gp-after-red.4gi4JXIiUxRzjsOQlqBy07.html

Apparently it was video from his own car that hung him on the grid penalty.

[BruceK]

I guess I've been living under a rock because I didn't even know Formula One was restarting until I looked at my list of recordings in a DVR and found that Qualifying and the Race had been recorded.  I skipped Qually and watched the race.   I enjoyed it even though it felt more like an exhibition game.   Great that we can still watch without commercials (thank you Mothers products!)  I was happy to see Lewis receive the penalties he was due.  And congrats to McLaren and Norris coming in 3rd! 
 

[MiniDave]

Rumors flying that Alonso will be behind the wheel of a Renault before the season is out, and that Mick Schumacher can't do any worse than Giovanazzi is doing....and he's already under contract. If there ever was a season to try out new (or old familiar ones) faces in the middle of the year, this has to be it

[MiniDave]

"It's not been his greatest race today," said Ferrari team boss Binotto. "The spin and contact was certainly not a great action from his side."

And they wonder why he feels disenfranchised?

Only problem is the Mercs are still at least half second a lap quicker than anything else....maybe more under some circumstances.

[BruceK]

Rumors flying that Alonso will be behind the wheel of a Renault before the season is out, and that Mick Schumacher can't do any worse than Giovanazzi is doing....and he's already under contract. If there ever was a season to try out new (or old familiar ones) faces in the middle of the year, this has to be it

I would love to see Fred driving in F1 again.  I didn't realize how much I missed him.   Still have fond memories of that stacked McLaren pitstop where Lewis was kept waiting for Fred to get his drive-thru order right.    (not Alonso's finest hour, but I still like it because I have never warmed up to the prima donna that is Hamilton)

[BruceK]

Well, that was not exactly an interesting race this past Sunday, was it?   Would have been much more interesting if the rain during qually had continued to race day.

[MiniDave]

Yeah, about the only thing interesting so far this year is how well the Big Macs and Pink Mercs are doing.....the HAAS is back there fighting for last with Williams and Alfalfa. At least the AlfaTauris are up there in the middle.

I don't know what to think about the Renault, but I'm thinking Ricky Racer is happier every day that he'll be with McLaren next season, and Sainz has to be wondering if what he did was such a good move after all - name recognition or not.

Ferrari may be heading back down into one of their mid pack seasons again.....those tend to last a few years. I think the "secret deal" that the other teams are screaming about is that the Ferrari engine was illegal, and in exchange for not fining the shit out of them they agreed to stop doing what ever it was that was giving them so much more power - hence the dismal performance at the end of last season and this one.

So, hand Mercedes the trophies and call it a season, and while you're at it since the rules are locked for next season too, might as well give them the trophies for next year too....save everyone a lot of time, effort, and money.......oh, and boring races and the Hamster trying not to crow about how great he is.

[pbraun]

Then there is our "American" team Haas who has seemingly taken up the last few spots with brake problems again.

[BruceK]

I still haven't gotten used to having a F1 race every weekend.  I was again surprised to see one already recorded on my DVR.   What a nice surprise!

I'm watching the Hungary race right now.  Only 10 laps in and enjoying it.  Hope it rains.

[BruceK]

Ah, they kept promising rain during the race but it never happened.   Still, I enjoyed the race and especially seeing Max do so well after barely being able to start. 

[MiniDave]

Except, the Hamster lapped all the way up to 5th place......does not bode well for anyone else for the rest of the season.....

[BruceK]

YAWN!!!

[MiniDave]

Well, at least till the last 3 laps, when all hell broke loose.... :-\

[BruceK]

Nice to see a non-Lewis, non-Mercedes win for a change! Max did great.   But geez, the British announcers really get a hard-on when there is any any chance of Lewis winning, don't they?  After his final pit stop all they could talk about that he was going to come from behind  - from 4th - to take the win.  In the end he was 10+ seconds behind Max.

[MiniDave]

I loved hearing LeClerc yelling like he'd won the race - for finishing 4th......such are Ferrari's fortunes this year.

And poor Vettel has simply fallen off the planet - race and qually wise.

In fact several teams are really sucking this year that I didn't really expect to - Haas and Alfa Romeo for two.

It's interesting too how many teammates that used to finish 1-2 to each other, are now wildly separated.

[BruceK]

What a boring race. The most exciting part was listening to Sebastian Vettel get pissed off by his team. 

Max is great again.

[MiniDave]

The wheels have definitely come off the Ferrari challenge this year.....

[BruceK]

So no F1 race this weekend, but the Indy 500 will run tomorrow. 

Anybody going to watch? 

[MiniDave]

With an Andretti on pole and the chance to beat the curse? You bet!

[pbraun]

Takuma Sato!  Give me a break.

[MiniDave]

Why? He's done pretty well in Indy car racing, this is his second Indy 500 win.

He was right with Dixon all day, and at the end worked a masterful strategy with his pit crew to get ahead - F1 tactics - and once ahead forced Dixon to use up his tires trying to catch and pass him. Even tho Dixon led most of the race, Tako's strategy worked in the end - I don't think Dixon could have caught and passed him in the last 5 laps even if they had been green. Too bad about the end of the race - some think it should have been red flagged and restarted with 5 to go.....I'm not sure about that.

Tough break for Rossi, his pit crew cost him his chance at the win.