F1 Thread

[El Dante]

Surprised that there's seemingly no thread for this about and yet there's a stickied thread for....cricket??!!

Looking forward to the Monza GP today, think it should prove very interesting with a few potentially interesting stories cropping up already.

Naturally there will be pressure on the Ferrari team to impress in their home circuit. I can see a different Massa today as he aggressively tries to prove to other teams why they should sign him up if he's to really be leaving Ferrari this summer. He already negotiated qualifying in such a fashion that sees him ahead of Alonso on the grid.

Personally, I've always thought that Massa has the talent, he just seems to lack the balls to go with it. I think it will be interesting to see how he performs with the spotlight on him and the Ferrari team. Maybe he'll step up and show us what he has.

Alonso performed well in Belgium, finishing second to Vettel. Again he'll be looking to impress and given that there seems little love lost between him and Vettel, you can be sure that Vettel will have that threat in his 'rear view mirror'.

Hulkenberg is another to watch out for. Impressive in qualifying, where he stunned many by taking third. He seems down to earth, shunning personal acclaim and diverting the talk back to the performance of his car. Will be interesting if he can match that performance with a strong race. He is, I believe, the only unfancied driver to have recorded a fastest lap this season.

Finally, Vettel, fantastic practice and qualifying sessions. People can argue it's the car, rather than personal ability, but he continues to get the results. Can he win in this Ferrari dominated field, having led Red Bull to their 50th pole? Beating Ferrari's tally of 50 poles in 160 races in the process. (Red Bull managed it in 149 races, but Lotus have the record of 50 poles in 117 races) - the statistic being how long it took teams to reach 50 poles. I believe my numbers to be correct.

 

[Trixster]

Vettel has great abilities for sure but its about 90% car and 10% driver imo, if the Red Bull behaved the same as say the Sauber would he really be able to make the difference and be in front.

Hamilton I think has more talent in the car, but he has not always been able to bring his best on race days which is a shame as he should really be a double World Champion at least.

If Vettel does not win by 10-15 seconds today then he will have crashed or broken down.... Boring race I feel today..

 

[El Dante]

Hamilton had a horrible qualifying and practice session yesterday. He was held up by Sutil in qualifying; an offence which sees Sutil moved three places down the grid. But he has already held his hand up and admitted that his driving was 'idiotic' yesterday.

I can't see good things for Hamilton today. I don't think he'll finish.

Not sure Vettel will win. I get the feeling that he'll finish 2nd. I don't know why but its just a gut instinct. I think this could be an Alonso-Vettel-Massa finish. I could prove to be embarrassingly wrong though.

 

[El Dante]

Looks like I was wrong about both Hamilton and Vettel

Raikonen did well considering the problems that he was faced with.

 

[Sandman]

Looks like I was wrong about both Hamilton and Vettel

Raikonen did well considering the problems that he was faced with.

Im not against Vettel, but I really hate to see the same guy winning over and over again. Its not as boring as when Schumacher and his ferrari used to bugger off into the distance and win nearly every race but still, i like to see some variety. Even if Webber had managed to challenge him more. After all he does have the same car even if it seems to have more problems than Vettels

Thought Lewis raced well on sunday considering his starting position. Im sure he enjoyed that he had to race flat out on all his tyres and was fun to watch him overtake so many people. This is why I hate these high deg tyres, they can away that pure racing that some drivers have. Yes yes tyre conservation is a skill, but it should be a sub set of the main skill which is driving flat out and overtaking people

Always hate Monza, boring track. Singapore is always a good race and Lewis is pretty good there so hoping for another Merc win with Lewis at the helm.

 

[Dicko]

I'm not an F1 expert or anything, but always wondered if there was always tyre changes and re-fueling during a race? Seems a bit mental that you have these guys racing against each other in what is regarded as the pinnacle of the motorsport but then they add in extra factors such as different fuel loads and tyre choices to make it more interesting. Shouldn't it be just pure racing like Moto GP.. or would it be a boring disaster without the pitstops and if everyone had the same fuel and tyres?

 

[scaramanga]

I'm not an F1 expert or anything, but always wondered if there was always tyre changes and re-fueling during a race? Seems a bit mental that you have these guys racing against each other in what is regarded as the pinnacle of the motorsport but then they add in extra factors such as different fuel loads and tyre choices to make it more interesting. Shouldn't it be just pure racing like Moto GP.. or would it be a boring disaster without the pitstops and if everyone had the same fuel and tyres?

The pit stops were engineered out years ago and then reintroduced in an attempt to create some excitement. Trouble is that the teams are now so good at them that they all tyre change in 3s. Equipment malfunctions and mistakes are now rarer than car failure and driver error so it does nothing to make the race exciting.

The tyres were good enough to last a race, but F1 asked Bridgestone to make worse tyres so it got interesting. Bridgestone refused as being in F1 is a massive cost which they bear as it's good advertising. **** tyres that wear out after 20 laps isn't much of an advert.

There are two things F1 need to do to make the races properly exciting again:

1) Reduce the drag trail that a car can leave. It's all well and good having DRS, but once you're within 1s you're probably going to overtake anyway. It's getting from 3s down to 1s that modern cars make almost impossible.

2) S**** quali and start the race in reverse championship order. I love quali, but the only way to really get overtaking back in as a skill is to get rid. Maybe they could keep it and call it a time trial stage with a handful of points available.

Oh and I've just thought of another:

3) Ban all teams without a soul - namely Red Bull.

 

[Baleforce]

it's an easy fix IMO, let the teams spend what they want, test when they want and drive what they want