F1/ Formula E/ Motorsport Thread

Absolutely agree but

a) it’s always going to happen as teams, who pay drivers salaries, hedge their bets by putting drivers on conflicting strategies

b) if you’ve benefitted from being let past to optimise your own strategy, it does take away any argument that you shouldn’t return the favour if the car behind is clearly faster

 

I can't argue with that, completely agree.

A big conflict is that the teams' priority is the constructor's championship, whereas the top drivers will always be more concerned with the driver's championship.

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Max put in his best time on his final lap of Q3, despite yellow flags in the final sector.

In any other year, or with any other driver, that’s a grid penalty. Let’s see what happens.

 

Ole gone.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54826343

 

Can I make a prediction here?
Verstappen's best chance of winning the title is to take out Hamilton on turn 1 on the first lap.

 

Most excitement in Qatar came from punctures. Good damage limitation race from Max, good podium from Alonso.

Though Bottas was bl**dy awful.

 

Classy Horner criticises the marshals and ends up in front of the stewards

God I hate that bloke

 

He was very bad today.

I actually thought he was just as terrible last week in a way, despite finishing 3rd, as his car on fresh tyres was half a second a lap faster than Verstappen but he couldn’t close the gap until the very end.

 

Very sad news, Frank is one of the icons of F1 and seemed like a lovely man. Competetive, but still relatable.

I hope Claire and the family are doing okay.

 

That's a shame. Hamilton pretty much handed the Championship unless he crashes as well.

 

Maybe, but depends really how mullered Verstappen’s car is. If he gets to the grid tomorrow without penalties he might have a bit of a chance.

 

Mercedes has their pants pulled down on strategy again and Verstappen into the lead on fresh tyres when the race restarts after a red flag.

 

Red Bull took a punt and it's paid off, makes for a good race now. Wouldn't be surprised to see another safety car/red flag.

Not sure why Hamilton is moaning, if someone else goes into where the crash happened and got seriously hurt there would be uproar.

 

Yeah, almost inevitable there will be more crashes. Will be interesting to see if Hamilton switches to softs now.

 

Well that didn't take long!

 

Laughable restart. Stewards waving yellow and red flags. Perez out.

Mad Max going over kerbs and off the track completely to try and hold the lead he’d lost with his awful start. No way on earth he can be allowed to keep the lead.

 

Don't think they'll be doing a standing start again.

Ocon into P1 if Max gives that position back to Lewis?

 

Michael Masi making confusing offers to Red Bull.

This is crazy. It’s not Ocon’s fault at all but if Max doesn’t drive like a terwat, Hamilton stays first.

 

Max went all in where there wasn't space, rightfully should cede the position. But... Why are Mercedes allowed to ignore the distancing rules under safety/formation? Why have neither Bottas or Hamilton been punished, at the very least Bottas has broken that rule and based on previous occasions Hamilton did on the formation lap too? Once again inconsistent stewarding this season.

 

Really poor restart by Hamilton. Went too far right and left the door open for Max.

 

Masi was quick to tell Red Bull it wasn’t a formation lap, so I don’t know if the rules are different?

 

Yep, I saw that as I was typing. If anyone knows, it'll be Masi... Perhaps Mercedes' team have read those regulations more closely than teams in the past, and picked up on the gap.

However, Bottas's was under the safety car so should be a guaranteed penalty.

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FIA making a mess of this race.