F1/ Formula E/ Motorsport Thread

I predict a stressful day for the camera director.

 

Vettel under investigation for “joyriding” around the course after FP1 on a scooter haha.

Mercedes basically the only team that have brought no upgrades to Albert Park.

 

Vettel spun off and smashed his car in P3. But I just wanted to say what a great guy Michael Schumacher is. He stopped his car to make sure his countryman was ok. That’s so good to see. Verstappen would have driven into him to make sure he got greater injuries.

 

Fun first 20-ish laps. After that the midfield scrap kept things a bit interesting but on the whole not that much to see. Happy for Checo. Also congrats to Albon somehow getting himself a point.

 

Looks like another fuel issue for RB.

Leclerc looking very strong.

Hamilton unlucky and seemingly a bit annoyed. I wonder if he wanted to stay out and his team made him pit, then the safety car was released 2 laps later. Probably couldn’t have kept pace with Perez, but would have been nice to see the RBS push their tyres.

Mercedes have improved, especially in mid-race, but not sure how much of their improvement is to do with the lack of mile long straights.

Hopefully they’ll bring significant upgrades to Imola and we’ll start to see a three way battle.

 

Sad sad news earlier in the weekend about the untimely death of legendary speedway commentator Nigel Pearson at the age of 52. The voice of speedway for sure, and also prolific covering darts and football matches too. He was a West Brom fan. 52 is way too young for someone who still had so much to give.

https://britishspeedway.co.uk/miscellaneous/tribute-to-nigel/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-61126833.amp

 

How great would rain mid-sprint race be?

Sprint races this year should be more entertaining and there are some cars out of position, but doing a sprint race at ER seems wasted.

Hope I’m wrong.

 

Red flags (in qualifying) and safety cars (in general) seem to be a massive growth industry over the last season or two. Pretty frustrating, especially as they seem to take longer and longer to clear incidents up.

 

How many in today’s wet race do we think then? I’m going for 1 red flag and 3 full safety car periods.

 

Haha. 1st safety car before the end of the first lap!

 

Such a hyped up race, Verstappen vs Leclerc in Ferrari's back yard... And it turned out to be a pretty tame race, littered with silly mistakes. That said, it's good for the title race and great to see Lando on the podium!

Also, it damaged the 'Hamilton is great in the rain' myth. Whenever it rains he's compared to Senna, yet Senna managed to win in the rain in a mediocre Lotus. Hamilton came 14th in a mediocre Mercedes, whilst his team mate came 4th. Okay, it was dry enough after 12 laps or so, but he didn't make up any positions before that (other than to the spinners and retirees). It's apparent that a lot of it was down to having the best car.

 

14th? What did Verstappen do to him this time?

 

Him and the new race director kidnapped Lewis and replaced him with a distinctly average look-a-like. The real Hamilton is actually tied up in his trailer.

 

I get the impression he’s sulking big time, whereas Russell is just getting on and trying to make the best of an unfavourable situation.

 

I’m not sure if he’s lost his appetite given the ridiculous unfairness of last season.

Or if his instinctive driving style means he can’t deal with the porpoising in the same way.

Hamilton has given some incredible performances in the rain in the past, but he’s been outshone by other drivers like Norris and Russell for a couple of years now.

 

Super Max, Max, Max, Max.

Must of hurt Lewis to be lapped.

 

Also what a horribly dull race. Surely it should be on the chopping board of races to cut?

 

have

 

The sprint race was alright.

As I've stated a million times, I'm not a fan of DRS, however a narrow track like Imola with limited overtaking locations is surely the prime situation for double DRS zones? The fact that the race director didn't enable it for half the race also didn't help.

Modern tracks are very wide, designed for overtaking and still have 2 DRS zones, which is overkill. Yet when it's actually needed they don't allow it.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

 

Yeah agree. If you’re faster on the straights it’s way too difficult to be overtaken with one DRS zone.

The race director should have enabled DRS when the cars moved to slicks. If not, within 5 or 6 laps, when cars were overtaking on slicks on the damper side of the track.

But with the tendency to safety car every incident where a car goes off, one incident and the race could have been even more boring.

 

The sports just seems to have gone a bit risk averse around rain, cars left prone off track etc in the last 2-3 years. VSC seems to barely be used other than as an opportunity to let Bernd finish his fag break, get in the full SC and get rolling.

Admittedly there have been a number of incidents that have caused that position but it still feels a bit like the FIA has lost sight of the bigger picture, namely that any sport is supposed to be entertaining. Obviously DRS in the wet wouldn't make sense but the drying track yesterday was clearly fine for 10-15 laps before they gave it the go ahead.

 

Speaking of speedway, great to see it back at Oxford stadium.

Friday nights at Oxford during the early 2000s were some of my favorite memories, watching the likes of Leigh Adams and Greg Hancock riding for the Cheetah’s.

I paid a tenner on Wednesday to stream the meeting with Poole on British Speedway Network, and it was a pretty decent production. Racing wasn’t up to much, but I’d imagine as they start to get a handle on the track, things will improve.

I’m jumping back over the pond for a couple of days in July for my brothers stag, and I’ll be able to get a meeting in while I’m there. Can’t wait.

 

Yep agreed Luke, good to see Oxford back, especially with the demise of local rivals Swindon and Reading. I'll try and get there myself if I can at some point, considering I don't think my team Reading will ever return now. Their old stadium Smallmead was demolished, supposedly for redevelopment. However, the area is still there over 10 years later, levelled and used as a temporary car park for Reading's matches. So sad and such a waste. Like you at Oxford, I had many a good times watching speedway in Reading during the 90's and early 2000's.

As it happens though, my first ever speedway match live was at Oxford in 1989, when they raced Berwick.

 

In FP1 and 2, the Merc looks so much better. Probably within a few tenths of RB and Ferrari now.

Miami looks like a tight fun-enough track, that will be ruined by safety cars and red flags.

 

Car loss Sainz

 

Bottas loving life away from Mercedes

 

RB engines hate the heat. Let’s see whether they survive the race tomorrow

 

I decided to give this a go tonight for the first time this season. I knew about the new car changes but was uninspired by it all still, but the new Miami track gave me reason to have a look.

Switched off after 30 minutes to watch the golf.

It's no better. Dull as ever. A procession of cars barely overtaking.

Maybe an exciting 30 seconds from the go go go. 1 or 2 pit stop surprises. But the rest is literally no different other than the guy/team in the lead.

I always questioned whether it was mainly my dislike for hamilton that put me off for the last few years, but I think it's probably 50/50 Hamilton and the fact the racing is just dull.