The F1 Thread

[asbo]

Liberty will be good for F1. Ross Brawn's been given a very influential role it seems, so the technical side of the sport will be in good hands for the first time in its history. I don't care about the commercial side but Bernie was missing a lot of opportunities to grow the sport. I like Chase Carey's comments of having 21 Superbowls, for years the price of attending F1 events has gone up and offered less in return in terms of quality of on-track action and other entertainments at the venue. I've said for years that a grand prix should be like a festival. Apart from the afterparty thing they have at the British GP on a Sunday they have nothing but a few support races and a million fast food and merchandise stands. It's not enough.

[overseasTOON]

Rumour has it that Lance Stroll brought $20 million to Williams to secure his seat.

Given he's crashed and damaged the car twice in two days, how long before he burns through the $20 million?

[bodacious benny]

Rumour has it that Lance Stroll brought $20 million to Williams to secure his seat.

Given he's crashed and damaged the car twice in two days, how long before he burns through the $20 million?

Not long

It's farcical really that drivers can effectively buy a seat at the elite level. It'd be like rich people being able to pay to play for Man U or something. Should be about talent and not money.

Ferrari look to have some pace in testing.

[asbo]

Pathetic from Williams to hire a driver like that, it's like when they sacked Hulkenberg so Maldonado could drive for them. Sauber's line up is disgraceful as well.

Ferrari's start has been very encouraging, very fast from the off, both drivers seem to be able to set quick laps with ease which is surprising considering how much the cars have changed, suggests the car is well balanced, easy to drive and well correlated with the wind tunnel and simulator. Bodes well. Sounds like the Mercedes is a bit more of a handful and is probably behind Ferrari right now, but I'd expect them to have it dialed by Melbourne and their underlying pace is probably superior to Ferrari's.

[overseasTOON]

Pathetic from Williams to hire a driver like that, it's like when they sacked Hulkenberg so Maldonado could drive for them. Sauber's line up is disgraceful as well.

Ferrari's start has been very encouraging, very fast from the off, both drivers seem to be able to set quick laps with ease which is surprising considering how much the cars have changed, suggests the car is well balanced, easy to drive and well correlated with the wind tunnel and simulator. Bodes well. Sounds like the Mercedes is a bit more of a handful and is probably behind Ferrari right now, but I'd expect them to have it dialed by Melbourne and their underlying pace is probably superior to Ferrari's.

It was interesting to hear from Hamilton that he's getting bruises from driving the car which seems to suggest that Mercedes will have to sort out the seating and restraints for the drivers if they are being knocked around in the corners.

[Pardew's Legendary Specs]

Stroll has achieved before though so it man not just money. It just helps...... a lot!!

[Jaiston]

Well 2017 season was great while it lasted, give the titles to Mercedes and pack it up, bring on 2018 !

[ALF]

Got a month of NowTV half price so can watch the first 3 races of the season. Fully expecting Mercedes to dominate again but Ferrari look decent. Alonso was 12th in practice somehow as well.

[asbo]

Decent session. Pleasantly surprised by Bottas keeping Hamilton honest, wasn't expecting him to better Hamilton's first time in Q3, so often Rosberg would be slower on both runs and Hamilton wouldn't need to finish his final lap. Great to see Vettel so close too, could be some great racing if Ferrari can keep the pressure on Mercedes this year. The new cars are fantastic too, visibly faster on both the onboard and offboard shots, F1 needed to make these changes.

[bodacious benny]

Like the look of the new cars and it looks like they could be a handful. Hopefully that'll give us some exciting and unpredictable racing.

[Micky Quim]

Was waiting to watch it at lunch but have already seen the result. Bugger! But pleased that it looks like there will be competition this season

[bodacious benny]

Promising start to the season! Ferrari called out merc on the strategy and had the pace.

[overseasTOON]

I've only watched the highlights on C4 but the first thing that struck me was how badly these new cars travel in dirty air and the drivers were backing off through large swathes of the track.

From the first race it looks like Ferarri have a very strong car in terms of pace but most importantly, in terms of minimising tire degradation which will really throw a spanner into the Mercedes strategy team.

From the off we saw that Mercedes were not quick enough to open up the DRS gap in the first few laps and control the race as they have done in the last 3 years which would bode well for the upcoming season in terms of racing but that handling in dirty air will likely ruin it and we're back to pit stop strategies.

[bodacious benny]

Vettel was quite comfortably following Hamilton in dirty air before the pit stops. He was a second or so behind for a fair few laps and didn't look to be suffering from being in dirty air.

[overseasTOON]

Vettel was quite comfortably following Hamilton in dirty air before the pit stops. He was a second or so behind for a fair few laps and didn't look to be suffering from being in dirty air.

It looked like Vettel was far enough back to reduce the dirty air effect. I only saw the highlights but did Vettel make any moves to get beyond Hamilton after the first lap?

[bodacious benny]

Vettel was quite comfortably following Hamilton in dirty air before the pit stops. He was a second or so behind for a fair few laps and didn't look to be suffering from being in dirty air.

It looked like Vettel was far enough back to reduce the dirty air effect. I only saw the highlights but did Vettel make any moves to get beyond Hamilton after the first lap?

No. It seemed like Ferrari were happy to keep him a second or so behind but then run longer than Hamilton when he pitted and it worked a treat.

At one point Hamilton had DRS on the main straight behind Verstappen but didn't have the speed to get past tho.

[asbo]

Vettel homed in on the back of Hamilton's car really rapidly before Hamilton dived in the pits. If Hamilton hadn't pitted when he did Vettel probably would've been making an attempt ten seconds later.

The dirty air "conundrum" is blown out of proportion and has been for years. If overtaking was easy Vettel would've passed Hamilton in the first couple of laps and sailed off into the distance; I don't understand why people would prefer this.

[asbo]

It should also be said that the only guy who was likely to do a lot of overtaking was the only guy who didn't take to the starting grid.

[bodacious benny]

Malaysian GP will be off the calendar after this season, Sepang are being released one year early from their contract.

[Micky Quim]

Good qually. Should make for an interesting GP tomorrow