Official F1 Topic

[Eutyphro]

I wouldn't be surprised if he were to go into other racing classes after about 5 F1 championships and then come back to F1 at a later stage. I don't think Max has much more to prove at this point and he should just do whatever makes him happy. He's already worth $210 million at this point is what I'm seeing, so he has no reason to care about money. If he keeps going on his current trajectory he might end up as a billionaire pretty much.

[smokeless6]

Driver salaries are not part of the cap. Other stuff like marketing and travel is also not included.

 

One day Max will just be done. He's quite honest and open about it. A legacy is not what pushes him. Like Jason said he just wants to compete. To race. If he wins three titles or ten doesn't seem to matter much to him. Pure racer, but I suspect he will burn out in F1 before he is 30 and want to try something else.

[Jason]

I think he quite obviously wants to have a good crack at Le Mans and probably the Indy 500 as well. The unofficial triple crown of motorsport is those two plus Monaco, and I think, going by his comments, that he probably cares more for achievements like that than 8 F1 WDC's.

[Jason]

Every race it's like one step forward and one step back for every team. Merc look like they've turned a corner then they look woeful, Aston look like they're up there competing and now look like the 4th best team pace wise. Ferrari now look like they've turned a corner, but what are the odds they sh*t the bed at Silverstone? Sounds like upgrades are coming to a few teams then, so hopefully the gap gets closer. Lando looked great too in his upgraded McLaren... we'll see how that goes next race lol.

 

Meanwhile, Max was so fast and so confident he YOLO'd a pitstop despite only just about having the time to do it, just for fastest lap.

 

also lol @ all the track limits

 

Once again highlighting how silly post-race punishments are, a few drivers could've pushed harder if they knew they were coming. I know there was something like 1200 reports but f*cking hell, there must be something that can be done beyond all the "experts"/ex-drivers going "just drive slower el oh el".

[smokeless6]

When they had a good result in Catalunya, the pundits were declaring Merc fixed and back in the battle. I didn't buy it, claiming at the time it was a matter of the circuit suiting the car. They are improving (not that we could see it yesterday, mind) but fixed they ain't. They've essentially built an entirely new car over the past three races. Only the monocoque is the same really. Their first car was especially poor in high speed corners. Lack of downforce. Silverstone is all about high speed corners so it will be interesting if their new car is better in these corners. Unknown.

 

Lando looked like he was having a ball running with the fast cars. Good for him. McLaren have made good strides, but I bet Piastri wished he had gotten them too yesterday.

 

Max is amazing. Super fast, and consistent. Red Bull almost always make the right call. Which wing to run, which tyre to start on, which to switch to and when. Pitstops. Managing qualifying. Rare to make a mistake. This is a tough combination to overcome for the other teams. Even Checo had a good drive.

 

Yeah, the track limits fiasco is a stain. Maybe they can find a way to make it all automated. Or they could just put gravel traps at the edge of the track where these violations are happening (turn 10 for instance)

 

The fight for second in the constructors is shaping up to be quite spicy indeed. Aston Martin have leveled off, Merc have cooled and Fez are looking better, not just their car, but operationally as well. A good fight brewing here.

Edited July 3, 2023 by smokeless6

[Jason]

From I gather, track changes to fix an F1 only problem are a pretty poor solution given the track is used for various other motorsports. But yea, I think it was Albon who mentioned that he was warned about track limits on lap 20 or so, so he played it super safe, track limits again, so he played it super super safe... track limits again. The reason? they were all from the first few laps in the race. No driver had a chance to correct themselves because they just kept arriving way too late and then for the cherry on top there were more post race penalties which are never good as knowing you have a penalty mid race changes strategy completely.

[Nico]

The turn 10 should be widened. I don't see how it would be an issue to other racing series since the runoff area (decorated with the Austrian flag) is pavement already. Plenty of folks are asking for gravel, grass, etc but that would be dangerous for bike races. There's the say that if you give the drivers a hand they will take your arm, but there has to be a point that beyond it, taking more asphalt to make the turn shouldn't be beneficial for the lap times. There's always one ideal way to take the corner at the maximum speed possible depending on the vehicle being used. It's either that or lax down the clowness stritctness of the track limit regulations. Which by the way weren't consistent at all because they seemed to focus mainly on turns 9 and 10 during this weekend, but not so much at other places where it was clear that the drivers were going off track as well.

[Jason]

UP THE F*CKING MCLAREN!

 

So much for Merc's plan of winning Silverstone btw lol, also Perez might not even last the season at this rate. If RB had a serious challenger he'd be leaving Max to the wolves.

[DEALUX]

On 6/2/2023 at 5:01 PM, Eutyphro said:

I wouldn't be surprised if he were to go into other racing classes after about 5 F1 championships and then come back to F1 at a later stage. I don't think Max has much more to prove at this point and he should just do whatever makes him happy. He's already worth $210 million at this point is what I'm seeing, so he has no reason to care about money. If he keeps going on his current trajectory he might end up as a billionaire pretty much.

I think he's hinted in several interviews that he wants to focus on esports. It sounds like he wants to be the best driver in iRacing in the world and have his own team full time.

 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by DEALUX

[smokeless6]

So disappointed in Ferrari. I thought they would be battling the McLarens.

Lance Stroll is now public enemy number 2. Or maybe 3. But he's up there. Not only did he overtake Gasly off the track, forcing Gasly to pass him again, he then ran off the track and speared Gasly right out of the race. A 5 second penalty is just too little in these cases. Maybe if the stewards started actually punishing drivers for racing outside the rules the drivers would be more careful. They are too fond of 5-second penalties. And yeah I had Gasly in my team dammit.

Great result for McLaren. They were fast and everyone though they had bungled it by going hard for the final restart. After all, the soft had outperformed expectations. Kravitz was saying 10 laps out of the soft when they first went to him. Instead Russell got 28 laps out of them. But the sun was coming out and I bet the track was warming and the soft wasn't as good as expected in that final stint so the McLarens weren't in any real danger. Piastri will be disappointed to miss out on a podium, and he got screwed by the safety car. But a fine drive. Easily the best rookie and looks like he belongs. I had said he needed to justify all the fuss in the off season, but so far I think he has.

Good finish to the race, and a fun start, but the rest was rather processional. DRS could keep cars in contact, but few were able to use that to get by. Gasly followed within DRS range of Alonso for like 30 laps. But of course that is Fernando.

[Jason]

If Max didn't exist this would be such an exciting season, as it is you have to condition your self to enjoy the "best of the rest" battle, cause 2-10 is often great albeit the action can often be in clumps. Hope it gets better as the season goes on.

 

Ham vs Norris was a good watch, great opening lap too for Norris. Really hope McLaren aren't yet another example of a false dawn and that this is them back up competing for 2nd (lol) for the rest of the season.

 

Hamilton with the now-rare SC luck as well lol, he's had some terrible safety cars in the past 2 seasons. Worked out well in the end for McLaren though, looked like it might not after the restart.

[DEALUX]

I don't think it's boring. I'm really hoping Max beats his record from last year for most races won in a season. We are witnessing a legend in the making.

[Jason]

You always wanna see competition at the top IMO. One of dominant seasons are impressive - and what Max is doing is incredibly impressive, he's already one of the greats and if he stays in F1 long enough could absolutely end up as the greatest ever - but when it comes to the races watching people compete for podiums and points only goes so far.

 

I just want teams to get their cars in order so we see if Hamilton still has it, if Russel, Lando and Leclerc can truly compete for wins and titles. That'd be hella exciting to watch every week.

[smokeless6]

I like both points. I want to see Max set records, but I think we all know he won't stick around long enough to set some of them.

 

But also the other point about wanting a more competitive championship fight. Both of these points cannot coexist.

 

2021 was a super battle and we need more of that all up and down the grid.

 

All of that said, I think we're seeing  good midfield battle this year as teams rise and fall from race to race. The fight for second is shaping up nicely indeed.

[Jason]

Becoming very obvious that these three are the best three drivers on the grid now, it was super tight between the top 3. 

[Emmi]

Oh man, finally the curse is broken. Another Lewis pole was long overdue. Damn that was f*cking close, too close and I already thought when he (Lewis) had to open the steering wheel two times at the penultimate corner was the pole slipping away from him.

[Jason]

Yea I noticed that too, thought he might've lost it there as well. He was like .145 up or something the got pole by a fraction so he definitely lost a little.

[Eutyphro]

Supermax shredding ol boy Lewis at the start and Lewis dropping to fourth, and eventually fifth after getting Sergioed. Love to see it!

 

Edit: Back to fourth, but no podium for big mouth Lewis. Nice one!

Edited July 23, 2023 by Eutyphro

[Jason]

Sorta made a mockery of the whole McLaren/Merc have closed the gap talk lol - Max is sitting 20s ahead with 9 laps to go. He absolutely murdered the fastest lap at first time of asking too. On a track they are supposedly weak at, Max is cruising to victory with plenty of pace in the tank while Lando in second is desperately hanging on to 2nd, being hunted by the other Red Bull.

 

Big return to form from Perez, especially if he can indeed get past Norris.

 

Russel's not done bad considering he started in 18th but Merc's race pace hasn't been here. McLaren have looked good, still a good bit behind RB tho. Piastri showing that McLaren were justified in signing him though, he looks really good.

 

Edit: Well, no 2nd for Perez but still a decent race for him... though Hamilton is hunting him down lol. Russell driver of the day 4 me.

[Eutyphro]

Lewis deserved this for his talk about how RB must have been cheating as now their "DRS advantage is gone all of a sudden", when it seems Red Bull experiments with turning down the engine, and when it is turned up the field is set back 30s with Max cruising and not even pushing.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Eutyphro

[Jason]

I've heard there's some rumours have some teams have broken the cost cap again, with the tinfoil hat theory being that Merc have picked up the RB slander again cause RB are one of those teams.

 

Could be muppetry though, there's always a lot of that sort of rumour stuff going on.

 

Lando with a good car behind him showing exactly what we've thought for years, quality driver. Piastri as well been great, Stroll being an example in the earlier races showing that a good car won't make you a good driver.

[Eutyphro]

Until there is any evidence for that none of that can be taken seriously, and the muppetry, the muppet in question, is Lewis after running his mouth and then being utterly dominated.

[Jason]

I think even Lewis said his race was probably with the McLaren's lol, so the idea he or Merc hyped them selves up for first and then got a justified beating or w/e is fanboyism.

 

Either way it's all part and parcel of F1. It's an uber competitive sport and like all uber competitive sports it's full of sore losers. Every team - and driver - has said dumb sh*t. The sport would be a les enjoyable sport if all that stuff went away. Horner vs Toto in particular is peak F1 entertainment lol.

 

Edit: https://imgur.com/a/xNvVIoW

 

Lando mate. 

 

 

[Eutyphro]

Nah, he did say “I think in the race they’re still the quickest and I think it will be very hard to beat them tomorrow,” but he also ran his mouth about their "disappearing advantage" and was implying some supposed cheating on their DRS, for which he has no evidence at all, and then got obliterated in the race, which warms my heart.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Eutyphro

[Jason]

Ferrari made the same comments as Merc.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

I'm guessing they think there was some sort of FIA intervention, which has happened before. If they suspected actual cheating they would be going for the jugular a bit more I reckon. Maybe it'll play out over the next few races, or maybe this was a track where DRS is known to be weak lol.

[DEALUX]

How would they cheat with DRS? It seems like such a simple device. Unless DRS is a euphemism for something else.

[Jason]

I don't think the implication was that they were cheating but that the FIA intervened in order to reel them in for competitive reasons.  Though Hungary isn't a track where DRS is strong but the teams making these comments know that so it was a weird thing to say. Drivers don't usually come out and say stuff like that w/o someone above telling them to, so Ferrari and Merc must be thinking something is going on?

 

The FIA have denied the talk of cost cap stuff, Red Bull have implied they're actually under it cause crashes took a chunk out of it.

 

Just yer standard F1 politics by the sound of it honestly.

[Jason]

Just when you think RB might have an off weekend and get beaten to outright pole Max goes and does that. Spa in the wet is one of the trickier circuits on the grid as well as one of the longest, so on top of Monaco's pole earlier in the season that's two world class poles this season for him. Over .8 seconds ahead of everyone else.

 

But he does have a 5 grid place penalty due to the gearbox change so it's Leclerc on pole who looked very good today, along with Sainz, Merc and McLaren tbh. They all looked like they had pace in them in qualifying at least so curious to see how that translates to race pace cause that's where RB are strongest, which is saying something considering they aren't slow in quali either.

 

But anyway, how long before Max is leading tomorrow, then? Two? Three laps?

[Eutyphro]

Ferrari have not been competitive on race pace in recent races, so they will not be an issue to Max. His biggest worry is clearly whether Sergio will flop or not. Sergio has a pretty decent chance of winning if he does not screw up, like he has done most of the time recently.

[smokeless6]

If I had to guess, DRS activated on lap three, if it is dry.... Max is in the lead on lap eight. But it isn't a certainty, and La Source is one of the most damaging turns on the calendar, when the field is all bunched up. Very high jeopardy heading in to La Source. If he can negotiate that corner without damage he's in a good position to move forward.

But.... Red Bull are not super fast on the straights, Ferrari and others are faster. There is a big divergence in setup this week. Some cars are running low down force wings and some high down force. Merc for example, have Hamilton on low and Russell on high down force wings. As a result, Max is imperious in sector 2. This of course could leave him vulnerable on straights. But the payoff is better degradation, and if it's wet, well, cars with skinny wings will probably struggle more. This is one of the best things about Spa, which it shares with other tracks like Baku, that teams can choose such divergent approaches to arrive at around the same lap time. And it looks like we will see rain, and I reckon some drivers will be hurting over the race. All very interesting.

Edited July 29, 2023 by smokeless6