F1 - 2022

Started by Brit_in_TX, October 26, 2021, 01:45:04 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

BruceK

#125
After that very scary first lap crash... That was a jump up and yell at the TV kinda race - especially the final 10 laps!!!    Great to see Carlos triumph in the end.   And fantastic racing between Lewis and Charles!  And Checo too!
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

MiniDave

Checo had one hell of a race to wind up 2nd, after that really early pit stop sent him clear to the back.

Also congrats to the Shu for his first F1 points, he looked solid all race.

Tough luck to George for being a good Samaritan he gets tossed out of a race - he could have finished as high as 6th he thought.

The Mercs are definitely back to the front if they can find a tiny bit of one lap qually speed.

Also bad luck to Max, he apparently ran over something that broke his magical mystery floor and it sorta stopped working so good.

I was definitely standing for the last few laps......Ferrari did muff the strategy again, if they had called Charles in for softs like they did for Sainz it could have been a red car 1-2, but it would have been Char on the top step.

Still a fantastic race, I thought Fred was going to get Charles at the end there, he did amazing to hold off the Hamster as long as he did and to finish 4th. You could see he was not happy with the Ferrari bench.....
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

Brit_in_TX

That first corner crash was scary to see the car go over the tire barrier and into the catch fencing. There were some comments about the gap between the catch fencing and the back of the tire barrier and how it should be removed.  The issue is that catch fencing is there to stop a car leaving the circuit and marshals etc need a way to access the circuit, otherwise you will end up with double fencing.  In my opinion, the area they need to look at is the use of hard run off vs gravel runoff as it was the gravel that tripped up the car.  Hard run off works will when the car is spinning and tires are on it, but once it has lost the tires is better to have gravel. 

It was also shows the effectiveness of the halo, the worrying thing is the failure of the roll over protection.

After all of that - the race was great.  The late safety car set up a really fight for the lead, and Charles helped Carlos by fighting hard so he could get away. Lewis's fastest lap on the final lap was nothing short of stunning, 0.7 quicker than anyone else on that lap. 

MiniDave

Austria -

Known to be Max's happy hunting ground, he showed his gearbox to the field in the Sprint race, but the actual race today was another matter completely as Charles and Carlos both hunted him down and passed him. The Ferrari absolutely had the measure of the Red Bull and looked set to have a 1-2 at the end till Sainz's engine grenaded - and boy howdy did it! parts came thru the engine shroud and the fire was scary too as they had trouble keeping the car - on fire - from rolling back onto the track!

I think Carlos tried to get the car far enough off the track so there wouldn't be a safety car but just couldn't quite get it there, then Charles started having trouble with a sticking throttle pedal......Max was closing up the gap slowly because of Charle's issues, but just ran out of laps.

Tons of actual racing and passing all up and down the field - these cars clearly can follow closely lap after lap without losing the front tires or overheating - definitely a step in the right direction.

Mercedes seems to have fixed their bouncing or porpoising issues, but at the end they were still almost a lap down, but one thing's certain, their reliability is so good that unless they wreck they will be there at the end of the race. 3rd and 4th today was a good result for them for sure.

Also notable, both Alpines, both McLarens and both HAAS were all in the top 10......a good day for all of them. After starting the season off well, the Alpha Tauris seem to have lost their way, and Gasly seems to be completely off his game. Latifi was doing so poorly they parked his car, they cannot get Oscar into a Williams uniform soon enough - I think they should do it now so he can start getting experience with the car before next season gets going.

Mick seems to have really upped his game the last few races and is finally showing his potential, and good on him. All in all this was a good race weekend!
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

Brit_in_TX

#129
Merc are solidly the 3rd fastest team.  George was 19th after his first stop and penalty and drove through to 4th.  The issue is there is a big gap to Red Bull and Ferrari.  But, there is a decent gap to the rest of the pack.

Alpine, McLaren, Haas, Alfa Romeo and Alpha Tauri all seem to be close to one another, it really comes down to whether the circuit is working for them. 

Biggest disappoint still has to be Aston Martin.

Hard to believe that race marked the halfway point of the season!

MiniDave

I agree.....Aston really has been off their game, despite Vettel having the occasional good result.

I'm impressed with HAAS, especially the last few races where they've both been top 10 again, just like in the first few races (at least for Kmag).....that both drivers are finishing and finishing close to each other shows Mick's real improvement. For having the lowest budget on the track they are doing really well....

I wonder what happened to the bouncing issues? They all seem to have gone away now?
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

#131
Wow, I've been reading a lot of accounts of terrible fan behavior, and it seems most of it came from drunk Dutch Verstappen fans......abuse heaped upon women, gays, pretty much anyone not white and male. people vomiting and urinating in public, guys walking from the showers nude in the campsites.....women being threatened......just really horrible behavior.

Vettel calls for them to be banned from F1 races for life......

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-must-act-hard-on-abuse-no-fan-should-ever-attend-a-gp-and-not-want-to-go-back/10336737/?fbclid=IwAR0hCV3nM3CdS7GAJsdrCafv7U4ycvIi7ITepoUmmuXDgiZEgtsz9LGyIOY

Twitter is full of threads of people complaining of how they were treated at the Red Bull ring......I wonder just how F1 is going to deal with this - or if it is at all?

https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/86980/f1-fia-under-fire-austrian-grand-prix-gpfans-recap/?fbclid=IwAR0lemU1lGg6BRyJL3i7IZlTSVSb42dPumsXsm7Sbvl6WkfYSVk5BAY3tms

https://jalopnik.com/harassment-at-the-formula-1-austrian-grand-prix-isnt-ne-1849162403
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

Brit_in_TX

In Europe they did a lot of work to stamp out drunkenness, violence and racism at soccer (football) games for as long as I can remember.  This includes placing restrictions on fans ability to travel internationally and purchase tickets for games. Teams were then punished if their fans continued their bad behavior by playing games behind closed doors and without TV coverage (which is how teams make their money).  This enabled the teams to appeal to the majority of fans to report badly behaved fans so they could be banned.

However, the challenge for F1 is going to be how they manage that.  How do you restrict fans for one driver or team if they are the ones where this behavior is coming from?  The other issue is that F1 (on the whole) only has 1 race per country so how do you restrict fan access to an event when the fans are needed to allow an event to break even?  Do you threaten to cancel a contract to run a race if issues continue, but will that just move the issue to a replacement circuit, travelling around Europe is pretty easy?

It is implied in most of the reports that they were Max Verstappen fans, if that is the case, pressure needs to be put on Max to address these topics head on and strongly.  His responses to Nelson Piquet's comments about Hamilton and these events have been light PR bullshit compare to the other drivers and team principal comments (Toto's being the most direct).  Max might not want to do it, but by being World Champion he is a figurehead of the sport and he needs to address it.

MiniDave

I agree it's going to be difficult to stop, but I agree with Toto - they need to get on top of it.

I'm guessing if worse comes to worse they can use facial recognition and not sell tix to offending guys but that seems pretty extreme....

I'm sure a large part of the problem is alcohol but they're not going to forgo the revenue from that either.

I saw plenty of this abusive behavior at Oktoberfest, and it was not restricted to any one group, but the worst ones I came into contact with came over from England.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

Brit_in_TX

Quote from: MiniDave on July 12, 2022, 03:37:32 PM
I saw plenty of this abusive behavior at Oktoberfest, and it was not restricted to any one group, but the worst ones I came into contact with came over from England.

Sad but true - "Brits Abroad" in Europe is a thing. Basically leave any sense of decency at home and drink until you can't see straight.

MiniDave

#135
They used to talk about the "ugly American" and I didn't understand - I thought it was all just Hollywood made up or something till I went to visit friends in Germany. We were doing the tourist things and had gone to Neuswanstien castle - there were two lines, one for English speaking tourists and one for German.

In our line there was a short fat man and his big broad of a wife - he was dressed in shorts, a really loud shirt, black socks and shoes and a cigar - I swear he was straight out of Hollywood casting he fit the image so perfectly. He and the wife were loud, obnoxious and I was totally embarrassed.

At one point in the tour as they pointed out a very old and I'm sure valuable painting he reached in his pocket and pulled out some cash and said he'd buy it for $5! I wanted to just melt into the floor.......

I asked my German friends if we could go in the other line and they could just translate for us but he said it was even worse in that line!

Point being boorish behavior doesn't seem to be restricted to just English speaking folks......we just don't know about it because we don't speak the language.....but it does seem like folks completely forget how to be adults.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

Interesting comment on the changes in F1 in the last few years....

F1, in my humble opinion, is clearly growing too fast for what the business and circuits can handle. A few years ago, before Drive to Survive, it used to be quite the achievement to have a sellout crowd. Nowadays, circuits are trying to cram more and more people in because tickets are selling like hot cakes. With this, there needs to be a ramp-up in security, both for things like flares and also to manage the horrible situation that some fans faced in Austria, where they were being harassed and abused.

There needs to be a step up from Formula 1 to manage all of this; otherwise, it's going to get out of control.


It was in this article about the use of smoke flares at the last race

https://wtf1.com/post/why-flares-at-f1-races-need-to-be-banned/?fbclid=IwAR3EZvW2IHfisKzFWRJx3gyoMRAedCm5SJqO9Fkpk5PJEXmsgm8-hLanA_E
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

French GP at Paul Ricard:

What a disappointment if you're a Ferrari and Charles LeClerc fan, he did a masterful job of holding off a clearly faster Verstappen in the early laps till Max's tires started to go off, LeClerc had the race well in hand and then he lost the backend and spun off track into the barrier. Done deal.

Later in the interview he said he's driving at top level of his life, but it was his mistake not a problem with the car. Good that he owned up to it, but still......

Then Sainz. Starting 19th cutting thru the field, all the way up to a clear third place but with a 5 sec penalty for an unsafe release on his pit stop he still had the time in hand and might even have taken 2nd place, but they called him in for tires. He fought like hell to pass 5 cars and wind up 5th but that was as high as he could go before he ran out of laps.

The team justified the call by saying his tires would not have lasted to the end of the race as one of the fronts was showing blisters, but Sainz thought he could make it ok.

So from a possible 1-3 they wind up with only a 5th and fastest lap.

Mercedes on the other hand had a brilliant race. The Hamster jumped Checo on the start and late in the race after a virtual safety car Russell did the same so the Mercs finished a solid 2-3. With their reliability and the mistakes of the others they are slowly closing in on Ferrari for 2nd in the championship. I think Max pretty much has it sewn up at this point now as he is 63 pts ahead of Charles With Perez now only 7 behind Charles - Red Bull could come 1-2 in the Driver's too.  I the Ferrari has a fight on their hands for 2nd now with Mercedes and Russel is now only one point behind Sainz. If Sainz hadn't gotten fastest lap they'd be tied....

Alpine put both cars in the top 10 as did McLaren so that battle remains really close too. Stroll managed to beat Vettel to 10th place, HAAS had a terrible race with KMag retiring and Schumi.....well it doesn't really matter where he finished it was well down the order.

Red Bull is now 82 pts ahead of Ferrari, and Ferrari is only 44 pts ahead of the Mercs. Alpine leads McLaren now by 4 pts and the others are so far behind it doesn't really matter.

If Ferrari continues with poor reliability and questionable tactics they could wind up throwing this season away, which is too bad because this year they clearly are more than competitive on performance.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

Brit_in_TX

I said after the race that the championship is Max and Red Bull's to lose now. With a 63 point lead he can have 2 DNFs and still be leading. Also he has already had 2 DNFs at the beginning of the season.


BruceK

I just saw a video saying Vettel will retire at the end of this season.  I wonder how that will affect risks he will take from here to the end. 
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

MiniDave

#140
I'm surprised/not surprised......there's been a lot of talk about this, both because of his and the cars performance not coming up to the standards they both expected and his stance on climate and ecology, and how that conflicts with driving an F1 car, or being involved in the F1 circus at all.

But that sure does open up some interesting speculation about what's happening with the team - maybe this is Audi's entrance, Stroll never bought the team as anything as other than an investment and an opportunity to put his son in an F1 race seat. If he can sell it to a deep pockets outfit like Audi I'm sure he'll make a nice chunk of change, and that gets Audi into F1 without having to pay the $200-400 million new entrant's fee like Andretti would, and they don't have to start from dead scratch. Aston/Force has all the facilities and engineers in place, Audi would only have to make the changes to accommodate the new rules and bring in their drivers - I doubt they would keep Stroll Jr., maybe quick Nick finally gets his shot?

Fun to think about......

His full statement:

I hereby announce my retirement from F1 by the end of the 2022 season. Probably I should start with a long list of people to thank now, but I feel it is more important to explain the reasons behind my decision.

I love this sport. It has been central to my life since I can remember, but as much as there is life on track, there is my life off track too. Being a racing driver has never been my sole identity. I very much believe in identity: by who we are and how we treat others, rather than what we do.

Who am I? I am Sebastian. Father of three children and husband to a wonderful woman. I am curious and easily fascinated by passionate or skilled people. I am obsessed with perfection, I am tolerant and feel we all have the same rights to live, no matter what we look like, where we come from and who we love.

I love being outside. I love nature and its wonders, I am stubborn and impatient. I can be really annoying. I like to make people laugh, I like chocolate and the smell of fresh bread. My favourite colour is blue. I believe in change, and progress and that every little bit makes a difference. I am an optimist and I believe people are good.

Next to racing I have grown a family and I love being around them. I have grown other interests outside of F1. My passion for racing and F1 comes with lots of time spent away from them, and takes a lot of energy.

Committing to my passion the way I did and the way I thought was right, does no longer go side by side with my wish to be a great father and husband. The energy it takes to become one with the car and the team to chase perfection, takes focus and commitment.

My goals have shifted from winning races and fighting for championships to seeing my children grow, passing on my values, helping them up when they fall, listening to them when they need me, not having to say goodbye and most importantly being able to learn from them and let them inspire me.

Children are our future. Further I feel there is so much to explore and learn about life, and about myself. Speaking of the future, I feel we live in very decisive times and how we all shape these next years will determines our lives.

My passion comes with certain aspects that I've learned to dislike, they might be solved in the future but the will to apply that change has to grow much, much stronger, and has to be leading into action today. Talk is not enough and we cannot afford to wait. There is no alternative. The race is under way.

My best race? Still to come. I believe in moving forwards and moving on. Time is a one way street, and I want to go with the times. Looking back is only going to slow you down.

I look forward to race down unknown tracks and I will be finding new challenges. The marks I left on track will stay until time and rain will wash them away. New ones will be put down. Tomorrow belongs to those shaping today. The next corner is in good hands as the new generation has already turned in.

I believe there is still a race to win. Farewell, and thanks for letting me share the track with you. I loved every bit of it.


Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

#141
Hungary - qually

Wow, another first for a driver - George Russell gets his first pole for Mercedes - which is also the first pole for a Mercedes this season! The Hamster's car had a problem with his DRS and aborted his last flying lap.

Red Bull had a terrible qually, finishing 10th and 11th, Verstappen complaining of no power on his last couple of laps.

Ferrari thought they had a front row lockout with Sainz ahead of Leclerc by a couple hundreths of a second till Russel popped up.

However..............how does this work? Russell was not fastest in any section, but somehow he was fastest overall?

So, the grid shapes up like this:

Russell
Sainz
LeClerc
Lando
Ocon
Fred
Hamster
Bottas
Ricky Bobby
Max
Checo

the rest......

So, both Mercedes, both Ferraris, both McLarens, both the Alpines are in the top 10. Interesting grid for tomorrow's race.

Oh, and it didn't rain a drop thru all of Qually!
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

gr8kornholio

Glad to see Ricky back in the top 10, but 5 spots back of teammate is not good.  There has got to be breakdown in communication.  Either he can't explain what he needs or they can't figure out how to get the car to do it.   My guess is based on how he drove in the Red Bull is he needs a very precise handling car.  If it's loose or tight at all he's just not going to get the performance out of the car.  I would think a McLaren would be about as close to a Red Bull out of all the chassis builders in matters of precision and with Lando it also appears to have good power. 
I am the GR8KORNHOLIO! Are you threatening me?

Saussie Aussie 1965 Australian MK1 Mini.
"Beavis" - 07 MY/MY MCS, B/MY Konig Daylites, JCW sideskirts, TSW springs, TSW lower rear control arms -- Exploring the country with new friends since 11/09.

MiniDave

#143
Wow - if you're a Ferrari fan  - well, all I can offer are condolences.

But this season is more and more looking like an episode of wrestling. You have the plucky contenders who were looking really good at the start but seem to shoot themselves in the foot nearly every race now.

We have the formerly dominant team starting from nowhere with seemingly like unsurmountable problems but now gaining momentum at every race.

And last year's wining driver seems to be indomitable.....

The retiring champion coming back to finish in the points - well one point anyway.

Another former champion scrapping for mid points while yet another falls down the order.....

It's just been a crazy season already and it looks like it's going to get worse for some.

If anyone else were winning races it might make for an interesting season.....I'll give you this, the top three teams are now really close together - everyone else seems to be in a different series as they're nowhere close by the end of the race. 7th place in this race was 78 seconds behind the leader - almost a lap.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

Nothing more telling than seeing Mattia leave the pit wall and walk to the back of the garage with 15 laps to go......

You know the Tifosi and Italian press are going to be calling for heads to roll after yet another strategy cock up.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

BruceK

Quote from: MiniDave on July 31, 2022, 06:47:36 PM
Nothing more telling than seeing Mattia leave the pit wall and walk to the back of the garage with 15 laps to go......

You know the Tifosi and Italian press are going to be calling for heads to roll after yet another strategy cock up.

Yeah it did look bad.  But he was back on the pit wall within 3 minutes of leaving it. So maybe he needed a personal pitstop? Or he just went back to the motorhome and screamed a bit until he felt better?
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

MiniDave

#146
Sure didn't take long for the dominoes to start to fall.....Alonso signs with Aston on a multi year deal.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-fernando-alonso-signs-to-aston-martin-for-2023-on-multi-year.1i8QwJht5v7dBCWFCcrqml.html?fbclid=IwAR1OVjIQvEamDoTL7NBUePWxett_CRmQ8vIvh2GWpz2zIKIL-Zj6etZ9Ur0

I'm a little surprised that he would go down the grid like this, with Alpine doing the best of the midfield runners now - holding 4th in the championship and beating McLaren......

Really opens up the silly season, as there will be many more musical chairs before it's done. Piastri was supposed to go to Williams on a lend/lease deal, now I wonder if Alpine will go ahead and pair him up with Ocon?

If they do Williams will have that seat open again - keep Latifi or move to someone else?
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

#148
Another piece of the grid has fallen into place, this one was pretty much a foregone conclusion when Alonso jumped to Aston, Piastri has been hired at Renault/Alpine to replace Alonso. He's been in their development program for years now and after winning the F2 championship they needed to find him a ride in order to keep him in their program. There was talk of lending him to Williams for a year and with Williams slated to get Renault engines next year it looked like a good fit....now that won't happen obviously, so I wonder if the Renault engine deal is still on the table?

So, that leaves Latifi still up in the air and more and more it looks like Schumi Jr. could lose his seat at HAAS.

There was also talk at one point of Albon going to the Renault seat, but he quashed that saying he preferred to be at Williams.

Weird rumor of the day - LeClerc is sick of losing at Ferrari and wants to replace the Hamster at Mercedes?!!??

Edit: More fun stuff, Alpine learned that Alonso was going to Aston when Aston announced it! Classy, Fred, classy.....

Stop the presses!!!!

Oscar just put out a tweet that the Alpine announcement was wrong, and that he has NOT signed with them for 2023. speculation is that he's going to McLaren to replace Danny Ricky Bobby....

OH, and this just in - Hammy is now a part owner of the Denver Broncos!
https://www.denverpost.com/2022/08/02/lewis-hamilton-rob-walton-broncos-ownership-group/amp/
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

Brit_in_TX

And Albon has signed a multi year deal with Williams. I imagine that is Williams locking in a seat after they had Piastri lined up and he is going who-knows-where!

On Piastri, a number of journos have speculated on twitter that his Alpine contract stated that he had to have a race seat in F1 2023 confirmed by the end of July or Alpine's option on him lapsed. With the surprise announcement that Alonso is leaving for Aston Martin on August 1st, wonder if they have been caught out and their contractual option on Piastri has lapsed. So now it will be lawyers sorting it out.  Regardless of the outcome, I imagine a deal will be done and we won't see Piastri in Alpine blue next season. Rumor is he has a deal signed with McLaren and Ricardio will be paid to to sit around and do nothing.