Official 2016 Formula 1 Thread!!

[boomhower]

Alonso's crash has reinforced the halo idea.
I think they also suspended the weird quali format.

They have, back to normal qualifying next week. Some are arguing that crash as a reason against the halo as it would have been harder for him to get out, haven't made my mind up either way but do believe the benefits outweigh the risk.

P6 for Haas was a awesome result. Better than I would have thought. Hopefully with better qualifying upper mid pack will e the norm.

 

[KingstonU]

I give that a 9/10. Excellent first race!

Crazy Alonso crash and yes almost nothing left of the car. Be sure to watch the replay in realtime speed as the slow mo does not do it justice.

Lewis seemed untouchable all weekend but then that start and then pitting just before the red flag and being in traffic cost him the race.

I expected Torro Rosso to do better based on everything we had seen from them so far. Palmer I thought impressively held his own. Remember that Palmer handidly beat Sainz in GP2 except that Sainz had a lot more sponsor backing to be able to buy his seat earlier.

Shame about Kimi's car. And finally Great job for Haas and Grojean. 6th place was beyond anybody's expectations. Though this was definitely a wild race.

 

[Spacehead]

Does anyone know of a US TV schedule for this year? I know sometimes NBC has aired races in past years.

 

[Brian Stirling]

So the new quali format made it even more boring than it used to be.

Whilst I think more progressive knock-outs make for more track action, you should probably have more qualification stages instead of these weird 90 seconds intervals that really don't work.

WTF are you talking about boring -- the F1 quali procedure has been anything but boring over the years. The new wrinkle to the rules looked good on paper, but the actual outcome is not what they expected and not what we as spectators would want. But to claim that the earlier quali procedure were boring is absolute bullshit!


Brian

 

[Brian Stirling]

The result for Haas is incredible and no one could have imagined 6th in the first race. It would have been a victory to simply finish. To have finished in the points was beyond any real hope and getting all the way to 6th is amazing.

At the end of the race when his team congratulated Grosjean, Roman responded with obvious elation that this was a victory. Maybe as important as the 6th place finish was the team building that comments like Grosjean will have for the team. He's a very good driver and he's made a great contribution to the moral both by his accomplishment on the track and by his comment to the team. Starting to really like this guy...


Brian

 

[JulesMaximus]

So the new quali format made it even more boring than it used to be.

Whilst I think more progressive knock-outs make for more track action, you should probably have more qualification stages instead of these weird 90 seconds intervals that really don't work.

The current qualifying rules resulted in less cars on track, especially Q3 which was traditionally the most exciting with 8-10 cars circulating trying to set the fastest time right down to the final seconds. We had no cars on track for the last 2 minutes of Q3.

I don't think the old rules were boring at all. Quali has traditionally been pretty exciting IMO.

 

[_Rick_]

The current qualifying rules resulted in less cars on track, especially Q3 which was traditionally the most exciting with 8-10 cars circulating trying to set the fastest time right down to the final seconds. We had no cars on track for the last 2 minutes of Q3.

I don't think the old rules were boring at all. Quali has traditionally been pretty exciting IMO.

It merely changed when cars were going around.
Usually there was a 5 minute period of nothing happening in Q3, because everyone was waiting for the final 3 minutes to go out.
In Q1 and Q2 it also was barely any different, unless conditions were wet/changing.

Nobody on the grid has tires to burn on unnecessary runs.

Now, if you gave them one extra set of tires, and made it 5 ten minute sessions with 2 minutes breaks in between and drop the slowest 3 after the first 4 sessions, there's more action, less room for mistakes, and more opportunity to gamble. Give every team that doesn't reach Q5 an extra set of the softest tire for the next race, to mix up the grid occasionally. Top 10 have to start on the the tire they used during their fastest run.

And yeah, Kimi's engine fire really gutted me, put a lot of (fantasy-)money on him getting a good result...

 

[KingstonU]

Alonso is out for the Bahrain Grand Prix and possibly China as well on medical grounds. Stoffel Vandoorne is in as reserve driver!

Almost identical to last year! And, again identically, I don't think Alonso cares much as the car is not that good anyways. And great for Vandoorne who sounds like yet another very promising young rookie working his way up the ranks.

 

[foghorn67]

Grosjean opened up a bit for today's media day in Bahrain. Apparently, they are still learning a ton about the setup of the car while at the same time saying the car itself is fantastic. I hope the team learns the ins and outs of the setups on practice days...it sounds like it might be a promising year to get more points in.
I really believe they won't be Manor backmarkers. I think they can give Sauber, Renault, Force India a hard time when fighting for points.

I hope this is the year Williams gets a race win or two. I think Red Bell and Toro Rosso will be hard to beat though.

 

[LTC8K6]

Vettel never made the start, another blown turbo, apparently. Blew up on the recon lap.

Rosberg, Raikonnen, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Grosjean.

Haas F1 gets a 5th place finish...

 

[LTC8K6]

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/championship/results/2016-constructor-standings.html

Haas is 5th in the Constructor's points.

Probably no one saw that coming.

But MB has a large lead already.

 

[foghorn67]

A Haas car mixing it up with Williams, Toro Rosso, Red Bull....my emotional investment in this team is very high. But I did not expect two outstanding finishes in their first two races.

 

[KingstonU]

Early pre-season rumblings about Ferrari having reliability issues seems to be manifesting. If Ferrari is really trying to turn up the wick to try everything to get their engine design to match the performance of MB's engine this would make sense.

Torro Rosso's early season advantage seems to not be manifesting though they are still a step up from previous seasons as being very top of the midfielders. Force India was expecting to make gains but seem to have gone backwards instead. Sauber are on the verge of being dead last and this could be their worst season ever.

And I'm actually finding myself happy at the thought of Nico coming out on top this year over Hamilton (as long as neither of them show poor sportsmanship). Never thought I'd say that. Hamilton is just seeming more like a very talented but often reckless person while Nico is an intelligent and very hardworking person.

I'm also thrilled with the amount of new young talent on the grid that are present almost entirely on merit including Verstappen, Wehrlein, Magnussen, Palmer and Vandoorne. They are all going to make for a very exciting future for F1.

 

[KingstonU]

Well I will say that the return to 2015 Qualifying format is very welcome and it delivered a pretty exciting race to boot.

Haas have come crashing back to reality it seems after a dream entry into the sport. Renault are completely lost which is a shame as they have 2 very high caliber drivers.

Rosberg has now won the first 3 races. I'm not sure how that stands historically to give him odds to win the season, but at least if anybody can make a recovery it's Hamilton so that should give us another fantastic season even at the front. At this point I would be happy for either of them to win it so long as it's a good battle.

 

[boomhower]

Red Bull's performance was amazing and shocking. It's a power track and Riccardo was smoking it. With them that much down on power really shows how good their chassis is. Put a Ferrari or MB power unit in the back and they'd run away.

 

[_Rick_]

Depressing race for my fantasy team.

Kvyat really killed scores from RB and Ferrari, and Verstappen retired from a decent position with engine trouble.

Then Wehrlein goes in for a late pit stop, and is stationary for nigh on 30 seconds...

At least Grosjean held off Perez, but really a tough race - Williams really benefitted today.

 

[KingstonU]

Agreed. Kvyat's incident and also Lewis' continued engine troubles keep messing up all of my predictions.

I think Kvyat is definitely going to be sacked this year. He is actually a pretty good young driver but he knows he is under pressure of Verstappen waiting to take his seat, and so he is being extra aggressive, but making these very costly mistakes. And he is also simply being outshone by Ricciardo.

I never would have predicted Rosberg of having one of the longest winning streaks in the history of the sport. He is slowly starting to change my opinion of him though.

 

[KingstonU]

I continue to be thrilled with Crashtor being out of the sport, but now we need to continue that with Gutierrez being the next pay driver that should leave. At least Pastor was fast, but Gutierrez is on his 3rd season and has shown to be useless to every team he has raced in thus far. Does not belong in F1 at all.

 

[satyajitmenon]

Hmm...

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/r...rstappen-kvyat-as-early-as-spanish-gp-733475/

 

[KingstonU]

WOW it's confirmed! Kvyat is officially demoted to Toro Rosso and replaced by Verstappen at Red Bull effective immediately for the rest of the season.

I mean yeah Kvyat had a pretty bad race, but had the team's first podium of the season just before that. That is ruthless!

 

[KingstonU]

Holy Sh*t Mercedes both took each other out!!! This is a completely different race now! I am now saying Ricciardo for the win!

 

[boomhower]

That was the best race in years. If the engine upgrade Renault is coming out with is a serious increase Ferrari are going to be in a huge bind. I watched the USA telecast and the announcers kept saying that the rules didn't need to change for 2017 because the race was so good. But it was only so good because Merc crashed out. Merc kicked ass in the engines and have reaped the rewards. If we can get some equalization on that front the racing would be phenomenal. (not directed to Merc but allow development so the others have a chance to catch up, and Merc can out develop and keep the advantage. But at least make a scenario to where others have the ability to close the gap.) Last thing we need is more downforce.

Much more of watching Merc win every race and even I am probably going to give it up. Mid field battles are fun to watch but barring wreck having the winner being predertimend of one or two drivers is getting real old real quick.

 

[RockinZ28]

Yea I already gave up watching regularly a while ago. Pretty much the same thing race after race. Merc sandbags, Ferrari feels they're in a position to take it to Merc, Merc gets pole with nearly a full second over nearest competitor, 1-2 Mercedes if no car trouble.

Pissed I looked up the results for this one though. Going to watch it now.

 

[LTC8K6]

Still annoying that a faster car often can't make a pass. Ricciardo and Raikonnen were just stuck.

 

[boomhower]

Still annoying that a faster car often can't make a pass. Ricciardo and Raikonnen were just stuck.

Which is why we need less aero, not more like the proposed regs are going to give us. Give us less aero and more power. That would be some interesting racing. Drivers have to manage the grip more without relying so much on aero. More passing on skill rather than artificial speed with DRS.