Official 2016 Formula 1 Thread!!

[KingstonU]

Craaaazy race. I gotta say that the fantasy league has me partially rooting for the wrong things to happen. But that was an amazing race!

I really wanted Ric to win it but bad luck on the tire blowout and strategy, and you honestly can't take anything away from Max, that really was a great performance and an amazingly mature drive. Unbelievable.

All the other drivers definitely are and SHOULD be worried about him, as he is going to overshadow the entire field. That drive makes him seem like he is probably already one of the top 5 drivers on the grid.

 

[JulesMaximus]

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

Barcelona is particularly bad for that. Has been forever. It used to be one of the most boring circuits on the calendar because of that fast sweeping right hand turn leading onto the front straight. It's just impossible to get close enough to the car in front of you leading onto the front straight so you see the type of passes Riciardo was attempting on Seb. Raikkonen knew he couldn't pull that off.

Anyway, it was amazing to see Max Verstappen win in his first outing with Red Bull. What a completely amazing result for him and the team.

Couldn't believe that both Mercedes took each other out on the first lap. At first I thought this was squarely on Nico Rosberg but every driver defends the pass the way he did so Lewis had to be expecting it. What a disaster for Mercedes. Great race though.

 

[KingstonU]

Max is out of qualifying! Hit the wall and broke front wing and suspension! 8O

Then only to have Hamilton have another car issue but at least he was able to get 1 run at the very last moment. But Ricciardo got his first ever pole!

Great Monaco Race, I mean Qualifying session.

 

[_Rick_]

Max is out of qualifying! Hit the wall and broke front wing and suspension! 8O

I was frustrated about that as well. But then I thought about all those sweet bonus points, if he can make it to the finish tomorrow.

Sadly, all the drivers in my fantasy team got beaten by their team mates (even Wehrlein!) so I'm off to a bad start.

Great lap by Ricciardo though.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Maranello must be shitting themselves -- first they thought they were closing the gap to Merc and the next thing you know there now the third fastest car in the field.

Ricardo has always been real fast and now the Red Bull has an engine that appears pretty competitive they stand a good chance of solidifying there place as #2. The dynamic with the drivers there is also very interesting with Max lighting a fire under Ricardo in a way the Kvyat never could.

I still have hope for Ferrari, but it's looking like there destined for third fastest car unless they make a substantial jump in performance.

The first turn tomorrow could be ... interesting!


Brian

 

[boomhower]

Maranello must be shitting themselves -- first they thought they were closing the gap to Merc and the next thing you know there now the third fastest car in the field.

Ricardo has always been real fast and now the Red Bull has an engine that appears pretty competitive they stand a good chance of solidifying there place as #2. The dynamic with the drivers there is also very interesting with Max lighting a fire under Ricardo in a way the Kvyat never could.

I still have hope for Ferrari, but it's looking like there destined for third fastest car unless they make a substantial jump in performance.

The first turn tomorrow could be ... interesting!


Brian

Agreed. Red Bull has always had a top class chassis, just been hamstrung by a subpar engine. They still have a subpar engine but it is decent enough to allow them to exploit just how good the chassis is. It will be an interesting year to see which teams continue to develop and which jump ship and just start working on next years regs.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Maranello must be shitting themselves -- first they thought they were closing the gap to Merc and the next thing you know there now the third fastest car in the field.

Ricardo has always been real fast and now the Red Bull has an engine that appears pretty competitive they stand a good chance of solidifying there place as #2. The dynamic with the drivers there is also very interesting with Max lighting a fire under Ricardo in a way the Kvyat never could.

I still have hope for Ferrari, but it's looking like there destined for third fastest car unless they make a substantial jump in performance.

The first turn tomorrow could be ... interesting!


Brian

Monaco is not a power track but the Red Bull has good balance and grip so it's not surprising to see them do well here. We will see how they do in Canada. I wouldn't be surprised to see Riciardo win tomorrow but with rain scheduled you never know. Seb is really good in the wet as is Raikkonen. Who knows, you might even see a Force India or McLaren on the podium.

 

[_Rick_]

Wow, what a shame for RB - Max makes another small mistake, after a superb drive into the points, and Ricciardo's pit crew misses the call to box...

Disastrous race for Rosberg, going only backwards. Amazing strategy calls for Perez, sadly no such luck for the Hulk, who went backwards instead, despite qualifying better.

I hope that Wehrlein's ten second penalty didn't cost him too many positions, but since he made it to the flag, already he was a worthy investment. Grosjean's race was ruined by Kimi, who really should think about retiring. Williams were absolutely nowhere, but Monaco is their least favourite track, so I suppose that's not too bad.

And omg Sauber (Ericsson in particular). No words.

 

[zentan]

Ricciardo is right, his strategy got compromised in both the races.

 

[boomhower]

Ricciardo is right, his strategy got compromised in both the races.

Strategy didn't cost him this race, the pits got distracted by his team mate wrecking and weren't ready when he came in. He should have won that race, a shame.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Strategy didn't cost him this race, the pits got distracted by his team mate wrecking and weren't ready when he came in. He should have won that race, a shame.

Great drive by Hamilton though. Staying out on the full wets and then switching to the super soft dry tire was a great strategy and he did some 45 laps on those tires and kept Ricciardo at bay. He got lucky with that poor pit stop by Red Bull admittedly but he also drove a great race and sometimes you get lucky as a result of others misfortune. That is racing.

 

[_Rick_]

Great drive by Hamilton though. Staying out on the full wets and then switching to the super soft dry tire was a great strategy and he did some 45 laps on those tires and kept Ricciardo at bay. He got lucky with that poor pit stop by Red Bull admittedly but he also drove a great race and sometimes you get lucky as a result of others misfortune. That is racing.

I would say it was a horrible strategy, since Ricciardo was around 10 seconds faster on his in-lap than Lewis on his outlap (and lapping fast enough to catch up to Lewis despite stopping 4 laps earlier). Ricciardo's strategy/car was roughly one lap faster over the race distance than Hamilton, and it got destroyed by one moment of diversion.

A decent strategy would have been to go slower still, and get the other Mercedes into play again. Even when Ricciiardo was MUCH faster than Hamilton, he had no way past him, since there's no way around someone braking early and positioning himself well, in Monaco.

Also Hamilton straight-lining the chicane to stay ahead, and then elbowing Ricciardo out was a properly borderline move. He was lucky, not to get a 5 sec penalty for that one.

 

[zentan]

Strategy didn't cost him this race, the pits got distracted by his team mate wrecking and weren't ready when he came in. He should have won that race, a shame.

Perhaps not the right word in the context of Monaco GP but overall it compromised his winning chances,same with the earlier race,he could have challenged if not for the pit strategy. Yeah,it was nice for Max but could have been different.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I would say it was a horrible strategy, since Ricciardo was around 10 seconds faster on his in-lap than Lewis on his outlap (and lapping fast enough to catch up to Lewis despite stopping 4 laps earlier). Ricciardo's strategy/car was roughly one lap faster over the race distance than Hamilton, and it got destroyed by one moment of diversion.

A decent strategy would have been to go slower still, and get the other Mercedes into play again. Even when Ricciiardo was MUCH faster than Hamilton, he had no way past him, since there's no way around someone braking early and positioning himself well, in Monaco.

Also Hamilton straight-lining the chicane to stay ahead, and then elbowing Ricciardo out was a properly borderline move. He was lucky, not to get a 5 sec penalty for that one.

No, a horrible strategy would have been to do what Red Bull did with Ricciardo by bringing him in and switching him onto the intermediates. Mercedes was about to do just that and then brought the tires back into the garage and told Hamilton to stay out on the full wets.

That pit stop debacle was a disaster for Red Bull. I think Mercedes were planning on stopping Hamilton one more time but once they had Ricciardo beat where he came out on track it changed everything.

It worked out for them and Hamilton won the race. It wasnt ideal but it worked.

 

[KingstonU]

That was a pretty thrilling Monaco race and makes it earn it's place on the calendar.

Ricciardo definitely deserved the win but Lewis drove extremely well to hold it as well. Lewis' bad luck last year due to his team screwing up his pit stops balanced well with this year going the other way for him. I have no idea how Nico drove such a bad race with such a good car, unless he had a problem that we didn't hear about.

Max didn't need to be pushing that hard in Q1 of qualifying, he easily would have made it into Q3, and he also didn't need to push that hard in the race. He was never going to be in contention for serious points. Sure he could probably crack into the top 10, as he did, but top 6 was probably impossible. And both times resulted in him crashing unnecessarily.

 

[Brian Stirling]

By my count Ricardo's pit stop lasted 9-10 seconds longer than it should have and when he came out of the pits he was only a second or two at most behind Lewis. So, if the stop had gone the way it should have he'd have been about 7 seconds ahead of him instead of 1-2 behind.

He handled it as best you can expect though he was clearly devastated -- it would have been his first victory.

It's looking like RB is now the second fastest car and Canada will confirm that. It may even be that RB can go toe-to-toe with Merc going forward. It's also pretty clear that the red car is moving down the grid...


Brian

 

[JulesMaximus]

By my count Ricardo's pit stop lasted 9-10 seconds longer than it should have and when he came out of the pits he was only a second or two at most behind Lewis. So, if the stop had gone the way it should have he'd have been about 7 seconds ahead of him instead of 1-2 behind.

He handled it as best you can expect though he was clearly devastated -- it would have been his first victory.

It's looking like RB is now the second fastest car and Canada will confirm that. It may even be that RB can go toe-to-toe with Merc going forward. It's also pretty clear that the red car is moving down the grid...


Brian

Actually, that would have been his 4th F1 win. He has won three grands prix.

 

[KingstonU]

How much do the engine regulations change for 2017? Will there be a radically different design to current engines or only minor changes?

I am just wondering if Merc is throwing as much money developing a 2017 engine as they did for their 2014 engine, which was leagues and bounds above Ferrari and Renault. 2 years later and they are still behind! Honda is another category on it's own.

If the engine changes are only minor for next year, then I don't think that Honda will be able to catch up by 2017 unless something miraculous occurs. 2018 at the earliest.

If there is room for radical changes to the engine, then Honda have a chance to reverse their fortunes by 2017.

 

[_Rick_]

How much do the engine regulations change for 2017? Will there be a radically different design to current engines or only minor changes?

I am just wondering if Merc is throwing as much money developing a 2017 engine as they did for their 2014 engine, which was leagues and bounds above Ferrari and Renault. 2 years later and they are still behind! Honda is another category on it's own.

If the engine changes are only minor for next year, then I don't think that Honda will be able to catch up by 2017 unless something miraculous occurs. 2018 at the earliest.

If there is room for radical changes to the engine, then Honda have a chance to reverse their fortunes by 2017.

It will be the same engine formula, but with unlimited (in-season) development. So hopefully the engines will sufficiently similar at some point, that it'll be about the chassis and aero again, not so much about horse power and efficiency. Or at least closer in those regards.

 

[boomhower]

It will be the same engine formula, but with unlimited (in-season) development. So hopefully the engines will sufficiently similar at some point, that it'll be about the chassis and aero again, not so much about horse power and efficiency. Or at least closer in those regards.

If that pans out Red Bull will be a happy camp once Renault gets to that equal status.

 

[KingstonU]

It will be the same engine formula, but with unlimited (in-season) development. So hopefully the engines will sufficiently similar at some point, that it'll be about the chassis and aero again, not so much about horse power and efficiency. Or at least closer in those regards.

That's ironic, as just before this current set of regulations, fans and teams were moaning about how the sport was too dependent on aero and chassis and how they wished it was more engine dependent again.

I am starting to think that one must accept and then ignore the fact that fans and teams have always, and will always complain about something in the sport.

Adrian Newey will love anything aero dependant again.

 

[_Rick_]

If that pans out Red Bull will be a happy camp once Renault gets to that equal status.

Actually, I am more worried than not about the new rules - by the end of this season, I would almost expect reasonable parity amongst the top teams, with their strengths being mostly according to the tracks they're on.

With new development on the way, this tentative balance will only be disrupted again...

 

[core2slow]

Anyone watched the Baku practices? Looks like a fun and fast track and i cant stop laughing at how bumpy the track was. Still can't believe that they paved over the majority of ancient, cobblestone streets for this race. Everyone was making rooster tail full of sparks racing down the main straight.D:

 

[RockinZ28]

Didn't even realize there was a race this weekend until last night. Watched the quali this morning. Appears to be a pretty challenging track, with not many overtaking windows. So many run offs and big lock ups in quali, hope the race is interesting.

Although Merc back to making the rest of the field look like GP2 cars, so Rosberg should have this in the bag, barring any issues.

 

[Brian Stirling]

I think a lot of people were expecting (hoping) to see a pile up in turns 8, 9, 10 and nothing like that happened. I don't think the relative performance difference was down to Merc superiority but to them getting the setup right. RB is by performance either the second or third best car but here they were mid pack and bad tire strategy probably only made a 2 or 3 spot difference so RB totally blew the setup.


Brian