The F1 thread

[Wrathbone]

To quote Bill Bailey, that was a long walk down a windy beach to a cafe that was closed.

Glad for Verstappen, though.

[Raid]

Yeah, dreary race at the front. I think the only excitement could have come from Perez passing Bottas on the last lap... but the last lap came one too early.

Ricciardo's beginning to worry me a bit. He occasionally has a moment of brilliance, but it seems out of all the drivers who joined a new team this year, he's the only one that hasn't dramatically improved since the start of the season. I appreciate he had a brief mechanical issue yesterday that dropped him back five places, but when his teammate is finishing fifth, 13th isn't good enough. He's only beaten Lando in the race on one occasion. There are so many promising young drivers coming up that he's going to struggle to justify his relatively high salary. I don't know whether it's the car or the environment, but there's just been something missing since he left Red Bull.

[Maturin]

There's a consensus building that Mercedes have pretty much written off this season now to concentrate on the 2022 car. Toto's already confirmed there will be no more upgrades, other than some minor tinkering, and apparently Red bull are turning up at each GP with vans full of newly developed parts.

You have to say it's worth it for Red Bull though. Get a couple of titles under their belts. There's no guarantees about the 2022 car performance, even if they had dome the same as Mercedes and switched the development over very early.

Max deserves a driver's title so I'm happy for him. Over the last 12 months he's radically transformed as a driver.

[Raid]

Max deserves a driver's title so I'm happy for him. Over the last 12 months he's radically transformed as a driver.

I agree on Max deserving a title, but I wouldn't say there's been clear development this year - I think he was always this good, he's just never had the machinery to regularly challenge for wins until now.

[Maturin]

I think it's night and day personally. He's completely lost his recklessness and poor decision making that was rife in his driving before.

He always had the pace.

[Wrathbone]

I think it's night and day personally. He's completely lost his recklessness and poor decision making that was rife in his driving before.

That certainly showed last year with some brilliant, marginal but well-judged overtakes. I think the difference this year is that he's not had much cause to be reckless due to his car being so good.

[Raid]

Perhaps I'm just not remembering beyond last year, but I can't honestly remember Max making badly judged overtakes. In fact I remember that superb drive in the wet in Brazil several years back which was amazing not just for his expert car control that nobody else could match on the day, but his maturity on getting everything done cleanly.

[Wrathbone]

In his early days at Red Bull he frequently made very aggressive overtakes which sometimes worked and sometimes resulted in tears. He seems to have a better gauge now on when to go for it and when to be patient, rather than pouncing on every marginal opportunity. If memory serves, Hamilton was much the same in his early career.

[Raid]

I think Lewis has always been quite aggressive with his overtaking, it's something that Rosberg really could not replicate when they were teammates, and when he tried to match his aggression Nico always came off worse. There was also that year that Hamilton just could not seem to not hit Felipe Massa, the year that the best F1 reaction gif of all time was produced.



I'm probably just forgetting the occasions it happened with Max. The only collision I can really remember is the one where he hit a back marker in Brazil (Ocon I think?), but I think it was blamed on said back marker. He and Lewis have come together a couple of times this year, but they've been remarkably well matched and neither has ended up in the gravel because of it - I know Max is no rookie at this point, but it's still incredible to see a relatively young driver matching a seven times world champion in aggression and care. It's brilliant to watch, though I imagine at some point this year it's going to end with one of them in a wall.

[Raid]

Quali spoilers.

Spoiler

Norris is P2 for tomorrow's race, beating both Mercs and the second Red Bull, just 0.048 off pole and on the medium tyre to Verstappen's softs. Russell finally managed to get his shitbox Williams into Q3 too, ahead of one of the Astons (while Latifi managed just 18th). Incredible stuff. I know Hamilton's now signed with Mercedes until the end of 2023, but the future of Britain's F1 challengers is looking very rosy.

[2Channelwonder]

Another bad luck race for Russell but hopefully next race he can stay up in the points on a better strategy for having tyres that can last the distance instead of getting passed by Alonso near the end. Another smooth win for Verstappen and an unusual if pragmatic use of team orders to get more points for the constructors in Mercedes' case. Norris did well to get on the podium despite that time penalty. This sprint qualifying for the British GP just sounds strange but it's one way to get people watching the whole weekend if it's the only live race for Channel 4.

[Drarok]

Regular quali on Friday which sets the order for the sprint on Saturday which sets the order for the Grand Prix on Sunday, yeah?

[Snowy]

Bottas is out of Mercedes next year with Russell taking his seat. Great news for Russell, he has really impressed this season. If he can drag that Williams into the top ten I have high hopes for another English champion down the way.

[Raid]

I never had any doubt this would happen; that race where he subbed for Hamilton last year made it a certainty as far as I'm concerned. Mercedes will likely have the strongest driver pairing on the grid now.

Edit: so certain of this was I that I didn't actually check to see if an official announcement had been made.

[Drarok]

I can't find any source, but I would love to see Russell get the second seat at Merc, gain some insight from Lewis, and kick-start the rest of his career in style.