The F1 thread

[Raid]

I’m not saying it would be easy, I’m saying do it anyway. These are the best drivers in the world - they should relish a near-impossible driving challenge, even if it’s a case of last man standing.

You'd have a red flag every time a car went off. F1 doesn't want another Jules Bianchi on their hands.

Honestly I think the only way you can have a competition in conditions like that is to haul a big LAN centre with 20 sim rigs around as part of the F1 circus, and have all of the drivers do the race in a game.

[DjchunKfunK]

Yeah there was no way they could race yesterday but it was farcical that the FIA made them go out and do two laps just so they could say they had "completed" a race. There was no way the conditions were any better the second time they went out compared to the first, it was just to avoid having to cancel or race on Monday instead. Lewis is right, it came down to money again just like the Australian GP last year that they all flew in for despite the pandemic gripping the world.

[Rossell]

There was one good thing out of the weekend. This gem.

[Drarok]

Failing that, they should have raced on foot.

How many laps?

Christ, that would be a slog, and the elevation changes are brutal!

[Snowy]

That was bizarre. Got a copy of the race from the Jolly Roger and managed to avoid F1 news until last night. Opened the video file and saw 5.5 hours and thought

One of the strangest GPs ever following on from that bizarre restart where Hamilton was the only one not in the pit lane from the last one, F1 is having an odd year.

I was amazed at fans "celebrating" Verstappen's win at the circuit, if I had shelled out for that I would have felt robbed, especially after sitting in Spa rain (when it rains there man does it rain, I was there for the huge crash in '98 and the weather was similarly biblical).

Shame, Spa is one of my favourite tracks on the F1 calendar.

[Raid]

I'm always undecided about Spa; it's clearly a fantastic circuit, but I've seen some incredibly boring races there in the last ten years.

[Snowy]

The problem is (and has been for a long time) the cars, not the circuits. They need to change the aero so as to remove dirty air and allow better slipstreaming. Hopefully the next season's radical changes to the car design will fix this problem (as well as making the cars look a hell of a lot better imo).

[Raid]

I'm hesitant to get excited about the aero changes. It's something we've been promised before, and the teams always seem to find ways around them. Granted, they've not been this comprehensive before so there's clearly promise, but I'll believe it when the lights go out in Melbourne (assuming that race actually happens this time).

[Snowy]

I hear you. When Ross Brawn first moved to the FIA he was really keen to move away from the broken aero that has plagued the sport for bloody ages, but years later it is no better.

I have a grain of faith though, with him in charge hopefully he has finally got his way.

[Drarok]

It takes a long time to turn a big ship. Maybe they've finally got some momentum!

[Rossell]

Fingers crossed it turns around successfully. Either that or does an Evergreen-in-the-suez-canal and completely stuffs things up for everyone.

[Raid]

I appreciate that analogy.

I watched a video of Verstappen doing a lap at Zandvoort. It looks tremendous fun to drive, but absolutely awful for overtaking. I haven't been watching the sport for long enough to remember the last time F1 visited this track; does my assessment sound accurate?

Edit: Oh, I thought that Zandvoort was used in the 90s, I didn't realise the last race there was before I was born.

[Snowy]

I vaguely remember there being F1 races there, but for the life of me I couldn't give you any specific recollections. I was about 15 when they stopped racing there.

[Drarok]

Quali was awesome! Glad I caught it and without spoilers. It'll be interesting to see a "new" track (to me), hope they manage to find some places to make overtakes happen.

[DjchunKfunK]

Not good omens for overtaking in this race, Perez struggling to get past Mazipan.