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OT: 2019 Formula 1 Season


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Apologies to Zephonic in stealing his thunder but in Melbourne for the 4 day festival of speed and wanted to start the thread to post some pics from turn 1 and 2 once practice starts on Friday.

 

Based on testing in Barcelona it seems Mercedes and Ferrari are again well in front. We won't know till Q3 when, based on previous Melbourne GP's, Hamilton saves his best till last.

 

This evening (Wednesday) the old Minardi 2 seater was out doing laps, which I could hear from where I am staying, a reminder of how loud they were in the past. The current cars are whisper quiet by comparison.

A misguided plumber attempting to entertain | MainStage 3 | Axiom 61 2nd Gen | Pianoteq | B5 | XK3c | EV ZLX 12P

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Looking forward to the Australian race as well. Hope this will be the right year for Ferrari... fans are exasperated with unfulfilled expectations. One thing is to be clearly inferior, but to be *almost* there for so many years is nerve-wracking.

 

Oh yeah, the Minardi double seater. Who haven't dreamed to do a lap or two on one of those? :)

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I'm ready! But without Alonso, I don't really have anybody to root for.

 

We ditched cable and I subscribed to the F1 streaming service. Both the app and browser version are pretty terrible, but the archive is worth it.

 

Has anybody watched the official F1 Netflix show "Drive to Survive"? I binged the whole thing and thought it was very entertaining, although the "Reality TV"-like narrative and fake SFX has all the diehard fans up in arms.

 

@Marino: maybe Arrivabene's departure and Binotto's promotion to Team Principal will make the difference this year. Or maybe Leclerc's arrival will start an intra-team feud that will cause the Scuderia to self-destruct.

 

I hope Danny Ric will do well at Renault, but I'm not that optimistic. And I think there's a good chance Williams F1 won't finish the season.

 

The biggest question is whether or not Honda has finally built a competitive PU. If so, this could shape up to be an interesting season!

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P2 update. Hamilton, Bottas and daylight to the rest. Through T1 and T2 the Mercs appeared composed and under control. Every team racked up around 30 laps, more than usual, seems like they are all testing fuel and tyre strategies.

 

Vettel defied my earlier prediction and was the second, not the first car, to run wide on T1. After missing the first 45 minutes of P2 due to a faulty seat Danny came out and managed to shave fractions of second off Vestappen. Yeah.

 

The Red Bulls are handling well though, so all meaningless until Q3 late tommorrow afternoon. Williams are 4 secs off the pace so may become the mobile chicanes in this race. Kubica got on the gas too early exiting T2 in P1 and hammered the wall.

 

Late in P2, 2 cars exited the pits baulking Hamilton on a hot lap so he appears to be a moving target. LeClerc was doing quick laps and staying on track but Ferrari had a gearbox issue late in P2 resulting in a spin.

 

Pics 2morrow when, hopefully, I will not have had a big night out and up to the challenge.

 

A misguided plumber attempting to entertain | MainStage 3 | Axiom 61 2nd Gen | Pianoteq | B5 | XK3c | EV ZLX 12P

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Well Q3 confirmed the continuation of the natural order of things from 2018. Some highlights, Bottas and LeClerc kept going faster than Hamilton and Vettel forcing both the no 1 drivers to go harder in the closing 2 minutes of Q3. Vestappen confirmed Honda gives him a solid shot at third.

 

Norris did a stunning job getting the Renault powered McLaren onto 8th on the grid. Haas in P6 and P7 are the big improvers over the winter break. Ferrari powered cars dominate the top 10 with Raikkonen in 9th.

 

No off track action pics so here is pic of the Renault nose cone with new aero from a pit walk I did on Friday.

 

CHtzTfHh.jpg

 

 

 

 

A misguided plumber attempting to entertain | MainStage 3 | Axiom 61 2nd Gen | Pianoteq | B5 | XK3c | EV ZLX 12P

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Nice pics, Mark.

 

I found some interesting reading regarding the teams' budgets:

 

https://www.racefans.net/2018/12/19/how-much-f1-teams-spent-race-2018-part-one/

 

https://www.racefans.net/2018/12/26/the-cost-of-f1-revealed-how-much-teams-spent-in-2018-part-two/

 

Mercedes and Ferrari are the biggest spenders, and the results reflect that. RBR is just behind them.

 

Haas remains an exceptional case, and I can understand why certain other teams have complained about their business model.

 

Williams need to accept that the times have changed and adjust their operations accordingly.

 

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So, after pre-season testing the pundits unanimously agreed that Ferrari had the quickest car.

 

So, of course, today we get a Mercedes double victory with a friggin Honda in third. Ferrari was 56 seconds off the pace.

 

All those pundits should get their pay cut.

 

 

But Bravo Bottas! Superb start won him the race, and he fully deserves it after last years bad luck. I hope hes gonna make Hamilton work for it this season!

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How I saw the race.

 

Melbourne turned on perfect weather for this year's 4 day festival of speed. Having attended 23 GP's here this was one of the best in recent memory, the F1, and including the supporting events, round 2 of the V8 Supercars, GT3, Carrera Cup, Ferrari Challenge and Formula 4.

 

F1 - Bottas came of age today. Lead from the first corner to the last and never missed a beat. A clinical drive from hopefully this years world champion. After 25 laps gapped Hamilton by 30 seconds, reduced by 23 seconds when he pitted and then got back to a near 30 second lead. 5 laps from the end told by Merc to settle for first and not attempt to get an additional point for fastest lap. Thanked Merc for their advice, cleared some back markers and set the fastest lap.

 

Hamilton managed to stay in front of Vestappen, but 8 laps before the end Vestappen was almost close enough to deploy DRS when he pushed too hard on the entry to turn 1 and cut the grass losing a critical second. Red Bull must be well pleased with Honda power on their first outing.

 

Vettel wondered why the car was so slow, didn't hear Ferrari's reply, but a peep in the mirror might have given him a hint. LeClerc also pushed hard and was just in the DRS zone to overtake Vettel when he too cut the grass on turn 1. He backed off after that but I suspect that was due to team orders. He demonstrated that he has the talent to gap Vettel in future races.

 

As for rest, both Williams finished several laps down.

 

 

A misguided plumber attempting to entertain | MainStage 3 | Axiom 61 2nd Gen | Pianoteq | B5 | XK3c | EV ZLX 12P

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Binotto: "We don't know why we were slower".

Toto: "We don't know why we were faster".

 

Ok. So I heard an interview (in Italian) with Pirelli's Mario Isola, explaining that the teams still need work to understand how to best use this year's tyres, especially the harder compounds. Whether or not this really explains anything, I don't know...

 

Btw Bottas was superb. On the contrary, Seb is worrying many fans... he seems to have lost some of his motivation. I hope to be wrong. High hopes for LeClerc, though.

 

Glad to see McLaren returning (slowly) to more decent perfomance. Impressed by the Honda engine, and of course by Max Verstappen's race. And saddened to see Williams sink more and more.

 

That said, I fell asleep on my chair while watching the race. Two hours of boredom, except for Max, indeed... by comparison, last week's motogp race was an heartbreaker. The winner was uncertain until the very last corner, and the first *five* riders all finished within six tenths! 45 minutes of pure adrenaline... And of course the fact that the winner was Dovizioso on Ducati was the icing on the cake for me. :D

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Bottas came of age today.
All the pre-race stuff was saying that he came into this season more prepared mentally than ever. You could see his confidence in the interviews. He's not the beaten down guy we saw last season, having to turn over the lead to Lewis. I'm really happy for him.

 

There's a good video on the formula1.com site that shows how Leclerc and Vettel touched between 1 and 2, and you can see how it could have ended both their days. For once, Vettel was lucky in this regard.

 

On the broadcast, they said Ferrari was fastest in preseason testing the past four years. I'm frankly shocked that they were all talking about how Ferrari had it and MB was out to lunch before the weekend. Will they ever learn? :rolleyes:

 

Also, it turns out Lewis had some floor damage, which may be the explanation for his lesser pace.

 

Thanks for the report, Markay!

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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No worries Joe, LeClerc is on the grass in Turn 1 in the pic above.

 

Hamilton's floor damage was due to his error, like the way Hamilton avoids saying he damaged the car. His track record of winning from pole in Australia is atrocious. He has now equalled Senna and Schumacher's record of 8 pole positions at the one track. My take is that never before has a car made a driver look so good in qualifying.

A misguided plumber attempting to entertain | MainStage 3 | Axiom 61 2nd Gen | Pianoteq | B5 | XK3c | EV ZLX 12P

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  • 2 weeks later...

I feel your pain, Carlo. Leclerc was FLAWLESS the entire weekend and thoroughly deserved the win.

 

Vettel's spin was odd. He had a great start but I think Leclerc overtaking him messed with his head a little bit.

 

So after all that...

 

 

...Mercedes 1-2.

 

Again.

 

 

McLaren is looking better than I thought. Norris and Sainz both seemed to have a lot of pace. The latter looked like he was faster than Verstappen until the incident. Norris has impressed me, both in Oz and today.

 

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A bit more rationally:

 

Hamilton drove very well. He's always there when a fight is needed, and ready to jump at the opportunities, driving a Mercedes that today was slightly inferior to Ferrari. His overtaking on Bottas and Vettel were superb.

 

But Charles was *perfect*. Fastest all weekend, brave but precise, totally focused. I really hope that today's events will not undermine his motivation; he's the future of F1. And that *look* that he has - always looking ahead, far away. Total dedication, total concentration. I remember that same look in the eyes of Jacky Ickx, Ayrton Senna, Gilles Villeneuve.

 

Seb... another mistake (he said that himself)...

I don't know what to say.

Maybe, today Vettel didn't measure up to Ferrari, and Ferrari didn't measure up to Leclerc.

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Also - it was an exciting race to watch, after the very boring Australian gp. Twists and turns from beginning to end. In these times, though, this is rather an exception in Formula 1. Usually, there's just not enough action to sustain a two-hour event; perhaps, a two-race event like in other motorsport disciplines, or just a shorter race (80 min. max) could be a valid alternative... what you say? Sponsors and advertisers? Ok...

 

I watched the Argentinian motogp race just before the F1, and once again, it provided a great, tight show, despite Marc Marquez leading for the whole race. Behind him, endless fights for the podium positions... among four Italian drivers, with a breathtaking overtake by Valentino Rossi at the last corner.

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Regarding changing the race length or creating 2 races. Based on how the 5 supporting categories played out in Melbourne, even in Formula 4 the better drivers dominated and settled into a tight group of the same 3 or 4 at the front in each race.

 

F1 is what it is, money invested in teams matters. The 2 highest budget teams currently outclass the rest, Red Bull has maintained their position with Honda power, McLaren has improved with Renault power. Renault now need to deliver a car at least as good as the Red Bull. The Ferrari junior teams seem to be doing better than the MB junior teams.

 

Ferrari and MB now have more than 50% of all drivers on track under contract so it is really just Red Bull, McLaren and Renault racing MB and Ferrari.

 

As a sign of protest I still wear my Mark Webber BMW Williams cap at the Melbourne Grand Prix.

A misguided plumber attempting to entertain | MainStage 3 | Axiom 61 2nd Gen | Pianoteq | B5 | XK3c | EV ZLX 12P

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Markay - I see exactly what you're saying. But if there's no short-term solution to the present situation, and a number of F1 races are doomed to display rather limited action, making them shorter would make sense to me. Maybe a double race like in the Superbike championship would help even more to keep fans in front of the tv.
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In NASCAR (U.S. stock car racing), sometimes they throw a caution (yellow) flag for debris, which we all know is really just to bunch up the field and make things interesting.

 

[At least, they used to do that. I haven't watched NASCAB in umpteen years but it wouldn't surprise me if they still did that.]

 

Poor Leclerc. But, I suspect he'll get plenty of wins. He's the Real Deal.

 

Does anyone think Pierre Gasly deserved to get moved up to the RB senior team? I'm not terribly impressed so far.

 

When Ricciardo went out, I thought, "do they let the teams shut the cars down remotely? Did someone mean to shut off Hulk's systems and shut off Danny Ric's instead by accident???" :D

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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  • 2 weeks later...

China, the 1,000 GP.

Bottas on pole, Hamilton, Ferrari, Red Bull, Renault, Haas make up the top 10. With the exception of Mercedes, in driver order.

 

Maybe a good race, amongst the 2nd tier teams, Ricciardo was only 0.028 of a second slower than Gasly.

A misguided plumber attempting to entertain | MainStage 3 | Axiom 61 2nd Gen | Pianoteq | B5 | XK3c | EV ZLX 12P

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Ferrari's call to let Vettel ahead of Leclerc may have been the correct one, it still doesn't feel good at all.

 

They sacrificed 4th place to get Vettel to 3rd.

 

 

Oh, and Mercedes had another 1-2, apparently.

 

Glad to see Ricciardo finally getting some points, and Gasly's fastest lap made me smile.

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Ferrari should give up on team orders and let them race. Leclerc's comment after being told to let Vettel through, and Vettel could not pull away, I'm losing quite a lot of time. I don't know whether you want to know or not, but just so you know

A misguided plumber attempting to entertain | MainStage 3 | Axiom 61 2nd Gen | Pianoteq | B5 | XK3c | EV ZLX 12P

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Ferrari should give up on team orders and let them race.

Everybody does team orders. The problem for Ferrari today is that they gave the *wrong* team orders to their drivers. With a wiser strategy, they could have ensured 3rd and 4th.

Clearly, Leclerc is going to have a very successful future, but as Binotto stated at the season's start, they're going to favor Vettel in this initial phase, if forced to make a choice.

 

That said, this year Mercedes seem to have a clear advantage right from the beginning, which could make for a rather boring championship. It's sad to realize that the only points of interest during a race would be strategies and tyre management. To me, the only exciting moment of today's gp was Max trying to attack Vettel.

So after 15 laps or so, I took my digital piano and a stand, brought them in front of the screen, and did some - long overdue - silent keyboard technique while watching the rest of the race... and I don't feel to have missed any important detail. Not a good sign.

 

Frankly, at this point, I would gladily forget my passion for Ferrari, to watch more exciting races, with real overtaking, etc. A daydream: What about taking a cue from the minor series. Everybody with identical cars, engine and *tyres*. Some hard compound capable to last a whole race. No pit stops to change tyres - or, come up with a way to make the pit stops so long that it would be counterproductive anyway. The race could be 25-30 laps, less than an hour. Not enough advertising time for the sponsors? Ok, two races on any given Sunday should do.

 

Yes, I know, Formula 1 is the playground of the big car companies to try new technologies and gain visibility... but dreaming is free, right? ;) (and anyway, f1 audience is shrinking every year, so *something* has to be done at some point)

 

 

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China, the 1,000 GP.

Bottas on pole, Hamilton, Ferrari, Red Bull, Renault, Haas make up the top 10. With the exception of Mercedes, in driver order.

 

Maybe a good race, amongst the 2nd tier teams, Ricciardo was only 0.028 of a second slower than Gasly.

 

But only because Gasly is under performing.

He needs to get his act together fast, or will be replaced

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China, the 1,000 GP.

Bottas on pole, Hamilton, Ferrari, Red Bull, Renault, Haas make up the top 10. With the exception of Mercedes, in driver order.

 

Maybe a good race, amongst the 2nd tier teams, Ricciardo was only 0.028 of a second slower than Gasly.

 

But only because Gasly is under performing.

He needs to get his act together fast, or will be replaced

 

Before the start of the season Horner acknowledged Ricciardos exit caught them by surprise and they felt Gasly should have had another year at STR as he wasnt quite ready for the big team. But they have their policy, so rather than hiring someone from outside the program they throw him in to see if hell sink or swim. Just like they did with Kvyat.

 

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