Streetwiseguy said:Prediction at 7:45 AM- Lewis will be first or fourth after the first lap. It is entirely possible that one of those outcomes involves a heap of smoking red and blue cars.
I think Seb will lay the remaining chance on the line in turn one. If he doesn't get it there, the chance of winning is pretty slim, which gives the championship to Lewis.
The other question- can Valteri stay ahead of Kimi- the constructors championship is still on the line.
Seb probably knows it is over. His only hope is to get ahead of Hamilton and hope for RB reliability issues.
Curious if Force India will get to 7th and 8th over Renault.
They were talking about GRO having his 3-place grid penalty and it made me wonder: if GRO did something stupid and got a couple more penalty points to push him into a race ban, is the team forced to park the car for the next race or would they be allowed to have their reserve driver on the grid?
Not that I think it'll happen, but just made me curious.
5 time World Champion. Pretty amazing for Lewis. For sure, a pretty bad race for Mercedes, but they did what they had to, and Seb didn't.
Max- great drive! Controlled the race from the start. Apparently, he has an interesting record- most wins without a pole.
Race wise, there was some nice battles, but the most interesting part was the tires- and nobody really had a good answer for the tires.
Can't make up my mind about Danny Ric.
Bad luck? Some poor interaction between how he drives and how they built the car? Hard to explain that many failures, especially when they aren't happening to Max.
In any case, looking forward to see what he can do in different colors next year.
Great start by Lewis. Shame that Merc lost the handle, but very nice performance from Red Bull. Danny might be nervous about Renault...
In reply to SnowMongoose :
Just think of all the failures Lewis had in 2016 and Nico had almost none. It's crazy how that happens sometimes
SnowMongoose said:Can't make up my mind about Danny Ric.
Bad luck? Some poor interaction between how he drives and how they built the car? Hard to explain that many failures, especially when they aren't happening to Max.
In any case, looking forward to see what he can do in different colors next year.
Shades of what happened to Webber in his last season with Red Bull as well.
Congrats to Hamilton! Not his best, but he put himself in a position where that was good enough.
loosecannon said:In reply to SnowMongoose :
Just think of all the failures Lewis had in 2016 and Nico had almost none. It's crazy how that happens sometimes
This happened a lot with Barichello at Ferrari back in the Schumacher era, as well.
While I don't trust RB to play fair based on their history. I don't think they are going to sabotage Verstappen's car in the early part of the season then sabotage Ricciardo in the back 2/3 of the year.
Ricciardo is just having terrible luck. It is sad that he finally cracked and went negative! He has had sarcasm but he danced on the edge of blaming his team today. He did add in himself as part of the failing equation.
Yes yes yes Hamilton!!!! Number 5! Awesome driver. So glad he found his center after falling into lies and deceit within McLaren.
What a great race to wrap up the WDC. I don't mind LCH finishing off the podium.
Great race by both Max and Seb. Such a shame for Danny Ric. It's actually almost a pity there are more races to come, that would have been a great way to finish the season. I don't believe any conspiracy theories around RB and DR.
Advan046 said:Ricciardo is just having terrible luck. It is sad that he finally cracked and went negative! He has had sarcasm but he danced on the edge of blaming his team today. He did add in himself as part of the failing equation.
Haven’t seen the interview - but it would be hard to blame him for doing so. Frustration as he wants to finish off his RB career on a high point. Besides, he has Horner as a role model, and that dude is an expert at throwing people under the bus. At least he’s not as bad as Alonso, I would have fired Fernando’s ass last year or the year before due to the constant negativity I don’t care if some people think you’re a hot shoe, if you’re not putting in results and you’re slagging the team constantly, I’ll replace you.
Can Red Bull actually field two quality cars at the same time, or can they only manage one? It’s like only one side of the garage can make a car work.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I don't blame Ricciardo for being that upset. I am just sad that his year of DNFs has bruised his spirits. I hope he is happy again in Brazil and more than just happy in Melbourne! I would love to see Renault up with MB and Ferrari next year. A three way battle for the Constuctors would be great.
But I have a feeling that Honda RedBull just might unlock some magic speed come March 2019.
I think it's amazing how different tire wear is car to car, and track to track. I'm sure the Mexican front tire wear Merc to RB tells us something about aero vs mechanical grip. Earlier in the season, it seemed rear tire deg went back and forth between Merc and Ferrari.
Just interesting. I have no solutions to offer them...
In reply to Advan046 :
I will believe in Honda the next time they pull a Ferrari on the long straight. Until such time, it's all hopes and dreams.
Also, while I share your hope for something other than a Merc Ferrari fight, I think 2021 will be the first time we get to that.
In reply to Streetwiseguy (on tires):
I was just reading an interview with Kimi. On the tire topic he said "the tires are $hit". Meaning Pirellis. He said he really liked the Michelin's and preferred the days when the teams could custom order tires built for their needs though they were much more expensive. .
jharry3 said:In reply to Streetwiseguy (on tires):
I was just reading an interview with Kimi. On the tire topic he said "the tires are $hit". Meaning Pirellis. He said he really liked the Michelin's and preferred the days when the teams could custom order tires built for their needs though they were much more expensive. .
I can certainly understand why, as a driver, he'd prefer that. Thing is, the FIA *wants* the tires to be E36 M3, because they want to use them as an equalizer/randomizing factor between the teams. Back in the day, the Bridgestone tires and Ferrari chassis were designed for each other, which meant that no other team could get the same results on Bridgestones. That's why McLaren switched to Michelin. It also meant that since Michelin was trying to support 3 sharp-end teams at the same time (Williams, McLaren, Renault) they had to compromise between those three chassis, and was a major contributor to the Ferrari dominance in 2000-2004.
From a "purity of motorsport" argument I want to see as few rules in F1 as possible, but realistically that's a recipe for massive budgets, single team dominance, and the death of the series. Given that, I'm much less interested in tire tech than in engine tech, and I'd rather see team development budgets pointed in that direction.
I was a bit sad about the drivers that are out of drives next year.
But I am starting to get excited about the field we will have. Except for Sirotkin and Kvvat I like to watch everyone that is locked in so far.
Can't believe i'm the first to post about this. Looks like NASCAR is rubbin off on F1
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/139986/verstappen-given-public-service-for-ocon-shove
While that might not have been a well-advised move on Ocon's part, Max had so much to lose at that point, I'm not sure why he didn't just give him some space and wait for the blue flags. HAM was a few seconds down the road, not on his gearbox.
Ocon may have been proven to be in the wrong, but all the being right in the world didn't keep Max on the top step of the podium.
We had quite a discussion about the Max/Ocon crash. I think I prevailed with my "If you step off the sidewalk in front of a car running a red light, you may be right, but you have a broken leg."
Ocons fault, (maybe) but Max suffered for it.
Now, to the big deal- Holy snapping arseholes, we're the Red Bull cars fast today. Max just passed the hell out of everyone.
I will be kinda surprised if Lewis wins again, unless Merc does an awfully good job on their new car.
It is absolutely shocking to me how gentle RB is on their tires. The Mercs just torture them in comparison.
In reply to 06HHR :
That's so dumb.
Glad Ocon was able to hang on to his zero points for 14th. /s
In reply to SnowMongoose :
I wonder what the public service will consist of. Will he have to clean up after the track marshals after Abu Dhabi? It is pretty ridiculous..
Seems to me like Ocon was trolling Max after the race, he knows Max doesn't exactly have a calm temperament. They probably should have just let them go at it, since they sort of have a history. But that isn't family friendly i imagine.
Streetwiseguy said:It is absolutely shocking to me how gentle RB is on their tires. The Mercs just torture them in comparison.
The Mercedes are set up to use the rear wheel cooling vents that have been ruled legal by the stewards at a couple events but Ferrari intends to protest anyway the next time they run them. Too much risk to run them when the championships weren't done, so maybe they'll run them at Abu Dhabi, let Ferrari protest there, and sort this thing out.
In reply to codrus :
That's kinda the point. Even when Merc was using the super wheels, RB was much gentler. Now that they are on similar wheels ...
You'll need to log in to post.
