FORMULA ONE - 2019

I enjoyed that.  Felt bad for Charles, laughed at Seb, marvelled at Renault having exactly the same fuse on both cars, witnessed the very first time ever that the DRS was about right, thought it was nice of Lewis to give Charles a little "Buck up, boy.  Not your fault" thing in Parc Ferme,  and just generally didn't have anything to bitch about.  First few laps while Merc and F got settled was fabulous.

Seb looks like he is continuing last season. He should get his mind right. Exciting race to watch. I suspect the only person who doesn't feel bad for Charles is Max. 

So, anyone still going to stick up for Gasly?

In reply to T.J. :

 Gasly should not be discounted any more than Ricciardo. Both jumped into different organizations and may need a bit to get up to speed.

Wow, I can't remember the last time I enjoyed an F1 race this much. The only thing that could have made it better was if Leclerc had won. He seems like a genuinely nice guy too. So there is hope for this season after all. Ferrari should hire Max to team with Charles. Now that would be a team!!

Just saw the highlights and the results, so not much to draw on. 

Seems that McLaren is showing some really good pace, had it not been for Sainz getting hit, could they have gotten two in the top 10?  For sure Norris is as real as LeClerc. 

Willams didn’t seem to suck as bad, or am I seeing the gap to them as better than reality?  

In reply to alfadriver :

Yes McLaren are able to fight for the front half of the field. Norris and Sainz is a strong pairing. 

Williams' appearance I think was helped by others issues. They were solidly slow.

In reply to Advan046 :

Lando and Charles seem to have both figured out their new cars pretty well. Ricciardo is in a worse car than he was in last year. I just don't have much confidence in Gasly. Not rooting against him, but he is not showing much promise. Red Bull won't keep him around if he doesn't start showing something. It is a long season, and a lot will change before it is over.

ggarrard said:

^^^  Agree... Leclerc was pretty impresssive...  too bad about his car failing...

I like the fact that Ferrari was willing to let him take on Vettel head-to-head. Bodes well for the season. 

Sebastien, you doofus. 

I am still thinking over the race. A lot happened.

Renault had a major PR disaster. Both cars out on the same lap and corner due to Renault power unit issues.yhere was comment about Ricciardo not reattaching the steering wheel but the red warning lights stayed on the car, he isn't supposed to touch the car in that state. 

Kimi is steady collecting points for Alfa. Good show.

Ferrari seems to want to reverse their performance over the past two seasons. Therefore, they are making mistakes in the first half of the season so they can have a strong back end of the season. Vettel spins again?!?! He has never seemed to get a full grip on these hybrid cars. Leclerc performed flawlessly. Can't wait for more racing from him. 

Haas? What happened guys? 

Gasly coming home in 8th (thanks to Renault) not bad. But need to improve. Verstappen is in no man's land. Always alone it seems. 

Sainz looks like he will need a lot of good luck to catch Norris. 

In reply to Advan046 :

I agree, I can't imagine Cyril will make it through a full season with Renault. Especially with the performance of McLaren, drivers making contact, and them both out in the same corner for engine reliability issues. Obviously the problem isn't just the engine.

I know that Williams is waiting for the new updates, but they are slower then last year. That is hard to blame on the drivers even though I think Kubica should have passed on this ride.

Kimi is doing really well, but Gio is a long ways away.

I think Gasly needs a full season, but we all know how Red Bull operates, in fact the April fools joke was Kyvatt getting the nod for the China Grand Prix in Redbull.

Lando is very impressive, but not sure what to think about the McLaren association with Alonso and the f1 team. I am hoping he stays retired.

Gasly is getting along ok, 10th in the championship standings.

China will be interesting. I have a feeling redbull will be strong there. MB may be off the podium. Unless Vettel takes himself and LeClerc out at turns 1-2.

I just want to see Ricciardo ha e a good race. He jumped into a team that should have figured out how to run cars reliably over the winter.  Unfortunately they seem to have stayed just as unpredictable as last year. 

Flying from DFW to Frankfurt last night I sat next to a famous F1 Spanish driver....  the stewardess was enthralled with him.  Any guesses?  He was taking some snapchat selfies on the tarmac at DFW too....  

In reply to AnthonyGS :

Alonso was just testing in an Indycar in Texas...

wae said:

In reply to AnthonyGS :

Alonso was just testing in an Indycar in Texas...

You are correct.

Famous Spanish F1 driver that's taking snapchat selfies? Not many other options. Did he complain about everything during the flight?

Keith Tanner said:

Famous Spanish F1 driver that's taking snapchat selfies? Not many other options. Did he complain about everything during the flight?

Nah he was quiet and attached to his phone.  

I’ve come to like Alonso over the years.  Not so much early on in the Singapore hijinx era.

Gotta go check my DVR to make sure I get it all saved.

Singapore Hijinx? I think of Hungary 2007 where he screwed Hamilton because he couldn't handle a rookie being faster than him.

So Gasly finally qualified where he should, but notice his best laptime was closer to P14 than P5. 

Not impressed, but maybe he'll keep improving with more time in the car.

Stroll also seems to be struggling a bit. The gap to his teamate ahead was about the same as the gap to Williams behind. 

Hoping for a good race, although it may end up being between the two Mercs. 

My prediction: Max passes at least one Ferrari by making contact as he normally does. 

In reply to AnthonyGS :

Cool story. Did you say hello to him?

What time is the race shown in the USA ?

The USA covers a bunch of time zones! If you go to Formula1.com, it’ll tell you the start time in your local zone. For Mountain, it’s at 00:10. 

In reply to T.J. :

The last famous guy I talked to (met many thanks to wife and work) was Michael Irvin.  I didn’t ask for an autograph either.  I don’t do it because I figure it’s annoying.

With Alonso my entertainment was how the stewardess fawned over him and he was pretty annoyed by it.  He was sleeping when we placed our dinner orders.  They had three choices.  I never do fish on a plane.  Wife and I ordered (wife on right Mr Alonso to left at window) ravioli.  We were given speil about how she was running out.  We were row 4, so she was just slower than the other stews.  So after service starts she wakes up Mr Alonso to ask him if he is hungry.  He asks for Ravioli she practices her Spanish which is worse than mine.  He gets ravioli, wife and I have to choose who gets it and who does not.  Mr. Alonso nicely offered us his ravioli but we declined.  The stewardess was the funny part; Alonso was just a guy flying home and quite nice and polite.  That’s the story.  Now Mr.  Irvin that’s a much funnier story.  I had no idea how funny he is.

So I saw Ferrari totally screw over Leclerc.  He had pace, but they let Vettel pass him, and then the moronic tire strategy put him way behind Verstappen. 

That was either incompetence or stupidity.  Given that they needed to make up for the previous race's ending, they did the exact opposite- took clear points from Charles.  Very lame.

Interesting how comfortable Mercedes had it considering all of the Ferrari talk.  The result of Hamilton practicing starts decided the race by the first corner.

Funny see Gasley take a point from Vettel.  And very nice to see Albon make up that P3 crash so well- getting one point is pretty impressive given where he started.

Haas...  what's going on in the race???  Qualifying is very impressive, but the race is very blah.  Oh, well.

I'm sure Ricciardo had a lump in his throat when Hulk retired.  But he finished, and finished well.  

It is becoming very clear that Merc has a faster car this year.  I'm sure there will be some tracks with fewer long corners where Ferrari will dominate, but man... 

First time since Williams way back in the old days that a team has started the season with three 1-2 results.  

It was nice to see Albon come back from his crash, and for Gasley to get fast lap. 

Kvyatt will get a bunch of doglips for his first lap Maclaren stuff, but I'm not sure I'd put that all on him.