FORMULA ONE - 2020

In reply to Keith Tanner :

All that can be done is fines.  They may put the most stringent rules against Lance in terms of sitting out races, though. 

Yeah, I expect some pretty significant fines. If I was the FIA, I'd be a lot more upset about this than, say, one team stealing data from another. This is eroding one of their big messages, and their justification for why they can continue to operate worldwide. If a country starts to think that Formula 1 is just playing lip service to to the concept, they might cancel a race and that can snowball.

I was wrong. The FIA "reminded" Racing Point to tell them in a timely manner if they had any cases. Zac Brown was a little less gentle in his remarks.

“For McLaren, we put our people first and foremost, we won’t take any risks, we won’t gamble,” he said. “We recognise how dangerous this [the virus] is, want to make sure everyone stays healthy, continue to put on Grands Prix.

“I think the sport has done a good job, there has been more cases, Racing Point being most visible recently. We do a tremendous amount of testing, we take full precaution. I think we all need to look after each other’s back. If I look at the Racing Point incidents, I would probably test anyone who isn’t feeling well daily.

“In Australia, we had someone who didn’t feel well, Andreas and I aren’t doctors but we took a quick decision to isolate. Once the test came back positive, we isolated the team. Ultimately we knew it would shut us down for the race.

“I know the [Racing Point] doctor didn’t think a test was positive, maybe in hindsight, that should have been different. Don’t know who the doctor is. Don’t know if it was Dr Mallya, Dr Seuss, maybe it was Dr Dre. Maybe next time around, we should be testing when anyone has any sorts of symptoms because we know how dangerous this is.”

He added: “I know when we had our issue in Australia, we communicated it very quickly to everyone, as we have a moral obligation to people’s health. [Regarding Racing Point], I don’t know the details, I just know what I read and see, and it looks like there wasn’t immediate transparency.

“For an entity that tests as much as they do, all I know, we would be testing anyone at McLaren who doesn’t feel well daily, to make sure that person is healthy and not transmitting, and then would isolate anyone who is around them immediately.”

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I agree with Zac.  Kind of lame for RP to be so late in the notification, as that's supposed to be the way that they can maintain racing.  

alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:

BOTH seats open at Haas.

Expected one, but not both.

MIck and Kimi.  Rookie and mentor..  There you go...

That'd be at Alfa not Hass

I wonder how many times Valteri can have his dreams crushed before he just takes up recreational alcoholism?

He knows he's in the best car.  He knows, on a good day, he can beat the field.  He knows that he is comparing himself to one of the finest race car drivers in history.

But berkeley, man...it has to get old.

In reply to z31maniac :

That bad taste has never left my mouth.

Streetwiseguy said:

I wonder how many times Valteri can have his dreams crushed before he just takes up recreational alcoholism?

He knows he's in the best car.  He knows, on a good day, he can beat the field.  He knows that he is comparing himself to one of the finest race car drivers in history.

But berkeley, man...it has to get old.

I know, right? Every race.

It is interesting that Lewis was able to do two top-3 laps back to back, though. No need to let the car cool or recharge in between. 

Keith Tanner said:

Streetwiseguy said:

I wonder how many times Valteri can have his dreams crushed before he just takes up recreational alcoholism?

He knows he's in the best car.  He knows, on a good day, he can beat the field.  He knows that he is comparing himself to one of the finest race car drivers in history.

But berkeley, man...it has to get old.

I know, right? Every race.

It is interesting that Lewis was able to do two top-3 laps back to back, though. No need to let the car cool or recharge in between. 

Hamilton had a cooldown/recharge lap ("pull lap" seems to be the current phraes) in between.  They didn't show it in the broadcast, but he sets the first time with 1:40 left to go so he had time to go do the slow one.

Ah, right. Thanks. 

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

with 1:40 left to go so he had time to go do the slow one.

Lol, I know that this is slow for a F1 car, but that wasn't far off the previous official lap record before the f1 cars showed up today. They're in a different galaxy.

Also rubbing it in on Bottas is that he's got the new lap record as his Q2 time was faster than Lewis's pole lap. Just looked up the product car record and a mclaren P1 only puts down a 1:51.8 so yeah they've turned it up a notch.

Well ....the first two laps of the Portugese GP are as entertaining as any this season. My son made a good point. The races on tracks not designed by Tilke have been more fun.

People complaining about F1 being boring should be blaming Tilke, IMO. Parking lots in the desert do not make for great tracks. 

Strong DRS at this one, but that was a pretty good race. 

Agreed, if the DRS zone was a bit shorter I think it would have led to even more battling through the first few corners. The cold start was something else, I'm looking forward to seeing the replay of Kimi passing 10 cars.

The odd thing about the DRS effectiveness is that there's a high speed corner going onto it.  Which normally meant that there had to be a gap so that cars could be flat out through it.  But this track's last corner was just right to allow them to follow each other pretty darned closely.

I wonder what we would end up with if the DRS automatically closed as the front tires of the overtaking car went in front of the rears of the car being passed? Is that too late and we still end up with the pass being done before they are on the brakes or would we see the battle go into the braking zone and the following corners? Hopefully the 2022 car makes it all irrelevant. 

In reply to adam525i (Forum Supporter) :

I like that idea. Use DRS to allow the following driver get close. Now DRIVE !

My little thought exercise for the day... Lewis never becomes a race car driver.  Michael stays on for another year or two, wins another championship.  Nico wins several, but Seb beats him twice, and Nico Hulkenberg, who got the seat when Michael retired, wins one.  Nico goes home to retire with his lovely wife and family, Valteri gets his seat, and wins one, but Max wins the rest...

There is a site that proclaims the proper Nascar champ, ignoring playoffs and chase and all that junk.  It's fun to contemplate whether Carl Edwards, two time champion, would still be racing, and so on.

Sounds a bit like Formula 1.5.

I certainly wasn't a Hamilton fan when he was younger, especially in his McLaren days, but as he's matured, I've come around some. You can not argue his absolute speed and consistency though. Never thought I'd see Michael's record broken. 

adam525i (Forum Supporter) said:

I wonder what we would end up with if the DRS automatically closed as the front tires of the overtaking car went in front of the rears of the car being passed? Is that too late and we still end up with the pass being done before they are on the brakes or would we see the battle go into the braking zone and the following corners? Hopefully the 2022 car makes it all irrelevant. 

I would agree with that, if anybody who ever got passed by a car with DRS open had then turned around and re-passed the car on the next lap.  I agree that yesterdays zone was a bit easy, but in general it works as designed.

In reply to Saron81 :

14 seasons and he's never finished lower than 5th in the Championship nor had a season without a win. It's incredible.

I recently watched a couple of races from the McLaren days, and was reminded of why he generally gives Max a bit of a break.  He was a festival of carbon death for a few years, himself.  Grew out of it eventually.