Formula 1 thread

[CBear3]

Formula E will be interesting. More off putting then the lack of noise, for me, is the car change at half way.

[Gaucho]

[tifosi77]

I was pretty alarmed at that first corner shunt. Thought it was a good bit dickish of Will Buxton (the U.S. TV guy who is the pit reporter, and the only member of the broadcast crew who attends every race) to pretty much ask Massa to his face, "Well, you caused your own accident, how does that make you feel?" I thought it was 100% a racing accident, just one of those things that happens at the start of a race; Magnussen had gotten up sort of alongside Bottas, and being more or less on the whole other side of the track from Massa there was no way he could have been sighted. Just lucky it didn't turn out worse.

Overall, I thought the race was outstanding. Two exciting races in a row now; the battle between Alonso and Ricciardo was wonderful good fun, and I am fully ensconced on the Ricciardo bandwagon.

Meanwhile, in the Indycar race in Toronto.....

Spoiler:

Those, ladies and jellyspoons, are tire marks on Mikhail Aleshin's helmet. The young Russian had submarined under the rear of Juan Pablo Montoya's car, which was embedded in a tire wall. He was apparently stuck with the wheel pressing his head down and to the side and was having difficulty breathing for several minutes. Accidents like this can have drastically different outcomes, so thankfully this one ended well.

[Shyster]

The Belgian Grand Prix is Grand Prix is absolutely amazing. Not just because of the great camerawork, but also because of the track: the old Spa. You get past Les Combes and instead of turning right, you take a bloody long country drive (at mostly full throttle). I remember racing that track in Grand Prix Legends, and I could scarcely believe it. Other than some signs and a few hay bales here and there, you can't tell you're on a race track. Many of the corners—which you're taking almost flat out—have houses right on the other side of the apex. Amazing. IIRC, in Stewart's wreck he actually ended up in someone's basement.

[Shyster]

Turner Classic Movies has a clip from the Belgian Grand Prix sequence on its website. I believe the Masta Kink is at the 3:10 mark. It makes me grit my teeth every time I watch it.

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/3132 ... -Prix.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[tifosi77]

There was one driver who shunted out at Spa, and the patron of one of the trackside homes had him in for tea and (presumably) waffles until the race finished.

[tifosi77]

The FIA should cancel the Russian Grand Prix.

Discuss.

I would like to point out that the sporting regulations stipulate that the winning driver's award should be presented by the 'head of state', and Vladimir Putin has been actively involved in the negotiations for this race for several years. So there is a very real possibility would could see Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg shaking hands with Putin on global television.

[CBear3]

No skin off my nose. How do you have a Grand Prix in a country that is occupying another nation...oh wait.

[MRandall25]

The FIA should cancel the Russian Grand Prix.

Discuss.

I would like to point out that the sporting regulations stipulate that the winning driver's award should be presented by the 'head of state', and Vladimir Putin has been actively involved in the negotiations for this race for several years. So there is a very real possibility would could see Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg shaking hands with Putin on global television.

They didn't cancel Bahrain.

[tifosi77]

Yes, but at least Bahrain was about a domestic dispute. Russia is (by all accounts) actively supporting an armed rebellion in another sovereign nation, and may have played an active part in the shootdown of a civilian airliner. So I'd say this is quite a bit different, and the stakes are a good deal higher.

Should also point out that the World Motorbike Federation has already cancelled the superbike round in Sochi that was scheduled to be run in September. And the very next race on the calendar is..... the U.S. GP in Austin. What happens if there are travel restrictions put in place? And the Mercedes title sponsor is Petronas, the national oil company of Malaysia.

[CBear3]

Well, Hungary was exciting. Maybe instead of building tracks with passing zones, we should build them without and invert the field.

[dodint]

Or just have a SC every couple of laps to keep it interesting. ala NASCAR

[tifosi77]

Thought Hungary was the best race of the season so far. Riccardo is a potential champion, and Alonso showed why he's the best. And Rosberg showed why, despite his run of success this year, I still don't rate him.

[dodint]

I like Daniel a lot. It seems that RBR has flipped, as Vettel has a **** car and is having trouble getting off the grid quickly, and DR is the exact opposite. Also, like him or hate him, Vettel doing the Danny Sullivan spin and still finishing the race in good standing was unreal. Those suspensions don't like to be punched in like that, have no idea how it didn't shatter.

Really glad Hamilton didn't win. Had he won from the pit lane it would've been insufferable. I give him credit for some excellent driving, but the SC's wiped away the disadvantage of starting from pit lane, which he cocked up by spinning himself, which is forgotten.

Really looking forward to Spa. Probably my favorite track in the world. I just love it, when I was watching F1 for the first time 10 years ago a driver (Alonso, I think) summed it up by saying "You feel like you're actually going somewhere." It's everything the Tilke tracks are not.

Oh, Massa is a schmuck.

[MRandall25]

I don't like that the next race is a full month from now

[tifosi77]

So, the team orders controversy at Mercedes...... discuss.

I am of the opinion that this is very different from 'Multi 2-1' last year (Vettel ignoring team orders to hold station, and overtaking Webber late in the race). The Merc drivers are only battling each other in this championship fight, and there is no way in hell that order ever should have even been communicated.

[dodint]

Is this the bit with Rosberg demanding Lewis move over and getting huffy because he didn't? From what I saw, Rosberg couldn't get close enough to actually make a pass, so he can sod off if he expects Lewis to slow down.

The other consideration is that with F1 racing being mostly strategy (tire management, fuel flow, etc) team mates are rarely racing each other even when they're on their team mates gearbox. Vettel is notorious for ignoring a team mates strategy and putting up a wall to slow them down. It's ****, but it's cutthroat at the same time and I'm okay with it.

[dodint]

The standing restarts in 2015 are out again.

[Sigwolf]

http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one ... ch-bribery

Gotta love it. Ecclestone gets to retain control of F1 and have the bribery and corruption charges dropped by paying out a 100 million dollar bribe, er, I mean "settlement". Who says rich people can get away with anything?

[dodint]

Yeah, pretty disgusted by that. Didn't bother posting it because it's too depressing.

[Gaucho]

too depressing.

[dodint]

Nothing like a nice Spa weekend after a long break.

[dodint]

wow WOW WHOA!



Most entertaining three seconds of GP3 ever.

He survived, climbed out under his own power.

[tifosi77]

When I saw that video the fist time I was all

Never saw a car get quite that much air so easily off a kerb. Every time I see something like that, I am reminded of a quote by (iirc) Jody Scheckter. The worst part of an accident is the silence immediately after all the crashing and banging has stopped. Because you might be airborne, in which case the crashing and banging is going to start back up.

So..... the F1 race at Spa...................

Spoiler:

Absolutely love the helicopter shot from above Kemmel-Les Combes looking back towards La Source. I look forward to that every year, watching the direction change of the cars through Eau Rouge/Raidillon up the hill. Spectacular.

Lewis is claiming that in the post-race team meeting Nico pretty much admitted to hitting him on purpose. Or rather that he said he knew he could back out, but decided not to in order to 'prove a point'. I'm not sure what point he's proving by deliberately hitting his team mate, other than he's willing to compromise his own race result to win an argument. Meh. I thought it was a 50-50 racing incident, just one of those things that can happen when racing cars get close. Rub some dirt on it and play on.

I don't always like post-race penalties, because the results the fans saw at the track are not the actual race results. But I do agree with the 20-second time penalty K-Mag was given. He more or less hip-checked Alonso off the track at 200 mph, and that's dirty pool. I'm inclined to let something like that go when it's two veteran drivers with a history of racing each other. In other words, two world champions doing that at, say, Curva Grande at Monza (Alonso-Vettel a couple years ago) should be scrutinized less harshly than a 20-year old who has not yet completed an entire season in F1. No problems with anything else he did in defense of his position, and I felt it was quite a good display up until that incident.

An eventful and entertaining race.

In my lifetime, the three best overtakers in F1 have been Lewis Hamilton, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Nigel Mansell. All three of them have masters degrees in whinging. Is that just a coinkeydink, or is there something inherent in the makeup of those types of drivers that lends itself to whining? (I don't rate J. Villeneuve nearly as highly - or at all, really - but he's also a world-class complain box) Should also state that I was and remain a huge Montoya fan (he's the only one I got to see race in person), I'm kinda meh on Hamilton, but I always thought Mansell was a complete knob.

[dodint]

Great points above, Spa is art.

Ferrari is a **** show. Took their driver out of the race before the formation lap.

Was fun cheering loudly and fist pumping on lap 2. Particularly nice after Vettel cocked up lap 1. I've never liked Hamilton, he's rubbed me the wrong way from the very beginning. Him beaching in China is one of my favorite F1 memories.

Happy to see Bottas shouldering the load for a reemerging Williams, while Massa resumes his role as the greatest number two since Twobens Barrichello.

Anyway, Spa was great fun. Hands down my favorite track and it delivered nicely today.