2018 Formula 1 Season Thread

[CWallace]

I’m confused by Alfa though, is it just the Alfa Romeo sponsoring the team or did they build the car?

It's a sponsorship deal. Sauber now has the same 2018-spec Ferrari engine that Haas runs as opposed to the previous year spec they used to have in prior seasons.

As for their poor performance, the car's aero-package is a very low-downforce one so while it is fast in the three DRS zones, it's cornering speeds are the lowest on the grid so overall the lap time is as bad as it is.

 

[BenTrovato]

Amazing how powerful that Mercedes is. Did anyone catch the post qualifying footage of Lewis hitting the kerbs in 7th gear and the car did not flinch.

I expect Merc to dial it back over the next few races and let others think it’s a close battle as they did last year. I think even they are surprised the other teams just can’t catch up.

 

[apolloa]

Just finished watching the qualifying and thank God, only tenths of a second splitting the top five! So at LONG last we have three teams that are as fast as each other. Therefore it will hopefully be a good battle all season.

Interesting views in the halo too, but as they said at the end of the day it’s all about safety, also the FIA said this is just a first design, they have some scope to experiment to make them look better going forward. It was the only design tested that withstood a wheel being thrown at it at 120 mph. And they have introduced it after all the deaths of drivers, although I think the report said the last one was in 2015, mind you that’s only 3 years ago.
The conclusion is that their is still enough danger in the sport to make it exciting.

 

[pachyderm]

So far about an hours worth of "racing" and almost 45 minutes of commercials. meh!
[doublepost=1521957744][/doublepost]And how is the Renault customer team better than the Renault factory team? Wait, is Red Bull a Renault? Or is Tag Heuer an actual engine make now too?
Because I was talking about them being better than the Renault factory team.


McLaren Renault is about even with Team Renault.

 

[Glideslope]

Great race. Nice to see Lewis spanked by the Prancing Horse. Seb is in his head now. Not a good place for Lewis. I'll stay with my prediction that Kimi will win the Title and retire. Ferrari is very strong. There is still quite a bit left to unleash in the SF71H.

 

[zagato27]

I "missed" the pre race stuff on ESPN this morning. Looks like from all the comments on ESPN's coverage that I didn't miss a thing as they had tech difficulties for 20 minutes. ESPN is taking some heat for it's coverage regarding breaking away for commercials and not staying with the Haas retirements and going to commercial for the restart. Geeez, who is making these decisions? I thought that we would have the Sky presenters on the ESPN feed but from what I read that isn't true? Not sure. The sound was subpar for me, a bit of a struggle to understand what the blokes were saying. ESPN may be good for NBA and such but they just don't get it on racing. I'm considering subscribing to the F1 streaming if it ever comes about.

 

[pachyderm]

I "missed" the pre race stuff on ESPN this morning. Looks like from all the comments on ESPN's coverage that I didn't miss a thing as they had tech difficulties for 20 minutes. ESPN is taking some heat for it's coverage regarding breaking away for commercials and not staying with the Haas retirements and going to commercial for the restart. Geeez, who is making these decisions? I thought that we would have the Sky presenters on the ESPN feed but from what I read that isn't true? Not sure. The sound was subpar for me, a bit of a struggle to understand what the blokes were saying. ESPN may be good for NBA and such but they just don't get it on racing. I'm considering subscribing to the F1 streaming if it ever comes about.

eh.

it was awful imho.

they did side by side race/commercial stuff. which is ****.

I'm not a fan of Martin Brundle commentary or the other guy either. They both pronounced "Haas" incorrectly.
[doublepost=1521991471][/doublepost]

Great race. Nice to see Lewis spanked by the Prancing Horse. Seb is in his head now. Not a good place for Lewis. I'll stay with my prediction that Kimi will win the Title and retire. Ferrari is very strong. There is still quite a bit left to unleash in the SF71H.

Only a Ferrari fan would think that was a "good" race.
And, yes, if Lewie had won only a Lewie/Mercedes fan would have thought it was a good race too.

It was good in that Lewie didn't win.

He'll win the next four though.

Spoiler

And that won't be good either.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Great race. Nice to see Lewis spanked by the Prancing Horse. Seb is in his head now. Not a good place for Lewis. I'll stay with my prediction that Kimi will win the Title and retire. Ferrari is very strong. There is still quite a bit left to unleash in the SF71H.

What were you watching?

I saw Lewis dominate when in front, then couldn't compete when behind.

Everyone saying they can't follow the car in front. Looks like races will be decided on Saturday's or on pit strategy.

Felt sorry for Haas. Good race pace, but woeful tyre changes!

Good result for Alonso, but the Hass retiring and Bottas having a weekend to forget, flattered.

 

[Glideslope]

eh.

it was awful imho.

they did side by side race/commercial stuff. which is ****.

I'm not a fan of Martin Brundle commentary or the other guy either. They both pronounced "Haas" incorrectly.
[doublepost=1521991471][/doublepost]

Only a Ferrari fan would think that was a "good" race.
And, yes, if Lewie had won only a Lewie/Mercedes fan would have thought it was a good race too.

It was good in that Lewie didn't win.

He'll win the next four though.

Spoiler

And that won't be good either.

LOL.
[doublepost=1522002424][/doublepost]

What were you watching?

I saw Lewis dominate when in front, then couldn't compete when behind.

Everyone saying they can't follow the car in front. Looks like races will be decided on Saturday's or on pit strategy.

Felt sorry for Haas. Good race pace, but woeful tyre changes!

Good result for Alonso, but the Hass retiring and Bottas having a weekend to forget, flattered.

Any win for Ferrari is a great race for me. I despise Mercedes and Lewis the Man Child.

 

[CWallace]

And how is the Renault customer team better than the Renault factory team? Wait, is Red Bull a Renault? Or is Tag Heuer an actual engine make now too?

Red Bull and McLaren have better chassis than Renault and the 2018 rules require all teams using an engine - factory or customer - be on the exact same specification. So put the exact same Renault engine in a better chassis with better drivers and I'd be shocked if they were not better.

I "missed" the pre race stuff on ESPN this morning.

Yeah my DVR recording started at 10:00PM Pacific with them on the grid. I guess "E60" is the pre-race show? I see that ahead of the Bahrain GP on my schedule.

ESPN is taking some heat for it's coverage regarding breaking away for commercials and not staying with the Haas retirements and going to commercial for the restart.

Honestly NBCSN would cut away to commercial at the most inopportune times, as well. The video quality also looked a fair bit poorer than NBCSN's. It's HD, but like super-compressed HD. And yes, I know Xfinity is showing everything in heavily compressed 720p (even if the source is 1080i), but still it looked noticeably worse than what I recall NBC and NBCSN being in (though Xfinity does not mess with the main network feeds, passing them through natively).

I thought that we would have the Sky presenters on the ESPN feed but from what I read that isn't true?

Yes this was the Sky broadcast with the Sky broadcasting team.




Also, WTF Haas. Throw away a shedload of points on back-to-back pit stop failures. Hopefully being fined out the wazoo for two Unsafe Releases will re-focus their attention to the details.

 

[tonybarnaby]

If you don't like Mercedes or Ferrari, this will be another long year. Very little racing, just a bunch of expensive cars driving around for an hour and a half. Don't know why I always think "this year will be different".

 

[apolloa]

Well just watched the race, hmm interesting, I have to say Mercedes have shown a weakness consistently with strategy before, is this going to be a repeat year? Ferrari pulled an absolute blinder in them!

I should have bet on HAAS, if it wasn’t for their wheel nut issues they would have dominated Red Bull potentially..?

Still it’s a marathon and not a sprint.. and all the top 5 car paces are very close, at last!

I have a feeling we are in for a great and interesting season
[doublepost=1522007177][/doublepost]

What were you watching?

I saw Lewis dominate when in front, then couldn't compete when behind.

Everyone saying they can't follow the car in front. Looks like races will be decided on Saturday's or on pit strategy.

Felt sorry for Haas. Good race pace, but woeful tyre changes!

Good result for Alonso, but the Hass retiring and Bottas having a weekend to forget, flattered.

I think it comes from the fact the Mercedes don’t do very well when following other cars, they are designed to lead really and not drive in dirty air. But this year may not go there way as the others are on their pace. And this is from the start. I don’t want Lewis to get in front and steam ahead by 10 seconds as that’s just one utter boring sport to watch. So I’m glad Ferrari won today. I hope for a big battle this year.
[doublepost=1522007562][/doublepost]

If you don't like Mercedes or Ferrari, this will be another long year. Very little racing, just a bunch of expensive cars driving around for an hour and a half. Don't know why I always think "this year will be different".

The car paces are a lot closer this year but as the other teams have said, once they sort out the ridiculous imbalance in budgets if the teams, then we will see proper racing again. And if that means Ferrari throwing a hissy fit and leaving then good ridence, don’t let that door hit you on the way out.. if the top teams believe they can only win due to the money they spend then that’s a rubbish sport.

But as said, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

 

[BenTrovato]

What were you watching?

I saw Lewis dominate when in front, then couldn't compete when behind.

Everyone saying they can't follow the car in front. Looks like races will be decided on Saturday's or on pit strategy.

Felt sorry for Haas. Good race pace, but woeful tyre changes!

Good result for Alonso, but the Hass retiring and Bottas having a weekend to forget, flattered.

Lol. If anyone who watched didn’t see complete domination by Mercedes, then it must have been a different channel. Albert part is difficult to overtake on, and with these cars, it’s too hard even if you are faster.

Ferrari have a lot of work to do. I honestly don’t believe it was a software glitch that cost Lewis the win. I think Mercedes pulled a genius move letting Ferrari win and called it a glitch. They are so far ahead of the rest of the field. I don’t get how everyone doesn’t see it.

 

[pachyderm]

Lol. If anyone who watched didn’t see complete domination by Mercedes, then it must have been a different channel. Albert part is difficult to overtake on, and with these cars, it’s too hard even if you are faster.

Ferrari have a lot of work to do. I honestly don’t believe it was a software glitch that cost Lewis the win. I think Mercedes pulled a genius move letting Ferrari win and called it a glitch. They are so far ahead of the rest of the field. I don’t get how everyone doesn’t see it.

lol.


I think it was pure luck by Ferrari.

You're right, though, Albert Park is a hard circuit to make pass on. Sadly it seems as though all the circuits are these days.

Renault was reliable! YAY!

Alonso, Hulkenburg, and Sainz all in the points! Now if a Williams could get in there too...

 

[Apple fanboy]

I couldn't sleep last night so watched Rush (again).
Couldn't help but think if only F1 was more like that now! Not the injuries and death of course, but the overtaking would be a welcome addition.

 

[Crazy Badger]

If you don't like Mercedes or Ferrari, this will be another long year. Very little racing, just a bunch of expensive cars driving around for an hour and a half. Don't know why I always think "this year will be different".

The season summed up perfectly. Until they put the 'racing' back in Motor Racing, F1 is little more than a technology showcase. I always hope "this year will be different" but for too many years to remember it hasn't, and from the first race of this season it's not going to be this year either.

 

[BenTrovato]

http://www.planetf1.com/news/marko-mercedes-playing-with-everyone/

I'm telling you.. watched F1 for a while. Mercedes has a package nobody can live up to. What happened in Australia was not a glitch. These guys are geniuses. Agree with the other comments though, the sport is in shambles.

 

[CWallace]

Mercedes made the best engine and they have a better chassis than any of their customers and they have one of the best drivers so of course they're going to be effectively unstoppable.

Sure, the FIA could implement an F1 version of the WEC's "Balance of Performance" and saddle the Mercedes engine with an air inlet restrictor or lower revs or something, but then you don't just slow the factory team, you slow their customer teams, as well. Do we just consider that collateral damage and if they lose positions in the WDC to "pseudo-factory" teams like Haas and Toro Rosso, it's tough luck?

 

[tonybarnaby]

The season summed up perfectly. Until they put the 'racing' back in Motor Racing, F1 is little more than a technology showcase. I always hope "this year will be different" but for too many years to remember it hasn't, and from the first race of this season it's not going to be this year either.

Formula one has never been “fair”, but it gets old seeing only 4-6 drivers have any chance on a weekly basis.

 

[CWallace]

Formula one has never been “fair”, but it gets old seeing only 4-6 drivers have any chance on a weekly basis.

But that has been Formula One the last two decades. At best we've had three or four people legitimately capable of scoring at least a single win and in most cases, only two drivers had more than one.

And honestly, we've had worse. During 1992-1997 you were almost guaranteed to see the Williams #1 driver win and then we had the five year run of Michael Schumacher dominating from 2000-2004.

 

[Apple fanboy]

But that has been Formula One the last two decades. At best we've had three or four people legitimately capable of scoring at least a single win and in most cases, only two drivers had more than one.

And honestly, we've had worse. During 1992-1997 you were almost guaranteed to see the Williams #1 driver win and then we had the five year run of Michael Schumacher dominating from 2000-2004.

Schumacher was a genius, but those years were bleak watching!

At least Lewis has off weeks.
But to be fair I don't think we can write this season off just yet.
Australia is a terrible track for overtaking.
I'm sure it will be better at some of the decent tracks.

 

[an-other]

Passing in F1 has always been very minimal. Even in the days of Piquet, Senna, Mansell, Berger, and Prost (with teams that could win a race: Lotus, McLaren, Ferrari, and Williams.) Tyre strategy did play into it for sure, but none of this "must use two compounds thing."

Mercedes has a staff and bench beyond any other team. My apologies to Adrian Newey, as I still view him as the first guy I'd hire if I were a F1 team owner.

I don't rate Schumi as a genius. You have to compete against your teammate (and not have a history of intentional shunts and questionably legal cars.) That noted, you can't take away what he accomplished. Maybe he didn't need the extra assists. We'll never know.

Look at Prost's teammates through the years....

 

[BenTrovato]

Passing in F1 has always been very minimal. Even in the days of Piquet, Senna, Mansell, Berger, and Prost (with teams that could win a race: Lotus, McLaren, Ferrari, and Williams.) Tyre strategy did play into it for sure, but none of this "must use two compounds thing."

Mercedes has a staff and bench beyond any other team. My apologies to Adrian Newey, as I still view him as the first guy I'd hire if I were a F1 team owner.

I don't rate Schumi as a genius. You have to compete against your teammate (and not have a history of intentional shunts and questionably legal cars.) That noted, you can't take away what he accomplished. Maybe he didn't need the extra assists. We'll never know.

Look at Prost's teammates through the years....

Good points. Overtaking has always been difficult throughout the era's. In the 80's there were at least 3 or 4 cars that could win races most years. In the past 4 years, only Mercedes can win races. They could win every race if they wanted to.

I go both ways on schumi, he did whatever it took to win. His talent level was close to the top guys he raced with so he resorted to "other" things to give him an edge, some of those were unsportsmanlike. Nowadays drivers are even closer in skill. Between Vettel, Hamilton, Verstappen, and Ricciardo - I think you're splitting hairs on talent level. They are all elite. Best car has won the last 9 titles no matter any drivers skill. You could make the case that Hamilton in '08 maybe didn't have the best car. Maybe.

 

[tonybarnaby]

But that has been Formula One the last two decades. At best we've had three or four people legitimately capable of scoring at least a single win and in most cases, only two drivers had more than one.

And honestly, we've had worse. During 1992-1997 you were almost guaranteed to see the Williams #1 driver win and then we had the five year run of Michael Schumacher dominating from 2000-2004.

Exactly. Moto gp, IndyCar, wrc, sports car racing and even nascar have more drama in a month than f1 does in a year. It's a shame, but when you have that much money the top teams can throw around, its inevitable.

 

[pachyderm]

Formula one has never been “fair”, but it gets old seeing only 4-6 drivers have any chance on a weekly basis.

I wish there were 4-6 drivers with a chance.

there are 2.

if one of them screws up then the number goes to 3...

and it isn't because lewie is the best. it's because his teammates are on a leash. a very short one at that.