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F1 2016


Mandzipop

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2 hours ago, williamjm said:

I think that's the first time I've seen Ricciardo genuinely angry about something, even when things have gone badly for him in the past he's kept smiling. I can understand why he's angry, it seems to be a completely unforced error by Red Bull.

After doing everything perfectly in the previous race Verstappen had a bit of a return back to Earth this time round, the qualifying crash in particular showed that he can still make silly mistakes.

Very poor race from Rosberg as well to be almost lapped by his team-mate and mugged for 6th place by Hulkenberg round the final corner, it was a bit bizarre especially given his good record at Monaco in recent years.

 

 

It'll be interesting to see in Canada how much of a gap there is now between Mercedes and Red Bull, Monaco isn't really the best place to judge their engine upgrade.

 

 

It was, although perhaps Sauber were even worse with one driver ignoring team orders then the other deciding to drive him off the road.

I think Ricciardo was mad because of the back to back first places being "stolen" outside his own power. Last race I think it was probably a case of the teams didn't know which strategy was best (although he seems so angry at that I have to wonder if he was arguing the decision during that race?). As for this race there's really no excuse that the team blew it - and that's unacceptable when you've dominated the entire weekend. Hopefully Red Bull can placate him because they really don't want to lose him (worse than him leaving is the prospect of him being with a competitive rival eg Ferrari). I don't think it'll come to that as long as there aren't any more mistakes. Red Bull are clearly back on the rise and unless he can get kimi's drive (not sure Vettel would like that) and I can't see Mercedes wanting to lose either of their drivers (unless they want to leave). But some more blunders like that and I can see the working relationship fail.

It will be interesting to see if Red Bull are any closer on a fast track like Canada. Mercedes will be very concerned if they are and are clearly hoping it's only tracks with a lot of slow corners/speed changes that Red Bull have an advantage. Ferrari must also be hoping they aren't back in third place again.

For me it highlights how they are changing the rules at the wrong time. I think if they had left things as they were we'd have at least 2 (probably 3) teams matched closely enough that only track type would give a particular advantage. Instead they are turning everything upside down and chances are there will be one team that will then dominate for a few years again. The only thing that really needs changing is tyre degradation (managing tyres is bad for entertainment) and maybe limits on cost.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Ricciardo uses the new F1 video game to show off the Baku track. The opening bit looks insanely fast (as Daniel says, they need 20 more gears) and then it settles down into a lot of 90-degree turns, but there's that one turn into a Monaco-style side road that is insane. The track drops to less than a car's width (now, let alone next year with the wider bodies) and as Daniel says someone is going to go into the wall there, or be trying to overtake and then get both cars crushed in the gap. Could be quite a dangerous spot if they're not careful.

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2 hours ago, Werthead said:

Ricciardo uses the new F1 video game to show off the Baku track. The opening bit looks insanely fast (as Daniel says, they need 20 more gears) and then it settles down into a lot of 90-degree turns, but there's that one turn into a Monaco-style side road that is insane. The track drops to less than a car's width (now, let alone next year with the wider bodies) and as Daniel says someone is going to go into the wall there, or be trying to overtake and then get both cars crushed in the gap. Could be quite a dangerous spot if they're not careful.

Many of the new tracks end up feeling a bit samey, so it's nice that they seem to have a bit of variety here.

I'm guessing we might see safety car interruptions if there's so little space around the track.

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The width is fine in the opening section - in fact it's very wide at the start and there are two straights which are insanely long - but it narrows down crazily in this mini-Monaco bit in the middle. It's an interesting variation, to be sure.

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That was a bizarre qualifying session from Hamilton. He commented afterwards that he thought it was the worst he'd ever done and it's hard to argue with him. If he can stay on track at least it should add some interest to the race to have him coming through the field from 10th, sadly it looks like Rosberg should be able to run and hide at the front given how much of a pace advantage he has, assuming he doesn't have any problems. Impressive performance from Perez, it's a shame that he can't start on the front row, I understand why they have the rules on giving penalties for gearbox and engine changes but the consequences can sometimes be quite harsh on drivers.

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I agree it was bizarre how off his game Hamilton was considering his form in the practice sessions. Seemed like something was distracting him.

The track looks nice and that segment that looks like it's going through a backstreet between castle walls could easily become iconic. I'll have to wait until the race to see if it allows overtaking.

What should be interesting is whether drivers can stick to the track. If qualifying was anything to go by there'll be a lot of drivers running off the track tomorrow which may mic things up throughout.

Top job by Rosberg - I'm sure many were expecting the new track would highlight Hamilton's superiority.

I also feel sorry for Perez in that he clearly got more out of his car.

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Yup, they're carrying too much speed into some of the ninety degree turns. That one in particular seems to have no easy way of picking out the braking spot either. Given the dangers of an accident there, they should probably just put in an elevated sign or something they can use as a marker, otherwise we're going to be seeing a lot of cars shooting down there and ending up out of the race (they can't reverse on race day due to the dangers of being hit, can they?).

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The race was surprisingly uneventful. I know they probably are closer to the limit during qualifying but it does still seem odd that so many drivers couldn't stay on track then but nobody really had any significant incident during the 50-odd laps of the race.

Despite that, I think Baku seems a reasonable addition to the F1 calendar, it does seem to challenge the drivers, it's got a very distinctive look to it where it goes into the old town and overtaking was possible.

I agree it was an excellent drive from Perez. I wonder if he could have finished second without the qualifying penalty?

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14 minutes ago, williamjm said:

The race was surprisingly uneventful. I know they probably are closer to the limit during qualifying but it does still seem odd that so many drivers couldn't stay on track then but nobody really had any significant incident during the 50-odd laps of the race.

Despite that, I think Baku seems a reasonable addition to the F1 calendar, it does seem to challenge the drivers, it's got a very distinctive look to it where it goes into the old town and overtaking was possible.

I agree it was an excellent drive from Perez. I wonder if he could have finished second without the qualifying penalty?

Surely YES. His pace was not worse than Vettel's or Raikkonen's.. With the Mercedes engine Force India were one of the fastest ( almost 360 km/h)

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15 minutes ago, williamjm said:

The race was surprisingly uneventful. I know they probably are closer to the limit during qualifying but it does still seem odd that so many drivers couldn't stay on track then but nobody really had any significant incident during the 50-odd laps of the race.


Thanks to awkward travel times a day after a long wedding party, I managed to sleep through the race so I haven't seen for myself, but I reckon the fact that so many people cocked up in qualifying contributed to drivers playing it even safer than they normally would. The fact that there was still plenty of overtaking is a good sign - hopefully, next time when they know the track better they'll be more comfortable pushing harder in the race. It is after all a new and quite unusual track - I think Hamilton was saying the other day that the corners are as tight as Monaco with the barriers but you're coming into them much faster.

As for the Force India performance, they've always tended to build and tune their cars to favour low downforce and high top speed suchlike so I'm not that surprised to see they've done well at a track with long straights and high-speed sections, but it's still great credit to Perez to come in third.

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This was a really dull race, and everyone seemed surprised by it. The biggest problem with it is that it allowed the Mercedes to just completely disappear at the front in a way they can't even at other high-speed circuits, and the Red Bulls were completely left behind by the strengths of the circuit. It showed just how much improvement is needed at Ferrari as well. Storming race from Perez, who is really completely outshining Hulkenberg now. Pretty good race from Jenson as well, good to see him pulling an overtake on Fernando just as they start the silly season discussions of where drivers will be moving to next year.

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The Azerbaijan national anthem was the most exciting thing about the race. Overtakes were too easy and down to speed difference more than anything else. Slightly funny/bizarre drivers being told they couldn't be helped over the radio. Thought there'd be code for some of these things but guess it's hard to tell someone how to reprogram the steering wheel in code.

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6 hours ago, red snow said:

Slightly funny/bizarre drivers being told they couldn't be helped over the radio. Thought there'd be code for some of these things but guess it's hard to tell someone how to reprogram the steering wheel in code.

The radio rules do seem a bit bizarre, I understand what they were trying to do but they've gone a bit too far although I was amused at the Mercedes engineer's nervous response to Hamilton's suggestion that he was just going to start changing all the settings randomly.

I did wonder if the rules only apply to radio. Are they allowed to include messages about engine settings on the pitboards? Or put a post-it note on Hamilton's steering wheel with instructions when he comes in for a stop?

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7 hours ago, williamjm said:

The radio rules do seem a bit bizarre, I understand what they were trying to do but they've gone a bit too far although I was amused at the Mercedes engineer's nervous response to Hamilton's suggestion that he was just going to start changing all the settings randomly.

I did wonder if the rules only apply to radio. Are they allowed to include messages about engine settings on the pitboards? Or put a post-it note on Hamilton's steering wheel with instructions when he comes in for a stop?

I think Hamilton was on the right lines arguing it was a safety issue him spending so much time looking at his steering wheel rather than his track. I know how dangerous getting gps computers to work while driving can be let alone in a race. I'm sure the geekier drivers know how to do this (Rosberg probably sits at home learning how to use it while Hamilton hangs out in LA). But they should maybe consider it not being there at all if it's a distraction from the drivers. Hamilton said in an interview that he'd be fine without all the settings but that's never going to happen - in which case they should be allowed to be told how to use them.

On Hamilton he seems to be in a bit of a sulk which is a shame given his outlook through what's been a really unfortunate season. I wonder if him downplaying his chances (ridicuous when he only needs one win and a Rosberg DNF to be level) is because this is the first weekend he felt he was responsible for the outcome?

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  • 2 weeks later...

That was the best last couple of laps of a grand prix in a long time. But Rosberg was being an utter, utter muppet. I'm shocked the stewards didn't tear a strip off him and send him to the back of the grid, that was an appalling move at the end there and he got exactly what he deserved.

Terrific results up and down the grid, especially for Wuhrlein and Button. And Kimi is now level with Vettel on the points. Makes you wonder if they're going to get rid of him after all, he's had a pretty decent season.

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It's always disappointing when Hamilton wins, but it's hard to argue with the fact that Rosberg cocked it up this time.

Shame Ferrari made the worst pair of tire strategy calls I've seen in a long, long time, coz they, especially Kimi, would have been right in it if their tacticians hadn't frozen in the headlights when Hamilton's tires refused to fade at the start.

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