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F1 2016


Mandzipop

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Entertaining race.

For once Hamilton had some luck as no-one imagined he'd finish on the podium. They maybe did play it a bit safe in the end with him though and it would have made the last 10 laps more interesting if he could have chased Ricciardo.

I really like Max's skill but I think he needs a severe talking to or a penalty over his defending. What he did with Kimi in the replay was very dangerous and I agree that it needs to be curtailed before he causes an accident. I realise everyone in F1 wants to see him become the next schumacher but I do feel like everyone in F1 is turning a blind eye to any errors he might make. I don't really want to see him making last minute moves and changes of move like that again and the stewards need to give him a penalty if he does.

That said, if he genuinely allowed (Kimi?) past him so that he could then get the DRS and repass him at an easier place then he's really clued into the race. I just don't want to see his career blemished by being the cause of a serious accident and figure he'd stop if challenged on it.

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I realise everyone in F1 wants to see him become the next schumacher but I do feel like everyone in F1 is turning a blind eye to any errors he might make.

I think it goes with the territory. Schumacher was a great driver but he got some of his victories by being a colossal prick to other drivers, incredibly dangerously so on more than one occasion. Vettel and Hamilton, to their credit, have achieved their WCs without that level of dickfuckery.

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Massa is retiring at the end of the season. Surprising, as he had arguably a good few years in him, but I think he also realistically realised he's probably never going to be in a championship-winning car again and he can now get started somewhere else - sports cars or whatever - before someone like Alonso or Button (maybe) gets involved and see if he can get some good results.

He was a very good driver, but never quite transitioned to being a great one, although out-driving Raikkonen in his prime and coming within a gnat's fart of the world championship are not to be sniffed at. But he was never quite the same driver after the accident. Quite a nice and occasionally funny guy as well.

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On 29/08/2016 at 1:23 PM, Werthead said:

I think it goes with the territory. Schumacher was a great driver but he got some of his victories by being a colossal prick to other drivers, incredibly dangerously so on more than one occasion. Vettel and Hamilton, to their credit, have achieved their WCs without that level of dickfuckery.

They all have it in them but I agree Vettel and Hamilton have never deliberately done something as dangerous (although they happily will cause a collision fighting for position. I think it was Schumacher who got in trouble late in his career (with mercedes) for trying to drive someone into a wall.

They all keep doing it until someone tells them not to and accompanies it with a penalty.

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2 hours ago, Werthead said:

Massa is retiring at the end of the season. Surprising, as he had arguably a good few years in him, but I think he also realistically realised he's probably never going to be in a championship-winning car again and he can now get started somewhere else - sports cars or whatever - before someone like Alonso or Button (maybe) gets involved and see if he can get some good results.

He was a very good driver, but never quite transitioned to being a great one, although out-driving Raikkonen in his prime and coming within a gnat's fart of the world championship are not to be sniffed at. But he was never quite the same driver after the accident. Quite a nice and occasionally funny guy as well.

I think that's a good assessment of Massa's career, never the best driver in F1 but often not too far behind. Although I did enjoy Hamilton's last-minute Championship victory at the time, in retrospect I wouldn't have minded if Massa had won it, especially since that was the pinnacle of his career while Hamilton was just getting started.

I don't think his retirement is much of a surprise, Williams haven't announced their driving line-up yet but I suspect Massa already knew he wouldn't be driving there and I can't see many other options for him, especially given how much competition there is for seats. The big question is probably now whether Button will be replacing Massa or if he'll also be heading for the exit.

They all have it in them but I agree Vettel and Hamilton have never deliberately done something as dangerous (although they happily will cause a collision fighting for position. I think it was Schumacher who got in trouble late in his career (with mercedes) for trying to drive someone into a wall.

Verstappen is a bit over-aggressive on occasions but I still think F1 is significantly safer than it was a couple of years due to Pastor Maldonado's absence from the grid.

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25 minutes ago, williamjm said:

 

Verstappen is a bit over-aggressive on occasions but I still think F1 is significantly safer than it was a couple of years due to Pastor Maldonado's absence from the grid.

True - verstappen seems to make calculated dangerous moves, while I think Maldonado was just dangerous. I guess it's more worrying to do so with intent but at least it's less frequent when calculated and possible to contain.

I still remember how bad Grosjeans was when he first started but thankfully he listened to the criticism and took it on board.

I think Massa is wise to call it quits before sinking further. I do feel like Williams dropped the ball when they failed to capitalise on having the second fastest car in 2014. Bottas did ok but Massa should have done better. After that the car fell off the pace so I don't blame them as much after that. Although Bottas no longer seems the hot property he appeared that year either.

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Interesting move by McLaren and Button. Clearly Ron was keen to see Button go so Vandoorne could step up, but he and Honda both saw the PR and ambassador advantages Button gave them. This way they retain flexibility for 2018 if Alonso decides to leave F1 and can drop Button back in if needs be, and Button can assess the improvements by McLaren to see if he wants to rejoin or retire permanently after that point. It also gives Button a window to try sports cars or presenting or something else if he wants.

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24 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

how rubbish was that start?  it looked like he had it in reverse. 

How to negate a wonderful qualifying lap in the space of 5 seconds. He's making a bad habit of it to the point where it's predicatable. I'm sure it's connected with something in the car as he's never been that consostently poor with starts.

14 hours ago, Werthead said:

Interesting move by McLaren and Button. Clearly Ron was keen to see Button go so Vandoorne could step up, but he and Honda both saw the PR and ambassador advantages Button gave them. This way they retain flexibility for 2018 if Alonso decides to leave F1 and can drop Button back in if needs be, and Button can assess the improvements by McLaren to see if he wants to rejoin or retire permanently after that point. It also gives Button a window to try sports cars or presenting or something else if he wants.

I think the whole thing is lip service and everyone involved in the Channel 4 coverage is basically treating him as retiring. I guess he gets some money out of not racing for a season but the contract sounds dubious as it's basically "we'll take you back if Alonso leaves or Vandoorne is shit". If it's the former then it's probably returning to a car that still isn't competitive. I also wouldn't be surprised if Ron just got another driver anyhow. I'm not sure what Button's prospects of getting a drive with another team will be after taking a year out of racing.

That said, I still think this allows him to retire gracefully without it looking like he was abandoned by Mclaren. It must also be nice not to spend the winter wondering if he'll be racing.

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I'm not sure what Button's prospects of getting a drive with another team will be after taking a year out of racing.

Apparently Williams made him an offer and he turned it down. And I think certainly Renault would be interested as well. Button's got some excellent connections and a wide-ranging appeal even in his later years (and turning in great performances like overtaking Alonso today certainly helps).

It is an odd move, more from the sense that if McLaren suddenly steps up next year and starts winning races and racing at the front again then it's unlikely that Alonso or Vandoorne would be moving anywhere in 2018 or onwards. Jordan suggested that it might have been better for a clean break rather than this odd halfway house: if Button doesn't drive again and then announcesin 2018 he's retiring permanently, it's not going to have the same impact if he hasn't been on the grid for two seasons in a row.

Interesting rumours swirling today that the buy-out of F1 has come with a clause that will see Ecclestone step aside, and that could be announced within a week. That'd be shocking if it was true. But also urgently needed.

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10 hours ago, Werthead said:

Apparently Williams made him an offer and he turned it down. And I think certainly Renault would be interested as well. Button's got some excellent connections and a wide-ranging appeal even in his later years (and turning in great performances like overtaking Alonso today certainly helps).

It is an odd move, more from the sense that if McLaren suddenly steps up next year and starts winning races and racing at the front again then it's unlikely that Alonso or Vandoorne would be moving anywhere in 2018 or onwards. Jordan suggested that it might have been better for a clean break rather than this odd halfway house: if Button doesn't drive again and then announcesin 2018 he's retiring permanently, it's not going to have the same impact if he hasn't been on the grid for two seasons in a row.

Interesting rumours swirling today that the buy-out of F1 has come with a clause that will see Ecclestone step aside, and that could be announced within a week. That'd be shocking if it was true. But also urgently needed.

Vandoorne would have to have a pretty bad first season for them to let him go or he'd be so good another team (with a better car) would poach him for that seat to turn up. And I only see Alonso leaving if the car is still not able to win races.

I do think Button genuinely wanted some time out though and it may be the case he doesn't miss racing as much as he fears (I'm guessing that's the only reason he still does it having achieved so much). I guess Renault have the kind of money to actually pay for Button. It's tricky with Williams to know whether they prefer drivers with cash or not. I don't hve much faith in Williams as a team these days and suspect when other engines close the gap to Mercedes, Williams will fall back (as we've already started to see). Renault is a good option for Button as that's a team which will improve it's just a case of whether he wants to end his career developing cars. I guess Coulthard did well ending his career that way with Red Bull and made some great contacts to aid him with presenting F1. I get the impression Button would make an excellent F1 host down the line. I'm wondering whether he's done any commentary work? Probably not given he's always being driving. Maybe we'll see him do a guest slot with sky/c4 next season?

The take-over sounds interesting. The general feeling is that a media company may at least have an interest in making the races more exciting to gain more viewers while the last few years have felt like "trying to make as much money as possible at the expense of viewers". Ecclestone has the staying power of a cockroach though so I wouldn't be surprised to see him somehow remain in power. My main concern is the lead buyer is connected to fox media which i suspect will lead to F1 only being available through skyf1 in the uk which would be the end of the sport for me. Maybe virgin media would have a better deal or they'd come up with a more cost effective payperview option. At the moment I think you have to buy other sports channels to get F1 which is crap. It's also stupid having to pay for F1 when it's not on the TV. It's a channel that has 3-4 days of (hardcore) viweing a fortnight.

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12 hours ago, red snow said:

My main concern is the lead buyer is connected to fox media which i suspect will lead to F1 only being available through skyf1 in the uk which would be the end of the sport for me.

There's already a plan that live races will be exclusive to Sky from the 2019 season onwards, which will be a sad day.

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34 minutes ago, williamjm said:

There's already a plan that live races will be exclusive to Sky from the 2019 season onwards, which will be a sad day.

I guess I can wave goodbye to F1 at that point then - unless Sky changes the way you pay for access to F1. Such a rip off but I guess that's the fate of pretty much every sport in the UK.

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There's already a plan that live races will be exclusive to Sky from the 2019 season onwards, which will be a sad day.

There'll still be a highlights package on terrastrial TV, and I believe there is a legal requirement for the British Grand Prix to always be shown live in full for everyone in the UK (as there is for World Cup football and the Olympics). With the highlights package there's still some discussion on whether Sky themselves will produce it or if Coulthard's media company (which does the C4 show) will be able to negotiate a deal.

There is an acknowledgement that having viewer people watching F1 means fewer people watching the sponsorship ads. If the TV viewing figures fall below a certain level, the sponsors might start pulling out. And Britain has the highest viewing figures for F1 apart from Germany. So it's in no-one's interests, not even Sky's, for that to happen. If the current format of "highlight" races that actually feature 85-90% of the race (and tend to drop the chunk of the race that is processional) continues, that'd be fine for me.

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  • 4 weeks later...

"NO! NO! NO!"

As far as it's possible to feel sorry for a world-famous multi-millionaire, I think it was very hard not to feel for Lewis to see his championship title hopes just blow up in his face.

He could win it back, and by sheer law of averages you'd expect Rosberg to have one more DNF, but I think it's starting to look like it's Rosberg's to lose. And Rosberg's racing recently has been heartfelt, instinctive and punchy in a way he's never been before.

And a tremendous performance by Red Bull. They capitalised on every situation that came their way and the way they halted the in-team battle was pretty bloody clever. Stack the cars in the pit lanes so Riccardio got a boost away from Verstappen, give them both the same tyre at the same moment and make it effectively impossible for them to get tangled up on track whilst still delivering a 1-2.

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I never really liked hamilton much but i much prefer him to rosberg i really hope hamilton can get it done and gets some luck going his way. Happy to see ricciardo get a win he really deserved one the way he has been driving this year especially after the monaco debacle

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3 hours ago, lmanion said:

I never really liked hamilton much but i much prefer him to rosberg i really hope hamilton can get it done and gets some luck going his way. Happy to see ricciardo get a win he really deserved one the way he has been driving this year especially after the monaco debacle

I also don't like Rosberg, but i want to see him the champion in this season.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxRX6LXDpWs poor Hamilton. He finally got a weekend right with pole and a good start and then his engine goes. I agree with him that it does seem bizarre how he's the only one out of all the mercedes drivers having engine failures. I don't see any conspiracy there merely that there is something about his car, set-up whatever that's maybe contributing to it as it seems too often to be random.

19 minutes ago, StefCurry said:

I also don't like Rosberg, but i want to see him the champion in this season.

I think people are a bit too harsh on him. He's not one of the best drivers but there have been plenty of world champions who've won more because they had the best car and were consistent. And he's been incredobly consistent this year maximising any of Hamilton's errors or bad luck. I also think he's showing a bit more drive - look at the last race, he seems to want to win rather than play it safe.

I'd still rate Hamilton as a better racer but F1 isn't just about the best racer winning. Otherwise Alonso would be fighting for the podium every race too.

On 06/09/2016 at 6:31 PM, Werthead said:

 

There is an acknowledgement that having viewer people watching F1 means fewer people watching the sponsorship ads. If the TV viewing figures fall below a certain level, the sponsors might start pulling out. And Britain has the highest viewing figures for F1 apart from Germany. So it's in no-one's interests, not even Sky's, for that to happen. If the current format of "highlight" races that actually feature 85-90% of the race (and tend to drop the chunk of the race that is processional) continues, that'd be fine for me.

Good point RE if highlights remain at about 85% of the actual race. Given there's almost always a safet car of some form that's probably 5-15% right there.

I noticed the new people in charge keep mentioning how they need to maximise digital exploitation of F1. Maybe they'll move to a pay-per-race online format too?

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