Formula One 2020

[williamjm]

15 minutes ago, Werthead said:

I'm going to hazard a guess the drivers will be glad not to come back to Murgello next year. Spectacular race, but it felt a bit more dangerous than F1 is used to. Stroll's tyre exploding at over 160mph would have been much worse if it had happened virtually anywhere else on the circuit. You could tell he was quite shaken by that one.

I've seen some quotes from drivers who seem enthusiastic about going back there again, although I guess any drivers nervous about it might not be saying so in public. It is definitely an old-school track, spectacular but no margin for error.

It was a great race, although it's a pity that Verstappen barely made it off the start line when it looked like the might be the only one capable of challenging the Mercs. At least we did get a fight for the lead between Bottas and Hamilton. Albon drove well to get his first podium, I thought Ricciardo seemed to be in with a real chance of getting Renault's first podium in ages.

The safety car restart was a huge mess and they may have to think about how to make it safer in similar situations. It was the obvious move for Bottas to do what he did at the front so some of the drivers behind seemed far too enthusiastic in trying to get up to full speed early on.

[polishgenius]

29 minutes ago, williamjm said:

although I guess any drivers nervous about it might not be saying so in public.

 

I doubt that, safety is one issue on which you can pretty reliably expect drivers to get vocal about if they think there's a genuine concern.

 

31 minutes ago, williamjm said:

The safety car restart was a huge mess and they may have to think about how to make it safer in similar situations. It was the obvious move for Bottas to do what he did at the front so some of the drivers behind seemed far too enthusiastic in trying to get up to full speed early on.

Honestly, as the commentators were saying, a lot of it will just be experience. They weren't expecting Bottas to do that in that situation but next time it will be on their minds. I think Occon (I believe- defo one of the renaults but only saw the most relevant replay once) was at fault the most- he backed off the field out of the final turn so there was a big gap from him to the next guy in front as he came onto the straight, so he lashed it, realised they weren't going and had to brake. He himself had enough clear view to avoid the damage (but retired anyway coz his wheels were on fire) but it looked to me like that was what caused the concertina when everyone in front of him couldn't see around him and just followed at full pace. 

[Winterfell is Burning]

On 9/10/2020 at 11:17 AM, Loge said:

That's interesting. Formula One will also disappear from free TV in Germany after the 2020 season. There's still cable (Sky), but F1 will probably lose 90% of its audience here. For all his greed, Ecclestone has always refused to make F1 cable only in Germany because he thought losing that much of an audience would outweigh the increase in TV revenue.

Ecclestone was right, of course. It makes it impossible to expand the consumer base, and in the medium to long term, that also means less pilots and qualified people to work in F1. 

[Werthead]

19 hours ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

Ecclestone was right, of course. It makes it impossible to expand the consumer base, and in the medium to long term, that also means less pilots and qualified people to work in F1. 

He did fuck up when he did exactly the opposite in the UK. As the country with traditionally either the largest or second-largest TV audience and fanbase behind Germany (maybe occasionally dropping to third behind Italy when Ferrari is on form), he should have realised the same was true of the UK but he still sold out to Sky. The situation here, where I was having really cool conversations with random coworkers who weren't really into F1 during the 2010 season but still up to speed because everyone could see it, versus now when most people can't be bothered to get through the 4 hour wait without being spoiled and have given up on the sport, is stark (granted the quality and predictability of the racing is also a problem).

[Werthead]

Lewis Hamilton "under investigation" by the FIA for his Breonna Taylor T-shirt at the Tuscan Grand Prix, and immediately the FIA came under fierce attack because Hamilton doesn't actually seem to have breached any regulations. The closest regulation anyone could find was one about not using advertising on the car to express support for politicians or political parties, which clearly he didn't breach.

I think this story, which resulted in the inevitable "IStandWithLewisHamilton" hashtag response, attracted way more attention (particularly internationally) to the original story than anything else they could have done.

[Werthead]

Wow. Chase Carey is moving to a new role in Formula One, with ex-Ferrari head Stefano Domenicali to replace him as CEO. Ross Brawn to remain as director.

RacingFans, which has developed a strong reputation for getting good inside info over the last two years, also says a really interesting idea is starting to gather momentum at Red Bull. They've wanted to get rid of no-hoper Kvyat for a while now but they also have this really awkward Gasly/Albon situation going on (probably not helped by both drivers turning in the strongest drives of their careers on subsequent weekends). The new idea is to demote Albon to AlphaTauri and have him partner Gasly for a season and assess their battle in equal machinery. The wild card idea is parachuting Perez into Red Bull to test an established, strong driver against Verstappen in the hope they can secure maximum constructor points in a much more competitive field.

This idea may now be the fallback position should Yuki Tsunoda fail to finish in the top four of Formula 2 this season. He's currently sixth, having been dropped from fourth by a time penalty. He's expected to make that back up in the next few races. If he does finish in the Top Four, he could be off to AlphaTauri, leaving Perez out on his arse at Red Bull.

Mick Schumacher has also been promised an Alfa Romeo drive if he finishes in the top three of F2 this year, which since he's currently leading the championship seems quite likely. He would replace Giovinazzi unless Raikkonen confirms his intention to retire (apparently he's still 50-50 on that decision).

Perez's last hope would be Haas, but Haas are also strongly considering bringing in Hulkenberg and are not completely wedded to getting rid of their two existing drivers. They also have Deletraz, Fittipaldi, Ilott and Schwzartzman on their target list. But a Perez-Hulkenberg pairing is quite attractive and Perez's sponsors - surplus to requirements at cash-rich Racing Point/Aston Martin - would be warmly received at Haas.

Interestingly, McLaren seem to feel a bit bad about dropping him in 2013 (which still feels a bit of a weird decision) and Zak Brown has said they'd happily talk to him about a drive in their IndyCar team if it is no longer possible to remain in F1.

[williamjm]

The end of Q2 today had plenty of drama, hopefully there's as much in the race although it would probably have been more fun if Hamilton had taken a couple more to cross the line to start his final lap and then we'd get to see him trying to fight his way up from 15th on the grid. Hopefully Verstappen can do something to challenge him from 2nd, historically the pole-sitter in Sochi has often given a nice slipstream to the cars behind on the run down to the first corner.

[TheLastWolf]

Hamilton rules!!!

[williamjm]

9 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Hamilton rules!!!

Not so much in the race. I'm not sure what Mercedes were thinking here, this is the second race out of the last three where Hamilton has lost out due to them breaching regulations.

While it's nice to see some variety on the top step of the podium it is a pity that we didn't get to see a potentially close battle with Hamilton seemingly starting with a disadvantage due to the tyre choice. It was a solid drive from Bottas who seemed to have everything under control but Hamilton's penalty made it easy. Another strong race for Verstappen behind him.

The commentators pointed out that as well as the time penalty Hamilton also got points on his superlicense and two more points would mean he would be a suspended for a race. It does seem a bit harsh to give those penalty points for a technical infringement that was already punished in the race.

Sainz must be quite embarrassed with the way his race ended. It did seem to be an awkward and narrow path back onto the track but he still basically managed to drive straight into a wall.

[Werthead]

The superlicence points have been rescinded, fortunately. The penalty for Hamilton was ridiculous, and they just seem to be trying to delay the inevitable of him passing Schumacher's record.

That was a boring as hell race. We had two good ones on the bounce after another deathly dull one, and Sochi has rarely (if ever) produced a really exciting race, so it's not surprising, but that's the first one in a while where I fell asleep for 15 laps and missed precisely nothing.

Not sure why Bottas was getting antsy on the radio at the end of the race. There seems to be widespread acknowledgement of the fact that he's hugely upped his game over the last two seasons and his qualifying performance is exceptional and he's much closer to Hamilton in the races. The only real criticisms people have had is that he's not been able to maintain as strong a performance as Hamilton over a whole weekend, which is fairly obvious from the results (and again, even that's closer than it was previously). He's certainly not crap and his contractual period is not in any doubt, so not sure why he got the hump on the radio.

[TheLastWolf]

11 hours ago, williamjm said:

Not so much in the race. I'm not sure what Mercedes were thinking here, this is the second race out of the last three where Hamilton has lost out due to them breaching regulations.

While it's nice to see some variety on the top step of the podium it is a pity that we didn't get to see a potentially close battle with Hamilton seemingly starting with a disadvantage due to the tyre choice. It was a solid drive from Bottas who seemed to have everything under control but Hamilton's penalty made it easy. Another strong race for Verstappen behind him.

The commentators pointed out that as well as the time penalty Hamilton also got points on his superlicense and two more points would mean he would be a suspended for a race. It does seem a bit harsh to give those penalty points for a technical infringement that was already punished in the race.

Sainz must be quite embarrassed with the way his race ended. It did seem to be an awkward and narrow path back onto the track but he still basically managed to drive straight into a wall.

Hamilton still rules!!!

[Loge]

Honda will pull out of F1 after the 2021 season: https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/54383259. One has to wonder what this means for the future of Red Bull. I don't see them go back to Renault. Maybe Mercedes will supply them but they'd have to sell their own team first. Meanwhile, Renault are to spin off their own team as Alpine.

[Werthead]

Red Bull have asked Mercedes to supply them in the past and Mercedes have said no. They are under no legal obligation to supply Red Bull either, as that obligation would fall on the team with the lowest number of customers, which is Renault.

Ferrari may be more likely, but Red Bull blatantly don't want a Ferrari engine right now.

I've seen speculation that Red Bull might try to buy Honda's F1 engine development technology and team and bring the engine in-house, which would by far be their preference. Normally that wouldn't be on the cards because Honda would be reluctant to share the IP and engine design secrets with them, but if they're serious of moving out of petrol and hybrid engines altogether, they might be persuaded. Red Bull would need deep pockets for that, but not as much as developing the engine completely in-house.

[Winterfell is Burning]

9 hours ago, Loge said:

Honda will pull out of F1 after the 2021 season: https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/54383259. One has to wonder what this means for the future of Red Bull. I don't see them go back to Renault. Maybe Mercedes will supply them but they'd have to sell their own team first. Meanwhile, Renault are to spin off their own team as Alpine.

COVID might have made spending in F1 look superfluous (or even more so, depending on your POV). I wonder if it will be the last to leave.

[Loge]

12 hours ago, Werthead said:

Red Bull have asked Mercedes to supply them in the past and Mercedes have said no. They are under no legal obligation to supply Red Bull either, as that obligation would fall on the team with the lowest number of customers, which is Renault.

Mercedes said no in 2015, when they were just winning their second title. They have won seven now (at the end of the season) and there's rumour of a sale to Ineos. And even if the team continues as Mercedes, there will be a new leadership as it looks like Wolff won't continue in his present job.

[TheLastWolf]

When will F1 TO F∞  make the transistion to electric completely?

[Loge]

16 minutes ago, TheLastWolf said:

When will F1 TO F∞  make the transistion to electric completely?

They won't. battery electric cars are slow and heavy, the opposite of a Formula One car.

[polishgenius]

2 hours ago, Loge said:

They won't. battery electric cars are slow and heavy, the opposite of a Formula One car.

Heavy? Yes. Slow? Not at all. Acceleration has been beastly in electric cars for time now. Top speeds are still catching up but getting there (the Pininfarina Battista claims 219mph and the Aspark Owl 240) and as they become more popular the other parts of making electric cars generally fast will fall into line. The second fastest lap ever recorded around the Nurburgring is an electric Volkswagen and you can bet that having seen that performance manufacturers will be falling over themselves to replicate the feat. It'll be a while before the teams can be persuaded or locked into doing it but you can bet your bottom dollar that once teams of F1 engineers set their minds and resources to make a battery-powered car go round tracks fast, they will.

[Loge]

They are slow because of battery capacities. Could that VW car have done a second lap on the same charge? I bet it couldn't. A Formula One race is over a distance of 300km. With current battery technology you can't do that distance and be fast.

[TheLastWolf]

8 hours ago, Loge said:

They won't. battery electric cars are slow and heavy, the opposite of a Formula One car.

With the world changing to eco-friendly electric vehicles and pressure from environmental groups, it is inevitable. Just a matter of when.

Global warming. Climate change. Greenhouse effects. Apocalypse. Armageddon. Blah blah blah. The usual stuff. These stuff must not be usual, but they have become so. But fossil fuels need to be stopped. It already depleting rapidly.