F1 2019

[chappy1970]

I'm perched above the McLaren pit for today's race. Seems like a great spot
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190317/5a5126b413420282094db22f9434cf3c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190317/ce365ea0c2483e907b848fb172771aba.jpg

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[Iain]

Nice Chappy!!

Hopefully Vettel’s race pace will be good. Don’t want to watch a Hamilton procession.

Also be interesting to see how Danny Ric goes in the Renault.

[chappy1970]

Ripper bloke for a WAnkerhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190317/9d9a7371e5c5efbc592e2552fda7c5e5.jpg

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[Stuart]

Hope you had a great day - one of my brothers lived at Albert Park for about five years but we stupidly never got around to visiting at F1 time. Still regret that.

[Pickles]

Living the dream chappy! I went on Friday and Sunday just walking around in the pleb section (general admin). Fantastic event. I only wish they had more raised grass hills trackside and more screens.

As for the race, I really hope this is the start of a massive season for Bottas. When he wanted to pit late in the race to try to secure his fastest lap and an extra point I think it sent a strong message he's going to be pretty ruthless in his hunt for the championship this season.

[mrbluu]

Is it just me or is the Renault F1 team really underachieving this year compared to last year??

[WBennett]

Is it just me or is the Renault F1 team really underachieving this year compared to last year?? Definitely not living up to expectations. Unreliability early now leaves them behind the 8 ball for the rest of the season. The lack of pace just compounds the problem.

[mrbluu]

Supposedly the Renault F1 team running on the same budget as Torro Rossi and are around $150m euros behind Mercedes etc....

https://www.news.com.au/sport/motorsport/formula-one/aussie-f1-star-daniel-ricciardo-admits-he-didnt-expect-miracles-at-renault/news-story/a7ea07d3be81dba830a516b3a9b4b622

Abiteboul claimed Renault were operating on a smaller budget than their midfield rivals including McLaren.

“(McLaren has) quite a lot more,” he said.

“Do you know how much we spend here? We operate with the budget of Toro Rosso and we do not believe that putting more money makes the difference.

“Instead of wasting a lot of resources, we can take a look at McLaren because I know their numbers and I can tell you they have a few hundred people more than us. How far are they from us? Makes sense? Not for now.

“And we will never have the (extra) 150m euros that we need to be like Mercedes because it does not make any sense. It does not correspond to the value of Formula 1 for us.”

[WBennett]

Vale Niki Lauda, the true greatest comeback of them all.

If you are a F1 fan, watch the James Hunt movie 'Rush'

[Jazz18]

F1 is clearly moving needles this year with everyone. Given what we saw in Canada, it's not surprising. Just a ridiculous penalty for Vettel.

[Hatchman]

Nice block by Vettel after making a mistake. Got the penalty hue deserved.

[wazamac]

All sports are being over governed at the moment.
I believe Vettel should have received a penalty but should have just been a position change and not 5 secs.
5 seconds nearly cost him second place which would of been way too harsh considering the incident.

On another note, has anyone got thoughts on what they were discussing for the rule changes in 2021.

[coalesce]

Position change isn't an option open to the stewards tho. A 5 second penalty was the minimum they could impose once they had decided it was worthy of a penalty.

[wazamac]

Maybe they need to consider this for a rule change if they want to keep the racing exciting.
Once Vettel established he couldn't pull out enough lead it was a "why bother moment".
If they just changed places then the fight would still be on.

[Hatchman]

Position change isn't an option open to the stewards tho. A 5 second penalty was the minimum they could impose once they had decided it was worthy of a penalty.

It's a bit strange they only have time penalties and not position penalty options?
Most likely they would have considered if it was an intentional or unintentional block from a cornering mistake and contact or no contact?
My guess is the penalty was at the low end of the scale because there was no contact.

[BenM]

I thought Seb was a bit hard done by at first, but after reading some of the analysis, I'm starting to come round to the idea that the penalty was unavoidable, by the letter of the rules. I don't think he really deserved it, but I don't think the stewards had much choice. That's down to the way the rules are written, not the stewards making a bad decision.

It's stuff like this that's swaying me - https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/48583803

[wazamac]

I agree with the Vettel deserved a penalty and they can only give it as the written law states, but if they are deciding stupid new rules like "Race what you brought" then they should consider a few other changes.

[Jazz18]

Just been reading a bit of press about F1. If Daniel Ricciardo isn't the best thing in F1, I don't know what is. The races are boring, the people are boring but Ricciardo is worth the price of admission in his own, both on and off the track. Hope Renault can give him the car he deserves.

[Pickles]

Admittedly I fell asleep around the 30th lap but the first 30 laps of the British GP on the weekend were far from boring.