The Formula 1 Thread

[mr ashley]

Reminds me a bit of Senna with his often reckless disregard for the safety of others. I remember when Prost said 'The problem with Senna is that he thinks that because he believes in God, he can't be killed'. We all know how that played out, but Verstappen has that same reckless streak that makes him a massive accident waiting to happen, Imo.

Yes I agree that he is an accident waiting to happen.
The bit that I don’t like is the way he dives in so late to overtake, making the driver ahead correct their steering to avoid contact.
There’s a quite from his days in karting saying Max was always “win it or bin it”.
And I hope this season he finds other drivers are less inclined to yield for him. If he keeps losing front wings and getting punctures because of it, it will affect his chances of success- and rightly so in my opinion

 

[LeSoupeKitchen]

Yes I agree that he is an accident waiting to happen.
The bit that I don’t like is the way he dives in so late to overtake, making the driver ahead correct their steering to avoid contact.
There’s a quite from his days in karting saying Max was always “win it or bin it”.
And I hope this season he finds other drivers are less inclined to yield for him. If he keeps losing front wings and getting punctures because of it, it will affect his chances of success- and rightly so in my opinion

This is why a three way race would be so good. There wouldn't be the consolation of taking your only rival out if you crash.

 

[Gb160]

Annoyingly unsociable times for the practice and qualifying, and the race isn’t much better.
Damn you ozzys.

 

[Delboy75]

Is quali at 7 AM ?

 

[Rocksuperstar]

Reminds me a bit of Senna with his often reckless disregard for the safety of others. I remember when Prost said 'The problem with Senna is that he thinks that because he believes in God, he can't be killed'. We all know how that played out, but Verstappen has that same reckless streak that makes him a massive accident waiting to happen, Imo.

...or champion. It's a very fine line.

Not sure why anyone wants to take that excitement out of F1 - sure, it sucks when people get hurt but if you're complaining about risks while voluntarily driving at 200+ mph in what is essentially a super-expensive go-kart, maybe you're in the wrong job.

Lauda was famous for never risking more than 20% (whatever scale that was measured on) but he was talking about the risks he placed on himself, not the risks placed on him by others. Hunt drove like a maniac because he didn't have a sliding scale of risk for himself or anyone else - not because he wished harm on anyone else, he wanted the fastest time and ahead of you and I think Max is along the same lines. You know the risks when he's closing on you so you either race harder or get out of the way.

Everyone takes it easy and drives too safely it becomes a procession where the fastest car wins most of the time. That's why I stopped watching it for a few years after they banned turbos, it got really dull for a bit because there was, arguably, too much focus on the safety aspects and too many "safe" drivers not prepared to take the risks. That wasn't racing, it was an engineer-off.

 

[Rocksuperstar]

Watching replays of practice, I wonder if the Mercedes team have tried to be too clever removing the side pods? I mean, that's the only really obvious difference I can see between them and most of the other cars, so I am assuming a lot, but what's the chances there's a new design doing laps on a test track behind closed doors as we speak to try and address that situation, because it doesn't appear to be getting any better. I'd have expected to see at least some progression by now but it still looks really out of sorts and clearly both drivers hate it, but have been putting in the hours with the diplomatic thesaurus - it's a "tricky car" and they have "work to do"

 

[Gb160]

Watching replays of practice, I wonder if the Mercedes team have tried to be too clever removing the side pods? I mean, that's the only really obvious difference I can see between them and most of the other cars, so I am assuming a lot, but what's the chances there's a new design doing laps on a test track behind closed doors as we speak to try and address that situation, because it doesn't appear to be getting any better. I'd have expected to see at least some progression by now but it still looks really out of sorts and clearly both drivers hate it, but have been putting in the hours with the diplomatic thesaurus - it's a "tricky car" and they have "work to do"

I thought this at first, but surely that would become apparent the moment theditched the pods?

 

[Rocksuperstar]

I thought this at first, but surely that would become apparent the moment theditched the pods?

You'd have thought.... it'll turn out that the test driver they had in it before they revealed it weighed 14 stone or something

I mean, they did roll it out kinda last minute, so maybe they were a bit hasty and it's going to rip it up in Spain, the only circuit other than their private test rings that they had a real opportunity to test it on? I mean, again, assumptions, but the track surely has to be playing a part here too? I simply can't think of a plausible way they would put this car out if they knew it was going to be so cranky.

 

[Gb160]

You'd have thought.... it'll turn out that the test driver they had in it before they revealed it weighed 14 stone or something

I mean, they did roll it out kinda last minute, so maybe they were a bit hasty and it's going to rip it up in Spain, the only circuit other than their private test rings that they had a real opportunity to test it on? I mean, again, assumptions, but the track surely has to be playing a part here too? I simply can't think of a plausible way they would put this car out if they knew it was going to be so cranky.

It’s shocking, absolutely miles off the pace.

 

[MotspurHotspur]

My opinion is it's an engine issue, we know the car isn't fast on the straights but that applies to all Mercedes powered cars. So what if there actually isn't anything wrong with the aero/body but the engine isn't providing enough to get the suction/downforce to work properly?

 

[Gb160]

My opinion is it's an engine issue, we know the car isn't fast on the straights but that applies to all Mercedes powered cars. So what if there actually isn't anything wrong with the aero/body but the engine isn't providing enough to get the suction/downforce to work properly?

Definite possibility.

 

[GutBucket]

Mercedes very unstable, hard to watch Hamilton's cam, he is really fighting with his own car to stay on the track. It has decent speed but staying on track isn't easy. Looks like a battle between Verstappen and Leclerc for pole position (and title).

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

Get Latifi off this grid. The guy is a fucking dangerous imbecile.

 

[tobi]

This guy is something else

They both fucked up.

 

[Gb160]

Mercedes very unstable, hard to watch Hamilton's cam, he is really fighting with his own car to stay on the track. It has decent speed but staying on track isn't easy. Looks like a battle between Verstappen and Leclerc for pole position (and title).

Yeah the Merc is fucked, he's driving down the straights head banging.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

Yeah the Merc is fucked, he's driving down the straights head banging.

It’s bordering on incompetence now. They’ve had ages to fix this porpoising issue now and if anything it’s just gotten worse with every race that passes.

 

[Gb160]

It’s bordering on incompetence now. They’ve had ages to fix this porpoising issue now and if anything it’s just gotten worse with every race that passes.

This is what I find baffling. These issues arise, I get that, but you'd expect to see constant improvements, even if small...it's literally getting worse.

They've really fucked Lewis (and Russell) over with this car so far this year.

 

[Rocksuperstar]

I'm not sure that the Stroll/Latifi incident needs investigating, Latifi seems to be one of them guys who never understands what's going on. I've watched that replay a half dozen times and, just like Lance, I have no idea what he was doing.

Latifi on the radio said, "Why didn't he look in his mirrors?" - Maybe because he just passed you dawdling along in practice, there was no reason for him to think you were going to try and race him. He doesn't seem like a bad person, he's just not very smart or aware when he's on track.

 

[Gb160]

I'm not sure that the Stroll/Latifi incident needs investigating, Latifi seems to be one of them guys who never understands what's going on. I've watched that replay a half dozen times and, just like Lance, I have no idea what he was doing.

Latifi on the radio said, "Why didn't he look in his mirrors?" - Maybe because he just passed you dawdling along in practice, there was no reason for him to think you were going to try and race him. He doesn't seem like a bad person, he's just not very smart or aware when he's on track.

Yeah, sooner or later one of these incidents could cause serious harm, these guys are putting their lives at risk every time they drive these cars as it is, without this guy doing daft shit.

 

[tottenmal]

I'm not sure that the Stroll/Latifi incident needs investigating, Latifi seems to be one of them guys who never understands what's going on. I've watched that replay a half dozen times and, just like Lance, I have no idea what he was doing.

Latifi on the radio said, "Why didn't he look in his mirrors?" - Maybe because he just passed you dawdling along in practice, there was no reason for him to think you were going to try and race him. He doesn't seem like a bad person, he's just not very smart or aware when he's on track.

Stroll was going quickly on a fast run as he approached Latifi, so Latifi rightly lets him through. Stroll then backs off. Latifi has every right to take that space back, and has more than enough space to the right of Stroll to do it. In my book Latifi does nothing (or very little) wrong , just look at how everybody tussled for position on the restart, it is just what is done, especially when the guy you just let through quickly basically stops in front of you.

Is Latifi a bad driver, you bet. Does Stroll lack basic awareness of what is going on around him, absolutely. But unlike earlier incidents during races where he 'owns' the racing line, this one is completely on him.

Stroll vs Albon

Watch "Stroll vs Albon" on Streamable.

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