Formula1 2022--2025 ; Teams, Tech, and Racing discussion.

[Binkman]

Qualifying: Ferrari said performance lagging due to high altitude. Max reported track was difficult to get tire grip in Qual. Ham. reported engine was a bit amiss in Q3, Perez says he contended with electrical issue thru all Q. sessions.
Results;

 

[Fat Point Ja]

FI is better with afternoon beer than morning coffee.

 

[Binkman]

Max wins 14th/ 9 consecutive wins setting a new a new record for single season wins leading from start to finish. Ham. 2nd Perez 3rd. Some would call the race a bore as from 7th place (Ric driver of the day at +1 lap) blew away the fans regardless of a 10 sec. penalty after a collision with Tsunoda (able to drive to pits retired). Mid field action was pretty good at times and the fans (70k) had great time cheering on Checo and their favorite drivers. replay: https://fullraces.com/

 

[Binkman]

Since only 3 drivers had 2 pit stops I wonder had Hamilton (1 pit) had medium tires instead of hards, would have had a chance of a late challenge to Max.

 

[jdurbin1]

Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes all said yes, Lewis & George would have had a better chance to contest if they hadn't used that tire strategy. Mercedes overestimated tire deg on the mediums and didn't allow enough for the lack of pace on the hards. Yet, even with that mistake Hamilton was able to keep up with Max and George to hold off Perez, which has to be encouraging. Ferrari didn't give them credit for that part when they said "hey look, we're not the only team that blows it on strategy", lol.

John

 

[Binkman]

on the hards. Yet, even with that mistake Hamilton was able to keep up with Max and George to hold off Perez,

Umm I don't call a 15 sec. interval to max keeping up and Perez 3 secs behind Ham ain't bad.. Russell finished 4th 31 sec. behind Perez. Had Perez a quicker pit (5 sec.ish) he might had a better shot at Ham. However Merc is looking a lot better.

 

[jdurbin1]

It was 10 secs for quite a long stretch of laps, increased to 15 secs late as they realized the mediums on Max's car were going to have no problem going the distance. Earlier in the stint, Lewis was matching Max's pace no problem despite the hard tire which was judged later to have way too much of a performance gap vs. the yellow. Mercedes just made the wrong call but with the floor and other upgrades their cars had better pace than previous races.

Russell pitted late for softs to get the fastest lap, he had been keeping pace with Perez prior to that.

John

 

[Binkman]

he had been keeping pace with Perez prior to that.

Actually Russell was average at 5+/- sec. before he pit for softs, closest he got was 4.5s. Pace yes but I wouldn't call it close. Mercs last for the season upgrade was at US GP but they may show better at Abu, Mercs confidence isn't high at Brazil. The battle for 2nd in the standing between Perez +5 over Leclerc can be of interest especially if they get to battle in last two races.

 

[Binkman]

Brazil this weekend with 1 practice and Qualifying on Fri. and Sat. 1 practice with sprint race qualifying.

 

[Blue Shadow]

Who got pole? Really? Congrats.

Too bad that that might not lead to a start from P1 in the race as this one has a sprint race associated with it, whatever that means.

 

[Binkman]

Who got pole? Really? Congrats.

Well?? Yes Magnussen got his 1st pole for the Q-sprint race Saturday.... considering the aftermath of media on site attention you'd think Haas won the constructors championship? But it was the 1st USA owned team since 1975 to do it. (I didn't even know Haas was USA owned tbh. LOL) A fluke of a pole win under timing his flying lap before rain set and when Russell spun out / the red flag ending with no continuance even though the clock was running. What kind of irked me that non apologetic Russell was happy grabbing 3rd with no rain and still time on the clock before rain for other flying laps/drivers could have improved and would have ended without the RF.
results:

 

[Binkman]

Sprint Qualifying: Kmag didn't really have a shot but not bad race position for the race. Max had him without fanfare passing him around lap 4. Max and Latifi were the only ones starting on mediums while Perez and the field on Softs. New softs at brazil? or old softs I don't know. I chatted with a guy from NLands and he and I hinted at perhaps RB was using the race on mediums and Softs to set a race strategy? But all in all the Sprint Race lacking RB dominance may have been RB backing off to make the field look good and over confident?? lol Russel passed Max lap 14-15.. he took a hit in the front wing from Sainz later and as far as grid?? Ham might get a penalty and Stroll get 20 sec. for forcing Vettel off the track.
----------.
71 laps to go and ??? tires and strategy.
-----

 

[jdurbin1]

No penalties were assessed over that starting grid BS, turns out they had painted the boxes the wrong dimensions for a car as wide as these are.

Russell drove pole to win, with Lewis finishing around 1.3 secs behind him for the first Mercedes 1-2 this season. Their cars were clearly faster than the Ferrari and Red Bull today, though Max was handicapped by front end damage and lost time due to he and Hamilton coming together in a corner - the usual "whose corner is it?" that these two seem to gravitate towards. Stewards tagged Max for 5 points for causing the collision, he was slightly behind Lewis at the point of contact which apparently they found more significant than Lewis not giving Max any room at the apex. At any rate with the wing change pit stop and a subsequent long stop to clear the 5 second penalty, he was out of position most of the race but did come up to finish ahead of Perex.

Lots of drama on that; team orders had Max go past Perez to try and run down Alonso and LeClerc, but he was supposed to give that spot back if he couldn't make up the places. He did not make up any places and told the team to go **** themselves for having asked - apparently he has told them previously not to ask him to give back positions to Checo. Word is feels he was wronged by Perez in Monaco, apparently thinks Checo crashed intentionally during quali to hang onto his pole there and deny Max the chance to take it himself. Whatever the issue is, it's never a good thing to have that kind of lack of respect and refusal to follow out team directions and I have to think it'll eventually boil over elsewhere.

LeClerc was also begging to have the team hold up Sainz at the end so he'd get more points towards the #2 driver spot but you don't deny your other driver a podium finish for something like that and thankfully Ferrari didn't even consider making that call.

So, neither Charles nor Checo got help from their teams and they are now tied at 290 pts with Charles holding the tie-breaker advantage.

I have to say I lost some respect for Charles for all the begging he did on the radio, it was a bit pathetic if I'm honest. Lost more respect for Red Bull for them having told Perez to let Max past and that Max would give it back to him on the last lap if Max couldn't reel in anyone else - which based on Max's radio traffic later was clearly a lie. As for Max, he finally proved publicly that he's a complete asshole. Yeah incredibly talented too but nobody I'd ever want as a teammate. I can hardly wait to hear how Christian and Helmut spin this event, my guess is they'll do nothing.

Ocon was also somewhat argumentative with his engineer about letting Alonso past on the restart towards the end of the race, but once he sorted out that he could get past the car ahead of him first, he did follow team direction and didn't race Alonso for position after that. Given what happened with those two in the sprint, I'm not surprised they wanted no part of a repeat in this race.

Related, Mercedes gave George and Lewis carte-blanche to race each other throughout, and they both had things on the line: Russell his first GP race win (the sprint didn't count as that), and Hamilton his "at least one race won every season" record. It didn't matter though, as Russell had the pace to stay just out of DRS range from Lewis and they didn't come together at other times during the race where they might have fought for position. Lewis did get driver of the day for having fought back to the 2nd step after falling to 8th due to the collision with Max, and Russell also banked the fast lap point.

Overall it was a very up and down and thoroughly entertaining weekend from Brazil.


John

 

[Binkman]

Lots of drama

Post race drama flamed largely by the press. Post interview of Perez I heard.. Perez said "1st I've heard of it" like he didn't know what the reporter was talking about. Leclerc post race looked indifferent shrugging off the questions. My race impression was Leclerc was being held up and Sainz didn't relent the position. And for both teams suggesting that there is post race friction? That's the media was/will try to dramatize for a story. IMO the fact Charles and Checo are tied in points just makes the last race that more of a challenge for both drivers.

Word is feels he was wronged by Perez in Monaco, apparently thinks Checo crashed intentionally during quali to hang onto his pole there

See that's just the kind of rumor mill crap the social media was hyping up. Post race Max said he'd help Perez if he can, if the situation arises at Abu.

 

[Binkman]

 

[jdurbin1]

You're burying your head on the sand to write the Red Bull drama off as rumor mill or press flaming. It happened, I watched and listened to it. It is not business as usual when a driver tells his team over an open radio link that he will not follow their direction. When that driver is also the world champion twice over (though the first one was and is still highly debatable), and the guy he's refusing to help on the track is not only his teammate but has also bent over backwards to help him win those titles, it is shameful.

Really big of Max to offer to help now. Then again, Helmut told him he had to and we know what happens to drivers that get on the wrong side of Helmut.

BTW, I don't follow social media (unless you want to lump AK into that bucket)... but literally every news organization in the world that follows F1 has reported on this.

The one article that stood out as slightly different was Karun Chandhok's suggestion that this may have been more of Max drawing a line in the sand over who the #1 driver on the team is and what his limits are, vs. the intentional crash during Monaco quali by Checo. It ties in with what Jos Verstappen has stated about "their" view of how the team managed it back earlier in the season when Max was not getting the race results and Perez suddenly went to the front and started to be more successful. I don't think anyone ever thought he was the better driver of the two but there was some discussion outside the team whether they would start backing his push towards a title vs. focusing on Max.

Whatever the reasons for it were, it was still a shitty move.

I did also enjoy the fans immediately bringing up that corner incident between Max and Ocon from 4 seasons back where Max closed the door on Ocon at an apex and got shunted... Max's comments at the time were "Of course afterwards you can easily say 'oh Max, you should have given room' and blah, blah, blah but it's not like that." Clearly he has no problem with the driver in front taking the apex and leaving the overtaker no room, when it suits him. But, his stance on all of those collisions has always been 100% self-centered, supported by his enablers Horner & Marko.

I am not surprised by any it though, after following the sport for the whole time Max has been participating. Here's an article that really shows just what this guy is capable of, and from the details in the article it appears to be a family trait: https://www.racefans.net/2018/11/12/why-verstappen-should-have-been-banned-shoving-ocon/

John

 

[Binkman]

You're burying your head on the sand to write the Red Bull drama off as rumor mill or press flaming.

You clearly don't know me very well. I've seen teams 1 and 2 drivers battle it out including Merc, Fer. RB and Alpine. I have no favorite drivers nor get hung up with all the hating and rumor mill crowd as you seem to judge things. Max clearly said way before this race don't tell me to give back a position and stuck to his decision. Both Max and Perez have talked it out as always and there is no friction yet you're the one who can't seem to let this go just like Max didn't win his 1st WDC. Max and Checo have been team players all season and they've (RB) performed, won the WDC and Constructors, shared podiums and Checo has had his share of glory to be the best Mexican driver in F1 history.
Get over it. Your postings are always welcome but get over the drama.

 

[jdurbin1]

"there is no friction" - do you really believe that?

Max was gifted his first WDC, and won the 2nd. I am hardly the only one in the world that holds this opinion. But, that's beside the point... I've been watching the guy since he came up to F1, and IMO he is lacking in character and wholly unscrupulous about getting his way. The other drivers all know this, but you seem unwilling to allow that there might be something to it.

As to "get over the drama", what sport have you been watching? There would be no F1 without the drama.

You may have noticed that Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton have agreed that they will not focus on trying to maintain his career race win streak but will instead focus on the best team result whatever that may be, including pushing to take the #2 constructor spot away from Ferrari - which will take some doing, for sure - and improving George's standing in the driver results if possible. I find that team-first position - coming from them - HIGHLY plausible. If Lewis elects to screw George over in the race like Max did to Checo, feel free to come back here and feed me those words.

Whether Red Bull will do what they said and do their best to push Checo to the #2 driver's result remains to be seen. I know what they said, but as a group their credibility on this subject is poor at best.

John

 

[slow_jazz]

That Vegas race next year looks interesting!!

 

[Binkman]

There would be no F1 without the drama.

Again; DON'T JUDGE ME. As I said I don't have any favorite drivers or teams. I don't have time in my life to get wrapped up in judging drivers personalities, listen to race gossip or any gossip for that matter and I don't do social media of any kind.
To me Racing is all about the tech, team and driver performance. If racing action = drama to you? Yes we can agree.
If you wish to interject F1 gossip other than tech., racing facts/results and observations about races, then I suggest you join some other chat forum. @epifanatic @Fat Point Ja the same goes for you.
---------

That Vegas race next year looks interesting!!

Hopefully good racing action. I would expect a ticket sell out if not already like Cota and Miami.