Brilliant that Menno - many thanks.
I will butt out of this thread now.
Apparently its raining at CoTA. This could play in to Hamiltons hands as he tends to be better in the wet than Seb. Will it be enough to close the title out this weekend? I don't think so though.
A quick weather update from Austin. After an absolute downpour overnight which stopped around 7:30 this morning, the weather is much cooler and, probably more significantly, quite a bit windier. The temperature is around the high 60's at the moment and is expected to climb to the high 70's around race time. No rain expected, but currently very overcast.
Like Rob Smedley just said, "It's all gone a bit Hollywood".
Two drivers in and the intro stuff is already shit
OMflippingG...
Let's get ready to ruuuuuuuuuummmmmmmbbbbllllleee.............
Good grief dragging it out! Hopefully Liberty don't introduce this at every GP
OMFG.... I might turn off before the race actually starts!
Lewis is driving well. Blew the doors of Vettel and Max "on track"
Bottas might be looking for a new drive in 2018 unless he pulls his finger out. #tag "taxi for Bottas"
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Agreed... Unless Bottas has been asked to help create a gap #teamorders?
.....clearly not a man controlling pace, then
MV FTW
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Unlucky Max Superb effort.
great over take by LH on Seb and Max. Great over take by Max on Kimi but neither as great as the overtake by Seb on Kimi.
Taxi for Bottas.
Young CS Jnr did rather well i thought.
most satisfying race.
Congratulations to Mercedes for Winning the Constructors Championship with 3 races to go.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
I feel sorry for Max Verstappen, he deserved a podium today, and given the abuse of track limits over the entire weekend by just about every driver, it seems harsh.
However, the white lines denote the track limits. It's just a shame that the stewarding was inconsistent.
Great race - Max has not been treat fairly but great performance!.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Great race, just shows how good F1 can be on the right track. Of course the Brits who don't seem to like hearing God Save the Queen playing on the podium won't be happy but I'm really pleased that we should now have a British 4 time World Champion!
And those who say Lewis isn't an all time great because he's had the best car (like pretty much all the greats had) should note his performance versus his highly respected team mate.
I'd be happy to take second best, whichever that may be
Well that race had a little bit of everything. In no particular order -
My mate's wife was following Sky F1's Twitter feed during the race build-up, there wasn't a single positive comment. Cheese with extra cheese, along with a side helping of cheese, all served with cheese sauce. Even if you like cheese, that's a lot of it, and enough to make most people feel a touch queasy.
Gutted for "The Rocket" Ricciardo, Verstappen showed great pace in the sister RB and it's a shame that the Aussie couldn't be up at the sharp end. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think he's the best overtaker out there and he didn't tarnish that opinion this evening.
"El Matador" Sainz Jnr had a blinder of a weekend and if the last nail hadn't already been hammered in to Palmer's F1 career coffin then it has now. Sainz stepped into Palmer's still warm driving boots and, in what I'm presuming was Palmer's chassis, blew the doors off of anything that the Brit ever achieved. "The Hulk" Hulkenberg is no slouch yet Palmer was the only driver this season who hadn't out-qualified his teammate.
Honda have been given a kicking for being both under-powered and unreliable, a point proven yet again with McLaren's obvious lack of pace on the straights and Alonso's DNF, yet Renault aren't too far behind - or should that be not too far ahead...? It was Ricciardo's turn at RB to suffer a French failure and it wasn't Hulkenberg's first early retirement either. I understand why McLaren wanted to drop Honda though the second worst engine supplier on the grid isn't that much better, my vote for best chassis on the grid goes to RB considering the overall race pace they show considering what powers it.
Did anyone else notice Hamilton's psychological dig at Vettel in a post race interview? Hamilton said that he wasn't so sure if he'd be able to re-pass Vettel after the German had overtaken him at the start, he then said he thought that Vettel was basically trying to drive too hard and it was his own fault that he asked too much from his tyres and it was this that enabled Hamilton to re-pass when he did. Vettel did comment very early on during the race via his pit radio that one of his front tyres had already blistered...
Bottas needs to pull his finger out. Hamilton was fastest in FP1, FP2, FP3, took pole and won the race.
There were at least two records broken at COTA. Hamilton took Schumacher's record for the most front row grid starting positions and Ocon took Max Chilton's(!) record for number of consecutive rookie race finishes, which now stands at 26. It was most probably the cheesiest of driver introductions as well.
Brendan Hartley did OK, neither better or worse. From memory Gasly showed more promise, and how gutted must he have felt after hearing that the last Super Formula race was to be cancelled?
The race stewards made the correct call with regards to Verstappen, no question. He overtook as a result of cutting a corner, and by some margin. Horner's defense of his driver was bordering on laughable though he did have a point about exceeding track limits in that they were frequent events, all that I saw though were limits being exceeded on some of the exits and never apparently to gain any kind of advantage.
It's not the penalty, it's about being inconsequent. Be aware of the fact that these sort of decisions are always in favour of Ferrari (also when MV isn't involved). Remember Singapore? Every other team would have been hung to dry after an incident like that.
About being inconsequent...
Hamilton and Verstappen:
Sainz:
Last edited by thieuster; 23rd October 2017 at 06:12.
I'm not sure in hamiltons but Sainz didn't get past Ocon and didn't gain an advantage as a result.
Last edited by Enda; 23rd October 2017 at 08:10.
Nothing like a bit of an overreaction
http://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-au...ycott-decision
if it's true, Max is starting to turn into a bit of @@@@.
However what seems to have been forgotten is the briefing the drivers receive before the race. Specifically the fact that leaving the track maybe permitted on some corners, because the FIA do not believe an advantage is made, other corners it simply isn't.
Personally all drivers should be very aware that leaving the track "risks" a penalty, just as ignoring blue flags, not slowing for yellow flags, etc does. But I agree, rules must be consistently applied.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Rubbish! the stewards cannot pick and choose when to enforce a rule, there were umpteen instances of off track manoeuvres, the most obvious one being VB and DR. I wanted Kimi to be on the podium but not like this, I also think Fiat screwed up the swap, if they hadn't this situation would not have materialised, maybe that is what the stewards really didn't like.
I just read the Express article (missreport) do you really think that MV would risk a bringing the sport into disrepute penalty, its a bit like him supposedly calling the stewards spastics. he's not that dumb, he knows what he can and cannot say, now his father....................................
Last edited by adrianw; 23rd October 2017 at 09:32.
I can only say if this rule is enforced, it should apply to ALL!.
On Dutch telly they could easily pick four or five other instances where drivers had all four wheels off the track.
FIA, Ferrari Instant Assistance.
Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!
It's true. He definitely said it - it was in one of the post-race interviews on Ch4 (and no doubt numerous TV channels around the world).
In my view he's turning "into a bit of @@@@" if he maintains that view. Otherwise, minutes after being turned away at the podium steps, he's behaving like a teenager. He's a prodigious driving talent but he has the brain chemistry and emotional responses of a teenager still.
Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!
I think the haters are going to hate regardless. However his record speaks for itself.
2016 - 2nd place. Lost by 5 points.
2015 - 1st place by 59 points.
2014 - 1st place by 57 points.
2013 - 4th place - team Number 1
2012 - 4th place - team Number 1
2011 - 5th place - team Number 2
2010 - 4th place - team Number 1
2009 - 5th place - team Number 1
2008 - 1st place by 1 point
2007 - 2nd place by 1 point.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Cars can leave the track, however the stewards may deem them as not gaining an advantage. In the case of MV they clearly thought he did gain an advantage. If it had been the other way around and Kimi had made the same move, thus denying MV a podium I am sure Red Bull would have protested, ditto every other team in F1.
Personally I would have liked MV to have get third, simply because I hate the way Ferrari "play the game", but the rules are the rules. It still amazes me that Vettel can ram another car - no penality. MV leaves the track and losses a place.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Brits should be proud of Lewis, best car or not, he's one of the all time greatest, he probably would have been a winner in the Red Bull as well.
Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!
The track is, well the track.............If you do not want cars taking liberties then put in a kerb, wall or a gravel trap.
Much bollox being talked by some who know nothing of the sport.
Bottas - clearly following team orders, as was Kimi.
Something I learned years ago - you don't argue with the Stewards of the meeting. Those who think the Stewards are wrong should involve themselves in the sport and seek to progress to the point where they might be invited to be a Steward. Drivers will always have a view and their view will always be that what they did was completely fair. I've given "evidence" in many Stewards enquiries and this was always a universal truth.
Or call them idiots.
Again, like the 'boycott' comment, I understand that his age, the timing and the disappointment have a lot to do with it but MV would be well advised to apologise to the steward (and stewards in general) if ever hopes to see a decision go his way in the future.
Cars that can gain advantage by leaving the track = poor circuit design
Do we want a race with all the excitement included? Or should they just do their rounds in a "merry go round" style so everything is safe and boring? It's boring enough as it is with the street circuits that are on the agenda.
Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!
Do we need to go back to kerbs that can't be run over to define track limits.
The stewarding is very inconsistent. Riciardo's demon pass on Bottas was definitely well outside the line with all four wheels.
Bottas has been such a disappointment. Does he simply not get on with that car or was he just flattered by his team mates.
Limits I can live with I’m sure at the drivers pre race meeting that are all told what’s acceptable, what I really don’t like are run off areas getting larger when there is no safety requirement for it, you go off the track you should be prepared for the consequences either bogged down in a gravel trap or dropping speed on the grass, all these large tarmac areas spoil it for me
You think his orders were to go from 2nd to 5th - or are you suggesting that his orders were to back Vettel in to Kimi and Max when LH has a 10 second advantage. But lets assume you are right. Is it also team orders to qualify so poorly and to finish so many races off the Podium?
As for the Stewards, just like referees, they are always right and must be respected even when they get it wrong. As for Max suggesting Austin be boycotted - the rantings of a school boy, simply because it was nothing to do with them. Needs to grow up quickly. But if he feels so strongly perhaps he needs to boycott a few races himself
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche