F1 Racing

[Duncan Glenday]

Here's one that is NOT talked about much, because we didn't hear the radio transmissions on the TV broadcast.

Norris finally (if reluctantly) agreed to do the "team" thing and give up his position to Piastri, right?

Similar situation:
Tsunoda was in P9, Alonso in P10, Stroll in P11 (i.e. just out of the points).
Alonso was struggling to pass Tsunoda.
Stroll tells the team he can pass Tsunoda.
The team says - okay, switch positions and try. If Stroll can't pass Tsunoda, then give the position back to Alonso.
They switch positions, so now Tsunoda is in P9, Stroll in P10, Alonso in P11 (i.e. just out of the points).
Stroll could not catch Tsunoda.
The team instructs Stroll to give the position back to Alonso - but Stroll, being the self-righteous / entitled / rich-man's-brat he is, refuses to give it up.
Alonso finishes out of the points.

[NogbadTheBad]

If I was Alonso I'd have punched him out after the race.

[Pragmatic]

You mean after he hit Hamilton right?

The steward who looked at an incident said that “it was actually Hamilton who could have done more to avoid collision…”
No penalties were given.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Hobo Chang Ba]

Stella's take on the matter:
https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/4...-orders-stella

Sent from my NE2217 using Tapatalk

I basically agree with Hal. This explanation helps not.

[Duncan Glenday]

Someone made this interesting observation:

452614035_894807582689214_7404518446761734719_n.jpg
(Click to expand)

And although not quite in synch with the above :
2019 - Ocon has no F1 seat, takes a year off
2020 - Hulk has no F1 seat, takes a year off

Talk about synchronized careers.


Another interesting observation : AFAIK, Hulkenberg also holds the record for the largest number of F1 races with no podium. IIRC, he holds the record by a huge margin.

[MudShark22]

Someone made this interesting observation:

452614035_894807582689214_7404518446761734719_n.jpg
(Click to expand)

And although not quite in synch with the above :
2019 - Ocon has no F1 seat, takes a year off
2020 - Hulk has no F1 seat, takes a year off

Talk about synchronized careers.


Another interesting observation : AFAIK, Hulkenberg also holds the record for the largest number of F1 races with no podium. IIRC, he holds the record by a huge margin.

Oooh - gotta tell my son this stat - we were talking Ocon at dinner tonight.

Probably "Dad, I knew that...." [emoji17][emoji38]

Sent from my NE2217 using Tapatalk

[Hal...]

Someone made this interesting observation:

452614035_894807582689214_7404518446761734719_n.jpg

That is interesting!

Another interesting observation : AFAIK, Hulkenberg also holds the record for the largest number of F1 races with no podium. IIRC, he holds the record by a huge margin.

The commentators mentioned that in one of the last two races.

According to statsf1.com, Hülkenberg has 216, as of Hungary. Adrian Sutil has 128.

Do you remember when Nigel Mansell broke Sterling Moss' record of most wins without winning the driver's championship? Of course, the record fell back to Moss when Nigel won the '92 season. Moss still holds the record.

I've never seen him driver (I wasn't born) but the thing I remember most about Moss is that he is credited with using the straight-arm approach to holding the steering wheel at the 12 o'clock position. Apparently, a lot of drivers started holding the wheel that way after. I forget where I learned that.

Eventually, of course, drivers learned the best positions for the hands are 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock, which supposedly gives the greatest control.

[NogbadTheBad]

Moss was a wonderful driver.

[MudShark22]

Today at Spa was awesome race.
But woah.... Post race kerfuffle / issues!

Won't say more until I know others have watched on tape delay....

Sent from my NE2217 using Tapatalk

[SteveSly]

Today at Spa was awesome race.
But woah.... Post race kerfuffle / issues!

Won't say more until I know others have watched on tape delay....

Sent from my NE2217 using Tapatalk

Just watched it. Will be interesting to see what happens.

[Hal...]

I switched to the Olympics just after the checkered flag. I guess now I'll have to go back and watch the rest.

[Pragmatic]

Today at Spa was awesome race.
But woah.... Post race kerfuffle / issues!

Won't say more until I know others have watched on tape delay....

Sent from my NE2217 using Tapatalk

They should catch it and rectify before the race. It makes mockery of what happens in the race.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MudShark22]

They should catch it and rectify before the race. It makes mockery of what happens in the race.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How much of that is a result of strategy and Spa's unique layout - re: no cool down lap

Sent from my NE2217 using Tapatalk

[NogbadTheBad]

Christian Horner was saying going with a one stop strategy could have worn an extra 1.5kg of tires away rather than the 2 stop strategy.

[Hal...]

I had to watch Ted's Notebook to see what you were talking about.

Wow. Poor George.

They should catch it and rectify before the race. It makes mockery of what happens in the race.

According to Mercedes, there was no problem prior to the race. They're evaluating, but it appears it's a combination of George's super long stint and no cool down lap at Spa.

To explain, on average, tires lose about a kg over the course of a stint. Since George went so long in his second stint, the car lost more weight than usual. And after a race, you see cars driving off line on the cool down lap, driving over the marbles to get them to stick to the tires, increasing the car's weight. But that doesn't happen at Spa, due to its length.

I understand they want the cars to be exactly 798 kg at the end of a race, per the regs, but they were 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) underweight. But that only amounts to a 0.03 second per lap advantage at a high speed circuit like Spa, according to one source.

The real problem, as I see it, is teams began using much less paint on the cars, which is why so many of them have large areas that are black. That's bare carbon fiber, not black paint. From that same source, the minimal paint used can add up to 6 kg. If George's whole car was painted, I'd wager he'd have weighed a little more than 798 kg and we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Again, poor George. He's the victim of Mercedes' error.


And speaking of George, I used to vote for driver of the day on F1.com. I don't anymore because they close voting prior to the end of the race. They should keep voting open until the last car crosses the finish line plus another 30 or 60 seconds.

The reason? As an example, Lewis won driver of the day, but how many would have voted differently if given that extra time? George was clearly the best of the race. That was one hell of a superior drive and he deserved it.

[MudShark22]

Watching qualifying this morning with my son - we both agree that it don't matter if Norris gets pole - on race day, he'll be fifth by turn 2 as usual...... lol

Sent from my NE2217 using Tapatalk

[Duncan Glenday]

Sad, but true!

[Rarebird]

Watching qualifying this morning with my son - we both agree that it don't matter if Norris gets pole - on race day, he'll be fifth by turn 2 as usual...... lol

Sent from my NE2217 using Tapatalk

He seems to have won.

[NogbadTheBad]

Who did Max blame today?

[MudShark22]

He seems to have won.

Yeah but was not on pole by turn 2 as we all surmised. His starts are just brutally bad - thankfully McClaren's cars right now are the class of the field.

and good thing he did win - otherwise it would have been six times on pole w/o a victory.

Sent from my NE2217 using Tapatalk

[Rarebird]

Who did Max blame today?

Tires?

[Hal...]

2025 lineup, so far:

Alpine - Gasly & Jack Doohan
Aston Martin - Alonso & Stroll
Ferrari - Leclerc & Hamilton
Haas - Ocon & Ollie Bearman
Kick Sauber - Hulkenberg & ...
McLaren - Norris & Piastri
Mercedes - Russell & ...
Red Bull - Max & Perez
RB F1 - Tsunoda & ...
Williams - Albon & Sainz

I still think Carlos going to Williams is an insult. Not that I would put him in the same league as Alonso or Max or Lando or Lewis ... or even Charles. But he's certainly only a slight step down and deserves a better team. Otoh, given how Albon often performs, maybe the two of them can get Williams much higher in the constructor's standings at season's end.

I'm still not certain why Mercedes didn't snatch him up.

Speaking of Williams, I heard Logan Sargeant is out for the rest of the season, replaced by Franco Colapinto.

[Duncan Glenday]

2025 lineup, so far:

Alpine - Gasly & Jack Doohan
Aston Martin - Alonso & Stroll
Ferrari - Leclerc & Hamilton
Haas - Ocon & Ollie Bearman
Kick Sauber - Hulkenberg & ...
McLaren - Norris & Piastri
Mercedes - Russell & ...
Red Bull - Max & (Perez ???)
RB F1 - Tsunoda & ...
Williams - Albon & Sainz

I still think Carlos going to Williams is an insult. Not that I would put him in the same league as Alonso or Max or Lando or Lewis ... or even Charles. But he's certainly only a slight step down and deserves a better team. Otoh, given how Albon often performs, maybe the two of them can get Williams much higher in the constructor's standings at season's end.

I'm still not certain why Mercedes didn't snatch him up.

Speaking of Williams, I heard Logan Sargeant is out for the rest of the season, replaced by Franco Colapinto.

FIFY

I agree - Sainz should have gone to Mercedes. If not them, then Sauber - in the hopes that it will improve when it becomes Audi in 2026. Perhaps he didn't want to be on such a loser team in 2025?

I'm a bit surprise Sauber hasn't committed to Bottas. He's far better than the cars they've been supplying him.

And this last-minute substitute for Sargeant seems pretty stoopid. They should have taken Antonelli - to help him gear up for next year's (presumed) position at Mercedes. Williams is a Mercedes customer, and those customer teams often shuffle drivers among themselves...

[Hal...]

Supposedly, this is going to be Ferrari's livery for Monza ... possibly:





Now that's a beautiful car. I love the yellow Prancing Horse on the side.

[Duncan Glenday]

^^^ That's fantastic!!!