Formula 1 2019

[RJS1977]

Personally I think it's a pragmatic compromise.  On the one hand, letting the big teams (two of whom are also engine manufacturers) use as many engines as they want would amplify the gap to the midfield teams even more, which i'm sure nobody wants.

 

On the other hand, does anyone really want to see the grid size gradually dwindle as the season goes on as teams use up all their engine allocations? I think not.

[micklner]

At the moment it would not make much of a difference. How many engine problems have Ferrari and Mercedes has this year . Honda are still the weak link in the top three by a long way. Renault need to pull their finger out for next year.

[Pete the Elaner]

3 hours ago, micklner said:

At the moment it would not make much of a difference. How many engine problems have Ferrari and Mercedes has this year . Honda are still the weak link in the top three by a long way. Renault need to pull their finger out for next year.

Several, but not in the race. As long as they stay within their season's quota, it is fine. If you watch the extended coverage, you occasionally hear of component changes.

Ferrari had more problems early on including the one which cost Leclerc what would have been his first win in Bahrain.

 

You have to consider why they have this regulation. Back in the Senna era, teams had separate engines for qualifying which were tuned to the extreme so they could not be expected to run for an entire race. These were replaced at the next race, so they would need at least 3 per car for each race (1 each for practice, qualifying & the race). So that was 6 brand new engines per team per race.

Most teams could not afford to keep up with this.

[Andrew P]

McLaren back to Merc Engines!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/49859259

[Bill Radford]

As predicted at the British GP by Mystic Jordan!

[Andrew P]

Morning all, Is it just me? But I've been thinking about all the hype that Max V has had over the last 3 seasons or so, and looking at his record, it really isn't that great, only 1 Pole position and 7 Wins since joining F1 in 2015, contrast that with Charles Leclerc, who in his second season now has had 6 Poles this year and 5 wins, and that should have been 6 had he not been unlucky in Bahrain, or 7 had his tyres held up better in Austria, or 8 had the Team not switched him with the Vet in Singapore.

Max is still up there with the best, and I think in a Merc or the current Ferrari he could do better, but only time and maybe next season will tell the true story.

 

Danny R has really shot himself in the foot, and has been out qualified by the Hulk since the Hulk was sacked a couple of weeks ago. I can't see DR getting a top drive again, which is a real shame.

 

I'd be interested in some other thoughts.

Edited September 29, 2019 by Andrew P

[ess1uk]

Ferrari, What are they thinking ??

[Oldddudders]

15 minutes ago, ess1uk said:

Ferrari, What are they thinking ??

Somewhat differently now!

[StuAllen]

Could make the race to the finish interesting 

[Oldddudders]

Well, blow me down. 

[MarkC]

Well, that wasn't what the pundits thought would happen today, was it?

[friscopete]

Frankly Max should have been  in a Merc or a Ferrari by now .Red Bull is  often the pit of doom for drivers.They get signed too young and for too long .Sure sometimes they can win but its often not a convincing win lately .Its a shame .

Edited September 29, 2019 by friscopete

[mudmagnet]

Would appear that Ferrari have no idea what they are doing at times. Heading for serious problems with their drivers and can see some more fireworks between the two drivers later in the season. Not the first time in SV history getting out front, driving the socks off the car and then having engine problems. He is very good at driving fast when out front, but not so good at overtaking as some of the others. Possibly that CL has similar abilities.

 

Again showing that race pace in the Merc is still as good. Wonder if they have decided to not go all out with their engine quali mods, happier to qualify slightly worse and yet maintain longevity of the engines - i.e. not suffer grid penalties.

 

 

[Jonboy]

How many times would SV have to disobey team orders to engineer his way out of next years contract?

[Joseph_Pestell]

21 minutes ago, mudmagnet said:

Would appear that Ferrari have no idea what they are doing at times. Heading for serious problems with their drivers and can see some more fireworks between the two drivers later in the season. Not the first time in SV history getting out front, driving the socks off the car and then having engine problems. He is very good at driving fast when out front, but not so good at overtaking as some of the others. Possibly that CL has similar abilities.

 

Again showing that race pace in the Merc is still as good. Wonder if they have decided to not go all out with their engine quali mods, happier to qualify slightly worse and yet maintain longevity of the engines - i.e. not suffer grid penalties.

 

 

 

Ferrari are the motorsport equivalent of the French Rugby Union team. And have been for a long time.

 

Given their resources, they should be winning. But somehow, they manage to c**k it up completely.

[Oldddudders]

In fairness, while their delay in getting Vettel in meant they'd let Leclerc get ahead, it was still probably their race. But the failure of the Ferrari led to a VSC which obliged Mercedes, and then Russell's problem meant a full SC. And Leclerc then nipped in for softs - but the game had been lost. Full marks to Bottas for staying on the racing line under pressure. 

[Mike Storey]

An excellent race, very unpredictable until about half-way through.......

[Pete the Elaner]

6 hours ago, friscopete said:

Frankly Max should have been  in a Merc or a Ferrari by now .Red Bull is often the pit of doom for drivers.They get signed too young and for too long .Sure sometimes they can win but its often not a convincing win lately .Its a shame .

Before Hamilton & Rosberg, Vettel won the previous 4 world championships with Red Bull.

 

Hamilton & Verstappen at Mercedes would be like Hamilton & Rosberg again. Mercedes are happy with the way Bottas works within a team & they are hardly likely to let Hamilton go, so that door is shut for Verstappen.

 

I've said this before:

Ferrari pay good wages but have a history of being 2nd. If you take away the influence of their only foreign team principle (Todt), they have not provided a driver's champion since 1979 because the team has too much internal political fighting.

In this time, they have had Vettel, Alonso, Prost & Mansell, all of whom were world champions with other teams but failed to win at Ferrari.

On that basis I would argue that Ferrari is the pit of doom for drivers & Verstappen will probably be worse off there than at Red Bull.

F1 goes in cycles with different teams dominating. Mercedes will not have the best car forever. Red Bull & McLaren look like the best candidates to be next with the best car.

[EddieB]

So back to bashing Ferrari again?  I don’t see they did anything particularly wrong, Vettel only obeying team orders when it suits him is nothing new, and they did swap their cars round at the pit stops.  They set a strategy expected of a team with faster cars, in line with the front of the grid - apart from Mercedes. You can’t blame the drivers or their strategists for a power failure*.

 

Mercedes gave themselves perhaps the only strategy to have a chance of taking something extra from the race. It probably wasn’t appreciated how well Lewis drove to keep pace during the first stint (he was a long way ahead of Bottas), and being able to take his medium tyres far longer into the race, could well have overhauled the red cars even had there not been the safety cars. (Though I doubt Bottas could have finished higher than P4).

 

 

*Unless Seb over-cooked his engine keeping ahead of Charles, but surely it ought to cope with such demand?

[PhilJ W]

8 minutes ago, EddieB said:

 

*Unless Seb over-cooked his engine keeping ahead of Charles, but surely it ought to cope with such demand?

I was wondering if the sudden upping of performance by Ferrari and the failure of Sebs car are connected?

[Oldddudders]

This was the MGU(K), we were told, so the kinetic system, rather than IC. Harder to see the driver being able to abuse that. 

[Hobby]

1 hour ago, EddieB said:

So back to bashing Ferrari again?  

 

I didn't read the post that way. But they should expect to see themselves questioned more than others when they put themselves above the rest by demanding and getting extra payments  ( and possibly, treatment).

 

Although Mercedes racing history is longer than Ferrari's they tend to keep a much lower profile so dont get as much flak.

[RJS1977]

Although Mercedes' history is longer, they did have a 40 year break from F1 following the Le Mans crash.

[njee20]

I don’t understand why they pitted Leclerc under the safety car. He had tyres that were then only 2 laps newer than Hamilton and Bottas’s, and they conceded track position. Bizarre choice. He’d have easily gone to end on the mediums I’d have thought. 

 

C4 highlights jumped from lap 44 to 52 (of 53) in a single shot too. The editing has definitely suffered in the last few races.

 

Great result for Merc, but mainly luck, albeit a stellar fastest lap by Lewis.  

Edited September 30, 2019 by njee20

[Pete the Elaner]

9 minutes ago, Hobby said:

 

I didn't read the post that way. But they should expect to see themselves questioned more than others when they put themselves above the rest by demanding and getting extra payments  ( and possibly, treatment).

 

Although Mercedes racing history is longer than Ferrari's they tend to keep a much lower profile so dont get as much flak.

Nor was it meant that way.

I have seen plenty (on here & elsewhere) state that driving for Ferrari will give drivers a good chance of being world champion. Their history suggests this is not the case.

They do appear to pay very good wages though.