In reply to Adrian_Thompson :
Kubica announces he will leave Williams
Imagine Hulk has a shot at it
I still can't believe that HAAS retained Grosjean.
In reply to Advan046 :
It's actually coming from Indonesia. The plantations there do a burn off after the harvest to basically get the nutrients back into the soil. Most years it's not an issue for SG but this year it's been pretty bad here. It's not like the Beijing smog.
In reply to trigun7469 :
Yup, no surprise. The question now is who will get the second seat and will Williams be able to make the magnitude change needed to get on pace with even Hass and Alfa?
In reply to Adrian_Thompson :
Given Williams' core issue, I'm betting it will be their test driver, who will bring money to the team. They need money more than a good driver right now. And I'm seeing that it would be Latifi from Canada.
Wow fascinating qualifying.
I am hoping for a tight battle tomorrow hopefully without flying carbon fiber bits.
Lewis has the Championship to think about, he'll be a touch conservative at the start where Charles has nothing to lose and pressure to get a hat trick. Vettel is an unknown, anything can happen (and probably will).
In reply to loosecannon :
Vettel next to Verstappen for the win! Should be fun!
I think LeClerc got mugged by his team there.
So, then... Seems like both Ferrari and Merc seriously underestimated the undercut. Can't see a legitimate reason to hand the win to Seb, can't see why Lewis stayed out. Without a well timed VSC, that was never working.
Second, it looks like maybe Ferrari has found the speed they were supposed to have after pre season testing.
It was a fun race to go to. so either Spa or Hanoi are going to be my next F1 stop.
You could tell the LeClerc side of the Ferrari camp were visibly unhappy. Watching the crew walk back from the podium was very muted. Can't say I blame them. I was really surprised watching each lap that the team didn't put lewis. Good to see that there was a minimum amount of contact given what that circuit can bring.
I think people also underestimate the wear that these guys go through. There is very little air movement on the circuit outside of the stretch along the bay for the bay grandstands and connecting 21 and 22.
Off to Russia next.
I thought Max ran a restrained intelligent race for Red Bull. Seems like he is starting to mature a bit
Not the most exciting race of the season, but that's Singapore. I'm really not sure what the intent of Mercedes' strategy was, but it sure didn't work. Maybe they decided to roll the dice on a safety car once they realized Ferrari had them on the undercut. It's too bad the Max/Lewis scrap at the end wasn't able to develop further, that could have been fun to watch.
Ferrari is definitely coming back hard at Mercedes and Red Bull has managed to make things interesting. Too late for this season, but when we start over from scratch in 2020 it could be some serious racing with Max, Lecerc and Lewis.
I thought it was a great race. While I think LeClerc has every reason to be upset, I don't think Ferrari deliberately screwed him. I think the undercut was even bigger than they expected it to be.
Funnily enough, my driver of the race is Danny Ric. I love me some honey badger on the move. I think the Renault is starting to come together. The front end is much better than it was which is allowing him to get back into his grove as the last of the late brakers for some stunning overtakes. Unfortunately it's not quite good enough, but good enough for him to think it is. YEs he had a few scrappy, lock up, understeer moments, but man how many cars did he pass? In fact in the midfield, there was more passing than you could keep up with. They reckon you need to be 2.0 sec a lap faster to pass the car ahead, but with Ferrari deliberately running an ultra slow pace at the front, people were so bunched up there was passing aplenty.
Good race. Now I can't wait to get home and catch up on the Indy car final. No spoilers here please.
Ferrari boss says that it was Red Bull that drove the strategy call for Vettel. Basically, Red Bull came out for a pit stop and the 4 second gap between Leclerc and Vettel meant there wasn't enough time to call in Leclerc. Which says something about how fast these guys make decisions that we dissect for weeks.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
The only curious thing is that they didn't request Vettel to slow up to avoid the undercut (as they did with Bottas), but as they said during the broadcast - I kinda doubt Vettel would've done it or responded well to the request with his current mindset. Singapore is so boring. When the front car can intentionally drive 2-3 seconds off the pace and be fine....
If they'd asked him to slow down, the undercut wouldn't have worked as well. The team's first priority is to win the race, and it would have been pretty hard to slow down just enough to let Leclerc in without opening the door to one of the cars behind. I don't blame them for running the race the way they did once the decision to pit Vettel had been made.
Not only that but if they'd asked him to slow down I hope he'd have had the testicular fortitude to tell them to F. off and put his foot down. Bottas is beaten, he's accepted his #2 status. Vettle still belives in his heart he's #1. While there is no doubt his has not been at his best for the last 18 months he's still a 4 times WDC. He took the gifted opportunity and made the most of it. Not only that, after the first safety car he trounced LeClerc, he made seriously impressive progress through traffic and opened up a 7.5 sec lead, which is often hard the 'lead' car to do, normally the first car to encounter traffice has a harder time getting through it. Especially when it was for on paper places, if not actually the true order. I'm not a Vettel fan, but he drove outstandingly yesterday. As did LeClerc, Max and many others.
Seb came about one inch away from this being a very different conversation. He dive bombed Gasley hard, touched wheels, and continued on. Very close to another oopsie from Seb.
Post race, Charles seemed comfortable with the finishing order, suggesting that it was the only way to get the team a one-two. He's probably right.
Hindsight, there was obviously a hole to pit the leaders and get them back out on a clear track, based on Sebs lap. Had Merc called Lewis in on the same lap, we'd all be talking about the genius strategy call.
Last- If my math is correct, if Bottas wins all the rest of the races, and Lewis finishes out the season running fourth, he is still champion...ignoring fast lap points. Max or Charles need him to finish fifth or worse, combined with winning the rest of the season. I sure hope they don't make noises about how critical all the points are for the rest of the season. If I were Merc, I might even bias my calls on Val's side, because he stands a chance of being taken for second, or even third place.
Yes Sebastian drove well, made aggressive moves. I think the one on Gasly was too far but it worked out. He then drove how he needed to win. The last restart was awesome.
Hamilton rarely calls a pit strategy correctly but has been right more often in recent seasons. The undercut was the right move.
Ferrari would get more respect for the strategy if they weren't just reacting to Red Bull. It feels like luck.
The first safety car period seemed to take too long to be called for. I wished red bull had more pace to put more pressure on Ferrari.
So McLaren back to Mercedes for 2021:
https://racer.com/2019/09/28/mclaren-to-return-to-mercedes-power-from-2021/
-Is this going to be the magic pill to get them back to the top? Will Mercedes allow them back to the top? Will Renault tank McLaren's chances for the next year and change?
-Is this a sign that Renault and/or Mercedes aren't going to commit to 2021 as full manufacturer teams? Renault has seemed to only had one foot in the water since coming back, and there have been rumors of Mercedes fully committing to FE, since they've dominated for so many years now in F1.
carczar_84 said:So McLaren back to Mercedes for 2021:
https://racer.com/2019/09/28/mclaren-to-return-to-mercedes-power-from-2021/
-Is this a sign that Renault and/or Mercedes aren't going to commit to 2021 as full manufacturer teams? Renault has seemed to only had one foot in the water since coming back, and there have been rumors of Mercedes fully committing to FE, since they've dominated for so many years now in F1.
They heard your question
https://sports.yahoo.com/mercedes-mclarens-2021-f1-engine-175414513.html
FWIW, anyone else going to COTA for the U.S. GP? 
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I'll be there, first F1 race ever. Pretty pumped
I was thinking about the second half of the season, and it's crazy to think that if Ferrari had not brought in LeClerc - the second half of this season is just more Mercedes dominating. We would have had no idea what the upgraded Ferrari was capable of.
I'm a big fan of Vettel but he needs to get more of out that car.
You'll need to log in to post.
