FORMULA ONE - 2020

alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:

Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:

Dave M (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Dave M (Forum Supporter) :

Replying to myself here, but apparently he went to Mexico to see his mom.  So yeah, that's like playing the Marlins - you're gonna get it!

Hulk looked a bit rusty in P1, but great to see him back!

I think Perez just lost his own seat. Papa Stroll is no dummy and was likely looking at pairing Vettel with Perez at Aston Martin but then Lance went and got a best finish and then Perez broke the bubble and got COVID. Now Papa Stroll can replace Perez with Vettel and not look like the doting father. THis likely hurts Perez's prospects at other teams, too.

The kingpin to have everyone move early is Alonso, and he's not doing anything until the 500 is done. 
Still, in the musical seats game, one person is going to lose their seat. 

He already signed with Renault.

The thing with tracing point is seb is a better driver than stroll.   The big thing is can Lawrence stroll save his sons seat when a 4 time champion is available for a lowish cost?

If I was one of the many investors in either tracing point or Aston Martin, I would be pushing for Perez and vettel....

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

It's the timing.  Alonso isn't going anywhere until the Indy 500 is done.  Then all of the driver changes can happen this year.  If he isn't going to occupy the Renault seat until then, none of the other drivers will be allowed to move.

And this morning, Hulk looks like he's coming to terms rather nicely with the Racing Point.

I was really rooting for Hulk to out-qualify Lance...

Wow, the difference between the Mercedes and the rest of the field....  Good thing the mid-field racing is so good.

alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:

Wow, the difference between the Mercedes and the rest of the field....  Good thing the mid-field racing is so good.

this....but I suspect the brat will be right in the thick of things once the flag drops.....wink

wae said:

I was really rooting for Hulk to out-qualify Lance...

You and everybody else. It looked promising in Q1.

Keith Tanner said:

wae said:

I was really rooting for Hulk to out-qualify Lance...

You and everybody else. It looked promising in Q1.

As a Canadian, I've been mildly embarrassed by Lance.  Rich Dad buying him a ride, then a team...  Not really the proudest moment for a race fan.

But...  He has arguably done pretty well, and is developing nicely.  Last couple of years, his quali pace has been abysmal, but he also passed more cars on the opening lap than any driver last year.  Quali pace has improved, and he is kinda doing pretty well...

If only he didn't look vaguely neanderthal.

alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

It's the timing.  Alonso isn't going anywhere until the Indy 500 is done.  Then all of the driver changes can happen this year.  If he isn't going to occupy the Renault seat until then, none of the other drivers will be allowed to move.

And this morning, Hulk looks like he's coming to terms rather nicely with the Racing Point.

I don't understand what you are getting at.

Alonso is driving for Renault next year.  Done deal.  

I feel like I'm missing something....

Ricciardo to McLaren.  Sainz to Ferrari.  Alonso to Renault.  That leaves vettel the odd man out with maybe a door open at tracing point.

Edit:  I see you mentioned moving early.  I don't think most of those teams can do that with the contracts in place.  Vettel, I would assume, would certainly not just get out of the car....

Is Ferrari punishing Seb? I saw he was mid pack in practice...

Silverstone is a tough course, they need a high drag aero package to deal with the slower corners.

They will have to balance aero drag with tire wear from sliding the car in the turns.

The driver will have to save rear tires and not flat spot the fronts, very challenging.

It seems there were lots of flat spotted front tires during practice.....

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

With Perez getting sick, everyone was talking about the moves for next year happening now.  And i'm just pointing out that the very earliest that that could happen is after the 500 because of Alonso's committment.  Once he clears that, then *IN THEORY* Renault could relase Ricciardo, which will let McLaren release Sainz, which wil then let Ferrari let go of Vettel; which might force the driver change at Racing Point.

For all of the early moves to happen, next year's driver must be availabe, so that mean Alonso is the one who would even allow the whole thing to happen.

I don't see any of that happening this year, though.

bentwrench said:

Is Ferrari punishing Seb? I saw he was mid pack in practice...

 

Silverstone is a tough course, they need a high drag aero package to deal with the slower corners.

They will have to balance aero drag with tire wear from sliding the car in the turns.

The driver will have to save rear tires and not flat spot the fronts, very challenging.

It seems there were lots of flat spotted front tires during practice.....

I was thinking it's more a matter of the softs being too soft.  They were talking about how they don't even last for 1 aggressive lap.  That was the reasoning for all the cars having a VERY similar time in the first sector.  Everybody was babying the sorts at the beginning of the lap to make up time at the end of the lap.

As I understand it, next week they are going to even softer compounds....

wvumtnbkr said:

bentwrench said:

Is Ferrari punishing Seb? I saw he was mid pack in practice...

 

Silverstone is a tough course, they need a high drag aero package to deal with the slower corners.

They will have to balance aero drag with tire wear from sliding the car in the turns.

The driver will have to save rear tires and not flat spot the fronts, very challenging.

It seems there were lots of flat spotted front tires during practice.....

I was thinking it's more a matter of the softs being too soft.  They were talking about how they don't even last for 1 aggressive lap.  That was the reasoning for all the cars having a VERY similar time in the first sector.  Everybody was babying the sorts at the beginning of the lap to make up time at the end of the lap.

 

As I understand it, next week they are going to even softer compounds....

Is Pirelli incapable of making a decent tire, or is it just the fault of the tech regulations? It's certainly awful marketing for Pirelli to have Hamilton et al on the radio every week saying, "these tires are terrible".

In reply to Dave M (Forum Supporter) :

The FIA tells Pirelli the specifications required for each compound and Pirelli builds to it. The FIA then picks which compound for each race with enough lead time for Pirelli to build them (usually, this season is obviously different). Sometimes the conditions don't match the modeling and you get lack of grip or premature wear. The FIA would much rather see premature wear as it makes for better racing, so they err on the side of sticky. Plus track records and all that jazz.

Streetwiseguy said:

As a Canadian, I've been mildly embarrassed by Lance.  Rich Dad buying him a ride, then a team...  Not really the proudest moment for a race fan.

But...  He has arguably done pretty well, and is developing nicely.  Last couple of years, his quali pace has been abysmal, but he also passed more cars on the opening lap than any driver last year.  Quali pace has improved, and he is kinda doing pretty well...

If only he didn't look vaguely neanderthal.

I agree with you, I'm a Canadian and feel the same way about this kid and Latifi isn't much better. I think Lance is missing the eye of the tiger. He stays out of trouble, which is good in a way, but he also doesn't attack during qualifying or when he catches slower cars. I'm on the fence about Lawrence keeping Lance on the team. On one hand, Lawrence would probably not be involved in Formula 1 or the saving of Force India if it weren't for Lance but on the other, he's a brilliant businessman and tossing Perez instead of Lance doesn't make sense for the business. Well, whatever the case, Lance is driving better this year because he's got a car that agrees with him, it will be interesting to see what happens.

Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Dave M (Forum Supporter) :

The FIA tells Pirelli the specifications required for each compound and Pirelli builds to it. The FIA then picks which compound for each race with enough lead time for Pirelli to build them (usually, this season is obviously different). Sometimes the conditions don't match the modeling and you get lack of grip or premature wear. The FIA would much rather see premature wear as it makes for better racing, so they err on the side of sticky. Plus track records and all that jazz.

Yes, and I think Formula 1 should just mandate that all teams have to run all 3 compounds during a race and we would see much more interesting racing

I don't like the teams being forced to run one wrong tire already, forcing them to run two wrong tires is just making the cars work badly on purpose. Let them run whichever of the three compounds they want. If Ferrari wants to try to run the entire race on hards without a stop while Red Bull burns through five sets of softs, and Mercedes starts with hard and goes to medium, cool. Makes the strategy more interesting. 

Keith Tanner said:

I don't like the teams being forced to run one wrong tire already, forcing them to run two wrong tires is just making the cars work badly on purpose. Let them run whichever of the three compounds they want. If Ferrari wants to try to run the entire race on hards without a stop while Red Bull burns through five sets of softs, and Mercedes starts with hard and goes to medium, cool. Makes the strategy more interesting. 

The problem with that is that everybody will try a no stopper and it will be about tire management instead of just going for it. If everybody has to run all 3 compounds then there is no reason to preserve tires, just run them hard until they go off then come in and put on another compound. This isn't my idea, one of the Formula 1 engineers on the Autosport staff suggested this and made a pretty good case for why it would work great.

A no stopper only makes sense if you're less than 20 seconds slower. That's only about 0.3s/lap for most races. If you can go more than 0.3s/lap faster with tires that last only half as long, it's worth changing. Or maybe you find the stickiest tires last as third as long but are 1s/lap faster. A two-stopper is a no-brainer at that point. But that's what makes it strategy.

You always have to manage something - brakes, fuel, temperature, powertrain degradation, battery levels - so it's never going to be a full-on sprint from flag to flag. Never has been.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I like all these ideas. But then again, I miss the tire wars!  It just seems silly to mandate a tire that lasts one lap when the technology exists to make better tires.

That's just gutting for Hulk.  I was really looking forward to that.

What is up with Racing Point not being able to get the Hulks car started?

I suspect Albon's days are numbered at Red Bull

That was a pretty crazy last lap.

Left front tires might be under some scrutiny before next weekend's race I would think.....

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

I can see next week being a 2 stop race, without a doubt.

I feel quite vindicated complaining about the tires after everyone's tires failed on the last lap.... Very exciting!