FORMULA ONE - 2020

Keith Tanner said:

I have to say that Max is starting to convince me with his speed. He's really dragging that Red Bull up the grid. Vettel, well...

And if I were Gasley, I would never want to line up against him as a teammate.  Worst seat on the grid.  Way more likley to lose that seat than any other team on the grid, by a HUGE margin.  No wonder Ricciardo left.

Gravel trap catches an ailing red bull lap 1.

Update, have they even done 1/2 a lap green yet?!?

In reply to johndej :

This is a real mess.  Red flag.

Which means it will at least be a standing start instead of that really slow start.  

I hate to say it, but seeing Verstappen struggle like that- that's a good reason why reverse grids don't work.

This is insanity. So much carbon everywhere.

Looks like Giovinazzi was the bonehead that went before he could?

It also looked that some drivers wanted to make  a gap, which let the cars in the back make a proper mess of things.

One wonders how the standing start will be different.

Ignoring the Mercedes, this is becoming a good race.  

Even the Mercedes teammates are a little interesting, they're playing chess with each other. They're racing 10-20 laps out, but I don't think Bottas won that.

Poor Leclerc is being passed by everyone.  

They explained why Mercedes was allowed to change body parts last week. Parc ferme ends at the green flag. You can change body parts during the race. Makes more sense if you think about the early days of Grand Prix racing when a pit stop was more likely to be a repair stop.

What a mess.  

That is one bent-up car

Another red flag to spice things up. Can Valteri do was Lewis did?

And can Danny make Ceril get that tattoo?

Where are we in relation to the time limit?

In reply to wae :

From what they are saying, nowhere near- the red flag does not count, apparently.

In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah they just said that it's two hours of racing in a 4 hour window. 

Here we go again.  I'm hoping that Bottas can repeat his first start.

wae said:

In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah they just said that it's two hours of racing in a 4 hour window. 

Here we go again.  I'm hoping that Bottas can repeat his first start.

Nevermind

How many first laps can one race have? Lewis was toying with Bottas the whole time, but a nice pass on the second start. I was really rooting for Danny in third.

Valteri will rue that third start late tonight.  Glad to see Alex finally get his podium, but really want to see whether Cyril gets a honey badger or a 3 on his ass.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I wanted Danny, too, but am happy for Alex to finally get a podium.

Crazy race- who know that F1 drivers were like NASCAR drivers at the end of a race?  LOL.

Bottas has ether he beat or worst job in racing. He is obviously good and pushing himself to the max and he still can't touch Lewis. But who can? He is the GOAT or at least in the discussion. It has to be great fun to drive for the best team and beat 18 others every week but it has to be gut wrenching to always be a smidge slower than your teammate. 
NYN

The qualifying was interesting as drivers learned the track. Bottas was just slightly ahead or even with Lewis until Q3. So Bottas is right up there out of the gate, but then Lewis works out that last little squeeze of speed. Also, the midfield quali was tight!

I thought we were going to have an interesting battle after the way the first start happened. For two corners, anyhow. And it would have been interesting to see if Bottas could have retained the lead for the first lap after the safety car restart. But no matter what, it was a crazy race to watch. 

So this late in the afternoon watching replay after replay ......What in the World WAS THIS MASH UP?!?!?!?!!?! Can any of you (KT ......AlphaD......StwiseGy ) possibly  explain this utter nonsense ....cuz what I witnessed was shear CHAOS!!!......to the extent IMHO that race control shoulda penalized MB!!! late

In reply to 759NRNG (Forum Partidario) :

Here's one theory- which pins it all on George Russel for trying to get a gap- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q28Rnfmnlak&ab_channel=FORMULA1

And when you look at it, the idea makes a lot of sense.   Don't want to blame George, as I like him- but what he did, which checked up other cars, primarily Magnusen, well- all that happened.  What's really crazy is that the accident happened before Bottas started accelerating hard.  Everyone got itchy, and Bottas just wanted to keep the time for slipstream to a min.

In the end, seems to me that F1 drivers are just like Indy car driver and NASCAR drivers trying to get the best position they can at a restart.  Which leands to nasty mistakes.

759NRNG (Forum Partidario) said:

So this late in the afternoon watching replay after replay ......What in the World WAS THIS MASH UP?!?!?!?!!?! Can any of you (KT ......AlphaD......StwiseGy ) possibly  explain this utter nonsense ....cuz what I witnessed was shear CHAOS!!!......to the extent IMHO that race control shoulda penalized MB!!! late

Peter Windsor talks about it in his wrapup video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPt4gVn4Ncg

To summarize, In a safety car restart the safety car pulls in and then the lead car is setting the pace.  Nobody is allowed to pass him until they cross the "control line" which is somewhere on the S/F straight.  Apparently the FIA has been moving this control line further down the straight for some reason, and at Mugello (where F1 has never run before) it was WAY far down the straight.  On the restart the cars are expected to be bunched up, DRS is not enabled, and Mugello has a pretty long straight.  This means that if the lead car goes for it before the last corner, leading to a full speed run down the front straight (which is what happens at most tracks), he's a sitting duck for a draft pass by the #2 guy.  Since the #1 is entitled to set the pace, Bottas went slow until right before the control line to minimize the effect of the draft.

Problem is there was a gap separating the front pack from the rear pack and the guys at the back saw green flags and went for it at the start of the straight.  They couldn't see the leaders, didn't know they were still going slow, and expected it to be clear (based on what usually happens).  So when the guys in the back caught up to the tail end of the guys at the front, well... it was a mess.

So it sounds like if there's any fault to be laid for this crash it goes with the FIA and whoever approved the location of the control line.

FIA wrote up 12 drivers, none of whom drive Mercs.  Wasn't Mercs fault.