FORMULA ONE - 2020

I'd be happy to sell them last years engine lol

Rain, no practice,  a track nobody has seen for almost a decade.  Kimi on pole?

Keith Tanner said:

In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :

They don't really have a choice from what I understand of the regulations.

They have a choice.  Renault MUST supply them with engines IF they don't get a deal elsewhere.

wvumtnbkr said:

Keith Tanner said:

In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :

They don't really have a choice from what I understand of the regulations.

They have a choice.  Renault MUST supply them with engines IF they don't get a deal elsewhere.

That's not a choice if you're Renault. 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Oh, misunderstood.  Yep.  Renault won't have a choice.

The Hulk is back!

Wow, that was some interesting qualifying. Albon is close enough to Max to show that the RB engineers did a great job on setup. And Bottas is further ahead of Lewis than he has been for a long time. Quite a difference between the red cars too.

Turn 1 just looks awkward.

"Hey, Nico, you busy this morning?"

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Nah, let me hop on the Autobahn in my 911 GT2, be there in a flash!

Safety car for that? Feels a bit like NASCAR to me, should've been a VSC.

Exciting race, lots of drama. I'm glad Lewis made a legit on-track pass to Bottas so that Bottas can't make excuses, too bad it happened during a commercial break and they never showed it in replay.  Interested to see what tattoo Daniel picks. Hulk did a great job, too bad he didn't qualify better. Mick giving that helmet to Lewis was really special, I got a little misty eyed.

Going wide on T1 didn't carry much of a penalty. It may have been a better line - which made things interesting over and over again. That was a pretty decent track for racing, not dependent on DRS for passing. The camera work and editing seemed a little rough, though  - a lack of practice?

No commercial breaks on ESPN - Lewis seems to have been closing on Bottas, and Valtteri just made a mistake he couldn't afford. Good job by both to avoid contact. Nico Romberg said post-race that the two Merc drivers haven't hit each other over their four year run, and he seemed to think that was a bad thing. Not sure Toto would agree.

Hulk did a great job. He somehow looked comfortable and I was rooting for him to get past Seb.

Red Bull found some serious pace. Will it be the same in Portugal? Another "new" track but maybe they'll get to practice.

Bottas did a lovely job keeping the lead on the first lap.  

Interesting how many failures today.  No practice to set parameters?  Cold air making too much power? Getting late in the season? 

Edit:  I see Albon took a rock to a radiator, so only two failures.  Still more than normal.

Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:

Riccardio on the podium

That aged well!

loosecannon said:

Mick giving that helmet to Lewis was really special, I got a little misty eyed.

That was really cool and yes a bit misty eyed here as well. 

That was a good race!  A little bit of everything.

Loved the shakeups throughout the field.  The tracing points and Renaults really have cars - finally!  Very impressed by what Leclerc has been able to do with that Ferrari.  So happy to see the Honey badger on the podium, dissapointed by lack of a Shoey though.

I saw an article this morning on Motorsport that quoted Helmut as basically saying that he's considering dumping Albon and taking on Hulk.  Which would be awesome, but I can't help but think that it's just him turning up the pressure.

I was looking at the standings and even after only being classified in two races, he's out-scoring Alfa, Haas, and Williams.  I mean, I know he's got a strong car in the Force Racing Martin and all, but that's still a lot of drivers that he's beating.

In reply to wae :

IMHO, if RB did that, it would totally ruin the team for the #2 driver.  They have never really given them a chance, unless they were Seb or Max.  Even Ricciardo and Weber were treated like crap.

I was super excited for the race, I spent a little bonus time with the kids and then I bellied up to the TV at 8:55 to catch the last 10 minutes of the pre-race and see the start. WTF it is lap 22? Whoops, I had the start time wrong, it started at 8:05. I couldn't wait until the replay so I missed the beginning...:-(

NYN

wae said:

I saw an article this morning on Motorsport that quoted Helmut as basically saying that he's considering dumping Albon and taking on Hulk.  Which would be awesome, but I can't help but think that it's just him turning up the pressure.

I was looking at the standings and even after only being classified in two races, he's out-scoring Alfa, Haas, and Williams.  I mean, I know he's got a strong car in the Force Racing Martin and all, but that's still a lot of drivers that he's beating.

Hulk has always been a popular driver, I think people just like to root for him.

He apparently got the call to come drive at 11:00 (according to the Sky commentators). FP3 started at 12:00. Qualifying started at 15:00. That is impressive turnaround for everyone involved.

I had suggested that Red Bull could just buy the Formula 1 engine IP from Honda and it looks like that is their Plan A, but now they are threatening to leave F1 unless engine development is frozen Red Bull threatens to leave unless engines are frozen

I can't say I blame them and there's no good reason to radically change engines, although Ferrari wants to make changes and I understand why.

In reply to loosecannon :

I would almost want to see them leave than freeze the engines that hard.  And the only reason they want to do that is they realize that having the IP does not give them the knowledge- just the info.

And the irony if the Honda engine results in a premature and more extreme pulling ahead of engine rules- given the HUGE complaints that the engine rules that were in place is what hampered Honda's development in the first place.

It's a goofy ultimatum as they are ignoring other legit options on the table. Sure, they can't get Mercedes engines - but they can get Ferrari or Renault. So it's not like they're backed into a corner where they have to do their own. Well, they've backed themselves into that corner somewhat, but the option is indeed open.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

They'd rather quit than drive with a Ferarri lump in the back?  Seems crazy, but not *that* crazy given how bad Ferarri have been.  2nd to 6th? Red Bull would not like that for 2021.

They'd rather quit than drive with a Renault in the back?  Maybe they figure that Renault will sabotage them?

All of their options are awful, but given that they've know for a while that Honda is on its way out I am shocked that they haven't come up with a Plan B yet.