F1 - The Bear and Badger

b0r1s

That little jink back to the racing line saved Ham. But not sure he can keep it going. Let’s hope the tyres come back to him.

FranticPea

I meant cos he was slowed so much, but then Max got fucked too.

Bob

Yeah but then Hamilton immediately built a gap max hasn’t got shit

Ricardo is banging in lap records ffs.

RamSteelwood

Well done ham.
Ferrari drop the ball again. Also disappointing that bottas couldn't put pressure on vettel, ended up 51s behind hammo...if hammo wraps up the title this year i wonder if merc might think about bumping ocon up sooner? Bottas has been unlucky this season but also too many times in races falls a long way off ham

Bob

It’s Ironic that all the anti Hamilton peeps claim it’s down to the car when he shows time and time again what he brings to the table

b0r1s

This quali and race definitely wasn’t down to the car. Everyone knows he’s a natural racer. He has the ability to both attack and defend. And apart from “that season” with Massa he is generally balanced in his actions on track.

Bob

Clearly not a regular on the pf1 comments section

b0r1s

Definitely not. I can guess but generally despair at the comments of the masses. I’ll let his record speak for itself. Bar some mechanical or strategy screw up he should have this season and hopefully on his way to equalling Schumacher.

Dinostar77

Still *6 races to go and they all have long straights. Ferrari still have a power advantage over Mercedes at present. Its not game over for vettel just yet. Could come down to tyre choice (which was made months ago) and the ability to switch them on.

*Russia, Japan, USA, Mexico, Brasil and UAE.

b0r1s

I’m not saying it’s game over but 40 point lead and Vettel would need to win all with Ham coming second on all for Vettel to win. I can’t see that happening. We could probably see a failure or two and strategy screw up on either side.

jdanielp

Perez. What a twat. It's a shame that he is likely to still be driving next year while Ocon has to sit out...

Great result for Hamilton. Looks like he will wrap it up safely before the last race though, which will be an anticlimactic end to an otherwise great season.

RamSteelwood

Perez was out of order like. He does seem to have a bit of a naughty, huffy edge coupled with an inability to really accept any blame (though the latter seems to be a requirement to be an F1 driver).
But on a mildly related note, and since they hardly ever merit discussion...why were Williams so reluctant to pit Sirotkin? I get that he was attempting to run long on the softs, hence holding up other drivers and the battle with Perez. But once Perez hit him, and he was clearly out of the points and struggling, why didn't he box? His pace was so slow that Perez was able to twice more catch and pass Sirotkin (Perez twice falling behind him cos of the puncture and then drive through penalty).

Bob

Williams are in a world of pain

I’d tip Hamilton for America Brazil and Suzuka

Bob

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24096/11500452/martin-brundle-lewis-hamilton-in-overdrive-as-body-blows-hurt-sebastian-vettel
Brundle nails it,

Dinostar77

I honestly hope Williams come to their senses and realise that a close partnership with Mercedes is in their best interests. Take as much Mercedes tech as you can and offer seats to Ocon and George Russell. That way you can reduce the cost and improve the car as well. Mercedes and Williams both win. Paid drivers are a slippery slope.

Bob

Vettel has gone with only one set of softs for Russia too.

Dinostar77

Yeh, Vettel just given away that he will run some combo of HS/US. Kimi taken more S which is sensible and gives you some options. A HS/S strategy maybe faster than a HS/US/US which I think Vettel may have to do.

Bob

Or he’ll end up nursing the us or have no idea how the s will go.

RamSteelwood

i was thinking about the tyre compounds yesterday (what an exciting life i must lead). Part of the problem is they bring these super fast but fragile tyres, with the idea they'll belt around and need more stops...but drivers just trundle around knowing it's better to eek out more life from the tyre, and make the fragile tyre last long enough for a one stop switch to harder tyres.
maybe they could tweak the rule around stops so that if you do 2 stops, you can have free tyre choice and not have to mix compounds. so it opens the option of say going hyper-hyper-hyper in a race, versus others going hyper-soft.
so in singapore, vettel for instance could have pushed harder on his second stint going after max (actually with another set of hypers he may have took the lead), knowing that he would need to pit again later, but would be able to go hyper again, giving him the benefit of attacking with fresh fast tyres to offset the extra stop.

Bob

All they need to do is bring back the cliff.

RamSteelwood

that still doesn't change that they'll drive slower to nurse the tyres to last longer until the cliff. unless they can build a tyre that will last x amount of time and give the same performance no matter how hard you push, and then it hits the cliff, they're still going to try to make them last longer.
maybe that's what they need, tyres that self destruct after 30 minutes, so get as far and as fast as you can before they burst.

Bob

There kind of isn't a cliff now so they can just keep going..

When they had the cliff it had a set amount of laps and then just lost huge amounts of time.

Now they can just keep going. Seb got 50 laps out of they ultra soft on sunday. Ridic.

g.man

They could just bring back mandatory refuelling.

Bob

They could but it was shit and led to less over taking and more expense.

RamSteelwood

https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/19942
a quite interesting look at how the season might have panned out for Vettel and Ferrari without the mistakes. Nothing we didn't really know already but interesting to see it laid out like that. Also interesting was how little Hammo's points change...he's gained 3 wins where he prob would have been second otherwise (or 3rd in the 'fantasy' monza)...yet Seb has missed out on a tonne of points.

Dinostar77

RamSteelwood wrote:

i was thinking about the tyre compounds yesterday (what an exciting life i must lead). Part of the problem is they bring these super fast but fragile tyres, with the idea they'll belt around and need more stops...but drivers just trundle around knowing it's better to eek out more life from the tyre, and make the fragile tyre last long enough for a one stop switch to harder tyres.
maybe they could tweak the rule around stops so that if you do 2 stops, you can have free tyre choice and not have to mix compounds. so it opens the option of say going hyper-hyper-hyper in a race, versus others going hyper-soft.
so in singapore, vettel for instance could have pushed harder on his second stint going after max (actually with another set of hypers he may have took the lead), knowing that he would need to pit again later, but would be able to go hyper again, giving him the benefit of attacking with fresh fast tyres to offset the extra stop.

Michelin pulled out because of tender for the new contract because of the tyre life issue. That and they didn't wanna make 13inch tyres.
Michelin argument is we can make tyres that will allow the drivers to go flat out the entire race without dropping off a cliff. Well there will be some degradation after a while. So you make it mandatory to have 2 pitstops. Job done.

Get rid of artificial tyres (silly forced degradation) and artifical passing (drs) . Simplify the aero coming off the back of the car in front and have racing again.

Dinostar77

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/revealed-mercedes-singapore-tech-change/3179714/

Interesting article about Mercedes ability to stop rears overheating due to new rim design helpes them win in Singapore

Bob

Yeah saw that earlier,

Tbh Ferrari’s ability to develop in season has always been a weekness.

If I wanted food I’d trust the Italians if I wanted state of the art engineering it’s Germany all the way.

RamSteelwood

Hankook have confirmed they've applied to supply the tyres for the new contract, so there will at least be some competition for pirelli on that front.

Dinostar77

Is a tyre war necessary? I'd rather they picked one supplier. 18 inch tyres, 5 compounds S, M, H INTERS & WETS. Make the tyres durable enough to race flat out all the time.

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