Formula 1 Discussion - And favourite driver?

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Race engineer at 55s: "Currently got the front wing set +1 whole compared to our race start"
So they did change settings on the new front wing. Is that allowed during red flag? Could others change their setup, too?

And as much as I dislike the cult around Hamilton and his hypocritical moralfagging, I almost feel sorry for him- you can tell how gutted he is at the end.
But on the other hand, dude's been so lucky for such a long time and the car will perform so much better on the other tracks, this tiny dip is hardly worth a though on his part.

Bottas, meanwhile:

 

[New Fag]

Race engineer at 55s: "Currently got the front wing set +1 whole compared to our race start"
So they did change settings on the new front wing. Is that allowed during red flag? Could others change their setup, too?

Don't quote me on this but I think they can do anything they can do at a pit stop to the car, so limited repairs, tyre change and wing angle. Probably other stuff like the water bottle or comms too.

Hmm... I wonder what the rulings for changing PPE are like...

 

[737 MAX Stan Account]

How many more tyre failures have to happen before the FIA tells Pirelli to either get their shit together or gtfo? No one wants a tyre war, whether it's F1, NASCAR or any other motorsport, but it's clear that Pirelli's monopoly needs to be shaken up.

 

[Coccxys]

Right Hambone is going for it being perez's fault for moving over defending his place at the 2nd start, you know like every other driver at every start.



Also some shameless meme scraping.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Right Hambone is going for it being perez's fault for moving over defending his place at the 2nd start, you know like every other driver at every start.

Well, fortunately, he doesn't really blame Perez (that would be utterly petty), he's just saying that Perez pulled over and Hamilton hit the switch when he reacted to that movement.
At least that's the way I was reading that...


That "#ExperienceAzerbaijan" banner with Verstappen kicking the tyre just cracks me up.
Rewatched his and Stroll's crash and you can see the steering wheel vibrating (also more scraping sounds from the floor) less than a second before the car starts violently veering sideways, absolutely no chance to react, nothing to warn the driver, still glad it went so well. Had this happened with a more tightly packed field, it could have gotten really bad really fast.

Now for some more memes:

Edit
Checked Pirelli's Twitter account, they wrote this (first tweet was before Stroll's accident):

Sounds a bit dismissive, doesn't it? The tweets are met with a lot of toxicity.

 

[Full Race Replay]

I was gutted by Verstappen's tyre failure. (He did nothing wrong, he did everything correct) He did everything right and had the win in the bag, for a goated 1/2 for the red bull team. But I'm glad that Perez could get the win.

As Vettel said in 2013, remember to cherish these races, because we are surely in for going back to business as usual next week and beyond, but the first 6 weeks have made the whole season worth it.

 

[Pee Cola]

A shame Stroll didn't finish, as much as I like that Seb got Driver of the Day, I think Stroll deserved it more, carrying the AM from last row to top 5.
My hunch is that AM might not be the fastest, but they now figured out what strategy works best with what their car does. Seems like preserving tyres is one of their strengths and overcuts work great for them (if the tyre doesn't get eaten up on the shoulder like with Stroll in lap 31). Let's see how they handle in the future, hope they'll continue this trend.

I've shat on Stroll the Younger in the past, mainly because he appeared to be just another pay driver. I think I underestimated him. idk if he's WDC material (especially with the likes of Lando, George and Mick all showing future WDC potential), but he definitely won't disgrace himself.

If Stroll the Elder hired Seb to mentor Stroll the Younger, he did well. Letting Checo go was a blessing in disguise for all concerned.

Speaking of Seb, I'm still delighted that he got that podium. Not just for Seb, but as a morale boost for AM after Stroll the Younger's great work was undone.

bottas is so getting fired

The only thing stopping George from getting an M-B seat in 2022 is Hambone. I can't see George willing to be Hambone's bottom bitch, nor do I think M-B would trust him to do so.

To be fair they clearly set Bottas up to be the tow for hambone in qualifying. Medium downforce set up meaning he's a sitting duck down the straight, it also means he's creating a lower pressure slipstream for the car behind. Pure sacrifice for their golden boy (who threw away a gift at the end).

That says as much about M-B as it does about Hambone.

Meanwhile at RB Checo's hardware appears to be on par with Max's, but they trust Checo to do what he is told. Even before Max's tyre let go, Checo was playing the wingman role beautifully. He could have been closer to Max, but he was happy to keep sandbagging to give Max plenty of room and keep Hambone at bay.

It also appears that he is one of the few drivers that has the mental toughness to function well in the RB team... thus far. Whether RB's culture will eventually wear him down is anyone's guess, but from my armchair it looks as though Checo has a drive with RB for as long as he wants it.

 

[Full Race Replay]

i thought it was funny that massi was talking to mcclaren that all drivers were driving too fast under double-waved yellows. Nowadays everybody knows that as long as there is any actual danger/debris massi will throw a fucking safety car. The days of having marshalls and recovery equipment in the runoff areas and throwing double yellows are gone. (I like these team/race director messages a lot)

I hope someone can enlighten me why Verstappen is classified as finishing the race (6 laps down) when he obviously crashed out like Stroll? I guess it just depends on being so close to the end. (But im glad he didn't get me -10 points for a dnf in the fantasy league)

 

[Coccxys]

I hope someone can enlighten me why Verstappen is classified as finishing the race (6 laps down) when he obviously crashed out like Stroll? I guess it just depends on being so close to the end. (But im glad he didn't get me -10 points for a dnf in the fantasy league)

If a driver completes over 90% race distance they classify as finishing the race, obviously however many laps down since the lead cars have gone past them (or at least where their car ended up) that number of times. In races with particularly high attrition drivers have scored points having crashed before.

 

[Endu]

Boy I picked one hell of a race to not be able to watch live. I can't imagine how hard you were all cheering seeing Hamilton go off on the standing start, what a great watch.

 

[Pee Cola]

 

[WhiskeyZuluLima]

Whilst waiting for the Baku race to start, I thought I'd check out the Nurburgring 24 Hour livestream. Everybody in chat is losing their shit over the Dacia Logan that's competing.

The N24 is describable as an overgrown club race - they have a policy of almost outright 'run what you brung' with exception to anything smaller than 1.6 litres. And so you get that Manta I was talking about earlier in the thread which has run every year since Henry V was born, and sometimes you get these pure joke entries from people who know what they're doing and want to see how it'll go. One of the Dacia's drivers is Misha Charoudin (YouTube channel) and literally his entire existence is the Nurburgring Nordschleife so he knows what he's doing: so why not.
It's fantastic, as a result, because you have the lastest Porsche's, Audi's all mind-numbingly fast, and a Dacia Logan with a top speed of ~175km/h when gravity is there to help.

I watched some of the Nurburg 24H last night. I was stunned when I saw there was 120 cars in the race! LOL And then that fog/rain came and a bunch went sliding. Then it got red flagged and basically stopped running. i went to bed before I saw if/when it got restarted so will probably watch the rest of that race after Baku.

125 cars were on the original entry list, only 122 entered the race. And yes, I am saying 'only'.
This is a small grid, compared to what there has been and can be. Nowadays there is a hard limit of 170 cars simply due to space limitations, however previously there has been 230 running in 2008 - and that again was due to a hard cap on entry numbers, 270 entered.
The rain caused a lot of issues, but they would have continued racing no problem - the fog got unreasonable though as you saw (For those who didn't see, look at attached image which is not even the worst it got). It did get restarted at 1140 local to the track, which made it effectively a 4 hour sprint race to the finish which was really good watching.
What makes the N24 and NLS (Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie) so great is because of the track being massive - you F1 lot talk about Spa being big, and you don't understand that there are just people living normal lives within the confines of the circuit, it can be raining like Scotland in November on one corner and Bahama's in July sun maybe a mile down the road. It truly makes for a spectacle. One of the NLS races this year got called off because it started snowing, and that's the more normal criteria, again see the video attached (yes, the video is in real time)

 

[Balr0g]

Now that you mention the 24 hours of the Nordschleife, there was one fan favorite: a freaking Dacia Logan the slowest car in the entire starting grid. And the car actually managed to survive the race (ok the race was stopped in the night due to heavy fog) and here is some footage from the Dacia

And the cool thing about the Norschleife is that you can even drive there in your own car (the Touristenfahrten). Though make sure to be careful there are so many drivers in so many differenct cars that it can quickly end badly (just check Youtube for Touristenfahrten fails)

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

The only thing stopping George from getting an M-B seat in 2022 is Hambone. I can't see George willing to be Hambone's bottom bitch, nor do I think M-B would trust him to do so.

There is only one way how this could work out: Give Russel a contract that will run (at most) as long as Hamilton's current one on the condition that he'll be Hambone's wingman and then, thereafter, he will replace Hamilton and get his own wingman. If he doesn't hold up his end of the bargain, he's out, if he does, he's pretty much guaranteed to become a star.

I would take that deal.

And the cool thing about the Norschleife is that you can even drive there in your own car (the Touristenfahrten). Though make sure to be careful there are so many drivers in so many differenct cars that it can quickly end badly (just check Youtube for Touristenfahrten fails)

It's a great way to take measure of your own abilities, but it's also a great way to waste a small fortune after clipping the grass at a corner.
Matter of fact: insurance doesn't cover driving on that road, you crash your car, you pay the bill. And that's not just your own car I'm talking about either. You also pay for getting towed (which is at a premium) and if you damaged the guard rails, you pay that too. And that shit can rack up quite a lot of cost, too.
There are special insurance policies you can buy on the track though. They are expensive as fuck, but still better than being down a 5 digit sum for replacing some guardrails.

Every now and then, there's a video of a guy who drives some really expensive classic sportscar, loses control and barely keeps it out of the rails with maybe just small damage to a fender... and then some asshat in a brandnew BMW yeets that classic sportscar out of frame. I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

 

[Coccxys]

It's a great way to take measure of your own abilities, but it's also a great way to waste a small fortune after clipping the grass at a corner.
Matter of fact: insurance doesn't cover driving on that road, you crash your car, you pay the bill. And that's not just your own car I'm talking about either. You also pay for getting towed (which is at a premium) and if you damaged the guard rails, you pay that too. And that shit can rack up quite a lot of cost, too.
There are special insurance policies you can buy on the track though. They are expensive as fuck, but still better than being down a 5 digit sum for replacing some guardrails.

Every now and then, there's a video of a guy who drives some really expensive classic sportscar, loses control and barely keeps it out of the rails with maybe just small damage to a fender... and then some asshat in a brandnew BMW yeets that classic sportscar out of frame. I don't know if I should laugh or cry.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=N52BQ3TBj8E

And that's only the people around you and your own driving abilities. There are plenty of animals just waiting to jump out infront of you too.

 

[WhiskeyZuluLima]

It's a great way to take measure of your own abilities, but it's also a great way to waste a small fortune after clipping the grass at a corner.
Matter of fact: insurance doesn't cover driving on that road, you crash your car, you pay the bill. And that's not just your own car I'm talking about either. You also pay for getting towed (which is at a premium) and if you damaged the guard rails, you pay that too. And that shit can rack up quite a lot of cost, too.
There are special insurance policies you can buy on the track though. They are expensive as fuck, but still better than being down a 5 digit sum for replacing some guardrails.

My old bike insurance for my 500cc thing here in the UK specifically wrote the Nordschleife as not included in my policy. Going rates for armco repair is about 1500 euros per girder - so if you hit anything that's instantly 4500 because of course they're triple stacked, and rarely do you only hit one thing.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

My old bike insurance for my 500cc thing here in the UK specifically wrote the Nordschleife as not included in my policy. Going rates for armco repair is about 1500 euros per girder - so if you hit anything that's instantly 4500 because of course they're triple stacked, and rarely do you only hit one thing.

It's actually quite fascinating to think that an insurance company from the UK specifies that. This would indicate that Touristenfahrten-related accidents did occur often enough to be important enough to named in this fashion.
Here's an interesting video on the matter:

Turns out it's not a 5 digit number to replace the guardrails (my bad), but still, pretty costly, when you consider that 3000 Euro might be the cost of just getting the track fixed and your car off the track on top of everything else you have to pay for to get your car back home and fixed.

Edit:

Edit 2: Editorial Boogaloo:

Highlight reel of Mick's race.
It's not mind-blowing, but he's a promising rookie that drove smartly, and he managed to stick to the rest of the field even despite the pitstop fuckup with his left front wheel being loose.
Check out how slow his mechanics are during a regular stop though... geez. The guys on the front left wheel need some training, they are slow and they almost sent him out on a loose tyre.

Compare that to Mazepin, who was over a minute behind Mick at certain times in the race. The gap between Verstappen and Mick was about as big as the gap between Mick and Mazepin. Without the safety car and restart, I think even Mick would have lapped his teammate - the only driver that was lapped in this race afaik.

One can only hope Mazepin Sr. is looking at this utterly pathetic display of performance and puts a boot up his son's ass to get a fucking grip on his car. This F1-stuff is expensive and Mazepin can't be freeloading forever. Can't be good for PR/Sponsorships either and no matter how much money Mazepin Sr. is willing to shell into the Haas team, he doesn't want to foot the bill alone.

 

[Balr0g]

If you have ever seen the touristenfahrten videos on Youtube you will see that a lot of crashes are made by foreign drivers who just want to dirve on the Nordschleife without realizing that this track is allowing you to drive and when you disrespect it you are in for a world of trouble. Funny thing is when Germany opened the Nordschleife during the Nazi reign it was declared as "one of the safest race tracks". And have you ever seen old pictures from Formula one racing (60's or 70's)? Those guys were nuts (and I don't mean the drivers the teams and visitors were just as crazy or did not realize how dangerously close they got to the action)

 

[Full Race Replay]

it was declared as "one of the safest race tracks"

I have no doubt the nordscheife was considered safe as fuck in the 1940s, with it's ample amounts of runoff area and kerbs. Especially compared to other tracks of the time (the suicide chicane on the spot of the modern nouvelle chicane at monaco comes to mind)

 

[Coccxys]

So Wolff is still busy blaming some mystical forces for Hamilton's mistakes and crap performances.




Meanwhile Bottas gets flack for his pit crew destroying the wheel nut on his car because he was 2 cm off the centreline.

No wonder Hamilton is so up his own ass, I wish I could fuck up that badly at work and have my manager make up excuses for me.


In other news Pirelli recon debris was the cause of the tyre failures. And once again the luckiest driver in F1 is the one who picked some up but didn't suffer a failure.