The Official Formula 1 Racing Thread

Singapore was a breath of fresh air and totally unexpected. Fancy Mercedes being the third best team... It brought back the prospect of a championship challenge from Seb back from the dead. Sadly, however - normal service resumed in Japan.

Rosberg could yet finish 3rd overall if he's not careful. He's sitting pretty in the championship at just 48 points behind the lead for someone that has been beaten 11/14 times by his teammate. Spain is the only race he beat Hamilton fair and square as Monaco was handed to him on a plate and finished ahead of Lewis in Singapore by virtue of the fact Hamilton retired.

What's the verdict on McLaren? I reckon both drivers want out. I think Jenson will definitely leave F1 and Fernando probably wants away even if it doesn't manage to achieve it.
 
I thought Alonso had agreed to continue for at least next year. Well the drivers seem to change their minds pretty often so we'll probably have to wait and see. Jenson will probably retire, I think he wanted one more year of being near the front and believed there was a chance of that this year before the engines turned out to be GP2 ones. Its sad really because he's the main reason I keep watching F1.

Honda will almost certainly produce a better engine next year but whether is can compete with Mercedes and Ferrari is the question (answer most likely no). I don't think the current car with the best engine would be at the front though, last year they had the best engine and were usually at the back end of the top 10 and I suspect next year will be a return to those sort of positions.
 
Well, once again - I didn't see that coming. Button to drive for McLaren next year. Pleased, but I hope he has a better car underneath him. This year has been a joke.

dpantski said:
I thought Alonso had agreed to continue for at least next year. Well the drivers seem to change their minds pretty often so we'll probably have to wait and see. Jenson will probably retire, I think he wanted one more year of being near the front and believed there was a chance of that this year before the engines turned out to be GP2 ones. Its sad really because he's the main reason I keep watching F1.

Honda will almost certainly produce a better engine next year but whether is can compete with Mercedes and Ferrari is the question (answer most likely no). I don't think the current car with the best engine would be at the front though, last year they had the best engine and were usually at the back end of the top 10 and I suspect next year will be a return to those sort of positions.
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Alonso will want to fight for another World Championship but it's hard to see Honda making such big strides forward for next year. I'd say 2017 at absolute earliest for them having anything resembling a competitive car. How long will Alonso want to hang about? He'll want to see considerable signs of progress next year even if they remain some way off the pace.

Manor have managed to secure Mercedes engines for next year so maybe McLaren will fall even further behind in the pecking order! :tongue:
 
Yes I noticed today Manor getting Mercedes engines, potential to make Q1 next season? Got to say things are looking bad for McLaren right now. Honda have some work to do, they will get there but I doubt it for another year.
 
Chopper3000 said:
Yes I noticed today Manor getting Mercedes engines, potential to make Q1 next season? Got to say things are looking bad for McLaren right now. Honda have some work to do, they will get there but I doubt it for another year.
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Well Manor will have to stop using the 2014 car or they will still be dead last, I suspect the other teams won't allow them to break the regulations again if they start beating anyone.

Great news about Button, it had sounded like he was going to retire before Suzuka but then it was very similar last year before his performances vs Magnussen convinced Ron to keep him on.
 
Now that testing is due to start in February instead of March, how much longer can Red Bull (and especially Toro Rosso) wait on the Ferrari engine decision? I figure that Red Bull has the design staff to make their new car accept a non-Renault engine fairly late in the game. But I can see that being an issue for Toro Rosso. And how was Honda able to dismiss supplying Toro Rosso? I thought the FIA waiver, on supplying additional teams, was just for their first year in - not that the Honda would be any better than the Renault.

Also, I agree about Button. I've come to really like him as a driver and a person. Ron Dennis is an odd duck. When Button wanted to be at McLaren, Dennis treated him like a redheaded step-*****. But when he was ready to walk away, Ron HAD to have him. I'm glad that he's coming back. But I also figured that both Button and Alonso were prepared to walk.
 
Here nis a great interview, Eddie Jordan questioning Bernie Ecclestone. Note that at the very end, Ecclestone tells us exactly what he thinks about democracy, at least in his domain :)

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After Lewis captures his third WDC, and the pain of ******* becomes too much for Nico to handle, time for a bitch move:

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I've never known such a disrupted F1 race weekend. Obviously it was only a couple of years ago that they did qualifying and the race on the same day in Australia but I think they only really did a good few laps in one of the practice sessions. It made for a cracking race, that's for sure.

They've done a really good job with the Austin circuit. It promotes overtaking as there are several different lines and approaches you can take to try and catch drivers out. By far the best of the newer race tracks in my opinion.
 
The Identifier said:
I've never known such a disrupted F1 race weekend. Obviously it was only a couple of years ago that they did qualifying and the race on the same day in Australia but I think they only really did a good few laps in one of the practice sessions. It made for a cracking race, that's for sure.

They've done a really good job with the Austin circuit. It promotes overtaking as there are several different lines and approaches you can take to try and catch drivers out. By far the best of the newer race tracks in my opinion.
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I was surprised when I tuned into the race and found it wasn't raining, was half expecting them to start behind the safety car and go around a few laps before it got called off.

I like the circuit too, in some ways it feels like a better version of Silverstone since it has the high-ish speed series of flowing corners with some tighter corners thrown in, the fact that the track has 2-3 places to overtake is a definite bonus!
 
I'm afraid I can't give the new Mexican circuit quite such a rave review. It's pretty much anti-overtaking. I think it had a part to play in the Bottas-Raikkonen incident. There's simply no room!

In terms of atmosphere it seems like a Grand Prix like no other, and the podium positioning is really cool - but I'd raise some question marks over the track layout.
 
The Identifier said:
I'm afraid I can't give the new Mexican circuit quite such a rave review. It's pretty much anti-overtaking. I think it had a part to play in the Bottas-Raikkonen incident. There's simply no room!

In terms of atmosphere it seems like a Grand Prix like no other, and the podium positioning is really cool - but I'd raise some question marks over the track layout.
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I feel the same way. I felt like I was the odd man out because I didn't think that the track (apart from the stadium section) was all that special. Great atmosphere... meh track. :dunno:
 
Congratulations to Nico Rosberg for ending the season on a high note... and proving that he isn't a punk. A lot of us have had to eat our words. You proved something to a lot of people (myself included). :hatsoff:

And a giant raspberry to Lewis Hamilton for talking the talk, but being unable to walk the walk. If you want to talk **** about a guy, make sure that when you put him down that you keep him down. Give that Senna hat back to the ******, Lewis. Senna didn't play during the season. He barely played during the off season. If you've been tired because you haven't gotten enough *****, that's your problem. You punked yourself once you had the WDC wrapped up. So this is your theme song to end the season. Tell the Kardashians that Gomer says, "Hey!"

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Get your damn act cleaned up before winter testing starts, pal!
 
Rey C. said:
Congratulations to Nico Rosberg for ending the season on a high note... and proving that he isn't a punk. A lot of us have had to eat our words. You proved something to a lot of people (myself included). :hatsoff:

And a giant raspberry to Lewis Hamilton for talking the talk, but being unable to walk the walk. If you want to talk **** about a guy, make sure that when you put him down that you keep him down. Give that Senna hat back to the ******, Lewis. Senna didn't play during the season. He barely played during the off season. If you've been tired because you haven't gotten enough *****, that's your problem. You punked yourself once you had the WDC wrapped up. So this is your theme song to end the season. Tell the Kardashians that Gomer says, "Hey!"
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Yes, it was important that Nico did what he did in the last few races as the outlook was beginning to look like he didn't have an answer for Lewis. It's all a bit late in the day of course and it's difficult to attribute how much of it is down to Hamilton taking his eye off the ball but it should act as a big ****-up call for Lewis. It's obvious that he doesn't like coming 2nd to Nico even if he has got the Championship in the bag so that would suggest that he wasn't taking it easy, and surely he must now realise that he's become overly complacent. He has (or had, briefly) the mentality that he could lead whatever type of lifestyle he liked and still turn up and win races. That seemingly was true for a while but he's taken things a bit too far. e.g. Zonda incident, oh dear.

I just hope it's not a false dawn as it would be nice to have a Championship that isn't resolved so early next season. Hopefully, Ferrari will be better equipped to mount a challenge next season as well. I miss the days of having two or more teams going into each race with a realistic chance of winning.

Seriously though, Nico's qualifying lap this weekend was something special. 0.377 secs faster than Hamilton.
 
The Identifier said:
I miss the days of having two or more teams going into each race with a realistic chance of winning.
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Those days are pretty rare in F1, there is almost always a gap between the best car and the next and so on. Red Bull had the best car most of the time before Mercedes, Button had the best car for a year before that, McLaren was marginally the best for a couple of years (probably the closest years in terms of car competitiveness in recent years). If we go back further, we see more evidence of one car being superior to the rest (Williams, McLaren, Ferrari, etc). I think the whole idea that "F1 used to be more competitive and exciting" is an illusion since there's always been team orders trying to stop drivers crashing into one another or doing something that might compromise a 1-2 finish. I agree that tyre and fuel management does encourage a more passive race but that's mostly because technology is so much more advanced than it was 20+ years ago and the only way to eliminate fuel management would be to fill up the fuel tanks to an equal level on all cars so they could go flat out in that regard. As or tyres, Pirelli was asked to make tyres that wear out and can't do 50-60 laps, if tyres didn't wear out and they didn't need to stop for fuel, there would be a lot less pitstops which are one thing that creates drama, although I'd argue that I'd rather see the race decided on the track instead of in the pits because a wheel nut came off slowly.

Rosberg has done well at the end of the year no doubt. Hamilton is still probably going to beat him again next year though and Merc will likely be #1 again. Hopefully its closer though.
 
Rare yes, but such circumstances have existed in F1 history - which is why I miss them, however fleeting they may have been.

We had periods of Ferrari/Schumacher domination, Red Bull/Vettel domination and now seemingly Mercedes/Hamilton domination but I'm talking about McLaren/Hakkinen v Ferrari/Schumacher (1998-2000). It was McLaren v Ferrari again in 2007-2008 and whilst this really was a one-off, we were spoiled in 2010 with 5 drivers from 3 teams competiting for the driver's championship.

It wouldn't be so bad if the competitive teams had Senna-Prost like battles as team-mates (yeah, I don't ask for much). Yes, the rivalry is there between Nico and Lewis but it doesn't necessarily translate into an exciting on-track battle, particularly when one guy aces the other as Lewis did (when it mattered) this season. Even then, it is still just a case of which driver can get pole position or to turn 1 ahead of the other rather than who can hunt down and pass the other or get the jump thanks to a different strategy. It has to be said that Bahrain 2014 got our hopes up that Hamilton v Rosberg could shape up to be something that it wasn't. We haven't really seen that kind of wheel-to-wheel racing since and know that essentially whoever turns into the first corner first has the race in the bag. Things like not being able to follow (and pass) another car of the same machinery suck ass from a viewers perspective and indeed a driver's.

We're relying on the entertainment being provided further back from the likes of Verstappen who will earn at seat at one of the top teams so that he himself can drive off into the distance and leave it to someone else to try and make a name for themself.

However, it has to be said a return to these kind of days doesn't look likely with the current regulations. Even some of the proposed changes for 2017 aren't universally approved of by all in terms of the likelihood of changing things for the better. F1 seems to always be trying to fix itself and not quite getting it right.
 
Looking back over the season, it was a great one. If you were a Mercedes fan, that is. For fans of good racing, not so much. But in my opinion, the last race made a showcase of what can be expected and hoped for in the next season.

The Ferrari team will proceed to catch up, at least closing the gap, offer a package that allows actual bumper to bumper (Yeah, there ARE no actual bumpers) racing, and a new mix of winning drivers.

Hamilton will have to put in all he has and may have to try and not be a grumpy little *** when he loses to his teammate or Vettel or whoever.

I really hope Honda will get far better. And, please, Alonso, a sabbatical? Are you going insane???

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The new year racing calendar is confirmed!

2016 Formula One race schedule:

March 20, Melbourne, Australia

April 3, Bahrain, Bahrain

April 17, Shanghai, China

May 1, Sochi, Russia

May 15, Barcelona, Spain

May 29, Monte Carlo, Monaco

June 12, Montreal, Canada

June 19, Baku, Azerbaijan

July 3, Spielberg, Austria

July 10, Silverstone, United Kingdom

July 24, Budapest, Hungary

July 31, Hockenheim, Germany

August 28, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

September 4 Monza, Italy

September 18, Singapore, Singapore

October 2, Sepang, Malaysia

October 9, Suzuka, Japan

October 23, Austin, USA

October 30, Mexico City, Mexico

November 13, Sao Paulo, Brazil

November 27, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

AFP
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Of course, the Grand Prix in Baku, Aserbaidschan, coasting the black sea, as "Grand Prix of Europe" is a joke. But hey, Hockenheim is back in!!!
 
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