F1 2023 (Sponsored by Ferrari strategists)

[niko_cee]

Sport is in the mud

Aero domination always makes for a shit spectacle. It's not so bad when it's mechanical/engine as that isn't so lethal, although Red Bull seem to have that as well at the moment, so it's a bit of a double whammy.

[Ben]

Agreed. MotoGP is increasingly going down the aero route and it's suffering big time.

[Shindig]

And yet MotoGP has been an absolute merry-go-round of World Champions for the last five years.

[Gray Fox]

Alonso punted down to 4th with a 10 second post race penalty.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

FIA are such corrupt cunts.

[niko_cee]

Alonso punted down to 4th with a 10 second post race penalty.

Was clearly going to happen so you wonder why Merc didn't make sure [or at least try] to keep Hamilton within that time window. Unless they did and he just lolled at them telling him to go faster.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

They probably did but he clearly couldn't give a shit today.

[Giggles]

Car issues aside, has he finished ahead of Russell all that much since the latter replaced Bottas?

[Shindig]

I think it's been pretty even with them. Lewis had that run of 2nd placed finishes last season but Russell had his number for the first half of the season. Russell's had those years of driving around in a Williams and I don't think that's within Hamilton's skillset.

[Gray Fox]

You're forgetting the driving into Massa years at the end of his McLaren days.

Hamilton seems a very moody driver. He seemed to almost trip over his own lip at the start of last year after getting robbed of the 8th title. Once Mercedes fixed the race pace of the car he seemed to go from a smidge down on Russell to a smidge ahead.

I suspect the lip is out again because he's realising right now that the 8th title he wants, he is very unlikely to be getting unless something miraculous happens.

[Ben]

Russell certainly seems more adept at driving the shitboxes.

[Giggles]

Didn’t he want to jack in a race last season too when he ended up near the back early on? I think he ended up on the podium, or close to it, when the team told him to pick his toys back up.

[Adramelch]

Both Merc and Aston Martin seemed convinced it would be 5 seconds if any, which makes the FIA decision seem even more suspect.

@niko

[Ben]

Alpine got 10 for the same infraction in the first race.

[Disco]

I think 5 seconds is the smallest time penalty they can apply so they tried to stay within that just in case.

[Adramelch]

Alpine got 10 for the same infraction in the first race.

Ah I heard the theory that the second penalty would have something to do with him serving the first under the SC and that not following the rules or something. But since it's the same case as Ocon's that makes sense.

[niko_cee]

Both Merc and Aston Martin seemed convinced it would be 5 seconds if any, which makes the FIA decision seem even more suspect.

@niko

But, as they pointed out on comms, in the last race Ocon did exactly the same thing [was it, or was it Gasly?] and got a 10 second penalty for failing to properly fulfill the initial 5 second penalty, so they probably should have known.

Edit, see this has been covered.

[Disco]

They clearly weren't aware of the famed consistency of the FIA stewards.

[Gray Fox]

Speaking of which. Alonso is back in P3 again.

[Waffdon]

:lol:

Russell will be regretting his tweet where he was pretending to be sympathetic

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1637549585819217923

What a tweet it was too.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Should be a decent championship if you ignore the front two. Merc, Ferrari and one of the Astons. Think Russell might win the championship if Hamilton's motivation/pace is down.

[Ben]

Overturned on the argument of "you didn't punish all the other times this happened" - a great summation of how useless the FIA are.

[niko_cee]

You'd think it would be pretty easy to decide if you are or are not allowed to touch a car whilst it is serving a penalty.

Not that I really get the lining up wrong penalty in the first place if you aren't any further forward and still have a majority of the car in the box.

[Gray Fox]

It's because there's two sensors in the track, one detects the nose of the car and one the rear wing. If the sensor doesn't pick you up, you auto-fail detection. Even though with Alonso he was only shifted to the left, it was still enough.

I think the appeal comes down to the wording of the rule(which will now undoubtedly change). I'm sure it says something like "you must not work on the car before the 5 second penalty is served." Aston Martin argued that the jack touching the car does not constitute working on it as it was never actually used before the timer was up.

[niko_cee]

Ah ok, and I guess that sort of feeds into the 'reaction times' thing which would determine a jump start, but then, they had reaction times for Alonso yesterday so how does that work? The simple solution is obviously just to park the car in the box as required.

And what did Alpine do to get their 10 second penalty in race 1 - were they fiddling with the front wing too early or were they just 'touching the car' as well. All seems a bit of an anally retentive shitshow, which seems to be the mantra of the FIA under their current leadership.

[John Arne]

With Hamilton now not winning, I for one think the whole sport is rigged, boring and corrupt.

#HamLove

[Gray Fox]

Ah ok, and I guess that sort of feeds into the 'reaction times' thing which would determine a jump start, but then, they had reaction times for Alonso yesterday so how does that work? The simple solution is obviously just to park the car in the box as required.

And what did Alpine do to get their 10 second penalty in race 1 - were they fiddling with the front wing too early or were they just 'touching the car' as well. All seems a bit of an anally retentive shitshow, which seems to be the mantra of the FIA under their current leadership.

Reaction times is because they can time how quickly it is between the light fully going out and the release of the clutch using the cars telemetry. You'll have a lot of times where drivers line up pointing the car left or right depending on track, but so long as the sensors report back as fine then you're grand.

Alpine probably actually jacked the car up before the 5 seconds were up. Either that or the Aston Martin rules team is much better.

Essentially there had been an 'agreement' in previous team meetings that touching the car constituted working on it, however this for one isn't a rule and for two, Aston Martin provided video evidence of other times teams have done it with the front jack with no punishment. The argument was that the front jack helps you get the car into the right place as it pulls in, but Aston argued what's the difference in front and back as it both amounts to the same thing.

[Shindig]

I would've figured the jack prevents the car from leaving before given the all clear. At a certain point it's force of habit.

[Disco]

Now we need justice for Nigel Mansells wife.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/65074698

[Disco]

Fine return to form for Barricheco, Verstappen looked barely awake on his way to pole. They were also doing multiple runs on softs which bodes badly for the race, I look forward to our regulation single pit stop and fastest lap by whoever is accidentally quickest.

In other news someone who clearly wants their channel banned has gone crazy in the last few days and uploaded a bunch of mid-00's races in full if that's your sort of thing. I've been watching the ones won by British drivers because those are obviously the best before they all get inevitably taken down; Hungary 06 is worth it for Alonso charging through the field and Ant Davidsons mega dunk on Martin Brundle for choosing to miss the best Hungarian GP for over a decade; also USA 07 where everyone is sure Fernando Alonso has accepted his defeat with good grace and that Ron, Martin et al have a firm lid on their inter-team relationships.

https://www.youtube.com/@F1Replays/videos

[niko_cee]

Yeah, the Perez title charge didn't last long. Someone must have accidentally pushed the crash button in the garage.

[Ben]

Cheers Disco. Getting them downloaded while I still can.

[Waffdon]

Do it right, George, and take Verstappen out pls

[Giggles]

Looks like the sport is back alive again.

[niko_cee]

60 odd laps of fuel and tyre management probably disagrees. The revival of the Alonso-Hamilton rivarly could be an interesting subplot for the season though. That and lolling at Ferrari.

[Giggles]

Is Sky not bothering with anything more than commentary on this more of the carbon footprint bollocks?

[Ben]

Max doing a Checo there.

[Giggles]

That’s a pisser for Russell, he was steaming off into the distance there.

Edit - and that’s an even bigger one.


.

[Ben]

Red flag for gravel? That’s a new one.

[Clunge]

Red flag tyre changes need to be removed. Been a farce since that Monaco race a few years ago.

[Ben]

Max has that P2 grid spot now, nothing stopping him.

[John Arne]

It's bullshit allowing tyre change during red flag.

[Ben]

What was going on at the back there? Two cars off track on a formation lap. :D

Hamilton might get a penalty too.

[Clunge]

Race over.

[Ben]

The Red Bull DRS is insane. Checo regularly overtaking cars which also have the wing open.

[SincereTheRebel]

Once it kicks into 8th gear with DRS. The engine noise goes up another level. Its crazy. You can hear it.

Im seriosuly struggling to tell the difference between the Alfa, Haas, and Alphatauri.

[Waffdon]

Hopefully we get chaos at the restart here.

[Ben]

I mean, I’d rather this than finish under a safety car, but how the fuck is this a red flag?

[Giggles]

Croft is some fucking scumbag :D

[Ben]

He’s been extra annoying today.

[Giggles]

Is this going to be a standing start? You’d have to fancy Hamilton if it is, Verstappen has been awful off the line.

[Giggles]

Red flag again. Fuck this.

[Waffdon]

Hopefully we get chaos at the restart here.

Hahahahah. Well, we got that.

[Ben]

What a shambles.

[Ben]

Just make a fucking decision.

[Waffdon]

No more racing anyway.

[Serj]

Alpine :D Gasly returning from the grass and immediately picking the line at the other side of the track is pretty... daring, I suppose.

Also lol at Sergeant just randomly driving into the rear of whoever at the back.

[Ben]

The seeds are being planted for the Gasly-Ocon implosion.

[Ben]

Sainz five second penalty. This is actually going to be quite funny across the line.

[Ben]

Is there any footage of Gunther Steiner doing the rounds? Ted said he’s fuming and we all know how entertaining that can be.

[Serj]

Them announcing that Sainz penalty before the lap really increases the likelihood of a collision behind the safety car. Don't know if it would have been possible for them to wait longer, but it seems not that smart.

[Serj]

Them announcing that Sainz penalty before the lap really increases the likelihood of a collision behind the safety car. Don't know if it would have been possible for them to wait longer, but it seems not that smart.

Irrelevant since Stroll was not interested in any shenanigans. Boo.

[Giggles]

A post race red flag. How fitting.

[Ben]

A post race red flag. How fitting.

I fucked it off in the end. What happened?

[Clunge]

Hulk broke down.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Wasn't getting up for this, what's with the four DNFs on lap 56? Some kind of safety car restart crash?

Hamilton and Alonso on the podium in 2023 is mad.

[Ben]

Red flag standing start. The Alpines smashed each other up out of T1.

[Shindig]

There's going to be a year full of this bollocks, isn't there?

[Gray Fox]

I've just caught up with it. Christ. Firstly Sky really need to make it easier to get to a race re-run or highlights online without spoiling the thing themselves. I managed to avoid all internet and spoilers since bed last night and got to the click to start the video but the thumbnail was of the three on the podium ffs.

Ferrari continue the lols. Both of their drivers with daft moves and for once Strulovic not at fault.

George or his engineer are a bit dim. That was always, always going to be a red flag in modern F1. Threw away at least a second place there. I feel like Max had a much better car on those hard stint(s). Some encouragement for Mercedes though. If these updates they were on about the other week do come, they might be able to put on a consistent show for 2nd while Max pisses off up the road.

Aston continue to plug away as the 3rd best and should do so while Ferrari continue to make a show of themselves. I dont recall either driver putting much of a foot wrong in this one.

The calamity at the final restart was something, but to lose 8(maybe 9) runners from a modern day F1 race is a proper throwback.

The Alpine guys didnt wait long to give us a Team France implosion either. 'mon Gasly.

Also lastly, I see Haas have officially protested the race result... why?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Yeah, French superteam crashing into each other in race three is proper chef's kiss stuff.

[Shindig]

Hulkenberg was running in 4th before the last red flag came in but the first sector hadn't been completed to make the position count. Two-lap sprints like that are always going to produce carnage, though.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Why did they restart it again under the safety car and fuck over everyone who had safely negotiated that chaos? Back in the day they would just call off the race with a red flag at that stage (cf Canda 1997).

First sector shouldn't exist in the sporting regulations, ffs.

[niko_cee]

Madness.

The sector 1 free hit/reset feels like it makes those red flag restarts even more dangerous.

Alonso's radio is pretty much the only thing interesting in F1 these days. I love how he knows everything about everything.

Quite what arcane magic Newey has wrangled to make that DRS of theirs work the way it does will be interesting when it finally becomes known, although, that said, I reckon you could disable it and Verstappen would probably still win.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Newey is another laughable individual. His first absurdly dominant car was 31 seasons ago.

[Gray Fox]

It was floor effect then wasn't it? I think his dominance here is due to him mastering his car design, then when it went away from floor effect nobody needed to be good at it. Fast forwards to 2022/3 and he's produced another dominant car while his opposite numbers are only just stopping the cars bouncing all the time.

[niko_cee]

Are they just getting heroic amounts of downforce from ground effect allowing them to run smaller wings or are they stalling them [or whatever the term is] in some way to reduce drag?

[Ben]

The key is "sealing" the floor with air vortices around the edges and Newey seems to be a master at that. Therefore, they don't need to be as reliant on the over-body air flow to generate downforce and can run really skinny wings; the rear wing is so small that it is virtually a flat plane when open which is why they're so fast in a straight line despite the Honda engine not having an obvious horsepower advantage.

[Shindig]

That DRS pass had no struggle to it.

[Gray Fox]

4 weeks now to Baku. Most teams first update/upgrade potential race.

I'm unsure what it'll bring except the fact that Ferrari will fuck it up.

[Giggles]

A 4 week break? That’s some load of shite this early in the whole thing.

[Gray Fox]

A 4 week break? That’s some load of shite this early in the whole thing.

We were supposed to have China in the middle of it, but it got cancelled and the usual suspects were not available to put in a make up race.

[7om]

Underrated performance of the day was Norris. That McLaren looks like absolute dogshit in a straight line.

[niko_cee]

That DRS pass had no struggle to it.

I think they need to change the way DRS operates slightly as it always seems a bit of a cheek when someone breezes by with the wing open and then gets to open it again in the next zone due to the detection point [obviously this is track specific but seems to happen quite a lot]. Or maybe it should just be less of a thing in the 'closer following' era.

[niko_cee]

Also, wasn't Masi back [in some capacity, if only as an Australian] at this race? End of race clusterfucks obviously follow him.

[Disco]

Is it bad that I'm more excited that I've got races from 2000 to tuck into because this sounds like a shitfest.

[Jimmy Floyd]

2000 was a great season. The front two both at their very best.

[Disco]

I find myself weirdly keen to see Schumacher win that 'first' title.

[Shindig]

Yeah, reliving the journey again has really made that feel like a big payoff.

[Gray Fox]

I hope you're all ready for SPRINT SHOOTOUT.

The previous sprint weekend was easy enough. Qualy on Friday sets the Sprint race on Saturday. That Sprint race then gives us Sundays order for the race.

Now you get Qualy on a Friday, which now sets Sundays grid. Then on Saturday you get SPRINT SHOOTOUT which sets the grid for the Sprint race itself.

[Giggles]

At least it’s a completely separate thing now and can be forgotten about.

[SincereTheRebel]

Still waiting for reverse grids. Even if its for bo points

[Shindig]

Nah, the front-runners would've made their way back after 4 laps.

[SincereTheRebel]

Just sort it out.

[Waffdon]

Leclerc is a wizard around Azerbaijan.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Can't wait to see how they fuck it up on Sunday. Also can't believe that my first chance to actually watch a race properly this season is going to be this junk event.

[Gray Fox]

I'm not sure what else the Ferraris could have done there. Just an unfortunate part of the track to catch them at.

[Ben]

Nothing. He got distracted and tried to blame them for it.

[Giggles]

What’s this thing about Norris not having the tyres?

[Gray Fox]

You can only use one set of tyres per SPRINT SHOOTOUT session. They also must be new sets. He has no new sets of the yellow marked tyres so he can't take part.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

What’s this thing about Norris not having the tyres?

You need NEW softs to race in the SQ3 but Norris used his last set of softs in qualifying.

[Giggles]

Seems a bit wasteful.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The tyre rules in general are far too prescriptive, but I guess they think they need it to make these aero ships have even the slightest chance of racing each other.

[Gray Fox]

Put this in the bin ffs.

[Gray Fox]

Charles really should be French.

[Jimmy Floyd]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/65417156

Thought these comments were interesting, hopefully he has the clout to stop it being a complete bag of shit in the future.

[Ben]

We need a complete overhaul of tyres because the softs are only ever good for one lap so that was a massive anticlimax there, and the hards are often wank race tyres.

We need a complete overhaul of the car regulations, the cars are so big that without DRS it is a procession, even with the new regulations allowing them to get closer to each other (but the size invariably preventing natural overtakes).

I also don’t know why the one qualifying session doesn’t set the grid for both races. MotoGP have adopted that this year and it’s been decent.

[Gray Fox]

Interestingly the Pirelli contract is up at the end of 2024s season and they've been shopping around to other tyre manufacturers. Michelin have told the FIA to do one though. They've said they don't want to get involved in making forcibly degradable tyres to make up for their shoddy regulations.

[Gray Fox]

Quite a lot of chaos following a safety car restart in the F2 sprint. Some more of that in 20 mins please.

[John Arne]

Verstappen complaining that someone didn't give HIM enough room :D

Looks like Rusell had the advantage for each of those corners, to me.

[niko_cee]

This is well worth everyone's effort.

[7om]

This is shambolic.

[John Arne]

A safety car in a 17 lap race...

[Giggles]

They should just finish this behind the safety car.

[Gray Fox]

Sprints got traction because they lucked into a few where they had drivers out of position and it made them entertaining.

This highlights why we're wasting everyone's time.

[John Arne]

Tsunoda's engineer needs shooting in the head for sending him out again.

[7om]

Alpha Tauri are in a right mess. De Vries can’t stop wrecking the chassis and the car is slow as shit.

[Shindig]

F1 isn't built for this.

[Gray Fox]

Somebody do something.

[Giggles]

Whiny cunt :D

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

That was dull.

[Ben]

Sounds like I didn't miss much apart from Max being a complete baby.

[Gray Fox]

I do like though that he's come out and slated the pointless new format. It puts the higher ups in an interesting position having their world champion actively against it.

The stuff with Russell in parc ferme though is a bit much.

[Shindig]

His race engineer was being a passive-aggressive dickhead as well.

[Giggles]

Yeah he was basically trying to rise him. He’d need a clipping from the management.

[7om]

Verstappen is going through his cunt phase right now. Then he’ll become disillusioned and leave in 2028 as the bad guy. Only to complete the Raikkonen storyline and return in 2030 as the hero.

[Disco]

Here was me assuming his F1 cunt phase started when he got to the grid and had continued ever since.

[niko_cee]

I didn't see much of the discussion but Hill seemed to have his card marked fairly well. He's just one of these people who always believe they are right, that mistakes are what other people make etc. Golden Child Syndrome.

[Giggles]

I didn't see much of the discussion but Hill seemed to have his card marked fairly well. He's just one of these people who always believe they are right, that mistakes are what other people make etc. Golden Child Syndrome.

Hill :D
If a British driver deliberately T-boned someone and set their car on fire then Hill would have the forrin down as fault. It was just the broken clock thing yesterday.

[niko_cee]

I guess he would have first hand experience of that sort of thing, so perhaps the most qualified to offer an opinion.

He wasn't saying it as a bad thing particularly [didn't call him a golden child] seeing as he drew comparisons to Senna and Schumacher, and to an extent all racing drivers believe they are in the right all the time, it's just that some of them take it to absolute [illogical] limit. Room to race for Verstappen means space for exactly where he wants to be, which is in front, and anything short of that is wrong. If he's going up the inside, the guy on the outside has to yield, if he's on the outside, the guy on the inside has to yield. Horner was right in what he said to him over the radio, that when you are in the dominant car then you are the one who has to tiptoe around, whereas Max is still very much in the Hamilton battle season mode where everything is tooth and nail when it doesn't need to be, as he later acknowledged himself.

[Adramelch]

Yeah Verstappen decides which line he wants to follow and thinks it's everyone else's responsibility to make way for him. Mind you, it often works and it's part of what has put him at the top, but on occasion you'll have stuff like yesterday or the one versus Hamilton at Monza. Back then it was a very acceptable risk for him, but nowadays with how dominant he is, the one time it goes wrong will generally outweigh the times he gets an advantage from it.

[Shindig]

Now I've seen it back, there is a bit of damage that Russell dished out. Still, there's just enough space to get away with it.

[Gray Fox]

Hill forever sounds like more of a thicko the more time he spends on camera.

Max has that Senna esque attitude of "I'm going up the inside, you let me past or we're having a crash"
It'll work fine on most of the grid, but eventually you meet someone who will dish it back out. He found this out against Hamilton. Eventually that penny will drop for anyone who wishes to actually challenge him for championships.

The talent is absolutely not in question, but the boy was raised by a scumbag and then surrounded further by Horner and Marko. Toxicity wherever he goes. So is his behaviour really a surprise?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'd absolutely love it if someone wiped Max out early doors here.

[Gray Fox]

So the Azerbaijan anthem is just repeating Azerbaijan throughout most of it... Pathetic effort.

As for the race we're going to have some melted tyres here.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Ted informing me that 3rd and 4th will be a good result for Ferrari doesn't bode well.

[7om]

The talent is absolutely not in question, but the boy was raised by a scumbag and then surrounded further by Horner and Marko. Toxicity wherever he goes. So is his behaviour really a surprise?

I’ve never heard this before. Is Jos viewed as a bad person?

[7om]

As soon as Max overtakes Leclerc, it’s over. He’ll win by 30 secs.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

That was far too easy.

It's done.

[Shindig]

I’ve never heard this before. Is Jos viewed as a bad person?


After a 1998 incident at a karting track in which a man suffered a fractured skull, Verstappen and his father, Frans, were found guilty in court of assault but were each given a five-year suspended jail sentence after reaching an out-of-court settlement with the victim.[33]

In December 2008, with the couple effectively separated, Verstappen appeared in court in Tongeren, Belgium, charged with assaulting his wife, Sophie Kumpen.[34] He was found not guilty of assault, but guilty of threatening Kumpen in text messages and of violating a previously issued restraining order. He was fined and sentenced to three months probational, suspended prison sentence.[35]

On 29 November 2011, the media reported allegations that Verstappen had assaulted his ex-girlfriend; Verstappen claimed to only have had a discussion with her.[36] In January 2012, he was arrested on attempted murder charges following accusations that he drove a car into his ex-girlfriend in Roermond,[37] but released two weeks later after the charge was withdrawn.[38] Verstappen and his ex-girlfriend, Kelly van der Waal, got back together and were married in 2014. They have one daughter, Blue Jaye, born in September 2014.[39] They divorced on 2 June 2017.[40]

You can see where he gets his temper from.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Each car separated by 2 seconds after 9 laps, what a venue and series this continues to be.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Checo is trying to make it interesting.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Has he binned that AT or has it stopped under him?

[7om]

De Vries can kiss goodbye to his seat. Iwasa will be with Tsunkda next year.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Alonso's move on Sainz there an absolute delight. Example of a truly great grand prix driver schooling a good one.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

FIA trying to help Max.

[Waffdon]

Over a second a lap quicker already lol.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Stroll is still in the bottom three drivers on the grid. They could really do with replacing him ASAP to get some constructors' points while they have a decent car.

[niko_cee]

Bet Russell rather enjoyed stealing the fastest lap point off Max there.

Quality scenes with Ocon nearly ploughing into some mooks in the pitlane.

[Gray Fox]

Absolute shambles in the pit lane at the end there.
Someone wants firing.

[SincereTheRebel]

Pit lane madness

[Waffdon]

Be funny if they disqualified the Red Bulls for that. Just be a cheeky fine though.

[niko_cee]

They'll probably judge it to have been Sergio's crew and give him a 5 second penalty.

[SincereTheRebel]

Constructors points fine for Red Bull for climbing the fence?

Cant you not stop in the pit on the last lap?

[niko_cee]

Also just saw this on the BBC livetext:


Sam Bird

Formula E driver on BBC Radio 5 Live

The interesting thing is Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen are able to do fastest lap, lap after lap after lap, I think this hard compound tyre has given us quite a spectacle at the front today.

Man has low standards.

[Waffdon]

The most exciting thing about the race - and season - was genuinely Ted passionately shouting about how much of a shambles that Ocon incident was and whether or not we’d see people being splatted.

[Giggles]

The sister rang me during the safety car and all the pitting so I missed the only thing that actually happened today.

[John Arne]

God, I hate Will Buxton.

[Shindig]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcRDfJyZUOQ

Yeah, I'd be mad at that.

[Giggles]

You’d swear the soppy twat was in the middle of it himself.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Instead of sanctioning the mongs running out by the pits they'll probably change the rules so that you need to do 2 or 3 laps on your second compound.

[Adramelch]

Yeah, that would be textbook FIA. I did already have a chuckle when they introduced the "no pit-wall climbing" rule in Australia for safety reasons (which has merit of course), yet in the same weekend they had drivers out without the GPS working in FP1 and there were so many near misses.

[Shindig]

Still plodding on with the 1999 season. Just watched Monza and forgot how long Hakkinen's personal crisis in the forest ran for. Also, Alex Zanardi's best race of the season. At least he can comfortably say he was having a better time than Villeneuve.

Eagerly awaiting the absurd Nurburgring race.

[Disco]

'Ready for Monza, steady for Monza....' not one of Murrays best that one.

[Shindig]

At least he switches it up instead of Crofty's "LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY THEY GO!"

Nurburgring's already up so I'm prepared to see Frentzen's hopes dashed. Mad to think how quick that Jordan got. Meanwhile Irvine and Salo sit near the back of the field. People moan about Schumacher not giving him the boost but I reckon management just never fancied Eddie as a world champion. That pitstop is my favourite 20 seconds of Murray outside of Damon's victory lap at Suzuka.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I don't know if it's memed or whatever in the modern cool kid F1 circles, but 'Lights out and away they go' is an utter buzz kill of a line. It sounds like something you'd say at the start of a round the world yachting race, not just before a high octane dash to turn one which is often the most dramatic part of the whole race.

[Shindig]

Sounds more like a low-rent horse race or a night at the dogs, to me.

[Disco]

Is the Nurburgring aborted start the one where they changed the timing of the lights because half the field were cheating/intercepting the radio signal?

[Shindig]

I've heard that rumour although the footage has the start aborted because Gene had his hand up. I'm genuinely coming around to it being one of the great seasons.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Schumi would have pissed the title if he hadn't crashed at Silverstone. Add 1997 when he was clearly the best driver, and he probably underachieved if anything, as has Hamilton who should have at least nine.

Guess he stole '94, mind, but even so, miles the best driver that year and it was only that close because he was a twat and got himself banned.

[Shindig]

Yeah, the Ferrari was more reliable. Having Schumi on the grid might've motivated Mika (he was not bothering in this race until he could smell points on the table) but Schumi would've had his number.

[Jimmy Floyd]

He was definitely at his best (1998 and parts of 2000) against a charging Schumacher. 1999 probably one of the least merited titles I can remember, not quite on Keke Rosberg levels but getting there.

[Shindig]

Nah, it's only unwarranted if he had a jilted challenger. Irvine was pretty rotten in the last few races, Frentzen sounded like he was just happy to be there. Coulthard kept binning it from strong positions. Hakkinen was the fastest of that lot by a country mile.

[Waffdon]

Potential of some showers on Sunday for the race. Let’s hope we get something to shake it up a little anyway

[Gray Fox]

This Miami track seems another one that must be amazing to do a time trial type thing on, but actual racing probably not so much.

[Waffdon]

Lance Stroll :D

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

McLaren's MUDDED.

Doesn't look great for Mercedes heading into Q2.

[Waffdon]

Hamilton was only 0.4 seconds off of Red Bull. The track was just starting to light up at the end hence why him and Russell were near the bottom until their final run

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

RIP Lewis.

[Waffdon]

McLaren's MUDDED.

Doesn't look great for Mercedes heading into Q2.

Never mind :lol:

They’re dogshit

[Gray Fox]

That Imola upgrade can't come soon enough huh.
Lots of glum Toto tonight then.

[Giggles]

Ricciardo looks dead inside now.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

A red flag now would be sweet.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Well played Leclerc.

[Gray Fox]

Cat meet pigeons.

[Giggles]

Ferrari.

That’s some grid.

[Gray Fox]

Ferrari.

The gift that keeps on giving.

[Waffdon]

Leclerc has crashed twice and nearly crashed 3 times so far this weekend in the little I’ve watched.

Decent starting line up there. Perez should win again hopefully, Horner will be fuming

[Gray Fox]

He barely congratulated him on it.

Leclerc is obviously fast but these mistakes he keeps making are piling up.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

We might finally get a good race.

[Waffdon]

He barely congratulated him on it.

Leclerc is obviously fast but these mistakes he keeps making are piling up.

That was my exact thoughts too. Absolutely raging in that congratulations

[Waffdon]

I can’t believe I used to dislike Alonso. He’s such a don

[Shindig]

I'd be getting my hopes up if it wasn't for the fact there's 23 races a season.

[7om]

Brundle nailed it on commentary. Leclerc is so fast but he doesn’t seem to have a clear grasp on where his / the car’s limits are and so he ends up making costly mistakes way too often.

Merc’s looked absolutely tragic in that session. Especially in the twisty section at the end of the second sector. My God. Just fucking scrap this design and start again, it’s shit.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I can’t believe I used to dislike Alonso. He’s such a don

He's an absolute prick but as with so many of the greats, once the supply and demand equation starts to tick with little left in their career one starts truly to appreciate them.

[Gray Fox]

Prediction for tomorrow is Max works his way to 3rd but by then the top two are 10+ seconds away. Then comes De Vries with a nice crash into the wall to get us there red flag or safety car that bunches them all back up.

[7om]

Bit of rain possibly forecast tomorrow as well.

[niko_cee]

Just fucking scrap this design and start again, it’s shit.

Isn't this what the next update is going to be?

[Gray Fox]

Apparently so. It's supposedly a significant change to the sidepods and the floor around it.

The thing slides about all over the place and is hard on the tyres because of that. I think they were about 0.9 off Red Bull today but I don't expect this upgrade to put much of a dent on that.

[Waffdon]

He's an absolute prick but as with so many of the greats, once the supply and demand equation starts to tick with little left in their career one starts truly to appreciate them.

It’s more his comms so far this year. He just seems to be loving it

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

LL Cool J doing driver introductions is fucking hilarious.

[Gray Fox]

This is absurd.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I think Will.I.Am pretending to conduct the musicians might be my favourite bit.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Nothing more cringey than any interaction between F1 and America.

It's got to the point where I'd take Perez 1 Verstappen 2 as a result just so that someone else leads the championship. Obviously the dream is one or both of them getting wiped out on the first lap.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

That was far too easy for Max.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's almost irrelevant how well he drives in traffic in this kind of situation (as long as he doesn't run into anyone), because their DRS is just mental. Cruised past Russell there while both had the wing open.

[Waffdon]

Red Bull DRS is the most mental thing I’ve seen in a while. Fuck me

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Also helps that no one is even trying to fight the cunt.

[Shindig]

I wouldn't bother either. Not if there's no chance of holding him back.

[Waffdon]

Yeah. His last few overtakes have looked extremely lol

[phonics]

Tuned in because I saw Verstappen wasn't in first. Lasted about 3 minutes.

[Waffdon]

Verstappen is 17 seconds clear and will get fresh medium on soon. He’s gonna absolutely piss it lol

[Waffdon]

It’s hilarious how desperate Red Bull are for Verstappen to finish ahead of Perez. Racists.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Even when we have a lol qualifying we can't get a good race :(

[Jimmy Floyd]

I can live with a car dominating (has been the case most of the last 30 years) but when the race behind is also complete dreck because of DRS trains and tyre management it really discourages the viewer. Two brutal affairs these two weeks.

[Gray Fox]

It's alright lads. The regs only change in 2026.

[7om]

Can someone explain why the McLaren’s started on softs and pitted on lap 3 or whatever it was?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Hoping for a safety car off the start. It's come to that.

[Waffdon]

There wasn’t a single Safety or Virtual Car, yellow flag, car retirement or infringement on the track. Think the only penalty was for Sainz speeding in the pit lane. Proper boring stuff

[7om]

Apparently Danny Ricciardo has been for a seat fitting with Alpha Tauri.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

RIP De Vries.

[Disco]

Odd timing, why wouldn't they have him in there from the start of the season, it's not like De Vries was ever going to do anything.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Probably didn't think he'd be a modern reincarnation of Andrea de Cesaris, though.

[Giggles]

You have to go youth at some stage though. Backward move, Ricciardo has been dirt for ages now.

[Gray Fox]

While it is very on brand for Dr Marko to turf out a driver he thinks is shit whenever he feels like it, to put Ricciardo in wouldn't make sense. I would have thought someone like Liam Lawson would be their first choice.

If memory serves, they almost always promote youth in both cars. The only time they've changed that approach was Sergio Perez.

Harsh on de Vries, but when your teammate is constantly battling for that last point and you're fighting for 16th, it's hard to argue your cause.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's actually refreshing to see a shite driver turfed out for a change, too many these days seem to accumulate 100 GPs without ever showing anything. Go drive tin tops to your heart's content, Mr de Vries.

I agree Ricciardo is a crap move but they're probably prepping it for a sale or something.

[Disco]

Only just been exposed to the driver intros but from Miami. Total bollocks but worth it for Charles Leclerc being described as having 'competed for the 2022 drivers championship' like they couldn't think of anything else to say about the bloke.

[Gray Fox]

It's a little damp at Imola right now. Hopefully it clears a little by the weekend.

[Disco]

At least if there's water drying we'll have something exciting to watch.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/65621373

Or we get no race at all.

[niko_cee]

This season is turning into a bit of a farce.

Quite like the sound of Hamilton to Ferrari though. Every great driver needs to have a run at trying [and probably failing] to win with them at some point.

[Ben]

Shocked to see the FIA make a good decision in good time to be honest. The few Italians at work were all speaking about the floods this morning, apparently it's really bad.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Should have just given them all jet skis.

Might have been an interesting race.

[Pepe]

Wave Race :drool:

[SincereTheRebel]

Besides Roseberg and Hamilton, have their been any other times were both drivers in the same team, have won titles as team mates?

[Disco]

Senna and Prost won in 88 & 89 for Mclaren and stayed together for 1990. Denny Hulme and Jack Brabham both won titles for Brabham in the 60's while teammates but I don't think they ever raced together after that. Maybe one more between Hill/Hawthorn/Fangio for Ferrari but I'm not sure.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Also Prost and Lauda in 84-85 but I think Niki retired after 85.

[Shindig]

Hill, Hawthorn and Fangio all missed each other. Seeing Mike Hawthorn winning '58 on consistency had me looking at the '82 season to see why Keke Rosberg gets so much stick. A Ferrari probably should've won that year but Rosberg's car clearly fucked up the least.

[Disco]

Ferrari were close again in 07/08, if not for Agent Glock Massa and Raikonen would have done it.

[Shindig]

Speaking of Alonso, F1's youtube channel is showing Imola 2005 within a matter of seconds.

EDIT: Wurz in a McLaren? Wurzwatch is back!

[Ben]

Tobacco liveries and V10s, lovely stuff.

[Clunge]

The sidepods are back.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12472/12888783/mercedes-reveal-w14-upgrades-ahead-of-monaco-grand-prix-with-zero-sidepod-philosophy-officially-abandoned

[Waffdon]

Didn’t think I’d see Verstappen at over evens to win any race this year.

[Gray Fox]

The sidepods are back.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12472/12888783/mercedes-reveal-w14-upgrades-ahead-of-monaco-grand-prix-with-zero-sidepod-philosophy-officially-abandoned

Hamilton no longer seems down in the dumps over the car.

The expectation seemed to be that this new design would bring a little performance, but the key is in the potential. The old concept could have been improved, but their testing showed that it could maybe just have got competitive with the pace Red Bull had last year.

Now Red Bull have turned up and made it even better that's stumped them and forced this change. They are now about where they should have been near the start of 2022.

[Giggles]

If it makes Hamilton stop pouting and half arseing it then happy days for us all. Early enough in the season for a real challenge.

[niko_cee]

I know you're a glass half empty type of guy but even you can't come close to believing that. Red Bull aren't Tottenham Hotspur.

[Giggles]

I know you're a glass half empty type of guy but even you can't come close to believing that. Red Bull aren't Tottenham Hotspur.

They're not but all these things are totally marginal. Now that Mercedes climbed down, you wouldn't put it past them going to the front seeing as they did it for years.

[Shindig]

Yeah, they can build a competitive engine so it's not a question of power. I would just liked to see Verstappen rattled a bit as it's usually entertaining.

[Gray Fox]

And so endeth the Perez title challenge.

[Waffdon]

The fuck was he doing :D