Formula 1 2018 - No Women Edition

[phonics]

On the theme of spirit of the rules, what does everyone think of Haas?

I'm stopping short of saying they should be drummed off the grid but I can't say I was sad to see them go backwards throughout Sunday afternoon.

I'm not a fan of it/them but in a competition that has two teams with the same name, I can't bring myself to care.

'Torro Rosso are independent' is as legitimate a sentence as this whole 'Mission Winnow, presented by Phillip Morris is not an advertisement of the tobacco industry'

Although my major takeaway from this season has been that LeClerc is a fucking excellent racers name, that's a family name that's born to drive a Ferrari round Monaco even if he never wins anything, so whether you should take any of my analysis seriously is another thing.

[bruhnaldo]

As a big names guy I quite fancy LeClerc myself so I'm totally with this.

[Disco]

Just makes me think of:

[Shindig]

This is great. Still sharp at 95.

[Jimmy Floyd]

He's the greatest commentator ever in any sport, and if you pushed me, probably the greatest man in sport ever.

[Disco]

I love everything about that, the razor sharp memory, calling the guy by his name all the time like the best grandad ever. Compare and contrast with Bernie's interview on the BBC where he comes across as barely human.

[phonics]

It's been DMCA'd

[Shindig]

The ending was good. He has lived through the best of it. I can only think of two commentators that meet the same mark as Murray. That being Toby Moody and Julian Ryder. As a package deal, they lit up my MotoGP watching on Eurosport. Excitable to a fault but they woke me up every Sunday for the best part of a decade.

EDIT: It's been blocked for viewing embedded. You can watch it on youtube. It tells you that.

[niko_cee]

Leclerc learning what it means to be the second driver at Ferrari. Keeping him out to give Vettel a tiny bit of DRS assistance whilst condemning him to 5th was extra lol, as was Red Bull trolling them (and him) by pinching the fastest lap extra point at the death. Merc taking the piss.

[Disco]

I get swapping them so Vettel could have a go at closing the gap but I don't get shafting your other driver by leaving him out on slower tyres for that long, the undercut was king today and it also exposed him to a safety car. One might even wonder if separating the two cars on track was the point all along.

[Shindig]

Hamilton's got a race in hand over Vettel, going into Europe. I fully understand them trying to maximise Vettel's points haul but, if Leclerc's consistently faster, they'll have a headache.

Pieter De Boiserie: I'm officially done with F1 no excitement at the front of the race whatsoever post start. The most exciting thing was Mercedes double stacking in the pit box. @FIAFormulaE is where its happening.

The weekend's FormulaE race ground to a standstill because a minor shunt happened. Wide concept cars jammed into narrow streets can never work. Put them on a proper circuit and the straights would murder their range.

[Gray Fox]

Looks very much like a fight between Mercedes drivers again. Thankfully Bottas has woken up so far this season. If we go back to 2018 Bottas the season could be done before the summer break going on like this.

[Disco]

I await more excuses as to why the much vaunted Ferrari power advantage isn't helping them. It looks like anywhere with fast corners is going to be a struggle for them.

The other silly thing to come out of FE was the leader having to shed about 5 seconds on the penultimate lap, otherwise the race would have been a lap longer and they would all have run out of juice. Again.

[Gray Fox]

It seems as if they saw the Mercedes engine and became obsessed with having better at all costs.

[SincereTheRebel]

1. Does Vettel still have the moustache?
2. Is Hamilton still wondering around the paddock in a du-rag?

[Pepe]

Just watched the race. They really fucked Leclerc for no reason, didn't they?

[Clunge]

That was a dog awful race. Bottas offering nothing after Hamilton basically decides things within two seconds. Ferrari making a total dog's dinner of their strategy again just to give Vettel supremacy, bog all of note further down the field - not even any Verstappen wizardry.

1/10. Azerbeijan next though is usually fun.

[Disco]

Lolclerc.

[Shindig]

Probably a blessing in disguise. Means he doesn't have to move out of the way in the race.

[Disco]

Bitching from Hamilton in 3..2..1..

[Clunge]

Hamilton is such a class act these days. Chuffed++ for Bottas. When the camera cut to the Leclerc crash, I was desperate for it to be Seb. GAH.

Gonna be a good race tomorrow, I hope Bottas takes it to make up for last year, and open up the Championship again a bit.

[Disco]

I feel Vettel needs to pass at least one of them of the line, otherwise they'll just bottle him up and dictate the race.

[SincereTheRebel]

Vettel folds when he is close to the black man.

[Jimmy Floyd]

This track is proper mickey mouse, but it makes for good slapstick.

[Shindig]

I really like how Valteri's stepped up.

[Giggles]

This track is proper mickey mouse, but it makes for good slapstick.

They should just rotate the season between Silverstone, Brands Hatch, and Rockingham.

[Disco]

The castle section is like that stupid bridge they had in Valencia, it would be at home on a FE track which tells you all you need to know.

[Disco]

Leclerc is going to win this.

[Shindig]

He'll get up to Vettel and be told to hold.

[Disco]

In true armchair general fashion I reckon Ferrari are wrong here, if Leclerc had caned these tires and forced the rest to keep a higher pace he could have swept them all up on the softs at the end.

[Pepe]

Well that was shit.

[Disco]

Yup, it looked like they were all going to be coming together at the end then it all went flat after the safety car.

[Gray Fox]

It's good to see Bottas has pulled the finger out.

I'm still undecided on this extra point business though.

[Jimmy Floyd]

They should just rotate the season between Silverstone, Brands Hatch, and Rockingham.

Don't forget testing at Thruxton.

[Disco]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/48093928

What a bullshit headline that is, the BBC coverage is fucking terrible these days. If you watch the interview it was clearly a throwaway jokey comment.

[Disco]

I've given NASCAR a chance (no need for an intervention I was just bored).

There's definitely something decent hiding deep within but oh boy do they make it hard to find. Each race is contested over stages (for some insane reason) so no-one could possibly follow who is really winning, add in the inevitable yellow flags and it seems to be a complete fucking lottery. The cars also change liveries between races so good luck following that. Add in the inevitable end of season playoff (America's worst gift to the sporting world) and I begin to have a lot of sympathy with anyone who actually likes this series, it can't be easy having all this bullhit loaded onto your favourite sport. No wonder the venues look half empty, it has the air of a dying series too stupid to attract new viewers and alienating the traditional fanbase.

HOWEVER. Watch the pack in two lanes running around somewhere like Talladega and I begin to see the attraction, especially when (in a move so unexpected I thought there was something wrong with my copy of the race) the commentators stay silent for a few minutes and just let you watch and listen.

[Clunge]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/48093928

What a bullshit headline that is, the BBC coverage is fucking terrible these days. If you watch the interview it was clearly a throwaway jokey comment.

Sadly have to agree. It's trash. Sky do F1 so so SO well.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've given NASCAR a chance (no need for an intervention I was just bored).

There's definitely something decent hiding deep within but oh boy do they make it hard to find. Each race is contested over stages (for some insane reason) so no-one could possibly follow who is really winning, add in the inevitable yellow flags and it seems to be a complete fucking lottery. The cars also change liveries between races so good luck following that. Add in the inevitable end of season playoff (America's worst gift to the sporting world) and I begin to have a lot of sympathy with anyone who actually likes this series, it can't be easy having all this bullhit loaded onto your favourite sport. No wonder the venues look half empty, it has the air of a dying series too stupid to attract new viewers and alienating the traditional fanbase.

HOWEVER. Watch the pack in two lanes running around somewhere like Talladega and I begin to see the attraction, especially when (in a move so unexpected I thought there was something wrong with my copy of the race) the commentators stay silent for a few minutes and just let you watch and listen.

As with all American sports, the actual sport is of no interest, people go for the weak as piss beer, the salty snacks and the needless shouting/whooping/booing.

I like oval racing as a thing but as you say they have fucked it right up in the name of presumably TV dollars.

[Shindig]

I actually think safety is the key factor that's ruined it. In their efforts to limit the huge, fatal crashes, they've made the cars harder to pass. At least that's my understanding.

[bruhnaldo]

I think I actually ranted about NASCAR at length a few pages back because I grew up going to the tracks and they really fucked it all up.

Now that I work Sundays in an empty office though I've basically just thrown whatever sports are on at the time on one screen and worked on the other, so I've caught a fair few races this year.

They're not bad once you get to the end but the first 90% of the race is usually, as you say, useless w/r/t the entire result.

Now, a day out at NASCAR is fantastic.. they let you bring in your own coolers and beer and what not so it's really not that bad... get one of those headset scanners and listen to the pitcrews talking to the drivers / the radio broadcast and it really is a blast.

Watching them race in a pack at top speed (like 190-205 mph) at the bigger tracks is honestly pretty intense and TV takes a fair bit away from that IMHO.

[Pepe]

I did enjoy my one trip to the Daytona 500, even if the race was stopped early due to rain. The traffic on the way out was completely insane though, but my father, boss that he was, simply overtook everyone on the opposite lane and we made it back home on time.

[bruhnaldo]

the traffic out of daytona is an absolute fucking nightmare of the highest order

[Jimmy Floyd]

The Ferrari looks an absolute donkey of a car. How did this happen?

[Pleb]

They probably kept the same car from last year iirc.

That pit doesn't give you confidence.

[John Arne]

Has anybody ever been lapped 3 times in one race?

[Pepe]

Ferrari a bit of a joke all-around right now.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Has anybody ever been lapped 3 times in one race?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_A...ian_Grand_Prix

The first one that came to mind.

[Pepe]

Hopefully we get some racing now.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Barcelona has always been a two-by-two nightmare. Replacing it with Zandvoort next year should be ideal.

[Pepe]

Grosjean.