To be fair, if you took Lewis off the grid, he'd be taking the title.
He's still 44 points behind with 7 races left(unless we're due more adding?). Assuming it's a fastest lap and win 1-2 in Bottas' favour every time, he needs to win all but 1 race.
We're nearly at the snookers required stage. As soon as we hit that, I reckon Mercedes will reel Bottas in.
If Lewis misses a race from his penalty points, it'll get tasty.
No it won’t.
Okay, if he misses a race from penalty points and gets Covid.
Coulthard nearly crying about it is all kinds of lol. All for a bit of partisan but he’s embarrassing himself.
It was a nailed on penalty, I'm a massive Hamilton slurper but you can't stop the car in a full throttle area of track and do practice starts, it's dangerous as hell.
Apparently he’s had the super license points rescinded now.
I'm usually all for drivers taking responsibility, but on this occasion, he clearly asked his team twice whether he could do it, and they said yes - so the penalty should lie with the team, not the driver. Then again, the fact that you had to ask twice kinda tells you that perhaps you aren't doing the right thing.
This is the second time this season I've been surprised by how poorly prepared the best driver and team on the grid are. Track specific variations are something you would expect to be covered at the start of each event. The different pitlane light position in Monza, where the designated practice start area is at each track, safety car line position etc, you'd think that would be in briefing 1 on Thursday or covered in a track walk or something.
Wasn't the pit lane/start thing more that they thought he might go 20 yards further down to where there was less rubber and he actually drove off about 3 miles further and by the time they were all thinking "erm, Lewis mate . . ." it was too late?
Complicated by the fact that no-one on the pitwall/garage can see where he is at that point. Aside from that you can't just stop in the pitlane, even if he wasn't on the normal line you take out of the pits. Penalty was deserved but the licence points were a bit mad, especially when other transgressions aren't even noted coughLeclerctwicenowcough.
I have never lived through an era of F1 when the authorities weren't trying to bring back the runaway leader a bit.
Man, imagine if they just kept the 90s electronic madness going. Unrestrained, mad science.
They're not out to get him though, are they? He did something wrong so he got done. Lewis is a very gracious winner but fucking hell is he a cry baby when something goes against him.
As much as I love aerodynamics, I do wish that the last few decades were not all spent focusing on them.
With that said, CVTs lead to shit sounding cars, so I am against them.
There's a middle ground to be had but the problem has always been that the teams have far more money and expertise than the people making the rules. They've already had to revise the new aero regs for next season because the 15-20% reduction they were aiming for is more like 5% just via in-season development.
Newey always talked in in his book about getting the lost downforce back and it usually took a few months, at best. It's such a dumb folly.
And Honda's out. Again. Would Red Bull go Mercedes next year?
No chance they would go customer Merc, surely. After Christian Horner burns every Japanese-made item he can find in his massive, massive house, he will have to go cap in hand back to Cyril, and pay a bajillion dollars for the privilege.
Either that or they'll have to start building their own.
Why would an engine maker stop making engines out of interest?
its political correctness gone mad!
It's pretty bad for the sport (and Yuki Tsunoda in particular) but fucking lol at the same time.
Max to Mercedes rumours by the bucket load in 3-2-1.
It's awful for the sport.
I wonder if this will trigger the Reichskomissariat trying to phase out Hamilton. Lewis/Max in the same team would be popcorn central but the former surely wouldn't have it.
You'd think not. If they want him (and he'd be the perfect Hamilton replacement) then I think he'll have another couple of years throwing his toys out of the pram before the way is clear.
Are there any plans for Aston Martin to go full works team and make engines?
I just can't see Horner wanting to go back to Renault.
It's hard to see anyone starting a new programme under the current regs (which run mostly the same up to 2026) and even harder to see any top team wanting to get in on the ground floor as it were. The only caveat to that would be the continued unemployment of Andy Cowell (the guy who ran Mercedes engine department throughout the hybrid era) who may be able to give someone a head start. There have been rumours that AM would try to become a full factory team but nothing concrete as yet.
Which leaves us with the delicious prospect of Christian Horner having to crawl, chapeau in hand, back to Renault (or Alpeeeeeeen) to make what would probably be a very expensive deal to take their engines again. I don't know the rules around engine supply other than the one supplying the least is obliged to supply a team who have no engine deal, I wonder if they're precluded from naming their price.
Lol if Horner would take the awful Ferrari engine just to avoid looking like a knob.
Knob > No Job, which is what should happen if he tried to make that deal.
https://racer.com/2020/02/11/racing-...atus-for-2021/
Not that I hold much to that. Turbo V6's must cost a packet to develop. Especially if you're going to have a handful to last you all season. I cannot see Dietrich putting money down for a Red Bull effort. I can't see anyone entering that market, to be honest. Not unless they're confident they can sell them to the other constructors.Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer insists the team’s impending rebranding as Aston Martin will represent a transition into a fully-fledged works team for the auto maker.
Apparently they are.
You'd have to be an absolute moron to become a Ferrari engine customer at this point. They'll have to go to Renault and back themselves to design a better chassis (something which relies entirely on keeping Adrian Newey a) at the team, and b) highly motivated).
To be fair to Ferrari though, they are going to sort the engine out eventually. Theyve just got to work around the power lost from cheating.
I wouldn't rule out buying Ferrari engines in 2022.
To be honest Renault shouldn't even be involved. If you make the engine and finish behind a team that use your power unit you should have to give it to them for free in exchange for info on how not to be a complete mediocrity.
I can't think of a sentence that sums up Ferrari F1 better than this.
Red Bull apparently looking into buying the existing Honda engine lock stock and barrell and taking on the construction and development themselves. They worked pretty closely with Ilmor in the Renault days and Mugen is just down the road so they've plenty of options for re-badging it.
Lance Stroll not taking part in FP3, Nico Hulkenburg must have just spit his croissant across the kitchen.
Hulk has arrived .
I'd like to think that rather than actually 'doing TV work', the Hulk just turns up to every race with a pair of headphones on, an RTL shirt he found on ebay, and a racing suit in his holdall. Oh, hey, Nico, working for German TV are we? No, no need for a paddock pass, walk right in mate. Heh, yeah, you never know, eh?
And then someone sounds the Hulkensignal and he runs off to the nearest portacabin to change.
You don't even need to make stuff up, he drove to the track from Cologne in a Porsche he bought off Keke Rosberg.
Bottas looked pretty good there.
Hamilton never uses the little plinth they provide for helmet stuff, he scoots off into the garage and I'd love to know why.
I forgot this was on due to no FP during the week. Does baby Stroll have The Virus?
An 'illness' is all they've said.
Hang on, are there fans at this? Bloody Germany.
I'd forgotten how much I despise this GP layout, it's like a touring car track. Leclerc is Trulli-training the field like 2.5 seconds a lap.
Good job Vettel has that contract confirmed, he's looked gopping all weekend.
If they did something to the opening of the lap, I'd be alright with it. The first couple of corners just feel like agony.