F1 - 2017

Pink is Austrian water treatment company BWT, the main sponsor of Force India,  If someone paid me 15 to 20 million USD I would be very happy to wear pink.      

I thought it stood for Boys with Toys!

Mike-B posted:

Pink is Austrian water treatment company BWT, the main sponsor of Force India,  If someone paid me 15 to 20 million USD I would be very happy to wear pink.      

Still makes them look like the Pink Panther though! But then for 15-20 million I'd look like the Pink Panther!

Reading various www reports it seems Hamilton has impressed today in both practice sessions.  0.547secs clear of  Vettel who is a gnats doodoo ahead of Bottas.   The speculation has started over LH margin vs VB = is it car or driver.  ( is that sounding familiar? )

Hamilton  1:23.620 .......... Vettel  1:24.167 .......... Bottas  1:24.176 .......... Raikkonen  1:24.525

Its looking like Mercedes & Ferrari were pretty well matched throughout practice & qualifying & we have two teams able to race,  the rest are playing catchup.   

Hamilton 1:22.188 ......... Vettel 1:22.456 ......... Bottas 1:22.481 ......... Raikkonen 1:23.033

Red Bull were the best of the rest but local hero Ricciardo stuffed it in the wall,  Haas & Williams did OK,  Mclaren showed all the promise they had in testing.         

1st Vettel,  2nd Hamilton,  3rd Bottas  -  As promised in the Barca testing & Melbourne practice we have a genuinely fast & competitive Ferrari.  A combination of speed & what looked like better tyre wear/managment gave Vettel the edge,  then poor pit stops,  traffic hold ups meant the dice not falling right for Mercedes,   but nothing taken away from Ferrari & Vettel especially,

 Game On  !!!!

Like Ferrari did last I think Mercedes mucked up the pit stops, SV did look quick a couple more races needed to see if the pecking order has changed significantly.

Could be Mercedes had no choice in pit stop, Lewis' car wasn't working well. Seb had hooked his up perfectly, witness how far ahead he was of Kimi.

I was at the Friday practice in Melbourne with my two sons. The new cars look quite good, with the exception of the big vertical longitudinal fin. Redbull have done the best to disguise/blend it. I couldn't believe how quiet the cars are now.

Mike-B posted:

1st Vettel,  2nd Hamilton,  3rd Bottas  -  As promised in the Barca testing & Melbourne practice we have a genuinely fast & competitive Ferrari.  A combination of speed & what looked like better tyre wear/managment gave Vettel the edge,  then poor pit stops,  traffic hold ups meant the dice not falling right for Mercedes,   but nothing taken away from Ferrari & Vettel especially,

 Game On  !!!!

Any chance of doing this more cryptically so those of us watching on CH4 don't see the result in the sidebar before broadcast?

'Spoiler Alert' has an appropriate pun to it

G

That would be appreciated.

OK point taken.     

Mike-B posted:

OK point taken.     

Thanks Mike.

G

Seems Ferrari are favourites in Bahrain because of tyre wear in the heat.   Mercedes say they struggled on the softer tyres in Australia compared to Ferrari,   & with air temp of 24'c it wasn't exactly warm.  Track temp is the big concern, the Bahrain race is run at twilight so will it be cooler,  but the track will carry a lot of residual heat.  Race day is expected to be overcast & around 26'c,  FP & Qualifying are both set to be full sun days in mid 30's.  I guess we soon see if Mercedes fears are well founded.

I see in the news that Fernando Alonso is not racing at Monaco,  he is off to take part in the Indi 500 - one of his lifetime bucket list items.   Jenson Button is taking his seat for Monaco.   I'm expecting the wider cars will be a bit of a convoy fiasco at Monaco;  maybe time to think outside the box.

FP1 - Vettel was fastest & Hamilton was 1.9secs down in 10th.   2nd & 0.4secs behind was Ricciardo with Verstappen 3rd, so a good session for RB.    Raikkonen had an engine failure,  suspected to be a turbo & not the engine itself.

Not sure what all this is proving other than testing,  Hamilton set his time in the first few laps of the FP1 session, Vettel's time was in the last few laps when the track temp was a lot cooler,  and the track temp during the race is gonna be around 25'c cooler.

Depends on tyres, condition, fuel load and engine mode. The second half of FP3 should shuffle them out.

Monaco is processional at best. But I'll be pleased to see JB back in a current car. Even if it's just for the look of it. Twice as talented as half the field, super fit and not driving. 

That will be an interesting one. Seeing Alonso last weekend, he wasn't exactly extatic....

Wouldn't be surprised if Button is on notice to rejoin when Alonso cries "enough!" They are both drivers who could have multiple WDCs but for some awful machinery at exactly the wrong time. Mind you, that's F1 for you.

Apparently Jenson's contract said he would replace either driver, so not too sure if he had any choice.

A mistake IMO him not doing at least one day at the upcoming tyre test though. He maybe designated as current , but common consensus says these cars cannot be simulated as regards forces on the driver. A fit man he may be but I think some more neck work might be needed. Although Monaco might not have the huge corners of other circuits.

Then I wouldn't discount the possibility of Button driving full time before the end of the season. I'm surprised Alonso didn't leave already or sit this season out. Maybe Button bagged the comfy chair first?

Monaco is one circuit where sustained high forces isn't so much of an issue. Not that you don't have to be super fit.

What with the width of the cars, the leader can probably leave it in fourth and cruise for a couple of hours. Maybe snick it up to fifth up the hill and seventh or eighth in the tunnel. Was it two GPs ago that Rosberg won it at a crawl? Cars behind were trying not to collide as the pace failed to pick up. And that was in "narrow" cars.

Some good racing today...well I enjoyed it.

G

Yup good race,  it could have gone to Mercedes if the gods had been with them,  but after three races it looks like 2017 is game on.  At last we have a Ferrari (a competitor) that looks to have the legs on Mercedes,  its fast, sticks to the track & (so far) reliable.    I missed both the race & qualifying;  but playing catch-up last evening & watching the body language in a number of interviews I get the impression all is not well at Brackley.  Brave face & positive language from Toto but all with a coating of corp/business speak.  Lewis on the other hand seemed despondent & did not string too many words together that made sense other than show his head is/was all over the place,  but we've seen that before & he does come back.  VB was down beat, we know his tyre pressures were wrong with the 1st set,  so what went wrong with the other stints?  Maybe being asked twice to move over for LH was hard to accept, but it was obvious he did not have the pace for whatever reason.

Pity about Verstappen's break failure too.

G

It seems Lewis is blaming himself for losing the Bahrain race.  Australia was lost through tyres,  but Bahrain was errors.  He knows where he lost it in Qualifying to not get P1,  why he didn't make it to the 1st corner & his 5 sec 'mistake' in the pit lane.  

I would add some slow pit stops & a car that is not a match for Ferrari in some area's.

I think the Merc was easily a match for the Ferrraris,  but putting yourself behind the 8 ball meant LH didn't get to pressure SV.

Considering the Scuderia brought so many new bits and MB none, I think they should have done even better.