2019 F1 Season thread

Gasly is within 0.1 from bottas, that's not really dominating...and fuck you Ferrari! Can't you do anything right? And then people will complain the races are boring....
 
Well that was a good race. Vettel last to 2nd? It's a shame he didn't win but I didn't think he had enough laps to catch Verstappen anyway.
 
That was a chaotic race for sure! Or as Kvyat, who scored an awesome podium, said "It was a horror movie with a black comedy".

I cannot decide whether or not to feel sorry for Mercedes. It was their home race after all. But after all the disastrous bad luck of Ferrari, it seemed like it was about time Mercedes experienced something other than amazing good luck.
 
Both saubers have been handed 30s penalty because of illegal clutch operations at the start, giving Lewis 9th, and kubica 10th!!! Williams has a point!
 
Albon to replace Gasly at Red Bull Racing, effective immediately.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/albon-gasly-red-bull-spa/4512520/

I feel for Gasly, F1 is can be a ruthless sport at times. It will be interesting to see how Albon performs though, since the car is proven to be a serious contender in the hands of Max Verstappen. I have a feeling Albon will struggle to do much more than Gasly did with it, but I hope he has more success.
 
if you hadn't heart already, bottas got another extention on his contract, while hulkenberg will be replaced by ocon for next year (and probably be thoroughly beaten by danny ric)

i don't get why they all are so ecstatic about ocon...
 
Cos he's supposedly a very good talented driver who didn't have enough time to prove himself. Also, French driver, french team, and french Grand Prix... watch him crash in the first turn.
 
i don't get why they all are so ecstatic about ocon...

Fully agree. Can't wait to see him spanked.

Can't wait for Grosjean to lose his seat this year, but he'll likely keep it. Sad for Hulk, but totally understandeable. Maybe he can do better (again) in sports cars. Very excited for Bottas - hope he gets the 2021 drive aswell!
 
I think hulk will take rogro his seat
And rogro will go to FE

Where do I put my money down? :p
 
Well, finally. About 5 races too late if you ask me, but at least it's not a drought year.
Shitty Vettel strategy though, can't have a perfect day, but I'll take the small victories.

Happy for Leclerc after suffering such a loss.
 
After the death of Hubert Antoine, i read an interview with Jacky Ickx, and he had 2 things to say:
  • add gravel around the radillon...Hubert's car wouldn't have made it back onto the racing line + now the drivers now they can run a bit wide etc, because it's all tarmac. replace with gravel, and they'll go slower up the raidillon
  • youth these days are brought up on simulators, where you just have to press restart after they've crashed...they don't fear crashing no more, which makes them take a lot more risk than the veterans used to

both makes sense i think...
 
iirc the gravel around Radillon was removed nearly 20 years ago (2001?) because it could make cars flip very easy... interesting
 
what was also interesting: the radillon only claimed 3 lives in its history
in 85, stefan bellof during an endurance race, after he tangled with jacky ickx
and in the 1961 grand prix where Chris Bristow first rolled his car and was decapitated by a barbed wire
and 15 mins later Alan Stacey was killed after being hit in the face by a bird
 
Those are some interesting points. I agree these super lenient run off areas don't discourage drivers enough, they're supposed to be safer because you can brake on tarmac runoffs much better than gravel, but at the same time they get used and abused by drivers who are slightly off the track but keep their foot down to gain an advantage.
 
I could see wheel lights being used as a sort of pitstop safety measure. They are red when not connected properly for example or they could even make the cars a little bit more visible to other drivers in the rain. However I'm not sure how effective they would be if they used them the way it says in the article. Are the wheels big enough that they'd be able to read all that information? also the wheels aren't traveling at a constant rate so the system would have to be able to react to the rotation changes on the fly.
 
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