The official Formula 1 and general motorsport thread for 2019

[captain red dog]

Just seen this while browsing the F1 reddit (where I look for most of my F1 news these days as I find the majority of sites pretty poor or they now need a subscription), just shows how dominant Mercedes have been since the introduction of the 1.6 V6 hybrid engines, not that anyone here needs any reminding of course

Great racing in that Indycar and Audi R8 battle in the 24hr Nurburgring, I also can’t remember if Peter Dumbreck gets a mention in Mark Webber’s book or not, both of their crashes could have ended so differently for them, definitely got lucky.

Wow those stats really show they went the wrong way after 2005 to 2008. They should be looking at the regulations from those years and trying to closely match them.

I always felt it was a huge shame after 2008 literally had a movie like conclusion, title decided on the final corner of the final lap, and then they massively shook up the regs for 2009, which was a pretty crap year aside from the Brawn surprise.

[Vermilion]

As i've said before, F1 was riding high on a wave of goodwill following 2008.

Since then it's been squandered over and over again, the TV deals have gone to shite, we've had some of the ugliest F1 cars ever to exist (the 09-16 narrow/tall rear wings i particularly hated, and the less said about the 2012 step noses/2014 penis noses the better), we've had some truly dreadful circuits combined with a ridiculous amount of tarmac runoff (while good ones such as silverstone/Mexico City have been spoiled), and the racing itself has steadily got less and less competitive.

There really does need to be some major changes.

[Robbo-92]

Would reverting to a 2008 spec of regulations really help though? Being pessimistic I just think Mercedes would ace the change again and it’d be business as usual, short of keeping the same set of regulations (along with a return to simpler, cheaper engines) for a couple of seasons (or three?) I don’t see how other teams can hope to bridge the gap to Mercedes.

I've got a bit of a soft spot for the 2009 season as it was my first season watching F1 and it certainly got me interested enough to still be watching it to this day. Also in the 2009 to 2013 period, the 2010 and 2012 seasons were really close and were just good seasons in my opinion, some parts of 2011 and 2013 were pretty decent as well although the end of 2013 was a whitewash for Vettel/Red Bull. 2014 through till now have had some good races and a slight Ferrari resurgence in 2017/18 gave a glimmer of hope but the stats bring it all back to reality.

Re the tracks I’m kind of on the fence about it all, I can see why tarmac run offs have become the norm but equally agree they're not as exciting as the threat of grass/gravel for the fans.

Letting it go from free to air to behind a paywall has just been the icing on the cake really.

[Robbo-92]

Well that’s new for this year (I think...), 3 teams making up the top 3!

Edit, Hamilton penalised for impeding Raikkonen, now starting 5th which means Lando is starting 4th.

[Victor Mildew]

Fingers crossed for a decent couple of opening laps.

[Robbo-92]

It should be, good top 4 and Vettel back in 9th should be able to come through to the top 5 quite quickly. I’m looking forward to post race if Gasly has another shocker, it’s not like Red Bull haven’t got precedent for changing it up mid season when one driver massively underperforms....

[Victor Mildew]

How will Ferrari throw this one away then?

[Robbo-92]

Safety car, they don’t pit either driver under the SC instead pitting them as soon as it comes in, or if they do pit under the SC its when its already bunched the field up so they’re both at the back behind both Williams.

[Robbo-92]

Nightmare start for Verstappen there, Vettel and Kimi making good positions up. Good opening so far.

[Victor Mildew]

Gasly

Nice to see McLaren in a decent position on merit.

[Jam-Master Jay]

Gasly needs to be replaced ASAP.

Edit: Ferrari.

[Victor Mildew]

Well there's the first Ferrari screw up

[Robbo-92]

Been a good race so far, Gasly is struggling to pass Kimi though but he still seems to have it does Kimi.

Thats how Ferrari mess it up, woeful pit stop for Vettel Let’s hope they don’t do the same for Leclerc.

[Memento Mori]

VetteLOL

[Victor Mildew]

Ferrari strategy:

[Robbo-92]

Even more annoying as Vettel seems to have a solid race pace today.

[Robbo-92]

Gasly finally passed Raikkonen, after about 33 laps

[Memento Mori]

The best thing about the Vettel pitstop was the mechanic running out with the tyre and almost getting run over by Bottas.

[Robbo-92]

Classic Ferrari strategy, two stopping while everyone else one stops. They’ll be hoping everyone else runs out of tyres come the end of the race then.

[Victor Mildew]

Come on Max! Go for that win.