2018 F1 Season

[JoVel]

Stroll linked to a move to Force India.

Really hope this isn't true. Force India has always tried to get the best drivers possible while having one of the lowest budgets and still has been able to get good results. Ocon&Perez is a good pairing and if they both want to stay there, I'd be pretty pissed if a rich daddy's spoiled kid would replace one of them.


It's raining in Hockenheim at the moment and could be the same thing for qualifying and the race too. Hopefully this is actually the case this time and it doesn't start raining five minutes after the race is finished.

 

[SoupyFIN]

Hamilton going wide at turn 1 and violently rejoining the track over bumps may have caused the hydraulic failure. Mercedes would be stupid not to take some extra grid penalties, since he's already at the back of the grid.

 

[Paris in Flames]

Should be fairly entertaining to see both Ricciardo and Lewis coming from the back tomorrow.

 

[PanniniClaus]

Could be a wild ride. Wish they left the old Hockenheim in tact but still should be a good race.

 

[NyQuil]

Whaaaaaaa!!!?!!?

 

[PanniniClaus]

Vettel threw it away. Even Schu, Senna and Prost threw some away. It happens

 

[SoupyFIN]

Hamilton given a 5 second time penalty after the race, for cutting back to the track from the pit entrance. Bottas takes the win.

Vettel threw it away. Even Schu, Senna and Prost threw some away. It happens

This is problematic because it's now the second year in a row where Vettel was in control of the championship and threw it away (certainly looks like it, Hamilton is too consistent to lose enough points and this probably won't be the last DNF for Vettel this season) himself. Can't blame anyone but himself, the team has done everything in their power to put him in position to win it.

 

[JoVel]

Hamilton given a 5 second time penalty after the race, for cutting back to the track from the pit entrance. Bottas takes the win.

Fake news.

 

[SoupyFIN]

Fake news.

Apparently.

It's a joke that he didn't get a penalty though, I don't buy that "safely re-joined the track" BS for a second, he had no idea if there was a car coming around the last corner when he re-joined the track with the panic going on. He's just lucky that no one happened to be there, but that shouldn't be the point. It's like cutting across the white line at the pit exit, the point isn't whether you cause danger to another driver or not, it's that you don't cut across it- period end of story.

I guarantee that if this was a midfield driver, one of the Haas or Renault drivers for example, he'd get the book thrown at him.

 

[JoVel]

Apparently.

It's a joke that he didn't get a penalty though, I don't buy that "safely re-joined the track" BS for a second, he had no idea if there was a car coming around the last corner when he re-joined the track with the panic going on. He's just lucky that no one happened to be there, but that shouldn't be the point. It's like cutting across the white line at the pit exit, the point isn't whether you cause danger to another driver or not, it's that you don't cut across it- period end of story.

I guarantee that if this was a midfield driver, one of the Haas or Renault drivers for example, he'd get the book thrown at him.

He still got reprimanded for it, which means the stewards acknowledged that it was against the rules but didn't give him a penalty because... Hamilton. What a joke indeed.

 

[NyQuil]

Hamilton given a 5 second time penalty after the race, for cutting back to the track from the pit entrance. Bottas takes the win.

Don't worry, Bottas would still find a way to cede the points somehow.

 

[Paris in Flames]

I feel there definitely should have been some sort of penalty there. If only for the sake of consistency and setting the tone for future stuff.

But hey.

 

[Albatros]

I would be fine with no penalty if it wasn't so only for Hamilton, but different rules make this look really bad.

 

[Siamese Dream]

Imagine the fury if Verstappen had done that and got away with it.

Bottas absolutely robbed of a victory again, by both the stewards and the team with the pit stop f*** up and not letting him race Hamilton for the victory. I'm starting to hate Rosberg more and more for retiring, if it was him they would have been allowed to race, and we'd have had proper 3-way title battles.

I'm also very bored of seeing Raikkonen constantly not being allowed to challenge for victories either. They told him and Vettel they were on different strategies which was complete BS because they were both obviously going to do a 1-stop and they just pitted Kimi earlier to bring him out in front of Hamilton and then he accidentally ended up in front of Vettel as a result. Even with Hamilton a pit stop behind they couldn't put Kimi on a 2 stop because he would have lost out to Verstappen.

It's just very difficult for the FIA, I don't really want team orders but at the same time you'll get absolutely farcical incidents like the Massa "Fernando is faster than you" which funnily enough also happened in Germany.

 

[Paris in Flames]

Really hope this isn't true. Force India has always tried to get the best drivers possible while having one of the lowest budgets and still has been able to get good results. Ocon&Perez is a good pairing and if they both want to stay there, I'd be pretty pissed if a rich daddy's spoiled kid would replace one of them.

Yeah...you're not gonna love the latest rumours then...

Force India’s weak financial condition meant that rumours had started doing the rounds about a possible registration for ‘controlled bankruptcy.

And those rumours have actually come true, as according to AutoBild, Lawrence Stroll has bought Force India from its existing(rather previous) owners Vijay Mallya, Subrata Roy and Michiel Mol.
It is however not clear if Stroll has bought a majority stake in the team or has completely bought the team for himself.

But whatever it is, one thing is for sure, the billionaire’s son, Lance Stroll will now drive for Force India.

Lawrence had earlier invested his money in his son’ team, Williams, however, lack of performance from Williams and an opportunity to buy an entire team seemed a little too enticing for Lawrence.

Take it with a grain of salt, etc.

 

[Preds Partisan]

Still expecting 2020 for the race, but interestingly F1 points out:
"We have always said that we wouldn't compromise on delivering the best possible race, for the people of Miami, our fans and the 1.8 billion people who watch F1 globally every year, and if that meant waiting until 2020, then that was far more preferable than signing off on a sub-optimal race track, just to do a deal."

Looks like that original track layout will now be revised.

 

[JoVel]

Yeah...you're not gonna love the latest rumours then...



Take it with a grain of salt, etc.

What is Lawrence's position at Williams? Does he own any of that team or is he just paying for Lance's seat? If he actually buys an F1 team I'm a bit afraid of the treatment Lance's teammate would be getting.

 

[Paris in Flames]

Lawrence Stroll somewhere:

 

[MXD]

What is Lawrence's position at Williams? Does he own any of that team or is he just paying for Lance's seat? If he actually buys an F1 team I'm a bit afraid of the treatment Lance's teammate would be getting.

I'd mostly be afraid of non-optimal driver choices.
Like, Sergei Sirotkin.

Which is kinda sad, because there's really no problem with Stroll being the 2nd driver at this point in his career, considering he's very young and not precocious Genius AKA Verstappen material.

 

[Paris in Flames]

Stroll intrigues me but it's probably just the Canadian in me. I'd be curious to see what he can do when not driving an actual brick.

Could be nothing. Could be a decent mid pack driver. Who knows. I don't think he's nearly as bad as people on Twitter make him out to be but I understand why people don't like him. He's...not likeable, really.

His rookie season did have some legitimate signs of talent...so I'll give him that.

 

[MXD]

Stroll intrigues me but it's probably just the Canadian in me. I'd be curious to see what he can do when not driving an actual brick.

Could be nothing. Could be a decent mid pack driver. Who knows. I don't think he's nearly as bad as people on Twitter make him out to be but I understand why people don't like him. He's...not likeable, really.

His rookie season did have some legitimate signs of talent...so I'll give him that.

He's a legit F1 driver, something not every F1 driver was last season. Like, probably the worst legit F1 driver, but legit F1 driver still (Wehrlein was suuuuuper underwhleing too).
It kinda sucks that Sirotkin is a bit of a unknown to a certain extent. If he was paired with a driver like Ocon (more poised than fast) it could be significantly more revealing, since this is exactly the kind of driver Stroll's project to be. Sirotkin just seems really erratic to me for whatever reason. And not super quick either.
It also sucks that, due to the lack of a good benchmark, or just known benchmark, it's hard to know exactly how worse than Sauber the Williams car is. Stroll is probably quicker (as a driver... not with this car) than last season, but it's tough to know how much quicker he is due to a lack of known quantity. I'd like to see how Stroll measures vs. not Leclerc, but Eriksson.

 

[JoVel]

Stroll intrigues me but it's probably just the Canadian in me. I'd be curious to see what he can do when not driving an actual brick.

Could be nothing. Could be a decent mid pack driver. Who knows. I don't think he's nearly as bad as people on Twitter make him out to be but I understand why people don't like him. He's...not likeable, really.

Pay drivers always have some sort of stigma to them even if they actually were decent drivers. I think why many dislike him is the fact that it's his dad who's paying for his seat and not some company. That fact alone makes you think that he doesn't have any talent at all, just a daddy's spoiled kid. Massa was clearly better than him last year but that shouldn't be the end of his career, he needs a decent car and a decent teammate to show us if he's anything.

 

[Paris in Flames]

Pay drivers always have some sort of stigma to them even if they actually were decent drivers. I think why many dislike him is the fact that it's his dad who's paying for his seat and not some company. That fact alone makes you think that he doesn't have any talent at all, just a daddy's spoiled kid. Massa was clearly better than him last year but that shouldn't be the end of his career, he needs a decent car and a decent teammate to show us if he's anything.

Sirotkin's also pay driver though...one who's managed less than Stroll this season (admittedly not saying much). Stroll's stigma and hate is significantly higher than his. Though...as mentioned...the idea that Stroll has his daddy paying his way probably easier to attack than some Russian bank or whatever.

 

[MXD]

What might have robbed people the wrong way with Stroll is, well, it sounded like he'd use F1 as a developement formula, when it should be anything but.

I mean, he can develop in F1. It's just that, meanwhile, a more meritorious driver, and who is already "up there" in his developpement, isn't getting a drive.

Still, I don't understand people banging Stroll's drum last season when Danill Kyvat had a regular drive. I mean, we're talking about a driver who was, simultanously, relatively experienced, reckless AND slow. And it's not like the Sauber pair was any good either, unless you think Charles Leclerc is the next coming of Michael Schumacher... something we'd already know if he was.

 

[Siamese Dream]

I agree with that. Stroll was an enormous liability in the first half of the 2017 season, I mean in terms of actual flat out pace he wasn't that bad when he got going, but he struggled with things like preparation for a qualifying lap and his racecraft was just terrible, he didn't know how to manage the tyres or the brakes at F1 level and that's why he was ending up so far behind his teammate. This was all mostly because he jumped straight into F1 having done barely any testing and he'd never driven in GP2/Formula 2. I seem to remember seeing they've actually changed the super licence rules so racing in Formula 2 for a bit is pretty much a mandatory requirement now to get to F1.