Formula One 2018 - General Thread

[whitenemesis]

Bring back qually only cars and individual car track presence ....

 

[Deleted member 126251]

Looking forward to Japan this weekend.

SPOILER ALERT......Race result for Japan .....LH, VB, SV, KR (first 4 can be interchangeable ...depending on team orders or yellow flags)....boring.

F1 has become a complete farce with the top 1/2 dozen cars lapping the rest of the field by 2/3 of the race - how is that competitive.

 

[GeeJayW]

SPOILER ALERT......Race result for Japan .....LH, VB, SV, KR (first 4 can be interchangeable ...depending on team orders or yellow flags)....boring.

F1 has become a complete farce with the top 1/2 dozen cars lapping the rest of the field by 2/3 of the race - how is that competitive.

Has it ever been any different?

Back in the good old days, the lead driver would sometimes be given his teamate's car in order to win.

I remember when McLaren won 15 out 16 rounds. The only race they didn't win that year was (I think) Monza and that was only because the ghost of the recently departed Enzo Ferrari looked down on a Ferrari 1-2.

When Mansell won his world championship, he was in the best car in the field. A car that was so good, the regulations changed for the following season to try and level things up.

When Seb was winning at Red Bull they had the best package and dominated the field.

In my view it will never be the case that any team/driver on the grid will have a chance of winning, unless they give everyone equal equipment. Even then, some drivers and teams can just dominate proceedings because they are simply better than everyone else.

Even in Moto GP or WSB or BSB which for sure has great racing (pretty much an absence of aerodynamic downforce), it's very unlikely that riders outside of the top few will end up on the top step of the podium.

 

[Deleted member 126251]

Moto GP is far more entertaining to watch than F1

 

[artyman]

Moto GP is far more entertaining to watch than F1

So is BTCC

 

[GeeJayW]

Moto GP is far more entertaining to watch than F1

I agree, but it's rare for anyone outside of the top few riders/teams to win. Crutchlow, Bradley Smith et al usually fall off trying to beat the top guys.

 

[GeeJayW]

So is BTCC

BTCC is glorified banger car racing by a bunch of old fogeys. The only thing that MIGHT be useful to take from that for F1 is the weight penalty handicapping system.

 

[Dryce]

Has it ever been any different?

Reliability is much improved.

Keke Rosberg and Piquet both won WDCs in the 80s with very few wins. Piquet had a lot of DNFs in his first two WDCs. Keke hardly won a race.

If Ferrari or Mercedes have two DNFs because of technical failures then that is commented on. Back in the early 1980s or 1990s a couple of engine failures per year would be something the teams would aspire to.

What we see today is very reliable cars with races being managed. Qualifying is more imoprtant than it was in the 80s and 90s. The front runner goes just fast enough - break DRS and add a couple of seconds - no point in going faster unless there is a tyre strategy issue because you just take it out of the engine which needs to last and if there's an SC your opponents will catch up anyway - and the guy behind you will likely wear his tyres if he pushes behind fgor too long - plus you build a small amount of spare fuel to literally have something extra in the tank to push later on.

Penalties for between race technical issues seem to have taken over from in race DNFs. (That said - watching MV race through the field because of a grid penalty isn't actually a bad thing!)

It's all very clever and calculated. And I think the serious fans can still appreciate that. But to the casual observer or less technical fans then it all seems very bland and sterile - and just dull.

We see probably see more mistakes on strategy rather than reliability from the top teams.

The financing in the sport doesn't help either - giving more money to the top teams seems fair as it rewards performance - but the finances seem to be structured to basically give Ferrari and the legacy teams too much - and a top team with manufacturer or owner backing can end up with lots more funding (2, 3, 4 times?) than a midfield team. The concept of controlling costs has stifled development.

 

[Mactech]

Motorsport has always been not so much of a battle on the circuit, but a battle between those who make the rules and those race 'within' them.
That is a much bigger battle, and is being fought 24/7.
This does not always end in the most entertaining racing for the public, the racers are there to win, the rule makers are there to ensure they do it within the regulations and oversee the commercial and entertainment aspects.
Having run a one make, level playing field formula in the sport, I have come to the conclusion it is not the way forward for either the spectacle or the racers.
At the end of the season you end up with a couple of happy drivers and another 22 or so totally p*ssed off and looking for something to blame other than pointing a finger at themselves. Racers have to be optimistic, why else would you race when statistically there is only around 5% chance of winning.
They need the 'crutch' of 'if I'd had that engine/tyres/team/engineer/money/or whatever' I could have won. Take that away, and most give up the sport.
If cars are all the same, they tend to go at the same speed and overtaking becomes very rare.

In bike racing, the rider is a bigger component of the performance package. Add that to very limited aero, much smaller width and you have a recipe for (as is the case!) much more overtaking.

 

[zipdip]

Well the top teams are going to dominate F1 ,I am surprised that the other teams are at least 1.5 seconds slower,what stands out a mile is for the top teams there is very little need to qualify,as they can all be at the front after 30 laps or so,maybe that is the way to go,the top 6 cars in the race then start at the back in the next race ,it should liven things up a bit,just look at MV he clocked up 37 laps on those tyres and when he came in VB and LS were not eating into his lead of around 2 seconds,and given he was tearing through the field right from the start his tyres must have been worn,makes you think that other teams got the tyre changes wrong.

 

[bob6600]

^^Yes he did last long on the soft tyres but his USoft tyres went off pretty quickly and he was slower than he was on the soft tyre.

 

[Dryce]

^^Yes he did last long on the soft tyres but his USoft tyres went off pretty quickly and he was slower than he was on the soft tyre.

At a guess - RB knew what the strategy had to be because of the penalties - Q1 was of no interest to them - and so they set up their car to get the really good stint on the softs at the expense of a worse stint on the ultras?

 

[Dryce]

Q1 was of no interest to them

I meant Q3 not Q1 .... doh.

 

[Stratman]

I'm not sure I like BTCC's weight penalties and reverse grids, I see it as punishing quality and rewarding mediocrity. Still, you can always punt off the car in front if you can't get past any other way, the stewards seem to take the view "If the TV commentators like it, it's OK".

 

[GeeJayW]

I'm not sure I like BTCC's weight penalties and reverse grids, I see it as punishing quality and rewarding mediocrity. Still, you can always punt off the car in front if you can't get past any other way, the stewards seem to take the view "If the TV commentators like it, it's OK".

I did say MIGHT be worth considering. I actually agree with you, it could be seen as punishing quality and rewarding mediocrity. I'd like to think that Ross Braun et al are genuinely seeking to make F1 a better spectacle...

 

[Nat]

80th Pole position. Good achievement

 

[AMGeed]

McLaren must be going crazy. Same engine as Red Bull but bottom of the grid some 3 seconds slower.
I bet FA can't wait for the season to end.
Lando Norris may regret his decision to get in a car so bad if it doesn't improve for next season.

 

[bob6600]

Ocon gets 3 place penalty so Seb will start 8th. Ferrari did get it horribly wrong but they did have a chance which Seb lost. Pressure?

 

[Deleted member 113659]

80th Pole position. Good achievement

Yeah, great target is Schmi's 93 (I think) and then hopefully make it to the 100.

McLaren must be going crazy. Same engine as Red Bull but bottom of the grid some 3 seconds slower.
I bet FA can't wait for the season to end.
Lando Norris may regret his decision to get in a car so bad if it doesn't improve for next season.

Knowing FA's luck McLaren will come good next year once he's out of the picture. I'm gutted this season. I hoped that Honda was the reason McLaren had underperformed all these years. It's obvious now that the Chassis was very poor. Shameful state for such an historic team. I'm ever hopeful they will be back in the hunt in the next few years.

 

[baxlin]

Yeah, great target is Schmi's 93 (I think) and then hopefully make it to the 100.

I think you’re thinking of race wins, MS has 91, LH is second: In pole sits, though, LH is already way past Schumacher's total, and easily tops the list.