Texas IndyCar gets rained out last night and is now running at the same time as F1 Canada. Which to watch and which to record?
Hope you chose the F1 race.
Scary crash at Texas though. I’m guessing they are running on Monday now?
Just checked, it will be on 27 August. That’s some delay.
Well, it hasn’t taken Hamilton long to lay down the law on who’s really the best driver in the Mercedes garage. Hope the season continues to be this interesting.
Damn! I hit the DVR to watch the Canadian GP, and instead I get an hour of Orlando shooting coverage. 
(Why? Why on the sports channel? Isn’t every-fucking-other channel good enough?) I fast forward to hopefully catch the race, and it come on with 2 laps to go, ruining the finish for me on the rare hopes of catching a replay! :mad:
He’s lucky qualifying doesn’t include starting from a dead stop. Nice start by Vettel, ruined by a poor pit strategy.
True. But if my aunt had balls, etc.
I think it was about as good a strategy as Ferrari could do under the circumstances. Hamilton seemed well able to manage his tyres and I suspect that whichever way you sliced it he’d have had a good chance of getting past.
Two races in a row Hamilton has made fewer stops than his rivals, gotten better-than-expected life from hist tires, and won. Both races were also cold (air and track temps), and the softer compounds didn’t seem to show as much of an advantage (in terms of lap times) as they do when the tracks are warmer. Maybe Mercedes just did better research on the tire properties in cold weather. Each stop costs about 17 seconds on track; if a softer compound doesn’t gain you 18 seconds in improved lap times, why use them?
Another possibility is that you won’t win a race by just doing what the cars ahead of you are doing. Vettel came in first and put on super soft tires. According to the commentary, they had to run the soft tires at some point during the race, so Mercedes knew Vettel would be in at least one more time. They may have just picked the contrary strategy in hopes it would work.
No one here seems to be discussing the Hamilton-Rosberg incident. I’m a little curious why the stewards didn’t look into that. Do you have to actually knock someone out of the race to prompt a stewards’ inquiry, but costing them ten positions on track is fine?
A couple of points I read elsewhere. One, the stewards are a lot harsher about not leaving space in a braking zone. That is, squeezing your opponent into the grass (or a wall) because you want better track position on corner entry is just egregious and inexcusable, because there’s nothing compelling you to do that. But managing your car’s position mid-corner actually requires talent. Yes, Lewis could have lifted a bit more, maybe brought the car tighter into the left-hander to give Nico more room, but lifting mid-corner invites oversteer, and spinning the car at T1 would be a disaster. Personally, I think it was intentional, but he could very well make the case that he couldn’t have brought the car over to the left, and the stewards would have a difficult time making the case against that base assumption.
And two, the stewards are generally instructed not to be overzealous with penalties in the name of The Show, especially on lap 1, especially lap 1 turn 1.
Hell of a rain delay…
I missed the first 10 laps or so because I didn’t realize NBC had moved the race to NBCSN or whatever channel it was on.
I’m not saying Lewis needed to give Nico more room, but doesn’t he have to give him some? It’s not as if Rosberg just got his nose in before Hamilton slammed the door; Rosberg’s car was clearly alongside. Hamilton basically ran him into the grass. And it’s not like the stewards have never looked into a first-turn accident before.
If Hamilton runs Rosberg off the track again, wanna bet Rosberg makes sure to take Hamilton out with him? I wouldn’t blame him a bit if he did.
In something like GP3, sure. It would involve Lewis giving up the corner as soon as Nico got his wing up alongside Lewis’ rear wheel. Lewis would have to brake earlier, overslow, take the corner way tight, and basically let Nico have the inside line and therefore track position coming out of T2. It would have been a position change, predicated by Nico getting a slightly better start, and being initiated before T1 even began.
This is F1, nobody wants to watch that. We want to see Lewis try to make up for his poor start by outbraking Nico, and failing that, by somehow finding grip when it’s likely there’s none. We want him to take chances and be aggressive, as long as it’s safe, and that’s a pretty safe corner to pull that move. Yes, in any other racing series, where the idea is to have fun and not cost your sponsors too much money while you bleed away the life savings of several rich people, he would have absolutely been required to give him a car width.
I think Rosberg was a bit foolish to even try the overtake. He’s up on points, P2 would have been better than P5. But he can’t win, if he’d let off and tucked in behind Lewis people would have been screaming “#2 driver, #2 driver!”
So now we have the possibility of delicious, delicious revenge.
Another possibility is that Rosberg knows he doesn’t have Hamilton’s pace, so he feels he has to take a chance or two. I’ve only seen this latest incident once, so I can’t really comment on who might have been at fault.
I hope they take each other out every race for the rest of the season, opening up a glorious return of Ferrari on the top step, as God Almighty wants it. 
I think it was clearly Lewis’ line through the corner and pretty much all observers that I’ve read agree it was merely him keeping to the racing line that was his by right together with a touch of understeer.
A racing incident to my mind.
Holy Shit! This new track in Baku… speechless.
I predict absolute carnage in the GP2 race, and likely in F1 as well. The “Old Town” section of the track is pretty ridiculous. Looks like pit entry in a few places.
Interesting track, but corners 8/9/10 will be hell at the beginning of the race or overtaking.
GP2 will show the track’s strengths/weaknesses.
Boycott?
Rosberg just took the pole, probably, and Hamilton just broke his suspension so he’s starting 9th at best.
Good. Finally Nico can get started without Lewis trying to take him out of the race.
Nico is just wrecking the field.
Anybody catch the end of the 24 Hours of Le Mans?
Wow.