I think dropping the wings would require Pirelli to design a new trio of tire compounds just for that scenario. The tires now ‘work’ with just the right amount of heat, which comes with speed, downforce, slippage, and the teams tossing a bunch of heat at them with the brakes, etc.
Take off the wings and speed, downforce, slippage and heat all change.
Damn complicated stuff!
Pretty boring race in Canada, although I can’t complain about the outcome. I don’t understand Haas’s strategy for Grosjean, though. He ran ultrasofts for 48 laps before pitting. Obviously, with 19 laps to go, he had to switch to a different compound, but the team put supersofts on. Vandoorne pitted with 18 to go and ran hypersofts to the end.
Are the names of the different tire compounds as silly as they sound? It reminds me of a fast-food restaurant that sells sodas as large, extra-large, and super-large, because someone in marketing said you can’t use the word “small”.
Any explanation for why the checkered flag waved early, or any fallout from it? I’ve only been to one auto race in my life and the same thing happened three laps from the end. I think they wound up taking the result from the early flag, which meant a different winner of the race.
I don’t understand the 2018 design changes. However dumb DRS is as a band-aid for these aero-dependent cars, now the cars can’t even get into DRS range for it to even matter. The only possible excitement from different tire strategies is whether or not so-and-so on faster/fresher rubber will be able to catch so-and-so, and the answer this year is always, “he’s close, but just a little too far back.”
I’ll take a “boring” f1 race over an exciting NASCAR race any and every day. These are the fastest cars that have ever been and I don’t understand how people say F1 is boring or “the only possible excitement” is from whatever or if the did whatever. Sure, it could be MORE exciting. But let’s not lose perspective.
My impression is that DRS has led to more passing most of the time, but just not this week. I couldn’t say why; something about the Montreal circuit, perhaps.
I kind of know what you mean about DRS being a band-aid. The current cars are ridiculously complicated, and trying to make them more competitive with DRS just makes them more complicated. I’d like to see some effort toward simplifying Formula 1. I like the three-engine rule in principle, but I haven’t really seen any stats on how it’s turned out in practice.
An F1 race is a marvel of engineering, technology, history, spectacle, and talent. Hundreds of very smart people spend thousands of hours to bring the cars, drivers, and teams to the grid at the peak of preparation. The winners can seriously claim to have triumphed over the best of the best, and to be the pinnacle of what can be achieved with a racing car.
But how much of that happens on the track, during the race? This week, not bloody much.
20 marvels of engineering, technology, history, spectacle, and talented people drove the fastest cars that have ever existed around a track at speeds unseen ever before just inches away from the wall with only a few minor incidents. How is that “not bloody much”? Sure some passing would have made it more exciting. But just watching said marvels for a few hours is far more entertaining than anything else on TV.
I understand your point – F1 is a constructor’s championship first and a driver’s championship not at all, and if I wanted to see good racecraft there are plenty of better options out there.
That said, what sort of constructor’s championship results in the drivers not pushing the cars to their limits? Because that’s what we have now, maybe 1 or 2 drivers out there actually pushing the cars to their maximum time every lap and everyone else stuck behind them, unable to show the crowd what the marvels of modern engineering can actually do because the dirty air ruins their effectiveness.
I’ve never been a DRS hater, it makes sense in the context of a constructor’s championship. Let the faster cars get past the slower cars and get on with wowing the crowd. But DRS has been neutered this year, or rather, the harmful effects of dirty air have increased dramatically without a commensurate increase in the effectiveness of DRS.
Yes, but whatever enabled these unseen before speeds possible probably happened in a wind tunnel 9 months ago. It’s rather like tuning in to an Olympic event just in time to see the athletes walk to the podium and get their medals.
I just checked and Red Bull got 16 and 17 laps on their hypersofts, and those were at the beginning of the race on full tanks. Still don’t know why Grosjean didn’t take the softest compound at the end and maybe race his way into the points.
Boy, that Paul Ricard circuit sure is dull and life-less. They should add a little color and spiff the place up.
Oh, this isn’t “opposite day”? Never mind……
Funny how at first glance it looked like Verstappen gained a huge advantage in the first turn by cutting the course. It took a few moments before I realized that the driver starting P4 would naturally advance to second when P2 and P3 get involved in a collision :smack:
I want a red gorilla statue on my desk.
He almost passed Hamilton! You can see he lifts and slots into second.
Where do I send the statue?
Overall, a pretty dull race. Not a big fan of that circuit.
I’m still fighting my DVR over when to record the race. Damn machine defaults to the Sunday night airing, not the first, Live showing. I gotta go in and manually horse around.
Damn new-fangled technology!
And any time advantage he might have gained was erased by the safety car anyway. I don’t know why Croft kept harping on this incident as if Verstappen was getting away with something.
I like Max’s sense of humor.
Gato, click on the “Gift this product” button. Thanks, pal! Better hurry, only one left.
I have got to remember to set my DVR to extend record time… darn thing cut off just before the end of qualifying again!
Belated congrats to Alonso for winning LeMans. Come to Indy Car next year!
Nothin’ better than seeing Hamilton parked on the side of the track and Ferraris on the podium! Good race.
Ouch! Sorry, Dude! My mouse button is broken. Yeah, that’s it. Mouse broken…
Frustrating as a Hamilton fan, but at least the championship is close, which is what we have all been wanting for the last few seasons. Now we just want it to be fought on the track, not in the pits…
Great race in England today. Some real on-track action those last few laps. Fun to watch.
Exact opposite in Germany. Uh, I guess if I had to say anything, the clean start was remarkable. Probably the smallest pile of scrap carbon fiber on the track in recent memory.
Indeed, especially considering how narrow that track is compared with modern circuits.
Hamilton lucky to win but deserved it overall. I have to say that Vettel crashing out of his home GP was even more satisfying than Germany going out of the World Cup. Schadenfreude II. Interesting that he swore in English over his radio rather than German - I guess that’s a team rule, which he still managed to stick to despite being furious ������.