F1 has always been and always will be about bending, stretching and pushing rules to the limit chasing 1/10ths & 1/100ths of a second. It's been like that well before Schumacher, Vettel and the rest and will carry on after they're gone.

 

 

Yep, a big part of the "Game" is finding the loopholes in the regulations to get an advantage.

 

 

As we say in Rugby - it's only cheating if you get caught!

Grabbed the highlights on iplayer, was good, although I nearly quit it after hamiltons 1st lap... he';s changing my mind about him. I've been lazy and left my colours pinned on button. Perhaps he's a generation out, but still mr smooth and flowing. Anyhow...

 

The only reason you have such long runs of winners since the 90's is safety and a bit more safety. Probably a bit of money too

 

I think any driver pre 90's with more than a handful of wins is a better driver than most of these today. They really had to risk life and limb to race. It's still a risk today, but much more measured.

 

Did anyone catch the bit with grosjean and mcnish a few weeks back? Was taking an re40 manual car out. Fair bit of grinding the gears from one of those two and it wasn't mcnish. He got it pretty quick though.

 

This is what racing used to be all about and F1 sadly lost it along the way. Drowned in money spawning cars you need a degree in IT to operate. It is telling that despite 15k rev limit nobody even gets close to it due to ridiculous regs this year

 

Ricciardo is making Vettel look silly. Got two wins already this year and is consistently beating him. He's the dark hore no one is watching and could win the Championship. If Merc have more reliability issues, RBR historically do get stronger after Summer breaks and double points in the last race. It's a long shot but when Vettel won his first title in 2010, at no point did he lead the WDC until the race he won it.

 

For some strange reason I'd like Rosberg to win WDC this year! Riccardo is my next choice

For some strange reason I'd like Rosberg to win WDC this year! Riccardo is my next choice

Nothing strange about that. We are not all Hamilton fans.

Intersting reading up about Hamilton's team order. I only watched the edited highlights the BBC provided and they did mention it, but the gist I caught was Lewis saying he'd let him pass if Nico got close enough. As he didn't, Nico wasn't effectively slowed down by Lewis. DC said pretty much the same thing in commentary.

 

Reading the Daily Fail on the plane to Paris this morning and the whole back pages were painting Lewis in a very dark colour, that he's not a team player, and there were several repeated requests and he constantly ignored them, being a real so and so.

 

Now you didn't get to see this apparent repeated request with the BBC highlights, either because it was just highlights, or because the paper rag has slightly exaggerated the story...

Basically Niki Lauda wanted Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes,

now Lewis is there he wants shot of Lewis and wants Vettel at Mercedes.

 

But without having to pay Lewis lots to leave.

 

Or did i get that wrong?

Edited 28 July, 201411 yr by goneoffSKi

Glad MERCEDES bosses owned up and apologised for their mistake yesterday.

 

Well done Lewis-you have balls and a good fast thinking brain ,more than the bosses.!

Basically Niki Lauda wanted Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes,

now Lewis is there he wants shot of Lewis and wants Vettel at Mercedes.

 

But without having to pay Lewis lots to leave.

 

Or did i get that wrong?

The Mail were reporting that Lauda was happy Lewis stuck with it and didn't just let Nico pass. Where did you hear about Lauda wanting to get rid of Lewis?

 

Regarding the sound of the new V6 engines, am I wrong to actually really like it? I was watching the qualifying with headphones on and yes, it might no longer be a screaming monster, but the various noises, boost hisses, chatter, etc give a better indication of the complexity of these new machines.

Where i heard it was in a Newspaper where Niki Lauda was denying trying to get Sebastian Vettel to Mercedes, 

and where he said he was happy with Lewis.

 

& being a cynic i thought, well that seems about right,

he will not have approached Seb, Toto will have, or some other person representing them.

 

The article says it was a rumour about wanting Vettel to Mercedes in 2016 that he was denying.

So maybe true, it is maybe in 2015 they want him.

 

george

Edited 28 July, 201411 yr by goneoffSKi

To throw a cat among pigeons a bit here's the following.

 

I think, having watched the Highlights and the end of the race, that had Nico been a better sport and not harass Hamilton by the end of the race he could have had Alonso with no probs and Nico would have gotten past as well at the same time if they played it as a team... So it was Nico who was greedy and not a team player, not Lewis...

 

I did hear about Vettel moving to Merc as well. It sounds credble as at the moment RIccardo is driving circles around him and it is getting embarrassing really...

The only move vettel will make is to Ferrari.

Taking Alonso's seat if the rumours about his recent trip to Williams are true

From my armchair, vettle isn't doing that well without car thats well ahead of the pack as RBR was.

 

I wonder if these guys do jump around. We'll be like whoa really why? I was amazed when LH jumped. Proven very wise too.  Next year sees honda and bmw engines or is that later/not happening. 

 

I'd like to see some closer racing. They seem to be more capable of taking a bump or three now. Not forgetting they are all top of the game drivers. So lets ballast 1 thru 10, pts for qualifying, pts deduction for causing race ending accidents, rolling starts, in other words, lets see the drivers, as we do in the other formulas, making the difference I think somehow, some blind luck, this season is seeing that.

I think the Vettel to Merc story is laughable tbh. The only gain I could see Merc getting from it would be for sponsors and advertising but at the loss of on the track driver skill (IMO of course). Hamilton is one of few drivers IMO that can drag a poor car a decent way up the grid, Alonso does the same, while Merc have the advantage now, who knows how long for, Renault arnt going to sit there and take it, neither are Ferrari, saying that stranger things have happened though. 

 

As far as the racing goes, I just want to see Hamilton - Alonso - Ricciardo - Bottas all in reasonably equal cars, that will provide all the entertainment I need. 

Adrian Newey is out of the equation next year too. That should throw up a few issues.

Oh, where's Newey going then??

Something about designing boats for Red Bull.

The Red Bull winning era more recently.

 

 

At least Red Bull allowed their drivers to race each other, it was just unfortunate that Webber couldn't work the rear diffuser as effectively as Vettel. But when he was on form, Webber was unstoppable.

 

The Schumacher Ferrari years were just embarrassing for Schumacher, Ferrari and the sport.

Bernie has been saying in German press that "there will be no standing starts after a safety car phase. What we have seen in Budapest was good enough"

 

 

 

Also, he is seeking to end his bribery case by reaching a settlement with the German bank - rumoured to be in the region of £20m. His lawyers claim there is insufficient evidence against him and that the F1 chief is prepared to pay a settlement fee.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28547377?ocid=socialflow_twitter

£20m pay off, cheap at twice the price. Good to see money can still bypass the truth.

Bernie has been saying in German press that "there will be no standing starts after a safety car phase. What we have seen in Budapest was good enough"

 

Makes sense to me; after all, the highest probability time for a shunt is Lap 1 turn 1 after a standing start. 

I liked this picture doing the rounds today.... holiday time.... heading to the beach now...     

 

I liked this picture doing the rounds today.... holiday time.... heading to the beach now...     

 

 

 

That's not even this year's car

That's not even this year's car

 

Indeed..... i thought that too. Still - found it fun that they had set up the picture at some point.

 

One to work on for the "sand castle" challenge when i get to the beach in Portugal next week! 

Auric Goldfinger, on 21 Jul 2014 - 22:59, said:

Break your arm or leg or the coller bone on the saturday, operation saturday night to screw, plate and mend, race Sunday 

 

Epic