6 hours ago, moley said:

Ferrari must be scratching their heads as they were way off of the pace. Renault reliability appears to be as good as ever.

 

Only 4 Renault engines this year and The Hulk did well and put it in his usual 7th place.  Amazed that Dani wrecked his car presumably expecting the grass verge to be much smoother than it was.  

 

Sounds like the MGU was being run too long in highest input/output mode whilst Ferrari realized that it was pretty warm and kept their engine-MGU in a lower mode so they did not have a failure.  44C track temperature, supposedly only 24C air temp but it was probably much hotter than that for the air above the track. 

 

F1 becoming less of an all out sprint and more dring at 90% with the occasional dash it seems.  Thank God for bike racing and other 4 wheel motor-sports.  

Gasly gave up 10th place far too easily when he rejoined after his pitstop. Needs to show more fight than that or he will be replaced before the season is out.

18 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Gasly gave up 10th place far too easily when he rejoined after his pitstop. Needs to show more fight than that or he will be replaced before the season is out.

 

He can't take risks at the moment. I should think he's on the naughty step already after crashing heavily twice in Barcelona testing.

 

33 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

 

F1 becoming less of an all out sprint and more dring at 90% with the occasional dash it seems.  Thank God for bike racing and other 4 wheel motor-sports.  

 

F1 hasn't been an all out sprint for 10 years or more. Remember 2/3 stop races, flat out sprints, sticky tyres because of competition between Michelin and Bridgestone. It was great viewing.

 

Now they just tour around 5 seconds or more off the pace, to make these rubbish Pirellis last the required stint length.

 

And the lack of overtaking messed up the points scorers massively. Alfa were able to hold up a queue of fast cars with Gio going slow to protect Kimis points finish and this also benefited Stroll and Kvyat at the expense of Norris Perez and and Co who pitted earlier.  Now way was Stroll going to score points on his own merit.

 

 

 

Edited 17 March, 20197 yr by camelspyyder

21 hours ago, camelspyyder said:

Floor damage on the #44.

Remind me; who was driving #44.  

3 hours ago, KenONeill said:

Remind me; who was driving #44.  

It wasn't the Flying Finn he was out of sight (literally).

Ferrari really really quick in FP1. Leclerc ahead.  Mercs and RB a second off.

 

Saturday and Sunday free(ish) on Sky One again.

 

 

Edited 29 March, 20197 yr by camelspyyder

15 minutes ago, camelspyyder said:

Ferrari really really quick in FP1. Leclerc ahead.  Mercs and RB a second off.

 

Saturday and Sunday free(ish) on Sky One again.

 

 

Thanks for reminding me tune into BBC Sport for FP2.

Thoroughly enjoyed that today - one of the better races of recent years.

3 minutes ago, tweenster said:

Thoroughly enjoyed that today - one of the better races of recent years.

Agree thought it going to be 2 RED cars followed by 2 SILVER cars. How pleasantly wrong I was.

I think today showed that Vettel's four world championship wins were not down to his driving skills and this season he has a team mate who could be a real threat.

3 of the 4 Renault engine cars DNF

7 minutes ago, moley said:

I think today showed that Vettel's four world championship wins were not down to his driving skills and this season he has a team mate who could be a real threat.

3 of the 4 Renault engine cars DNF

Looks like moving from a Red Bull to a Works Renault probably not the smartest decision in the off season unless your bank balance is the main consideration. Also much as I like/admire Robert Kubica I can see a point during the season that he is replaced by Ocon.

I'd kind of like to hope so.

Lucky, lucky Mercedes. Even with LeClerc's problems, Ferrari would have expected Vettel to win that race in the fastest car.

How many times has he spun out in the last 10 races?

 

 

Edited 1 April, 20197 yr by camelspyyder

12 hours ago, shyVRS245 said:

Looks like moving from a Red Bull to a Works Renault probably not the smartest decision in the off season unless your bank balance is the main consideration. Also much as I like/admire Robert Kubica I can see a point during the season that he is replaced by Ocon.

 

Red Bull must be highly impressed with his replacement too. Will Gasly last half a season at this rate?

 

Can't see Ocon risking his reputation tugging that Williams around though.

1 hour ago, camelspyyder said:

How many times has the pointy German spun out in the last 10 races?

WIth or without counting the times Vercrashen spun him out?

Max blatantly spun him out in China.

 

Vettel spun himself in Italy, Japan, USA and now Bahrain - all whilst being passed by Hamilton or when side by side with a RedBull.

That's a lot of errors.  He'd be on the end of Marko's boot and get the sack from RBR, or even STR, driving like that.

 

AutoSport ratings for this week have Vettel and Gasly both bottom of the grid on 4 / 10, LeClerc, Hamilton and Hulkenburg top on 10 / 10.

4 hours ago, camelspyyder said:

Lucky, lucky Mercedes. Even with LeClerc's problems, Ferrari would have expected Vettel to win that race in the fastest car.

How many times has he spun out in the last 10 races?

 

 

It's like a Spitfire homing in on a ME109. Going to end badly for the German.

2 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

It's like a Spitfire homing in on a ME109. Going to end badly for the German.

Goering "So, how can I help you?"

Galland "Give me a staffel of Spitfires."

Haven't checked the bookies odds, but I'd say Leclerc is worth a punt for the title right now before they cotton on and shorten rapidly.

 

Could be an exciting season the way the top 3 teams form has varied so far.

Edited 1 April, 20197 yr by camelspyyder

Testing times seem completely meaningless this week at the Bahrain Test.

 

Day 1  Verstappen fastest from Schumacher.

Day 2  Russell fastest from Perez.

 

To be truthful, Mick was allowed a glory run on the sticky-softest tyres to get his name in lights, and George was not driving his Williams, but the Mercedes...

Sulky RBR driver rants at "w4nkers" after he misses flag to start Q3 lap. How I laughed 

 

Clearly, the other drivers were more aware time was pressing.

 

Rather than learning from it though, his response was "I'll ***k them up next time". Very mature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 13 April, 20197 yr by camelspyyder

18 minutes ago, camelspyyder said:

Sulky RBR driver rants at "w4nkers" after he misses flag to start Q3 lap. How I laughed 

 

Clearly, the other drivers were more aware time was pressing.

 

Rather than learning from it though, his response was "I'll ***k them up next time". Very mature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Would that be Max I can't find my nappy by any chance?

2 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Would that be Max I can't find my nappy by any chance?

On a positive note, he destroyed his team mate again. I can see Kvyat back in the RBR at this rate. And soon.

And Fiery Bottas bringing out the Viking Warrior is good for Lewis keeping the Red cars further down the grid. Good to see the new Valtteri.

Pre season testing showed that Ferrari were way ahead of Mercedes 

Three races into the season and three 1-2's for Mercedes.

Two of the four Renault engine cars managed to finish today, but both were lapped.