10 Laps to go and Seb in 13th (unlucky for some) only 6 seconds behind 10th place and a single point for the Prancing Donkey. Charles soft tyre gamble seems to have not worked as he trails Lewis by more than a minute.🏇

After Pole position number 93 yesterday Lewis adds victory 89 to his bursting trophy cabinets. Red Bull and Renault fill their boots with good points and the rumour is that Ferrari will enter a FIAT 500 Abarth in the next race because in testing it is faster than the 2020 F1 car.

That was dull.

 

Looking at where Kimi finished, it's likely Russell would have beaten both Ferraris though.

 

Only the DRS gave any excitement, and there are many who'd still rather it wasn't on the cars at all.

 

Monza next week with no party modes in qually. Will that change things for the better or give Mercedes even more advantage?

 

 

Edited 30 August, 20205 yr by camelspyyder

Renault first fastest lap for a decade (though Lando got one a few weeks ago)...

 

Roll on Monza, liking this power circuit in the post cheating softer tyres environment.  

 

The fastest lap was impressive. I guess Daniel had saved his boost push and had some real fun on the last lap. 

 

However, 6 seconds off qualifying? 

 

Has there ever been a greater disparity between an F1 cars' ultimate potential and how little of it is used during a race?

Lucky they're not letting fans in at Monza. 

 

The way Ferrari are going, none would have turned up anyway😀

2 hours ago, camelspyyder said:

The fastest lap was impressive. I guess Daniel had saved his boost push and had some real fun on the last lap. 

It gave Renault an extra point, now they are in 6th place and only 205 points behind Mercedes in the constructors championship. 

7 hours ago, moley said:

It gave Renault an extra point, now they are in 6th place and only 205 points behind Mercedes in the constructors championship. 

 

If they put as much effort into their own car as they put into protests and posturing for the press just maybe they'd move up the grid more often. They really need a top management overhaul.

 

I just don't rate Cyril as a team principal, and advisor Alain Prost is a failed team owner, was sacked by Ferrari and Renault and walked out on McLaren and Williams.

 

And into this creaking management structure they are bringing the most disruptive and divisive driver of the century. Can't wait to see how it pans out.

 

Will they all get through the whole of 2021? If not, who will fall on his sword first, Cyril, Alain, or Fernando?

On 31/08/2020 at 13:35, moley said:

It gave Renault an extra point, now they are in 6th place and only 205 points behind Mercedes in the constructors championship. 

 

If Renault have a similarly good Monza as the did in Spa they could be up to third, but I like to see McLaren to do well almost as much as Renault.

 

Now F1 knows Mercedes Achilles heel is tyre pressure all it has to do it set the tyre pressure at 25 psi and above and we get much more interesting racing !

 

POS	TEAM	PTS
1	MERCEDES	264
2	RED BULL RACING HONDA	158
3	MCLAREN RENAULT	68
4	RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES	66
5	FERRARI	61
6	RENAULT	59

On 31/08/2020 at 21:37, camelspyyder said:

 

If they put as much effort into their own car as they put into protests and posturing for the press just maybe they'd move up the grid more often. They really need a top management overhaul.

 

I just don't rate Cyril as a team principal, and advisor Alain Prost is a failed team owner, was sacked by Ferrari and Renault and walked out on McLaren and Williams.

 

And into this creaking management structure they are bringing the most disruptive and divisive driver of the century. Can't wait to see how it pans out.

 

Will they all get through the whole of 2021? If not, who will fall on his sword first, Cyril, Alain, or Fernando?

 

Renault racing is a thousand plus staff based near Whitney Oxford, like Mercedes AMG racing much more British than French/German.

 

I think Cyril may have just turned it around in the nick of time, help by Ferrari's massive failure this season and Racing Points-Mercedes cheating exposure of course as it is all relative to other teams.

 

Still not sure about Fernando, a lot of the other drivers still rate him, he's be 40 next year and this is getting a bit old even with all the latest fitness techniques etc.  Valentino Rossi is still pretty good and he is a year older than that. 

 

.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, lol-lol said:

 Racing Points-Mercedes cheating exposure of course as it is all relative to other teams.

Renault complained that the Racing point Brake ducts were a copy of the Mercedes brake ducts of the previous years car. Both teams denied this and although the FIA ruled that Racing point had broken the rules they were allowed to continue using the parts. 

When it comes to cheating look no further than Singapore 2008, where Renault made one of their drivers to crash forcing a safety car to allow their other driver to win the race.

I still really rate Fernando as a driver, but he has undeniably destabilised a few top F1 teams in the past. 

 

In fact he probably had acrimonious exits from teams as many times as Prost did.

 

Re Renault and cheating: haven't they been disqualified more than once during the hybrid years for exceeding the fuel flow limit?

 

Edited 3 September, 20205 yr by camelspyyder

3 hours ago, moley said:

When it comes to cheating look no further than Singapore 2008, where Renault made one of their drivers to crash forcing a safety car to allow their other driver to win the race.

 

That was down to one, or possibly two individuals ie Flavio Briatore who should never have been employed with his background as a bent Italian insurance salesman and Pat Symonds who was also partial implicated but returned to F1 to work for Williams for several years in the last decade !

.

4 minutes ago, camelspyyder said:

I still really rate Fernando as a driver, but he has undeniably destabilised a few top F1 teams in the past. 

 

In fact he probably had acrimonious exits from teams as many times as Prost did.

 

Re Renault and cheating: haven't they been disqualified more than once during the hybrid years for exceeding the fuel flow limit?

 

 

At least one ie Melbourne with Ricardo where it was pretty marginal and from what I hear this is what Ferrari have been guilty of last year but somehow miraculously get it buried even though they have had to redesign to stop their, aledged, plenum chamber cheating to circumvent the flow meter.

 

9 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

 

That was down to one, or possibly two individuals ie Flavio Briatore who should never have been employed with his background as a bent Italian insurance salesman and Pat Symonds who was also partial implicated but returned to F1 to work for Williams for several years in the last decade !

 

One or two individuals. Sounds like the truckie and the garage sweeper did it.

 

No.  The one or two individuals were the team principal and technical director. The absolute top level team management. And they were both punished. I can't remember the team getting much trouble though, because like current top cheaters Ferrari they're a mainstream manufacturer, unlike McLaren who'd been fined 100 million and lost their prize money the year before Singapore.

Edited 3 September, 20205 yr by camelspyyder

3 hours ago, camelspyyder said:

One or two individuals. Sounds like the truckie and the garage sweeper did it.

 

No.  The one or two individuals were the team principal and technical director. The absolute top level team management. And they were both punished. I can't remember the team getting much trouble though, because like current top cheaters Ferrari they're a mainstream manufacturer, unlike McLaren who'd been fined 100 million and lost their prize money the year before Singapore.

 

Briatore was a Benetton franchise holder in Italy, an "interesting" businessman who Benneton liked so I presume they saw he would be a magnet for the business even though he was not a racer, or failed racer as in Toto's case, not sure who make the best team principal, a mixture of many skills I guess.

 

Symonds was a aero specialist, man management clearly questionable !

 

Caption time " I told you we were ****** years ago but you wouldn't listen !"

40 minutes ago, Paul007 said:

Caption time " I told you we were ****** years ago but you wouldn't listen !"

Or alternative caption "Child Worker kisses Father Worker" based upon the headphones.

Not unexpected really. They sold the business and the new management are in place after Monza.

 

Much like Bernie selling F1 and finding himself immediately replaced by a moustache.

2 hours ago, lol-lol said:

 

Briatore was a Benetton franchise holder in Italy, an "interesting" businessman who Benneton liked so I presume they saw he would be a magnet for the business even though he was not a racer, or failed racer as in Toto's case, not sure who make the best team principal, a mixture of many skills I guess.

 

Symonds was a aero specialist, man management clearly questionable !

 

 

A certain BC Ecclestone was a failed driver and then team owner. Didn't do badly for himself.

 

C Horner Esq. also.

 

Even more illustrious, a Mr ACB Chapman didn't do great things as a driver, although on his day of days I believe he beat both Clark and Hill in a sports car event.

 

And finally, a Signore E Ferrari who had won some major races for Alfa but really lost the will after his team mate was killed.

I recall that Renault were disqualified from a race last season because they were using an 'automatic brake bias' system.

This is a very sad day for F1 fans and Williams fans in general 

 

 

At least the team continues. They've struggled for 5 years now with decreasing budgets and a downward spiral of performance. Now there is new money and hopefully the owners will find someone highly capable to manage the team, in the way that McLaren have recently with Andreas Seidl.

I'm sad because it signals the end of an era really. Last of the garagistes. Also, there aren't many female team principles in high level motorsport, certainly none spring to mind (I don't count Formula-E  ) 

Unfortunately in Motorsport money talks and without the best of everything including drivers who want to get paid, success is very hard to achieve. Just look at Kimi who should have retired when he left Ferrari but is now struggling to beat the Williams and HAAS which have budget issues.