2018 F1 thread.

I think in the future they should stop counting safety car laps towards the laps raced counter downer thing. Like I get that they only have limited amount of fuel to burn but surely this can be avoided in the future.

I was rooting for Max all season so I am glad it turned out this way. Crashes, safety cars, restarts are all part of motor racing. It goes your way sometimes and sometimes it goes your opponents way. Max didn't win because of the safety car alone he/Red Bull put together an amazing season to be tied with Lewis in the last race and came in for soft tires at just the right time to capitalize on that last lap of racing. 

Next year will be quite interesting with the new cars.

...came in for soft tires at just the right time to capitalize on that last lap of racing. 

Nope...that's not how it works. 

Merc called their strategy based on long held safety car protocols and the race director changed the protocols during to SC period, effectively handing the race win to Max.

(Merc weren't entirely "blameless" as Bottas proved to be a worthless team mate yet again. He should have been right on Max's tail so Red Bull couldn't have switched Max to new tires. I didn't hear any radio transmissions between Merc and Bottas, so not sure why he was so slow...)

I like Bottas. I think he's a good driver & seems like a really nice guy. He just doesn't have that killer instinct like the top drivers do. The previous race in Saudi Arabia he pipped Ocon at the line for 3rd place. That was a great effort by him, but overall, he should be a lot better driving in the best car. Of course he's not a lousy driver. All the guys racing in Formula 1 are incredibly talented drivers. They have to be or else they would not be there.

Posted by: SixZeroSixOne

Nope...that's not how it works. 

We'll agree to disagree. Nobody handed anyone anything. Merc lost the championship all year long. They could have put themselves in a position where Lewis coming #2 or crashing out with Max would have won him the the championship...and they didn't. It's just sour grapes now that someone else dare wreck their winning streak.

We'll agree to disagree.

Sure. But you do realise the FIA changed the rules, not during the season, not even during that race but during the actual safety car period AFTER Max had pitted to put on fresh tires?

Whichever way to you look at this, after the season we've had, either MV or LH would have been worthy champions as they've both driven exceedingly well. But this WDC will forever be tainted just like some of the results Senna and Schumacher had...

The safety car itself screwed Mercedes; as indicated by Toto whining to Masi just before the SC came out, he was pretty concerned about it.

Apparently all of the teams agreed at the start of this year that the race director was to do everything possible to finish races under green flags. In this case there was extra motivation for them to finish under green. Mercedes would have been fully aware that there was a big risk that this would be the case and chose track position over fresh tires. The same thing Mercedes chose to do on lap 30 or whatever when max put on a new set of Hard's.

If Mercedes had pitted under the SC, Redbull would have stayed out and then they would have had to get past Max on his hard tires that were 20 laps newer than what Lewis ended up staying out on. RedBull's aggressive strategy created the opportunity that they capitalized on.

Also, and I have only seen one journo speak on this, Lewis broke the rules in the restart and got away with it when he went for it and then braked again. He has been penalized for that ion the past. Once the safety car is in, if you go you have to go..

Regardless those two are on another level and the Mercedes is obviously a better cars now. (Since Brazil anyway) Here's hoping the new regulations mix things up again with McLaren, Ferrari and Alpine pressuring these two at their respective strong races.

Well the bottom line is it was quite the show. No one can deny that. Maybe that's what Liberty Media wants.

Great start to the new season IMO. The regulations change sure seems to have done what they intended to do with them. Awesome result for Hass after the last couple struggling years.

hopefully red bull gets their power units dialed in better, and Im not really sure WTF happened to Mclaren, more endless bad luck and frustrations for danny.

hopefully red bull gets their power units dialed in better,

Or put enough fuel in for a full race distance?

Apparently they had a "fuel pick problem". I laughed long and hard when both Red Bulls retired. Karma indeed 🤣

Great result for Ferrari and Haas (!). Nice to see Le Clerc race hard and FAIR.

What a start to this season....The back and forth between Max and Charles was awesome, hopefully as the drivers get more used to the new cars we see more close racing! Seeing redbull retire 3 of it's four cars was amazing, let's hope they can get that figured out! I was bummed to see Mclaren so low in the standings, I read that are blaming the slow corners and their brakes for the results...will be interesting to see what they change for next weekend. So good to see the viking get such a great result, let's hope Mick can do a bit better moving forward!

Has anyone here watched slow mo of the Mercedes porpoising? It reminds me a little of watching super slow mo huck to flats and seeing a Boxxer oscillating. 

The new cars are a welcome shake up. Good viewing.

Been pretty funny reading the criticisms on Lance Stroll & his dad.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/ralf-schumacher-lance-stroll-criticism/

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/106598/opinion-without-his-money-stroll-would-have-been-long-gone-from-formula-1.html

The one from Ralf made me lol.

I laughed at Ralf's comment too...ouch! I too think that if his dad owned the team he would not have a seat in F1...but that's life and now he has a lot of weight on his head to get his shit together...lol.