I don't know if I agree or disagree with you, but you're exactly right. Its all anyone ever talks about in F1 anymore. Tires, tires, tires.... I'm tired of it. A huge part of me wants to see the best man and machine win... Not the guy who manages a race by his tires. Then again the team I'm rooting for this year does exactly that. It seems to me that these million dollar machines, and great drivers are being held back because of tires and nothing else. Isn't that counterintuative? Wouldn't it be akin to giving all sprinters snow shoes so Usain Bolt doesn't win every race? I feel like Bernie is adding something to level the playing field a little bit. Or maybe we're all full of shit, and they've been talking about tires since the beginning of racing. Sort of like my dad telling me years ago that kids today are fucked up, and me parroting the same line 20 years later? Its always been there, it just seems more noticeable now.
Monaco is boring as fuck. Sure, its super challenging as a driver, but boring as a spectator. No overtaking, no passing, no high speed, the slowest corner in F1 (shit it might be the slowest in all of racing). Spa on the other hand is steaktits. Especially Eau Rouge. Remember last year when Kimi passed Shumi on the outside last year? Best move of the year. A German hasn't got his shit handed to him in the Ardenne like that since 44.
Fucksakes, no posts here in 5 months?! Do I have to do everything around here?! Anyway, Japanese GP was this morning. Spoiler I thought Grosjean did really well, but Vettel and his tyre management can fuck right off. It's becoming like F1 was ten years ago, when I stopped watching. Webber got 2nd, due to his 3 tyre stops and Grosjean got 3rd; Alonso got 4th, to keep the Championship open. Hamilton didn't have good luck this race and retired early with a damaged floorpan from Vettel's wing that punctured his right rear tyre which then damaged the floorpan, and neither did Rosberg - I think Mercedes won't get better than 4th in Constructors or Drivers (Hamilton) Championships. Lotus should get 3rd, unless Raikkonen or Grosjean can sneak in some wins. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Formula_One_season OK, so here's what i can glean from that Wikipedia page so far: - For the first time in years, there will be no Ford-powered entry on the grid. Ford never made a turbo engine in the 1980s for F1, either, to my knowledge, so not really surprising. They haven't been competitive in F1 for a while now, so maybe they need a few years out to regroup. - Lotus are without an engine supplier for next year and I find it baffling that Renault have chosen to keep supplying Caterham over Lotus. Lotus must surely have an engine deal with Honda or BMW or someone like that; they have been too good and reliable in the last two years to suddenly be left in the lurch. Also, they have no drivers confirmed yet for next year - we all know Kimi is going to Ferrari but it would be stupid to toss Grosjean aside considering his massive improvement this year. The only team I could see Grosjean moving to is Toro Rosso, due to them getting the Renault engine for next year, and Renault may well want a Frenchman or two (including Pic and maybe Vergne) driving their engines. - Ferrari have a very competitive driver line-up with Alonso and Raikkonen but it remains to be seen if this turbo Ferrari engine is better than the one in the 1980's (one of which famously blew itself out of Alboreto's car on the main straight at Monza and landed on the grandstand roof!). If Ferrari's engine is good, I am sure they will be very, very close to the top next season. Ferrari will also be supplying Sauber and Marussia (!!) with engines. That second seat at Marussia must look quite tempting now, since they have a multi-year deal with Ferrari for engines... - Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Caterham will be using the Renault engine. I'm not really sure how Caterham can keep continuing at this point, since the car is so slow. I really have no idea how they can keep getting engines from Renault... Red Bull will have Vettel and Ricciardo and will probably be the team to beat, - Mercedes will be supplying their own team (duh) with engines, as well as Force India, McLaren and Williams (!!!). I really, really hope Williams can put out a competitive car in 2014 because this year's car has been a dog. 1 fucking WC point so far this season. Shocking. Force India and Williams have no drivers confirmed yet - I'm sure Williams will hang on to Bottas, who has largely driven well considering the awful equipment that he's been given. I think also that Maldonado will stay there too, since Williams' major sponsor is PDVSA which is the government-controlled oil conglomerate in Venezuela and Maldonado is their man. I also can't see Force India getting rid of Sutil, since he has a long history with that team (aside from his jail stint in 2012). As for drivers, the guys with no confirmed drives next year are: Romain Grosjean, Nico Hülkenberg, Jean-Eric Vergne, Guido van der Garde (who hasn't looked awful in the last few races), Adrian Sutil, Paul Di Resta, Max Chilton (who qualified really well for the Japanese GP, getting a better time than his team-mate and the two Caterhams), Esteban Gutierrez, Sergio Perez, Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas. Any thoughts?
Except Franchitti doesn't and hasn't raced in Formula 1, so it's irrelevant. Sorry. The closest Franchitti got to an F1 car was testing for Jaguar when Sir Jackie Stewart was in charge of that team in 2000. Great crash, though.
So Vettel won the title and Red Bull won the Championship. This is starting to seriously look like a decade ago when Ferrari (and Schumacher) were winning everything. My only hope is that Vettel will suck next year, or else F1 will start to get really boring. Rosberg drove really well to get 2nd and Grosjean got 3rd from 17th on the grid - if the Lotus was a little quicker, he'd be handing Vettel a beating because he seems to be an even better tyre manager than Vettel. Mclaren looked really racy today too - Perez drove well and qualified in 9th. I'm happy they won't be returning to India next year - no crowd or atmosphere and also because it's always been a Vettel pole and win for 3 years in a row. Fuck that. Apparently, Lotus have confirmed that Grosjean will be staying for next season, which is good because some continuity is always a good thing (except Vettel and titles). I'm just waiting to see who driver number 2 for them will be. I wonder if he'll be joined by Hülkenberg? He still doesn't have a drive for next season yet, with only the youngster Sirotkin confirmed at Sauber.
Yes but that is due to a lower rev limit and less fuel in the cars as per FIA regulations. The wheelspins in the pits were pretty awesome though (Bottas!). How good is this kid Magnussen though? Fuck, what a drive in his first race. Ricciardo could give Vettel a good run for it at Red Bull this year. Rosberg was superb and deserved his win. Button did very well to get 4th, since he wasn't particularly quick at any point of the race. Ferrari look to have reliability with both Alonso and Raikkonen getting points but never looked on the pace - Raikkonen in particular got roasted twice by Bottas who would surely have been in the shout for at least 4th if he hadn't popped the rim and tyre on that wall. Williams look to have a much, much better package this year and the car is also, for me, one of the best-looking on the grid - moving away from Renault seems to have done the trick for them, since the Renault package looks to be a complete piece of shit thus far, aside from Ricciardo's second place. The biggest disappointment for me was Massa getting rammed by Kobayashi (Raikkonen was also involved there) - not sure what happened but there was supposedly going to be a post-race investigation by the stewards, though Kobayashi admitted culpability on air in his interview during the race where he blamed cold tyres due to the 2nd formation lap. Massa would surely have been in the running for points. The other disappointment was Sauber, who have been pretty solid for the last few years. Their cars looked well off the pace and I think Rosberg lapped both of them, an unusual occurance for a midfield team like Sauber. Definitely needs work. The reliability is there though - the Ferrari engine looks reliable if possibly not as powerful as the Mercedes.
Considering Vettel and Hamilton went out, I'm considering the other two podium spots in a different light. It was good for Magnusson to podium but really without those two guys in the race, the significance is lessened. I was more impressed by the Merc car. Nico won by over 23 seconds, thats insane. Also Red Bull is having car issues. Its good to see the constructors get a fresh start and really a blank car. It was interesting to see McLaren score constructors points when last year they could hardly get any. As for the new cars, the new changes are interesting, limiting the revs on the car is a bit stupid. Its a race car, there are so few of them worrying about emissions is more about PR then actual environmental impact. I've read the statements they put out why they did that and its cute and looks good, but really, they made the cars worse and the sound is just atrocious.
Red Bull isn't having a car issue - the chassis seems to be pretty good - the problem is the Renault engine and this doesn't only affect Red Bull but also Caterham, Lotus and Toro Rosso. Only Toro Rosso as a Renault-powered team were spared - one Caterham and both Lotus cars retired with drivetrain issues, as did Vettel. Hamilton's car was the only Mercedes-powered car to have issues on race day - Massa getting shunted in the first corner on the first lap by "Kamikaze" Kobayashi in the other Caterham can't be considered an issue. I don't view the podiums in a different light because Magnussen got 3rd on merit - he was consistently quick in pre-season testing and qualified 4th for the race itself. Button also drove a well-controlled race to get 4th because he wasn't as quick as Magnussen but is a reliable points scorer if he gets a good chassis and McLaren seem to have a good one this year. Vettel wasn't even close to Magnussen in terms of lap times in qualifying so, for me, Magnussen deserved 3rd for a consistent weekend. Not sure about the emissions side of it but the FIA want to cut down on fuel use by the teams (and cars), which is partially why the turbocharged engines were reintroduced, probably why the stewards were quick to disqualify Ricciardo from 2nd place. That alone means the FIA isn't playing around.
Yea, I don't trust the FIA, its so corrupt, its as bad as FIFA. Good points about Magnussen. I didn't watch qualifying. Honestly, the only reason I caught the race was because I was still awake and channel surging when the race was going on. For reference, that was around 1:30-2 here, so not too bad.
Monaco this weekend. NBC is broadcasting the race live on Sunday morning. Maybe someone in their sports department is starting to get it. No other sports are available that early in the morning, you might as well put on F1 and see what kind of an audience it might be able to draw.
There was a time period where it was impossible to get F1 races here live, thanks to the SABC (national broadcaster). Next time the bidding came up for it, SuperSport (part of DSTv, the major satellite TV provider here) way outbid SABC for the broadcast rights and we got live races again. But there was time for local (crap) soccer (!!!) and fucking athletics on SABC Sport and not live formula 1 races, despite the fact that there was an F1 race in this country for many years and lots of fans in the country. TL/DR: Fuck you SABC. Cunts.
As an aside, the race was kind of subdued. Spoilered the rest of it. Spoiler Rosberg was only threatened by Hamilton for the lead and, on a track that is nearly impossible to pass a car on, nothing materialised. Ricciardo did very well in the closing stages to get just about up to Hamilton's gearbox. Vettel's retirement was hilarious, because I cannot stand him and think he's an arrogant cunt - he's getting a real dose of reality and humility this year and it is fucking fantastic. Bianchi was brilliant today in a seriously slower car - not sure where he finally finished since he crossed the line 8th but there was supposedly some sort of time penalty that would be added, but slow cars have just as much chance of scoring points at Monte Carlo due to the track being slow and the high attrition rate during the race due to accidents, engine failures, etc.. Williams seem to be getting something more from their aerodynamic package in terms of fuel usage - consistently both drivers have used less fuel than the rest of the field. Massa had a poor start though and Bottas has a problematic stop. Gutierrez' crash was hilarious - it's like he dozed off at the wheel, unlike Sutil's which was just unlucky.
Monaco is easily my least favorite race of the year. Its just horrible for passing, so its rare to see someone make a move. I'd really like to see Williams do better than they are, I was surprised that they had such a shitty qualifying. Obviously Massa couldn't run because of the accident, but Bottas wasn't in much better shape running anyway. It would be great if they came in 4th this year. I'm glad Marussia got a couple points as well, its nice to see.
I think Williams will start running slightly less fuel soon - they seem to be consistently better than the other teams with fuel usage at all the past races this season. I'm sure they'll pick things up soon. Anything is better than last year's car, and I think this year will be a transition year for them anyway.
You're a bigger Williams fan than me (I pick a team in preseason and go with it), but did the reason Williams not do that well in Monaco was because of the low speeds, or just a shitty outing? I was disappointed with their outcome. I'd fucking love it if they could take it to Ferrari, beat Force India, and destroy McClaren.
Beating Force India will be tough - Perez likes to crash into things. Beating Ferrari will be impossible. Beating Mclaren, though - that one is entirely possible since they're close on speed. I think that neither Massa or Bottas are particularly quick around Monaco - Massa in particular is not the quickest qualifying lap driver and is pretty careful nowadays. Bottas is, i think, the faster qualifying lap driver of the two, I just think overall that neither was quick around Monaco. I loved Massa's sarcastic clap for Eriksen after Ericcson crashed into him in qualifying though. I think the team had both a poor outing and that the aerodynamics of the car aren't suited to Monaco - they should have a much better outing in the next 3 races, all of which are faster tracks (A1 Ring, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and Silverstone) and they will finish high if they can avoid the accidents on the start-finish straight at the A1 ring, which is particularly narrow and known for accidents (the original sweeping left turn is where Mark Donohue had his fatal crash)...
Durb: Were you screaming at the top of your lungs at the TV like I was on the last lap of the race? I was fucking IRATE.