GPWizard F1 Forum
F1 News & Discussions => General F1 Discussion => Topic started by: Scott on July 30, 2017, 05:12:54 PM
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First Zero is Swisscom who apparently had some internet issues in our area during the race, so the stream sucked and I even lost connection with the chat 6-7 times. Nice of Darrell to drop in briefly, but I think he was also having connection problems.
Heroes
Vettel. All he had to do was make one small mistake and Kimi would have been on him. He managed to win the race after having a car that pulled right the entire way.
Kimi. Great job. If he wanted to win, I guess he should have made sure he got past Vettel in turn one. Didn't happen, so he sat in Seb's exhaust the entire race, but at least he was close enough that if Vettel had made a mistake, he would have been able to pounce. Bit of a tough call for the team, because unless Hamilton got into DRS range of Kimi, they really needed to have Vettel in front for the WDC.
Lewis. He seemed like a new man, recovering from a not great start, and then making, accepting and honouring a deal to let Bottas back through if he was unable to catch Kimi. I never would have believed he would do that, especially after Bottas fell back 5sec or so in the closing laps.
Alonso, Vandoorne and McLaren, for being on pace today on merit and both cars bringing home points. Best bit was Alonso in the beach chair below the podium, and simply the fact that he was hanging around and enjoying himself after such a good show for McLaren.
Sainz for a decent finish and mostly keeping his nose clean.
Zeroes
As usual, Max. Couldn't handle losing a place to his teammate, so he brakes way too late and takes out DR's cooling system, ending Daniel's race, and his sickeningly matter-of-fact way of explaining it at the end, with barely an apology to DR (the German interview). I would think DR could give him a good beating behind the trailer and Max's bruises should be healed by Spa. The English interview I heard was somewhat more forthcoming with an apology, but it was still a silly, bully move, by a reckless driver.
K Mag for almost sending Hulk into the wall in the closing stages, but it might have been karma for the way Hulk punted Grosjean early on.
Hungaroring. With barely 10 seconds separating the top 5 racers near the end, it looked like it could be an exciting finish, but nobody could get closer than a second to the car in front, so aside from the give-back from Lewis to Bottas, the top 5 finished how they started.
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Mostly agree with that, but the problem is not the track, it's the aero set up. There have been plenty of great passes in Hungary down the years but the current cars are so dependant on their front wings they can't stay close enough around 14 to get a run on the straight. Until they find a way to change that, passing will be a rare thing, not just here but everywhere. I had to laugh about the drivers complaining about lack of grip. Let's put the all in mid '60s cars and see how well they deal. Could they come close to the speed of drivers of that era without all the aero grip?
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Dr lost his smiling face finally..his own words describe Max
to a tee “That was amateur to say the least. It’s not like he was trying to pass. He doesn’t like people passing him,”
I think Kimi had the best finish he could have hoped for as even
if he won pole Ferrari would have let Vettle win[remember Monaco"
Be curious to see if Mclaren keeps on improving and if so how
it suits Alonso's future.
Like Scott Hamilton shocked me giving back a position to
Bottas. With the way Ferrari is team ordering their drivers
maybe Mercedes better reconsider in the future.
On a small note in post race interviews with Di Resto with
Hill and gang I wondered how tall is Paul? He looked like
a giant compared to that trio.
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One to contemplate - how will Lewis feel if Bottas, rather than Vettel, is the man winning the WDC by one point at the end of the season.
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Not over happy, but I would think(hope) that he'd be ok with Valtteri, after all, neither of them are carrying extra baggage in the form of previous friendship.
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Heroes
DiResta - jumped in a bad car and drove like a professional. It would have been so easy to overdrive trying to make a point; instead he put in some good times compared to his team mate and got Martini Williams more TV time than the car deserved on the day.
Hamilton - he is already a Champion and whether he wins again this year or not, he can hold his head high.
Alonso - points, fastest lap and happy / smiley interviews
Zeroes - F1 rules. The race was a bore-fest because they still haven't overcome the wake caused by aero-hungry cars so overtaking is almost impossible.
F1 rules and stewards. Where is the promised consistency?? How can they consider a 10second time penalty to be reasonable when Max ruins another drivers race due to shear stupidity. Also, because there was no immediate penalty he compromised Hamilton's race plus the team could change strategy to minimise the effect of the penalty. [Personally I would like penalties to be determined by cause and effect. I want hard close racing and even a bit of wheel banging. So if one driver is a bit 'over-the-top' with wheel banging but the other driver doesn't suffer any long term effects (Magnussen v Hulkenburg) the penalty should be a minor time penalty (negate any advantage and slightly penalise the original position). However, when a driver's actions cause damage to another car or takes the other car out of the race the penalty should be an immediate drive-through. Surely this would encourage 'having a go' but deter 'do-or-die' (or in Max's case 'punt him off') moves.
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I missed the race this weekend because of a large family event. I kept sneaking a peek online as the race unfolded and GPWizard is helping me put the race into context.
Was it a good race to watch? It sounds like it on paper.
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I missed the race this weekend because of a large family event. I kept sneaking a peek online as the race unfolded and GPWizard is helping me put the race into context.
Was it a good race to watch? It sounds like it on paper.
I think DC described it well on the C4 commentary - a slow burner which kind of came to life at the end. It personally looked at one point near to the end that a titanic struggle would ensue. Unfortunately the aero challenge when close to the car in front put paid to any serious battles.
For me it was a real shame, to put it mildly, that MV took out the Honey Badger. I think the Red Bulls could have made it far more uncomfortable for those at the sharp end.
Roll on Belgium - I've got to find things to keep me busy now for the next four weeks!
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Heroes:
Hamilton: His radio problems might well have cost him the race. He could have run several more laps on his first tires but couldn't tell his team that. His last turn return of 3rd to Bottas (while still keeping Max at bay) was straight from an earlier age of F1. It made me think about what Sterling Moss did for Mike Hawthorn at the 1958 Portuguese GP. That ended up costing Sir sterling the 1958 WDC, but it was the right thing to do.
Alonso: Not just because of his outstanding race performance, but also for his park ferme performance. They had painted a large portrait of Fernando in his deck chair during Brazil Quali two years ago. He took full advantage of it after the race (See below)
Zeros:
The Stewards: It's fine when The Hulk tries to drive over Grosjean, but sound the alarms when K-Mag returns the favor.
Haas: Even Guenther Steiner said it was their worst race weekend ever.
Max Verstappen: Becoming a weekly thing. Taking out your team mate on Lap 1 is never a good thing. I saw JPM wear out his F1 welcome at the 2006 USGP @ Indy that way.
As mentioned above, Alonso is ready for the summer break:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awNEFviBLjA
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Heroes:
McLaren - oh McLaren, it's so good to see you again! Double points, did some actual racing, fastest lap and joking around under the podium. It had everything.
Hamilton - for coming 4th with a damaged radio and also for his sporting conduct on upholding his agreement despite having to go on safari to find his team-mate.
Vettel - for winning with a damaged car. Exactly what he needed to do.
Honourable mentions:
Grosjean - for finally figuring out how to be unfairly exited from a race without on-radio swearing. It's not an easy skill to acquire, especially when one is in the habit of using foul language in extremis. So kudos to Romain for, at least temporarily, curing a long-term bad habit despite considerable duress.
di Resta - for switching from ironing shirts to respectable Q1 performance at the drop of a hat. Race wasn't so good, but hard to know how much of that was the car weakening or the pinched feet giving trouble.
Zeroes:
Labyrinthitis - for making Massa, Brundle and at least 8 other people in the paddock ill. While I enjoyed seeing di Resta try to make his debut in his tiny shoes, I'd rather it not be in circumstances like this.
Perez and Ocon - what have I told you two about not hitting each other?!? At least Verstappen has the excuse of not having hit his team-mate before! You two have been told off for this twice already this season, and should know better! It got bad enough that I openly asked for Leclerc to take one of your places next year (or at least for Force India to turf the magnets out of your cars)...
Verstappen - There's missing your braking point, and there's turfing your team-mate out in the process. At least Max apologised afterwards.
Dishonourable mentions:
Hulkenberg and Magnussen - for behaving like spoiled brats in the post-race interview pen, and somehow managing to out-sulk Grosjean, despite Romain being the one out of the three with the most to sulk about. The stewards' actions make sense if they thought Magnussen hitting Hulkenberg was partly motivated by revenge rather than as an innocent racing error (though I doubt he'd put even that much thought into it in reality).
My router - for losing connection for 18 hours. Thankfully I was at my parents' house for the F1 race, but I missed most of the Spa 24 Hours as a result.
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That was such a boring race, possibly the most boring of the season. The track always seems to take the blame for this, but it is possible to pass at some corners at least. The problem is that the cars won't allow it on a tight twisty circuit like the Hungaroring.
Hamilton's attempt to challenge the Ferraris was the only remotely exciting part of the race and once it became clear that Mercedes didn't have the necessary speed, there was nothing much to hold my interest. I hope that the Belgian Grand Prix is more entertaining.