Supposedly the official announcement will be tomorrow .

so where does OCO go? I kinda like the kid

Ocon stays there, avocciardio goes to replace science who goes to ferrari to replace vettel who goes to red bull ... oops ;)

Anybody wanna bet Alonso replaces Ric early, Ricciardo replaces Sainz early and Sainz boots Vettel early? It’s a bastard season anyway, why not hurry it up ?

Looks like it's official now , a two year deal has been signed .

I don't see it being a win-win.

I like Alonso and really want to see him back in a car, but I hope the come-back doesn't turn out to be a mistake like with shumi.

On the other hand, it couldn't be any worse than before with mclaren honda, that was embarrassing.

Alonso will create some media buzz but ultimately will have to perform . Ocon is young and hungry/motivated to do well . In both cases the car has a lot to do with their success or failure .

We may never know how much of Mercedes success could have been related to Shumi's return and the feedback he provided to the team . I remember a face to face discussion many years ago with Steve Matchett about his time at Benneton when shumi was there . Steve said the feedback by schumi was like that of a computer . He said he has never seen or heard of another driver that could provide the data like schumi . Pretty high praise .

...hmmm...old age and guile will defeat youth and undirected energy any time.

I put my bets on Alonso.....but I would since I am an old fart myself...

Dennis

Alonso isn't the question. The question is whether or not Renault can build him a car worthy of his talents.

I hope they do.

As soon as I read the Alonso news I immediately texted a good friend who is high up on the technical side at Renault

'You've just added 0.5 sec/lap, better make sure the next car is a good one as he's going to ring the neck out of it' :D

Great news for the Enstone guys and F1/Alonso fans too!

I know he gets bad press for being difficult to work with but despite me expecting a difficult time I found him refreshingly easy to deal with when designing a steering wheel for him.

I like Alonso but he's now the competition so I can't :confused:

Totally agree... He's 110% all the time... And the renault engine is not that bad, look what McLaren did with it in Austria - at least no worse than Honda (2 of which retired on powertrain issues)

I’m not a big Alonso fan, but I do agree he will be motivated and fast. He could provide Renault with a needed boost.

There's certainly room for some irony when it comes to F1 drivers and politics...

Consider on one hand, an unnamed Mercedes driver asking for statues of people who participated in slavery (what, 150/200y ago?) to be taken down (not sure there's many in Stevenage, but hey, it is a nice thought). On the other hand, he drives for Mercedes, a brand that 80 years ago was supplying limousines to an infamous mustachioed dictator with a stiff right arm, who was "a bit of a racist" as well... And the Hugo boss logo on his driving suit, well Hugo designed some pretty fancy Nazi uniforms as well. Should he park his ass where his mouth is, and switch to...Williams (a true british team, that smells of spitfires and Churchill's cigar) and leave the Mercedes spot for Vettel ? ;-) I'm being facetious but how far back do you go?

I should have used green font... It's actually nice that he's trying, but you need perspective too... That said I agree with him 100% on statues coming down, but that's PARFy...

Those things are only important if it puts money IN his pocket, not takes it out.

Agree. I don't have high hopes that Alanso will win any more championships but he will do as expected of him — score points.

Ferrari are a mess , what an ugly start . I bet the debrief meeting will be high passion !!

Could have been a mercy killing.

Today's race
 

Verstappen's first pitstop was the fastest I have ever seen! Looked like he didn't really stop at all. Didn't see the stat on it, wonder what it was. Good race, some good passes.

Since Ferrari wanted to test the new chassis updates today why didn't they repair Seb's car and send him back out? He could have gotten some valuable data, no? What am I missing about that particular situation? Can an F1 insider please enlighten me. DP

[QUOTE=CMDR Perry;10942984]Since Ferrari wanted to test the new chassis updates today why didn't they repair Seb's car and send him back out? He could have gotten some valuable data, no? What am I missing about that particular situation? Can an F1 insider please enlighten me. DP[/QUOTE

I wondered about that too. Even if 5 or 10 laps down, perhaps they could have learned something.

Lando Norris is great fun to watch.

There is a social media person(?) on Instagram named F1.5 that follows the midfield battle, which is far more interesting and competitive. No affiliation to me. The midfield battle did not disappoint today again. Lando started the last lap in 7th

I'm guessing that at least 25 % of the data gathering sensors were compromised by the contact. It wasn't just a matter of bolting on a new RR suspension, and tail assembly, and sending him back into the fray.
Plus, if I was a mechanic with any pull, I'd just say fxxx-it, what's the use - these two clowns can't even do one lap without messing up - let's move on to Hungary.

Don't think any data gathering sensors would have been harmed, rear push rod load cell may have seen an over limit spike but other than that there aren't many sensors around that end of the car that would have been compromised

F1 mechanics have no real pull, they do the job they're told to do and have no say in race strategy decisions

Front wing change can be done within second's, 2 or 4 half turn cam nose to chassis fixing loosened, fit a new fully built nose/wing assy, tighten and the car is racing again.

Rear wing assembly is a different beast as it will be bolted to the rear crash structure, could be anywhere from 4 bolts upwards. Rear crash structure will be bolted/bonded to the rear diff cap (rear cover holding the diff in to the gearbox) or the crash structure and diff cap are both laminated into one part. Some teams might even have the carbon gearbox and rear crash structure as a one piece laminated or bonded assy.

Also with the DRS system there will by a hydraulic line which would need splitting and bleeding.

Ring wings are designed for a twist load case but usually only to the extent of a marshal pushing one end of the wing in the situation of a car stuck in a gravel trap. This won't be anywhere near the load of a F1 car driving into the back of another car.

With that type of twist load that wing saw before it was knocked off there would be damage to the rear crash structure so end of race for Vettel.

There is always a conflict of interest designing between 'on track' and 'off track' performance. Very easy to add too much extra weight for the 'what if's....'

God, that was boring. I was so hoping for a wet race.

Amusing side show: watching all the drivers fancy face masks ride down their face during interviews, and continually having to be pulled up... My $2.50 N95 stays put...

Ferrari looks really bad... Thank goodness for mclaren !

It was weird how almost all of the folks had to pull their masks up. I suspect a lot of talking moves the mask down as ones jaw opens and the mask needs to be pulled up. I would think that the most high tech companies on the planet could engineer a team mask that is effective, and stays put.

I do know the number one rule of a mask is never tough the front of the mask as that contaminates it with your fingers contact with surfaces.

I also suspect those team masks will be major collector items for the fans.

They can design a ventilator, but not a mask!

LOL an F-1 carbon-fiber face-shield (complete with halo)

Imagine the F1 Ferrari face mask on sale at the local import parts store. Only $1,999.99 each, good for one lap. The Mercedes version will work better and never fail for year after year.

I’ve owned both cars and let me say that the Mercedes isn’t necessarily any cheaper than the Ferrari. It would certainly be more over-engineered.

I forgot to watch the race, I’m glad I didn’t. Watching the Ferraris take each other out would’ve ruined my day. And I can do without all the SJW crap.

Renault face masks will look weird, Honda version will get in someone else's way, the Ferrari one is more for show than actually wearing, you can get the red bull ones at 7-11 for a promo price, and don't buy the McLaren ones without a warranty.

Notice how all the drivers sound muffled when talking through a mask except Kimi? ;)

Hey, serial for a second: when they brought verstap.... vurst.....vyrstappu.... when they brought Max in for tires with only a few laps to go, he came out with at least a seven second lead to the car behind that was on old tires.
So why didn't they change his damaged front wing?
It coulda helped him get fastest lap 'specially on the new stickies ....

I meant the F1 version of each. The Mercedes finish and often win, race after race. They almost never break. No so the red cars.

I know. It was an apples and oranges comparison, made in jest...

What are the thoughts here on the Renault protest of the Racing Point car?

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/racing-point-renault-protest-styrian-gp/4832634

Last year the pinkies protested Renault’s gps brake balance system so there’s probably a bit of payback.

On the other hand the pink car is a carbon copy of last year’s Mercedes which is a finger in the eye of The more independant teams fighting for best of the rest. If it’s a copy based on photos alone - cool. If the internal structure of some parts is identical to Mercedes then it proves they copied based on plans. Hence seizing both teams parts. The brake ducts are one they chose to fight on. Maybe more - from other teams. It happens a lot and force India racing point sport pesa kinda pushed the copy a little far it seems, lots of noses were bent out of joint. My bet is the stewards do nothing. And next year all the cars look like the 2020 Mercedes:-)

I get it that any team can question another teams build . However isn't every cars build scrutinized/approved by the FIA ? If for example the FIA determines the brake ducts are illegal , aren't they also saying we told you they were fine but now we changed our mind ?

Renault have gone straight in with the knife, no sneakyness involved :cool:

All teams have access to detailed external photos of every car so very easy to copy external features

Depending where on a car it can range from very difficult to impossible to copy internal features without 'inside' knowledge

Extremely shrewd thinking to challenge the legality, as it's not possible to know what is going on in there and it's possible to divide up the aero is so many different ways all in the quest to improve car performance so each team will have their own very specific in house developed solution.

The performance doesn't come through brake cooling gains but managing the wake from the wheel. The front brake duct are especially powerful as these have a major influence on how well the rest of the car works downstream

Will be interesting to see what the FIA finds out