I’ve really enjoyed the last two races! A lot more activity going on than in the past seasons

Not exactly... The ducts themselves can be legal, in that they conform to mandated design rules, they fit in an FIA box if you will. They can be illegal if they are a complete copy of the Mercedes ones, inside and out, because that is not a part that you are allowed to "inherit". The outside design of many parts can be similar from copying photos, but if it is the same inside as the mercedes part, the pinkies are toast. It's not at all about the ducts themselves as a performance part, but as a proof of copy of the 2019 mercedes car ;-)

It all comes down to F1 being a non spec series, and since HAAS started that trend, Force India (sorry I can't keep up with their silly new names) took it to extreme this year, they are running a 2019 Mercedes for all intents and purposes. I kinda wish the FIA would pull their finger and decide one way or another, go all in on the part sharing or forbid it completely...

You and Kimi.

"I have that Force India, or whatever the F it's called..."

Sebastian Vettel is “about to sign” with Aston Martin for 2021 with team owner Lawrence Stroll triggering Sergio Perez’s exit clause, reports Bild.

LOL Vettel gets to drive a mercedes after all, even if it is last year's model ;)

I read that too, but have to ask:

Perez is doing better than Vettel right now
What is going to happen to all the sponsors Perez brings in, does Vettel have any?

https://www.planetf1.com/news/gerhard-berger-sebastian-vettel-aston-martin/

https://www.planetf1.com/news/sebastian-vettel-sergio-perez-aston-martin/

Perez has a much better car than Vettel, and Perez doesn't have a snot-nosed teammate running into his car in turn three of the first lap.

Yeah that's crazy, he should replace Lance instead. I don't much like Perez but he is a pretty handy driver, handier than Lance... And all the Carlos Slim $$$ ?

Dad's probably not going to fire his kid, that's the reason he bought the team. so perez has to go if they want a champion to legitimize the team. I guess. ????
If it were my money and team I wouldn't do it.

Clearly... but sometimes those $$$ businessmen can be ruthless... I could see him say, listen son, I've got 200 mil in this venture, you had your shot, here's a new ferrari, go play...

Perez brought $$$ to the team I doubt Vettel will . But maybe having a four time champion raises the team another level and opens up a different window of investors ? Maybe Vettel signs for less than market value base salary but heavy on performance incentives ?

Will be interesting to see if the rumor is true . Man silly season sure started early this year 😁

Funny, people are calling RP, Tracing Point.

If changing teams is what Vettel needs for motivation, then that will be very good for his new team.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/sergio-perez-aware-of-vettel-deal/

Mercedes is so fast that a copy of last years car is faster than everybody else. Yikes.

Outstanding effort by Russell in the Williams , he is wringing the car by it's neck for all it has ! Exciting to watch . How about Kimi being the slowest car on the track :confused: , Alfa is more lost than Haas ;)

Love this season so far, awesome job by Stroll to qualify third!

Assuming Haas signs the agreement and stays in F1 I would love to see Grosean replaced by Perez . I would also like to see Haas sign an American driver , there are plenty of good qualified young guns in Indy car and the feeder series to groom for an F1 ride . An American driver on an American team with American sponsorship wrapped in red/white/blue livery !!! Come on Gene make it happen ! :D

Only jesting, I hope Haas stay in F1 too :cool:

I've been telling my friend's kid to make a video blog of his quest for F1. I gave him one of my video cameras and gear. Carter Williams is an American race car driver who deserves a shot at a Haas seat. I think F1 teams should work with the FIA to develop a video series show about young race car drivers and their quest for sponsorship and track time. One of the most interesting parts of the Amazon F1 series was the behind-the-scenes segments of the drivers at home.

He is a driver? Perhaps he should also try to do other work in F1, like Sabre Cook an American W Series driver who is also in an Infinity engineering program. A good source of job opportunities in the racing industry is, https://www.motorsportjobs.com/en.

^ Yes! F3 although this season was messed up. He's in England I think right now, hard to keep up with what he's doing.

https://www.facebook.com/carterwilliamsracing/

I think your friends son might be already too old for F1 :( but wish your friend and his son all the luck in the world in their F1 quest

Takes millions and millions to get enough seat time along with many race wins in F3 European and F2 championship to have sniff of getting a drive in F1. In more recent years a dad that has enough money to buy a team. How many billions does your friend have?

Nationality is pretty low done on the list when an F1 team is choosing a driver, if it's a smaller F1 team then money, sponsors, money and results come before nationality

Even before getting in a car, a driver has years of kart racing. 15 years ago when I was racing with my modest $10k a year budget, the ‘sponsored’ kids with full kart factory backing were really sponsored by dad cutting the race team a check for $50k a year. Plus they had to be good enough to be in the seat.

Decent race today I thought Albon and Vettel drove well . Nice to see Haas get some points . How the heck did Kimi line up on the wrong side at the start ??? Has Lance Stroll become the real deal ?

What ever happened with the Albon drying-the-starting-box controversy? Penalty or no penalty?

Lots of good drives today, but I think Lewis' super-dominant win still made him driver of the day IMO. He made it look easy.

Not meant as a political comment, but I think it's a little bit ironic that Lewis spearheads the BLM issue in F1, inspires his team to paint the cars black, and then has sponsorship (printed in little letters by his visor) by a sunglass company named Police. Obviously one (the human rights issue) has nothing to do with the other (random name of a sponsor), but an odd and ironic lining up of the planets nonetheless.

And now both Haas cars have been penalized 10 seconds for getting help (not driving unaided) for their tire changes right at the start of the race. So Mags gets demoted from P9 to P10, and Grosjean also dropped a place in the mid-teens. Ridiculous. Every driver gets told by the team how and what tires are going to be used and when.

I agree the call to change tires by Haas and then penalize them is a chicken chit call by F1 .

It is certainly clear how fast the Mercedes is compared to the rest of the field. When he lapped everyone up to 5th place as I remember. He could have had a even bigger lead, but he pitted for new tires to get the fastest lap point.

And the Mercedes always finish the race. In over 60 races in a row, with the exception of just one, Hamilton has finished in the points. And I thing the record is even longer for Botas. The old adage, "To finish first you must first finish" is sure evident,

Ferrari restructuring

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/53503786

I may be wrong but if the people are the same just with less/more/different responsibilities they are fighting a tough battle to claw back . Every decision on last year's car and this year's was made by these same people .

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity . Ferrari needs a REAL shakeup . It is about talent . Not long ago they were top of the heap with Brawn and Todt . After they left it's like there was a talent vacuum . Ferrari found out how good they were and how hard they are to replace .

Ferrari had a brief reign of good fortune in the early 2000s. Shooting themselves in the foot is their normal. After the world title in 1979, the drought was a long one.

Not sure if Mattia has what it takes to build up a team. I have to say also, this season it looks like Seidl at McLaren has not proven his potential YET. Too early still to say. Last year's great improvement was due to changes prior to his arrival.

One of Ferrari's biggest problems is they are geographically isolated from the F1 talent pool

Ferrari create lots of other self inflicted problems but for me this is the main one preventing the team from threatening Mercedes recent domination of the sport

I have a confession to make....

After following F1 since I was 14 (50 years ago) and mourning the loss of the greats such as Villeneuve, I am just no longer into it.

I started watching the last race, after 10 minutes I was so bored with it that I just shut it off and did my nails. Something has changed in my head about the sport which used to be all about great drivers pushing sometimes inferior cars farther than then had any right to be....to what now seems to be an overly regulated, referee dominated, single manufacturer dominated circus which frankly has lost my interest.

Ah well....all I can say to the rest of you is I hope you enjoy it! Its not my thing any more...

Dennis

Yeah, I’ve lost most of my interest in it, too.

Bring on the 24 hours of Le Mans.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/ferrari-possibly-victim-of-new-spy-saga-report/

Indy car has some good racing going on these days.

I'm also really enjoying endurance sports car racing, the running of multipul classes makes for great on track action.

Cheers Richard

Quiter...

Wow, really Ferrari, rules too strict, then we got hacked, next we uh, um, spilt wine on the rule book, yeah that’s it.