2022 F1 Thread
 

I loved how they enforced it for this race. The drivers need to stay on the track! Sure making the corner wider might be faster, but is is out of bounds. How many games played with a ball are stopped when the ball goes out of bounds. Almost all of them.

Racing is a real sport, not a game, but it has rules. Make the white line the out of bounds for every track, on every single part of the track. Done.

The racing is better
 

especially when Ham is up there fighting with a chance for at least a podium IMO

It's easy to see that the car is coming together for Mercedes but I don't know what they're going to be able to do regarding their engine power deficit.

How about Schumi Jr in 6th ? Up to 2 races ago there was talk of him getting canned. Now look at him ? The talk is about him replacing Vettel at Aston (not sure that is a promotion right this minute).

In other new the Sauber-Audi deal is apparently done, and will take 3 years to complete, with Audi buying 25% a year until they own 75%. They're not doing it faster to put pressure of F1 re: 2026 engine rules.

Also the Austrian marshals sucked. Sainz stopped in front of them and almost barbequed due to their inefficiencies.. Maybe they could not see thru the orange smoke ?

It was great to see Schumi fighting with a Hamilton for position. A HAAS going tooth and nail against Hamilton in his Merc is something no one ever imagined in the recent past.

Agree with your last comment. Painfully slow.

Yea, the one marshal had an extinguisher, yet he stayed way back and did not approach the burning car. His car is on fire, and he is sorta motivated to GTFO and away from it, and with no engine to keep it from rolling he had to stick around and stop it from rolling back onto the track.

Poor performance from those marshals.

I woulda jump out of that thing and let it roll!

I was surprised Sainz didn't turn the wheel to the left and let it back into the barrier to stop it.

My exact thoughts as it was unfolding.

That one marshal ran up and it looked like he was going to go past the barrier. He just stopped and set down a fire extinguisher almost like it was pass the water bucket while the house burns down in the wild west. Finally another went to the car.

Schumi: Mercedes should let Hammy go at season's end and get Mick. It would be huge marketing win in Germany.

Anyway, good to see Haas having some success. Maybe Williams should pay attention.

Anyone have a guess on how long Lawrence Stroll is going to fund this charade without decent results?

Let him go? I think Hamilton will be highly desirable for as long as he wants to keep racing. Mercedes would be insane to drop him for Schumi. The only way I see him leaving the sport at this time is if Mercedes completely drops off the podium--I don't think he has the motivation to restart with a brand new team and he doesn't strike me as the kind of guy to be happy playing in the midfield.

Stranger things have happened, but I have to agree with you.

Hammy did show this weekend that he can make a mistake, and the announcers brought up the two other times he crashed in his long career. Look at the average for the other drivers for times they crashed all by themselves. Max used to be called Crastappen. Mazapin was Maza-spin.

And Hammy still has amazing luck. Other drivers bounce off of his tires, and they get wing damage or a puncture, and Hammy just goes on with no damage. He may not have the fastest car on track right now, and he is having to truly fight for every point. He no longer has a car that is just an order of magnitude better than the other cars, and he does have to dig deeper.

The Brits all love him, and the very British Sky TV and those announcers all adore him.

I can't see Mercedes dumping him unless his salary demands get totally nuts.

Talking about the brit announcers, anyone else can't stand the style? Not specifically F1/the sky bunch (Karun, brundle, diresta, kravitz are fine, shouty crofty makes my ears bleed).

But I've noticed on other series, the british announcers have a very particular style: They never stop talking/shouting all race long. A 2 second pause is like a deduction on their paycheck or something - it's almost like a barrett jackson auctioneer at some point. They never ever shut up. They rarely speak normally either, mostly shouting excitedly even if nothing is happening. When one stops for a breath, another takes over to cover the potential horrible silence.

I was watching the 911 supercup race in Austria after F1, and I just had to pick the no commentator feed. So nice and relaxing (with F1 I'd like more info though)... Thankfully the F1 feed now has quieter folks (palmer, sam something, etc) - I miss Karun chandock from the espn feed but that's it. Or the old days of matchett and varsha -because the brits will just never STFU and make my ears bleed. Even my kids the other day were asking why the guy was shouting all the time ;-)

It will be interesting to see what upgrades Haas brings this year and their performance results . I think Gunther is being very smart, get the team wringing every ounce of performance out of the current car . Understand the actual data from the cars and feedback from the drivers .

Then brainstorm with the engineers and come up with an upgrade plan . Hopefully this gives the biggest bang for the buck . I think they were targeting the race in Hungary for their upgrade package . I am also curious why Haas is not having issues with their Ferrari engines like the mother ship .

Colton Herta tested for McLaren for two days at Portimao. :D

https://motorsports.nbcsports.com/2022/07/12/colton-herta-mclaren-test-impressive-portimao-andreas-seidl-pato-oward-lando-norris-daniel-riccardio/

Stranger things like Ferrari sending Michael packing?

I think where this goes sideways for Hammy is like you say, the money. If he isn't on the top step and still wanting top step money they may reconsider and bring in someone younger. And correct me if I'm wrong, he is only on a one year K extension.

There is little sentimentality in F1. It's the ultimate meritocracy, with easily observable results. The minute Hamilton quits delivering, he will be replaced. Russell is more or less demonstrating where Hamilton stands as a driver, today, which is all that matters. If Russell continues to mostly out perform Hamilton, Hamilton will soon go the way of Vettel. And Alonso. A former top team, world championship driver driving for a mid pack team, and thrilled to be able to continue to do even that. For a lot less money.

Danny Ric is on hot seat for not one but maybe 3 Indy stars who are linked to possible switch.

Riccardo would fit in well in an Indycar. Fans would flock to him.