Monza F1
 

Qualifying: Good to see a bit of a change up front. Always one of the better races IMO

Nothing better than early September in that part of Italy. If Bernie doesn't make a deal with them to continue there in the coming years, I'll have to get off my ass and go kill him, once and for all.

No surprises about who set the pole time but the rest were a lot closer than I thought they'd be. I hope he fluffs the start again tomorrow and we have a real race.

JR

Kimi!

George Lucas in a shameless plug for the Star Wars movie.

Tire pressure check.

Deflategate for Kimi?

George was useless on the podium. Don't know why they do that, it's seldom worth anything.

Odd that they didn't at least give Hambone a reassurance that his car was okay, before they asked him to up the pace. That won't go well in the debrief...

I guess Mercedes now regrets turning up the wick on Nico's engine.

Kimi is lucky to escape the starting line in one piece.

Weird race...

JR

Another 'deflategate'?

Nah, just a chance for the FIA to actually change their measurement procedures to one that is consistent and actually makes sense.

JR

That engine did almost 7 races, very impressive. I don't think they turned up the wick though, it was just at the end of its life.

No, they thought they could catch Vettel at the end, so they kicked it up a notch. Didn't work out they way they had envisioned...

JR

We're just past halfway and Mercedes is already developing next year's engine and using it in the race. Renault can barely finish races, Honda...well let's not even go there. Ferrari thought they were getting close and boom, new update: Ham finishes 25 sec clear of Vettel probably without trying hard at all.

Honestly, I've been a die-hard F1 fan for decades, but I'm tempted to skip the rest of the season and next, have brunch instead, until they let the teams test and try to catch up... It's pretty bad if I'm getting bored...

I enjoy watching this season, the cars are fascinating, and Hamilton/Mercedes are being legendary.

Ferrari had their era, then Red Bull, now it's Mercedes. Nothing new, really.

It's only been two races since Ferrari won a race, so who knows what could happen. Maybe the new Mercedes engine will have problems. Maybe Ferrari can get a better start and keep them behind them. You never know.

Singapore is an interesting race, then you have Malaysia, where Bernie always wants a late start and that often turns into a rain race. Japan is always a good one to watch, if nothing else becuase the track is so difficult. Then you have the US GP, a new race in Mexico, then Brazil, which is always good.

Skip the desert GP, if you want.

JR

My question is: why would F1 allow Hambone to change engines to 2016 specs and not give him a grid penalty? What is the difference between a 2015 engine that is tired, and his engine which is brand new?

You can use a certain number of engines per season. He hasn't used all of his allocation yet. Ergo, no penalty.

JR

Vettel won in Malaysia. MotoGP hasn't visited there yet this year though.

Yep, I think the 2016 units are only the third out of the five or six allowed.

Compare that to Riccardo or Alonso who used their last engine by the third race I think.

Yep, you're right, I had a brain fart. Malaysia was the second race of the year.

Instead, we can look forward to Sochi, the dreaded offspring of Bernie and Vlad the shirtless idiot.

Another one I shall probably skip, on general principles.

JR

You are correct in terms of eras of domination, but that does not cover how those dominations happened... Used to be "the perfect team" or "a good idea with better implementation", whatever.... but back then the others were free to catch up if they managed to spend enough in the right place or improve more, or hire that driver....

My beef is that this is pretty much impossible now with the engine tokens and lack of testing. Mercedes has enjoyed a (deserved) 2 year advantage with zero hope of catch up from other teams and will likely extend that advantage into the next 2 years. If everyone does a more or less equal job with their tokens (which is likely), Mercedes will retain its big margin. Ferrari got close only when Mercedes messed up strategy or during weird weather conditions that suited the chassis a little better. Overall it's clear the Merc is still 1sec a lap above the rest, maybe more if they wanted to.

It may result into the same domination as before, but knowing it's very close to hopeless for the others under the new rules makes it boring to me now... I proclaimed last year on this site HAM was gonna win 2014 and 2015. I promise you he will also win 2016 unless he's poisoned by a bad hair dye or tatoo ink... Best car. Best engine.