I've been a Vettel apologist for his entire stint at Ferrari, but I'm thinking he's more of a hindrance to the team's success these days. Leclerc is faster and is the better racer. Heck, I think any number of drivers on the grid can out-drive Vettel at this point in his career: Ham, Max, Leclerc, Riccardo, and possibly Ocon, to name a few. Hell, I think even old guy Alonso can out-race Vettel. He CERTAINLY could've when in his prime. Vettel won four WDC's with a DOMINANT car that happened to also suit him well. Without a car that reliably has him out front and uncontested, he has shown a tendency to make mistakes over and over again. Heck, I remember him crashing into Webber when those two actually got into races for the lead. His race craft for a 4 time WDC is woeful.
Schumi would've owned him in his prime.

yeah that was ugly.

After Vettel's crash, and when it was obvious that he wasn't getting anywhere near the points, why did Ferrari keep him out there circulating? Why not retire him and save the miles on the motor (sorry, power unit)/transmission/turbo for future races?

I thought perhaps they would bring him in for a third stop with about 2 laps left, and switch him to softs to try to get FTD. It may not have been worth a point, as he wasn't in the top 10. But it's good for morale, and at least it would be one less point for the Mercs.

One less point for the Mercs? Makes no difference.

Mercedes is going to win both titles this year and it’s not even going to be close. Hambone is going to beat Bottas, again it won’t even be close.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there you have it.

I still watch but really don’t care or have the enthusiasm for the sport like I use to and many friends feel the same way. Sad.

Every athlete comes to a point in their career when the skills start to erode . Motorsports are a mental and physical challenge and I believe mentally Vettel no longer has his head in the game . The performance of the team is down , his performance is down , he's recently married and he has four championships in the record book . I can see how mentally he's not in the game . Add to that his team mates nipping at his heels or in some cases has outshined the " veteran " and at some point you say enough is enough . I'm sure he has enough money for 10 lifetimes so what is there to drive him to push 110 % ? At this point it may just be ego and in my opinion that's not enough . Step aside with your head held high and enjoy your life .

Agree 200%. But I think it started in Baku a few years ago when he totally lost it. I wish Ferrari would give that seat to Riccardo.

Family Day event on Saturday, a short distance away from Silverstone. All 10 Mercedes F1 cars and power units on display. One lucky dog...

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(C) Mercedes AMG F1

That’s spectacular Won.

Thanks for sharing and congrats on another one-two.

Then why not retire car #5 for the day?

Those teams put so much $$$ and manpower into the cars, it's not in their nature to retire from the race or to concede a point. I think that's why Merc petitioned to have Vettel penalized in Canada. It would have been better for EVERYONE, including the FIA, F1, and the sponsors if Vettel had been declared the winner. But for Merc, winning is mandatory.

Maybe VET should do a reverse ALO. ALO was at the top of his game in an inferior car when he "retired". VET is waning in what LEC has proven to be at least a contender. Maybe VET should just retire during the beak and give OCO or some other young gun a shot.

If Rossi moves in INDY car then Vettel can take his seat. Or another.

Vettel was waning at Red Bull when Riccardo showed up.

Move him to Alfa for his last year. Or otherwise pay him off. And put a Riccardo, an Ocon or any promising F2 driver in his seat.

A long shot to replace Vettel would be Mick Schumacher . Not saying he is ready yet but is on the fast track to move up . Ferrari has not been shy to say anytime he is ready they have a seat for him . Leclerq is showing he has the stuff to be a # 1 driver , maybe pairing him with a young gun would work . All speculation at this point .

Vettel could snap out of his funk , win a few races and shut up all of us arm chair racers !

It seems to me that LeClerc has just finished cutting his teeth and is now a more reliable driver. However, this remains to be seen. On most teams there is the stable points getter and the rabbit championship contender (or would be if the team in general was fast). Raikkonen was last year's stable points getter. Now Vettel takes up that position.

I wouldn't toss him out of the seat yet in favor of another young gun. It has taken Vettel too long to learn the new power train. His 4 championships were in a different kind of car that happened to be also the superior car of its time.

Watching the "Drive to Survive" series with its peek behind the skirts says its clearly not about talent. $$ is the driving force. I have no clue as to how much money VET brings to Ferrari but it must be substantial. Agree that RIC proved his equal at Red Bull. (yet to be seen if he can bring Renault up) OCO was certainly better in the racing sense than PER. Would be interesting to see talent win once. VET has just been a petulant little boy for the past 3 years. His total break down in Baku last year with HAM was just amazing for a top flight driver. Running into VER at Silverstone seemed almost deliberate, though I understand he went to Red Bull and apologized to VER in person. Was good racing though

This video of Sir Frank Williams brought a big smile to my face:

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Fun video.. watched it a few times previously..

How are the brakes? brakes are good!

How are the brakes? brakes are gone!

That was an interesting shot of the deformation of one of the front tires when they hit the rumble strips at about 3:07.

Noticed the same thing. First thought was that the tire was failing.. clearly it was only under severe duress ;) !

Those are standing waves...

Thanks for posting that, Frank is a legend :cool: more 'racer' than the rest of the F1 CEO's put together

F1 side is going through a real tough patch, a relatively complex situation which won't be an easy fix

Got a call out the blue a few years ago couldn't say no to a good friend or adding the iconic Williams name to 'my story'

So glad I did as we had lots of fun times, frustrating times too, even caused a tear or two (sorry, didn't mean to :(), we did some uber cool stuff eg broke a championship, made new lifelong friends, met/learnt from plenty of extremely talented folk

I'm busy now with another part of F1 enjoying a different type of fun and frustration but hoping when this has run its course I'll be back at Williams picking up where we left off

Just out of curiosity, do you think they should give Claire the boot and put her brother in charge? I always heard he was the better choice of the two, in many respects.

Not sure really, I think the more effective fix is attracting the right guy to lead the team technically

If that person is given the authority and necessary budget to make the changes they see fit then the team should be able to claw their way back up to a mid-grid level in a few years in a similar way McLaren has done this year

Problem is attracting the right person who has the necessary experience/track record. Someone from a big team may not have enough breadth of knowledge and someone from a small team won't have enough depth of knowledge

The team would need to convince the right person there is enough future budget to do the job properly so that person has the confidence that they are not walking into career suicide as being remembered as the technical director that caused the demise of Williams

F1 is a funny old game as it's full of specialists with an extremely narrow band width of expertise. The old breed of one technical person understanding how a full car works and knowing how to prioritise the available resource is dying out.

This person would also need to be strong enough not to shy away from the hard decisions required to make change ie firing under performers or people that strategically strengthen their own position at the cost of team performance. They would also need to very quickly earn the respect of the whole factory, inspire people from day one and give people the confidence to push the limits with the comfort of knowing mistakes won't be punished with the loss of their job.

This is exactly the type of person that I think would be best at getting the team back on their feet.

Jeremy Clarkson has an opinion!

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i disagree that formula e is more watchable, on the contrary, FE is like watching scalextric cars go round

Monza

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^No guardrails! :eek:

They're for sissies. Trying to teach the boy throttle control.

Thats great. It gets to be a pain in the arse to constantly have to get up and put your car back on the track.

playing with scalextric is fun, watching it for over an hour isn't

F1 needs this: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3NxLh-3DdaE" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Headlines from Hockenheimring qualifying:

Ferrari shoots off own foot....
......NO WAIT - they've shot off both of their feet.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat5.gif

Bill K

I heard the commentators mention turbo cooling may have been the issue on Vettels car.

Race up front could be interesting.

I'll bet Kimi is wishing he was driving for Ferrari right now.....NOT!

There's the old expression:"In order to finish first, First you have to finish."
Actually, you have to be able to start.

It is interesting Ferrari was going to run LeClerc on the medium tires while everyone else in the top ten were starting on soft rubber. If he doesn't get held up too badly in the first stint, he might be able to finish well.

Best
Les

Give him another glass of wine. He's wrong. Yes to his theories 30 years ago when the drivers were more concerned about the track than they were with each other. This crop of drivers let loose to run as they please would be a crashfest. That might woo in the NASTYCAR crowd but it will destroy the high tech sport as we know it.

Solutions run along the lines of slowing the cars in the corners. I guarantee you that the average viewer in person or on TV won't be able to tell that the cars are 10-15 MPH slower in the corners. How to accomplish this? Simple, make the aero less effective. Start with the undertray which no one can see anyway. In that you get to keep the ridiculous wings for the most part.

Turbulence is good and bad. It slows the cars but makes the car behind difficult to drive around the car in front. The DRS does help a lot in this regard. Push to pass or DRS, same effect. But I think designing cars to upset the air in order to mess up the air for the following car(s) purposely is not the way to go. Whatever it takes to make a good looking car w/o a million little baffles and winglets is a goal.

There is the seemingly fact that the 13" wheels are going away. Good because the cars will have to use something other than a 500 dollar tire for suspension. However, bringing back more suspension might be opening Pandora's Box. We all remember the computer controlled 'active' suspension.

The steering wheel: ridiculous — take all the controls off the wheel that aren't necessary for coms and other vitals including pit speed. If these cats are that good they should know how to enter and drive the pits with the tach. And sub 3 second pit stops have run their course. IDK how to improve that for sure but I'd eliminate some of the crew and maybe... maybe return to fueling. At least that would add some dimension to race strategy.

I think the modern F1 cars look stupid. If they are to improve the sport they should listen to the fans. If the fans want a certain look by polling them, then go in that direction.

Employing race karting rules in general would be a good start. You cause a wreck, you are done for the day. "Causing" a wreck is any contact that puts you or the other guy 4 wheels off the track is cause. Open wheel racing is not a contact sport no matter what Clarkson says. Wheel banging and racing are not the same thing.

How can you equate DRS to push to pass? They are apples to oranges. DRS is automated for a specific circumstance (1s gap or less) at predetermined track locations. The driver in front cannot respond. It has no limit on usage. Push to pass is driver controlled, for a maximum amount of time. Use up all your time and you are done. The driver you may be racing can also use push to pass in response, or not.

DRS is a joke to the concept of racing. I don’t mind push to pass because it is limited and driver controlled. I would prefer, however, if push to pass went away.

Clarkson used to be funny.
In that rant the only thing he lacked was the "Get off my lawn " sign.
I disagree regarding the no stewards and anything goes racing. That is the same sort of thinking that degraded hockey in the seventies and eighties.
Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari are not interested in demolition derby.
Best
Les

Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari only care about their $$ from F1, they have no interest in changing the racing or shaking up the system or the pay scale. All lip service about making the racing better because they finally realize even us curmudgeons are losing faith.