Yawn.......SmileWavy

Hey, I told you you could skip it...

Fortunately, there’s a golf tournament on soon.

Oh look more of the same. I may need to revise my prediction. Can Merc win every single race this season?

This is the only sport I stop and watch. I watched today at X2 on the DVR.

What amazing dominance, the silver arrow is a remarkable car.

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Todays race was like watching steel rust :( with a little bit of crashing included . Ferrari again looked lost in their team strategy and Haas is starting the swirl down the toilet . Pretty decent race for Kimi . Now on to the next exciting race :D

Mercedes is likely the only happy team at the moment.

The LBGP is on today to replenish hope in open wheel racing.

You guys need to tune into Formula E if you've had enough of F1

7 different drivers from 7 different teams in the first 7 races

Just watch it with the sound off

No on Formula E, I can go to K1 and crash into my buddies in electric cars instead.
Imsa race was great yesterday from Long Beach, real cars, different makes and engines, real sound.
Nascar and F1 need to do something, I basically watch because I always have .
Indy race should be pretty good this afternoon.

I watched the replay of the Rome race it was entertaining . I find the E cars interesting and I love hearing Steve Machett ( sp ? ) providing technical commentary . I am looking forward to see Porsche come into the sport and what they can do . Captain is there any behind the scenes rumors on who the Porsche drivers will be ? Isn't Porsche starting to race in this series later this year ?

But we would not hear the squeals and squeeks!

The racing is close, no doubt, but like chapo alludes, there is an element of bumpercar to the racing. I suspect that was one reason for the design of the new cars, allowing contact without damage and debris.

First few laps of the race were very exciting. The last 75% not so much.

Not spoiling the results, but Mercedes last pit stop was a thing of beauty.

Also, I feel like Ferrari have the best engine. As a result, they show up and instantly set top lap times in practice. Meanwhile, Mercedes are running their program for car setup...

^So true about the Mercedes stop. It was perfection from all involved.

If you haven't watched the race yet, I don't know why you'd click on this thread, but anyway...


SPOILERS!!!!!












































I don't think that Stroll or Kvyatt belong in F1. I still don't think that Kubica should be there anymore. Two of them have big backers but lack F1-level talent. One has F1-level talent but a serious accident has compromised his abilities. I'll let you figure out who is who. If Williams and Mercedes were smart, they'd send Ocon to Williams and make them into Mercedes B team to test out new concepts.

Like I said above, Mercedes show up at each venue with their program to run to get the car setup. They don't have the best engine anymore, but they have the best team. Ferrari may be fast in practice (before Mercedes have their setup dialed in), but they lack pace when it counts. Mercedes pulling off a double-stack pitstop in a non-emergency situation was a thing a beauty. There numbers said it could work, they executed, and both drivers emerged on equal footing.

Ferrari got themselves in a pickle this weekend. It seems like their trailing driver was the faster one (possibly because of a tow?). So it doesn't matter who they put in first, they were going to be slower. They almost gave Verstappen a podium in the process.

Mercedes have three successive 1-2 finishes. Everyone else has their work cut out for them...

^Are you aware that there is something fundamentally wrong with Kubica’s car? His car behaves differently than Russell’s and not in a good way. Its not a fair comparison at this time. He is struggling to figure out his car, but its inconsistent so figuring the chassis out is a moving target.

Wow. It finally happened... After 30 yrs of watching - I finally fell asleep during a race...
Other than the torpedo Kvyat and a cool double stack by mercedes, I had an excellent nap...

At least Indy was good...

Or Giovanazzi, honestly.. Bring back Esteban, what a shame...

I tried. Couldn't tell any difference when they had a full course yellow.

That would certainly explain why he gets lapped 2 or 3 times in every race :p

I saw that, and my first thought was that hitting the pit wall will do that.

Williams is a complete catastrophe... Not enough parts, can't ride the curbs for fear of not taking part in the race, can't replace broken floor, resurrected a technical director that last oversaw active suspension back when gas was $1 a gallon. No-one in their right mind would want to go work there at this point - how long till they go under ?

I'm generally not into conspiracy theories but I would not be the least bit surprised if we learn in 5 years via a tell all book that their last victory (Maldonado, come on!!) - on Frank's Bday no less - was a cheat that nobody had the heart to investigate ;-)

I feel for Kubica - Stroll was right to bail ! Hard to tell how good/bad Robert is in that car with that floor...

Also the reporters on UK/US coverage are such $h!t -stirrers ! They interview Leclerc who does a masterful job of toeing the party line, and then go straight to Binoto and say "what will you do calm Leclerc down".. Seriously, anything for a story in the most boring GP of the last 5 years. Easily...

What price is a driver supposed to pay to be able to say he drove for Ferrari?
I think that if Leclerc was left alone, we would have seen a genuine battle.
He just looked faster the whole race - and then the pit strategy???
Bill K

....and then, just for good measure, Mercedes rubs their face in it, by bringing in both cars at once - ha - take that Enzo.
To me, that was the best part of the race.

Ferrari needs to hire a pit strategist from Joe Gibbs or Rick Hendricks, there pit strategy has been horrible for years. They always seem to get caught out and outfoxed by Mercedes and Red Bull

Kubica gets credit for being very upfront about his struggles. It sure seems like something is just not right with his car when compared to his teammate.

"As I said, probably last year I ended the season saying I definitely had to improve something on single-lap new tyre [pace], but one thing I was not worried at all was the race pace. Actually it was one of my strongest points, but [now] I have no race pace."

He added: "I have no race pace against my teammate. And when you see exiting corners you are wheel-spinning and losing the car and he's pulling away.

"I'm not saying it's the car, but there's something we have to understand. I have very poor traction and actually after the debrief George said the traction was not so bad. As I said, it's not only the car. There are different factors, but that's how it is."

Kubica Feels He Has No Race Pace

Heck, they could hire one of us on this thread and do better than what they've done historically.

Stefan Johansson addresses many of the criticisms repeatedly expressed in this thread regarding the current state of F1. And how to turn it around. :cool:

Johansson’s radical proposal to make F1 awesome again – Part 1

A small sample:

' ... Adding the hybrid component to the powertrain has done more damage than all the other rule changes combined in my opinion. It seems that in order to meet the politically correct agenda that is now creeping in to every facet of life, it’s somehow been decided that this is the future of automotive engineering and needs to be part of Formula 1 as well. Pushed by the manufacturers (under the premise of wanting the formula to have relevance to the manufacturer’s production lineup) who put pressure on the FIA, Formula 1 had to follow, along with the WEC. Interestingly, both series are now completely controlled and dominated by the OEMs and would not survive in their current formats without the money being poured in by the manufacturers competing. The privateer or independent teams are now just the clowns that make up the show in both series and have no realistic chance of ever winning a race.

So, this means we are stuck with three teams in F1 and currently only one team in the WEC that have any chance of winning. This seems an incredibly high trade-off just to be doing the politically correct thing ....

Anyone else looking forward to the Baku race? The race always produces something out of the ordinary.

Already has, poor George Russell. Check out the video and don't cut it short. You will see why so many people in the former USSR have dash cams.

LINK

That's it! Potholes! Real roads! Time to put the spark back in F1.

Claire must have been born under a bad sign. Of all teams for this to happen to.

I've been watching youtube shows on the history of F1.

I never fully appreciated the genius and contribution of Frank Williams.

If I were Claire I would find a new vocation.

Yes, it would be *nice* if Williams could be great again under her leadership but it's just not happening.

I couldn't stand at the helm, blab on about Williams' rich heritage and finish one more race DFL.

Team Williams appears to be cursed they need to step back , perform an exorcism or swing a dead chicken round and round and regroup . They have no clue why both cars are slugs , they have no clue why Kubica's car specifically is more of a slug than his team mates . Stop the bleeding and pull out for this year . Fix the damn cars and be ready with spare parts for next year ! Driving around the track 15 seconds off the pace if not more is a hazard to their drivers , other teams drivers and possibly spectators and track workers . Right now Williams makes Minardi look like world champs :rolleyes:

There was an article in BBC.com I think focused on Claire and her brother. Seems he has successfully run F2 and other racing teams successfully. I can't find the article but basically it was saying the wrong Wiliams is in charge of the F1 team.

I think the brother is in charge of the historic racing shed and they don't talk much.

Claire is the go-to person if the media needs a negative quote on the current state of F1.

This does not say much for her leadership skills.

I recently watched a documentary about Williams on Netflix and Claire struck me as exactly the wrong person for the job. She’s had her time at the helm, I think it’s time to give it to someone else.

Hard to believe that they didn’t inspect the drain covers more thoroughly. It’s nothing new, it’s something they have to do prior to every street circuit Grand Prix. I’m equally surprised to see that the crash truck couldn’t make it around the circuit without hitting the underside of the bridge. Complete amateur hour. Charlie Whiting must be spinning in his grave.

They can't pull out for a year. They have a contract with F1 to field cars for the entire season.

Milt yeah I know that it's just crazy how far out of the mix they are . I just hope someone doesn't get hurt due to their slow race pace .

Does it really make any difference if Williams were running as well as they possibly could? Being not-MB and not-Ferrari, the best they could possibly dream of is midfield. Sure, more money for the team, but still just field-fillers. This is a 2 team series with Red Bull lingering to take advantage of any misfortune.

It does matter since points / position means more payout at the end of the season.

It’s really just a one team series so far this year. Like the last few years. I’m actually considering watching golf.

Yes, that's what I said. But it makes no difference at all to the fans/spectators.

An argument could be made that Williams - being 2-3 seconds off the pace - have received more press in the past 2 months than they have cumulatively in the past 10 years. :cool:

missed that, ooops. True, they have gotten a lot of ink. I’m bummed for RK, though.