That would be one way to slow Max down.

Some speculation is that Max is tired of F1, and wants to move on to sports car racing. He has said he has no desire to try to set records in F1.

We will see.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_Grand_Prix_winners

I believe it. Many times he alluded to the fact he is tired of silly F1 rules, the fines, MBS, swearing penalties, the media pressure, all the stuff *around* F1. If F1 was "get in and drive" I think he'd be there forever... Good for him if he explores other series, it actually would be awesome to see his talent applied to GT, WEC, IMSA and other series like F1 drivers did in the Jim Clark era ! Then at some point he'd probably come back and still wipe the floor with F1 competition on his return (and I'm not even a fan of his). He's a generational talent.

Max has a race team that runs in GT World series in Europe. They run an Aston Martin . So the seed is planted for an after F1 career . Let's face it he can go anywhere he wants and find a drive .

While he may be fed up with F1 bull$hit he's not stupid . He makes big bucks via salary and endorsements from F1 . And he knows it takes $$$ to run a race team . Sure GT racing is cheaper than F1 but it's still not cheap .

I think he will see out his current contract and sign one more extension . Whether that's with RB or someone else time will tell . Make as much $$$ as you can then go have fun .

I suspect the Red Bull car is on par with the Racing Bulls car so if Max moved to Ferrari, he'd have even more pole positions and wins this year. I'm no Max fan but when you look at how he's dominated every recent teammate he's had, it's hard to argue that Max is the only reason Red Bull is doing halfway decent in the championship.

Yup. I forget the data but I recall seeing there was no team on the grid where the difference between teammates on the same car was as great as that between Max and whoever's on the ejection seat at redbull.

I don't know, with the way Ferrari manages their races it would be tough.

Amazing qualifying!

Congrats to all the top ten.

Disappointed in the results for Carlos and Yuki . Hadjar continues to impress . Colapinto is a rolling chicane . There will be at least one red flag tomorrow . Probably by Colapinto or Stroll .

So will the mandatory 2 pit stops make a difference tomorrow? Or is it Lando's race to lose?

Interesting strategies by Racing Bull and Williams. Everyone lapped up to and including 6th place.
Shame Lewis fell away so badly on his last stint. Fourth could have been his.
Maybe with the cars getting slightly smaller next year, we might see something other than a processional race. :rolleyes:

Best
Les

Interesting by Williams. Don't understand why Mercedes fell for it. I would have at least split strategies, with both cars bottled up behind the two Williams'.

Nice clean drive by Hadjar.

The mandatory 2 pit stops just did not really work to improve the racing. Maybe a "balance of performance" minimum race lap time. Mercedes must have hired some strategy employees fired from Ferrari. To use the same strategy for both drivers was really stupid when starting so far back, and finishing even further back.

Hadjar is getting consistent top 10 finishes . If he continues to perform he will replace Yuki .

The commentator today said the same stupid thing twice today: next year make a rule that you have to do the first pit stop in the first 20 laps.
Just what we need, more stupid regulations to try and cover up a problem created by regulations.
It's a shame that the talking heads don't have the guts to admit the problem, Monaco is a joke.
The cars are too big and the track is too small.
No passing.

VCARB and williams were driving too slowly and holding up others and make a gap.
On a REAL TRACK the others would have simply passed the cars that were intentionally driving 5 seconds a lap slower and holding them up.
But not at Monaco, it isn't a real track and isn't a real race. No racing allowed.
The only real pass today was from Antonelli and that resulted in a crash and scrutiny from the stewards.
Didn't they cover the no passing rule in the pre-race meetings?

Every year Monaco just gets worse, and every year I say the same thing: another 2 hours wasted.
Then I say next year I simply won't watch it, even though I haven't missed an F1 race in decades.

BTW I'm through rooting for Sainz or Williams for a while, today was pure chicken **** from them.

Are you trying to punish Hadjar for his success?

The two stop rule didn’t work. I think they should go to some kind of Sunday shoot out where you get two drivers at a time doing standing starts 30 seconds apart. If the chasing driver comes within 30 seconds, they win the heat and they progress to next round. To make it even more exciting, no radio comms to tell where each driver stands.

Farcical :(

Monaco can't be fixed, cars too big, heavy, equal, reliable, and track too small

It is what it is, Sat. qualifying decides race finishing order

I watched the post race on ESPN app. Pretty good interviews. Toto had some good points for those that are in the ditch Monaco camp. It was packed and people love it, it isn't and can't go away. He went on to say that all the drivers complain about it but it is the one race that they want desperately to win.

He also suggested a maximum lap time to prevent teams from doing what Williams did, which ruined the race for all but the top 4 (Hammy had his own issues).

I would suggest re-profiling the Nouvel Chicane and the final turn. That may provide for some opportunity to get a run on an opponent.

Naomi Schiff suggested during post race coverage that the teams use F3 cars for the race. They laughed it off as just another gimmick.

That didn't take long

I see the mandatory two stop rule in the same light as the infamous NASCAR end of race "debris" caution. A desperate attempt to artificially induce some "excitement" for the once a year viewer who knows next to nothing about F1.

I love what Williams did. Big middle finger to the race officials who absolutely ignored the pleadings of each and every team to not do this. They did anyway, and Williams gave them exactly what they deserved. Not that that once a year fan would have known the difference anyway, and not that it detracted anything from the dedicated fans' expectations for Monaco.

What a quandary, though. What to do about Monaco... Maybe put them all in their childhood go karts and let them race those for just that one race? It would certainly be more exciting.

The cars are the wrong size for the track, and f1 has been a conserve everything endurance race format for too long. Stop saving fuel and stop saving tires! If overuse of resources is an issue in f1, stop racing, period. WEC has better flat out racing, and it's supposed to be an endurance race.

In truth, the race was won Saturday.

Next year's cars are 4" narrower. Might help a little. Good luck to the teams trying to get down to next years slightly lower min weight with the additional electric power.

True for the majority of today's F1 races.

Thanks, every team is going to need it, not sure how many or if any teams will hit min weight next year

Will be an enormous challenge :confused: and saving weight is my thang ;)

Smaller and lighter is 100% the right direction

Active aero I'm not so sure about but will reserve judgement until half way through next seasons races

If F1 is really about the ultimate 'technology', why don't they shrink the tire size to something that's more relevant to today's automobiles?

Same deal every year... The fun part is saturday, sunday you hope for rain or somethign unexpected.

I was thinking they could shave that bump on the downhill that they all swerve to avoid, that may provide a small chance for an inside move/late braking ? Maybe change where cars rejoin the track after pitting and reshape the first turn to be faster, also (cutting on the inside more)

Even the supercup 911s produced no passing (and very few laps due to a big crash at the start).

(it was about as entertaining as the 500 to me)

One announcer said that bump is a tunnel under the roadway, and can't be changed. I guess they could build up the roadway around it to eliminate the bump, but it is a city street and used every day.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1748440014.jpg
Supposed to be confirmed, Porsche is coming to F1. I am skeptical until I see more.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1748440032.jpg
Cool car, but few rich mere mortals will ever be able to drive it. It is just a bragging rights, purchase to sit in a collection. I guess no different than what it has been for the last 24 years.

Porsche and Audi in F1 ? Based on the current state of VW/Porsche/Audi I highly doubt it . I could see Porsche possibly being an engine supplier to Indycar . That is solely based on Roger owning Indycar , they desperately need another engine supplier and Roger's close ties with Porsche .

Other scenario VW makes the decision that Porsche is the performance brand and takes the F1 program over from Audi . I think that would be a logistical nightmare . But many bad decisions are made by rich powerful men so anything is possible .

Other rumors floating around are that Ferrari approached Horner (of all people) to lead the team, suggesting they are already impatient with Vasseur. They probably made a mistake firing Binotto already, if they do Vasseur as well (those 2 were a calming influence on the team) I am fairly sure Charles will roll his eyes and bail (and Lewis retire)...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1748445663.jpg

Cracked me up

Yup. F1 is (was) supposed to be absolutely flat-out from lights out to checkered flag. We even heard things like "this isn't F1" and "F1 is supposed to be flat out" as various teams backed up the field to help with their pit stops. While I agree with those announcers' sentiments, let's face it - that simply has not been true of F1 for over 20 years.

For far too long it's been about first tire management, and now tire and fuel management. Artificially induced "strategy". Maybe justifiable up until just a couple of years ago, when the aero packages did not allow cars to follow one another for more than half a lap before burning off the tires. Now that they can actually follow one another and race for lap after lap, I say unleash them and let them race. Get rid of the tire rule and let them run as many sets of whatever they want, with no requirement to run multiple compounds. Let them burn as much fuel as they possibly can, as long as they can do so without the need to pit. Flat-out, start to finish. Back to "real" F1.

Unlimited DRS, too. And straighten out the swimming pool chicane. Maybe turn the lights off in the tunnel.

That might be a bit too much; the tunnel is longer in length, and no longer exposed to the outside world, unlike before. Even the corner before the entry has a fake seaside mural to make it look like the past.

Audi F1 is setting a goal to win races within 5 years . A very tough hill to climb . Sauber hasn't had a podium finish since 2012 . We all know the struggles of Aston Martin with huge amounts of $$$ being spent . Remember Toyota ? And there are many others that have struggled or failed .

Are Audi different than the others ? Remember the Audi diesel race cars? They dominated the top class for years . So it would seem they have the engineering expertise to succeed . What do you guys think ?

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/how-audi-is-striving-to-win-in-f1-within-five-years/10727431/

I'm not seeing it end well.. Right now Audi/VW are in financial trouble and they're probably gonna be limited in how much more they can invest while laying off workers and not selling as well. Those are not short term problems since we handed over the keys to the kingdom to China's EVs with our silly ICE bans in europe, and also tariffs on the US market, not gonna help the VW group recover quick..

From a purely F1 standpoint, Audi's glory days in sports car were largely thanks to benefiting from the Joest team experience initially, and then Dr ulrich took it to the next level. F1 IMO is another ball O wax, and over and over history shows it's much harder to succeed if you are away from great britain where a lot of labor/subcontractors are. Ok, maybe if you are Ferrari, once in a decade, and Renault managed it for about 2 years with alonso when they had the best engine ;-) But Hinwill, Switzerland? Good luck... Finally all the news from them have been bad thus far, repeat management change, rumors of a badly born engine, etc... So no, not seeing it.

IMO all this time was wasted, F1 was trying to attract audi for years and the move to Hybrid was largely "for" them, and in the end they may even throw in the towel before they are competitive... Shoulda stayed with V10s and lighter smaller cars.

Yuki dead last in qualifying what a terrible result .