F1 2015

[Oobly]

I agree with both of you to some extent.

Driver skill makes a difference, but the difference in car performance usually is a more important factor on race day and the cars have to be similar in performance (more similar than they are right now) or have scope for setting up the car differently (which requires some space for movement / innovation in the rules) for pure driver's skill to get you a podium. Valtteri Bottas is a good example from this weekend. He managed a great start position and drove well, but finished closer to where the car performance was shown to be in free practice. IMHO, he's a better driver than Kvyat and Grosjean, but the Williams just couldn't get him to the podium.

Unless there's more scope for teams and drivers to use strategy to gain an advantage, but there really isn't much of that now, you can run the calculations for strategies with a simple spreadsheet. Back in Schumi's day it was a lot more variable.

However, Grand Prix racing has traditionally been a manufacturer's race since they were first run in 1906. In 1947 they finalised the formula for the driver's championship and ran the first Formula One World Championship race in 1950. They only officially brought in the constructor's championship in 1958, but it's always been about the cars and the technology. Usually a single team would introduce a new innovation (mid engines, monocoque chassis, airfoils, etc) and would dominate and the others would start to use it. Then the next innovation would surface, that team would dominate, others would adopt it, etc. Often there would be breakthroughs by different teams in the same season, leading to some very exciting team battles. Until they started slamming innovation with the ban hammer.

Now there's no big innovation happening, just incremental improvements, with engine performance being the current dominating factor. If you've got the best engine, you can play more with the aero without giving up your advantage.

One possible answer is to allow manufacturers to have more cars in the race and run less teams. Then you'd at least have more drivers in very similar cars. As it is, it usually ends up being the top three or four manufacturers which dominate each season, the lower teams get very few points. This season is actually a bit of an anomaly with Marussia being the only team without points so far, so you could say the cars are a lot more "similar" this year than usual. It's still not enough to make it interesting.

I'd rather have more scope in the rules for bigger differences between the technologies allowed. Let teams run different engine configurations, for example.

[katushkin]

I agree with both of you to some extent.

Driver skill makes a difference, but the difference in car performance usually is a more important factor on race day and the cars have to be similar in performance (more similar than they are right now) or have scope for setting up the car differently (which requires some space for movement / innovation in the rules) for pure driver's skill to get you a podium. Valtteri Bottas is a good example from this weekend. He managed a great start position and drove well, but finished closer to where the car performance was shown to be in free practice. IMHO, he's a better driver than Kvyat and Grosjean, but the Williams just couldn't get him to the podium.

Unless there's more scope for teams and drivers to use strategy to gain an advantage, but there really isn't much of that now, you can run the calculations for strategies with a simple spreadsheet. Back in Schumi's day it was a lot more variable.

However, Grand Prix racing has traditionally been a manufacturer's race since they were first run in 1906. In 1947 they finalised the formula for the driver's championship and ran the first Formula One World Championship race in 1950. They only officially brought in the constructor's championship in 1958, but it's always been about the cars and the technology. Usually a single team would introduce a new innovation (mid engines, monocoque chassis, airfoils, etc) and would dominate and the others would start to use it. Then the next innovation would surface, that team would dominate, others would adopt it, etc. Often there would be breakthroughs by different teams in the same season, leading to some very exciting team battles. Until they started slamming innovation with the ban hammer.

Now there's no big innovation happening, just incremental improvements, with engine performance being the current dominating factor. If you've got the best engine, you can play more with the aero without giving up your advantage.

One possible answer is to allow manufacturers to have more cars in the race and run less teams. Then you'd at least have more drivers in very similar cars. As it is, it usually ends up being the top three or four manufacturers which dominate each season, the lower teams get very few points. This season is actually a bit of an anomaly with Marussia being the only team without points so far, so you could say the cars are a lot more "similar" this year than usual. It's still not enough to make it interesting.

I'd rather have more scope in the rules for bigger differences between the technologies allowed. Let teams run different engine configurations, for example.

I agree. I think the reason why this has come about though is to protect the smaller teams. There are so many rules in place to try and keep all the cars technically very similar, that there is no option to create innovation. The only innovations are introduced by the FIA themselves, which does lead to a lack in development by the teams themselves. Aero changes and curved rear wings are hardly anything to wrote home about.

I think it's both good and bad that this is the case, but I think the more technology advances, the less amount of innovations there will actually be to improve racing.

[katushkin]

So in preparation for Monza, I'm going through watching some old races that are on the BBC (available to UK only I'm afraid ) and I watched the '99 race when Hakkinen spins off.

He walks back to the pits, stopping halfway round and basically sits down and cries. The helicopter camera is on him, watching, and it's amazing to see two reporters walk over to him and comfort him, with neither of them taking his picture. Maybe they took one from afar, but I know for sure, reporters would be all over that **** in this age of modern media.

Hooooooooooooly **** those engine noises though. Sploosh.

Also, 2008 race they were showing figures for refueling. Put in 97 liters of fuel. Enough for 27 laps XD

[baldgye]

So in preparation for Monza, I'm going through watching some old races that are on the BBC (available to UK only I'm afraid ) and I watched the '99 race when Hakkinen spins off.

He walks back to the pits, stopping halfway round and basically sits down and cries. The helicopter camera is on him, watching, and it's amazing to see two reporters walk over to him and comfort him, with neither of them taking his picture. Maybe they took one from afar, but I know for sure, reporters would be all over that **** in this age of modern media.

Hooooooooooooly **** those engine noises though. Sploosh.

Also, 2008 race they were showing figures for refueling. Put in 97 liters of fuel. Enough for 27 laps XD

The most amazing fact I got from F1 @ Monza was that when they lift off to break into T1 they pull 1g, before they even touch the break peddle... madness

[baldgye]

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12479/9977180/fresh-engine-misery-for-mclaren-at-the-italian-gp

[katushkin]

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12479/9977180/fresh-engine-misery-for-mclaren-at-the-italian-gp

Are these follow-on penalties from Spa? Weren't they both given like 25 place grid penalties or something stupid?

[baldgye]

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12479/9977180/fresh-engine-misery-for-mclaren-at-the-italian-gp

Are these follow-on penalties from Spa? Weren't they both given like 25 place grid penalties or something stupid?

Yes but these are fresh penalties, penalties from Spa don't get carried forward.

[katushkin]

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12479/9977180/fresh-engine-misery-for-mclaren-at-the-italian-gp

Are these follow-on penalties from Spa? Weren't they both given like 25 place grid penalties or something stupid?

Yes but these are fresh penalties, penalties from Spa don't get carried forward.

Oh. So they have used another power unit each? Oh yeah, I see it now. I didn't see the bit they said what it was for before.

[baldgye]

So this happened; http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mercedes-uses-all-engine-tokens-for-italian-gp
which resulted in this; http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/34150453

Hamilton was 1.588 seconds faster than the rest of the field... Force India's Nico Hulkenberg was fourth, 1.942secs slower than Hamilton.

[katushkin]

So this happened; http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mercedes-uses-all-engine-tokens-for-italian-gp
which resulted in this; http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/34150453

Hamilton was 1.588 seconds faster than the rest of the field... Force India's Nico Hulkenberg was fourth, 1.942secs slower than Hamilton.

1.5 seconds faster O.O

Holy ****.

[katushkin]

Well, it could all go horribly wrong for Mercedes tomorrow. Their first experimental engine has already screwed up, and their engineers have had to replace it, meaning Rosberg only qualified 4th. Hamilton's engine has held up well, and he managed to get his 7th pole in a row, his 8th out of 9 races.

However. Do Mercedes risk Lewis's engine and let him run with it tomorrow? They still don't know what the issue was with Nico's engine, so there aren't any preventative measures they can carry out. Or, do they change his engine overnight to a previously used engine? This means he starts at the back of the grid, but is then pretty much guaranteed points.

Monza takes a big toll on engines, and I can't see Rosberg doing well with an old engine that already has 3,000km on it.

[baldgye]

They can't change it now so they have no choice, excited to see what happened though it's kind of amazing to think that at Spa they where almost a second clear, but now they are much closer, people have been chatting that as a result of Nico's problem the dialed down Lewis's engine

[hwood34]

vroom vroom

[katushkin]

They can't change it now so they have no choice, excited to see what happened though it's kind of amazing to think that at Spa they where almost a second clear, but now they are much closer, people have been chatting that as a result of Nico's problem the dialed down Lewis's engine

Can they not? I thought that was an option they could have done? That would make a lot more sense if they tuned it down. I can't see where Ferrari could have found a whole second overnight. That hour and 40 minute engine change for Ricciardo was super impressive too.

[baldgye]

I mean, if they change it now Lewis would get a 10place grid penalty, which is huge at Monza. If they were worried about his engine they would have gone back to the Spa engine with both cars.

[katushkin]

Well, that was a p good race, interesting that Nicos engine gave out right at the death. Glad the marshals didn't take any further action on the tyre pressure. 0.3psi is nothing, especially on one tire.

[baldgye]

Yeah the race was alright, good for Monza, though Lewis kinda showing that Merc played it safe in quali and ministered it in the race, hell Nico was on for p2 before his engine gave up.
Bit of a scare there at the end but good that nothing came of it, FIA has gotten so much smarter in the last 5-6 years and it's good to see.

Kimi though, why the **** has he got another drive at Ferrari? He proved himself once again to be utterly useless and incapable of backing up Seb to take the fight to Merc. First he ****s up the start, massively, goes from 2nd to 20th in the space of 5meters then when he comes in for his only stop he cruses in slower than I do to a service station on the motorway and nearly gets rear ended by poor old Mehri... I don't think Ferrari could have won, but given what happened to Nico's engine, it should have been a 2-3 for them.

[Oobly]

Yeah the race was alright, good for Monza, though Lewis kinda showing that Merc played it safe in quali and ministered it in the race, hell Nico was on for p2 before his engine gave up.
Bit of a scare there at the end but good that nothing came of it, FIA has gotten so much smarter in the last 5-6 years and it's good to see.

Kimi though, why the **** has he got another drive at Ferrari? He proved himself once again to be utterly useless and incapable of backing up Seb to take the fight to Merc. First he ****s up the start, massively, goes from 2nd to 20th in the space of 5meters then when he comes in for his only stop he cruses in slower than I do to a service station on the motorway and nearly gets rear ended by poor old Mehri... I don't think Ferrari could have won, but given what happened to Nico's engine, it should have been a 2-3 for them.

Urm... you really think someone with his experience would mess up the start like that through his own error? Did you hear him on the radio? ("Do you know what happened at the start because before you say anything, i was in the right position with the switch") If Ferrari could give him a car that works through a whole weekend without any problems he'd be right up there with Seb. Seems the team neglects his car a lot more than Vettel's. I think going from last place... last place to 5th is a pretty damn good achievement.

Also, P2 from qualifying. I don't get why you think he's not good enough and "utterly useless and incapable" seems rather vitriolic.

Rosberg's engine had some laps on it already before the start, shouldn't have had that much effect, but they do run things pretty close to the tolerances. The cars had pace, no doubt about it.

Honda is still REALLY struggling to get their powertrain up to scratch. Would ne nice if they made some advances on this before next season. Hoping for a four manufacturer race next year (Mercedes, Ferrari, Williams, Mclaren). They've all got the experience and the engineering to be competitive.

[baldgye]

Rosberg was at a huge deficit on power compared to Lewis (huge in F1 terms) and was unlucky, his engine was his Spa engine so it had actually done a lot of miles for a race engine and he was unlucky to retire.


Kimi was quick in quali but why do all these 'mechanical' problems happen for Kimi and neither of his two team mates since his return to F1? I go back to Canada 2014 when he spun at the hairpin once, when he was all alone and it cost him massively, he and Ferrari blamed some error in the car, an error that only happened once in the whole weekend and didn't affect Alonso. Jump to Canada 2015 and the exact same strange error happens on a brand new car, once during the weekend. Again some mechanical fault was blamed, yet Vettel had no issue and it only affected Kimi that one time...

Monza 2015 and he stalls his car at the line, again not uncommon, yet it's a 'mechanical fault' and not driver error... I'm waiting to hear why he donated further seconds or what possible mechanical issue it could have been, off his race time via his painfully slow pit lane entrance, that almost awarded him and an innocent Mehri a DNF...


It was a good recovery, but it was at a track that's pure power + DRS. The only cars that where able to defend from the Ferrari power where the super low drag Merc powered Williams and possibly the Lotus cars, but with both Lotus's exiting out of the race after the first chicane, Kimi got a free pass and so just sat behind the Williams cars.
His job on Sunday was to go balls at and scare Lewis, Kimi has no title hopes and Vettels are fading, his job was to go at Lewis and make him think twice, Lewis has alot to loose, especially into T1 at Monza. Kimi was there to help Vettel build up some more points and help Ferrari get more championship points.

He should have been on the podium, and out of the drivers out there (other than Pastor-PASTOR-MALDONARDOO) he's performing the worst. Make no mistake, he's only keeping his drive because it helps Vettel mentally be a better driver, Ferrari is a one horse show after all.

[baldgye]

and I wanted to just post this image here;





I'm sorry Alonso...

[Oobly]

The clutch bite point for both clutches is set by the engineers before the warm up lap. The driver chooses the setting told to them by the engineer and away they go. If Kimi had the right setting, it's not his fault. The clutch temperature, tyre temperature and track surface all affect whether it stalls or not and apparently either one of these factors was off for the chosen setting (in which case the engineer guessed incorrectly which setting to use) or there was some other technical glitch. The end result was the anti-stall mechanism kicking in (irrespective of whether the car was going to stall or not).

Kimi's had 233 race starts before this one.. I think he knows how to do it and he's shown over and over that he doesn't easily make mistakes under pressure. They don't call him "Iceman" for nothing.

Anyway... katushkin called it about Nico's engine Almost lasted the whole distance and still had the pace on the other manufacturers... Merc have had such a big advantage this year with their early engine development. Please catch up, Honda... please.

[baldgye]

The rules have changed regarding clutch bite points (the rules were changed Pre-Spa), now the driver has to do all the work and the engineer isn't allowed to help them pick the right maps. In addition there is to be radio silence on the warm up lap unless there is a problem with the car starting the race or a safety issue.

[baldgye]

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/3l5n5p/peter_windsor_gives_insight_into_raikkonens/


I wont say it

[katushkin]

I like Singapore. I don't know why it was rated so low in the current calendar. I am starting to get reeally pissed off with all these new tracks appearing and no set future for the historical tracks. Bernie is a complete ****.

[baldgye]

Because it's mostly another dull street race, it's something I'd love to go to, but is meh to watch most of the time

[Oobly]

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/3l5n5p/peter_windsor_gives_insight_into_raikkonens/


I wont say it

I will... he's talking BS. There was absolutely nothing in the Finnish media about him doing this... nada, zilch, rien. From videos you can see he did the procedure correctly, just as he had been in the past... So... at the very least it's inconclusive.

From what there WAS in the Finnish media, it appears the bite point was set too tight (according to Ossi Oikarinen, who used to be a Ferrari engineer), so it went into anti-stall. Set by the engineers before the start of the warm-up lap. The drivers are allowed to change this if they want (with no guidance allowed by the engineer from before the start of the warm-up lap until the start of the race), but there's no indication that Kimi did, otherwise he would not have been so confused at what happened, asking the team what went wrong. So, IMHO, the evidence points to Ferrari making a mistake with the bite point, no fault to Kimi. But I don't think we'll ever know unless Ferrari release all the data to the public to scrutinise.

... I am starting to get reeally pissed off with all these new tracks appearing and no set future for the historical tracks. Bernie is a complete ****.

QFT.

[katushkin]

I'm not one to direct a lot of hate towards one person, but I hope Bernie dies soon and we can have a person in charge who cares more about the sport than the money. I know the money is important to keep the standards up, and the tracks great and the driver's the best, but when tracks like Germany and Monza even consider being dropped, I think it alienates people, the fans especially.

Last year when Bernie left half-way through the Russian GP to greet Putin, just makes me think he's a caricature.

[baldgye]

Peter Windsor isn't one to talk ****, he's been around F1 longer than most of us have been alive and is well respected. Even if it was the bite-point being in the wrong position, that would still be Kimi's fault and a driver error.

[Oobly]

Peter Windsor isn't one to talk ****, he's been around F1 longer than most of us have been alive and is well respected. Even if it was the bite-point being in the wrong position, that would still be Kimi's fault and a driver error.

Yes, I respect him, but when he claims something that's wrong...

I'd love to know what "Finnish press" he's referring to that "had the real story from Kimi" (and note the hesitation with which he says that, too). He's clearly got it wrong because in the video you can see he drops the right clutch as the lights go out, while holding the left at the correct point to keep it at the predefined bite point. Which was set too tight and initiated the anti-stall. No fault that I can see. How exactly is it Kimi's fault if his engineer sets the wrong clutch bite point? The point is kind of moot, anyway. He's a good driver, good enough to be in a Ferrari, according to Ferrari's own judgement. And they've been in F1 longer than Peter Windsor 

Y, Bernie is good at making money in underhanded ways and evading tax, but not so good for the actual sport.

[baldgye]

Peter Windsor isn't one to talk ****, he's been around F1 longer than most of us have been alive and is well respected. Even if it was the bite-point being in the wrong position, that would still be Kimi's fault and a driver error.

Yes, I respect him, but when he claims something that's wrong...

I'd love to know what "Finnish press" he's referring to that "had the real story from Kimi" (and note the hesitation with which he says that, too). He's clearly got it wrong because in the video you can see he drops the right clutch as the lights go out, while holding the left at the correct point to keep it at the predefined bite point. Which was set too tight and initiated the anti-stall. No fault that I can see. How exactly is it Kimi's fault if his engineer sets the wrong clutch bite point? The point is kind of moot, anyway. He's a good driver, good enough to be in a Ferrari, according to Ferrari's own judgement. And they've been in F1 longer than Peter Windsor 

Y, Bernie is good at making money in underhanded ways and evading tax, but not so good for the actual sport.

Yeah he's good at keeping Seb happy which is all Ferrari care about

[baldgye]

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/raikkonen-accepts-poor-monza-start-was-his-fault/


Probably Ferrari's fault that his finger was on the wrong paddle eh?

[Oobly]

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/raikkonen-accepts-poor-monza-start-was-his-fault/


Probably Ferrari's fault that his finger was on the wrong paddle eh?

Firstly... his finger was not on the wrong paddle. He said, "the finger might have been for whatever reason ...  in a bit wrong position".

And this makes him a terrible driver how, exactly? Anyway, that story is really jumping to conclusions and wildly misinterpreting his statement. He's certainly not claiming he was at fault.. "for sure I did all correct".

As I said before, though, either way he's still a good driver, good enough to have a Ferrari seat, end of story.

Can we move on to more interesting things, now, please?

[baldgye]

Hahahahahaha I mean terrible driver is all relative, he's only got that seat because he's friends with Seb and that friendship is helping make Seb a much better driver. It's just hilarious to see you defend him so much, even when he himself says he caused the problem after what, two weeks?

It would have been like Hamilton saying that his Hugary race was the result of some strange things from the car... And everyone saying that he actually only made a couple of mistakes and many over-takes... I've only been going on about it because it's funny to me how poor Kimi is performing and how staunchly his fans defend him.

Everyone has off seasons, as a Lewis fan I know as well as anyone, but trying to write off every mistake as some odd mechanical problem is just sad and wrong.



But don't worry guess we are all wrong, I've already emailed Peter to let him in on the bad news








>also there is no real news for Smogapour yet

[Oobly]

Hahahahahaha I mean terrible driver is all relative, he's only got that seat because he's friends with Seb and that friendship is helping make Seb a much better driver. It's just hilarious to see you defend him so much, even when he himself says he caused the problem after what, two weeks?
....

Firstly, he has not admitted it was his fault. Secondly you're making some very wild and unfounded accusations ("he's only got that seat because he's friends with Seb" - did you hear this from Ferrari?). Thirdly, just take another look at his performance in Bahrain before claiming that he's not good enough to be in the team. Fourthly, yes, I'm sure he has been making a few mistakes, after all he's under a lot of pressure to perform in his current position, but you can't call a power system failure or pit-damaged tires or pit-stop wheel fitment problems or wrong tire strategy "driver error" can you? His spin in Canada and the clutch issue in Monza are the only ones that are even debatable.

I'm getting a bit tired of "fighting" with you about.. well, pretty much everything in the thread. We have very different opinions about a lot of issues and that's just fine. I'm happy to agree to disagree, but could you please be a little less vitriolic?

[baldgye]

Not fighting, I don't really care either way. But he said in so many words 'that for some reason his finger was on the wrong paddle' ...which is him admitting it was his fault, unless he's trying to suggest he has a finger that's totally out of his own control and is trying to sabotage his races... I'm not sure what's to debate about it really lol, Canada too... All the drivers are under pressure, it's Formula 1 haha

I guess I could be a bit nicer about old Kimi, but it's very tiring hearing about how great he is and how so many people are willing to ignore his mistakes, yet are more than happy to point out the mistakes of other drivers

I don't rate Kimi at all, he had a good season with Lotus and that's kind of been it since his return. And yeah I'm pretty certain he only has that seat because of Vettel, preformance wise he's doing worse than Massa was when he got ousted. The only reason I can see for Ferrari to keep him is so that it keeps Vettel sweet because as we all know, Ferrari are a one driver team.


Looking back I guess I was a bit too vitriolic, my bad

[baldgye]

But I do enjoy our arguments/discussions/banter, if I didn't I wouldn't reply and make silly posts... honestly I'm just having fun but I can see how that can be easily misconstrued in text form, so my bad <3

[Oobly]

Not fighting, I don't really care either way. But he said in so many words 'that for some reason his finger was on the wrong paddle'

Would you please read the actual words he said instead of repeating this again. He never said anything about using the wrong paddle. What he DID say was: "I was still on the anti-stall and the reason why...for sure I did all correct, but the finger might have been for whatever reason on the second paddle in a bit wrong position for no apparent reason". He's saying his finger might have been in the wrong position, not on the wrong paddle (the second paddle is held in to keep the second clutch at the set bite point, the first is released when the lights go off). But he's also saying "I did all correct" and from the video you can see that. I'm sure the team is putting pressure on him to say he was at fault and the result is this quote, but I don't see that he has ever admitted to actually doing something wrong. The title of the article is typical journalistic sensationalist overstatement.

The interesting thing is, from what I have been able to glean about the way the two clutches work, is that if you hold the paddle all the way, the clutch is completely disengaged, if it's fully released, the clutch is fully engaged. Between those points the clutch is set to the in-between setting, the bite point defined by the clutch map used, set by the engineers. So unless he had the paddle all the way in or all the way out, there's no way the position of the paddle or even just his finger on the paddle could have caused the problem. They start off by dropping the one clutch with the other at the bite point and then as they gain more traction they release the second paddle completely. The only way for the driver to change the bite point is to change the clutch map used. So either Kimi had the paddle all the way in or out, or the clutch bite point was set incorrectly in the map for the specific conditions. I'm not trying to defend him without reason, I'm trying to figure out exactly what happened.

However, even if you blame Kimi for this and his spin, you cannot ascribe every case of poor end result to bad driving or driver error. The simple fact is that his car has seen far more faults, mistakes and failures by the team than Vettel's and when he's had the right conditions he's proved he can drive just as well. It's okay to believe that "he's only got that seat because he's friends with Seb", despite the evidence to the contrary, but to state it as a fact is both unreasonable and a little nasty.

Have I really been pointing out mistakes other drivers are making?

Anyway, I hope we can drop this particular issue for now...



Singapore -> Merhi is being replaced by an American driver for the last five races of the season...

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/34270705

Been a while since an American has been near the top of the F1 rankings. Let's see how this Rossi can do.

Just as with the previous few races I'm interested to see the relative team performance in free practice due to development and setup, particularly Williams and McLaren.

[katushkin]

I  don't know how  they have come to the decision, but there are seven races left and Mehri is going to race in Russia and Abu Dhabi still. Why you wouldn't just do it for the remaining races I  don't know.

[Oobly]

But I do enjoy our arguments/discussions/banter, if I didn't I wouldn't reply and make silly posts... honestly I'm just having fun but I can see how that can be easily misconstrued in text form, so my bad <3

Okay, that's good to hear, no worries.

Spaceship!!!! Er... I mean: Formula One!!!!

I'd be interested to see most of the current grid of drivers in the same car to see how they really stack up against each other. I suspect Bottas and "Richardo" would both come out in very high positions. In fact I think there are more talented drivers with very similar skill levels this year than in many previous years. Hamilton does seem to somehow be able to get a little more out of any car he drives than the others, though. It sometimes seems a little spooky, could just be an instinct, though.

[Oobly]

Oops, I meant to say five of the last races...

[baldgye]

Mehri has been a bit meh... and I think it's alot to do with Mannor getting US money for having a US driver for the US GP.

But Lewis will monster this race

[baldgye]

Also **** Sky, I can't watch practice at work b/c I have my PC setup as my 'device' and non of the unofficial links are working for practice 1

;_;

[Oobly]

Apparently lots of teams wanting to get a better idea of how their aero is working. Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus and Sauber are using "flow vis" paint on various parts, Force India are using a big flow sensor on the rear wing.

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/livefeed/9350/2248/

[katushkin]

Also **** Sky, I can't watch practice at work b/c I have my PC setup as my 'device' and non of the unofficial links are working for practice 1

;_;

None of the links you gave me before work D':

[baldgye]

some of them do BUT you can't use them without adblock because of the ad-spam (and I'm at work so no adblock QQ)

[baldgye]

Just have to post this again;

feature=youtu.be

via r/formula1

I remember seeing this when it was first posted and laughing hysterically

[katushkin]

Oh boy... Not a good debut...

[baldgye]

But to be fair, he was only .0x off Stevens before... and in FP2 Stevens has buggered it too lol

[baldgye]

FP 1 & 2 Results;

[Oobly]

Oh boy... Not a good debut...

He was sliding around on other corners earlier in the lap, too, but I think he's doing alright. It must be massively exciting for him to be there! Bottas reacted nicely and avoided him well, too.

Interesting times / positions. Should be an exciting qualifying tomorrow. Red Bull has some pace and it looks like McLaren finally has a little more, too.

Come on race Sunday!