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WHoff78

The rankings are always going to be open to interpretation and heavily influenced by the teammate. Bottas probably does get a tough ride. Hamilton is expected to be on pole/win and is therefore often held to a higher standard, and people looking to find faults. Bottas is compared against him and wil...

WHoff78

... I think Leclerc is already very close to the level of Hamilton and Verstappen with the (admittedly very significant) differentiator being that he throws in more catastrophically duff weekends. He doesn't yet have their consistency, though we might give him some leeway for pushing beyond the cal...

WHoff78

It’s funny on here how often some say that anyone could win the titles in the Mercedes, arguably more common between 2014-16. While there is some truth in that many would as the lead driver, I’ve always felt that things have looked better for Mercedes because in my opinion they had both the fastest ...

WHoff78

The standing restarts, and frequency of safety cars in general, goes hand in hand with the discussion on reverse grids. It just highlights further the current issues with F1. While the cars can’t overtake/follow, they look for other ways to improve the show. The majority of action, particularly for ...

WHoff78

I expect there is some truth in both sides of the argument against seb. I wouldn't be surprised if leclerc is getting preferential treatment and more focus from the team, as he is after all the most likely to pull off a podium or strong result that Ferrari are looking for at a time they are clearly ...

WHoff78

Perhaps they should consider keeping the same format, with a 1-hr reverse grid race and reduced (~50%) points, following the main event on Sunday.

WHoff78

However, I completely agree with many who have said that more focus should be put towards fixing the actual issues that are preventing racing. Monza was not a particularly interesting race to watch besides being a new winner. Even with everyone out of order it was still next to impossible to overtak...

WHoff78

I would be ok with reverse grids providing that they were only replaced qualifying on a handful of select race weekends throughout the calendar – for me a cap of around 25% of the races is probably about right. So 75% of races would see the current qualifying format on Saturday, followed by race – u...

WHoff78

I'm not opposed to the principle of reverse grids. If you want to win a so-called drivers world championship then perhaps you should be able to prove that you can race through the midfield as well as just leading away from pole position. However, my main concern here is nicely summed up by this: A ...

WHoff78

Missed this but some have clearly pointed out what would seem to be the best course of action in future - close the pits and then call the VSC. Surely that would have given them sufficient space around the pit entry lane to push the car to safety. Once the race is neutralized they can even give the ...

WHoff78

Yeah, clearly a penalty but it does seem like they have dropped the ball from a safety perspective. They know everyone dives in to the pits upon a safety car so to announce the safety car at the same time (or perhaps even before the pit lane closure) with the lead car effectively committed to the la...

WHoff78

I would argue that having greater parity at Mercedes has limited Hamilton to some extent in chasing records (racking up high percentages of races wins in a season / consecutive wins & podiums), but is also played a factor in increasing the longevity of the period of success. Many would agree that th...

WHoff78

For trying to compare laps led against team mates, would you not need to split out the laps led during their time together directly to see anything meaningful. Otherwise it would be skewed by the length of the team mates careers (and much more to the cars they had while racing for separate teams). N...

WHoff78

It’s a tough spot though. Ferrari took a bad direction on the engine front and have been severely handicapped as a result. With restrictions around 2021 and the rule change in 2022 they are left in limbo a little, and presumably focusing more on future regulation changes at this stage. I only hope R...

WHoff78

Next season there will be 5 drivers on the starting grid who I assume that many (more than 50%, perhaps more) would agree are better than Vettel, so that's not a great starting point. I do hope that Vettel continues to be a fixture on the grid himself though because he is still right up there on his...

WHoff78

Question on Alpha Tauri: I know a lot of us don’t rate Kvyat and I think a fair number of us don’t rate Gasly that highly either. Is that Alpha Tauri a really good car and say, not far off the midfield battle of RP, Ferrari, Renault and McLaren? (I know it was definitely better than Ferrari this we...

WHoff78

Difference is that Merc was heavily focussed (and IIRC publicly stated) that they were targeting the 2014 rule changes, and were working on their platform for many years prior to Hamilton joining. While nobody could have predicted their domination since, it wasn't a stretch at that time to suggest ...

WHoff78

Have to admit that it's pretty hard to read this conversation and not come to the conclusion that any penalty should be on the more severe side. Can only assume that they are deliberating this and making sure that they think everything through carefully before they take action. Guess we'll know by t...

WHoff78

One idea that goes a little bit against my earlier post, but still leaves the door open for different strategies – could it work if they enforce a minimum of 2 pit stops if a team chooses to use the softest compound in the race. That way teams would not be able to just use that tyre, and run round a...

WHoff78

As some others have mentioned, if they push things in that direction they should encourage it by ensuring that the 2-stopper is quicker because the softer tyres are that much quicker to ensure those 2-stopping have an advantage; and not by just forcing two stops and limiting strategy. That way every...

WHoff78

Hulk consistently lapped in the 1.31s on his third stint, from Lap 32 to 44. Suggests he was managing his pace nicely. I’m not sure that you can tell from Hulk, Bottas or Hamilton’s lap times whether there were underlying issues that forced them to pit at a particular time or not. Bottas was hoverin...

WHoff78

It does look like the Hulkengerg votes are going the way I expected. Looking at it from the point of view like this: Which driver won the battle? Well it was Stroll clearly with RP's report. Hulkenberg got serious vibration that couldn't make it to the end despite being in clean air the entire race...

WHoff78

Actually think that Hamilton's pace before the last pit stop deserves more credit. To keep putting in the lap times while he clearly didn't have the confidence the tyre was going to even survive is exactly what sets him apart. Bottas is a very quick driver himself and these are the fine margins that...

WHoff78

Regarding budgets, and comparison of football and F1, a select few countries such as Spain have much larger budgets that they invest in the sport, including player development and the national team, and scouting. Some of this is also linked to the clubs, where I don't doubt that the likes of Barcelo...

WHoff78

I like the idea moving forward if the plan is to pack triple-headers and race perhaps 25 races in a season in the future. Then, overall, we'd get more racing despite having some shortened weekends to lighten the load, and introduce some variety and extra variables regarding performance and strategi...

WHoff78

I think it is only natural that a team would focus development towards the driver that is staying (realize there are other things at play with RP too), obviously balanced against maximizing points they take home – of course what we don’t know is what Racing Point are thinking for their line-up next ...

WHoff78

It does seem that with these regulations the good drivers can eek out the race pace by managing the car better. There have been times in the past where Hamilton and Bottas have extensively studied each other’s lap times and info to reduce deficits between race weekends, and it feels like Max has com...

WHoff78

i'm not sure Racing point are the 2nd best team just yet. They appear not to know how to make the most of things yet. Their strategy was strange too. Both drivers looked far faster in one stint than the other and I think it could be more to do with the set up than the driver. The team need to under...

WHoff78

The gap between Kvyat and Gasly is quite interesting - is that influenced by Gasly's stint at Red Bull for the first 12 races of 2019? Could be interesting to see how the gaps between the Racing point, McLaren and Renault drivers evolve over the season, with drivers getting up to speed in a team and...

WHoff78

An interesting exercise, and always good to see how the numbers fall out, and what patterns might emerge. Some above have already mentioned some of the perhaps, more significant drawbacks – mainly the fact that the drivers also greatly influence the car, and part of being a great driver, or driver p...

WHoff78

Not sure this is the right thread to post this but I really do struggle with the ruling around the pit stops. If the only rule is that the driver must drive the car alone and unaided; when Kvyat asked if he could pit, could the team not simply reply – ‘affirmative, if you choose to pit then the pit...

WHoff78

Not sure this is the right thread to post this but I really do struggle with the ruling around the pit stops. If the only rule is that the driver must drive the car alone and unaided; when Kvyat asked if he could pit, could the team not simply reply – ‘affirmative, if you choose to pit then the pit ...

WHoff78

Be curious to see if anyone goes against the grain this time, as I think the start of the race was key for a couple of drivers this time out. Pretty much everyone who started on the Right hand side of the grid (even qualifying position) dropped back of the start, and then most got stuck behind slowe...

WHoff78

It seems a little ridiculous that if a start like that is within the tolerances of the sensors then it is fine. Presumably the sensors are 100% reliable even when the movement is so clear to the eye? Surely there is a fairly strong argument this could easily have affected both Racing Points on the r...

WHoff78

Norris provided some fireworks at the end and ad a great race, but I think that Sainz is a little hard done by here. Please correct me if I’m wrong but I believe the pitstop error put him behind a couple of competitors on track (Stroll perhaps?) and that really enabled Norris to use the longer first...

WHoff78

Albon would have won the race yesterday if it wasn't for the collision with Hamilton. Mercedes have admitted they got it wrong not pitting for softs at the second safety car. I just think they are so obsessed that both cars need to have the exact same strategies it means they need extra time to thi...

WHoff78

Reverse grids don’t need to completely replace qualifying, and I really hope that they don’t because as many have said on here qualifying can often be the highlight of the weekend and just as entertaining as the race. Reverse grids could compliment qualifying and the current format though, if introd...

WHoff78

Expected there to be a little more buzz around the aero handicaps that almost seem like they have been snuck in with the budget caps. Seems kind of a big deal.

WHoff78

You can’t call it dirty when they are driving to the rules as they called come race day. The drivers with the best race craft will adapt, and they will draw the line based on what is deemed acceptable to the marshals. We even saw that with comments from LeClerc on how he would approach certain scena...

WHoff78

Does anyone know whether any of the teams are more active than others during this period. Has anyone heard whether are any of the richer teams keeping people working and taking the opportunity to gain an advantage over the competition?

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