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Badger36

Mercs updates not working great in Spain doesn't bode well for them.

Badger36

As said Norris is a hard driver to rate exactly where he is. He might be the best driver in F1, but equally he might be the 5th or 6th. I'm happy to say Norris might be an elit driver, but it's a very hypothetical take at this point in time to say he betters Verstappen. Verstappen has let a few thin...

Badger36

I rate Verstappen in the elite band and I think his form has been outstanding - but I don't think he is the second coming or head and shoulders above the rest of the grid. However in order to better his stats these past 2.5yrs it would require an elite driver to be nearly perfect as there isn't much...

Badger36

As said in another thread. Verstappen (2015) is the only driver who debuted in the prior 10 seasons who's had a shot in a potential title winning environment. In drivers who have debuted in the prior 10 seasons only Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz, Albon, Gasly and 'maybe' Russell (if we count Sahkir and...

Badger36

Double post

Badger36

Merc clearly split the strategies. Sensible thing to do at Monaco with the threat of both rain and a high chance of a SC. My weather app was telling me rain was likely in the 2nd half of the race - and it forecast it to within about 10 minutes - and I'm sitting on my couch 2000km away. So all the te...

Badger36

George still has everything to prove. I've still to be convinced Russell is the tier 1 driver Mercedes need (I flip between putting him in the tier 1.5 and tier 2). Same. "I have nothing left to prove" works if he has one WDC at the least, not when your teammate has 7x the number of titles as you h...

Badger36

George still has everything to prove.

I've still to be convinced Russell is the tier 1 driver Mercedes need (I flip between putting him in the tier 1.5 and tier 2).

Badger36

... In my opinion 3 of those 7 names were never good enough to even be a #2 driver at a top team - and it showed when they got their chance. All 3 (Gasly, Albon, Kyvat) effectively were sacked for poor performance... Just picking up on this - that RB at the time was a bit of a beast to handle. I su...

Badger36

29 of Verstappens wins have came in the last 2 1/4 seasons. Barring a handful of races, and some questionable driving, his run of form has been as good as anything I remember.

Although, to be fair, Alonso has never held a hand that's allowed to rack up stats quickly.

Badger36

The cars in the rain transition period were amusing for half a dozen laps until the track went fully inter. Track looked almost undrivable in places. Bonkers call from Aston Martin to put Alonso on Mediums. Cannot understand the gamble - you've weather radar! Other than that it was quite a dull race...

Badger36

Verstappen and Ocon

Badger36

Monaco might not be the best place to access the Merc upgrade, but interested to see how it does in Spain. Catalunya is a pretty good all round test for a car.

Badger36

I've always thought Hamilton would be a poor fit for Ferrari. Not sure he'd like the environment there, nor I'm sure Ferrari would like Lewis personality and image wise either. Of course a winning car and driver washes over that. Personally I don't think Hamilton needs the risk of going to Ferrari a...

Badger36

Hopefully it's a changeable race.

Badger36

Looking at the grid, only 5 drivers have ever had a full time seat in a team/car that could deliver a WDC. 2x of them (Perez/Bottas) are firm #2 drivers and were/are employed as solid points winners to back up their more talented team mates. Another is Alonso who last had that chance over a decade ...

Badger36

Looking at the grid, only 5 drivers have ever had a full time seat in a team/car that could deliver a WDC. 2x of them (Perez/Bottas) are firm #2 drivers and were/are employed as solid points winners to back up their more talented team mates. Another is Alonso who last had that chance over a decade a...

Badger36

Imola has always been my favorite track. Too bad the cars have grown so large, they might as well drive 18-wheel, semi-trailer trucks instead. The size of F1 cars has basically eliminated the prospect of good racing at any narrower track. Despite complaining about narrow tracks, 8t's not width that...

Badger36

The in-laws are on holiday in Tuscany at the moment and the footage they've sent through is pretty bad.

Ultimately folk are dead because of this weather. Cancelling the race is the right call.

Badger36

Nobody is pitting for fastest lap with that tight a gap. A pit stop +5-6 secs safety margin seems to be the norm Look very silly if a wheel nut gets stuck for 2-3 seconds. Nobody? Ferrari did it with Leclerc in Spa just last year! 8) Key word. Ferrari. I should rephrase it to any team with strategi...

Badger36

Nobody is pitting for fastest lap with that tight a gap. A pit stop +5-6 secs safety margin seems to be the norm

Look very silly if a wheel nut gets stuck for 2-3 seconds.

Badger36

Max will blow Chico away once we are out of this street track heavy opening phase of the season.

Badger36

Perez lost it for himself in the middle third of the race.

Never made the inroads on fresher rubber.

Strong win for Max today.

Badger36

Dear god the build up with this is awful.

Badger36

Motorsport in general is not of the same quality as it was 20-25yrs ago, and I don't think that's me looking back with nostalgic eyes. F1, WRC, British Rally, DTM, World Superbikes, MotoGP, BTCC, CART, GT's, etc. Used to enjoy them all, and I'd argue most - if not all - have declined to varying deg...

Badger36

Motorsport in general is not of the same quality as it was 20-25yrs ago, and I don't think that's me looking back with nostalgic eyes. F1, WRC, British Rally, DTM, World Superbikes, MotoGP, BTCC, CART, GT's, etc. Used to enjoy them all, and I'd argue most - if not all - have declined to varying degr...

Badger36

I guess people would argue cheating is cheating. It doesn't matter if you're 1% or 100% over the limit. I get that point and think maybe Red Bull should have had more severe punishment.

However I agree with Fiki, the lions share of Red Bull dominance isn't down to a slight overspend in budget.

Badger36

We will see where Checo is to Max on the more technical circuits. Azerbaijan is quite a technically simple track. Much of the track is accelerate, brake, turn 90°. Checo is strong on street tracks and I expect he might be strong again in Miami. We'll see how he does at Imola, Monaco and Spain. If he...

Badger36

Paolo_Lasardi wrote: ↑
Sun Apr 30, 2023 2:18 pm
Genuine question: is overtaking in the pitlane allowed?

Yes. Even under a safety car.

Vettel exploited this rule a few years back, and AFAIK it's still allowed.

Badger36

Tbh Russell v Verstappen contact was caused mostly by the cars being soooooooo f**king long. Cars that are 500mm longer than the biggest version of the Range Rover are always struggle to go side by side in a 90° bend and it's the elephant in the room when it comes to racing quality. Honestly, measu...

Badger36

Tbh Russell v Verstappen contact was caused mostly by the cars being soooooooo f**king long. Cars that are 500mm longer than the biggest version of the Range Rover are always struggle to go side by side in a 90° bend and it's the elephant in the room when it comes to racing quality. Honestly, measur...

Badger36

Baku isn't a particularly technical track, but it's dangerous. You have to build a flexible strategy incorporating likely safety cars, they are expected.

I like it a lot as a street track.

Badger36

Tbh I find Max a bit of a brat and Lewis to be quite false. I find both come across as a bit obnoxious and entitled, Max more so. However, that's the public face. I've never met them. I've acquainted a fair few prospect drivers and found almost all have a very self centred and entitled streak. That ...

Badger36

Too long has passed and nothing much that hasn't been known for over a decade is being said.

It would be absurd to even entertain this without something new and seismic being brought to the table.

Badger36

Verstappen
Sainz
Alonso
Ocon
Hulk
Tsunoda
Zhou
Norris

And the two I struggle with
Russell (did everything right and was the better Mercedes on merit...... Then it all went wrong)
Albion (Sargeant wasn't good)

Badger36

What a farce. Where do you even start. May as well have drawn straws Sainz pretty unlucky. I'll say he probably just about deserves the 5 second penalty, but it has a disproportionate consequence to the level of error (which was only a little more than a typical turn 1 incident..... And on a lap tha...

Badger36

Thanks mate. 4 DRS zones apparently, sigh... I agree, I think if the cars are so much better for racing now we need to be doing away with DRS not having 4 zones :uhoh: It saddens me that were in this situation now where we won't see racing without DRS anymore and almost every pass is gonna be a DRS...

Badger36

I think there is a reasonable degree of engine parity. These are not new concept engines, they are well understood and have had over 10yrs of development put into them. The potential to make significant engine gains is probably not huge. Red Bulls top end advantage is aero related. It nearly always ...

Badger36

I don't think this Red Bull is as far ahead as the early Merc Hybrid era cars. However, it's still a step ahead of the rest of the grid, and at the moment looks to be the most dominant car Red Bull have ever had.

I reckon 16-18 races it will win.

Badger36

Formula 1 is about a lot more than drivers, and Sky's punditry was basically all former drivers offering broadly speaking very similar takes. One of the most interesting things the BBC tried with their coverage a couple of years ago was the secret aerodynamicist where they claimed the column was wr...

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