Formula 1 2020 - General Discussion Thread (See MOD warning on first post)

This is it

They're going to run riot this season

El_Duderino 09

This is it wrote: »

They're going to run riot this season

Looks like it. Ferrari is running the Barcelona spec car and the upgraded car comes in Silverstone. If that isn't a huge upgrade that actually works, then it could be a procession to Hamilton's coronation.

Chances are that the ferrari upgrade will show promise and take a few races to bed in. Meanwhile Hamilton builds up a lead and switches focus to next year while Ferrari catches up a bit isn't he last few races.

Our hope for a competitive championship is for Ferrari to get things right first time and be uber professional with their upgrade....

Anyone fancy starting a 2021 thread?

vectra

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Looks like it. Ferrari is run in the Barcelona spec car and the upgrade comes in Silverstone. If that isn't a huge upgrade then it could be a procession to Hamilton's coronation.

Chances are that the ferrari upgrade will show promise and take a few races to bed in. Meanwhile Hamilton builds up a lead and switches focus to next year while Ferrari catches up a bit isn't he last few races.

Our hope for a competitive championship is for Ferrari to get things right first time and be uber professional with their upgrade....

Anyone fancy starting a 2021 thread?

Thought it was coming in Hungary?

weekaizer

quokula wrote: »

Max does indeed look like a once in a generation talent but there's no evidence at all that Vettel isn't in the same bracket, or higher, than Hamilton were they in the same cars.

The last time they had broadly similarly performing cars was 2011 and 2012, in both cases Vettel was miles ahead of Hamilton while both McLaren's generally had the beating of the other Red Bull, driven by the very capable Mark Webber.

There's at least half a dozen drivers on the grid that would have won as many titles as Hamilton has in the Mercedes. More titles in fact, because not so many would have been beaten by Nico Rosberg over a season.

Hamilton's talent is wildly overrated after several years in the most dominant set of cars in the history of the sport, accompanied by a second rate team mate who isn't allowed to race him. The last time he had a half decent team-mate who was allowed to race him, he lost. And the last time he wasn't in an utterly dominant car, he didn't get close to competing for the championship in the way the likes of Alonso did.

Very well said. Hamilton has been piggybacking his teams geniusness and he seems to get all the glory. “Still ‘I’ rise”.

Have obviously been watching loads of old races over the last while and there's a rule I'd like to see re-visited. Closing the pitlane when the Safety Car is deployed. It didn't work so well when people were running out of fuel but with tyres I think a "tough luck" approach is fair enough. :P

El_Duderino 09

vectra wrote: »

Thought it was coming in Hungary?

You're right. It's the Barcelona spec car for the first 2 races. Then the upgrade comes in Hungary.

vectra

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

You're right. It's the Barcelona spec car for the first 2 races. Then the upgrade comes in Hungary.

I really do hope it works off the blocks, otherwise, we all know the outcome of 2020

El_Duderino 09

vectra wrote: »

I really do hope it works off the blocks, otherwise, we all know the outcome of 2020

Yeah I think we all have to hope for that. If only we weren't relying on ferrari to get things right first time.

Vettel said he didn't like the characteristics of last year's car and he said those same characteristics were in the car in Barcelona. I wonder if they'll solve those problems with the upgrade.

I think LeClerc did great to adapt to last year's car, but it would be good to see them really fight with each other. The gloves van be off for both drivers.

circadian

It'll be interesting to see how the new Mercedes steering system plays out. Red Bull seem very unhappy about it because they're probably the closest to strikibg distance at this point.

El_Duderino 09

Top Dog wrote: »

Much waffle with little actual explanation as to why Ferrari dumped Seb - https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ferrari-explains-vettel-exit-decision/4823977/?utm_source=home-page-widget&utm_medium=widget&utm_campaign=widget-6

I think they're saving Seb's blushes by not giving the details. The reasons are pretty clear. He's not as good as he used to be and he was asking for more money than he's worth. Plus his value went right down when he was beaten by a young ferrari academy driver who signed a long term deal for far less money.

That would be pretty embarrassing for Seb if they were to articulate it, so they didn't. They still have the rest of the season to get through. It would be foolish to publicly embarrass your driver during the season. So they waffles instead. Seems sensible.

El_Duderino 09

circadian wrote: »

It'll be interesting to see how the new Mercedes steering system plays out. Red Bull seem very unhappy about it because they're probably the closest to strikibg distance at this point.

They reckon it will really onky benefit in the race as it will add a tiny bit of speed on the straight but the real advantage is in saving the front tyres from being scrubbed while driving in a straight line.

The tyres are both angled slightly outward to help with turning. So when on the straight the tyres are not facing straight forward and get increased wear as a result. DAS brings them into alignment so it will reduce tyre wear. Hard to know if it'll make much difference.

The hype to speed ratio for DAS might be minimal.

Dont be at yourself

I think we may see another complaint if DAS is used in quali as it’s a a setup change under parc fermé conditions. Horner hinted at such in P3, and also emphasised that they wanted to get clarification early in the weekend (eg yesterday), perhaps to minimise criticism if it puts the grid order in doubt after quali.

GarIT

It's getting clear Binotto needs to go. They desperately need to get Arrivabene or Domenicali back.

Harika

Gains/losses for Austria qualifying vs 2019 times:

Racing Point -0.921
Williams -0.737
Renault -0.493
McLaren -0.473
AlphaTauri -0.360
Mercedes -0.323s
Red Bull +0.038
Haas +0.619
Ferrari +0.920
Alfa Romeo +1.119

Clearly an engine issue with Ferrari

Charlie-Bravo

Harika wrote: »

Gains/losses for Austria

Clearly an engine issue with Ferrari

Yeah, they need a Merc engine in that red car. Next year we can see McLaren really coming good with having a Merc engine again.

GarIT

Harika wrote: »

Gains/losses for Austria qualifying vs 2019 times:

Racing Point -0.921
Williams -0.737
Renault -0.493
McLaren -0.473
AlphaTauri -0.360
Mercedes -0.323s
Red Bull +0.038
Haas +0.619
Ferrari +0.920
Alfa Romeo +1.119

Clearly an engine issue with Ferrari

Distance change to Mercedes:

Racing Point -0.598
Williams -0.414
Renault -0.170
McLaren -0.150
AlphaTauri -0.037
Mercedes -0.000
Red Bull +0.361
Haas +0.942
Ferrari +1.243
Alfa Romeo +1.442

Red Bull and Ferrari enginged cars are comparatively slower and everyone else has moved forward.

Inquitus

astrofluff wrote: »

Yeah, they need a Merc engine in that red car. Next year we can see McLaren really coming good with having a Merc engine again.

Yep, Danny Ric has made a good choice I feel! For some Danny Ric amusement check out this link:

https://streamable.com/0gc5wm

quokula

GarIT wrote: »

It's getting clear Binotto needs to go. They desperately need to get Arrivabene or Domenicali back.

They've made so many bad decisions at every level of the organisation in recent years, and now they've managed to produce a dog of a car that's slower than a bunch of privateer teams at a time that the rules mandate that they're not just stuck with this car for this season, but for next season too.

I'm not convinced this isn't the beginning of Ferrari's terminal decline, like Williams before them.

Inquitus

quokula wrote: »

I'm not convinced this isn't the beginning of Ferrari's terminal decline, like Williams before them.

The Hungary update will be huge, if it brings them into contention then they might rescue the next 2 seasons, if not they are in a serious hole at what couldn't be a worse time!

Jordan 199

astrofluff wrote: »

Yeah, they need a Merc engine in that red car. Next year we can see McLaren really coming good with having a Merc engine again.

Imagine 'Powered by Mercedes Benz' on the engine cover of the Ferrari

Harika

Riccardo didn't post a meaningful time in Q3 so Renault might be further ahead. Still I am puzzled why red bull lost out.

Burkie1203

quokula wrote: »

I'm not convinced this isn't the beginning of Ferrari's terminal decline, like Williams before them.

The money they generate just for showing up, plus they would always have some pull with sponsors is very different to the Williams situation

Charlie-Bravo

Harika wrote: »

Riccardo didn't post a meaningful time in Q3 so Renault might be further ahead. Still I am puzzled why red bull lost out.

I'm thinking that Merc, like Ferrari last year, have the one lap pace, but RB have better race pace on this track. I'm hoping the split strategy with Max and Alex will take the win.

quokula

Harika wrote: »

Riccardo didn't post a meaningful time in Q3 so Renault might be further ahead. Still I am puzzled why red bull lost out.

They don't necessarily have a slower car than last year - track temperature, wind, a less rubbered in surface that hasn't been raced on by other championships all year like it normally would could all have played their part.

So you can't say they've gone backwards in real terms. Just relative to Mercedes, and relative to a lot of midfield teams who in theory already had more scope for improvement.

Also, I'm just taking the previous post at face value - I don't know if this was Q2 (where Max was on harder tyres) or Q3 which would be more like-for-like.

weisses

Harika wrote: »

Gains/losses for Austria qualifying vs 2019 times:

Racing Point -0.921
Williams -0.737
Renault -0.493
McLaren -0.473
AlphaTauri -0.360
Mercedes -0.323s
Red Bull +0.038
Haas +0.619
Ferrari +0.920
Alfa Romeo +1.119

Clearly an engine issue with Ferrari

To me it shows they were cheating with their engine last year....

Frank Bullitt

vectra wrote: »

I really do hope it works off the blocks, otherwise, we all know the outcome of 2020

After today...I think we know the outcome already

I would put more faith in RB being able to get their car up to Merc over Ferrari. Ferrari really look like they are totally at sea right now.

AMKC

That was an exciting session. Delighted for Bottas. Hope he can keep it up all season. Nice to see Riccairdo in Q3 too. McLaren looking good. It would be terrible if there switch to Merc engines next year seen them going backwards.
Hope to tomorrow's race is good. All Max has to do if he wants to win is have a bad start and a good strategy. It worked for him last year.

El_Duderino 09

astrofluff wrote: »

I'm thinking that Merc, like Ferrari last year, have the one lap pace, but RB have better race pace on this track. I'm hoping the split strategy with Max and Alex will take the win.

Ah here. There over half a second down in quali. The chances that they can turn around the half second plus enough to be faster than merc, is really remote.

I'd predict a fairly comprehensive 1-2 for merc. Things can happen, reliability issues and whatever else. But I'd if the race goes to..script, I'd say it'll be straightforward

I didn’t feel the same excitement watching the qualifying highlights on Ch4 as I do watching it live. And I had to stay away from any social media and news all day yesterday until 6:45pm. Then they talked and talked and talked.

I’ve got my finger on the subscribe to sky sports button. I’m not in contract so not obliged to stay with it after F1 season finishes.

Do I? Don’t I?

pjohnson

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

I didn’t feel the same excitement watching the qualifying highlights on Ch4 as I do watching it live. And I had to stay away from any social media and news all day yesterday until 6:45pm. Then they talked and talked and talked.

I’ve got my finger on the subscribe to sky sports button. I’m not in contract so not obliged to stay with it after F1 season finishes.

Do I? Don’t I?

Do it