F1 2023 - Round 2: Saudi Arabia

This is it

McLaren is absolute dirt. Even with DRS Norris can't take the Williams

Faugheen

That's a cracking pass by Magnussen!

Vicxas

Nice to see Haas fighting for championship points

Itssoeasy

What would Alonso have a five second penalty for ?

Faugheen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376795#Comment_120376795

It's suggested the rear jack might have been touching his car while he was serving the 5s.

Russell's radio has been great today. "keep pushing like a madman".

Lawlesz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376795#Comment_120376795

Rear jack? I noticed at the time it looked like he had attached it during the initial 5 secs

Itssoeasy

As they are saying on commentary that Ocon last week was told he hadn’t served it correctly soon after it happened. I’ve not heard anything before the Mercedes radio call.

Faugheen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376815#Comment_120376815

Chandhok has said there had been talk over the radios throughout the second half of the race.

EDIT: Max is fuming.

Longing

Ferrari are nowhere this year. Dropped of the pace so much from last season.

Itssoeasy

Alonso finished more than five seconds ahead of Russell.

oceanman

great drive by Russell.

Gallant_JJ

That's depressingly convincing by Redbull. Doesn't bode well for the season.

Faugheen

The puss on Jos Verstappen...

Longing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376835#Comment_120376835

It was a great drive. Ham will be No2 driver come summer. I think he will leave.

Vicxas

Will they let Perez and Verstappen fight for the championship ala Webber/Vettel I wonder

skipper_G

Could see some of the Aston team congratulating Perez as well, still popular over there. Verstappen with a face like thunder when he got out of the car

mr_edge_to_you

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376754#Comment_120376754

Nice bit of business by Danny last year!

Longing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376852#Comment_120376852

I'd say it was the team forgot to tell him to park the car on the start finish line.

Faugheen

Did Max even acknowledge Checo in his post-race interview?

I heard him talk about the team and getting fastest lap for himself but I didn't hear anything otherwise.

Checo's face when he was told he lost fastest lap as well wasn't someone who looked best pleased.

skipper_G

The Mexican anthem seemed to go on for ages

BikeRacer

Happy for Perez and Alonso, pretty disappointing race otherwise. No positional change in top 9 from around lap 25 till the end

skipper_G

Alonso under investigation now for not serving the penalty correctly. Ocon got a 10 second penalty last time for the same infringement

Vicxas

Alonso getting 10 second peno, gutted for him.

Longing

Russell going for the hat trick in out qualifying Ham in Australia. Ham unable to keep pace with his team mate today. Pressure is on.

Jordan 199

Both Alpine drivers in the points. I'm happy with that.

KillerShamrock

Awful race 2 stinkers out of 2 wonder if Aus can improve slightly but doubt it

There is nothing I wouldn't do, give, sacrifice or whatever to have checo pull a rosberg on max this season. Beat him last race and clinch the championship then retire but alas I seen today that redbull clearly already want max to win again

McFly85

10 second peno seems incredibly harsh for that - it’s not like any advantage was gained.

Andrew76

Idiot mechanic making that mistake, especially one week after the same mistake was made by another team, shame for Alonso. Delighted Max nicked fastest lap at the end, simply lovely drive from him. Happy for Checo, drove well in that last stint, the bulls 1 second a lap quicker - impressive but some of that might be track specific similar to Spa last year. Fair play to Russell for not moving over for Hamilton, it was the right decision in the end for him and the team.

thefa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376849#Comment_120376849

I say they will as such but last season proved that there’s a significant skill gap there so wouldn’t anticipate it lasting too long past the street circuits.

Well deserved for Perez holding onto the win today. Only for the safety car, Max wasn’t within touching distance on the day.

Shame for Alonso, two very avoidable penalties. At least it looks like he’ll be in contention for more podiums in the short term.

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376944#Comment_120376944

The precedent was set last time with Ocon, you can't just set the time of the penalty based on things like popularity of the driver, championship position of the team involved.

Same infraction, same penalty.

PopePalpatine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376852#Comment_120376852

Who wouldn't have a face like that when they know their Dad's about to add to an illustrious record of domestic violence?

mr_edge_to_you

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376973#Comment_120376973

The 1st penalty was just stupid from a man of Alonso's experience. Should never have been in the 5s penalty situation in the first place.

Faugheen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376945#Comment_120376945

Same. Especially after today. Judging by the sour faces on Max and Jos' faces, and then Checo after being told he lost the fastest lap, there's clearly no love lost between the pair of them.

The body language on Max in particular was very interesting.

skipper_G

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376974#Comment_120376974

I'm an Aston Martin fan and completely agree with you. Obviously gutted to lose a podium, but the penalties come down to Alonso and the team. They can only blame themselves

Andrew76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376945#Comment_120376945

Curious how you came to that conclusion about the team favouring Max from today’s race? Both drivers were trading fastest lap, both drivers were told over the radio to not worry about the fastest lap (probably because the team were worried either car might go bang). Let’s be realistic, Max is a far better driver, so over the course of a season he’s much more likely to come out on top all things being equal - do the team care which driver wins the title so long as they get a 1 and 2? Anyway, as someone else hinted at above, too early to be predicting the championship. But Perez did well to pull out a big enough gap after the safety car to keep Max at bay, fair play to him. 🙂

How poor were Ferrari today? Fourth best car behind the Mercs, who themselves don’t seem too bad in race trim.

flazio

As a McLaren fan, it was heartbreaking to watch Lando Norris not able to pass a rookie with DRS and the same tyres. And all of this way out of the points.

Faugheen

Sorry, but how did I miss that AM's Team Principal is Mike Krack.

flazio

Just seen a very interesting pen interview by F1TV, George seems surprised about the penalty, Hamilton looked VERY fed up, the promotion of George to 3rd seemed to actually pee him off more.

McFly85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376974#Comment_120376974

It was harsh I think because it was applied post-race when they had about 30 laps that the additional penalty could have been applied in which could have allowed Aston the chance to do something about it.

Ocons was applied during the race wasn’t it?

Busi_Girl08

Surely at this point there should be a steward on the pits to monitor penalties being taken? Or a steward controlled light beacon or something, rather than them sitting on it for more than half the race and only spotting it/taking action after the chequered flag?

Charlie-Bravo

Does anyone think that it was Merc that pushed and pushed for an Alonso penalty? They seemed to know early enough.

recyclebin

On the live feed it was obvious the jack had touched the car. I don't know why it took them so long to give the penalty. You could argue that Hamilton, Russell and Alonso could have all driven differently if it was applied earlier.

oceanman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120377055#Comment_120377055

McLaren and Williams had their golden years back in the 80s-90s they are both just mid field runners now. hard to ever crawl back from there.

Andrew76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120377100#Comment_120377100

He’s been team principal for over a year now. 😁

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120377134#Comment_120377134

Yep, Ocon’s was applied during the race so very unfortunate for Aston Martin. To be fair to Alonso he doesn’t seem too disappointed at all, a few less points he said.

Rossi IRL

It was obvious to me when the pitstop was made that the rear jack has touched the car.

I think the only way to fix this from happening going forward is to either forget about doing the penalties during pitstops and just add time on at the end or the FIA should have a penalty box on pit entry or exit where the car has to stop and serve the penalty.

SlickRic

Has there ever been a more unlikeable driver in F1 history than Max Verstappen. I'm genuine here.

I didn't like Schumacher for a while because the winning got boring, and I felt he properly cheated Damon Hill when I was younger.

People didn't like Hamilton as he was a bit of an upstart, then ultimately his winning became a bit relentless - plus he's British, and their media hurts the brain when one of their own is in the GOAT conversation.

But I've never quite seen a character like Max. He's arrogant, smug, dismissive of his teammates, plain rude about his car and mechanics when it's the slightest bit imperfect, and looks fairly joyless at the best of times.

He's just impossible to get behind at all.

McFly85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120377208#Comment_120377208

Honestly, most drivers, certainly the ones capable of winning races, have those traits. Hamilton does too, over the last couple of years he’s been happy to throw his team under the bus if he’s not happy.

Max is an unbelievable driver, clearly the best on the grid right now, I’m a fan of his driving. He’s not personable at all though, and he has that stereotypical Dutch attitude which can come across as rude and arrogant, but it doesn’t bother me that much. I think the worst thing about him is his dad, who is a complete and utter POS.

SlickRic

Jos is an issue, I agree.

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120377108#Comment_120377108

Here is what I was on about, watch from 30:48

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxlw7RchqnZM5KtqhrPKfamZp4WlltOG4-

KillerShamrock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120377018#Comment_120377018

Oh max is well ahead of checo that's for sure but why tell checo to do 32.6 +4 or what ever it was and max was doing 32.6 seems odd to me. Plus he is the number 2 driver and red bull are pretty much always about favouring one driver over the other when they don't it tends not to go to well for them.