Formula 1 - 2018 Season

So, it's official now that Leclerc will drive for Ferrari next season, while Kimi will go to Sauber. I wonder if this has something to do with the earlier rumors of Kimi being interested in investing some of his fortune in Sauber.

I'm worried about this move for Leclerc, either he destroys Vettels career or Vettel destroys his
 
I'm worried about this move for Leclerc, either he destroys Vettels career or Vettel destroys his
I think that's a little overdramatic. I don't think it'll be a case of "you have to destroy Vettel, a 4 time world champion, in your second year in F1 or your career is over".
 
I think that's a little overdramatic. I don't think it'll be a case of "you have to destroy Vettel, a 4 time world champion, in your second year in F1 or your career is over".
I think it actually is - Ferrari is not a team where you go and build your career from the bottom up, it's the team where you go when you're ready and I have serious doubts of Leclerc being ready after 1 year in F1.
With no career history to talk of, if Leclerc gets heavily beaten by Vettel it has high risk of throwing his F1 career down the drain.
 
Wow, I didn't see that coming. Kimi must really want to race. If it is true he's investing in Sauber, he must be able to dictate more terms and cut back on the stuff he hates (basically everything that is not racing).

Massa went from a fast but erratic driver at Sauber to a more rounded driver, and basically built his career there, at Ferrari without really beating Schumacher (and later Räikkönen), and don't forget Massa was world champion for a few seconds in 2008.

It's not usual for Ferrari to take such a young driver. Massa had 3 years in Sauber plus 1 year as a Ferrari test driver before getting a seat. Leclerc is seriously young. I wish him good luck, it is an incredible opportunity. (and I hope Leclerc gives Vettel a proper run for his money)
 
I think it actually is - Ferrari is not a team where you go and build your career from the bottom up, it's the team where you go when you're ready and I have serious doubts of Leclerc being ready after 1 year in F1.
With no career history to talk of, if Leclerc gets heavily beaten by Vettel it has high risk of throwing his F1 career down the drain.
Ferrari don't really seem to care about drivers getting "heavily beaten" that much. In the last 10 seasons, only two have ended up with the drivers within 100 points of each other (applying the current points system, and ignoring Massa in 09 because of the accident). They've also only ended up adjacent in the overall standings twice. As long as they've got one driver that has a realistic chance of winning, they seem to be happy having a second driver that's competent as a wingman.
 
Ferrari don't really seem to care about drivers getting "heavily beaten" that much. In the last 10 seasons, only two have ended up with the drivers within 100 points of each other (applying the current points system, and ignoring Massa in 09 because of the accident). They've also only ended up adjacent in the overall standings twice. As long as they've got one driver that has a realistic chance of winning, they seem to be happy having a second driver that's competent as a wingman.
No, Ferrari hasn't cared that much about how much you get beaten, but they've used drivers who have already established themselves. Leclerc doesn't have that luxury, he doesn't have a big list of merits behind him, when you have nothing behind you getting beaten looks a lot different and can end a career (as anything but pure supporting driver if Ferrari goes back to Schumacher-ways).
Just look at what McLaren and has done to fresh talents when they've had to face against top drivers, Kovalainen's promising career came to grinding halt after getting beaten by Hamilton - Heikki had 1 season of racing behind him when he joined McLaren, Vandoornes career is ending even quicker against Alonso regardless of how well he did in lower racing series'
Top drivers and fresh rookies rarely match too well and considering Ferrari's history it should be even worse.
 
No, Ferrari hasn't cared that much about how much you get beaten, but they've used drivers who have already established themselves. Leclerc doesn't have that luxury, he doesn't have a big list of merits behind him, when you have nothing behind you getting beaten looks a lot different and can end a career (as anything but pure supporting driver if Ferrari goes back to Schumacher-ways).
Just look at what McLaren and has done to fresh talents when they've had to face against top drivers, Kovalainen's promising career came to grinding halt after getting beaten by Hamilton - Heikki had 1 season of racing behind him when he joined McLaren, Vandoornes career is ending even quicker against Alonso regardless of how well he did in lower racing series'
Top drivers and fresh rookies rarely match too well and considering Ferrari's history it should be even worse.
I don't think Vandoorne's career faltering has anything significant to do with his performance relative to Alonso. Given that Alonso has a reputation for dragging cars far higher up the grid than they deserve to be, it is unlikely that any racing driver McLaren would be able to sign would convincingly match him. I think drivers being signed has less to do with how well they compare to their current teammate and more to do with how well they do relative to the theoretical times of whichever driver is waiting in the wings. If McLaren weren't confident they could get a good performance from Norris, they'd have kept Vandoorne.

Kovalainen had two seasons at McLaren, and in the second season finished 12th. At which point they had the option of the reigning world champion joining them. "Hmm, let's see. We've got the choice between someone that finished 12th in the current season, or someone that won the last season, which should we choose?". Hamilton doesn't even need to enter in to that equation.

I think Leclerc's performance relative to the rest of the field will have more of an impact. If he finishes out of the top 6 at the end of the season he may have problems. I don't think he'll be written off if he manages to qualify within a row of Vettel and regularly ends up in contention for a podium.
 
I think Leclerc's performance relative to the rest of the field will have more of an impact. If he finishes out of the top 6 at the end of the season he may have problems. I don't think he'll be written off if he manages to qualify within a row of Vettel and regularly ends up in contention for a podium.
Ferrari is all about constructors championship, Kimi has the speed and reliability to bring those needed points to the team as long as the car doesn't break down - Leclerc needs at minimum to match that which means practically top 4 minimum (assuming of course the relative speed of each team is similar to this season)
And again, Ferrari isn't a team where you go to learn, you don't get to say "it's only my 2nd season in F1" or something
 
Ferrari hasn't cared about the constructors championship in ages as they get a big bag of money just for showing up. Hence it's not that important to them.

Now that that looks to be changing in the future, you might get half an idea as to why they are dropping raikonnen. More often than not he's been behind vettel quite a bit.
 
Ferrari hasn't cared about the constructors championship in ages as they get a big bag of money just for showing up. Hence it's not that important to them.

Now that that looks to be changing in the future, you might get half an idea as to why they are dropping raikonnen. More often than not he's been behind vettel quite a bit.
They just re-affirmed that their goal for this season is constructors championship first, whatever else may come

Sometimes he has been, sometimes he hasn't been, but everyone knows that Kimi has gotten a lions share of Ferrari's technical and tactical issues compared to Vettel
 
Epic lap by Lewis Hamilton in Q3 in Singapore

That lap was amazing!
I'm not a fan of Lewis as a person, but as a driver he regularly delivers great laps, and from time to time something this amazing!

Today's lap reminded me of R.K. Monaco lap in Renault from 2010, only 2nd, but in a car that shouldn't even be in top 10:


Today Lewis dragged 3rd row car into Pole Position, congratulations!
 
If you want to talk about insane laps, check this Imola 2000 by Häkkinen - especially the last sector defies reality, you go wide blowing sand everywhere, lose the rear a bit and whatnot, and still somehow make 2 tenths against Schumacher after being slower 1st 2 sectors


(it's even better with finnish commentary)
 
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Lewis is running away. I want to see a grandstand finish to the championship, not a wrap-up early. :(

Edit: I'm not blaming Lewis of course. I'm laying it all at Ferrari and Vettel door. Get your act together.
 
Not sure if any of you guys are into photography, but sometime this year, I decided I wanted to attend a Euro F1 race for the sole purpose of doing some F1 photography.

In the end, I sort of spontaneously decided to visit Spa, because it's a great track and I had already visited a race in 2011 here, so more or less knew what to expect.

The day ended up being perfect; The weather was good (not too bright) and I was able to get some good in-focus shots with relatively slow shutter-speeds for a bit more stylized shots.

If you want more info on where and how, just let me know. Until then, here they are!

(All images are clickable and open to high-res versions of those pictures on my website!)

Before Pouhon with AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G ED with Hoya PL-Filter


NIKON D800 + AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G ED @ 35mm, ISO 100, 1/40s, f/10 | PL


Before Pouhon with AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G with Hoya PL-Filter


NIKON D800 + AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/60s, f/7.1 | PL



NIKON D800 + AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/40s, f/13 | PL



NIKON D800 + AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/60s, f/5 | PL


After Raidillon with the AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G with Hoya PL-Filter


NIKON D800 + AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/80s, f/6.3 | PL



NIKON D800 + AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/80s, f/6.3 | PL



NIKON D800 + AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/100s, f/5.6 | PL


After Raidillon with the AF-S VR MICRO-NIKKOR 105mm (No filter):


NIKON D800 + AF-S VR MICRO-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED @ 105mm, ISO 100, 1/250s, f/7.1



NIKON D800 + AF-S VR MICRO-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED @ 105mm, ISO 100, 1/1250s, f/2.8



Also for the record, these shots are not-cropped (except vertically to get to a 16:10 format). They are what they are, using a full-frame DSLR (so 50mm = 50mm).

Cheers Phil
 
Nice! Is it coincidence that the Mercedes and Toro Rosso are featured, or did you prefer their color schemes (some of the nicest on the grid)? I'd be curious to see how the Renault and McLaren looked through that PL filter. Love the elevation highlighted in the last shot.
 
Yes and no. :D I guess I am a little biased, being a LH44 supporter, but I do think that Mercedes have a gorgeous looking car. Unfortunately, not quite the easiest to shoot, the metallic livery is quite reflective, but luckily the weather on that particular Friday was quite cloudy, so there wasn't much glare. It being cloud also meant I didn't have to pack out my neutral-density filters to bring the shutter times down and cloudy weather also means the whole scene is rather 'neutral', which was a huge bonus.

I did try my best though to capture all the cars without selective favoritism or bias. Which wasn't easy, as my aim was to go for more stylized shots with slow shutter speeds to capture more motion blur to eliminate/mask the background and put more emphasis on the cars. Because you are rather close to the track, even the 35mm can be used. Overall, most of my shots were done using the 50mm with a shutter-time around 1/60s to 1/100s. I tried slowing down the shutter-speed to 1/10s and 1/20s but it's extremely difficult to get the cars reasonably sharp. The dilemma being; Is it better to go ultra-slow for that perhaps 500th chance to hit the lottery with a perfect sharp shot or better to find a good middle ground, e.g. 1/60th-1/80th and walk away with 10% usable shots? I opted for the latter and am quite happy. Perhaps if I'd visit more F1 races, I would probably go super stylish and slow, but give this is the first time in 7 years that I visited an F1 race, it was important to me to make it a worthwhile visit. Even so, capturing these cars at >200kmh even at 50mm focal length at sub 1/100s shutter times is no easy accomplishment. Most shots are still hit and miss, but with a bit of practice, you get the hang of it. For those of you who might try to attempt the same; Use manual focus and pre-focus on the surface (or use back-button-focusing in conjunction with continuous focusing [AF-C on Nikon]), use manual-mode for consistent shots. Don't over-expose, better to be too dark than too bright (blown out areas can't be recovered), and always, always shoot RAW.

Anyway, to my surprise, I did manage to get quite a few of the Mercedes super sharp. The Torro-Rosso (and RedBull) to my surprise also had a higher success rate. On the other side of the spectrum, the McLaren seemed to be rather difficult, also the Renault too. The Renault is a very nice looking car, but there's a lot of black on the car, so it was difficult to bring out the details as the contrast between the yellow and the black is extremely high.

Here are some more shots:












 
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