Formula 1 - 2019 Season

[hoom]

3 poles in a row for Leclerc.
Hamilton 2nd after Vettel muffed his last flying lap but was very much on pace with 3rd from previous flying lap, Ferrari with an apparently successful new front wing.
Verstappen, Bottas & Albon filling out top 6.

Kvyat had another oil leak early in P3, fixed for qualifying but knocked out in Q1, 15th.
Gasly did a bit better with 12th.

Ricciardo got DQed for apparently a 1ms power violation from the MGU-K in Q1 during a kerb hop shock
Rules are rules but damn.


Marko has apparently confirmed Kvyat for TR next year, RB seat between Albon & Gasly.
But then apparently Horner contradicted that saying all 3 in contention for RB but Albon in the lead.

Haas confirmed both drivers for next year.
Kubica is out at Williams though, apparently his choice.
Hulkenburg still no new ride confirmed, Williams has an opening now but apparently mostly looking to F2, Horner nixed the suggestion that he might have a chance at RB/TR.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Ferrari trying to make a race out of this season.

Interesting that Ferrari was willing to let Leclerc race, but Bottas had orders. Not that it matters in Singapore.

 

[hoom]

Pretty interesting race despite lack of passing.
Lots of mid-field shenanigans.
Vettels first win in a long time, Leclerc pissed off that he got dropped to 2nd & missed out on the 'first 3 wins straight' club, Verstappen, Hamilton, Bottas & Albon.

Gasly had a good race with long initial stint on Hards, up to 8th, 3* Hondas in top 10 again.

Kvyat had a bit of a shocker, at one point looked like there was a chance for 10th but lost a bunch of places in restart after safety car, then pretty dumb overtaking incident with Kimi.

 

[Gubbi]

Dullest race in memory.

Le Clerc driving super slow the first 18 laps, playing train with the entire field because who needs a race track that allows overtaking. Jarno Trulli must have been green with envy.

Cheers

 

[hoom]

Well I enjoy that strategic tyre strategy side of things.

I was pretty disappointed when they showed the starting tyre choice, Gasly on the Hard, Kvyat on Med with the rest of the midfield after they'd done very well out of a longer initial stint with harder tyres last several races & it paid off again for Gasly while Kvyat had early tyre degradation -> was first non-damage pit.

Annoys me the broadcasts show the tyre choices early but not later so its hard to keep track of what strategies are being used.
And the official site Pit stats doesn't include what type of tyres were put on.

 

[hoom]

Some pretty intense mid-field action here
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...on-from-singapore.5cFQw1C83jIou6WAQl0K0O.html

 

[Pete]

Annoys me the broadcasts show the tyre choices early but not later so its hard to keep track of what strategies are being used.

The world feed has terrible overlays. They can show much more info, like both tire compound and intervals simultaneously. Instead of showing how many times they’ve pitted, show what tires they’ve used: one more tiny column, but a lot more informative. Formula E is much better in that regard, especially with the interval between a pair of drivers that they’re highlighting.

Basically everything they run across the bottom of the screen is needlessly confusing.

This is the third race (or session) Perez has had an engine failure (guessing that’s what happened here, too?).

I wonder if Merc’s tight packaging (and the failures of their new spec engine) forced them to limit their engine power here, which maybe flattered Ferrari.

 

[Kaotik]

This is the third race (or session) Perez has had an engine failure (guessing that’s what happened here, too?).

No but yes - engine didn't fail, but they had to retire so it wouldn't fail

 

[hoom]

Wow, all 4 Honda cars getting yet another new spec for Russia GP.
Kvyat the local with complete replacement will be right at the back.
Hopefully its a significant upgrade.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Apparently this is done in preparation for Suzuka, where Honda wants to show their best.

 

[hoom]

Another bad crash in F2 just now

4 poles in a row for Leclerc.
Then Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen (but he drops back to 9th due to engine change penalty so Bottas starts 4th).

Unlucky Kvyat in full force it seems with multiple engine issues on top of being back of the grid already.
Didn't even get to run in Qualifying & didn't get up to any great pace in the fairly short time on track.
In one of the interviews he's confirmed he at least has a RB contract for next year.

Gasly was seemingly pretty quick in Practices but had a bad Q2.

Albon isn't having a good time either, couple of crashes & starting 2 places behind Gasly.

 

[AlphaWolf]

And Ferrari is back to being Ferrari. Turning a 1 - 2 into a 3 - DNF.

 

[hoom]

Yeah, bit sad there.

I can't believe they gave Vettel driver of the day for disobeying team orders then DNF for technical issue
Albon had a monster of a race from a pitlane start to 5th behind Verstappen and by healthy margin back to 6th, how can that not be best performance on a track without much opportunity for passing?


I missed what happened around when Vettel went out, Kvyat pitted twice for some reason.
He had a good start, gained 6 or more places, I liked the look of a long stint on Hard then real hard push at the end on Soft but I guess plans change when you get a safety car right about the middle of the race & Softs were lasting well but then why two pits?
12th & 2 ahead of Gasly despite some strong challenges isn't terrible for starting 19th.


Apparently TR is planning to change name to AlphaTauri, Red Bull clothing line.
McLaren switching engine back to Merc

 

[AlphaWolf]

Vettel's mguk failed and he was told to shut down immediately forcing a virtual safety car and undermining LeClerc's undercut and handing the lead to Mercedes.

 

[Pete]

Neat track overlay of Ferrari's and Mercedes' relative speeds in a lap of Sochi 2019:

Spoiler

And a bar chart of how each constructor performs in slow-, medium-, and high- speed corners and straights in Sochi 2019:

Spoiler

I'd love to know if there's a single element (the floor?) that's responsible for most of Williams' performance deficit that could explain how they're the worst in all corners and also the worst in straights. Haas and, to a lesser extent, Renault seem to have the same problem of maybe adding too much wing to compensate for missing downforce elsewhere.

Both from this neat Twitter page I found from a mention in an older Missed Apex podcast.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Qualifying wiped in Japan. Will take place 4 hours before race on Sunday.

 

[Lightman]

I will make effort and get up 1AM to watch it.

Looking forward to Japan GP every year as it's one of my favourites!

 

[Bludd]

so verstappen doesnt like the world he has made where hard racing is a reality, oh boo hoo max

a lot of action in the race, this just proves once again that the more the teams and drivers can practice and prepare usually that makes a duller race.
it shouldn't be a total lottery but getting rid of practice 3 and limiting running in practice 1 and 2 could be a winner.

 

[hoom]

I only caught 2nd half on replay.

Not an amazing result for the Honda special engines with Verstappen out, mediocre 12th for Kvyat (left out too long again & tyres went off the cliff?).
On the other hand very nice 4th for Albon & 8th for Gasly especially since he didn't get to do P1.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Has Ferrari demonstrated every way to lose a race yet this season?