Formula 1 - 2019 Season

Vettel must be seeing "Red". Hopefully he can learn from this ...

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/48720454

 

Well there is a clear difference in that Hamilton significantly slowed down and was clearly looking in his mirrors trying to check the track behind was clear.
But the irony is certainly strong.

 

I think Raikonnen also rejoined at a point that caused Grosjean to abort a lap, possibly in that same practice. Raikonnen had gone off because he caught a slow Ricciardo at the wrong moment, just before the apex of a corner. I guess no one got penalties, even though someone behind was forced to brake (imagine that, on a racetrack!).

I'd love to see what a driver can see out of their mirrors doing 80+ on grass. It wasn't that long ago that drivers said the mirrors were useless at speed on tarmac.

I also enjoy hearing that Merc's counter-argument to any Ferrari review would be that they had turned down the engine once they knew Vet had the penalty. Sounds awesome for race, er, engine management fans. I hope they're looking into adding giving up a position as a penalty option when there are enough laps left in a race.

 

So, anyone got any ideas why Hamiltons car suddenly gains 0.2 sec over Bottas when both are going flatout on a straight?
https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli...laisen-faktan-todella-outoa/7458164#gs.kxajbb (it's in finnish but the video should speak for itself)

 

A conspiracy to keep Bottas behind Hamilton, ofcourse...

Anyway, boring race.

 

Great work who ever directed the broadcast, you lost the only actual happening in the race when Norris got passed by 3 cars near the end
Of course there's always replays but still, it happened before Hamilton was anywhere near crossing the line. Also possible the results will change, looks like at least Ricciardo did some overtaking outside the track

 

Yep rulings on that event is gonna be interesting.
Pretty rough ending for Norris who had been doing well but had hydraulic issues.

Kvyat had a clean race starting from back of the grid, up to 14th by the end & ahead of Albon who started in 11th.

 

Ricciardo got 2 separate 5 second penalties from the hassle in the end, one for re-entering the track in a unsafe manner and another for passing Räikkönen outside of track boundaries. Due penalties he drops out of points to 11th, which puts Gasly up to 10th for last point.

 

Can't say I blame Ricciardo much for the first incident, though certainly if Vettel got a penalty for his incident last race this one has to be a penalty as well.
Though I'd say the second one was a rather stupid move, it was obvious that he could only overtake there on the right side by going outside the track since Räikkönen was already pretty much fully at the right edge. But I guess if 5s or 10s total penalty in the end didn't actually matter .

 

Pretty sure the cameras were on Leclerc vs Bottas at the end when that happened; Leclerc was catching at quite a fast rate and it looked like it might result in a change in the podium. Given that the race director doesn't know what's going to happen ahead of time, they had the choice of

1) 4 cars that had been driving around relatively close together for a number of laps
2) The 3rd place driver rapidly catching the 2nd place driver on the final lap

Option 2 seems like an obvious choice. If they'd have stayed on the Norris stuff and nothing exciting happened, but Leclerc had passed Bottas, people would be complaining about the director focusing on a train of 4 cars rather than catching the exciting action that decided podium positions. If you're prescient then I'm sure F1 would love to employ you to direct their races (and quite a few other people would be interested too)

 

Fair points, but you forgot from the option 1 that the one driving first of those 4 cars had had rapidly worsening pace and issues with the car and it was obvious for anyone watching (for the time they followed the group on broadcast) that there would be overtake(s) or crash(es) before the end
And that in option 2 Leclerc wasn't anywhere near realistic attack chance

 

Leclerc was within 1 second of Bottas on the last lap, and had caught him rapidly. Bottas was managing worn tires and a misfiring engine. It wasn't obvious that there *would* be overtakes or crashes before the end, just that there *might* be, which is why they were following them. Hindsight is 20/20. I don't think the race director should be getting flak for following the 3rd place driver rapidly catching the 2nd place driver (to the point they're inside DRS activation).

 

Free Practices in Austria have apparently been some sort of destruction derby more or less, which has made team principals complain that "something needs to be done to the track" - wtf seriously? Maybe tell your drivers to keep the cars within track limits instead jumping all over kerbs and if they can't do it, get drivers that can.
Red Bull Ring is one of the few where there's still actual sand traps instead of having being huge asphalt fields with tracklines drawn over like most tilkedromes these days are, if anything needs to be done that's removing the whiny principals.
Or sure, remove the "sausage kerbs" - as long as you replace the whole damn kerbs and replace them with sandtraps that makes sure no driver gets around going past track limits

 

Might be nice for practice and qualifying, but come race day, a track that is too tight just becomes a parade.

 

At least we know for sure that nobody is going to get a controversial penalty for leaving the course & gaining an advantage on this track!

 

Starting order:
Leclerc - Verstappen
Bottas - Norris (!!!)
Hamilton - Räikkönen
Giovinazzi - Gasly
Vettel - Magnussen

Hamilton got 3 place grid penalty for blocking Räikkönen early in the qualifying, tried to lie that "he didn't know Räikkönen is coming" until it was shown from Mercedes team communication that he was warned twice about it and well in time.

 

Scratch that, somehow they figured a way to drop Hamilton only to 4th even though he got 3 place penalty
So the order above stands except Hamilton & Norris switch places