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Reality is most people in the teams dislike Monaco from a work point of view. Even the new garages are small and cramped. The walk to the team tractor/trailers is far, the walk to the hotels is even farther. It's congested and confining. Even the PR people hate it cause the hotels and restaurants charge a ridiculous amount for catering functions and events for team sponsors, VIPs, and guests. It's a not a fun weekend for the working folks in F1.
Originally Posted by Chief F1 Fan
At last year it was tough titties for Hamilton, and so it goes. By "songstress" do you mean Bieber? lol.
Every year there is drama at Monaco, whether it's Schu "parking" his car at Rascasse during Q3, or Senna smacking the wall at Portier and losing the race, or Panis winning from way back in the grid-that's what makes Monaco, Monaco.
+1 I was also slightly annoyed and amused by Bieber, there should be a FIA rule banning him from any F1 celebration.
There have been some great races indeed, Senna/Mansell, Villenueve in 1981, 1982 when it seemed like no one wanted to win the race,...
Originally Posted by icy2
You know the pit gaffe by Red Bull wasn't the first time they did that at Monoco. A few years back they pitted Webber and when Vettel came in they had a mismatched set of tires and had to scramble to correct the error. Back then they were so dominate it didn't matter tho
Didn't know that
Originally Posted by Chief F1 Fan
I don't understand WTF RBR was doing. 1.5 laps before Daniel pitted and found no tires waiting for him, Steve Matchett said "there's a flurry of activity in the Red Bull garages directly across from us, they must be getting tires ready for Ricciardo" or something to that effect. That gave RBR no less than ~2:30 to be ready and they blew it.
Horner produced a reasonable explanation for the screwup, none the less even lesser teams didn't mess up the tires for their drivers. I didn't know the new garages are on two levels at Monaco. Wonder what they are used for the remainder of the year?
Ricciardo is probably thinking about switching teams now. Lost two straight races because the team messed up. Too bad for him, there aren't too many other choices.
I felt bad for Ricciardo, the race was his and RB F'ed for the second time in two races due to pit stops. They defintiely have to appeal to him as he looked like a class act on the track all over the back of Hamilton. It was his race. IIRC he is under contract til end of 2017 with RBR.
The one driver I was happy for on Sunday was Sergio Perez who drove a great race for Force India to 3rd. Pretty gusty and consistent drive from 8th on the grid.
...& to stay on topic, I was gutted for Ricciardo.
Especially after (as Chief F1 noted) they knew damn well he was coming for a good minute or 2!! Unbelieveable (even after the Horner explanation).
I also agree with him on that crappy ass start w/the safety car, it took a lot away from us (although i kinda get it). The race itself was good & I loved how it was wet, to dry, to oh shit is it gonna rain again?! Good stuff (could've done w/out the Biebs at the podium ... ew).
Oh & hello! I don't watch Indy (dislike oval stuff), and I did not watch it, but an American F1 driver taking the Indy500 was mega cool! Stoked for him.
Annnd I don't wanna go off topic (again) but the graph earlier comparing Indy & F1, the top speed is inaccurate due to the fact BAR Honda tested an F1 car w/out downforce & it hit 250something so
Speaking of Rossi. I am hoping if Haryanto loses his drive due to Money that Rossi as the reserve driver will get the drive for the rest of the year so show what he can do. I am really rooting for that to happen honestly.
I watched Indy till halfway, went outside, installed new kidney grills in my 650, came in and caught the last 48 laps. Rossi was spectacular and fully deserved that win. I can't wait to see him at the Glen Labor Day weekend so I can tell him as much.
If Rossi can't get a seat at Manor when Rio runs out of money I hope maybe next year he could replace Gutierrez at Haas. I think with that win it should be enough to convince Gene Haas he isn't much of a rookie anymore. I don't think he would be bringing anything less to the table than Gutierrez does as he really hasn't been that impressive. I know he has had car troubles but I still don't really see what is seen in him by teams.
I only watched the last 5 laps of Indy. That was probably the slowest laps I ever saw someone drive to win the race. Good for Rossi though, but unless Haas has a change of heart, Rossi won't ever get back to F1. A real shame though, because Rossi's heart is still with F1.
JV was the last time an Indy 500 winner got a seat in F1, and that had nothing to do with winning the race.
...& to stay on topic, I was gutted for Ricciardo.
Especially after (as Chief F1 noted) they knew damn well he was coming for a good minute or 2!! Unbelieveable (even after the Horner explanation).
I also agree with him on that crappy ass start w/the safety car, it took a lot away from us (although i kinda get it). The race itself was good & I loved how it was wet, to dry, to oh shit is it gonna rain again?! Good stuff (could've done w/out the Biebs at the podium ... ew).
Oh & hello! I don't watch Indy (dislike oval stuff), and I did not watch it, but an American F1 driver taking the Indy500 was mega cool! Stoked for him.
Annnd I don't wanna go off topic (again) but the graph earlier comparing Indy & F1, the top speed is inaccurate due to the fact BAR Honda tested an F1 car w/out downforce & it hit 250something so
Also gutted for Ricciardo. On the tire problem, not only were the Ricciardo's super-softs in the back of the garage, they also had tire warmer blankets wrapped around them. So besides unwrapping them, they are also at ~80oC (176oF) so only mechanics with gloves can handle them and they had to unwrap them. Not a excuse, but there was more to it than just moving 4 tires from the back to the front. Ricciardo race engineer made the call to switch from soft to super-soft when Hamilton's car switched to them the lap before.
Hats off to Rossi, I haven't even DVR'ed the Indy500 the past few years but sorta regreted not recordning the 100th. The final lap sounded pretty amazing for radio transmission from team owner Brian Herta to Rossi coaxing him to the finish. ~180MPH lap was slow by IndyCar standard. Hope Rossi finds a full-time ride somewhere. A former colleague met him a few years ago at a race in CA and said he was a really sincere nice guy.
The strange thing about Monaco was where the hell was Rosberg? He supposedly had brake problems, but I never saw that officially. I also read he could not build up heat in the tires which caused them to lose traction as they were too cold. Odd off race for the him, as his 49 point championship lead was cut in half.
Opinion: Why we are witnessing a new era of Formula 1
If, if, if...
It's been a popular retort over the years that F1 is 'If' spelt backwards, but this season the conditional clause has been aired much more than usual.
What if Sebastian Vettel had been fitted with mediums rather than supersofts after the red flag in Australia?
What if Vettel's engine had not blown up on the parade lap in Bahrain?
What if Valtteri Bottas had not hit Lewis Hamilton at the first corner of the Bahrain Grand Prix?
What if Hamilton hadn't have had those engine problems in qualifying in China and Russia?
What if Red Bull hadn't switched Daniel Ricciardo on to a three-stop strategy at the Spanish Grand Prix?
What if Red Bull hadn't tried to be too clever and ended up botching Ricciardo's pitstop in Monaco?
It's been an ever present at all the races this year that the victory has been decided not by the fastest man in the fastest car executing the fastest strategy in a way that computers could have predicted beforehand, but by actual 'racing'.
Grands prix have come alive this year in a way that we haven't seen for many seasons, and it is something that we should be rejoicing: even if it is making life hard for the teams.
Whether it is the culmination of the competitive order closing up thanks to regulatory stability or the arrival of tyre choice freedom for teams doesn't really matter: what matters is we have got a spectacle and it's something that fans should be rejoicing about.
This notion of a new type of F1 came up in conversation with Renault's Cyril Abiteboul earlier this year when he pointed out that it was nigh on impossible for him to understand where his team stood in the pecking order – as there no longer was one.
"It's the new face of F1," he told me. "The sort of F1 where you have at the end of the race a pecking order where you assume everything will be straightforward, it is just not happening any more. We have to accept that."
More variables
What we have now is an F1 where variables are being thrown around left, right and centre. Teams are having to juggle their understanding of an extra compound on a weekend when there really is not enough time to use them fully, which means that often it's a step into the dark on Sunday.
And what that does is throw 'jeopardy' into the system because there are too many variables for teams to be safety in control of all the decisions themselves.
That is what opened up events like Vettel versus Rosberg on wildly different tyre strategies in Australia; what prompted Red Bull to put Ricciardo on the wrong strategy in Barcelona; and what ultimately led to the delay in the Australian's team getting his tyres ready in Monaco last weekend.
The sign of a good motor race is often that a handful of men should be able to come away from it thinking that they had a shot of winning it, had some events that occurred throughout the weekend not tripped them up. It what makes racing must-watch events.
Too often in recent F1 history have we had races that were ultimately decided before we even turned up: with a combination of the best team with the fastest car having already mapped out their race-winning strategy before a wheel had turned in anger.
One of the attractions of watching the Indy 500 is the very fact that it isn't necessarily won by the fastest man in the fastest car: it's won as much by good strategy, plus a fair bit of luck. You've got to deliver everything on the day, and when you get it right, fairytale stories like Alex Rossi's triumph can be unleashed.
Of course, races should not be decided by complete luck, but equally victory should not just be settled by rows of engineers sat in front of computer screens churning through simulation software to deliver the most boring of spectacles.
When Maurizio Arrivabene spoke on Sunday night in Monaco about Ferrari's title hopes not being over, he talked about the prospect of an intriguing title battle.
"This championship is going to be quite interesting I think," he said. And, of course, he is right.
What if Red Bull can now find enough performance to regularly challenge Mercedes? What if Hamilton can get on a run and close the gap to Rosberg? What if Ferrari can get on top of its tyre issues to deliver some wins.
Ah, there we go again. If, if, if.
It's exactly what F1 should be, and why we could well have a truly epic season on our hands.
It's pretty weel known that Senna tested in 1983 for Williams and McLaren (Williams and Dennis passed on Aryton for various reasons), but I didn't know Senna tested for Brabham also in 1983 when I saw this pic on Pintrest
Pretty amazing C/C brakes, resspecially the temps. History of C/C brakes with gordon Murray of Brambam being the primary proponent of introducing them to F1 cars in th elate 70's and early 80's.
Hard to believe the first car to win a race with them was 34 years ago.
^ Thx for posting, Gilles is one of all time favorite F1 drivers. Also agree Jacques did a very nice commentary as his son and a driver himself. Gilles had so much passion and determination in his driving, something the old man and his mechanics loved even if he damaged the car (which happened a few times).
Also liked how Jacques liked 12 more than 27, since that is the # his dad won his first race with and had while battling for the championship (although IIRC there were team orders that Jody was #1).
"If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari…"
Hey, not trying to thread hike (or whatever it's called), but are any of you dudes on Twitter? I get a LOT of F1 insight there & would love to connect with you there as well.
Otherwise, happy hump day on Canadian GP week!! Love a race in my timezone so I can enjoy it live!
Hey, not trying to thread hike (or whatever it's called), but are any of you dudes on Twitter? I get a LOT of F1 insight there & would love to connect with you there as well.
Otherwise, happy hump day on Canadian GP week!! Love a race in my timezone so I can enjoy it live!
Hey, not trying to thread hike (or whatever it's called), but are any of you dudes on Twitter? I get a LOT of F1 insight there & would love to connect with you there as well.
Otherwise, happy hump day on Canadian GP week!! Love a race in my timezone so I can enjoy it live!
I should but have to find my twitter password or reset it.
Just another form of social media. Buuut it's the one that when you watch any sports, news, anything really, has that @ icon underneath the name of whomever is speaking etc.