Formula 1 2017 Season

[alan CXA651]

WOW what a race , full of incidencies , the most bazaar was hamilton haveing to pit for an insecure headrest when leading , this lost him the race , but the fight for secondplace was on the home straight , as stroll was overtaken at the last minute by bottas , but i knew hamilton would not win , eddy jorden predicted hamilton to win , that was the kiss of death , just wish eddy jorden would zip his lip , he always puts the eddy curse on drivers .
I bet no one guessed the podium positions at the end , but riccardo from 10th to 1st was well deserved as was strolls 3rd place and bottas did well to get 2nd.
regards alan.

[speedy70]

Lance Strol really showed his skill and calmness under pressure to drive a superb race.Well deserved driver of the day.

Valtieri really showed his skill and the superiority of the Mercedes to finish second from a lap down.

Vettel once again showed he is a very bad sportsman and behaved like a spoilt child.He got away with it with Mark Webber but he will not get away with it with Hamilton.

A fiasco of a race in my opinion.

Cheers Chris

[Mickel]

Procession or fiasco? Which is preferred? Personally, I'd rather not have the result decided on Saturday.

Pretty chuffed for Lance. I was expecting him to snatch a brake at some point in the last ten laps as the silver and red smudges got bigger in the mirror.

I still think it's a bit of a 'how come?' track, but time will tell what Chase and co think.

[Rimshot]

Oh dear, Vettel is at it again, lol. Amazing he doesn't just admit he hit Lewis on purpose to make a point. And I'm sad for Max. He deserves better.

[Lewis - A2A]

One of the best races in recent years imo, loads of action up and down the grid, totally unpredictible the sort of thing that should be F1 bread and butter. Baku is a proper F1 track, its a challenge to the drivers to not just go around in a line but to actually race around.

Great to see SC's back over the silly VSC's that do nothing that a full circuit yellow flag doesn't already do!

brilliant stuff, hope its a sign of the F1 times a changing

[Ron Attwood]

Sebastian was in the right. That Hamilton bloke played nasty tricks. How do I know? Because Sebbie said so. "Tell me when I drove dangerously" Did you notice, they couldn't tell him!?

Cracking race though. I liked DC's comment when asked why they brought out the safety car. "Show business baby"

[Tomas Linnet]

Sebastian was in the right. That Hamilton bloke played nasty tricks. How do I know? Because Sebbie said so. "Tell me when I drove dangerously" Did you notice, they couldn't tell him!?

I think the team didn't want to tell him as they would admit he did something wrong by answering that question.

[Lewis - A2A]

I think this is gonna be a long running thing, but given how lightly Vettel got away with it (other examples from motorsports of similar incidents include race bans and one even a long ban for over a season) then it would be best if Seb kept damn quiet and count his lucky stars. Its a shame supply and demand hasn't be realised in F1 yet as tbh there are more world championship contenders than places probably by a ratio of over 50:1, with so much talent every year having to be turned away to other classes. Be good if the Drivers in F1 and the F1 world itself realised this and that they are very much replaceable.

[Mickel]

That said... half the e-prix field is made up of washed up F-1 drivers who were never really good enough. Indy Car has acquired a share as well (don't really count Juan Pablo as he's really just returned to his roots, and only part time). And until relatively recently there has often been a solid, but not spectacular, driver in the top teams. Now you look at Merc - a multi-world champ and one who would not be out of place with the title, five championships between the Ferrari drivers, Max is on the way, Dan could, McLaren had two champions last year... I think Palmer shows that wins in GP2, sorry F-2, doesn't mean they can cut in in the big league.

Of course it's the funding that distorts it...

[Lewis - A2A]

I have trouble with the Palmer thing because quiet frankly a couple of mistakes (That all drivers have) and a lot of bad luck on Renaults part with retriements that are contain zero driver fault doesn't make him a bad driver but would actually hinder even more when it comes to confidence in the car (Look at merc in 2016 when the car confidence wasnt there for example all of sudden then drop back even with world champions driving them). And the formula E is imo made up of those I mentioned, who simply lost a seat or had an F1 season in a lower end car. Look what happened at Toro Rosso, how many champs have been and gone because of money or over saturation of the market. Only so many grid places and many many many times the drivers over to make it.

[Mickel]

Don't get me wrong. Palmer cannot be a bad driver. He wouldn't have made it that far if he was. It's the 'replaceable by contenders' bit that I can't quite understand. Say for example Ferrari got jack of Seb over the wheel banging and were considering ditching him, and that everyone else was off contract. There would be guys queuing up for that seat. But how many would they really want? The Red Bull lads (more likely Dan, since Ferrari aren't known for getting young talent on board), maybe Nico (assuming Lewis & Valtteri are quite happy where they are thanks, and Fernando, well, just no). Who of those three would you pick in front of a four time world champ?

It's different in the lower mid-field down as there seems to be a constant churn of drivers that ultimately don't cut it. Those ones are the replaceable ones. Would they be necessarily replaced by anyone better? Maybe. Maybe not.

It's no different in other top end classes. The same names hang around the front of Nascar, Indy Car, 'strayan V8s (I don't see much European stuff, but I assume it's similar) because they're consistently achieving better than the rest, and as a result, get the best donkeys and the best engineers and/or wheel changers which then helps cement them up front.

[Ron Attwood]

Sebastian was in the right. That Hamilton bloke played nasty tricks. How do I know? Because Sebbie said so. "Tell me when I drove dangerously" Did you notice, they couldn't tell him!?

I think the team didn't want to tell him as they would admit he did something wrong by answering that question.

My tongue was firmly in my cheek Tomas. But you're damned right!

[Tutmeister]

Things are hotting up again!
Plus McLaren changing to Renault, Toro rosso changing to honda and various driver swaps.
Good article here:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mcla ... ip-952183/

Chris

[Tutmeister]

Seems all this engine swapping might cause issues for red bull.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red- ... 19-952699/

They might be stuck with Honda for two years until Porsche potentially buy them for entry in 2021.
Chris

[Lewis - A2A]

Thanks for the links Chris, so many damn rumours going around with this, as legally it seems that no matter what, the FIA and the big brands involved need to come to some pretty big dam decisions that go against what many have already said they would and or are willing to do for this to play out at all let alone adding driver contracts into the mix too lol

I've been really enjoying this season and it looks like Singapore is going to be another wildcard with regard the performance of the Mercs

cheers,
Lewis