Motorsports Thread

[matticus]

It isn't real racing if you penalise success by imposing restrictions on the best cars or drivers. It is up to the other teams to catch up, not the better ones to slow down.

we're talking about penalising RULE BREAKERS, not the best cars! (and that mainly means dangerous driving)

 

[Reynard]

It isn't real racing if you penalise success by imposing restrictions on the best cars or drivers. It is up to the other teams to catch up, not the better ones to slow down.

Handicapping works well in other sports (horse racing and golf to name but two) as well as motor racing. There's a history of handicap races in motorsport stretching back to the sport's early days at Brooklands.

Alas in F1, there is no catch up unless all teams have the same or similar budgets, which isn't going to happen. Gone are the days in F1 where a garagiste team could compete on an equal footing to the works cars - the march of technology has seen to that.

And success ballast doesn't so much slow the cars down as change the handling characteristics. Back to touring cars as a case in point, most teams at the pointy end of proceedings will actually develop their car in such a way that optimum performance is actually achieved with a certain percentage of ballast. That's because other than the opening race of the season where no cars have any ballast on board, the leading cars in the championship will be, barring the odd exception, running heavy for pretty well much the rest of the season. And a good driver in a heavy car will still outperform a lesser driver in a light car.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

In Moto GP Dovizioso has announced that he and Ducati are are parting company after eight good years together.

https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/942185/1/dovizioso-wont-renew-ducati-2021

and has celebrated with a good result in the Austrian race.

Warning the link contains todays race result

https://www.crash.net/motogp/results/942471/1/austrian-motogp-race-results

 

[classic33]

Last race for Williams, with the Williams as owners. They step back, from F1 after today.

 

[Reynard]

Well, the race...

It's been scripted by John Cleese and the Goodies...

 

[StuAff]

Good lord. An interesting F1 race…might actually watch the highlights, because there are some! Can't remember when I last paid any attention to it, having found the Hamilton dominance so boring and predictable…

 

[Beebo]

Has anyone ever gone from first to last, 20 seconds behind everyone.

That must be the most severe stop go penalty ever.

 

[classic33]

He wasn't the only driver to be given that penalty.

 

[Reynard]

The penalty itself (10 second stop & go) is the standard one for entering the pit lane when it is closed. That was pretty cut and shut.

But it's just how the hatchet falls really. Other than a time penalty, any others have to be served within three laps, and the fact that it was on a restart just added to the pain.

Maybe it's time to put lights at the entry to the pit lane as well as the exit?

On the flip side, it didn't affect the overall drivers' championship standings too much as Max didn't finish and Valtteri was only 5th, two places ahead of Lewis. So that's pretty well much as you were.

 

[figbat]

Lights on the pit lane entry means you’ll possibly have cars parked and queuing in an unconstrained area - ie in a place with no speed limit. The issue today was that the race engineer told him to come in and he did that. Bonno should be taking a good slice of the blame for this, and yes, Lewis should have seen the red X boards. The other teams managed to deal with it (GIO notwithstanding).

 

[Beebo]

Strange that no one has commented on Lewis Hamilton’s 7th World Championship.
He won it in style.
The track was almost undriveable but Hamilton took his time, got a feel for the car and was able to drive on tyres that were worn down to slicks when his car was clearly not the fastest on track.

The only problem I can see is that the dominance of Merc and Hamilton is turning off the fans because it’s just too boring.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

This was the first race for ages that I can recall watching the highlights, but even then it didn't hold my attention, I'm afraid.

 

[Archie_tect]

In a lighter vein... does anyone follow Bad Obsession Motorsport on You Tube? They've recently run a series where they bought a second hand Citroen C1 and adapted it with a Citygo race pack to enter the mini races for C1/1008/Aygo cars in the 2020 series.

What a breath of fresh air to see enthusiasts with mechanical skill getting together to have fun away from the stupid money of F1.

... and as for Project Binky and the Lescargot conversion... lots to see if you haven't seen any of it! Have fun.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHvBHWBzzB7NyU5tIiEZHBg

 

[BrumJim]

Strange that no one has commented on Lewis Hamilton’s 7th World Championship.
He won it in style.
The track was almost undriveable but Hamilton took his time, got a feel for the car and was able to drive on tyres that were worn down to slicks when his car was clearly not the fastest on track.

The only problem I can see is that the dominance of Merc and Hamilton is turning off the fans because it’s just too boring.

Sadly I don't follow F1 as much as I used to, mainly due to having a small child in the family. Used to rush home from Church (along with some other F1 fans that used to be part of the congregation) just in time to see the start, and then have a lazy Sunday afternoon watching the race unfold. Now I have to do something a little more engaging with my son.

Lewis Hamilton's achievements are phenominal. I have seen numerous champions come and go over the years that I have followed F1, starting probably with Keke Rosberg's Championship year. I have noted that there is a strange propensity amongst British champions to gain one World Champion crown, and then retire or go elsewhere, much more than those of the other big motorsport countries (e.g. Brazil and Finland). Lewis is cut from different stuff. To keep going that long, and to hold off the young guns desparate to take his crown takes more than a bit of driving skill. As he has grown older he has matured as a person, a driver and a team leader, and hasn't lost any of his racing craft and ability to make a car go faster than anyone else.

Difficult to compare between eras, but Fangio's record of 5 has to be seen against a backdrop of him starting racing much later in life, but also F1 being less competitive in those days. Senna sadly never lived long enough to win as many championships as he could have. Schumacher re-wrote the guide as to what is possible, but I'd put Hamilton above Schumacher in terms of "best driver", and certainly showed a lot more grace and fairness than Michael managed, and was a lot more willing to have a competitive #2 in the team. And will hopefully win more championships as well as races.

 

[figbat]

I’m not Lewis fan-boi but admire and respect his ability. Let’s not forget that he has done what he has done up against genuinely talented opponents, including his own team-mates in the same machinery. Alonso, Button, Vettel, Raikonnen, Rosberg are all world champions that he has raced against and beaten. Leclerc and Verstappen are tasty drivers he has also held off, not to mention Bottas and Ricciardo. No matter his persona, he can drive an F1 car.