Motorsports Thread

[Regular.Cyclist]

I think it is fairly inarguable that, although Antonelli is leading the championship on merit, Russell has had much worse luck and reliability over the course of the season so far. Antonelli's only real misfortune this season was his retirement/16th in Spain (damaging his own car and getting a track-limits penalty at Silverstone was of his own making); even excluding interrupted practice and qualifying sessions, Russell has had no-fault incidents, ill-timed pitstops and unreliablity at Japan, Canada, Monaco, GB, Hungary and Belgium.

Sometimes you create your own luck. Yes, on the face of it Russell has had more bad luck but is he doing something different that is exacerbating problems with the car? Just a thought.

 

[figbat]

This lad should be give some kind of medal or recognition by the King for saving the life of a British citizen...

https://news.sky.com/story/race-dri...ari-during-china-gt-race-in-shanghai-13582764

A brave feller with an excess of testes.

Where TF were the marshals, or anybody else for that matter??

 

[Reynard]

I think it is fairly inarguable that, although Antonelli is leading the championship on merit, Russell has had much worse luck and reliability over the course of the season so far. Antonelli's only real misfortune this season was his retirement/16th in Spain (damaging his own car and getting a track-limits penalty at Silverstone was of his own making); even excluding interrupted practice and qualifying sessions, Russell has had no-fault incidents, ill-timed pitstops and unreliablity at Japan, Canada, Monaco, GB, Hungary and Belgium.

Hence my reference to Nico Rosberg...

 

[Reynard]

This lad should be give some kind of medal or recognition by the King for saving the life of a British citizen...

https://news.sky.com/story/race-dri...ari-during-china-gt-race-in-shanghai-13582764

A brave feller with an excess of testes.

Shades of Zandvoort '73, especially what with the single marshal standing to one side twiddling their thumbs...

Definitely a demonstration of why our boys and girls in orange are the best in the world by a fair margin. And that lessons of the past have not been learnt.

If it wasn't for Loek, we'd have had another Roger Williamson on our hands.

 

[katiewlx]

I think it is fairly inarguable that, although Antonelli is leading the championship on merit, Russell has had much worse luck and reliability over the course of the season so far. Antonelli's only real misfortune this season was his retirement/16th in Spain (damaging his own car and getting a track-limits penalty at Silverstone was of his own making); even excluding interrupted practice and qualifying sessions, Russell has had no-fault incidents, ill-timed pitstops and unreliablity at Japan, Canada, Monaco, GB, Hungary and Belgium.

Belgium wasnt caused by unreliability, George crashed out, funnily enough putting himself in exactly the position Lewis did this weekend though Lewis kept it out of the kitty litter.

I just think the current era cars are very fickle beasts to setup unless you are spot on in the tyre operating window, and nailing the energy management which is way more complex than just lift and coast now, and making sure the electronics dont throw you curve balls as I suspect theyve made them horrendously clever & adaptive to driving style and conditions, and you can lose chunks of lap time by being only slightly off in a few spots.

but if we are talking engine reliability, remind me again which Mercedes team driver had to take a 20 place grid penalty for exceeding the permitted quota first ?

 

[Legs]

Belgium wasnt caused by unreliability, George crashed out, funnily enough putting himself in exactly the position Lewis did this weekend though Lewis kept it out of the kitty litter.

That's not what the stewards reckoned. And Russell was only really in that situation because of what seemed likely to be a terminal issue.

but if we are talking engine reliability, remind me again which Mercedes team driver had to take a 20 place grid penalty for exceeding the permitted quota first ?

I may be wrong, but didn't Mercedes (sensibly) choose to take Antonelli's penalty at Monza before he would have been forced to take it? Doesn't Russell have a grid penalty looming which he'll have to take at a track which is less easy to overtake?
,
I'm not a Russell fanboi, but as a neutral observer, it's plain that, while Antonelli's luck could be considered neutral (damaging his wheel shield at Silverstone was a result of the way he was driving), Russell has had overall poor luck (not quite in the same league as Ivan Capelli's 1989 season, but poor by modern standards!)