The Formula 1 Thread šŸŽ

The revised grid after all the penalties have been applied:

As Adam Cooper notes ā€œ Remarkably the only drivers who will start in Austria in the actual places in which they qualified are Leclerc (1st) and Grosjean (11th). Everyone else has moved at least one spotā€¦ā€

He details all the changes in this Twitter thread:

1 Like

Goooooo boys! Hoping for Leclerc and Norris to do well!

1 Like

Most exciting race all year! Nothing in the incident being investigated. It better not change the result, as much as I want Leclerc to win.

3 Likes

First win for Honda since their F1 return. Well done to them too; itā€™s been a hard road. Also super proud of my boys in orange! Lando beat a Red Bull on merit, and Sainz drove from last to 8th on that new engine. This car has really good pace.

2 Likes

Great race for the top teams for once. Happy for Max but really sucks for Charles. On to the stewards againā€¦ eish. Charles seem like a bit of a sore loser though, Iā€™m sure Max would have overtaken him anyways. Anyways, Happy for Ferrari anyways and for Vettel overtaking Hamilton at the end :smiley:

2 Likes

To heck with all the noiseā€¦ only thing that matters is Antonio scored his first F1 point!! Alfa FTW!!

(And got his hair cut by the boss :joy:)

4 Likes

Seriously though, fantastic race. And evidence of just how bipolar F1 is (the sport and us fans). Just 7 days ago we were lamenting how terrible it is. :neutral_face:

Todayā€™s race just reconfirmed why I love this circuit and race so much. And also clarified what was wrong last week - zero risk. Paul Ricard is not a racing circuit, itā€™s a testing circuit. Itā€™s purposely designed to allow driver errors to go basically unpunished. Yesterday, in Austria, team bosses were crying about how much damage the sausage curbs were doing to their cars. Today, in the race, drivers knew exactly how far they could go before risking damaging their front wings or stranding the car in a gravel trap. And no one did. And the racing was significantly more exciting.

As for the Max/Charles penaltyā€¦ I said after Canada that the F1 Stewards and FIA set a stupid precedent with the insistent ā€œrules are rulesā€ approach and the inflexibility on applying the rules on a case by case basis. Today, Max made contact with Charles and forced him off the circuit. That action, in terms of the rules, should be penalized. Rosberg had a near identical situation with Hamilton at exactly the same corner Or maybe it was at the hairpin in Germany (?) in 2016, on the last lap, for the race win. Rosberg came off second best, damaging his front wing and dropping out of the podium. And still got a 10-second penalty after the race anyway.

Max drove an incredible race and deserves the win. But he was clearly going to be able to get past Leclerc, he still had more than enough time to do it cleanly. In fact if heā€™d just waited another 100m he would have had DRS down the back straight and could have driven past the Ferrari before they even got to T4. He really should have done it cleanly. Why take a risky move that could potentially see he down in P3?

I feel Charlesā€™ disappointment. So close for the 2nd time. I donā€™t think heā€™s a sore loser, just frustrated after having led for so long, having got so close to his first F1 win again, to have it taken away. I think when he calms down and reflects on it, heā€™ll realize that Verstappen was going to beat him either way. His turn will come.

McLaren on the way up! Sainz masterful to get into the points from where he started. And Landoā€™s start and Lap 1! Dude must have thought he was dreaming for a moment or two.

And donā€™t forget Giovanazziā€™s point!!

Haas, Racing Point, Williams? Probably should have just skipped the weekend and gone drinking with the Dutchies :grinning:. Would have been a lot cheaper.

5 Likes

Oh, and letā€™s not ignore the fact that even though Mercedesā€™ 10-win run was broken and they ā€œonlyā€ finished P3 and P5, they are still, by far, the dominant team this season. If the weather is cooler in two weeks time at Silverstone, expect the Barmy Army to be even more vocal than the Orange Army were today as Lewis leads the Merc procession once again.

3 Likes

One for the Maccaheads.
(Nah, thatā€™s a terrible nickname. Suggestions on a better McLaren fans collective name?)

4 Likes

Great race!!

It did however prove Merc still cant handle the heat in their tyres. The whole Pirelli conspiracy could possibly be true.
Should it be true F1 has to have a second supplier to ensure a tyre company does not favour one team.

No need to mention the ver/lec incident. Been summed up well.
Was a bit rough, but F1 needs big safe overtakes.

They let the cars get so big on tracks that have remained the same or similar in size. They should expect elbows out on overtakes and allow it or build new tracks which allows more overtaking

4 Likes

True F1 connoisseurs. :grinning:

It is very encouraging. McLaren are now 20 points clear of their nearest midfield rival, the car is quick, their developments are working well, and the vibe coming from the team is super positive. Itā€™s the most positive start theyā€™ve had to a season in years.

5 Likes

True. These cars are stupidly big.

2 Likes

6 Likes

I am no steward, but as a racing fan I think that was the right decision. I am a big Leclerc fan but Max outdrove him by far. Max had the same spirit that Charles had at Monaco, except this track allowed for more overtaking.

2 Likes

Yes please. More wheelbanging and fewer stupid penalties.

1 Like

Whomever thought that was going to result in a penalty was nuts.

I feel for Charles, it was his race to lose, maybe Ferrari should have kept him out longer so that he could have better tires towards the end - I felt that it wasnā€™t needed to bring him in at that point.

Seb was doing good, that was a great move to bring him in for the last set of tires. He just really under performed on them.

Lewis and botasā€™ I honestly did not feel bad for them struggling with the tires and car overheating.

Norris and Sainz deserves their accolades, its awesome to see them doing so well.

Those renaults where a bit meh, the rest of the pack at the end was so nondescript it wasnā€™t even interesting watching them being lapped.

It was overall an amazing race, the overtakes brilliant - Norris was my defender of the day.

5 Likes

Valterri is growing on me. Heā€™s just a true gentleman. His well done in the ā€˜cool down roomā€™ to max was genuine.

4 Likes

Having said that, if heā€™s ever going to beat Lewis, he needs to be less of a gentleman on the racetrack.

5 Likes

Wow, what a race!! I initially missed it due to taking my family out for a show during the race, but managed to catch it on a later broadcast. I managed to stay spoiler free until the race, and Iā€™m so glad I did. That was the best race weā€™ve had in probably 2 years!!

Normaly I would go team by team down the grid and make comments, but going to change things up a bit and do The Good, The Bad and The Meh

The Good:
Verstappen had the race of his life!! My word did he absolutely had a cracker of a race. To go from that horrible start to winning is truly amazing, and will go down in history as one of the best race performances of the modern era! I am so happy for Red Bull for finally pulling one out over Ferrari.

Leclerc I will put in the good column as well. Both him and Vettel showed great pace on the day, and Ferrari actually had a good race. It is the first time they comprehensively beat Mercedes, which is great for the championship. I thought Vettelā€™s strategy was batshit crazy, but he so nearly beat Bottas on the last lap. Inspired strategy call by Ferrari, just a shame about that pitstop.

MCLAREN!!! McLaren is coming back boys! Holy hell well done to Norris for best of the rest, and how good was the pace of Carlos. How many times have we said its so unfair of the top teams just cruising through the field even from last to end up in the top 10. Well that is exactly what Carlos Sainz did! McLaren has come a very long way, and the future is looking very orange (and not just because of Max)

Special mention must be made to Williams as well. It was the first race they actually did have battles with other teams, and Russelā€™s pace was on par with those of even the Renaults at some point. Many people probably missed it, but Russel had a few passes on track against other teams.

And last good goes to the Alfa Romeo team. Well done to Antonio for getting his first points, Kimi for battling for 4th at one point. It was good to see the Alfa Romeos putting pressure on the McLarens.

The Bad:
Haas, what the hell happened? From qualifying with the 5th fastest time to almost last? How is that possible? They were lapping slower than Williams this race, and were definitely the worst team in the race.

Gastly, sorry, Gasly is just so bad. How the hell do you, IN THE SAME CAR AS YOUR TEAM MATE, get lapped by your team mate. He didnā€™t have a problem in the car that we know of. He was just unable to make any passes at all. I had sympathy for Gastly, sorry Gasly in the first few races. Now I just want him out. Get someone more competent.

The Meh:
Mercedes showed weakness, the first time in 11 races. I donā€™t know what it with them and this track, they never seem to really get any good results here. I mean yeah Bottas still ended on the podium, but only just. Hamilton had a boring race and was only passed by Vettel on the much faster tires.

Renault, Racing Point and Torro Rosso all had pretty mediocre races. Nothing special and no real pace or any indication of speed. Just so average and meh.

5 Likes
View this post on Instagram

A promise is a promise... (especially with your boss) āœ‚ļø šŸ¤·šŸ¼ā€ā™‚ļø ā€¢ (Yes, we probably have the best Team Principal in the world šŸ˜‚) ā€¢ #AustrianGP #GetCloser @antogiovinazzi99 @beatzehnder.f1

A post shared by Alfa Romeo Racing (@alfaromeoracing) on Jun 30, 2019 at 8:54am PDT