No F1 thread?

[duncs500]

Been in catch up mode this morning, some good action so far this weekend. Anyone know why Max didn't get a penalty for being out of his grid box in the sprint? In the end it didn't matter, but still a strange one.

[integrale_evo]

What are the safety car rules? I thought they carried on racing to the line? Obviously Oscar would have been delayed by the yellow flags at the accident if it happened in front of him, but I don’t think the safety car announcement helped Lando get ahead did it?

Or when the safety car boards come out do they drop to VSC speeds until they catch the safety car?

Obviously following the safety car out and to the end meant he didn’t have to worry about getting the tyres up to temp or a restart.

He was clearly fastest at the end of the stint on inters despite 10 laps or so in dirty air.

The Max pit lane incident was very clumsy and amateur, you’d expect better of redbull.

[jamcg]

As soon as the safety car deploys they have to reduce speed as the warnings give no indication of what’s happened or where it’s happened, and something requiring a safety car is guaranteed to have marshals on track. I think the delta they have to drive to is lower than a vsc delta too

[Mito Man]

The safety car was parked towards the end of the straight which double shafted Piastri - usually it waits after the pit exit but I guess it’s more of a track layout thing as the pit exit is after T1 here.

[integrale_evo]

Was a great race for the first half, then the highlights seemed to skip forward 25 laps so presume not a lot happened!

Some entertaining radio from Ferrari

The maclarens 30 seconds ahead of Rus in 3rd! Yet again Max shoves people off leaving no room. Shame Lando couldn’t make his move stick without also going off the track. Max needs some of his own medicine from someone not in a championship hunt.

[Mito Man]

The best part was the Lego parade lap.
I was surprised that the FIA didn’t throw out a safety car at every opportunity. They usually like to do one even for no reason at all when in the USA.
The McLaren is mighty and Piastri wasn’t pushing once he built his buffer. Reckon it could have finished 40+ seconds up the road if he went for it.
Guess it’s time to fully invest in the 2026 season for the others.

[nuttinnew]

"He went off himself while driving me off the track, so I need that position back."

[jamcg]

Red bull put in a post race protest saying George didn’t slow for yellows. Got rejected by the stewards

[eliot771]

The best part was the Lego parade lap.
I was surprised that the FIA didn’t throw out a safety car at every opportunity. They usually like to do one even for no reason at all when in the USA.
The McLaren is mighty and Piastri wasn’t pushing once he built his buffer. Reckon it could have finished 40+ seconds up the road if he went for it.
Guess it’s time to fully invest in the 2026 season for the others.

McLaren’s clearly turned a corner, but do you think they can carry this form into next season, or is this more of a Red Bull 2.0 situation where domination slowly creeps in? I feel like Piastri hasn’t even been unleashed yet

[mik]

I try and watch the occasional race, but increasingly feel like Grandpa Simpson in relation to the F1 rules on when you are/aren't allowed to force another driver completely off the track.... which kinda ruins my enjoyment.

Oh that was hand-ball! Yeah but it was after the 48th minute of play remember, and he has his fingers crossed - so that means it has to be substantially hand-ball for it to be deemed a foul etc etc

First corner sequence for example.... (edit: it won't let me embed a timestamped vid - I am looking at 0mins 47secs max/lando.

[Mito Man]

So rumours of Mclaren doing something funny with their brakes has been going on for over a year now. They're able to put less heat in the tyre and prevent overheating which is why their qualifying pace isn't massively ahead of the competition but their race pace is one second a lap faster and they have less tyre degradation. Their brakes were thoroughly inspected by the FIA last race and deemed legal.
Some clever bod reckons it's phase change materials within the brake drum

[duncs500]

Interesting, as they say, if they've stolen a march on the tech then that'll take teams time to catch up. Pretty impossible to outlaw as well, as AFAIK all the FIA tests are load and geometry. They're not going to be in a position to do testing of material composition.

[integrale_evo]

I think only the outer drum and wheel covers are standardised and fixed, but you can do pretty much whatever you like to the internal brake ducting.

I’m assuming if it’s a technology they’ve got the hang of they can transfer the principals to next years car too.

Maxs rear tyres were obviously knackered trying to stay ahead of the maclarens last weekend.

[jamcg]

Well that explains alpines team principles resignation

[IanF]

Crikey! Was just reading about him being the next Christian Horner