No F1 thread?

[John]

Newey out manoeuvring Horner

Very surprised at that. I got the impression he preferred to be more in the background

[MikeHunt]

We’ve seen player managers in football, will he pick himself as a driver and be Strolls teammate? Probably still be quicker.

[Mito Man]

Also find it odd, I remember whenever things got tough or the car was uncompetitive Newey would fly back to the factory and work on the car. I imagine if he's still the same he will be delegating a lot of tasks unless the tech is there now to allow him to do all this remotely.

[MikeHunt]

Also find it odd, I remember whenever things got tough or the car was uncompetitive Newey would fly back to the factory and work on the car. I imagine if he's still the same he will be delegating a lot of tasks unless the tech is there now to allow him to do all this remotely.

More likely a big drawing board and pencil than tech.

[duncs500]

Yeah, weird, surely an unnecessary distraction from his real talent.

[Gavin]

Interview after Sprint Quali seemd to suggest it was a short term gig while someone took over FT liasing with HSR, I think they said. He said he planned to be at the first few races so it made sense, it will be interesting to see what happens, it would be great to see Alonso back near the front, I enjoyed 2021? when he was bagging podiums.

[MikeHunt]

Would they allow Horner to buy in?

[Mito Man]

Having a track with no hard braking zones - genius

[integrale_evo]

Don’t forget the extra sharp gravel in the gravel traps

Yeah, all going to be a bit of a yawn fest after the first couple of corners isn’t it. Mandated maximum tyre life is going to throw the chance of any unusual strategy excitement.

I guess we’ll be waiting for a safety car or a couple of punctures or something to mix it up.

[Marv]

Watched the sprint race highlights last night. Boring.

Let’s not have a sprint race at Qatar again.

[integrale_evo]

I think the whole sprint race thing is a bit shit and should be binned completely tbh. Not sure any of them have been particularly exciting after the first couple of laps unless the weather is being awkward.

A lot of teams don’t want to risk too much when they’ve got to qualify for the proper Gp a couple of hours later.

[duncs500]

Yeah, could easily bin off the sprints. Having an extra start is the only thing that's good about it. Maybe we could just have quali, then a 3 lap pre-race sprint, and the finishing positions from that dictate starting grid for the race. That way we get two race starts without so much disruption.

[duncs500]

Quite a fraught race for McLaren today. They've got the quickest car, Lando will want to get past Oscar and wrap up the championship, but if they trip over each other it's an absolute disaster for both of them.

Of course the team will have discussed that.

Most likely Lando on the dirty side is gonna struggle, I think he'll be behind Max and George after the first lap, but will probably in the end prioritise keeping his nose clean and taking a reasonable lead into the last race.

[duncs500]

It's amazing that the Red Bull isn't at risk of plank wear given that it's basically dragging it's arse around the track.

[integrale_evo]

Yeah, the amount of dust and debris coming off it is crazy, I can’t believe it’ll last a whole race like that, unless they’re allowed sacrificial blocks to stop the actual plank wearing?

I don’t know what is and isn’t covered by parc ferme rules, I know you’re not allowed to make major changes, but how do they enforce it all? Maybe they can wind it up a few mm on the grid for the race?

Lando just needs to bag decent points and hope no one else does anything silly.

[integrale_evo]

Be interesting to see how the points total would be sitting if Oscar ( or Lando) had been more like a Yuki, basically scoring no points, with the others shuffling up accordingly.

Gut instinct says a single strong mclaren driver would have wrapped it up a few races ago.

Interesting to see how their forms have peaked and dipped over the year. Lando starting strong, Oscar a clear leader through the mid season, but now coming good just a couple of races too late.

The cars are getting so close it only takes a slight dip to go from front runner to looking very average and mid field.

Hamilton is clearly having a bad time, but he’s been closer to his team mate a lot more often than various other teams, it’s just a bit of a dog of a car that both of them are struggling to drag to a decent result but Ferraris arrogance won’t let anyone but the drivers take the blame.

[Mito Man]

Yeah it’s a bit of an odd championship. For me it feels like neither of the McLaren drivers have put in a particularly strong season worthy of a championship but such is the advantage that their car had early on. I think Max summed it up well saying the championship should have been wrapped up many races ago and he’s only still in the fight because of the others making too many mistakes.

[integrale_evo]

Wierd that mclaren didn’t put one of their cars. However the commentators seem to be assuming that all the other cars have two brand new sets of tyres.

Do (did) they? The 25 lap tyre limit is total, not just race or high speed laps. Any that didn’t have two brand new sets left are going to have to do an extra stop somewhere surely?

[Mito Man]

They must all have a new hard set?

What a shite track. Also I can’t believe that we got a safety car on lap 7 this killing all strategy

[duncs500]

Interesting to see how their forms have peaked and dipped over the year. Lando starting strong, Oscar a clear leader through the mid season, but now coming good just a couple of races too late.

Isn't the main reason for Lando some front end issue that it took a few races to correct, and Oscar struggled on some low grip circuits?

Still Lando's to lose, but in reality Max has been the class of the field and it's probably pretty safe to say he'd have won this championship at a canter if he'd been in the McLaren. Never mind, it's made it more exciting for us!