No F1 thread?

[integrale_evo]

Maybe not, some common sense from the stewards for a change!

[Mito Man]

Well done Lando

[integrale_evo]

Wasn’t the most exciting race, lots of potential jeopardy lurking in the background. Shame the race director seemed to be watching the leaders sitting spaced pretty evenly instead of some of the other battles further down.

Commentators also seemed to miss that Leclerc ended up behind Russel after the second stops, which could have been crucial for Lando hanging onto 3rd.

Was hoping Lewis may have climbed a little higher, after the first stop he was only behind Russel who started something like 11 places higher on the grid.

[jamcg]

Bet they give Norris a penalty for going over the line to over take a Yuki treating a straight like an S bend.

Thank fuck they didn’t do this

[integrale_evo]

I’m happy with the final result but think all three would have deserved it. Lando came out fighting hard, brilliant mid season from Oscar, incredible turnaround after the summer break from RB / Max.

[Mito Man]

I know there's a lot of what if's but the biggest thing for me is Max being an idiot in Barcelona and getting docked 9 points.

[duncs500]

Bet they give Norris a penalty for going over the line to over take a Yuki treating a straight like an S bend.

Thank fuck they didn’t do this

I was thinking "here we go again", glad they didn't.

Happy Norris did it, his mental strength (and pace) after some bumps in the road early on was impressive and certainly surprised me. He's actually dealt with the pressure really well for the most part, and today some of those post first pit stop overtakes were not straightforward at all under that amount of pressure.

Fair play to Max and Oscar as well, both dealt with it well post race.

[integrale_evo]

I have thought about it a bit, but what could have been done if Yuki had decided to do something really stupid? I mean, he doesn’t have a drive anymore anyway, I’m not sure any other team would be interested.

If it wasn’t a team instruction then surely the team / max wouldn’t face any penalty. In the past the driver has been excluded from the season (Schumacher) but not the team.

If they did exclude the team then Oscar would have won and become champion, which again would seem rather unfair for a blatant and deliberate outside influence.

[jamcg]

I have thought about it a bit, but what could have been done if Yuki had decided to do something really stupid? I mean, he doesn’t have a drive anymore anyway, I’m not sure any other team would be interested.

If it wasn’t a team instruction then surely the team / max wouldn’t face any penalty. In the past the driver has been excluded from the season (Schumacher) but not the team.

If they did exclude the team then Oscar would have won and become champion, which again would seem rather unfair for a blatant and deliberate outside influence.

They might have decided to exclude the results of the race and roll it back to the previous race, in which case Lando would have been champion. They considered this on 2021 but because max was leading going into the race it achieved nothing

[DeskJockey]

Had been avoiding my phone so I could watch the highlights later, then a shop had the blooming radio on and it was mentioned

Decent result though. I'm glad they didn't gift Max another championship by getting the strategy messed up.

Roll on next season and a resurgent Lewis in a Ferrari that is capable of winning!

[duncs500]

Yeah, Lewis needs to pick his chin up quick and make sure next year's car isn't a dog that he can't drive again. No shame in being beaten by Leclerc, but I don't believe his abilities have waned as much as the results make it look.

[integrale_evo]

Yep, as I said before, the closeness of the field is making the gap between leclerc and Lewis look bigger than it really is, there are plenty of other pairings with a bigger splits. Charles has been in a Ferrari throughout the current hybrid / ground effect era which you’d think would be a big benefit.

I hope he sticks with it and gets his mojo back.

[Mito Man]

Next years cars are conventional, albeit active aero aren’t they? So maybe Lewis will bounce back but you tend to end up with one driver who masters every era of car. I don’t have faith in the current Ferrari team producing a decent car though.

[MikeHunt]

After 3 poor seasons, this one has been relatively ok and thus enjoyable.

Next year, the balls will be well and truly shaken, it will be interesting to see who is ahead by the summer break.

[RobYob]

Congratulations Lando a champions drive to win it. Oscar should be proud of leaving nothing on the table.

Tsunoda showing Red Bull are scum first to last.

[John]

Well done Lando

[John]

[Swervin_Mervin]

Next years cars are conventional, albeit active aero aren’t they? So maybe Lewis will bounce back but you tend to end up with one driver who masters every era of car. I don’t have faith in the current Ferrari team producing a decent car though.

And even if they did (they have in the recent past) they'd still balls it up with some crazy Italian strategy.

[Marv]

Happy that Lando won the championship.

He joined McLaren when they were at a real low, and has seen the team through all the ups and downs on their way to the top, plus has been through ups and downs himself. It's a nice story from the almost the back of the grid, to the front.

I bet all the drivers who left McLaren back when they were doing pretty bad, slightly arrepentimiento that decision now

[mik]

Quick break to the archives…. to Louise Goodman apparently.