No F1 thread?

[jamcg]

None will risk a front wing anymore, sainz has one and it took ages. Meant mention, did anyone notice at the start Lawson failed to get away and was so nearly collected by one of the alpines? And then they didn’t speak of it at all in the broadcast, as if they’d been told not to? Crofty I could imagine failing to spot it happening but not Martin

Funnily enough just saw this post

[integrale_evo]

I did wonder that about the front wings when they were taping landos up in qualifying instead of just swapping on a new one.

Another way the new regs have messed things up.

[jamcg]

[duncs500]

I enjoyed it. Good to see LH really keeping CL honest, thought the dicing before the VSC was fun. Also great to see that the field didn't really build up big gaps too quickly so as a starting point there's potential for things to close up even more.

Yeah, Ferrari fucked up the strategy but I think they would have finished in the same place. FFS though guys, surely all the F1 teams are letting AI do their strategy now? Ferrari really need AI to be in charge.

[Mito Man]

Probably is but the Ferrari AI has been fed with thousands of Ferrari strategy decisions so it is now compromised

Lewis seemed to have far better race pace than Charles on the hards. Felt like second should have been possible if they pitted under VSC. They lost 11 seconds to pitting under green flags and Leclerc finished 15 behind Russell so all isn’t lost.

[Rich B]

Enjoyed that, wtf are ferrari strategists thinking though - along with every single armchair viewer, i was shouting at them for staying out on the obvious pit opportunity.

[Mito Man]

And they did it twice

[integrale_evo]

The first few laps were quite exciting, after that pretty boring.

The leaders were quite close, but they’d lapped up to 7th so quite a spread field!

All seems a bit fake, a bit like rubber banding in a video game.

Still looks exciting from the outside, but I’m always going to think hearing the cars slow along the straights on the onboards.

[RobYob]

It occurs to me these new regs would be ideal for turbine engines.

[Mito Man]

Another unforeseen problem with the regulations this year essentially mean that if you don’t have your own engine supplier you will be significantly handicapped by not being able to run accurate simulations

At least in the case of Mercedes powered cars…

[duncs500]

Sprint was fun. Nice to see the Ferraris can fight with the Mercs but ultimately after a bit of a squabble at the start it seems like generally the Merc's pace tells in the end. Hopefully Ferrari can bring some good updates and properly get in the mix.

[Zonda_]

What’s this story about the Mercs? Apparently, at a certain point each lap, Russell has been seen to press a yellow button and there is no answer yet as to what it does.

[DeskJockey]

Be cool if it was a clever bit of misdirection.

[IanF]

Changes Ferrari’s race strategy?

[duncs500]

Changes Ferrari’s race strategy?

[integrale_evo]

I still think the cars are shit, I can’t imagine ever enjoying hearing the cars slow down while cruising down the straights.

How long before we have a big start line shunt?

Very lucky to avoid one in Aus, two cars slow off the line today from two different manufacturers with different power units.

[Mito Man]

Just seen the sprint. Honestly the first few laps were good, the Ferrari and Mercedes were pretty evenly matched but the tyres went to shit and so did the race.
Should be a pretty easy season for Mercedes though.

[integrale_evo]

Great to see Ferrari able to mix it at the top for what feels like the first time in ages, even if there’s quite a gap to Merc still. Looks like Lewis has got his mojo back which is good to see, certainly seems to be enjoying these cars more than last years.

Some exciting wheel to wheel dicing, just still feels far more artificial than even the early days of drs. It would be so much better if they could adjust the power unit balance a bit, just enough that cars could reach vmax and sit there on the longest straight of each circuit. Having to drive gently to save battery for other areas and cars slowing noticeably on the straights is still shit.

Another very bad start for Max, four cars didn’t even make the start. Can’t remember seeing that many out for technical issues and not running out of time to make repairs from previous sessions.

2 GPs cancelled thanks to Mr Trump too.

[duncs500]

Some exciting wheel to wheel dicing, just still feels far more artificial than even the early days of drs.

Funny, to me it seems way less artificial and more driver-centric than DRS. DRS was dull as dish water, same straight bit of track and not much skill.

With this they're trying to out smart each other and can follow closely and pounce in parts of the track that we'd never have seen overtakes in the other regs. They're also arriving at corners and different spends so we're really seeing good braking paying off.

I'm honestly really enjoying it. Funny how different people see it differently.

[Marv]

Happy for Kimi, once he irons out some of the mistakes that come with being so new to the sport, he'll be very much giving George a hard time every weekend.

Was a nice podium with Lewis up there with Bono and Kimi.

RBR and McLaren being out at sea makes for some nice results beyond the top 4. Bearman appears to be the real deal!

Overall, I'm liking the mix up with the new regs so far. F1 in the digital, electrified age is always going to seem artificial after the relative purity we had in the 80s, 90s and early 00s.