No F1 thread?

[Mito Man]

The only thing more odd than Williams management decisions is their unheard of sponsor - look at their website, they’re selling phones on amazon and don’t have many reviews so can’t be doing too well out of their F1 investment (18!)
That said the phone seems to be the Williams equivalent of the smart phone market
https://rokitphones.com/uk/phones

[Alex_]

EPL currently does the best free streaming.

It was a decent race. Leclerc was fast, he's becoming my favourite driver. Another strong race for McLaren but clumsy from Riccardo.

[duncs500]

Ocon must be getting worried about his seat for next year with the form Bottas is on.

[Orange Cola]

I can only imagine the leadership at Williams is about as cohesive as Parliament during a Brexit debate - everyone was worried if they would have enough parts to repair the car for the race - like seriously, what difference would it fucking make when you’re fighting for last 1-2 laps behind the next car in front...

Sponsorship money, that’s it.

But why would sponsor's want to be associated with a team that's failing so badly? Do sponsor deals last a full season or have they been known to pull out mid season?

When they sponsor a car it’s to get their brand on TV as much as possible. So if you’d paid to have your company on a Williams car for a season (or whatever length of time) then your marketing team will have calculated the amount of time and the amount of people you’ll be waving your brand at for each race weekend. If the team you then paid lots of money to decided to just give up and go park the car in a garage somewhere out the way you’d be pretty upset.

The bigger the team the more it’ll cost to rent an advertising space on an F1 car, so the Williams sponsors will have worked that out too I.e we can have a tiny sticker on a Ferrari or for the same money a decent covering on a Williams etc. If Williams (and therefore your brand) are on TV quite a bit (because they’re poking around wanting to know why you’re a bit shit) then short term that can be a good thing. It’s also a way for a sponsor to get some ‘free’ F1 access for their big customers or something and drum up business that way. They won’t necessarily care if they’re first or last, just as long as they’re gettting a decent amount of advertising for their money without causing controversy.

[Rich B]

Next we’ll be mansplaining how engines work...

To be fair, none of us had heard of RokiT before they started sponsoring Williams, and whilst they may not be of any note in this country (and may never be), F1 is global and we’re now aware of the name/brand.

[Orange Cola]

I mis-read that as manscaping at first!

[jamcg]

[Mito Man]

The Lego bricks falling apart is a perfect analogy of what is happening inside Ferrari.
Oh and little Lego Vettel is stuck between a rock and a hard place on that cliff, he has no choice but to jump ship

That design must be a troll surely.

[Orange Cola]

I didn’t click the link on Facebook but apparently Sebastien said that this is their (Ferrari’s) weekend. If that’s not a jinx then I don’t know what is.

[Zonda_]

Bottas takes pole again. I'd love to see him win the championship but I fear he's too nice and lacks the killer instinct.

[jamcg]

Bottas takes pole again. I'd love to see him win the championship but I fear he's too nice and lacks the killer instinct.

Hamilton said he was too nice to bottas 1st corner in Baku, so either expect Lewis to fight his way past or possibly rosberg part 2. Given past history or Spain that will be the best part of the race....

[Mito Man]

He’s just not been on it this week, car looked a handful. He’s also pissed about losing his engineer and thus his setups and secrets to Bottas. If he doesn’t get over this he will have another trust meltdown like in 2016.

[Mito Man]

Ferrari might as well change out the strategists on the pit wall for potatoes as they’re fucking hopeless.

[Orange Cola]

That was a boring race, but Ferrari seemed to be nowhere having a strategy melt down and suffering from understeer. Lets see if they can turn it round for Monaco... I do wonder how Merc are feeling after seeing their pace advantage back on the same circuit, do they think they’re still on borrowed time until Ferrari get their strategy together or have they started to realise they might genuinely have the fastest package?

[DaveE]

That was a boring race

This.

Even the highlights (all I get these days) seemed too long/boring.

I think there were two actual overtakes during the whole race?

Mercedes really does appear to be in a different league so far this year.

Ferrari doing a great job of beating themselves (so Mercedes doesn't have to).

I'm constantly impressed with Billy Monger on the commentary team though - really mature, calm, insightful. Incredible given his age.

[Orange Cola]

That was a boring race

This.

Even the highlights (all I get these days) seemed too long/boring.

I think there were two actual overtakes during the whole race?

Mercedes really does appear to be in a different league so far this year.

Ferrari doing a great job of beating themselves (so Mercedes doesn't have to).

I'm constantly impressed with Billy Monger on the commentary team though - really mature, calm, insightful. Incredible given his age.

Ch4 on freesat too?

Ferrari clearly have a good car again this year they’re just let down by their inability to run a team effectively. Frustratingly the idiots out there can’t see that and still think success is a combination of car and driver and the team have nothing to do with it despite the overwhelming evidence on display from Ferrari If Ferrari pull it out the bag then Merc know they’ll be lost performance wise and left answering some very difficult questions.

The data shows Ferrari have a 5km/h advantage on the straights and their set up was costing them in the corners, Seb said they took a daring risk with the set up this weekend. Binotto isn’t stupid, it’s only a matter of time until he cracks it, hopefully that makes for a timely recovery and a good season.

Red Bull need to be looking at a Gasly replacement though, can’t be having results like that all season.

[Mito Man]

Ferrari went backwards in every aspect at Spain. Performance, pit crew, driving and strategy. The engine upgrade and aero which was meant to deliver so much ended up as a net loss compared to Mercedes’ aero update both in terms of straight line speed and cornering. Its not even clear if the Ferrari engine is more powerful or if they are just running less downforce.

I’m looking forward to Monaco as I’m curious if Mercedes have sorted their Achilles heel there - they were the strongest team in the third sector at Spain which is meant to be good indicator for Monaco but they still have the longest car.

[nuttinnew]

[Mito Man]

Just a heads up that the Indy 500 is on Sky F1 this weekend and next. Cars seem to have an interesting characteristic of losing a bunch of downforce when following another car, understeering and crashing this year.

[Orange Cola]

Seb saving good bye to the Ferrari team?