Formula One ( F1 )

Not sure it warranted a penalty

That was my initial reaction, but having watched the replays it was clear that Albon was alongside Hamilton at the apex, and that Hamilton didn't give him a car's width of space on the exit. Much as DC seems to think it's perfectly acceptable to run another car off the track on the exit of a corner, the rules are clear and I think the racing would be better if drivers could race side-by-side without one being run off the road by the car on the inside. So on that basis, I'd say the penalty was fair enough.

Yeah when it's the rear tyre of the outside car hitting the front of the inside car, there's not much of a defence for Hamilton in this case (IMO of course). Especially considering Leclerc successfully pulled the same move on Norris, even with Norris locking up into the corner.

What did they mean when they were talking about the Ferrari engine being in a location deemed illegal (or similar to that) hence why the 2020 car was outperformed by the 2019 car?

Didn't catch that bit, but I thought this was due to the Ferrari engine effectively by-passing the fuel flow meter by passing more fuel through than needed into a separate tank. That fuel could then be sent to the engine alongside the fuel delivered via the conventional route to boost power. Could be that what you read was talking about the location of this potential second tank?

It was a comment made by the C4 pundit team, I didn't fully catch it (which I suspect is evident), but what you say sounds likely. That sounds a lot like cheating?

Goes back to the usual 'spirit of the rules', FIA state there's a fuel flow limit put in place and state how it gets measured. Team comes up with a way to pass the test put in place (all fuel going to the engine passes through the flow meter and the flow rate never goes beyond the set threshold).

Similar story to the Red Bull flexible wings, they were designed in a way to flex beyond what the FIA deemed fair, but they passed the static load tests that defined the regulations so there was nothing that could be done.

Obviously in this case it's all a bit more hush-hush as neither the FIA or Ferrari are making the findings public. I am a bit confused as to (and again, I'm assuming last year's Ferrari engine was of questionable legality and they've since changed that to ensure it's clearly legal) how this will be enforced. Normally in cases like this the regulations are re-written (or added to) to add clarification that would mean whatever was previously bending the rules is now out-right breaking them.

Considering the teams are all pretty miffed that neither Ferrari nor the FIA are releasing the findings of the investigation, and have access to the regs, you have to think there's been no amendments made. So why would Ferrari change the design?

Apologies for the lengthy non-answer.

Edit - Found this dating back to Brazil last season: https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/direttiva-fia-39-19-sulle-monoposto-un-doppio-flussometro/4600511/

Didn't recall hearing anything about that at the time (or since, for that matter) but I guess that falls in line with what I was saying above. Though maybe I was wrong about it going to a holding tank of sorts, can't see any reference to that.

Edit 2 - Actually, I do recall Verstappen's comments on Ferrari's drop in pace "now that they've stopped cheating", so I guess that was well known.

Alonso back to Renault next season, looking forward to hearing such classics as "GP2 engine, GP2." and "The engine feels good, much slower than before. Amazing."

^ What? Amazing!

"The engine feels good. Is that oil smoke I can smell? Amazing."

Is Ocon on a single year contract?

I love Alonso but would be much more excited to see Russell take a seat in the mid-field.

Alonso's taking Ricciardo's seat as he's off to McLaren next year.

Sucks to be Zhou.

I would imagine that Russell is hoping Bottas doesn’t do too well this year as people were already saying he was at the top of Mercedes list for 2021.

https://www.facebook.com/McLaren.Racing/videos/277875123421295/

That was awesome to watch. Great to see some longer onboards to see the extent of driver-engineer communication in situations like this.

Also, Mugello confirmed for the weekend after Monza. That and Spa are far and away my two favourite circuits so really looking forward to seeing F1 there. The racing itself may not be great considering the number of high-speed entry corners but it'll be awesome to watch those cars going flat out there.

Just realised the McLaren sponsor Velo is actually a brand of chewing tobacco. Sorry, it's a tobacco free nicotine pouch. So chewing tobacco without the tobacco; I guess time will tell whether it's as bad for people who use it.

Fun qualifying.

Hamilton on pole by 1.2 sec. madness.

Sky were wetting there pants over how brilliant verstappen is in the wet. it was almost an after thought to mention that Hamilton has been know to be alright too.

Hamilton 1.2 seconds clear......

Figured it'd be postponed given FP3 and the weather forecast. Looks like I missed a good one. Hopefully the relatively mixed up grid provides a good race tomorrow!

Oh yeah forgot he was off to Mclaren, duh.

Amazing quali session, well chuffed for Russell, watch it on catch up!

1.2 seconds clear of the entire field. Kinnell. That was an epic lap.

The robot trophy presenters at the end here are hilarious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR4jHZuzVdQ

Also the bigger wheels don't look too bad IMO.

Ferrari just keep bringing the lols.

"Okay, Ferrari are a midfield team this year, let's not get our hopes up too much"

Looks like I still got my hopes up too much.

How Perez's wing hung on there is a mystery to me. Can you imagine if Albon had've been spun off in that collision?

Great finish for Lando again.

Also, Verstappen on Bottas, that was awesome to watch.