Formula One ( F1 )

To be fair, while Horner does often put together impressive levels of non-speak, he's also very happy to do some shit-stirring and calling people out.

I quite enjoyed when Hamilton was saying Albon wasn't doing a great job earlier this year, to which Horner responded that it was Hamilton crashing into him that caused him to miss out on a pair of podiums.

Managed to get into the zoom F1 call!

Vettel and Leclerc later.

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Insert this race's complaint about track limits chat here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdLHDfRTahk

On the whole i enjoyed yesterday's race. Not a great overtaking circuit but still one of the classics with lots of history and lovely to look at. A bit of a let down Lewis took the lead by way of strategy and a bit of luck rather than over taking but his stint to get that lead was fairly impressive. Race was coming to life at the end before SC then was very entertaining for the final few laps. Gutted for Russell but at least Williams showing a bit more performance before he threw it all away.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but that 30 second VSC call a few laps after Ocon actually crashed out to give Hamilton the lead did seem very serendipitous.

I seriously hope they new 2022 cars improve the ability to actually race. As there's no doubt in my mind that tracks like Imola, Mugello and Portimao can provide excellent racing.

Also, there was a lot of footage of Schumacher's famous squeeze on Montoya. Doesn't that seem a lot less out of place looking at recent racing? Or is that just me?

Gutted for Russell but at least Williams showing a bit more performance before he threw it all away Ericsson hit him.

Fixed ;)

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but

Haha, slippery slope! If it had been called just after he passed the pit entry we'd have people saying it was a conspiracy to ruin the buffer he'd made up. I didn't realise it took several laps to be called but could that not be because it took a few laps to assess the situation?

I guess i'd question why in Italy with the points lead Hamilton/Mercedes have would anyone try an influence what is already a foregone conclusion? As a Hamilton fan making his job easier is about the worst thing F1 could do to retain my interest.

Oh yeah for sure I'm definitely not saying it was intentional. Like you say, he's waaay out in the lead and there's no logical reason for it. If anything the sport could do with him being less successful (and I'm sure there are people arguing that the SC call was intentionally late so it would allow Bottas to pit and not Hamilton, also baloney of course).

It would be interesting to hear the actual reason for such a short, delayed VSC. I'm sure there's nothing intentional in it, but it was damn good luck for sure!

Being in the F1 thread definitely leads to me using "for sure" a whole lot more. Makes me miss Massa.

Didn't he already have enough time anyway, the virtual safety car just made it less marginal?

Best moment for me was Hamilton and Ricciardo on the podium clinking both Danny Ric's boots full of champagne and both taking a swig. Cheers!

Think the gap was pretty much the estimated pit-stop time so it would've been hit or miss really. The VSC got him a nice 10 second advantage over that and I think when he came out Bottas was closer than 10 seconds.

Given that Bottas had floor damage and, well, is Bottas. I'm sure Hamilton probably would've found a way past regardless. Just an odd VSC call that worked out perfectly for Hamilton.

True. I guess he would have also have come out around Verstappen which could have been fun for a while

Oh joy.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.f1-adds-saudi-arabian-grand-prix-night-race-to-2021-calendar.49pVgTPyYV0KBJrOwtqUCN.html

In other news, the chunk of wing of Vettel's car that his engineer couldn't see was missing:

That’ll be being stripped down to the fibres by Merc. We had a big chunk of Ferrari nose crash debris land in the pit box and stripped it down in the lab, ply by ply, to see what was in their nose!

Apparently (according to their tweet at least) they just brought it back to Ferrari's pit box

If Mercedes wanted to emulate the performance of the Ferrari team they could just tell their drivers to drive slowly and then crash into each other. Job done.

I was going to go down that route with my reply! You forgot the spinning out bit though. Very important part of the Ferrari race strategy

Vimto for podium celebrations?

This is going to be an excellent session

Looks like Merc should've brought last year's car ;)

Be interesting to see an explanation into Merc's pace today. Only thing I can think of is over-use of the DAS to heat up the tyres leading to an inbalance between front and rear temps.

Amazing quali session!

like a drifting competition

So off the back of Q2 starting while marshalls still moving a car off track, I saw someone bring up Stroll at Imola. Any of you guys see this? Lapped cars told to unlap themselves from behind the safety car while the marshalls were still clearing debris:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b7bhwHeAD0