Formula One 2019

[Crazed_Insanity]

So if I try to shoot you and miss, all's forgiven, right? No, it doesn't work like that, especially on safety matters.

I'm not sure that Coulthard would be given a penalty even in today's rules, and I don't think he should. But Kubica's release was past close, it was dangerous.

Racing is not about being foolish. And there's no such thing as a racing incident in the pits, as by rule you cannot race in the pits.

If you shoot me and missed, it'd only be attempted murder, not actual murder!

There will always be racing incidents. Only way to solve such issue in the pits would be using RWA's suggestion... take away the ability for teams themselves to release cars and make the process automated.

We can try to make things safer with HANS device and Halos... and energy absorbing structures on cars and on track, but racing inevitably will cause incidents. Safest way to do this is to stop racing.

Lastly, my original point was... if you're last, please don't try to race that hard with the race leader. There's absolutely no excuse for that.

[FaultyMario]

He didn't, he was pretty quickly on the offline.

[Alan P]

Great race which a slightly less great middle section. Vettel's fault, Hamilton's fault, Gasly in a Honda out dragging a Mercedes up the hill at Interlagos?! WTF?

I wonder if McLaren are now thinking how short sighted their decision was, but it could have been the event that galvanised them initially to realise their current process of working was poisonous and needed a dramatic change. Now they look like they're moving in the right direction and the change to Mercedes in 2021 looks to be a good decision.

[CudaMan]

Not if Ferrari and Honda engines keep outperforming Mercedes engines?

I'm not a big Vettel fan but in his defense, a lot of drivers, once they have a nose ahead, move their opponent over to gain a tactical advantage into the next braking zone. The FIA has not typically frowned on this. In this case Charles didn't budge enough and they touched. I can see how he (and many) would think he did nothing wrong since he just went straight ahead. As Billi points out, if Norris had continued straight at the end of the first lap there would have definitely been significant contact between him and Leclerc. So in this case I don't feel bad for Leclerc. Perhaps he should learn to take what he dishes out.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, there’s no question Vettel shares a lot of blame, particularly when he had a long history of doing such things to his past teammates.

Still, this incident should’ve been easily avoided by Charlie boy. If Lando and Max could avoid colliding with assholes out front, Leclerc should too. (I’m a much bigger fan of Charlie than Vettel actually.)

Team boss was right to have both drivers apologize to the team.

Anyway, Ferrari needs to dump Vettel soon.

[Tom Servo]

I mean, I get that there's a certain amount of gamesmanship going on there, but it's awfully hard to put any blame on the guy holding his line for being hit by the guy who's trying to force him off of it under threat of crashing into him.

If that worked, Maldonado would be repeating as eight-time-running world champion.

[Rare White Ape]

You can’t always rely on the Moses effect when racing.

[dodint]

Oh?

I feel like the Williams is loaded up with stone tablets.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I mean, I get that there's a certain amount of gamesmanship going on there, but it's awfully hard to put any blame on the guy holding his line for being hit by the guy who's trying to force him off of it under threat of crashing into him.

If that worked, Maldonado would be repeating as eight-time-running world champion.

Wed PM while driving home in the rain... a pickup truck in front merged into slower traffic to the left, so I proceeded onward trying to accelerate ahead of a group of slower cars so I can merge into that lane as well later on. I'm keeping straight in my lane now free and clear..., but that pickup truck changed its mind and decided to move back to my lane. I'm assuming he just didn't see my tiny S2000. So instead of holding my racing line, I took evasive actions to avoid hitting him.

Unfortunately I evaded my car into the back wheel of a semi truck on my right. Semi-trucker probably didn't even realize that I hit one of his wheels. The stupid pickup also sped away. I was going to chase him down, but didn't want to do that in the rain... also not knowing the extend of damage on my car...

I guess in that incident, I should've held my line and let me be hit by the pickup truck like Leclerc. But then I might suffer a much bigger damage and might even cause me to lose control... because he made a pretty sudden jerk back into me.

Anyway, shit happens sometimes. This has been a particular shitty month for me. Got hit twice by people not checking the blind spots.

Moral of the story is that, yes, we're not Moses. Holding the line may not be the best course of action. Also, even if you took evasive actions, things might still end badly. Safest way to travel or race is to not do it in the 1st place. I should've just stayed home and not go to work when LA started to rain. 1st time damaging my car while owning the sucker since 2002. Sigh... wonder if it's because I'm getting old or more and more LA drivers graduated from the driving school of Vettel.

I wonder if Vettel had made a jerkier motion, it would've reflexively cause Charlier boy to take evasive actions. Just like what Max, Lando, and Billi did. With no time to think, you'll do what's best for you. But when Vettel slowly tried to get in front... that's what caused Charlie boy to 'think' that Vettel is playing a game of dare with him? So he kept on playing with Vettel until the very end...

[samoht]

I think it's a good practice to review one's predictions, so here we are at the end of the year.

Okay, my Predictions:

Overall I think the shape of F1 will look similar to this year; Merc and Ferrari will compete for the championships, Red Bull will compete for the odd race win, especially later in the year, while everyone else will finish a lap down.

Mostly true, although Ferrari didn't quite put together a championship challenge.

Starting from the back, I expect to find Williams and McLaren. Williams won’t find it easy to make a massive leap forwards in aerodynamics, and with engine performance becoming gradually more equal, I still expect them to bring up the rear. Having said that, I presume that they will improve over this year, and by no longer being saddled with the pay driver’s pay driver, at least the human element should be performing a bit better.

True about Williams

Over at McLaren, for the first time in decades they start the year without a top-line driver. The absolute best-possible outcome is that Lando Norris turns out to be the next Lewis Hamilton, i.e. capable of matching the speed of the mighty Alonso in his first year in F1. In this highly unlikely, best-case scenario the team will be able to lose only one position in the standings (since Force India are unlikely to go bust again). If he is anything less than this, they’re going to be fighting it out with Williams.

Quite wrong, they improved to fourth, best of the rest

Ahead of these two sorry stories I would imagine we’ll find Toro Rosso, again mirroring their big brother team by being in the no-man’s land between the midfield and the truly hopeless. The Honda engine should be coming on well towards the end of the year, though.

Wrong again, TR finished sixth, well in the midfield. Honda did come good, though.

The next four teams form, in my view, the true midfield, and are where the most interesting, competitive and combative racing tends to be found. In 2019 the midfield race will be spiced up with two established stars, Ricciardo and Raikkonen, joining in and lifting Renault and Sauber respectively. It would be no surprise if Renault and Ricciardo pull out a clear ‘best of the rest’ status over the season, as their budget and manufacturer status would suggest. Both Sauber and Haas are likely to benefit from the trickle-down effect from a now-competitive parent team. Force India will probably find that not going bust mid-season is conducive to building a fast car, which should be put to good use by Sergio Perez at least. I’d tentatively order these as Renault, Force India, Haas, Sauber, although this is probably the hardest part of the field to call.

Sauber (Alfa) beat Haas, but otherwise I got these right.

In terms of drivers, I expect Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Perez to handily beat their team-mates, while Haas’ pairing will continue to be quite closely matched.

Correct on the first part, Magnussen would probably argue he equally handily beat Grosjean in fact.

Red Bull will repeat their usual pattern of starting off the pace and catching up during the year, competing for races but not titles, given that Honda aren’t even claiming they will be on-par at the start of 2019, but I back them to out-develop Renault, power-wise, over the next year or three.

RB did indeed seem stronger in the second half of the year.

I have no idea which of Mercedes or Ferrari will come out on top in car terms; either could turn up at Melbourne with a clear advantage, which could easily set the pattern for the year. In 12 months will we be talking about a surprise WDC for rookie Charles Leclerc? Vettel’s Fangio-equalling fifth championship? Or marvelling/moaning about Hamilton’s continued dominance? Any of these three outcomes seem possible, either of the latter two would be fairly unsurprising to me. If pushed, I’d predict another Hamilton victory, but a close one with Vettel and Leclerc both claiming wins along the way.

Pretty much correct, although arguably Hamilton's victory was less close than had been anticipated.