Motors Bit-Tech F1 2017 thread - Season Complete

From Kimis point of view, he had a much better start than Max so had no need to move left, he was clearly just going to drive past Max in a straight line anyway, had Kimi seen the angle that Seb was taking he probably would have moved left.

 

again - it's a racing incident, but if I HAD to attribute blame here, Kimi would be the culprit here.
Vettel knew about Max coming up on his inside, and given that Max was there, and there was spray there, he didn't know Kimi was coming up until relatively late. he squeezed Max, as is really to be expected.
Max was focussed on preserving his racing line as much as possible, so was looking at Seb, not at Kimi. This is also reasonable. So when Seb moved in on him, he moved away from Seb.
Kimi, on the other hand went for a gap that was closing, much like Lewis did with Button a few years back in Canada. He should have known that the gap would close as Seb was defending from Max. However, the spray can be his defense as well, and there was enough space to go for it still.

All in all - a racing incident, pity about Alonso

 

Unpopular opinion time!

Vettel should be sitting the next race out for that little performance.

Trying to do the Schumi chop, in the rain, at night, on a street circuit. That's the kind of move even Pastor Maldonado being possessed by whatever demon got into Romain Grosjean in 2012 would think too stupid to try. Kimi was right up against the white line, if he'd run over that he would have crashed anyway. Max was stuck in the middle, nowhere to go, braking would mean suddenly losing speed in the path of 17 cars that can't see him because of the spray.

Seb fluffed his start, panicked and decided to have a monster swerve across the track to try and block Max. After Baku his serving a ban should be a slam dunk, but the FIA don't want to be seen to be affecting the championship, so he gets away with it, again. On the plus side, that might have been the moment he threw away the title, with the next three tracks I'd go as far as to say he needs to watch out for Bottas, even second might prove beyond his reach.

 

FIA won't do it because its a Ferrari driver. Simple.

Same reason he got 10s for intentionally driving into Hamilton.

 

You mean

Ferrari
International
Assistance

Jon Todt and Ross Brawn in charge

 

To be fair, the 43 points they threw in the bin with that crash will have cost them any realistic chance of winning the constructors title, so they have been punished severely regardless of the FIA.

 

Not picking on Kimi, but he definitely wasn't up against the white line - he was miles (figuratively) from it. In fact, at the EXACT moment he could have tweaked the steering wheel left and avoided rubbing wheels with Max, he actually went the other direction. As I said before, Alonso was able to show what putting a couple of wheels on the yellow tarmac can do for your position... although that came back to bite him.

It's one of those accidents that every party could have taken action to avoid. Seb could have been less aggressive and kept a straighter trajectory, but why should he when he wants to defend that hard earned pole? Max could have tapped the breaks and got well out the way, but why should he when he wants to give himself the best chance to out-break Vettel into T1? Kimi could have reacted to Max and moved over half a cars width, but why should he when he had the best start on the grid?

There is no disputing Vettel started the chain reaction, but it would have been unfair to say only he could have prevented the contact.

 

Probably binned Vettel's chance of the driver's title too...

 

If you watch it from the outside VES moves to the left, despite onboard showing otherwise, so probably rear slip, this led to clipping RAIs rear, RAI was going in a straight line, first couple of sec in this clip, VET is just giving VES the chop in his one allowed move but at this point VES has killed RAI leading to the rest of the mess

 

Racing incident really.

 

http://www.planetf1.com/news/honda-mclaren-struggle-to-adapt-to-change/

Nuh-uh it's not our fault you guys suck at making the engine work.

Nice to see Honda are no less classy than they were in the eighties.

 

Honda accusing someone else of inability to change - the engine company that is fiercely dogmatic in it's approach and famously dismissive of outside advice. McLaren's chassis is clearly very good - something demonstrated when they have been at less power-reliant circuits.

 

Confirmed Kvyat isn't long for the chop, though Matsushita would make more sense than Gasly due to Honda.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/41397848

An more obvious news Aston Martin look to be Redbulls title sponsor from 2018

 

So let's get this straight... Aston Martin (the car manufacture) wants to sponsor Red Bull Racing (a drinks company), that currently uses engines made by Renault (a car manufacture), that are branded as TAG Heuer (a watchmaker), and has a sister team that are going to use Honda (a car manufacture) engines next year?

KK.

 

But they aren't labelling the engines Aston Martin because Aston don't make engines... Tag Heuer on the other hand are notorious for the fine workmanship in the field of internal combustion engines...

 

Under the new FIA Superlicense rules Matsushita is officially not good enough for F1, no matter how much Japanese pride and money is behind him.

Gasly makes sense because he wins races, the FIA's frustration at drivers like him and Leclerc being passed over because they're 'not ready' whilst nobodies like Matsushita and Nicholas Latifi are lined up for seats apparently boiled over last week. To be fair to Matsushita he has won 3 GP2/F2 races in the last two years, so he might get there next year. Latifi has two wins across his entire carrer in all series, he's unlikely to see anymore than a demonstration run now.

 

So... What do people reckon? Gasly/Kvyat, Gasly/Geleal or Gasly/Other for 2018...

 

Well looks like Gasley is in the TR for the next few races
http://www.nextgen-auto.com/Official-Pierre-Gasly-to-drive-with-Scuderia-Toro-Rosso,120677.html

 

GAS/KVY 2018 is all but certain IMO. Putting Gasly into the car now is a smart way of getting him some time at the pointy end before 2018. Not too many valid superlicences floating around to replace KVY next year, but 2019 will see him without a seat for sure.

I'm also waiting for news that Ericsson is getting the chop. The guy has less personality than Palmer, and is about as quick (i.e. not very).

 

My left field prediction is Gasly/Kobayashi, because Honda will take any Japanese driver they can get and he's got the Superlicense (and is quite good).

Or they keep Kvyatt to avoid a visit from the Fancy Bears.

Williams will also hire Kubica pending testing time, since the FIA have all but confirmed that his getting a Superlicense is a formality even with the revised criteria.