Have Williams got any spare parts left to repair this? --BBC EDIT: In attempt to make Williams/Kubica feel better... LeClerc plows his car into the same corner...
Spoiler: Driver Bottas's pole lap did not have a single purple sector. That can't have happened too many times before.
Zzzzzzzzzz If you fell asleep at lap 5 and woke up at the end you would assume you had the greatest power nap ever. Only thing of note was a 1mph crash which, if you missed it, could be seen by visiting your local tesco carpark.
Spoiler: At his point I don't think Ferrari actually have a strategy as such, they are just trying to go faster than Mercedes with no idea of how to actually achieve it. Mercedes have the measure of everybody, what continues to boggle my mind is that the entire rest of the grid is faffing around with high rake aero cars, whilst the only team to start with low rake and stick with it has taken 3 out of 4 poles and the top two spots in every race so far, plus at least 10 wins every year since the current aero rules began in 2017. You would think the other teams would copy Mercedes and not Red Bull. Valtteri is turning into a steely character indeed, we might actually have an exciting season if this keeps up.
Been a big fan of F1 since the nineties, but since ch4 pretty much lost all rights other than late to the game replays I've not watched a single race. Way to go liberty and sky you money grabbing twats you have killed the only sport I actually watch.
Blaming Liberty for this mess isn't entirely fair, they inherited the contract Bernie signed with Sky a year before he sold it to Liberty. It runs until 2024 and Sky have shown no interest in renegotitating it unless Liberty pays the buy out clauses, which means paying off Sky's cartoonishly inflated projections of how much money the exclusive deal would have made them if it ran until the end. Of course failing to take part in the TV negotitations they knew Bernie was making whilst they were negotiating to buy the whole thing fro mBernie was extremely stupid, so they aren't entirely blameless.
They are losing die hard fans and that in the end is the most important issue. I used to really look forward to a race weekend and now I don't even know when ones coming up as ive lost interest.
Yup. Seems like just about every time ferrari think they have the upper hand, they either trip over themselves or Mercedes are just toying with them. It's like watching a cat play with a mouse. And what is happening at Renault and with Ricciardo!?
Riccardo's been handed a 3 place penalty for backing into Kvyat, in Fairness to Kvyat Riccardo went up the inside of him an couldnt stop so he couldnt turn in, to got left in a crap situation, his in car shows him trying to select reverse then waiting for a car to make the corner then get reversed into. Kimmi was disqualified from what I gather too for a front went deflection test failure. Foamula E was its usually chaos, sun, rain, hail, crashes cars spinning in a straight line on the ice. only downer was it finished under full course yellow despite race controls best efforts.
What's the matter princess, did you think you were going to win 4 on the bounce at Ferrari like you did at RBR?
I think the real question is "what is happening at Renault as a whole" - Given they are a proper manufacture team, with hundreds of GP's worth of experience, it's absolutely shocking how unreliable and off the pace they have been. It's not like they can blame the drivers, both D-Ric and Hulk can extract decent performance out of a car, but seeing them trying to slow that thing down at the end of a straight is terrifying! We knew Williams would struggle this year, so I would give the RS team the award for biggest disappointment of the season so far. It's like they are just competing for the sake of competing until the new regulations come into play - doesn't seem to be any answers as to why the car keeps braking, and is so undriveable when it is working. Vettel could have stopped Mercedes winning everything multiple times over by now, if he could keep his own car facing the right direction... I can't help but think what a challenge 'Nando would have put up the past couple of seasons if he was still in the red overalls.
Renault getting spanked by customer teams [be it rbr in previous years and likely McLaren this] is not a good look. Neither is 5 DNFs in 4 races [they've yet to have both cars finish a race this year].
Totally agree, car looks way to stiff with no real compliance and horrible under braking like the balance is all over the shop. Hopefully with Spain next a lot of the teams will be bringing the first proper updates so we may see some improvements but if its a fundamental problem as Williams already admitted it wont be easy to fix.
The Renault is an embarrassment, TBH. They have DannyRic, the master of late braking, and they can't sort that element out. You could put just about anyone in the car, and they would have the same. Other observations: Alfa got the first penalty for using too many engine parts. Ferrari struggles with balance on some tracks, and strategy on others. Leclerc is pretty quick, though he seems to get screwed by Ferrari. Vettel sounds more and more down. After quali he sounded like he was about to cry. I kinda feel for him but also - it's Seb. Coupled with the engine problems that Alfa seems to have, I am worried that Ferrari will start using new engines sooner rather than later - that would just about wrap up their season then. Williams one doesn't even need to talk about. Unless they have a giant rabbit somewhere, they're gone next season, unless they get bought out and focus on 2020 now already. STR - Alex Albon is fascinatingly quick at times. Haas - they're not far behind Williams on the crap-o-meter right now. Grosjean still being Moany McMoan doesn't help there. Bottas seems in with a shot, but it's WAY too early to call it. Especially against Lewis, who seems to like being the underdog going into a season, only to bounce back and stomp over everyone after the summer break.
Think their best bet is to try an woo a new engine supplier (from outside the current four) an go as a full factory outfit now. Or just go as a merc B team the way Sauber have become. Albon is a surprise he is genuinely quick, to be fair most of the rookies are but him an Lando both seem to have come in an just got stuck in.
It just struck me that Russel and Norris had quite a bit of coverage leading up to the season. It felt like nobody was talking about Albon, which makes him stand out a bit more to me.
