Motorsport Off Topic Thread
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Soldato
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I thought the 2017 livery was excellent, but it didn't come across especially well on TV.
They're moving from a 2016 Ferrari engine to a 2018 Ferrari engine, and who knows if other bits will be shared too (gearboxes and other drive train components, suspension etc). I fully expect the drivers will have full access to the Ferrari simulator too, given they're both likely to be Ferrari junior drivers.
Leclerc ought to be an upgrade on Wehrlein and Ericsson too, neither of who were terrible to be fair (as traditional pay drivers go Ericsson was half decent). Leclerc is setting records everywhere at the moment. Probably the most exciting driver to come into F1 since Hamilton.
They're not going to jump up behind the big 3 (or 5 if McLaren and possibly Renault bring the expected leap), but they should be further up the field than they were this season, probably troubling Williams and perhaps even Force India on occasion. They will regularly beat Toro Rosso and probably Haas too.
Keep up! The Honda deal was binned months back and a partnership with Ferrari was confirmed. That Ferrari will now be badged an Alfa deal and I expect goes much further.
Ah i see. That engine change will make a pretty decent difference to them then i'd imagine.
But a new paintjob would be nice too. 
back to my rock..
Looks like Kubica will be back with Williams next year, will be glad to see him on the grid again. But I wish he had a better benchmark than Stroll to properly assess him.
Kubica's already gone quicker in testing than Stroll did in Qualifying, so probably could go quicker still with lighter fuel load and full engine mode.
Kubica's already gone quicker in testing than Stroll did in Qualifying, so probably could go quicker still with lighter fuel load and full engine mode.
As much as I like Kubica and I want him to get a drive next year I wouldn't bother reading anything into times. Today he's been testing next years Pirelli compounds including the Hypersofts so any comparison with times from the weekend is meaningless.
So sad to see mclaughlin pinged
Been a good season from about half way thru. Was almost as good as Sydney in 2014 (think that was the year) now that was a finale!
I'd put that in spoiler tags if I were you
but yes, I agree. I don't remember Sydney 2014. I'll have to dig it out.
McLaughlin didn't have a choice really. He'd have lost the championship if he didn't defend as hard as he did too. He didn't have a mirror on that side so didn't know how close he was to him. It was a bit daft for the wall to stick out like that right there too
Soldato
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He was a second slower than Stroll in testing from the times I saw.
Don
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indeed, times from this test are hard to judge. He was 1.9 seconds behind Vettel on the same tyre(hyper soft iirc). That said, we do not know fuel levels, setup, testing programs, etc. Trying to understand testing times without some insider info or quite a lot of working things out, is very tough.
Not much being said inside the team either, its being kept above top secret.
Although he has been at the factory a lot.
Not much being said inside the team either, its being kept above top secret.
Although he has been at the factory a lot.
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I attended the Jenson Button Q&A as part of his book tour last night, at Gracepoint in London. Good event, around 4-500 people there. An hour of Q&A with James Allen hosting and then questions from the audience. 100 people got to stay behind for photos with him via a lottery inside the books (I was not one of them :/ )
A few interesting things came up, some already quoted before. A couple stood out for me - how close Button was to joining Ferrari in 2014, with the sacking of Domenicalli ending negotiations. The second was just how hard Williams pursued him to return - three times in total during his time at McLaren including the end of last season and the beginning of the season just past. Ultimately, he didn't have faith in the car and finally just didn't want to race any more. He was quite clear about his last race at Monaco - he loved the qualifying and then a couple of hours after the race (an early end to the race!) he'd lost the thrill again and just wasn't interested.
He had a few interesting things to say about other drivers, including Hamilton who he maintains is the fastest driver he's seen over a single lap. He described him as needing constant reassurance from the team, and worrying about all sorts of things that might have indicated that there was a preference for another driver. Button was open about looking for any weakness in his teammate, and said that was one of the main things he had at his disposal, the means to get under his skin and make Hamiton believe the team was favouring Button, something he said that Rosberg also did very well.
A good night in all - £25, which included a signed copy of the book.
A few interesting things came up, some already quoted before. A couple stood out for me - how close Button was to joining Ferrari in 2014, with the sacking of Domenicalli ending negotiations. The second was just how hard Williams pursued him to return - three times in total during his time at McLaren including the end of last season and the beginning of the season just past. Ultimately, he didn't have faith in the car and finally just didn't want to race any more. He was quite clear about his last race at Monaco - he loved the qualifying and then a couple of hours after the race (an early end to the race!) he'd lost the thrill again and just wasn't interested.
He had a few interesting things to say about other drivers, including Hamilton who he maintains is the fastest driver he's seen over a single lap. He described him as needing constant reassurance from the team, and worrying about all sorts of things that might have indicated that there was a preference for another driver. Button was open about looking for any weakness in his teammate, and said that was one of the main things he had at his disposal, the means to get under his skin and make Hamiton believe the team was favouring Button, something he said that Rosberg also did very well.
A good night in all - £25, which included a signed copy of the book.
Soldato
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Hopefully better than Webber's book. I didn't get on with the writing style, and it was light on detail. From his book though, he clearly should have won the championship back in 2010, despite anything else that went on, it was his mistakes and lack of will that cost him it. In fact from reading the book he sounded much worse than he actually performed.
I am not a Sky subscriber and therefore missed this short documentary first time round. I remember Steve Ryder making a BBC documentary of Senna back in 1994. Years later watching Steve Ryder now interview Prost was very insightful.
The Senna movie is undeniably a great watch, but heavily cast Alain as the main villain. They were both culpable in the events which followed.
The fateful '94 weekend with pressure to claw back points, the sad death of Roland Ratzenburger and questioning the legality of the Benetton all combined contributory factors. Similar to Gilles years before, raw mixed emotions, over driving was probably one of the main contributory factors.
Interesting and clearly the emotions are clear in this interview and remain raw. Prost describing Senna as 'different'.
The Senna movie is undeniably a great watch, but heavily cast Alain as the main villain. They were both culpable in the events which followed.
The fateful '94 weekend with pressure to claw back points, the sad death of Roland Ratzenburger and questioning the legality of the Benetton all combined contributory factors. Similar to Gilles years before, raw mixed emotions, over driving was probably one of the main contributory factors.
Interesting and clearly the emotions are clear in this interview and remain raw. Prost describing Senna as 'different'.
I completely agree. I really enjoyed 'Senna' but Prost was unnecessarily demonised in that film as Senna was all-but deified. They glossed over the point that Senna had made it his mission to compete with, and surpass Prost and everything he did was to that end. In 1994, after Prost had retired, it was almost as if Senna had lost his 'edge' as he no longer had his self-confessed rival to compete against. Witness the massively poignant moment during that fateful Imola weekend in 1994 when Prost, now commentating for French TV, spoke to Senna over the air and Senna said 'We miss you Alain'. What I read into that was he missed competing against the guy that he'd geared his whole career towards competing with and beating.
Prost was no angel; other team-mates such as Mansell had suffered against his politics and antics, such as swapping cars etc. but he was not the person portrayed in that film.
Never seen this before.