Motorsport Off Topic Thread

UTmaniac · 23 May 2019 at 16:10

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/formula1/48380990

It has a bit of undulation and might be pretty good to watch in quali (albeit those hills could potentially cause some chaos with hotlap cars approaching those on warmup/warm-down laps)... But the layout looks awful for potential overtake places at the proposed Rio layout in the race, not a single hairpin or chicane that I saw.

timmeh · 24 May 2019 at 14:15

It looks just like every other Tilke-drome. There's one spot to overtake and the rest of the lap are mid-high speed corners.

Why can't they just pick up Interlagos and move it to Rio?

MissChief · 24 May 2019 at 14:43

The elevation change is good, far too many tracks that are flat as a pancake. The classic tracks use the contours, modern tracks just seem to bulldoze any hills and dips out of the way. Straights with heavy braking lead to passes.

CaptainRAVE · 26 May 2019 at 21:48

I miss Malaysia. Love that track.

Mr Jack · 27 May 2019 at 16:36

Flibster said:
Whilst still being alive.

Leukaemia leading to kidney failure will tend to put a downer on one's public profile

Flibster · 30 May 2019 at 01:26

Mr Jack said:
Leukaemia leading to kidney failure will tend to put a downer on one's public profile

Yeah, he really is one of a kind.

Anyway... Back to F1.

Apparently there's many rumours that Vettel is retiring at the end of the year - replacements being looked at include Bottas, Perez, Grosjean and Magnussen.

More interestingly, is that Leclerc is getting very annoyed with Ferrari and his management is entertaining offers from other teams.

MissChief · 30 May 2019 at 01:33

Flibster said:
Yeah, he really is one of a kind.

Anyway... Back to F1.

Apparently there's many rumours that Vettel is retiring at the end of the year - replacements being looked at include Bottas, Perez, Grosjean and Magnussen.

More interestingly, is that Leclerc is getting very annoyed with Ferrari and his management is entertaining offers from other teams.

Giovanazzi is a Ferrari driver but I doubt they'd go down that route just yet. He's far from ready and possibly may never be ready either. IMO anyway. Bottas could be possible and gives Mercedes a chance to get Ocon in. Vettel's contract runs until the end of next season so that's a year early.

The_Abyss · 30 May 2019 at 08:26

12 - 18 months time is the more likely point to trigger driver movements, ahead of the 2021 new regulations. It is why most top drivers only have contracts to this point.

I would be amazed if Leclerc is making grumblings about leaving Ferrari. He's barely been there half a season, and certainly hasn't been outstanding enough to drop into another top team. Good yes, but not amazing nor consistent. So while he may be getting annoyed, I doubt he's willing to break a contract and move.

Vettel doesn't look as motivated as he has been in the past, but his team have hardly given him cause to be. He's out of form, they're lost with their car - Ferrari just isn't a happy place. Grosjean or Magnussen in a Ferrari? lol. Ferrari are making some big mistakes, but even they are unlikely to make ones of that magnitude.

GravyMonster · 30 May 2019 at 10:35

Give Vettel a winning car and his motivation will return. He had the same slump in 2014 after the Red Bull wasn't the class of the field (yes I know he had kids yadda yadda). I could see Perez in a Ferrari alongside Leclerc, though.

Leclerc is probably tired of being the Ferrari doormat already. It took Irvine, Barrichello and Massa years to get that point so publically.

Mr Jack · 30 May 2019 at 20:46

Spunkey said:
Give Vettel a winning car and his motivation will return. He had the same slump in 2014 after the Red Bull wasn't the class of the field (yes I know he had kids yadda yadda).

You misspelled "was comfortably outclassed by his teammate". Vettel's problem is that he's just not as good as he thinks he is, and it's starting to get to him.

Junglist · 31 May 2019 at 15:22

David Letterman’s interview with Hamilton is up on Netflix now.

Interesting so far

GravyMonster · 31 May 2019 at 17:11

Mr Jack said:
You misspelled "was comfortably outclassed by his teammate".

He was that year, but was it due to an under-performing Vettel or an over-performing Ricciardo? As much of a nice guy Danny Ric appears to be the latter has seemed to be the case given his results over the last few years.

Mr Jack · 31 May 2019 at 18:03

Spunkey said:
He was that year, but was it due to an under-performing Vettel or an over-performing Ricciardo? As much of a nice guy Danny Ric appears to be the latter has seemed to be the case given his results over the last few years.

I'm not sure where you get "last few years". Max beat him solidly last year, helped by terrible reliability and a grumpy Daniel, but Ricciardo bettered Max in the two years before that. He's got an impressive number of wins in a car that doesn't really deserve them. I don't doubt Ricciardo is a good driver. A driver who can get wins in a bad car. What's becoming clear, however, is that he's not quite as good as I had thought. Another driver near the top of the pack, but not actually at its pinnacle. For me, that just makes Vettel's spanking look worse. Vettel was comfortable in his team, with a string of World Championships behind him and he still got crushed by the new boy.

JRS · 3 Jun 2019 at 20:29

That didn't take long...Daley Mathison dies in crash at the IoM TT. 3rd lap of the opening race of the meet.

An experienced racer and past winner of the Ulster GP. RIP

Nazbit · 9 Jun 2019 at 16:54

Been following GT racing a lot more this year, been to the opening round of British GT annually for a long time but never really followed the championship. This year so have so far and also some Blancplain.

Having religiously followed BTCC and BSB I wanted to know how the GT3 and GT4 cars would actually compare.

Incase anyone finds it interesting here are some comparison lap times of various series;

1.12.276 A1GP *
1.17.948 DTM
1.20.915 LMP3 *
1.21.596 F3
1.23.976 Formula Palmer Audi *
1.25.079 British GT3 (Pro)
1.25.209 British Superbikes
1.25.803 Radical SR3 Challenge
1.25.822 F4
1.26.200 Formula Renault *
1.27.049 British Superstock 1000
1.27.113 Porsche Carrera Cup GB
1.28.450 Ginetta GT4 Supercup
1.29.271 Formula BMW *
1.29.838 British Superstock 600
1.30.537 BTCC
1.30.642 Formula Ford *
1.31.155 British Side Cars
1.32.605 British GT4 (Pro)
1.32.859 British Motostar
1.38.136 Renault Clio Cup
1.39.427 Classic Touring Cars (Mini Cooper S) *
1.40.608 Ginetta GT5 *
1.42.053 Lotus Elise Trophy
1.46.343 Mini Miglia *
1.46.586 Ginetta G40
1.48.817 Ginetta Junior

These are the pole qualifying laps from the Brands GP circuit on 2018. Note that some sessions may have been Wet but I don't have that info.

Just a loose comparison for interests sake.

Edit added some more, those indicated with a * were not from 2018 as they did not run that year.

vanpeebles · 9 Jun 2019 at 17:01

Interesting stuff, do you have any mini miglia or classic racing times?

Nazbit · 9 Jun 2019 at 17:52

Just added some more series for comparison marked with a * they are either defunct or did not run at brands GP in 2018 and therefore not exactly like for like but this is just for interest. It's their most recent run.

Will add some classics.

Edit. Done, hope people find that interesting.

Flibster · 9 Jun 2019 at 18:16

The A1GP cars were properly quick race cars. Was a great series, some great drivers and races. Shame they went to Ferrari roadcar derived engines and then folded.

vanpeebles · 9 Jun 2019 at 21:14

Mini doesn't do too bad, great list

CaptainRAVE · 11 Jun 2019 at 10:21

I was right about the fastest lap award. What a complete waste of time. A car in the top 10 with a pitstop gap pits, puts on new tyres, sets the fastest time - hardly exciting and since there are battles going on elsewhere we don't even see it.