It's why so many competitive racing fans have lost interest though, F1 has pandered to the 'just entertain me with lots of action' crowd and has gone from being a serious racing series to WWE on wheels and the tragedy of that is that viewing figures have been in freefall ever since. It's now not only artificial but it needs to create drama whereever possible to hold its audience. At least in the day when it was a serious sport it had a loyal following and could call itself the pinnacle of motorsport.
Poll: Chinese Grand Prix 2018, Shanghai - Race 3/21
- Thread starter Shimmy
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It's why so many competitive racing fans have lost interest though, F1 has pandered to the 'just entertain me with lots of action' crowd and has gone from being a serious racing series to WWE on wheels and the tragedy of that is that viewing figures have been in freefall ever since. It's now not only artificial but it needs to create drama whereever possible to hold its audience. At least in the day when it was a serious sport it had a loyal following and could call itself the pinnacle of motorsport.
Soldato
MV did no damage to Vettel at all. Vettel ruined his rear tyres by burning them out when getting going again. His slow pace at the end of the race was all his own doing.
That said, I agree Max's punishment was too lenient. A 1 place drop (which would when have been less than that if Ham had dropped further back) for taking out another driver with such a clumsy, amateur move is not a message the race director should be sending.
Vettel lost a piece of his floor. But spinning up the tyres after ther bumb prob did more damage to his pace.
Soldato
Voted a 6/10 as i can't ignore the fact the first 28 laps were ****.
Soldato
Excellent race. I gave it a 9/10. Lots of great overtaking, and good to see Alonso starting to get the spotlight on him a bit more and overtaking Vettel.
Ricciardo clearly driver of the day. How many overtakes was that, about 5?
Merc missed a golden opportunity to put new tyres on Lewis' car and cost themselves the race.
Not sure what to say about Max. Perhaps he's been overrated by people being told he's amazing and he'll be the future world champion. Otoh as someone said earlier in the thread, Hamilton made similar mistakes early in his career, so one could look at it just as teething problems.
I'm just pleased that Max contributed towards Vettel being pushed further down the points and that Lewis is now only 9 points behind. That surely has to give a big boost to Lewis to begin to turn this around in 2 weeks.
Ricciardo clearly driver of the day. How many overtakes was that, about 5?
Merc missed a golden opportunity to put new tyres on Lewis' car and cost themselves the race.
Not sure what to say about Max. Perhaps he's been overrated by people being told he's amazing and he'll be the future world champion. Otoh as someone said earlier in the thread, Hamilton made similar mistakes early in his career, so one could look at it just as teething problems.
I'm just pleased that Max contributed towards Vettel being pushed further down the points and that Lewis is now only 9 points behind. That surely has to give a big boost to Lewis to begin to turn this around in 2 weeks.
Soldato
Good race. I hovered over 7/10 before thinking about Alonso's overtake of Vettel at the end and pushed it up to an 8. There were battles all over the field today, not all shown on TV.
Ferrari's car was brilliant today, their strategy less so. Why they left Vettel, as the leader, out so long I have no idea. Every armchair fan could see that the cars pitted 4 laps earlier were significantly faster. Fair enough, as they race turned out, they would still not have got the win but the strategy was slow and reactive. Mercedes were clearly quick on the day, and their strategy probably had enough to win the race without the timing of the safety car (which was fine - people are really thinking that the safety car call needs to be made to suit track position rather then track condition? Idiots.)
I don't think Red Bull rolled the dice today - it was the only call that made sense. They were just in the right position to make it, and had the balls and knowledge to actually make it. Verstappen threw away a win today - the overtake on Vettel was not there, not at the limits of that braking zone. Ricciardo showed how he could have made progress with a bit more patience, although that move on Bottas was very risky. Superb, accomplished drive through the leaders with fresh tyres though.
I've been disappointed with Bottas pretty much since he joined Mercedes. Today, I think he showed his better side. It was a good race for him, and salvaging a second place was a decent result. Ferrari screwed Kimi to try and gain an advantage for Vettel, but they'd already blown their strategy by then anyway,
I'll repeat what I said about Verstappen a couple of weeks ago. He needs to take a break or take some guidance from someone independent who is not his Dad. There's no doubt that he has bags of talent, but he's been very inconsistent since his move to RBR, and he threw away a win today. Maturity comes with both years and experience, and he's not yet learning from the latter. He's not racing the circuit or the championship - he's fixated on the car in front. Sometimes too far in front.
Last word to Ricciardo - he had everything in his favour in the race but he executed and took advantage perfectly, unlike his teammate. Driver of the day for me. Winners of the day: Red Bull strategists - they made thee call that was on offer to them, but still several cars behind them didn't. Mercedes too: they put together a strategy that would have likely beaten Ferrari without a safety car. Losers of the day: hello Ferrari - at least two laps of data and they still didn't pit either driver earlier enough for the firsts stop, pre-safety car. Didn't they see how they beat Mercedes in the previous two races?
How nice was it to see a driver genuinely happy to win and be on the podium? Today belonged to Ricciardo. Not quite Button's Canada, but he had a great race today.
Ferrari's car was brilliant today, their strategy less so. Why they left Vettel, as the leader, out so long I have no idea. Every armchair fan could see that the cars pitted 4 laps earlier were significantly faster. Fair enough, as they race turned out, they would still not have got the win but the strategy was slow and reactive. Mercedes were clearly quick on the day, and their strategy probably had enough to win the race without the timing of the safety car (which was fine - people are really thinking that the safety car call needs to be made to suit track position rather then track condition? Idiots.)
I don't think Red Bull rolled the dice today - it was the only call that made sense. They were just in the right position to make it, and had the balls and knowledge to actually make it. Verstappen threw away a win today - the overtake on Vettel was not there, not at the limits of that braking zone. Ricciardo showed how he could have made progress with a bit more patience, although that move on Bottas was very risky. Superb, accomplished drive through the leaders with fresh tyres though.
I've been disappointed with Bottas pretty much since he joined Mercedes. Today, I think he showed his better side. It was a good race for him, and salvaging a second place was a decent result. Ferrari screwed Kimi to try and gain an advantage for Vettel, but they'd already blown their strategy by then anyway,
I'll repeat what I said about Verstappen a couple of weeks ago. He needs to take a break or take some guidance from someone independent who is not his Dad. There's no doubt that he has bags of talent, but he's been very inconsistent since his move to RBR, and he threw away a win today. Maturity comes with both years and experience, and he's not yet learning from the latter. He's not racing the circuit or the championship - he's fixated on the car in front. Sometimes too far in front.
Last word to Ricciardo - he had everything in his favour in the race but he executed and took advantage perfectly, unlike his teammate. Driver of the day for me. Winners of the day: Red Bull strategists - they made thee call that was on offer to them, but still several cars behind them didn't. Mercedes too: they put together a strategy that would have likely beaten Ferrari without a safety car. Losers of the day: hello Ferrari - at least two laps of data and they still didn't pit either driver earlier enough for the firsts stop, pre-safety car. Didn't they see how they beat Mercedes in the previous two races?
How nice was it to see a driver genuinely happy to win and be on the podium? Today belonged to Ricciardo. Not quite Button's Canada, but he had a great race today.
Man of Honour
They should consider +positions rather than +time as the latter rarely works as an effective penalty.
As for Vettel, was pure frustration to incinerate his rears like that, maybe he’d have lost another place rejoining more slowly (to Alonso?) but he’d have took it back easily and maybe caught Hulk.
Soldato
yea loads of overtaking
Soldato
there was plenty of overtaking prior to the safety car!
Of all the races you could skip, this was one you should have watched!
Soldato
It still annoys me that you can see the positions of cars swapping in the mid field but the TV directer would rather watch the front 3 follow each other a few seconds apart. Verstappen is clearly talented but I think it really shows that he had one year of car racing before F1, he does seem to lack some racecraft he perhaps would have learned staying in the lower formulas for a bit longer.
I do wonder what some people's expectations are with an F1 race. It's not a spec series, there is no BOP and no success penalties. You never going to have loads of overtaking with cars close together.
What a race that was. How I cheered when the spin happened. Which felt all the sweeter after that long wait.
Man of Honour
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Vettel with a possible gearbox change next race due to the collision with Max? That'll hurt.
Seems the Mercedes is a bigger diva than ever.
I do find it funny the number of social media comments regarding Red Bull's 'resurgence'.
Seems the Mercedes is a bigger diva than ever.
I do find it funny the number of social media comments regarding Red Bull's 'resurgence'.
Soldato
Journos have to write something, and most of them seem to have short memories. The RB is the third quickest car. It was purely great strategy and brilliant work by the mechanics in quali yesterday to get DR's car fixed and during the pit stops in the race that got them the win. It should have been a 1-2 if MV wasn't so petulant.
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Will be interesting to see how Seb deals with the 5 place drop. I can see him cutting through the field much easier than Lewis did in Bahrain.
It really does seem like one, i thought this car was going to be better as the built the suspension around it this time. Odd!
Danny had a fantastic race and his overtakes were great but everyone seems to be forgetting how much of an advantage 1s per lap tires are. I think it was when Max was racing Lewis they had an on board of one of their cars exiting a corner and the RB just had so much more grip is was unreal. No wonder his late breaking moves worked so well! Not to take away from his moves though, Max could take note of how to make a move stick.
Deleted member 651465
D
Deleted member 651465
I still don't think we've seen Merc get the tyres in the operating window. Perhaps in Melbourne quali, but otherwise they've struggled in all 3 races.
Soldato
A good race, enjoyed the mix up and the action as a result. Max got summed up by Seb's comments of "I don't think I need to say anything here.."
Q3 Seb vs Kimi - how did Seb gain so much on the last straight? Did anyone notice on the C4 coverage when they compared the laps side by side? That seemed like more power to me, not just a better exit!
Q3 Seb vs Kimi - how did Seb gain so much on the last straight? Did anyone notice on the C4 coverage when they compared the laps side by side? That seemed like more power to me, not just a better exit!
Man of Honour
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Quite a few have suggested this. It was certainly very even up to that point. I guess we will never know.