Half way point in the F1 season, thoughts so far?

Duke

Duke

Duke

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Here are the results for each driver so far this season:

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Quite a mixed bag looking at those results.

Vettel has certainly not had an easy run and Kimi has kept him fairly honest again, although they tend to drop off development quite quickly.

Merc have been the shock of this season for me, really thought they would be getting points here and there but 3 wins was unexpected.

Force India had potential but seem all over the place now. Mclaren should out score them now but won't finish higher than 5th in the constructors championship.

Williams have been dire again and shame Caterham haven't closed the gap still.

This is Vettel's to lose really. I think if Hamilton was able to make the most of things from the word go, he'd be fairly close to Seb. As per most seasons recently, there hasn't been just one team challenging Red Bull, so they keep taking points off each other. I thought Ferrari would do that this year but it hasn't been great for them.

Your thoughts?
 
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Much like last season for Seb, started off looking like could be challenged (although scoring decent points) then Red Bull seem to pull away from the pack. Can't see him losing the title from where they are now.

Ferrari for a change started pretty well, but have totally fallen off the pace of the front runners since winning in Spain and I doubt they will give Alonso a chance to challenge.
 
My thoughts are it's the most apparent season I have ever seen where they can control the title with tyres. Is this any different to MS having bespoke Bridgestones only he could have, not sure but something needs to change to stop it being so panto.

I think Alonso has had a quiet year. No one put enough points on the board before Red Bull got to grips with the car.

I think Hamilton has been excellent for portions of this year and Rosberg has surprised me too.

I still think Kimi is over rated since his come back. I think last year he should have won more races and the car is clearly good this year but he's playing the percentages driving nice comfortable drives in the way Heidfeld used to plod along. I think a better team mate than Grosjean would have showed this.

I'm sad williams couldn't build on last year :(

I think the seasons over unless Vettel has a huge run of bad luck, not a way I'd like anyone to lose a title though. It's a pity Hamilton or Rosberg didn't have a better race car on sundays to put Vettel under pressure. Or Alonso. Boring title race really.

All I can hope for is decent races.
 
Imagine if Alonso hadn't made that stupid mistake not to come in with his front wing stuck underneath him in Malaysia (classic weave through the field drive) and then not had the DRS flap stuck in Bahrain, he'd be a lot closer to Seb...probably about 10 points behind in a worse car... but as always it's coulda woulda shoulda and then Seb has had a DNF, but still, Ferrari's reliability is very good I guess.

Kimi is Mr Consistent, if he could sort his qualifying out he'd be in a much better way to fight for the WDC.
 
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I think as I said at the time when people were talking up Rosberg because of a win and a couple times out qualifying Hamilton... he's not as good as people think and, he isn't. 7-3 qualifying with the the smallest gap when Hamilton leads being 0.33 seconds(or so, this weekend, usually 0.4 or above) and the 3 times Rosberg beat Hamilton( the gap being sub 0.25seconds each time) that Hamilton is actually probably beating his team mate by bigger margins than just about anyone down the grid.

In terms of racing quality Vettel has only finished below 4th a single time with a DNF and without it that was probably an at worst second place(if we also ignore Hamilton's tyre issue). He's had a very good time of it, top 4 in 9/10 races is pretty epic, that car is insanely fast when its fast, and when its slow, its still finishing 4th at worst.

Kimi has been consisten but Hamilton has actually only finished below 5th once all season, while Kimi has done so 3 times. Which is actually pretty much phenomenal for Hamilton, in the same car Rosberg has finished below 5th 4 times excluding his two failures and neither of those looked 5th or above finishes iirc. Which once again actually shines a fairly poor light on Rosberg, or an excellent one on Hamilton.

Just a shame, one bad weekend in quali(still VERY close) for Hamilton and he lost the win at Monaco, one very unlucky weekend due to exploding tyres and he lost another win, if he'd been a bit luckier and got at least one of those wins the gap between him and Rosberg would be bigger, and him and Vettel would be smaller. As it stands I can't see him with a remote chance in the title, with one or both those wins... maybe.


Kimi can't really sort qualifying out because Lotus don't really seem fast except towards the end of stints, the lap by lap times, the sheer consistency of lap times at the start of a stint vs the end is amazing on the Lotus. Their speed has never been outright lap times, but its been as others drop 1-2 seconds a lap in the last 1/3rd of a stint on tyres, the Lotus looks brilliant in comparison. Its not ultimately a brilliantly fast car.. its the least bad car when the tyres slow down, not the best car when the tyres are fast so qualifying will be a struggle at all but a few races a year.

Grosjean, as last year, looks a complete waste of a driving space at a top team. HE's either slow, slow and making mistakes, or fast and making mistakes. Fast and no mistakes = top driver, thats Kimi, Grosjean is an untalented child, anyone can go fast when they aren't driving relatively safely and praying you don't hit someone every corner.

Williams :( , not at all a fan of Maldonado but loved Williams with Hill and the rest in the 90's, such a shame how poor that car is. McClown, just dreadful mistake this year, with their budget and team its just been a season to forget, hope they get the 2014 car right. If they don't get the 2014 car pretty damn good I'd be expecting some changes at the top, they can't afford another season like this one. I feel like their sponsorship issues, massive amount of media work and limited income due to the way they operate is slowly alienating them against the truly top drivers. Stressing out drivers while basically ensuring they can make way more at other teams is not the best strategy, its a hard sell to a big name driver with other seats available. If Lotus/cash/paying Kimi problems persist, I can't see the RBR seat being open to him as Vettel wouldn't be happy, Mclaren would be a suitable alternative to get a top driver in, but would a media hating Kimi go to the strictest and heaviest media team in the paddock?
 
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finding im not so interested this season as i have been, i just dont think anyone but ferrari, merc, rbr will get a world championship.

i sometimes think that lotus have a chance but dont really believe it.
i dont really watch the post/pre show like i did. the move to sky hasnt helped either, i do not like the sky coverage

the tyres are also an issue and i still think all compounds should be available every race
 
Duke said:
Your thoughts?
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My over riding thought of the season as a whole is the completely appalling performance on Marussia and Caterham. Not only have they not scored any points in 4 years, but they aren't even closing the gap.

I know its not all their fault, the FIA deliberately chose borked teams. But to show absolutely no progress or even a hint that anything might happen means they are just a waste of space.

I know it would be a shame to see them go, but I don't think I would care much if one of both of them announced they were leaving.
 
RBR/Vettel are ruining the show, for non-RBR/Vettel fans.
It's not RBR's fault, though.

The FIA, as they did when MSc was winning everything, need to bring in rules/regs which prevent RBR from dominating.

When Vettel won his first title, he had the best car but wasnt the finished article by any means. But now, the guy is championship driver who knows when to push and how hard to push. When you give him one of, if not "the" best car in F1, the championship is only ever going to go 1 way.

The only chance we have is if Ferrari give Alonso a better car.

I predicted before the season started that this year would have Vettel, Alonso and Kimi. I see no reason to change this.
 
Same as 2011, No single driver able to take enough points away from Vettel so far. Race wins and points off Vettel have been shared between Rosberg, Alonso and now Hamilton. Unless one single driver starts to take points away from Vettel he'll win again.
 
This season I've had my laptop with me pretty much every race and even thought about recording some of the races to watch later (although I never actually resorted to that). This has never happened to me before.

I really do find that the sport is far too artificial at the moment and the FIA are treating the symptoms rather than eradicating the problem entirely, with tyres engineered to degrade quickly, mandatory pit stops and overtaking aids. The level of technical restrictions is also massively frustrating, but I may be a bit biased because I am more interested in the technology and engineering than the driving aspect. With the changes coming for 2014, they had an opportunity to make the series more interesting, but looking at the rules in-depth I really am concerned that I'll have a repeat of this year on my hands.
 
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boring. big teams always win. and we talk about tires instead of racing because otherwise the media would have nothing to discuss

they need to split the F1 pie evenly among teams so at least smaller teams can compete. better teams will inevitably get additional funds though lucrative sponsorships, manufacturer backing, etc... but this will reduce the gap and stop front cars lapping 3 or 4 sec on back markers! I don't see the point of having Sauber, Williams, Caterham and Marussia on the track right now except for artificially inflating the starting grid, because it's anything but a race or a fair competition.

In fact, we may see more able drivers since some teams may not be as reliant on paying drivers which doesn't help matters; like Sirotkin who's daddy can pay him a seat at Sauber, yet he has not proven anything in any decent feeder series! J. Bianchi was lucky to get a last minute seat because Razzia couldn't muster the cash, and it's a shame that other talented drivers like Bianchi don't get a shot.

I just want to see a more even playing field, where the best drivers compete.

Furthermore, I think they should emulate Indycar's rear bumper so that when a guy gets hit in the back it reduces the risk of a puncture.
 
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I've lost all interest this year, I partly blame Sky for taking the live coverage away from me but mostly its the races just are not interesting due to the tyres and the artificial nature of the racing. I wouldn't be surprised if Bernie introduced sprinklers on the track in the name of interesting racing.

So I'm considering a move to GT cars, I tried WTCC and wasn't fussed but after watching some of La Mon I'm quite curious about GT, they go flat out 100% of the time, much more innovation and variation between teams, I just need to find some decent coverage and I'm sorted.
 
Gambisk said:
I've lost all interest this year, I partly blame Sky for taking the live coverage away from me but mostly its the races just are not interesting due to the tyres and the artificial nature of the racing. I wouldn't be surprised if Bernie introduced sprinklers on the track in the name of interesting racing.

So I'm considering a move to GT cars, I tried WTCC and wasn't fussed but after watching some of La Mon I'm quite curious about GT, they go flat out 100% of the time, much more innovation and variation between teams, I just need to find some decent coverage and I'm sorted.
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LMS/Blancpain/ALMS rocks, unfortunately hard to cover 24hr endurance races on TV like Blancpain Spa last weekend. Will be nice to see Porsche join the LMP1, a few more constructors would be cool to challenge the Audi team. I think those series need to have more 2hr or 4hr races in the mix to increase TV coverage and interest. Maybe for the shorter races split it into 2 separate races with LMP1 and LMP2 in one race on Sunday and GT Pro and GT Pro/Am on Saturday? since the traffic caused by different classes may be difficult in shorter races.

DTM is great racing as well, but coverage in UK is lacking ;)

would be interested in Japanese Super GT500 championship but never seen a race :(
 
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I am quite enjoying this season, it's not been the greatest but we have had some exciting races... although sometimes for the wrong reasons. I'm hopeful that the title fight will become closer and really think we could do with someone other than Vettel winning to break the monotony.

I really hope with the new regulations next season it will shake things up a lot more, I think it could use it.

Skeeter said:
My over riding thought of the season as a whole is the completely appalling performance on Marussia and Caterham. Not only have they not scored any points in 4 years, but they aren't even closing the gap.
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It certainly is very disappointing, I can imagine it's hard for them to gain any significant investments (especially when teams further up the grid are really struggling!) the whole budget cap idea screwed them over a lot I think.

Caterham have shocked me the most, they seemed to have their act together and had all they needed to really progress but they just haven't. Marussia on the other hand have really grown on me as they seem to be able to do just as well with much less.

Their 2 horse race at the back of the field is fairly pointless now though.
 
I think Marussia, Caterham, Williams and Sauber should be allowed to close the gap by having the budget restrictions removed. They clearly need a massive push forward and they will never get there by making small changes here and there. The dependence on pay drivers is really harming those teams.
 
Maybe give the bottom half of the teams the chance to not take part in the summer break close down or another day testing in the mid season test.
 
It's been ok, but every year I get bored of Seb being ahead. Hoping next year really mixes things up again. Would love to see 4 way battle at the top between Merc, Ferrari, Lotus and Williams for a laugh! Let Mclaren and Redbull scrap for the next places with Force India & Sauber :)
 
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