Poll: Singapore Grand Prix 2019, Singapore - Race 15/21
- Thread starter Shimmy
- Start date
The circuit layout is poor, promoting the train-type racing where there are almost none overtake opportunities.
They must change the streets with some straights that are both longer and wider.
Associate
I doubt it, Singapore is a terrible circuit. Charles spent the first 20 laps doing 1:48 laps and it wasn't even possible to overtake him. You need such a lap time advantage over the car in front making overtaking unlikely for the top 3 teams.
Soldato
It's not often I complain that a race was boring but this one was pretty dull, only interesting bit was in the midfield.
I don't know what Mercedes were thinking with the strategy and I don't know why Ferrari are keeping all their eggs in the Vettel basket, when Leclerc is clearly much quicker and more capable of winning.
I don't know what Mercedes were thinking with the strategy and I don't know why Ferrari are keeping all their eggs in the Vettel basket, when Leclerc is clearly much quicker and more capable of winning.
Soldato
It is a street circuit. You can't just 'change streets'.
Man of Honour
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Even a Williams was lapping more quickly in the first stint!
I watched the highlights (thank goodness, it was 2 hours) and quite enjoyed it .
Lots of midfield action. Danny ric got someone again (he's doing it a lot really)
Grosjean celebrating his contract renewal with another accident lol
norris did really well. (ffs!)
Merc should have gone for the undercut. Great race for ferrari, not so much for leclerc.
I dunno if it's because I'm not a ferrari or merc fan but I enjoyed it (only because of highlights)
Rated 6
Oh, just read ferrari gave vettel the undercut? Are they crazy?
Very ominous that ferrari can win here and monza!
Lots of midfield action. Danny ric got someone again (he's doing it a lot really)
Grosjean celebrating his contract renewal with another accident lol
norris did really well. (ffs!)
Merc should have gone for the undercut. Great race for ferrari, not so much for leclerc.
I dunno if it's because I'm not a ferrari or merc fan but I enjoyed it (only because of highlights)
Rated 6
Oh, just read ferrari gave vettel the undercut? Are they crazy?
Very ominous that ferrari can win here and monza!
Still better than Monaco in terms of opportunities to overtake and the likes imo.
Waaay better than Monaco
Caporegime
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In Australia with Bottas ahead they could have pit Bottas to cover Vettel early and Hamilton would have won. They favour whoever is out front at the time because the leader gets the preference, simple as that. The only time this changes is if there is a title fight and a clear choice to make such as in Russia at a point in the season where Ferrari were equally competitive pretty much up to that point and no one knew Vettel was going to put in a massive bottle job through the rest of the season.
At that time Ferrari could have done exactly the same as this weekend, shown up at the next race with a working upgrade that put them ahead of Merc and those few points might have made the difference to the title fight and if Bottas wasn't completely out of the title race but was directly fighting with Hamilton then they wouldn't have done it either.
For me today at the time it was a choice of pit Leclerc, he's covered from the undercut and in space and wins the race, Vettel gets pit next lap and Verstappen undercut's him and most likely Ferrari finish Leclerc 1st and Vettel 4th.
So the best thing for the leader is pitting the leader first, however pitting Vettel first protected him from Verstappen and Bottas and pitting Leclerc next kept him ahead of Ham but behind Vettel.
So imo they should have pit Vettel but told him they either pit Leclerc first and he comes 4th, or they pit Leclerc second but he has to give up the position to Leclerc. That way they both favour the leader and the team at the same time fairly.
The reality is in China they pushed Vettel ahead of Leclerc, then delayed his pitstop hoping to hold up Verstappen and cost the team points just to get Vettel a few extra points. This is how Ferrari operate. Just because the best decision for Vettel happened to get the team more points, the reality is that as they always have for their no.1 and the fact the team got more points was just a bonus.
IMO when the best thing for the team is not pitting the leader first, then whoever is benefiting from getting to pit first or the better strategy needs to realise it. As Bottas said after, the leader gets the better strategy and if they change that to help whoever is second, they know they will give up position to the leader because it's better than giving the leader the better strategy and leaving the second place driver out to hang.
In China they could have pit Hamilton first as he was in the lead, and had they don't so it's likely Vettel would have undercut Bottas. Instead because Bottas had dropped almost 10 seconds back and right into Vettel they pit Bottas first and Ham lost like 6-7 of a 9-10 second lead by being pit a lap or two later. Ham as in Australia is also happy to play the rear gunner when that's how the race has played out.
Soldato
Fun fact: That was the first time Ferrari have won 3 in a row since 2008.
they’re probably going to make it 4 in Russia. Mercedes have got to be a little worried now, they haven’t been in this position in this entire hybrid era.
they’re probably going to make it 4 in Russia. Mercedes have got to be a little worried now, they haven’t been in this position in this entire hybrid era.
Permabanned
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People making out Merc royally screwed up on strat clearly don't understand F1.... Mercs strategy of leaving Ham out long had 4 chances to success.
1 - The overcut if leclerc struggled to switch his tyres on and Ham still had life in his old set.
2 - The early stoppers getting Trulli trained allowing Ham to make up time before his stop.
3 - A safety car in Hams pit window allowing a quick stop.
4 - Ferrari's taking their tyres off a cliff allowing a pass in the last couple of laps.
Obviously none of these panned out for Merc and both teams were caught out by the delta of the undercut, but Merc gambled and lost in going for a win. It was a punt but they would have known the risks.
1 - The overcut if leclerc struggled to switch his tyres on and Ham still had life in his old set.
2 - The early stoppers getting Trulli trained allowing Ham to make up time before his stop.
3 - A safety car in Hams pit window allowing a quick stop.
4 - Ferrari's taking their tyres off a cliff allowing a pass in the last couple of laps.
Obviously none of these panned out for Merc and both teams were caught out by the delta of the undercut, but Merc gambled and lost in going for a win. It was a punt but they would have known the risks.
You can drop streets. In favour of new generation circuits with way longer corners where cars with better apex speed can benefit from their design.
Circuits with wide enough "lanes", so more than a single car can run in parallel.
Something similar to the rally races where there are two tracks next to each other and the drivers run independently from each other but next to each other.
Like this:
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Soldato
The only place you’re going to even consider being able to do that in Singapore is on the straight motorway to the airport.
Or are you going on about just dropping Singapore and moving to another circuit?
Or are you going on about just dropping Singapore and moving to another circuit?
Soldato
Yes please. Let's go back to Malaysia if the FIA want to keep a race in south-east Asia.
Don
Not sure what race everyone else was watching, but I enjoyed it.
The midfield battles were great, the start was decent enough with Vettel going wheel to wheel with Hamilton, and the race was generally unpredictable enough that I genuinely didn't know who would win until near the end.
The midfield battles were great, the start was decent enough with Vettel going wheel to wheel with Hamilton, and the race was generally unpredictable enough that I genuinely didn't know who would win until near the end.
Associate
I went with 6 as I watched the highlights. I did notice it skipping 10 laps at a time so I imagine live it would have been a bit more boring to watch.
Kind of felt they hesitated too much with the Safety cars at times, with no runs off as soon as you've got marshals on the track surely it should VSC as soon as they step foot on the track then a full one when they're needing a big window to move the car.
Kind of felt they hesitated too much with the Safety cars at times, with no runs off as soon as you've got marshals on the track surely it should VSC as soon as they step foot on the track then a full one when they're needing a big window to move the car.
Man of Honour
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Loved Malaysia.
It was done after the first pitstop. There was no chance of an overtake. To need a 2s difference in order to overtake is ridiculous. Hopefully the 2021 rule change fixes this.
It took them such a long time to decide, meanwhile cars are hurtling passed. Crazy. There was a driver and marshal on track at one point with just yellow flags.
Soldato
The Ch4 highlights seemed to miss quite a few incidents where DC et al were talking about things we didn’t get to see.
Ricciardo seemed to screwup a great comeback drive. Grosjean remains an embarrassment to Haas and F1 in general.
Ricciardo seemed to screwup a great comeback drive. Grosjean remains an embarrassment to Haas and F1 in general.