[Other Sport] F1 2024

[Flounce]

Alpine look like their best chance of moving up the field will be with some shenanigans. They have appointed the right man as Executive Advisor - race fixer Briatore

I am going to be interested to watch how Lewis does in pre practice as he sets up the Merc to be be competitive for him and Russell in the race, and if he falls off the pace again once quali starts

 

[Audax]

Alpine look like their best chance of moving up the field will be with some shenanigans. They have appointed the right man as Executive Advisor - race fixer Briatore

Not going down well in the paddock, from what I've seen. Opinion articles / twitter comments began popping up already slating the decision. Not really sure what's going on over there, as there's also a lot of talk doing the rounds that Renault are looking to cancel their 2026 power unit program and that Alpine is hunting around for a supply

This might be the weekend where Sainz announces his 2025 destination. Widely tipped that he'll be going to Williams, and that once he's announced the rest of the seats will fill rapidly. Ocon also expected to go to Haas. Both of them apparently rejecting offers from Audi. Meanwhile, Zhou is on the hunt for a seat and reportedly dangling €30m as an incentive - Alpine apparently interested (which can only be about the money, as Doohan is the better prospect IMO).

 

[JJ McClure]

Stewards / Race Director need to clamp down hard on that sort of behaviour from Stroll and Leclerc in FP3. Impeded or not using your car as a weapon is dangerous.

 

[Flounce]

Stewards / Race Director need to clamp down hard on that sort of behaviour from Stroll and Leclerc in FP3. Impeded or not using your car as a weapon is dangerous.

That was really bizarre as it was free practice. Stroll and LeClerc both appeared to have road rage and deliberately clipped Hamilton and Norris. Going to be an interesting quali given how close it was at the top in Practice 3

 

[A1X]

Just watching the F2 race, a LOT of track limit violations going on which bodes well…

 

[Flounce]

Looking forward to the start on this with three Brits in the top four. I think it could get messy and lovely to see Max with three aggressive drivers around him. I am going for Russell causing the mayhem.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Looking forward to the start on this with three Brits in the top four. I think it could get messy and lovely to see Max with three aggressive drivers around him. I am going for Russell causing the mayhem.

Really glad there's no football this afternoon as very much looking forward to the race. Watched qualy over the Georgia game yesterday, another good choice seeing Lando fly into pole at the end.

I don't know if it's the McLaren enhancements, the Red Bull internal meltdown or Merc getting their act together (or likely a combination of all three) but suddenly this is competitive again, after the worst season last season I can ever remember.

 

[Flounce]

Really glad there's no football this afternoon as very much looking forward to the race. Watched qualy over the Georgia game yesterday, another good choice seeing Lando fly into pole at the end.

I don't know if it's the McLaren enhancements, the Red Bull internal meltdown or Merc getting their act together (or likely a combination of all three) but suddenly this is competitive again, after the worst season last season I can ever remember.

True and Max may well still have the best car in race trim but is unlikely to set off on a Sunday stroll around the track any more. Even if he does the next six or seven positions will be well contested imo.

Just hoping that the start does not end up with a couple of cars not being able to do the full race as it could be a thrilling afternoon.

 

[The Colonel]

There's no doubt Red Bull have been caught, but is there time for anyone else to make a fight of the championship? Norris has to be most likely. He's got the car but he's 63 points behind. I think he needs to put a run of 3 or 4 wins together in the next 5 races.

 

[JJ McClure]

Great that everyone seems to have closed up but the Max/RB combo is still the one to beat and cant see any of the other picking up the consistent wins needed to challenge him.

 

[AstroSloth]

Great that everyone seems to have closed up but the Max/RB combo is still the one to beat and cant see any of the other picking up the consistent wins needed to challenge him.

The thing is it's hard to tell now where Red Bull are in the pecking order.

Perez being so poor recently whilst Max is still challenging means it's hard to know if RB are now level/behind other teams and Max's talent is the difference, or whether RB are still ahead but Perez is doing incredibly poorly.

 

[Guinness Boy]

The thing is it's hard to tell now where Red Bull are in the pecking order.

Perez being so poor recently whilst Max is still challenging means it's hard to know if RB are now level/behind other teams and Max's talent is the difference, or whether RB are still ahead but Perez is doing incredibly poorly.

If Lando had got a decent start he and Verstappen would have been neck and neck. And Piastri is doing slightly better than Perez.

I think the cars are almost the same based on that and it’s Max’s experience on pole and out front that’s the difference.

 

[The Colonel]

I think today was a turning point. It's the first time in two years I can remember on a regular track in normal conditions the Red Bull was not the best car. They won because of Norris' start and Verstappen making the early move on Russell that bought him breathing space. From that point the McLaren just seemed better on all tyres and at all phases of each stint. Norris just left himself a bit too much to do. Plus, of course, Verstappen is faultless so you have to be faultless to beat him. I definitely think Norris has the potential to take at least four or five wins this season.

 

[Flounce]

Not sure Max has made a bad mistake since he took the title in Abu Dhabi? Hard to argue that he is not up there with the best ever. I don’t like to admit it, but he has been pretty well faultless for a season and a half now. He has been pressurised in the last two races but has won well in both.

 

[maltaseagull]

Not sure Max has made a bad mistake since he took the title in Abu Dhabi? Hard to argue that he is not up there with the best ever. I don’t like to admit it, but he has been pretty well faultless for a season and a half now. He has been pressurised in the last two races but has won well in both.

No doubt that Max is a brilliant driver and a worthy champion.
It's just a shame his team principal is such a d*ck.

 

[AstroSloth]

I think today was a turning point. It's the first time in two years I can remember on a regular track in normal conditions the Red Bull was not the best car. They won because of Norris' start and Verstappen making the early move on Russell that bought him breathing space. From that point the McLaren just seemed better on all tyres and at all phases of each stint. Norris just left himself a bit too much to do. Plus, of course, Verstappen is faultless so you have to be faultless to beat him. I definitely think Norris has the potential to take at least four or five wins this season.

I also think that Max was heavily managing his tyres for a lot of the race meaning and not taking as many risks as perhaps Norris was trying to catch up.

That said the fact Norris is able to put the pressure on is extremely promising.

 

[A1X]

Would love to see Lando win at Silverstone

 

[Iggle Piggle]

It's definitely a lot closer. The Mercs are much better but I'm not convinced they have the pace to win. McLaren definitely do. Fair play to Verstappen. He was faultless today as he was in Canada..

If Ferrari get thier act together there could be an epic GP in the offing. It's been a long time coming.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Lando will be gutted. That was his to win. Max was great, got the lead with minimal fuss and then drove the race he needed to drive.

I think this is a really important season for Lando. It's the first time he's had a properly competitive car, if he wants to be a world champion he needs to learn how to maximise it and deal with the pressure of being expected to win. At the moment max is miles ahead of him in terms of that experience and knowledge.

Max is obviously going to win the title this year but if Lando is going to have a crack at him next year then he needs to use this year to gain race winning experience.

On a side note, the commentary said this was Max's 51st win in the last 76 races. That seems a crazy dominance. Has anyone else ever had that much dominance over their 'rivals'. Schumacher? I don't think Lewis was that dominant was he?

 

[Audax]

The thing is it's hard to tell now where Red Bull are in the pecking order.

Perez being so poor recently whilst Max is still challenging means it's hard to know if RB are now level/behind other teams and Max's talent is the difference, or whether RB are still ahead but Perez is doing incredibly poorly.

For me, I'm looking at the top 4 teams and the 8 drivers in those seats. Is Perez better than any of the other 7? IMO ... no, he's not. He's the weakest driver from that group. With all 3 chasing teams closing the car performance gap, Perez is going to struggle. Even when he's in his top form (eg Japan this season), he's slower than Verstappen in qually. But Perez on top form is rare, so we're normally looking at a 3-4 tenths gap in qually. He got away with it last season (ignoring his stinker spell) because the RB was so much faster that 3-4 tenths still put him at the pointy end, and then the race pace of the RB was so superior he could cruise to 2nd with a clean race. But I think we're now going to see McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes all being within that window and 3-4 tenths will be enough to see him down in 8th regularly. And as we've seen recently if he has a stinker the rest of the field is now close enough that a 8 tenth gap to Verstappen can mean going out in Q1.

Then on race day he's a) starting lower down, and b) dealing with faster opposition ahead. It's been obvious when he's started further back he's not been able to charge through and recover a result the same way he could last year.

All of which says to me that the RB car is no longer dominant and Verstappen's talent is what's keeping them going.

Lando will be gutted. That was his to win. Max was great, got the lead with minimal fuss and then drove the race he needed to drive.

I think this is a really important season for Lando. It's the first time he's had a properly competitive car, if he wants to be a world champion he needs to learn how to maximise it and deal with the pressure of being expected to win. At the moment max is miles ahead of him in terms of that experience and knowledge.

Max is obviously going to win the title this year but if Lando is going to have a crack at him next year then he needs to use this year to gain race winning experience.

On a side note, the commentary said this was Max's 51st win in the last 76 races. That seems a crazy dominance. Has anyone else ever had that much dominance over their 'rivals'. Schumacher? I don't think Lewis was that dominant was he?

Lando lost it in turn 1. But, have to give him kudos for it. A younger Norris probably would have kept his foot in it and tried to stay in between Max and George and we would have seen contact. Instead, he took the wise route, got out of the squeeze, and ran a really mature race to recover second and keep Max honest to the end. Unless Red Bull's upgrade that's due at Silverstone restores their advantage, I can see Norris picking up more wins this season. I also wouldn't be surprised to see Piastri grab his first full-length race win as well.