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Official 2015 Formula One Thread!

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Meghan54 said:
Well, it's being "rumored" that Red Bull is going to cancel its contract with Renault after this season, a year early. So this begs the question, who is going to be Red Bull's engine supplier?

I just can't imagine Mercedes would gladly do it, given their increasing tussles with Williams, whom they supply already. Can't think Mercedes would willingly give their powerplants to another competitor, one that may be more able to capitalize upon it than Williams is currently doing.

And Ferrari....the same sort of arguments crop up. Why supply a competitor that may be a real competitor if it gets a good power plant like Ferrari's?

Honda? (That made me cringe and chuckle when I typed that....)
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I don't think MB would have an issue supplying anorher customer engine package. It won't be a tailored works package. Honestly it's just more money for them.
Renault is rumored to buy Lotus. I can see the men and women in Enstone asking why they left in the first place. I feel sorry for French F1 fans. No French GP, and a possibility of no constructor and manufacturer to root for.
Then again, we could live in world with no German, French or Italian Grand Prix'. What's next, Great Britain?
 
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Brian Stirling said:
Yeah, they need to stop the celebrity interview nonsense and quick. And they need to prevent Coultard from doing interviews as well -- the last time he did one I wanted to reach through the TV and choke the fucker!

I'd have loved for Kimi to get a good start and give Lewis a run for his money along with Seb but that wasn't in the cards. I'm not sure what Kimi's problem was, but that could have been pretty bad if someone at the back of the grid ran into him at 130mph.


Brian
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Eddie Jordan would my pick.
Out of curiosity, what did Coulthard do to upset you?
 
Oh, and Lotus' dismal race cost me second place again.
Damnit Team Enstone, hang in there, and get rid of Maldonado.

Hopefully Renault splurging on the means they get a proper driver into the line-up next year. Maybe bring back Van der Garde onto the grid, or even get Alonso back to the team that made him world champion twice.
 
foghorn67 said:
Eddie Jordan would my pick.
Out of curiosity, what did Coulthard do to upset you?
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He did a post race interview with the drivers, you know the stupid podium interviews they've been doing for a couple years, and he asked the kind of questions a tabloid reporter would ask. This was much earlier in the year or maybe even last year. Seb basically fed it back to him and then Coulhtard moved on and continued his tabloid shit.

I should also say that I've had no time for him since the race in Spa many years ago when he was driving live a grandma in the rain and took Schumacher out.


Brian
 
Meghan54 said:
Well, it's being "rumored" that Red Bull is going to cancel its contract with Renault after this season, a year early. So this begs the question, who is going to be Red Bull's engine supplier?

I just can't imagine Mercedes would gladly do it, given their increasing tussles with Williams, whom they supply already. Can't think Mercedes would willingly give their powerplants to another competitor, one that may be more able to capitalize upon it than Williams is currently doing.

And Ferrari....the same sort of arguments crop up. Why supply a competitor that may be a real competitor if it gets a good power plant like Ferrari's?

Honda? (That made me cringe and chuckle when I typed that....)
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There has been rumors of that for awhile. I believe Red Bull is claiming the performance clause in the contract hasn't been anywhere close to being met (honestly, I can't imagine it has with how bad they've been doing and how many failures / problems).

Honestly, I don't get how Mercedes can make such a wonderful engine and everyone else is lagging behind so bad. Their cars are just faster and far more reliable. MB had their first retirement of the season and it was from the cooling system failing...


I also agree with most of you about the terrible post race interviews. I don't even watch them anymore. I can only imagine how terrible Lucas was.
 
Lucas was pretty bad. I would think most of those guys would figure out questions well ahead of time that are...interesting at the minimum.

I don't know who you all get out there, but I usually watch the coverage from Sky as opposed to the BBC, of which the former has a new contract to cover all the races...and there too...the driver interviews are utter crap. Part of me thinks the reason I hate Hamilton so much is the crappy answers he gives to even crappier questions.
 
So, Vettel on Pole, Mercs on row 3.

I still wouldn't bet against Hamilton making a podium, if his luck holds up.

Still, looks like it may turn into a tight race, probably decided on strategy and in/out laps.

That last lap by Vettel took me back to when he'd perform similar feats for Red Bull. Time it so he'd be last over the line, gaining half a second over whoever was in second.
It's great to see him overcome the frustration of 2014, and arguably making an even stronger case for himself at Ferrari than Alonso ever did.
 
_Rick_ said:
So, Vettel on Pole, Mercs on row 3.

I still wouldn't bet against Hamilton making a podium, if his luck holds up.

Still, looks like it may turn into a tight race, probably decided on strategy and in/out laps.

That last lap by Vettel took me back to when he'd perform similar feats for Red Bull. Time it so he'd be last over the line, gaining half a second over whoever was in second.
It's great to see him overcome the frustration of 2014, and arguably making an even stronger case for himself at Ferrari than Alonso ever did.
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This may finally answer the question about what wins races.Is it the Mercedes race pace that wins the races or simply the car or two out front getting so far ahead it's hard to manage a fuel and tire strategy to overcome that and overtake.
 
foghorn67 said:
This may finally answer the question about what wins races.Is it the Mercedes race pace that wins the races or simply the car or two out front getting so far ahead it's hard to manage a fuel and tire strategy to overcome that and overtake.
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It is likely a combination of all 3. Even with them not starting up front, I still don't see at least one of them making a podium. And even then, they are 5 and 6th I believe. Also, Red Bull have to finish the race with both cars. >_>

If anything, I think this will be a good race from front to the back, rather than Mercedes being 20+ seconds ahead and everyone else having a battle for third.
 
holy crap, 3rd race in a row i let sneak up on me without entering my predictions. i only casually thought "hey, is there a gp tomorrow?"

_Rick_ said:
So, Vettel on Pole, Mercs on row 3.

I still wouldn't bet against Hamilton making a podium, if his luck holds up.

Still, looks like it may turn into a tight race, probably decided on strategy and in/out laps.

That last lap by Vettel took me back to when he'd perform similar feats for Red Bull. Time it so he'd be last over the line, gaining half a second over whoever was in second.
It's great to see him overcome the frustration of 2014, and arguably making an even stronger case for himself at Ferrari than Alonso ever did.
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it's a real stretch to say he's making a stronger case than alonso, imo. fernando flattered the car, getting the results he did almost through his force of will alone. on the other hand, vettel is getting less results under less pressure, since this is supposed to be a rebuilding year against a runaway opponent. alonso/ferrari saw some of the best driving ever, as did vettel/red bull, and both are ahead of 2015's vettel/ferrari.
 
So I DVR'd the race and the recording ended on lap 59 of lap 61 -- arrrggghhh.

It looks like Ferrari figured out what they needed to do to keep the tires from going away during the stint and were just managing things for the rest of the race. Seb had the pace advantage when needed but he road the race he needed to race. Not sure why Kimi was as far behind Ricardo as he was at the end.

I think there has to be something going on at Merc that they don't want to talk about. The Monti Carlo race is most like Singapore and Merc (Nico) won that race so I have to wonder what issue Merc has. Could it be they've been running lower tire pressure but the changes after Spa have limited there ability to run the lower pressure.

Not a fan of races like Singapore as there is almost no chance to pass.


Brian
 
...and that was about the most exciting thing about this race.

At least it means my predictions performed mostly to my expectation.
 
At least one positive:

Race Results for Japan
You scored 231 points
The Top score was 231 points
Your World Ranking was: 1 / 9186
 
Right, so quali on Sunday morning in Texas - from practice it looks like the Merc is still fast, but in the rain it's far more easily challenged, when it's efficiency-oriented aero and powerful engine don't give quite as many benefits.

I wonder how many more engine penalties we're going to see this season, with even Ferrari and their relatively reliant car/engine having to dig into the parts box now.
 
Well, there were moments, when it looked like there could be a surprising result, but in the end, surprisingly, the result was exactly the one you would expect.
What a war of attrition as well, with three (+1) safety cars and 8 DNFs.

I would have loved to have some showers over the last few laps, to inject a bit more excitement at the front...

Still, except for Hülkenberg and Raikönnen my drivers did well (Sainz did finish, right?), so I can look forward to an okay-ish score. Definitely one of the better races of the season, but Brazil is yet to come, and who knows what Mexico can offer, and if there's a track to go to, once Patricia is done with it 😀
 
Yeah, the weather sure made things interesting and the drivers all earned there pay today and this week. The wetish track gave Red Bull a shot and Verstopen is flat killing it. Seb just seems to get as much from the car as humanly possible -- always!

A very interesting and entertaining race and the end result, though in some doubt earlier on, was pretty much cinched when Nico blew it and let Lewis past.

Lewis was pretty clearly emotional after the race -- now tied with Senna...


Brian
 
This was a pretty good race. The weather kind of "evened it out" in a way. Not bad. Grats to Hamilton on another world championship, but who didn't see that coming?
 
I was referring to Lewis throwing Nico's 2nd place ballcap to where Nico was seated on the couch. Nico just throw it back at Lewis. Kind of dramatic. But it was after they embraced, and both didn't really do anything noticeable regarding that after it was thrown. This was in the podium ready room.
 
foghorn67 said:
I was referring to Lewis throwing Nico's 2nd place ballcap to where Nico was seated on the couch. Nico just throw it back at Lewis. Kind of dramatic. But it was after they embraced, and both didn't really do anything noticeable regarding that after it was thrown. This was in the podium ready room.
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I don't think there was anything to that gesture. Nico was probably just frustrated and rightfully so.

Q: (Ted Kravitz – Sky Sports) Nico, I just wanted to ask: did you seem to feel that something went wrong on the car that made you go off the track like that and I know emotions were high in the cool-down room but why did you throw the hat back at Lewis?

NR: No, for sure I’m not saying there was something wrong with the car. For now, I’m assuming that it’s a mistake that I made, just getting too much wheelspin, going away on the cold tyres, the tyres weren’t fully up to temperature yet but it felt very very strange and it has never happened to me before like that, so it really is something that I definitely want to look into and try and understand. And that was just some games so nothing much, nothing more into that.
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