Updated: Formula 1 all seasons thread!

[Zim Hosein]

Hamilton scores his 92nd pole position & 150th front row starts!

 

[Zim Hosein]

Hamilton's 88th career win, 54th victory from pole position and a record breaking 156th podium finish!

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Vettel also became the second ever driver to pass 3000 career points, just after Hamilton.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Vettel also became the second ever driver to pass 3000 career points, just after Hamilton.

I forgot that Kimi Raikkonen has also raced more than 50,000 miles (~Lap 37), that's more than twice around the equator!

 

[Ajay]

Geez, least fun race to watch so far (well, it's normally hard to pass in Barcelona). Only 3 cars on the lead lap. Hamilton was on rails. Kudos to Seb for doing a pretty good job in a car with awful pace (and stupid decision making at Ferrari). RB must be pretty happy that they drop Renault and went with a Honda engine. The new Mercedes engine is a monster - Bottas took two seconds off Max in one lap with the engine turned up for a fastest lap!

 

[_Rick_]

I'm expecting Spa will be another walk-over for MB... I don't think RB has the pace on the straights, and on the long lap, I'm expecting up to a second advantage in Q3 for the Mercs.
A decent chance for the pink Mercedes to challenge Red Bull, and Ferrari will probably run with Monza-spec wings, and lose tons in the middle sector.
Williams should get a car out of Q1, as Sauber and Haas will suffer badly, with the Ferrari engine.
At the start, into La Source, I'm expecting the Alpha Tauris or Ferraris to be the cause of an accident. They'll both be trying to get an advantage over the Renault-engined cars, and something will have to give.

Also: Helmut Marko dropped, that the Hulk got in touch, but he didn't mention it so far, as not to worry Alex Albon. Well, he did mention it now.....

 

[Ajay]

Hmm, never looked this up before - Spa is a 7km course! An yeah, looks like Merc will pound everyone else barring a tire issue of mechanical. Just wish Honda could turn up the engine a bit - but probably not enough till next year.
Hulkenberg is an interesting bit of news. RB needs a stronger 2nd. Mercedes expected more competition this year (especially from Ferrari) but the opposite happened.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Hmm, never looked this up before - Spa is a 7km course! An yeah, looks like Merc will pound everyone else barring a tire issue of mechanical. Just wish Honda could turn up the engine a bit - but probably not enough till next year.
Hulkenberg is an interesting bit of news. RB needs a stronger 2nd. Mercedes expected more competition this year (especially from Ferrari) but the opposite happened.

That is why the race is only 44 laps.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Updated Schedule: F1 Turkish Grand Prix Is Part of 'Final' 2020 Race Calendar.

I like Istanbul's track layout, should be quite entertaining I must say from past races!

Also from different sources that I have read online, it does appear that this current F1 season will be capped at 17 races.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Happy 31st Birthday Valteri Bottas!

 

[Zim Hosein]

Dedicated to Chadwick Boseman, Hamilton takes his 93rd Pole Position and sets a new track record at Spa!

 

[Ajay]

Mercedes is crushing it. With the extra rear wing, Hamilton looked like he was on rails. I wonder if Bottas confidence is dropping again?
Max, as usual, got everything out of the car he has.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Mercedes is crushing it. With the extra rear wing, Hamilton looked like he was on rails. I wonder if Bottas confidence is dropping again?
Max, as usual, got everything out of the car he has.

Rails indeed Ajay:

Hamilton's Record Breaking Pole at Spa 1:41:252

As for Bottas, I'm going to have to agree w/ you regarding his confidence dropping off, but look at what he has to strive for!

 

[Zim Hosein]

Win number 89 in the books for Hamilton, just 2 shy of Schumacher's all time record of 91!

 

[JulesMaximus]

Rails indeed Ajay:

Hamilton's Record Breaking Pole at Spa 1:41:252

As for Bottas, I'm going to have to agree w/ you regarding his confidence dropping off, but look at what he has to strive for!

I don't think Bottas has what it takes to beat Hamilton. It took everything Nico Rosberg had to barely eek out a championship winning season against Hamilton and Hamilton had a lot of bad luck mechanically that year too as well as some on-track incidents with Rosberg. He really should be going for his 8th WDC this year.

 

[Ajay]

I don't think Bottas has what it takes to beat Hamilton. It took everything Nico Rosberg had to barely eek out a championship winning season against Hamilton and Hamilton had a lot of bad luck mechanically that year too as well as some on-track incidents with Rosberg. He really should be going for his 8th WDC this year.

I agree - seems to be a bit lacking both mentally an on the track. Nico was a more aggressive driver than Bottas. I think both Rosberg and Hamilton did some sketchy things to each other when they were both racing for Mercedes.

Anyway, the race was a bit boring with the podium winners going no where. Nice to see Renault mixing it up near the top (though well behind time wise). Sad to see Ferrari just slip into everyone's back mirrors (and effing up strategy to make it even worse). The extra coaching Albon is getting looks like it might be working (we'll see).

 

[JulesMaximus]

I agree - seems to be a bit lacking both mentally an on the track. Nico was a more aggressive driver than Bottas. I think both Rosberg and Hamilton did some sketchy things to each other when they were both racing for Mercedes.

Anyway, the race was a bit boring with the podium winners going no where. Nice to see Renault mixing it up near the top (though well behind time wise). Sad to see Ferrari just slip into everyone's back mirrors (and effing up strategy to make it even worse). The extra coaching Albon is getting looks like it might be working (we'll see).

I so badly want Ricciardo to get a podium this season. He has a bet with the Renault team boss that if he gets a podium finish then boss has to get a tattoo of Ricciardo's choosing. He has a great sense of humor and is a bit of a prankster so I can only imagine what he will come up with. I think a shoe would be a good tattoo for him. Maybe a shoe with champagne spilling out of it.

 

[_Rick_]

Renault wasn't that far behind at the line - about 3 seconds behind Max? They had some great pace over the final laps, compared to the front runners.

 

[Ajay]

Renault wasn't that far behind at the line - about 3 seconds behind Max? They had some great pace over the final laps, compared to the front runners.

Nice catch. I thought it was longer. Was Max just managing? IDK, but it's a solid fourth place finish. Like @JulesMaximus , I'd love to see Riccardo on the podium this year.

 

[_Rick_]

Was Max just managing?

I think almost everyone had run-away cooling of their tires.
If they tried to push, there would be no grip, so they'd get lockups, and if they stopped pushing, the tire would get colder still.
This probably made more of a difference for the high-downforce setups, as the low downforce guys were relatively slow in the middle sector anyway. They also put less stress through the tire, so probably also had slightly better wear, and the Renault chassis appears to be doing some magic as well.

So I don't Max was actively slowing down - instead all the top three massively lost confidence in their tires over the last 10 laps, and were worried about lock-ups, flat-spots and the resulting potential for delamination/piercing and vibrations.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Hamilton's 94th pole position, a new track record & sets the fastest qualifying lap in Formula 1 history at 164.286mph!

 

[Ajay]

Ugh, stupid move on my part, have watched qualifying yet

 

[Zim Hosein]

Monza results: Gasly P1, Sainz P2 & Stroll P3!

After a 10 second stop and go penalty, Hamilton still makes it back to P7 and grabs fastest lap too!

 

[Bubbleawsome]

What a race

 

[Ajay]

That was different. Great example of why position is usually king.
Is this the first race were the race engine settings have to be the same as in qualy?