Formula 1 Discussion (Italian Grand Prix)
With the Italian Grand Prix coming up, Vettel, Leclerc and the entire team over at Ferrari will be under significant pressure to deliver. For their sake, I hope they get a podium or a top five finish.
Aside from the Ferrari news, Claire Williams is to step down as de facto team principal, and so is Sir Frank Williams. This is truly the end of an era, what with Williams no longer being family owned and run. It’s sad to see this happen, but good to see the Williams name shall continue.
Any thoughts/comments/prediction as to how this weekend will play out?
Post FP1 and FP2 edit: Ahhhh mate fp1 was sad. Verstappen crash and Vettel 19th. But a show of Albon brilliance with 3rd there. Fp2 quickly negated everything fp1 put together; Albon went back down in rankings and Vettel returned to mediocrity. But hey, Alpha Tauri should be pumped, Gasly and Kyvat look amazing right now.
Post Quali edit: Vettel at 17th. Fuck. Me. Bloody Grosjean and KMag qualified higher in the bloody Haas. I’m not sure how they went from winning Monza to not making it out of Q1. Sainz put in a lovely drive to get to 3rd, and I’m expecting Danny Ric and Ocon to really shine on Sunday. Alpha Tauri will secure decent points. RBR will put Albon on an 18 stop soft tires only strategy, release him into traffic and blame him for 6th place. But hey, classic Monza qualifying chaos.
Post Race edit: What the fuck did I just witness? That was fucking brilliant, it had everything. A true rollercoaster of emotions. Pierre Gasly drove his heart out, and so too did Sainz. It is so SO refreshing to see a midfield team win and dominate. Classic Merc cooling problems and classic Lewis arrogance with the illegal pit entry. The safety car drama, pit entry drama, Lewis drama, free pit stop for stroll only for him to mess up the re-start. Latifi put in a banger of a show too, finishing 11th for Williams. If I was Claire and Sir Frank, I’d be bawling. Hell, I might shed a tear for these legends anyway. Perfect end to an era (relative to where they were last few seasons).
This race was easily the best I’ve seen live... probably ever. The Mercs have struggled relative to their usual dominance this season, could there be some cracks forming? Is this the end of the merciless poles and boring 1-2’s? I certainly hope so. Feel gutted for Leclerc, he seemed to be doing alright after the restart, but we all have him to thank (and KMag!) for an absolute corker. Well fucking done to Gasly for his first win, and Sainz for his career best finish.
See you guys here for next week?
I think the tifosi are going to be very disappointed with the red cars this weekend. Crazy that Charles won there a year ago. Anyway, death, taxes, Mercedes 1-2.
Claire drove that team in the ground and I'm glad they sold. Hopefully this new group can restore them to greatness. Have to keep the martini livery though. It is classic.
Should be some really good races in F2 and F3. Italian team Prema looks like they could get a couple wins at least.
I’d love to see Williams make it come back. Hopefully the finance bros that bought it can pump some new life into it
I hope they’re reading this
What happened at Ferrari and why aren't they competitive this year?
I think there's 3 explanations:
1) Look up Ferrari's alleged fuel system cheating, and their top results at Spa and Monza last year. The FIA privately settled with them. It's very possible their entire car design was built around their overpowered engine, which was cheating the rules
2) Ferrari's car last year was very low drag, but Merc's downforce was way better. Ferrari may have tried to adjust their car too much, losing power in the straights. Their current car is actually pretty good in slow-speed corners, relative to 2019's car
3) Italy was hit really hard with Covid. Their plant in Maranello had to shut down for a lot of key development time. Pretty much all the other F1 teams, bar Alpha Tauri, and Alfa Romeo Sauber (Switzerland) are based in the UK, which wasn't nearly as affected in that Feb/March period.
Can you rank the cars this year?
i think it’s:
merc
rbr
racing point
mclaren/alpha tauri
Ferrari/Renault
alfa Romeo
haas
williams
I'd go
Merc
RB
Racing Point
McLaren
Renault
Alpha Tauri
Ferrari
Alfa
Haas
Williams
Honestly real close between Racing Point and Ferrari. The season still has several races - excited to see if Ferrari's car development can go anywhere. Especially since there are 2 week breaks between quite a few races now.
I don't think Ferrari has a chance of being competitive this weekend, and thats coming from a Ferrari fan. Monza is a low down force circuit, which should be a dream for a car that used to be about straight line speed, but that is a thing of the past for the horses.
I am going to get "death, taxes, and Mercedes 1-2" tattooed on my forehead.
Also, because I think its fun, my car ranking would be:
Merc
RBR
Racing Point
Ferrari/Renault (sorry ik this is kinda cheating but I can't rank one higher than the other)
McLaren
Alpha Tauri (Buxton pointed out how consistent they've been this season recently)
Alfa Romeo
Haas
Williams
I’d currently put McLaren above Renault/Ferrari mate. They’ve had a good season, but got really unlucky with Sainz’s tire issue and DNS stuff. I’d love to see Sainz get a podium tomorrow, he’s an amazing driver.
I think Lando makes that car look better than it is. Carlos has had a forgettable season. They qualified well this weekend, so hopefully they have a good race, but they're not better than Ferrari or Renault.
I think it is going to be a standard weekend for the mercs and max and behind them, oh boy, everything is possible. My guess is that the pink mercs will be up high and might get challengd by Sainz and or Ric. One thing is going to be sure, a lot of Italians are not going to be happy because all the ferrari powered cars looked very weak. It’s probably going to be a boring race. Hope they film the midfield instead of seeing Hamilton driving to victory.
You should call him by his real name...Crashtappen
what a fucking race boys. easily one of the best in the last decade
Damn right. Literally speechless right now. Perfect comeback from Gasly ever since he got dropped.
Insane race. Absolutely great to see a podium without Merc/RBR. Was low key hoping for Sainz but what a great showing from Gasly, fully deserved. Fantastic race
Sainz’s time will come, either later on in the season (Bahrain long looks to be right up his street) or with Ferrari in 2021. The Italian team won today, just not the one we were hoping for.
Jesus, looking at predictions and the actual results. What an unbelievable fucking race
What an insane race! Big thanks to Ferrari for making this happen. Besides the winners, the charge of hamilton after his penalty proved that he is by far the best driver on the grid. P.s. I am a Red Bull fan.
Sainz on the radio saying he really wants the win knowing he’s going to drive this Ferrari next year killed me.
Hypothetically....Leclerc could've been P7 or above (or at least in the points lol) had he not crashed since he was on the 1-stop
But Ferrari not REMOTELY coming close to winning Monza is just an absolute disgrace
You are right, the FIA won’t tell us, but something very illegal went on with the Ferrari car last year. There is no explanation for how they became so bad, from winning Monza to retiring both cars. Shocking leadership. The FIA needs to be more transparent about the discussions they had surrounding the 2019 car, and what exactly was illegal. What next, Merc gets into a huge scandal for their car and the FIA just shuts the fuck up about it? Very fishy stuff.
I think the FIA never understood HOW ferrari cheated with the fuel flow system, but only that they were definitely skirting the regulations, part of the settlement was rumored to be smth along the lines of: we won't punish you if you help us understand how you did it. Judging by the interviews it seems like they built the SF1000 assuming the engine would be powerful - hence the aggressive aero setup - and since the PU totally sucks now there's probably negative synergies between chassis and engine hence the abysmal pace and handling. my 2 cents
Wait, what's this Merc scandal you're talking about? lol
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