Jules Bianchi passes away following accident at 2014 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix

[mikeerfol]

And Button's as well

 

[yzfmike]

This will be interesting to see. FP1 is in a few hours (just under 3 hours). Would be interesting to watch F1 on a Saturday night. (East Coast USA here)

 

[Grayfox]

Free Practice 1 Session now on

Possible Typhoon for sunday.
It may cancel the race.

Issue with nico last race was a "foreign" substance on the electrical contacts.
Sabotage?

 

[Akmuq]

The Typhoon is only being done by Mercedes so Rosberg wins the championship.


/tinfoilhat

 

[Grayfox]

A driver of 17 years is racing and some are saying it is too young.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

A driver of 17 years is racing and some are saying it is too young.

Hi. Welcome to August. We've been over this when Verstappen was announced as one of Toro Rosso's 2015 drivers.

 

[niky]

Don't see the issue. Only time I'd consider a driver too young is if he didn't have the muscular strength to deal with the G-Forces. Which would be... around 12 years old...

Then again...

If that gives you nightmares... you're welcome.

 

[Grayfox]

Don't see the issue. Only time I'd consider a driver too young is if he didn't have the muscular strength to deal with the G-Forces. Which would be... around 12 years old...

Then again...

If that gives you nightmares... you're welcome.

I would say they are too short to reach the pedals and see over the wheel.

No Grapes for you.

 

[CinnamonOD]

Verstappen doing a great job

 

[niky]

I would say they are too short to reach the pedals and see over the wheel.

Since each seat and pedal box is custom fit... not an issue. Can you imagine what teams could do with an extra fifty pounds of weight allowance and an extra several inches of under-seat packaging space?

 

[GTPorsche]

Verstappen doing a great job

Jinxed.

 

[Grayfox]

Since each seat and pedal box is custom fit... not an issue. Can you imagine what teams could do with an extra fifty pounds of weight allowance and an extra several inches of under-seat packaging space?

Add Iron blocks since they need to have a certain weight requirement.

 

[MHPALA]

RB10 esque nose on the STR9:

 

[niky]

Add Iron blocks since they need to have a certain weight requirement.

So nobody wants extra batteries? Extra radiators?

Or even the ability to spread that driver weight to where it's better utilized?

 

[mustafur]

/

RB10 esque nose on the STR9:

RB10s nose is a Quarter of the length.

 

[Grayfox]

So nobody wants extra batteries? Extra radiators?

Or even the ability to spread that driver weight to where it's better utilized?

Would have assumed they would have a limit on batteries that can be used.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Maldonado has barely turned a wheel, and he's already gotten himself a penalty. Although it's for an ICE change rather than a driving infringement. Since he's unlikely to qualify in the top twelve, the penalty will probably carry over to Sochi.

 

[MHPALA]

Kobayashi +Ricciardo

 

[Lewis_Hamilton_]

"The speed was right, the corner was too tight" is going to be one of my favourite phrases.

Shame to see things getting even worse for Caterham and Kamui, but at least they all looked upbeat about it.

 

[Grayfox]

Red Flag and session is over.

 

[axletramp]

Nico fastest in FP1 - I think the Lewis camp will be happy with that. You get the feeling now that Nico is desperate for pole each time whereas Lewis will be comfortable with a front row start. Nico knows he has to start ahead of Lewis or he's lost his change of a win (barring tech issues, etc). Lewis already knows he can catch, pressurise and overtake Nico in a straight fight, the same can't be said of Nico.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Why is it that Hamilton fans always make out that Rosberg has his back to the wall? Especially in qualifying - which is weird, because Rosberg's problems this year have been the result of mechanical failures. The only time he made a mistake was in Monza, and I seriously doubt that he folded under pressure from Hamilton. It's Hamilton who has been making the most mistakes this year - in Canada, Austria and Britain in particular. Moreover, he has a tendency to make more mistakes when under pressure, like in 2011.

Rosberg might be four points behind, but he's got the advantage psychologically.

 

[axletramp]

Why do Hamilton haters always overreact? All I was suggesting was that pole would appear to be more important to Nico than Lewis when you look at how they race each other in a straight fight. And in that scenario I don't believe Rosberg has the psychological edge at all.

Three points btw.

 

[Ingram]

Why is it that Hamilton fans always make out that Rosberg has his back to the wall? Especially in qualifying - which is weird, because Rosberg's problems this year have been the result of mechanical failures. The only time he made a mistake was in Monza, and I seriously doubt that he folded under pressure from Hamilton. It's Hamilton who has been making the most mistakes this year - in Canada, Austria and Britain in particular. Moreover, he has a tendency to make more mistakes when under pressure, like in 2011.

Rosberg might be four points behind, but he's got the advantage psychologically.

I don't see it that way. Rosberg seems to have been visibly irritated for some time, and I think incidents such as the ones at Spa and Monaco (neither of which I think were pre-meditated acts) as well as errors he got away with (final laps at Austria) and those that he didn't (Monza) show that when put under immediate pressure, Rosberg has his limit.

The fact is that when it comes down to a straight fight during races this year, Monaco has been the only occasion where Rosberg has beaten Hamilton. Even then, thanks to the mess in qualifying, you could debate that one too.

I think Rosberg is mentally strong, but the fact that this could be his one and only shot at the WDC is making him feel the strain. Assuming neither driver has any more mechanical issues, I'd absolutely pick Hamilton for the title.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Why is it that Hamilton fans always make out that Rosberg has his back to the wall? Especially in qualifying - which is weird, because Rosberg's problems this year have been the result of mechanical failures. The only time he made a mistake was in Monza, and I seriously doubt that he folded under pressure from Hamilton. It's Hamilton who has been making the most mistakes this year - in Canada, Austria and Britain in particular. Moreover, he has a tendency to make more mistakes when under pressure, like in 2011.

Rosberg might be four points behind, but he's got the advantage psychologically.

I thought it was Lewis who has his back to the wall given that couple of Nico's mistakes had a big impact on the WDC points. Nico has made other mistakes too this season and Lewis has had more reliability issues and one extra DNF which the last one was caused by his teammate.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

The source of Rosberg's irritation is obvious - Mercedes' ridiculous decision to let public opinion dictate their driver management. The team came under massive public and media pressure to treat Hamilton "more equally", even though they already had the policy of letting them race in place. Mercedes listened to it, started supporting Hamilton more, and Rosberg lost out when he should not have. He was clearly faster than Hamilton in Hungary, and obviously didn't want to jeopardise his race or Hamilton's with a risky pass. He only started to fall behind when his tyres went off. Hamilton stood to lose nothing by letting him through, since Rosberg had to pit again, but he refused. Afterwards, the team publicly applauded Hamilton, even though in everyone's interests to have him let Rosberg through. Hamilton cost them a potential 1-2, and Mercedes gave in to public pressure afterwards.

 

[Lewis_Hamilton_]

Why is it that Hamilton fans always make out that Rosberg has his back to the wall?

The way this is worded, I would call that an accusation that's tarring an entire fanbase with the same brush. Something that becomes tiring to see from both sides and does nothing but provoke yet more inevitably silly fan wars.

I usually avoid commenting on anything related to the Mercedes team because of this. We're all grown ups yet can't seem to express ourselves without attempting to rustle some jimmies in the process.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

The source of Rosberg's irritation is obvious - Mercedes' ridiculous decision to let public opinion dictate their driver management. The team came under massive public and media pressure to treat Hamilton "more equally", even though they already had the policy of letting them race in place. Mercedes listened to it, started supporting Hamilton more, and Rosberg lost out when he should not have. He was clearly faster than Hamilton in Hungary, and obviously didn't want to jeopardise his race or Hamilton's with a risky pass. He only started to fall behind when his tyres went off. Hamilton stood to lose nothing by letting him through, since Rosberg had to pit again, but he refused. Afterwards, the team publicly applauded Hamilton, even though in everyone's interests to have him let Rosberg through. Hamilton cost them a potential 1-2, and Mercedes gave in to public pressure afterwards.

How did Hamilton have nothing to lose, it is likely if he let him through Rosberg would beat him in the race. Also Lewis was lead car at time which should have been given the better strategy but the team were still giving Rosberg the better strategy over Lewis as time of pitting he was ahead but Lewis managed to overtake some cars in front and made his strategy work so when he pitted he came out ahead. In a way though getting the inferior strategy while being car ahead might have helped Lewis as his car had issues with power unit so going much slower might have helped the situation. It is quite impressive Lewis managed to beat Nico while starting from the pit lane and had a power deficit from his second stop of nearly half a second a lap.

If the team wanted a fairer battle, they could have told Lewis to step his speed up and make an extra stop too earlier on and that would have stopped the issue of asking Nico to overtake Lewis as Lewis likely would have been comfortably ahead.

 

[Peasantslayer]

@prisonermonkeys Rosberg has made plenty of mistakes.

Nico has had multiple offs in the last 4/5 races, in Germany he was really struggling to get a lap together in Q1 and Hamilton's brake failure brought a red flag out which enabled him to put fresh tyres on, he had an off in the Hungary race when no one was anywhere near him and he should have been coasting (Q3 as well but the conditions were terrible), Spa qualifying, Singapore qualifying/might have been P3. Of course he also had the offs in Canada and Monaco which benefitted him greatly and very nearly went off on the final lap of Austria when Lewis was coming at him as well as struggling to get a quali lap together at Shanghai and spinning at the final corner.

Add Monza and nearly hitting the wall in Canada when he lost the back end and had to back off.

 

[craigatm]

Nico fastest in FP1 - I think the Lewis camp will be happy with that. You get the feeling now that Nico is desperate for pole each time whereas Lewis will be comfortable with a front row start. Nico knows he has to start ahead of Lewis or he's lost his change of a win (barring tech issues, etc). Lewis already knows he can catch, pressurise and overtake Nico in a straight fight, the same can't be said of Nico.

Yes because every time Nico tries to pass him, Lewis edges him off the track. Not that I or anyone else can really complain as all the drivers, Nico included, do this to an extent. But don't try and make it out to be a lack of skill or racecraft on Nico's behalf. Because that is a load of nonsense!