F1 - 2018 season discussion

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Willie Trombone

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^^It's possible he's complaining that to keep the tyres warm you have to drive all over the road to make your delta and go fast enough? Surely it's better than just being handed an advantage through bunching the pack up.
 
Fox1

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Ferrari are making a habit of calling the wrong strategy at Barcelona. At this rate, they will get schooled at Monza. Anyways, another massive drive from Le Clerc in what was essentially a back marker team for the last 2 seasons.
 
thestaggy

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It seems as if Williams finally have clarity on where it has gone wrong with their car. Fixing it is another matter.

Wurz explains 'crisis' with 2018 Williams Formula 1 car

Williams's current "crisis" is caused by an aerodynamic stall that is giving its drivers "no confidence" in the car, says team consultant and ex-Formula 1 driver Alex Wurz.


Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin were the two slowest drivers in qualifying for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, which continues a miserable start to the season for Williams. 


Stroll scored the team's first points of the year in the last race in Azerbaijan, aided by the unique demands of that circuit and severe attrition in that race, but the car's fundamental problem remains.


"We lose downforce at the diffuser, at the floor," Wurz said on ORF, Austria's national broadcaster, during its Spanish GP qualifying coverage.


"We had this problem a little bit last year, but it was only annoying. Now it's basically a stall.


"We lose so much grip, and then the driver has no confidence in the car at all. That's our problem.


"Identifying the problem is only 10%. To correct and implement this is in fact the difficult task."


Wurz said one positive was that the exaggerated problems made it clear there was a fundamental issue and would avoid different departments pointing fingers at each other. 


He thinks the cause "must be a mistake somewhere in the software and in the simulation" and said poor correlation had been a problem for Williams for some time.


"This has been missing here since 2015, but only in small segments and small steps," he said.
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Also reaffirms what I said regarding Williams a few pages back; their chassis has had issues for a while.
 
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Willie Trombone

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Fox1 said:
Ferrari are making a habit of calling the wrong strategy at Barcelona. At this rate, they will get schooled at Monza. Anyways, another massive drive from Le Clerc in what was essentially a back marker team for the last 2 seasons.
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To be fair they didnt have the car for the track so they had to try somethibg different. Monaco will be a shake up too. Short of an accident this should be Daniel's race IMO.
 
Agent_Smith

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Lol, didn't know about this

Ricciardo's 'sneaky spin' under VSC

Ricciardo was running fifth at the time and looking to keep the pressure on Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in P4, but an uncharacteristic error at Turn 10 under the VSC – brought out after Esteban Ocon’s Force India came to a halt – left him facing the wrong way, and then his attempt to return to the track put him even further behind.

The Australian then bounced back to set the quickest lap of the race before eventually sealing a lonely P5, and Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner has no doubt that the mishap was crucial in the surprising gap between Ricciardo and his third-placed Dutch team mate.

“He had a sneaky spin the camera didn’t pick up behind the Virtual Safety Car on the re-start,” Horner said. “He dropped about 12 seconds to that pack and that point. But you could see his pace in clear air at the end of the race there.”

Ricciardo started sixth on the grid on Sunday, but took advantage of Kimi Raikkonen’s retirement due to a power issue in his Ferrari to move up one spot – a position he had to settle for after the spin left him in “no-man’s land”.

“It was certainly a strange race. At the beginning we had good pace and it seemed like Kimi was a bit slower than Max and myself," he said.
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More and video here
 
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Willie Trombone

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^^Missed that too. It certainly explains a lot.
Who else is up for Ricciardo taking 4th place away from Kimi this weekend? Sorry for Kimi but We need a shake up even if it's for a bit of fun.
 
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Silly season rumours: Alonso to join Haas?

Fernando Alonso has been the centre of silly season rumours for many seasons and this year is no different with the Spaniard now linked to Haas.

Returning to McLaren after four years with Ferrari, Alonso has yet to reach the podium never mind win a grand prix.

Although the Spaniard and McLaren had hoped for better this season, they have so far failed to meet expections.

This has led to speculation that the double World Champion may seeks a new challenge come 2019.

And while most reports suggest he could turn his focus solely onto the World Endurance Championship, where he won the Six Hours of Spa with Toyota, Diario Gol has something different in mind.

Haas.

The tabloid claims that the “possibility of seeing the Spanish in a Haas next season is not far-fetched.

“The owners of the team, Americans, want to take the team to a higher level. They have invested a lot of money in the car and now they want to do it in a driver.”

The double World Champion would replace the under-fire Romain Grosjean.

And if that doesn’t pan out for Alonso, the report adds he could be off to Renault with “Flavio Briatore already moving in the shade” to open that door.
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Source
 
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Wolff: Horner ‘livid’ over new 2019 rules

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has said he has never seen Red Bull’s Christian Horner as “livid” before over the new regulations for 2019.

Simplified front wings and front brake ducts, and wider rear wings, are going to be introduced next season in order to try and help create more overtaking opportunities by making it easier for cars to follow each other.

The new rules will make the cars significantly slower compared to this season and also increase costs in a sport which needs to bring its finances under more control.

The latter effect caused Horner to strongly criticise the decision to change the regulations, and Wolff has said he has never seen another issue which has made the Red Bull team principal this angry before.

“I haven’t seen [Horner] that livid,” Wolff told Sky Sports.

“It seems to be upsetting them massively. I don’t know why, for us it was a 50-50 decision.

“We wanted to be supportive of the work that’s been done and the direction looks correct.”

Red Bull’s motorsport advisor, Dr Helmut Marko, meanwhile, believes Mercedes were also going to be in favour of the new rules as it will weaken their rivals.

“Mercedes wanted the new rules because they’re at the end with their aerodynamic concept. They want to start from scratch because it hurts us,” Marko said.
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Source
 
Dave

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manicminer said:
Was about to say the same re: Merc vs the rest. Aerodynamics is RB's only calling card.
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I would think it's more likely going to be RB vs the rest.

A simpler design will suit the lower teams from a cost and resources perspective.
 
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