Formula 1

Shuey had to work hard for it.
Left Benetton to a lacklustre Ferrari and helped rebuild them.

Red Bull are very much like Chelsea or City.
Big money came in and bought them success in a short space of time.

For that reason I find it hard to warm to them.
That and Horner.
They just don't seem to have the same class as Williams or McLaren.
Their a new money team built on the success of a f**king energy drink.

Give me Ferrari or Mercedes winning the title over that sh*t any year.

Bang on mate. I pine for the time when it's just Ferrari, McLaren, Williams fighting it out (with Mercedes as well). They are class teams who have the greats of F1 in their DNA. Red Bull don't - sh*te....like the drink itself. When Ferrari did it 10 years ago it was down to the culmination of the greatest minds in the sport descending upon each other. Schumacher, Brawn, Byrne and Todt were astounding together and still in my opinion the greatest sports team I've ever witnessed. So great that Dave Brailsford of UK Cycling began citing them as an example of what was possible in his own sport.

Agree with a lot of what has been said above.

I never got bored during the Schumacher years, in fact they were the years I really was into F1 and never missed a race, because as Racer said he had to work for it even though he was still a fantastic driver.

Agree with a lot of what has been said above.

I never got bored during the Schumacher years, in fact they were the years I really was into F1 and never missed a race, because as Racer said he had to work for it even though he was still a fantastic driver.

Work for it he did! Even in cars much inferior to his rivals he would push them all the way to the title like in 1997 and 1998. I remember the first two races of 1998 were absolutely dominated by McLaren and they were about a second faster than Schumacher and Irvine's Ferrari. In the second race of the season in Brazil Schumacher finished a minute behind the 1/2 of Hakkinen and Coulthard. Then in the third race in Argentina he completely dumbfounded McLaren, winning by quite a large margin. Even though he finished second that year (taking the title right to the wire in Japan) he got his just rewards between 2000-2004 because contrary to what others said about him, he showed his worth in inferior equipment more times than I can remember. I don't think there's a driver on the grid today who can lay claim to as astounding a victory as his drive in the wet in Spain 1996 in an outdated and sluggish Ferrari where he took the car far beyond what it seemed was capable of. It's memories of great drives like those that makes me so gutted of his current state. He's the one idol in my childhood who has remained so into adulthood and I can honestly say I've probably had no stronger affinity to a sportsman as I have done with him. I was too young to remember Senna when he died in 1994 so I and many others were very lucky that Schumacher followed instantly. A wonderful wonderful sporting great and I just worry whether F1 can offer something like that nowadays.

Only driver I feel like the driver of old times is Kimmi. Give him any car in the grid and we can rest assure that he will push it to its 110% or more and the coolest part is after doing that he will walk away like who give a what and may be have an ice cream.

Surprised to See Vettel outside the top 10, Should make for an interesting start tomorrow !

Emailed Bet365 yesterday to see if I could have a double of Hamilton to be fastest qualifier but Alonso to win the race.
They wouldn't let me because the two events are linked.

Alonso had better not win now!

This morning's quali session was more exciting than anything from last season!

Unlucky for Massa.
Great race though.

The cars are too quiet 

The cars are too quiet 

Yup.
Sound rough.

Vettel better cherish being the current champion while he can because I really can't see him winning it again this season....thank F**k!

The cars are too quiet 

I thought these were racing.

The new pit stop trend

By James Allen

One of the noticeable strategy trends in Formula 1 racing this season is that many of the leading teams have decided not to risk going for the ultra-quick pit stops which were prevalent in the last two years. It almost became like an arms race in the pit lane as crews battled to outdo each other.

In 2013 we saw tyre stops carried out in under two seconds, a blur of bodies, jacks and wheels, the driver barely able to catch his breath before being sent out on his way again.

But this year the target has changed, with pit crews briefed to take a little more time and above all to avoid mistakes. Now the target is somewhere around 2.5 to 2.8 seconds for each stop.

There are several reasons for this. First it has been shown that on occasions a stop will go wrong and the resulting loss of time and track positions is more damaging to a team than the possible extra half a second.

The leading teams carried out a risk analysis and discovered that it was reasonable to expect a net loss of 20 points in a season from botched pit stops. This was enough to encourage the change of policy in itself.

But then there was also a rule change to improve safety in the pit lane after a cameraman was hit with a wheel. Now if a wheel is not properly attached after a stop and a car is unsafely released from its pit box, the team and driver get a double penalty: a 10 second stop and Go penalty and a drop of 10 grid positions at the next race. This is precisely what befell Red Bull and Daniel Ricciardo at the recent Malaysian Grand Prix, where his front left wheel was not properly attached at one of his stops.

So now consistency and error free stops are the name of the game. That said, the Williams team has noticeably improved its pit stops as part of an overall improvement of performance. The team has invested in new technology for the front and rear jacks which has brought it in line with the leading F1 teams. This means that they are now capable of stops in the 2.5- 2.8 second range, putting them on a par with their leading competitors.

http://www.ubs.com/microsites/formula1/en/james-allen/the-new-pit-stop-trend.html

Nice wee bit of analysis there from James Allen.

Judging by the lack of posts I take it everyone is finding this season as boring as the last?

Red Bull have simply been replaced by Mercedes. When one of the drivers starts to pull away in the standings it'll be exactly the same as last season. One winner every race. Zzz.

The new car sounds are so disappointing as well. Nothing to get the pulse racing, sadly.

Judging by the lack of posts I take it everyone is finding this season as boring as the last?

Red Bull have simply been replaced by Mercedes. When one of the drivers starts to pull away in the standings it'll be exactly the same as last season. One winner every race. Zzz.

The new car sounds are so disappointing as well. Nothing to get the pulse racing, sadly.

I watched last weeks, err, oh yes, Malaysian GP, and yes. Boring as hell.

Dead sport now. If there was never a GP race ever again, I would not miss it.

I watched last weeks, err, oh yes, Malaysian GP, and yes. Boring as hell.

Dead sport now. If there was never a GP race ever again, I would not miss it.

Funny after I wrote my post I actually wondered how many GPs there'd been and could only remember Australia! Forgot about the Malaysian one. Can't remember what happened. It was quiet and a Merc won probs.

Last season I was screaming out for it to become a more competitive sport and was so looking forward to this season because they said it'd be an even playing field for the large part. However, since the very start of pre-season testing Mercedes have been the number one car which made me think what utter bollocks they all spoke towards the end of last season. Mercedes are Red Bull's replacement, Horner is bitching and moaning about how they're being treated unfairly like a spoilt brat, McLaren (the team I've liked since I was a kid when Mika Hakkinen raced) are still quite slow albeit not as slow as last season, Lotus have gone worse etc. etc.

If Red Bull could stop throwing their toys that would be great. Ferrari and themselves have fu**ed up. Glad to see a new team winning.

If Red Bull could stop throwing their toys that would be great. Ferrari and themselves have fu**ed up. Glad to see a new team winning.

The toy throwing has become intolerable. Did Ferrari make this much of a noise when the rules were changed midway through the 00s? As far as I know they didn't. They got on with it and came back and fought a fantastic championship with Renault in 2006.

But Ferrari's troubles pain me. A shadow of their former selves even with a driver as fantastic as Fernando Alonso at the wheel. However I think his stint at Ferrari has proven that he lacks the team building ethos Schumacher instilled within them. You look at his year with McLaren and you think that was the moment for him to build on his youthful greatness. But he threw it away because he didn't want to race Lewis Hamilton. I find that a shame and I sense that 2007 will forever be the defining point of Alonso's career and arguably F1 as a whole. Who knows what level of dominance McLaren could have forged and what F1 would look like today had it not been for that incredible racing/political scandal.


The sport is crying out for Alonso v Hamilton part II. Just those two, battling it out, wheel to wheel on the race track. Then perhaps F1 could get back to a level which was last on display with Hakkinen v Schumacher.

The toy throwing has become intolerable. Did Ferrari make this much of a noise when the rules were changed midway through the 00s? As far as I know they didn't. They got on with it and came back and fought a fantastic championship with Renault in 2006.

But Ferrari's troubles pain me. A shadow of their former selves even with a driver as fantastic as Fernando Alonso at the wheel. However I think his stint at Ferrari has proven that he lacks the team building ethos Schumacher instilled within them. You look at his year with McLaren and you think that was the moment for him to build on his youthful greatness. But he threw it away because he didn't want to race Lewis Hamilton. I find that a shame and I sense that 2007 will forever be the defining point of Alonso's career and arguably F1 as a whole. Who knows what level of dominance McLaren could have forged and what F1 would look like today had it not been for that incredible racing/political scandal.


The sport is crying out for Alonso v Hamilton part II. Just those two, battling it out, wheel to wheel on the race track. Then perhaps F1 could get back to a level which was last on display with Hakkinen v Schumacher.

I agree with that.

F1 has always had dominant cars.
What we had then, and badly miss, is the top two at war with each other.

Will be interesting to see how Mercedes pairing develop with a title on the line.

Boring?
It's only getting interesting.

Well once again the GP clashes with a Liverpool game which means I'll be watching on a stream then watching it properly after the GP 

I'm enjoying the F1 this season and believe once the bigger teams get to grips with the new rules and sort their cars out we'll have a very exciting season.  Being a lifelong Mclaren fan I'm actually enjoying seeing Red Bull and Ferrari struggle and after the petulance of Alonso whilst he was driving for them I'm loving that he's failed so miserably since he left.

Mercedes were always going to dominate early on, Lewis isn't daft and would never have left Mclaren if he thought he had a chance of winning with them again.

It's also great to see Ron back at Mclaren, I never took to Whitmarsh.

Well once again the GP clashes with a Liverpool game which means I'll be watching on a stream then watching it properly after the GP 

I'm enjoying the F1 this season and believe once the bigger teams get to grips with the new rules and sort their cars out we'll have a very exciting season.  Being a lifelong Mclaren fan I'm actually enjoying seeing Red Bull and Ferrari struggle and after the petulance of Alonso whilst he was driving for them I'm loving that he's failed so miserably since he left.

Mercedes were always going to dominate early on, Lewis isn't daft and would never have left Mclaren if he thought he had a chance of winning with them again.

It's also great to see Ron back at Mclaren, I never took to Whitmarsh.

Glad to see there's another McLaren fan on here!

Glad to see there's another McLaren fan on here!

I'm very proud of British engineering mate and love the fact that so much car innovation comes from our British racing teams but Mclaren have always been my team from the early 70's same as Liverpool have.