[Jody Barton]

First things first, agree with most of your summary Hesh. Secondly, take a bow Pierre Gasly, what a mature and skilled drive. He has been exceedingly impressive this weekend.

Thirdly, great drive from Vettel, after Mercedes forced him into a one stop... but Mercedes need to go racing and stop driving by numbers and deltas. Both Lewis and Bottas clearly could have upped the pace and forced the issue, and they need to learn from it.

Fourthly, Bottas also should have really gone for it turn 1 on the last lap. He stamped on the breaks realised he had the potential momentum got off the breaks, realised the moment was gone and stepped on the breaks again. A potential champion would have had the guts to give it a go.

Fifthly, Lewis Vs Max. Fair on the straight, Lewis left him the space, turn 1 Max tried running Lewis out wide, to stop the cut back Lewis was lining up. He got it wrong, Lewis had left him space but couldn't drive off the track, it was a racing incident, but Max has been clumsy like this in the past. Lewis could have got off the gas, but I don't think he'd have expected Max to run that wide.

Sixthly, game on. I think Ferrari and Mercedes are much closer than we thought. Clearly rear tyre Deg isn't Huge issue for Mercedes, next let's see how a front limited track like China shakes things up, then we have a traction track / mechanical grip track in Baku we'll know more about pecking order soon enough. Barcelona and Canada will then confirm it, but I feel we'll have tracks that suit all three top teams, but not massively.

[Monster Hesh]

So this, would people agree that Merc had the higher top speeds, but Ferrari acceleration and traction out of corners was better?

Why don't we see this telemetry graphic during sessions anymore. Seriously sports has lost the plot on the TV graphic front. Plus point though, we dint see any crowd or people talking in the pits during the sessions. Maybe they are listening.

[morini]

P.S. MORINI, you're gonna enjoy MotoGP, its on Tuesday this week!

Yeah, cheers for the tip off. I'm avoiding the motogp section on here until I've seen it cos I know what you blabbermouths are like.

[Monster Hesh]

I nicely divided community on the Blue flags, but maybe lets stick to the topic now ; )

Blue Flag thread created in General Discussion.

[Monster Hesh]

Graphic showing teams improvements. Times taken from the teams best sector during qualifying.

We may be slating FI for their performance but they are most improved, in Bahrain qualy anyway.
Williams are criticism is justified.

[Monster Hesh]

Can't take credit, again ripped from elsewhere, hopefully should have one for every race.


That two tier trend isn't going anywhere fast.
New softs were a near equal if not better match on pace against managed supersoft pace.
Do we see the point where Merc/Bottas realised Vettel was one stopping, around to lap 42-44.
That running to the delta by Lewis 46-50.
Lewis out on the softs too long, but Merc was covering both bases incase the mediums weren't going to last.
Raikonnens second stint was not very long at all on softs, he would of had a long way to go on used supersofts, 21laps? Weird one.
Alsonso was the last lapped car, can gave up his last lap to let the leaders by, hence his last spike
Hulkenberg last car on lead lap so cruised home, hence his spike.
Only Gasly on equally worn tyres in tier 2, made ground as Vettels pace started to drop. Had more others turned engines down, or more solid proof of TR/Honda pace.

[Jody Barton]

Nope, I think the two tier formula is here to stay until the change in formula in 2021, hell, it might continue long after 2021, because lets be clear the staffing levels that Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull have are ridiculous compared to pretty much every other team. Someone pointed out Mercedes employ as many staff (it's actually slightly more) on their F1 team as Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso and Haas combined. Ferrari actually employ more! Red Bull are only 12 short of Mercedes, they all have the very best engineers between them as well. The embarrassing wealth of talent Mercedes have in their PU team alone is staggering. I don't know how you break that up, it happens in all sports though. However, two tiered F1 has existed since the early 00's so I can't see it going anywhere soon... God it's depressing.

[forzaferrari]

I forgot to ask, did any of you guys notice during the race Grosjean (I think) peeling off to go into the pits then aborting last minute and crossing the white line....is there not something in the rules prohibiting this?

[Monster Hesh]

Good question, I know there is a rule for pit exit where you cant cross the line.
I'm gonna say, with out looking it up, it's ok to do in a safe manner.

[forzaferrari]

Good question, I know there is a rule for pit exit where you cant cross the line.
I'm gonna say, with out looking it up, it's ok to do in a safe manner.

Perhaps my old memory is worse than I thought, but was there not something similar in Baku and someone was pulled up for it? (possibly track specific)