KaIIe

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  • #405472
    KaIIe
    Participant

    Did the point for fastest lap add anything to the Italian GP? No. Hamilton was able to pit near the end of the race and there was zero excitement if he could snatch the extra point with the fresh soft tyres. Before that, the fastest lap was going to Bottas, and while it would’ve been deserved, it really did not add anything to the race, just a case of Bottas pitting later than the first two cars.

    #402044
    KaIIe
    Participant

    Interesting topic. From the top of my head most of the somewhat number twos of the past few decades:
    – Gerhard Berger. Had a very successful career, but was never in a proper title fight. Had no chance to beat teammate Senna in 1990 and 1991, and joined Benetton with title hopes in 1996 just when their form took a dive, the team going from WDC and WCC in 1995 to a winless campaign in 1996.
    – David Coulthard had a chance with both Williams and McLaren. Closest chances were probably 1999 (when he usually did everything to sabotage Häkkinen’s races while losing to Irvine) and 2001 (but could not stop Schumacher).
    – Rubens Barrichello. Of course, Rubens wasn’t allowed to win while Michael was the number one, but had a chance with Brawn as well.
    – Mark Webber. Again, without Vettel, might be a champ.

    #398301
    KaIIe
    Participant

    I’m pretty sure they will be defeated at some point. It does require some special circumstances though, for example, an off-day for one of the Mercs (a poor qualifying session, and that the top three teams are running relatively close) and mechanical trouble for the other. The number of 1-2 finishes they have does mean that the opposition really must make the best of every opportunity: imagine if in France Hamilton had really run into tyre trouble (for example, a delamination at the start of a lap, losing him plenty of time limping round), Leclerc should have been all over the back of Bottas to take advantage of it.

    #393812
    KaIIe
    Participant

    I suppose it’s the number of starts from a brother/sibling pairing with the one with the fewer starts being listed, but I’m having difficulties finding the next one. Ralf Schumacher has way too many starts, and most other pairings (like Winkelhock or Rodriguez) have too few starts by the less experienced driver. Probably I’m missing someone obvious.

    #387514
    KaIIe
    Participant

    My initial reaction was “no, China/Shanghai is not a good venue, with no proper heritage in terms of F1”, but then I started thinking back to the 500th race in Adelaide: I suppose it did capture the feeling, spirit, DNA, whatever you want to call it, of F1 back in 1990, and Shanghai is a track that (unfortunately?) does that in 2019.

    For the festivities:
    – I’d like to see all the living world champions gathered at the track
    – Some historic cars each from each decade or something
    – Something free/cheap for the fans at the track, like a free pitpass for everyone or something

    #384075
    KaIIe
    Participant

    Nay. I think F1 could move more towards something like the sponsorship arrangements at the World Cup or the Olympic Games, where the major sponsors are prominently visible during, for example, the interviews.

    If F1 had a title sponsor, I have no idea what it could be. None of the largest brands in the world sound really something that would fit both. Coca-Cola Formula 1? Amazon Formula 1? Apple Formula 1? Nah.

    #383645
    KaIIe
    Participant

    Interesting “what if”. As both Berger and Alesi were disappointed and struggled with the car because it was made so heavily to suit Schumacher’s driving style, probably Schumacher would have made better use of it and scored more points. For example, the wet Brazilian GP might have been his to win.

    Reliability is another big question mark. Benetton suffered 12 retirements during the season, while Williams had only 7. Hill’s only mechanical retirement was in the British GP, the other two being driver errors, and if you take a look at Berger’s statistics, his reliability was horrible. Had Schumacher inherited this car, I think the championship fight would have been closer, but Hill still would win it.

    Oh, and who would have been Schumacher’s teammate at Benetton? Alesi? Berger (I think he decided he did not want to be partner to Schumacher)? Someone else?

    #382732
    KaIIe
    Participant

    I’d like to see a bit more consistency in the graphics. Especially in qualifying this year it has been stupid that at times we only see the top 18 cars on the classification list on the left of the screen, instead of all the 20 cars.

    Some qualifying improvements:
    – show where the car is on the track by three small dots/boxes next to each name, with colours that indicate how the lap is going (green for personal best, pink for fastest overall etc.)
    – remove the “driver in danger” graphic. Especially during closing stages of Q1, the order can change rapidly, and I don’t see this bringing anything new.
    – more times at the bottom of the screen. Go for three instead of two. Pilot picture-in-picture at times so we can follow two laps at the same time.
    – and what happened to the micro-sectors they tried a few years ago? Are they still breaking the whole system or why haven’t they reappeared?

    Race:
    – keep the race classification on at all times, even during the replays. It’s frustrating to see the replays of the start on lap 5, when there’s usually still some racing going on. At least show it on the graphics that positions have changed.
    – remove the pit window open thingy. To a casual viewer it might implicate that the pits are closed or something, and drivers are only allowed to pit at certain times.

    #376830
    KaIIe
    Participant

    Stroll at Baku next year.

    #344351
    KaIIe
    Participant

    Jan Magnussen definitely. Heinz-Harald Frentzen also never lived up to the expectations (apart from the weird 1999 season where he was a championship contender until Nürburgring); the often repeated line about him was that he was faster than Schumacher when they were teammates at Mercedes in the early 1990s.

    Nick Heidfeld is also someone who was somewhat hyped (being sometimes referred to the young guy who would replace Coulthard at McLaren in 2001/2 – that of course never happened as Häkkinen retired), but then just never really delivered. He had an excellent season in 2001 along the then-rookie Kimi Räikkönen, but it was Kimi who got the promotion to McLaren, not him, leaving Nick to basically see out his career in midfield cars apart from 2008 Sauber-BMW.

    #323080
    KaIIe
    Participant

    @sam3110: Grand Prix Legends and rFactor both have that layout.

    #322789
    KaIIe
    Participant

    The Helsinki track (that hosted DTM/ITC, FIA GT and F3000 in 1995-1997) had something like that.

    Start of the 1997 race:

    The three different layouts: http://theracingline.net/racingcircuits/racingcircuits/Finland/Helsinki.html

    #315486
    KaIIe
    Participant

    Small change in Finland:
    The MTV Katsomo online package has been discontinued (priced around € 95 last season, depending when you ordered it), and it has been replaced by a monthly subscription to all of MTV’s sport content that costs a whopping € 24,95/month. So for a season that lasts 9 months it’ll cost € 224.55 to watch F1 online this season. The F1 content on the channel(s) is the same as it has been for the previous two to three years, so there really isn’t any logical reason behind this increase in price (except to force more money out of customers).

    (and just a reminder, the Finnish MTV is not “the” MTV aka Music Television)

    #312433
    KaIIe
    Participant

    My predictions:
    Group 1: Mercedes, Ferrari
    Group 2: Williams, Red Bull, Force India, Toro Rosso
    Group 3: Renault, McLaren
    Group 4: Sauber, Manor, Haas

    Mercedes will continue to dominate, but Ferrari manages to challenge them quite often. The mid-field pecking order will vary from race to race, with Williams and Red Bull being in the hunt for the occasional podium every now and then. Both Force India and Toro Rosso have a few excellent races, but generally they’ll lack pace. McLaren has improved from last year, while Renault has taken a small step back.

    The back of the grid is occupied by Sauber, Manor and Haas. Sauber may have a few good results in the beginning of the year, but they lack funds to develop their car properly. Manor is vastly improved from last year, but they are still too slow. Haas is yet another new team and will score no points this year.

    #301931
    KaIIe
    Participant

    A few names off the top of my head:
    – Olivier Panis. Just go watch the first half of the 1997 season; he did challenge for the championship. Then came Canada and the crash that definitely slowed him down.
    – Alexander Wurz. Shined on his debut while replacing Gerhard Berger, I feel like his career never quite took off.
    – Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Two horrible years at Williams, then challenged for the championship in 1999, but never lived up to the hype he received during the Mercedes junior years (“Faster than Schumacher”).
    – Nick Heidfeld. Had a solid career, but there seemed to always be just a bit more potential in him.
    – Allan McNish. While he has been extremely successful outside F1, his career with Toyota was way too short (the same with Mika Salo).

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 142 total)