Posts by stormybadger8

silvergull10 said:So what kind of penalties do they hand out during practice? Just fines, or what? Kimi Räikkönen and Lewis Hamilton are under investigation for leaving the pit lane, plus Vettel because of that collision with Sergio Pérez.

God only knows...
It's pretty funny that Daniel Ricciardo isn't being investigated even though he pulled the exact same stunt as Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen...

As for Vettel and Sergio Pérez, I doubt anything will come of it... honestly, I don't see how Sergio Pérez could be at fault here.

Mark Ruiz8 said:I'm all in on these afternoon races!
Ferrari's taking this one on Sunday.

Actually, it's Ferrari—specifically Sebastian Vettel—taking it both Saturday and Sunday. 😁
I can't wait to see Lewis Hamilton's face when qualifying ends with him stuck in third or even fourth. 😁

Hamilton vs Rosberg FP1...

Funny how every third lap is slow... either they're cooling the tires or some kid 🤔
Could be traffic, but it's pretty weird that they always get hit on the exact same lap...

Timothy Castillo6 said:
Are they hiding their lap times?

Yeah, they're definitely hiding them. They’re about 4 seconds faster than Kimi.😬
Mercedes was only running long runs, so those times are strictly long-run paces...
God knows what Ferrari was even doing.🤷

What's actually interesting is that Rosberg has a better race pace than Hamilton, plus he's somehow way more consistent.😁
And Hamilton's tires just fall apart after about 10 laps in Germany.👋
Meanwhile, Rosberg's can last at least 12 or 13.😁

mellowtiger83 said:Nicole is just hanging around until she finds some guy to cheat with, then she’s gone. Honestly, that part is legendary. Now we finally get why Hamilton is losing his mind—clearly, he hasn't had any real action since Nicole's been around for years.🤣

Did I not say Rosberg needs to put everything he's got into walking Nikolica around the paddock and filming a porn movie with her? 😁
So, first thing she needs is some plastic surgery...🤣

darkmarlin16 said:If I were a mod right now, I’d probably just ban myself. 😬

Pretty likely. 🤣
Honestly, it's a miracle I managed to type that out while half-asleep at 2 AM. 😬

I’m actually surprised you didn't catch the hint in my avatar, even though I've had it forever 😁
The "Em" stands for the number 5, representing five titles, all while rocking that red No5 car...
And the "Em" also stands for the initials SV—for Sebastian Vettel, and obviously for Scuderia Vittorio 😁

steelmaker83 said:If Hamilton was in a car that HAD to pit once more than the competition, and he wasn't even fast on the pace, how exactly was he driving a "dominant" car?

In Malaysia, Mercedes was anything but dominant...

Not even close...
The Mercedes was still lightyears ahead of the field. The issue was just that Hamilton spent half the race driving like a grandma behind Hulkenberg, Sainz, Grosjean, and Perez (who, by the way, was moving so slow that seven cars caught him in a single lap)...
whereas with Rosberg, you could actually see that Massa and Ricciardo were the only real threats, and once Ricciardo was out of the picture, the rest of them were basically sitting ducks...
That’s exactly where Vettel managed to pull a ten-second gap that held until the very end.

Sure, an extra pit stop means fresher tires for the whole race and noticeably better lap times, but good luck setting those times when you're stuck crawling behind Hulkenberg and the rest of the pack for five laps straight...

Christian Harris11 said:To be honest... you're absolutely right. I think Kimi was a total class act, and honestly, there's nothing anyone could say against him or anything he did wrong.

Yeah, a ten, but only after the Safety Car came out...
Before that, his qualifying was a disaster, which pretty much tanked his start. That’s why he might actually end up with less than a perfect score.
But honestly, what really bugs me isn't Kimi's low rating—it's how ridiculously high they rated Hamilton.

I don't see how driving a dominant car only to lose the win is somehow better than someone dragging a heap of junk from the back of the pack up to 4th place...
I have no clue what logic these journalists are using, unless it's just pure marketing or some massive fanboy bias...

graniteharbor502 said:Autosport’s latest driver ratings:
Rosberg 7
Hamilton 9
Sainz 8
Verstappen 9
Ricciardo 6
Kvyat 7
Grosjean 7
Maldonado 5
Massa 7
Bottas 8
Vettel 10
Raikkonen 7
Alonso 7
Button 7
Ericsson 6
Nasr 2
Perez 6
Hulkenberg 6
Merhi 5

They’re being objective to the point of insanity...🤦
Did they use the Stars and Stripes as a napkin before scribbling these scores down?🤣

Give me a break. Rosberg actually had a better race than Hamilton...
First off, his team absolutely screwed him over with the Safety Car timing. They pulled him into the pits way earlier than Hamilton—way more chaotic traffic than what Lewis dealt with, if I recall correctly. He had to clear Massa, Ricciardo, and whoever else was in front, yet he still managed to close the gap to Hamilton just as fast, if not faster.
And more importantly, he started behind Vettel and finished right on Hamilton's tail. So he didn't lose ground from the grid, whereas Hamilton...
Plus, I honestly feel like if the race went another 3 or 4 laps, he probably would've overtaken him. Even without the pit lane disaster, I wouldn't be surprised if he caught Lewis...

As for Kimi and all the nonsense he dealt with? Not even worth discussing. Honestly, after the restart, he might have actually driven the best race out of everyone behind the Safety Car...
Sure, it makes sense that Vettel stayed ahead because his qualifying and start were miles better than Kimi's, but it wouldn't be a stretch if they'd given them the same rating...
But there is absolutely no way in hell Kimi belongs in the same group as those other 7s...

graniteharbor502 said:He uses the phrase "is not clever," yet I find myself wondering if you might try to draw a slightly more definitive conclusion from that, wouldn't you?

They say something along the lines of Dud...
which I have zero clue what that even means, but it definitely doesn't sound like a compliment. 😬

http://www1.skysports.com/watch/vide...eport-malaysia

21... So, did Watson really just call Horner an idiot out loud on live TV? 🤷🤣

silvergull10 said:What is going on with those Red Bull brakes? Every single time they hit the braking zone, they kick up such a massive cloud of dust that I honestly thought something had just shattered under the chassis. I haven't seen anything quite like it from any other team.
If Ferrari can actually maintain this pace and keep things competitive, the heat might shift toward the FIA and their tire selection process.

Word is they swapped them out once Vettel left.🤣
They wanted to make the switch way before that, but Vettel kept insisting they were total garbage, so they didn't budge while he was still on the team.😁

Ashley Ramirez4 said:Ericsson went flying off the track—they actually had to use a crane to haul his car away 😬

Maybe he just pulled a disappearing act. 😬

graniteharbor502 said:It appears Kimi was indeed being held up while attempting to close the gap to the field behind the Safety Car. In fact, during the live broadcast, he even went as far as to ask his race engineer whether he was permitted to overtake a car that was essentially crawling along the track. Furthermore, following the conclusion of the race, he explicitly stated that he had been stuck behind a Sauber while under the Safety Car:
http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-..._Malaysia.html

Yeah, could be Ericsson. He pulled out of the race right around then, so he might’ve been the one blocking him. 🤔

Samuel Ruiz4 said:Man, I just read this on GPUpdate...
Räikkönen was clipped by Sauber's Felipe Nasr at the final corner and had to complete an entire lap at slow speed and, while a subsequent Safety Car period enabled him to close the gap to the pack, Manor Marussia debutant Roberto Merhi was still a few seconds behind the group at the restart, costing Räikkönen time.

Maybe I missed something🤷
but looking at the timing, it doesn't look that way to me.🤷

crimsonstag84 said:I guess we would have seen a real battle between Vettel and Hamilton at the end if they'd stuck with the Mercedes strategy and gone for three stops.

What kind of logic are you using to come up with that bold claim?
Qualifying tires eat up about 30% of their life in just three laps. Plus, you've got massive degradation differences because the track surface changes after thirty laps compared to the start, not to mention how much more the tires wear when the car is heavy with fuel...

Bottom line: there’s zero theory suggesting Hamilton could have lasted more than maybe 8 laps at the start. That much is obvious, considering his ceiling was only those 14 laps on fresh rubber during the second half of the race...
Honestly, even if he could stay out, he’d just be sitting there 2-3 seconds slower than the Williams cars and the rest of the pack behind him...

Besides, everyone is totally ignoring the fact that almost everyone pitted, not just Mercedes...

The ones who stayed out:
Sainz (on fresh tires for 14 laps) drops about a second and a half between his best lap after the restart and his final lap before pitting.
Perez & Hulk (on fresh tires—Perez for 17 laps, Hulk for 15—and knowing how gentle Hulk is on rubber) and lo and behold, both drop roughly 2 seconds between their best lap after the restart and their last lap before hitting the pits.
And aside from Vettel, that would’ve been it. 😉

Now look at Vettel:
Vettel vs Hamilton
It’s not a huge sample size, but Vettel’s third lap was faster than his second, while Hamilton’s third lap was already half a second slower than his second... maybe he was already struggling with the Haas while navigating traffic. 😬
Vettel’s times are incredibly consistent from the restart all the way through 16 laps... the spread is only about 0.9 seconds. 😳
The guys who stayed out on fresh mediums were actually dropping more time, even though they spent less time on track and had brand new tires...
Now imagine what it would've been like for the Ferraris once you look at Hamilton’s later (and shorter) stint on new mediums, where he dropped 1.6 seconds from start to finish.
Man, he would've been down at least 3-4 seconds over those imaginary 11 laps on used mediums. They knew that perfectly well, which is exactly why they happily ducked into the pits under the Safety Car. 😉

Ashley Ramirez4 said:Look, I guess after China everyone’s gonna be a bit sharper—like, things will finally make sense and maybe even the teams won't pull those dumb moves anymore. They might actually go with mediums in Q1... or maybe they already knew there was zero chance of making it to the end using just two medium stints and one hard stint. Honestly, from what I can tell, those guys would have cruised to the finish line with three medium stints if the rules actually let them 😍

That bolded part right here...
On Friday, they ran 6 or 7 laps on mediums and the tires just gave up on them. And obviously, they knew Sunday was going to be hotter...
Plus, Rosberg mentioned that they basically had a pact before the race: if a Safety Car comes out within the first 2 or 3 laps, they pit immediately for fresh rubber...

The whole tire situation was kind of expected, really. 😉
Last year, Pirelli played it super safe with conservative tires because they were terrified of another massive disaster with degradation once these turbo hybrids showed up...
Now that they actually have some data, they've made this year's tires noticeably faster—which naturally means they don't last nearly as long...
At the end of the day, the fact that everyone is shaving off huge chunks of time compared to last year isn't just because of better engines.
About 60% of that 2-3 second improvement over last season is thanks to the tires; the rest is likely the Power Unit or the chassis itself...

Ashley Ramirez4 said:Look, even before the Safety Car, Vettel was within a second of Hamilton—probably would’ve made a move just a lap or two later. By that point, Hamilton's tires were already way more shot than Vettel's

My predictions for the upcoming races:

If track temps hit above 58-60, I don't see anyone having a chance during those long stints. The guys at Ferrari are just too good at managing their rubber... they can basically power through if they get stuck behind someone (just look at what happened to Kimi)
If track temps sit between 50-58, I think that’s where the real fight happens—assuming Kimi and Vettel don't end up stuck behind a Haas or something
If track temps drop below 50, I honestly don't think anyone can make anything happen during the races

Of course, this is all assuming current car and engine setups stay the same—especially since Ferrari keeps hinting they've got a better engine coming, though they aren't totally sure about its reliability yet. If they have an extra one ready to go, they might finally be able to push it

I'm not so sure Ferrari is actually that much worse when it's cooler...
If I remember correctly, it wasn't hitting 140°F in Austin, and they were consistently at the top there.😉

It feels like they played it way too safe in Australia, just trying not to lose ground to Haas. But even then, don't forget Vettel clawed back three seconds on Hamilton in just eight laps after finally getting past Massa, and then just held that gap until the end.😉

The real headache for Ferrari is qualifying speed...
Because the nightmare scenario is starting the race and immediately getting stuck behind a Haas or something similar. If they find themselves behind Mercedes right off the line, it looks like they'll be able to keep pace.

Nicole Torres said:The real issue arises when people start obsessing over the mechanics of an overtake—dwelling on how it might shave a second or two off a lap time—while completely glossing over the fundamental catalyst that made the whole situation possible in the first place; it is a glaring, almost textbook example of how subjectivity and sheer tunnel vision can blind even the most attentive observer.

And honestly, seeing this kind of logic on a forum is a first.
🤣

Sure, let's say the gap between brand-new tires and old ones is roughly a second or a second and a half. It doesn't matter. Lewis still needs to pass Max on track regardless of what rubber they're running...
It’s hardly a miracle that there's such a gap in the first two or three laps, but Vettel was putting up consistently fast times, and the tires weren't falling apart...
And it wasn't some lucky break where he caught him coming out of the pits with fresh tires while Lewis was struggling on dead ones...
That's the part that actually matters. It shows he's settled in perfectly at Ferrari, and clearly, they've built an incredible car that works for both him and Kimi.
Finally, they have two drivers who actually fit the car, which is a total win-win for the team. 👍