USA/Central Park 03.17.2019

"Honest, I haven't got a clue," he said. "One minute it feels like we're right there, the next it feels like we've still got a mountain to climb. I'm not one for guessing games before the dust settles. We just need to show up ready to roll and actually play our best.

🍿

who's got royal flesh😁

Eric Perez58 said:maybe we'll see another Kimi Raikkonen this season... what a shocker😉

so basically I'm expecting a title fight this year—it's gonna be Kimi Raikkonen vs. Kimi Raikkonen🤔

I don't get this wordplay crap. And look, I'm a smart guy—usually good at catching these little linguistic gymnastics, since my brain works a bit differently than your average Joe's.

So either I suddenly lost my mind overnight and became some total moron.

Or you just wrote something so incredibly stupid that even a genius like me can't wrap his head around it. Because if it's pure nonsense, there's nothing to "understand."

Can't wait for Free Practice to actually start 😁

Don't worry, you'll get back on your feet eventually.

I'll have toothpicks in my eyes. 🤣

My morning is 😁
It’s really not an issue 🤣

I just love these early morning races 🙏

What a joke 🤦
The crew over at Liberty is just a collection of total incompetents 🙂

The F1 app is completely broken again 😠
Sure, it’s better than last year, but it’s still a mess—actually, it’s even worse than the old one...
Of course, the idiots killed off the old version for this season and now it's gone, leaving us stuck with this new one that's basically in a coma.

For real, I have no clue why some genius thought it was a good idea to ditch the fastest lap data for an actual F1 fan who uses the app 😵
Like, sorry, I didn't pay for the app just to see who has the fastest lap; I don't give a damn about current times or sector splits right now 😵

There isn't a single decent screen showing sector times, the current lap, and the fastest lap all at once 🤦
They just refuse to grasp that this is actually what matters 😵

If they keep going at this rate, maybe they'll manage to build a halfway decent app by 2030 🙄

The Chinese man is doing more than fine 👍
It's just that Sky is absolutely plastered with ads. Since when did they start acting like CBS???

Now I'm just waiting for the second Free Practice to see how the "famous" F1 TV Pro performs. Though, judging by how much the F1 app sucks, I'm expecting F1 TV Pro to be the exact same garbage...

Is he going to be just as useless as Vettel was this year, or is he just going to be spinning his wheels in the wind again?

Zachary Vaughn92 said:Is he gonna be just as mediocre as last year, or is he gonna be eating dust again?

Sebastian Vettel actually had a pretty decent 2018—considering everything went sideways against him.

Zachary Vaughn92 said:Is Sebastian Vettel going to be the same this year, or just spinning his wheels in the wind again?

If you judge by how things look in Australia, there won't be much happening at all, not even close...

From what I've seen so far, Mercedes has an advantage on par with 2014, if not even more. 🤦

Pure guesswork...
1. Mercedes
advantage is at least 1 second

2. Ferrari and Red Bull look neck and neck, it’s gonna be a mess...
3. Everyone else is within a second of Ferrari/Red Bull, though Alfa looks maybe even the best; honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if Kimi Raikkonen is regularly fighting with the Red Bulls and Ferraris...

4. Williams 🤦 is at least 2 seconds behind the ninth worst team...

Mercedes could literally stroll to the title, unless all the other 9 teams are in hardcore sandbagging mode...
but there will be a massive fight from basically 2nd place down to somewhere around 6th or 9th in the constructors'...

ruggedhawk20 said:Sebastian Vettel actually had a pretty decent 2018, given the circumstances.

"Decent" isn't enough if you're actually aiming for the title. He was fine up until the German GP, but later on, he proved he just doesn't have the mental toughness of someone like Lewis Hamilton. The team made plenty of mistakes—Ferrari's strategy is a whole other disaster story—but even then, he made more errors after Germany than any four-time champion should ever make.

stormybadger8 said:If we judge based on how things look in Australia, there won't be much of a fight, let alone a close one...

From what I can see, Mercedes has an advantage on par with 2014, if not even greater. 🤦

Pure guesswork here...
1. Mercedes
with a minimum advantage of 1 second.

2. Ferrari and Red Bull look very evenly matched; anything could happen there...
3. Everyone else is within a second of Ferrari/Red Bull, though Alfa Romeo looks perhaps the best of the bunch. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Kimi Raikkonen regularly fighting with the Red Bulls and Ferraris...

4. Williams 🤦 is at least 2 seconds behind the ninth-placed team...

Mercedes could practically stroll to the championship, unless all the other nine teams are in full sandbagging mode.
But expect a massive scrap from 2nd place all the way down to somewhere around 6th or 9th in the constructors' standings...

That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. Ferrari had their moment in 2017 and bits of it in 2018. It seems to me they're done, unless they've got some nasty trick up their sleeve, which I highly doubt.

Where on earth did this Mercedes pace come from? Honestly, enough is enough!

It’s unbelievable. They were a full second faster than Ferrari during FP2, and I was actually convinced Ferrari had this in the bag.

Man, Gajsić—why are you acting surprised now?

I told you this ages ago.

You just had to actually believe me.

ruggedhawk20 said:No way. Ferrari's car is a total mess right now.

Mercedes is gonna sweep every season—the first team to even challenge them will be Alfa Romeo. That's the reality. Maybe, just maybe, Alfa grabs a couple wins, but otherwise, it's all Mercedes.

Watching another miracle unfold!
Is that silver half-baked mess actually running a second slower than the Ferrari?!
Man, those drivers are something else!
🙏

stormybadger8 said:Look, my morning is 😁
It’s honestly not even an issue 🤣

I actually live for these early bird races 🙏

And finally, we get a race at a decent hour, 6:10 AM, so what's the big deal?

We seriously need to add a poll!!!!!!

And honestly, we gotta have a poll at the end of every race to vote for the driver of the day!!!

mellowtiger83 said:Where on earth did this Mercedes form come from? Seriously, enough is enough!

Holy crap, they’re a full second faster than Ferrari in the second practice session—and I actually thought Ferrari was the favorite here.

It's easy to say they're a second ahead of Ferrari, but the real question is what their actual pace looks like...

Russia 2018 vs Russia 2019
FP1 1:24.026 vs 1:23.599
FP2 1:23.931 vs 1:22.600
Ignore FP3
Q1 1:22.824 😳
Q2 1:22.051
Q3 1:21.164

For God's sake, they're already faster in FP2 than they were in last year's Q1...
and last year they had about a 0.8 sec advantage in qualifying🤦

If they're running the exact same program as last year, then everyone else is totally screwed...
Because right now, their car is looking about 1.3 seconds faster than last year's beast...

Ferrari is looking much faster than the data suggests, though RB still holds the edge.
Is Ferrari actually quicker than Mercedes-Benz? They're definitely in the conversation. Honestly, if they manage to grab pole, I think Vettel might just pull it off.
Ferrari’s ground effect setup seems to be struggling, but Vettel is incredible—he’s squeezing every ounce of performance out of that car whenever he can push the limits.
I'm predicting pole position by about a tenth, mostly thanks to a massive lap from Vettel.

Raymond Anderson4 said:Ferrari is way faster than they look, but RB is quicker.
Is Ferrari actually faster than Mercedes? They might be somewhere in that ballpark. Honestly, if they snag pole, I wouldn't be surprised if Vettel takes it.
Ferrari is basically dead on the straights. Out of everyone, Vettel is the one squeezing every last drop out of that car by driving right on the edge.
I suspect they'll grab pole by a tenth, thanks to a massive lap from Vettel.

What makes you think Ferrari is significantly faster than what we're seeing?