2017 NASCAR Season

Looking ahead to 2018:
If they don't snag the title in the next couple of seasons, Vettel is going to be looking for any excuse to bail out.
And once he does, we're going to see this whole fallen powerhouse start its downward spiral (and it won't just be because Vettel left).
In the end (though let's see how 2018 actually plays out), there are going to be some things where Alonso was actually right all along.

What an absolute disaster of a season we’re wrapping up...
I honestly don't know who could possibly find it interesting to watch a sport where the exact same people have been dominating for four straight years.
Mercedes-Benz made such a massive leap forward in 2014 with those regulations and that engine that they've become impossible to beat. Honestly, unless we see those new engines coming in 2021, there’s really no point in watching this sport at all...
God, this is just pathetic...

Timothy Castillo6 said:Looking ahead to 2018:
If they don't snag the title in the next couple of seasons, Vettel is going to be looking for any excuse to bail out.
And once he does, we're going to see this whole fallen powerhouse start its downward spiral (and it won't just be because Vettel left).
In the end (though let's see how 2018 actually plays out), there are going to be some things where Alonso was actually right all along.

What exactly are these visions of Alonso's? I'm not sure what he even said.

Man, he’s been shouting it from the rooftops for ages—he’s always said Ferrari completely wrecked him, held him back, and totally trashed his career because their crew is absolute garbage.

Timothy Castillo6 said:Man, he’s been shouting it from the rooftops for ages—he’s always said Ferrari completely wrecked him, held him back, and totally trashed his career because their crew is absolute garbage.

Oh, right!! Well, obviously he wouldn't be making those claims if it weren't for what happened with Vitaly Petrov and that scary performance where he swept half the grid at Spa—taking everything except Vettel.👎

It’s always the easiest move to just point the finger at Ferrari.

But—if we take a step back and look at what happened in Baku and Singapore, or even that messy incident involving Lance Stroll—it’s clear that Sebastian Vettel also carries his fair share of the blame for how these recent races played out and how massive this points gap has become.

The US Embassy is practically calling the shots here, and since the judges are picking the tire strategy for the entire weekend, it’s a goldmine for the sportsbooks. It’s looking almost certain that either Hamilton or Bottas will snatch the fastest lap during the race.

There is a massive gap in how they’re playing the tire game compared to Red Bull and Ferrari, who opted for a much heavier load of harder sets.

I have to say, I'm a bit surprised by how Aggressive Mercedes is being with this approach!

mellowtiger83 said:The US Embassy is practically calling the shots here, and since the judges are picking the tire strategy for the entire weekend, it’s a goldmine for the sportsbooks. It’s looking almost certain that either Hamilton or Bottas will snatch the fastest lap during the race.

There is a massive gap in how they’re playing the tire game compared to Red Bull and Ferrari, who opted for a much heavier load of harder sets.

I have to say, I'm a bit surprised by how Aggressive Mercedes is being with this approach!

You are looking at this completely wrong.😁

My apologies, I was actually thinking of Mexico, my mistake.

In Mexico, Mercedes-Benz is being incredibly Aggressive!

mellowtiger83 said:My apologies, I was actually thinking of Mexico, my mistake.

In Mexico, Mercedes-Benz is being incredibly Aggressive!

What does "super aggressive" even mean to you?🙂
The USA team in Mexico had the exact same number of tire sets as Ferrari and Red Bull, and everyone else too...

Why bother following these stupid journalistic narratives?🤦

If you want to talk about "Aggressive," maybe if both drivers had a choice like this: Soft 1, SS 1, US 11

All these patterns—like Soft 2, SS 2, US 9, or even when one driver takes two Soft sets while the other takes two SS sets, yet they both end up with 10 US sets—it all ends with them starting the race with the same amount of rubber as the competition...
The only difference is one guy is running his race simulation on Softs, the other on SS, and they're both using the US sets to dial in the setup for qualifying and the race...
But at the end of the day, they both have one set of hard tires and one set of US left for the race, plus a mountain of US sets for qualifying (at least 4 sets)...
Basically, everyone hits qualifying with the same scheme: 1 x soft, 1 x SS, 5 x US... how they burn through the other sets during FP doesn't really matter anyway.

The whole point is just what they use for practice, nothing more...
In the end, they aren't worried about how the harder stuff like SS or Softs behave; they already know those will be fine. The goal is to use the practice sessions to tweak the setup so they don't kill the US tires during the race simulation, while still being lightning fast on them during qualifying...

So no, the USA team isn't being "aggressive" in Mexico. They’re clearly anticipating degradation issues on the US or speed issues in qualifying on the US, so they go heavy on the US sets to give themselves enough room to fine-tune the setup...
That was actually Red Bull and Ferrari's trick back when they were pushing so hard in qualifying that they needed a massive pile of the softest tires...

Meanwhile, in Mexico, Ferrari obviously isn't expecting any drama with the US during qualifying or the race. They're focusing more on the long-run pace for the second stint, which explains why they're carrying more sets of the harder tires...

Tim, hats off to you. You really nailed the logic there.🙂

While I'm certain the racing itself will get more Aggressive, we might see an increase in pit stops too.

Before the season even kicked off, I was calling it during the testing sessions—I knew Esteban Ocon was going to be sniffing around those podium spots this year. He’s constantly hovering right there in the mix, but for some reason, the stars just haven't aligned for him yet.
The kid's got talent, though. 👍
What about Mexico?

Esteban Ocon is definitely a solid driver, but the real issue is that there are three teams out there that are leagues ahead of Force India. You’d basically need the leaders to completely mess up their race just to give anyone else a shot at sniffing the podium.

And since the track is basically built for Formula 1, isn't that why I mentioned Mexico? Because they were sitting pretty in 5th place there last year.

http://autoweek.com/article/racing/w...ite-number-103

So, there are 103 different ways Hamilton walks away with the title in Mexico, and only 8 scenarios where Vettel stays in the hunt...

If Hamilton doesn't wrap this up right now, I'm expecting a total meltdown on par with 2007.🤣

stormybadger8 said:http://autoweek.com/article/racing/w...ite-number-103

So, there are 103 different ways Hamilton walks away with the title in Mexico, and only 8 scenarios where Vettel stays in the hunt...

If Hamilton doesn't wrap this up right now, I'm expecting a total meltdown on par with 2007.🤣

Hamilton needs just 9 points to become champion, regardless of how Vettel performs.

Suppose Hamilton is absent from Mexico and Vettel takes the win; that puts the score at 66-25. In that case, Hamilton enters the final two races with a 41-point cushion.

Hamilton could've easily snatched 9 points over three races if he just jumped ship to Toro Rosso right now. Season's basically over anyway. Let's just enjoy the racing instead of obsessing over the standings.

stormytiger4 said:Hamilton could've easily snatched 9 points over three races if he just jumped ship to Toro Rosso right now. Season's basically over anyway. Let's just enjoy the racing instead of obsessing over the standings.

That's exactly why you can't "just enjoy it"—honestly, people are debating the details of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix more than all the other races combined.

Man, I have to say, Ferrari really stepped up to the plate and gave us a fantastic season for the most part.

Unfortunately, once you factor in those two mistakes from Vettel and two from Ferrari itself, we end up with exactly where we are now.

But regardless of all that, massive props to Ferrari for how they handled this season.👍

Is there any real impact from that regulation regarding oil burning?
It honestly feels like Ferrari has been losing their pace ever since that happened...