IT'S race Week !!! United States Grand Prix Indianapolis Motor Speedway 03.20.2022

wanderingdrifter86 said:What is actually going on with McLaren right now?🤔

Two absolute clowns behind the wheel

In my view, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing were actually neck and neck, but the tires really dictated the order. If we swapped their positions—if Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez had finished 1-3—I suspect Ferrari would have ended up looking like Red Bull Racing does today. They would have been trailing behind, only to realize pretty quickly that driving just one second behind kills your tires, forcing them to abandon the attack. Max Verstappen's aggressive moves were purely a result of having those tires up to temperature. Once Charles Leclerc defended effectively and got his rubber into the working window, Max Verstappen was left with no way to respond.
We’ll see how things shake out in the upcoming races, but if you asked me right now, I'd say Red Bull Racing is going to struggle with pace in Saudi Arabia. They look a bit sluggish through the corners. This is just my take, and I could easily be wrong, but Ferrari felt like they were a level above Red Bull Racing in those medium-speed corner sections, while remaining competitive on the straights.

Presvetlov's engine blew up in three out of four cars at the beverage factory; I'm just waiting for the inevitable frantic call from Christian Horner to Japan asking, "What on earth are we doing?"—though if they have any sense at all, they'll hang up before he can even finish the sentence.

It’s great to see Ferrari back at the top again. They've got two really likable drivers, and honestly, I don't care which one takes the win. Maximilian proved once again that his brain isn't exactly his strongest asset—just another overhyped divebomber...

Honestly, I wish some expert with way too much time on their hands would just look at the calendar and tell us if it’s better to go all-out on straight-line speed or if we actually need superior handling through the corners...

Raymond Anderson4 said:In my view, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing were actually neck and neck, but the tires really dictated the order. If we swapped their positions—if Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez had finished 1-3—I suspect Ferrari would have ended up looking like Red Bull Racing does today. They would have been trailing behind, only to realize pretty quickly that driving just one second behind kills your tires, forcing them to abandon the attack. Max Verstappen's aggressive moves were purely a result of having those tires up to temperature. Once Charles Leclerc defended effectively and got his rubber into the working window, Max Verstappen was left with no way to respond.
We’ll see how things shake out in the upcoming races, but if you asked me right now, I'd say Red Bull Racing is going to struggle with pace in Saudi Arabia. They look a bit sluggish through the corners. This is just my take, and I could easily be wrong, but Ferrari felt like they were a level above Red Bull Racing in those medium-speed corner sections, while remaining competitive on the straights.

Max Verstappen was breathing down Leclerc's neck today, even though he was nearly a full second back before that final target. There's still some room for Ferrari to grow here.

Amy Castillo4 said:I see this happening all the time—it’s a recurring pattern. Honestly, you can just decline the nouns naturally, much like how we handle things back home. For instance, you could say something like "with the McLaren" or "with the Ferrari"—no need to be stuck with that rigid, capitalized "MCLAREN" or "FERRARI" style. It flows better that way.
Acronyms—you know, those little shorthand clusters like FIA, the EU, or NATO—should always be handled with a hyphen when you're changing their case, like if you were talking about the USA—well, the US—specifically.

McLaren looked pretty decent during testing, but honestly, it feels like they completely blew it with this new concept—it’s like they hit a wall. To make matters worse, they're running on those Mercedes-Benz engines which, let’s be real, seem to be performing below average lately. Just one thing after another.

Maybe try learning the basics before you start correcting everyone else.

Amy Castillo4 said:Max Verstappen was breathing down Leclerc's neck today, even though he was nearly a full second back before that final target. There's still some room for Ferrari to grow here.

I wonder if the battery deployment is actually that strong, or if they just dialed it in specifically for this track. Who knows? DRS alone shouldn't be enough to make the difference, especially since we saw plenty of times where drivers were within 0.7 or 0.8 seconds of the car ahead at the finish line and still couldn't make the move.
At least we have the Grand Prix of Bahrain coming up next week. I'm really curious to see how things shake out there.

James Harris34 said:Presvetlov's engine blew up in three out of four cars at the beverage factory; I'm just waiting for the inevitable frantic call from Christian Horner to Japan asking, "What on earth are we doing?"—though if they have any sense at all, they'll hang up before he can even finish the sentence.

It’s great to see Ferrari back at the top again. They've got two really likable drivers, and honestly, I don't care which one takes the win. Maximilian proved once again that his brain isn't exactly his strongest asset—just another overhyped divebomber...

Charles Leclerc mentioned after the race that he backed off before the first corner to set himself up better for the second DRS zone. Max could have played it the same way, but we all know how Max operates.

It isn't a matter of how they were applying the throttle at all, really. One must consider that Ferrari and Red Bull Racing took fundamentally different paths when it came to their race setups:


It was quite evident that Red Bull Racing was hunting for an advantage on those long straights, whereas Ferrari opted for higher downforce and superior cornering speeds.
Ferrari's traction coming out of that first chicane was significantly more composed than what we saw from Red Bull, wasn't it? Given that reality, there is simply no way Max Verstappen could have mounted a serious challenge against Charles Leclerc in that specific section of the track.

wearywolf49 said:Is it even possible to race against Max Verstappen or actually overtake him? I mean, sure, it’s only the first race, but honestly, if Charles Leclerc were in that seat, we’d probably be looking at a massive collision or some kind of penalty incident right about now.🤔

Charles Leclerc and those guys have always had such great battles. They go wheel-to-wheel, right on the edge, getting pretty aggressive with some elbowing here and there, but they never actually wreck each other. It’s clean racing.

Lewis Hamilton is having a rough go of it lately. It’s not just about holding his own against Max Verstappen—it’s more than that. Honestly, half the grid has felt the sting of trying to make a move on him. When you try to squeeze past Lewis, you’re basically asking to get elbowed in the ribs. He's playing hard, and it's making life difficult for everyone else out there.

Then you've got this other pair. You have a stylist who’s basically built their entire following on being a total contrarian, constantly picking fights just for the sake of it and trying to paint Luja nevinasac in a bad light.

Gunter with his typical Viking commentary 🤣

I'm just catching up on this thread because I didn't have a chance to watch.
If the Haas F1 Team and Alfa Romeo are hanging around those positions, then Ferrari basically built a moped.
(And now the keyboard warriors are gonna start digging for excuses, obviously...)
But hey, if that's the case, at least we'll actually see the Prancing Horse fighting for podiums this season.
Then again, how much of a disaster did these guys make of the Mercedes engines to end up stuck at the very back of the grid?
For some teams (like AM, for example), they might be better off just sitting this season out so they don't embarrass themselves.
McLaren, seriously, WTF???

McLaren looks absolutely terrible right now. They’re getting hit from every single angle—engine, brakes, handling, stability, you name it. It’s actually painful to listen to Daniel Ricciardo’s car scraping the ground; it sounds like a storm tearing apart a wooden ship. That screeching noise gives me literal chills. Honestly, behind those two, all you've got left is a weasel like Nicholas Latifi and some guy who probably just sat in the cockpit the other day.

I mean, someone had to fill the seat at Haas, but I really didn't expect it to be 😢.

Red Bull has a killer car. I’m confident they’ll iron out those reliability issues because the raw pace is definitely there. It’s such a shame Valtteri Bottas botched his start; I really think he could have been fighting for a podium spot too.

silverviper44 said:Maybe try learning the basics before you start correcting everyone else.

Feel free to set me straight if I've missed anything.

cosmicmoose2 said:Aside from the car itself, everything at Ferrari seemed to be clicking into place perfectly.
I’m really hoping this means the car doesn't have to be an absolute monster just for Ferrari to actually contend for the title (which is what everyone keeps saying, anyway)...

Honestly, this is pretty wild...
I can’t even remember the last time I watched a Ferrari race where both drivers had seamless pit stops, the strategy was spot on, and the crew wasn't just fast, but lightning fast...

It looks like they’ve been drilling those pit stops hard. Taking a full second off Red Bull Racing with stop times is basically 😲
For years, Red Bull has been the gold standard for pit work—their in-laps, out-laps, and stops were how they clawed back positions. This time, Ferrari beat them at their own game. It looked like Red Bull couldn't touch them, even though I didn't get the feeling Ferrari had a massive advantage in pure race pace...
They absolutely crushed them with strategy and pit speed. For Ferrari to pull that off for one driver is rare enough, but doing it for both? That’s genuinely shocking...

Usually, they lose their minds the second the second driver gets involved, running weird experiments just to get data for the lead driver—whom they usually screw over just as efficiently...
At this point, Red Bull used to look like the organized team while Ferrari's pit wall felt like a chaotic mess...

Timothy Castillo6 said:I'm just catching up on this thread because I didn't have a chance to watch.
If the Haas F1 Team and Alfa Romeo are hanging around those positions, then Ferrari basically built a moped.
(And now the keyboard warriors are gonna start digging for excuses, obviously...)
But hey, if that's the case, at least we'll actually see the Prancing Horse fighting for podiums this season.
Then again, how much of a disaster did these guys make of the Mercedes engines to end up stuck at the very back of the grid?
For some teams (like AM, for example), they might be better off just sitting this season out so they don't embarrass themselves.
McLaren, seriously, WTF???

I wouldn't say it's just the engine...
McLaren and Aston Martin clearly have massive bouncing issues, so they probably went with a super conservative setup to compensate. That likely killed their downforce, and everything just went to hell.
It looks like Mercedes is dealing with something similar, just not quite as extreme.
Could be the suspension too; from what I know, Aston Martin uses the gearbox and rear suspension from Mercedes, so it’s not impossible that the issue lies there...

Though it is weird because McLaren usually builds their own gearboxes, so they should have their own suspension too...
Either way, it's bizarre how bad they are. Honestly, it feels like McLaren is the biggest mess right now, followed by Aston Martin, while Williams actually seems miles ahead of both of them...

Williams didn't look *that* bad to me; they just literally don't have a driver capable of handling that car and putting it where it belongs.
Once Alexander Albon gets used to being back in a Formula 1 car after a few races, I expect Williams to be fighting for points regularly. As for Nicholas Latifi, he's an absolute disaster... compared to him, even Nikita Mazepin would look like Mr. Saturday.🙂

If Ferrari manages to stay this reliable and avoids all the usual nonsense throughout the entire season—assuming nobody else steps up their game significantly—I might actually give Carlos Sainz a shot at the title. He’s such a steady hand; nothing flashy, just consistently right there in the mix. The guy didn't suffer a single DNF back in 2021.
He could end up pulling an '82 Nico Rosberg, picking up points from various positions, maybe even snagging a win here and there to rack up those crucial championship points. Charles Leclerc isn't quite that consistent; he'll definitely grab some wins, but he's also prone to making mistakes and flying off track now and then.

Ferrari looked solid yesterday, though nothing to write home about. Charles Leclerc definitely benefited from starting on pole; he was able to control the pace without having to push his limits too hard. The tires just weren't durable enough. It was a similar story for Sergio Perez—he had the raw speed to keep pressure on Carlos Sainz, but the tire degradation made it impossible to stay glued to his gearbox.

Red Bull built a great car, but it looks a bit sluggish to me. I think there’s still plenty of room for them to find more pace.

stormybadger8 said:I wouldn't say it's just the engine...
McLaren and Aston Martin clearly have massive bouncing issues, so they probably went with a super conservative setup to compensate. That likely killed their downforce, and everything just went to hell.
It looks like Mercedes is dealing with something similar, just not quite as extreme.
Could be the suspension too; from what I know, Aston Martin uses the gearbox and rear suspension from Mercedes, so it’s not impossible that the issue lies there...

Though it is weird because McLaren usually builds their own gearboxes, so they should have their own suspension too...
Either way, it's bizarre how bad they are. Honestly, it feels like McLaren is the biggest mess right now, followed by Aston Martin, while Williams actually seems miles ahead of both of them...

Williams didn't look *that* bad to me; they just literally don't have a driver capable of handling that car and putting it where it belongs.
Once Alexander Albon gets used to being back in a Formula 1 car after a few races, I expect Williams to be fighting for points regularly. As for Nicholas Latifi, he's an absolute disaster... compared to him, even Nikita Mazepin would look like Mr. Saturday.🙂

I'm literally stunned that McLaren is genuinely this pathetic. I mean, sure, they've had rough seasons before, but this? This is painful to watch. It honestly feels like the teams with Mercedes engines all teamed up to sandbag through the first few races just to pull some miracle comeback later and wipe out the competition—because that honestly makes more sense than thinking Ricciardo's car isn't currently scraping the bottom of the track just to stay above ground.

When it comes to the broadcast, I actually looked away for just a split second yesterday right when Sergio Perez's engine gave out.

It wasn't until much later that I realized you couldn't even see him spin out on the live feed because, of course, they were zoomed in on Lewis Hamilton instead.

You're watching this intense battle for third place on the final lap, staring at the screen, and there is absolutely nothing to see.

It’s honestly like a penalty being called in the 90th minute of a huge game, but the camera decides to zoom in on the logo on someone's sneakers.