Grand Prix thread 2020 1st Austrian Grand Prix Chat and Predictions

RED BULL RING - 71 laps of the 4.318-kilometre Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.
3rd July Practice 1 10:00 - 11:30
3rd July Practice 2 14:00 - 15:30
4th July Practice 3 11:00 - 12:00
4th July Qualifying 14:00 - 15:00
5th July Race 14:10 - 16:10

All UK times.

I wonder how many will crash on first lap?

I thought we needed this thread as race is close?
Sorry it's lacking in details.

 

Did we get as far as a Race Thread for the Australian GP?

Really excited to see Max win despite driving someone off the road...

 

Apparently Mercedes are changing their engines already.

 

I believe Honda have a spec 2 engine as well, I would guess Renault do too, although maybe not (budget cuts)? In fact I think Ferrari also have a spec 2 PU but their bodywork is the pre season test as they say the improved version isn't ready for a couple of races!!!

If Honda have made more gains than Merc things might get quite interesting
I just hope they are not too rusty and have a big pile up at first corner..

 

Wrote a piece on Sportato about why we don't seem to like Lewis Hamilton.

https://www.sportato.net/post/race-to-the-top

 

No excitement in Practice 1. Merc at front (Soft) , ferrari 1sec behind (Medium). Nothing much happened other than Perez having a bit of an oil leak! Looked more like a PU issue as oil out of exhaust when braking, so maybe Merc still have reliability issues? Oh and Roman had brake issues Again!!!! I bit of barge board fell of Renault....
I don't think anyone was really showing their pace yet but they all got to blow out the cobwebs.
Hopefully a bit better this afternoon.

It was interesting to read that Seb suggested that there was never a contract offer for him!! Not sure if that's the full story or just they never managed to get to the stage of writing a contract as they wouldn't agree to his terms of more than a year and $$$. Certainly looks like he may not be much of a team player this year. Maybe that's just normal from Seb

 

Hammy, has achieved with the help of his dad, the impossible, multiple F1 world champion !!!

A young Black lad from north London even getting a drive in F1 was an impossible achievement, then he progresses through to be the most successful BRITISH driver in history.

I have closely followed F1 since the late 60s and Hammy is my favorite driver of all time, and want him to go on and set an unbeatable record.

 

Looks like Mercedes are running with DAS. Red Bull have 'reported' them straight away so at least we won't have a faff of is the car legal after the race.

No one is showing there hand, hopefully we'll see more in P2

 

I dunno about everyone else, but someone who raced karts from the age of 8 and was privately educated constantly going on about how hard they had it as a kid because they were poor, really irritates the **** out of me. We weren't poor, but I didn't get a private education and had to buy my own kart when I was 19 because we weren;t that rich.

 

I do think he lays it on a bit thick at times but any driver that gets into F1 on merit has struggled, persisted, and their family has made sacrifices. I think he needs to be a bit careful not to get too political and not to preach too much.

 

Yeah, I get that. He's a funny old character is Lewis. I've never liked him, but the recent global events, and his reaction, have made me at least question my own unconscious bias, and why he gets castigated in ways the others don't. People talk about Button as a comparison, but Jenson lived in Monaco, lived the playboy lifestyle (and then some), was caught speeding at 144mph on a French motorway - but that doesn't get forensically analysed like anything at all that Lewis does.

 

Looks like tracing point might be quicker than ferrari

 

Well p2 not very eventful but looks like Merc about 0.5sec faster than rest, so same as previous years! Perez 3rd! Maybe red bull keeping low power settings?

Interesting, at end of session cars queued up on start to do practice starts. They all seemed to just do a start wherevever they were in the que. Except Lewis who moved to pole when other drivers moved off the did his practice start there! He's thinking ahead as normal!

 

6 years of Mercedes 1-2s and we've finally seen a major shakeup. Now it's a Mercedes 1-2-3.

Got to laugh haven't you.

 

The only thing that really matters... if Hamilton wins, will this be an amazing crowd, the best crowd of the year?

Who knows what the season holds, they're all going to be rusty and no one knows how long the season is going to be.

 

My nephew is the same colour as Lewis, and thinks he's a dick. He has a lot of interesting things to say about who is racist.

 

Mercedes so far a league of their own- Red Bull looked a bit lost for set up but think there is a lot of pace when they sort it out. Apparently Verstappen has had a broken front wing that has hampered him.

The super interesting thing is the battle between everyone bar the Mercs on Sunday!

Renault look very neat and tidy, as do McLaren, whilst Racing Point are carrying some genuine speed of course. Ferrari looks like it has lots of downforce but isn’t quite nimble enough to score the lap time it needs. Seb posted a nice lap though.

Glad to see Williams are not cut adrift either, hope young George Russell gets the chance to fight for a point or two along the season.

 

Haven’t the FIA already said that DAS is legal for this season, but banned for next, so why are Horner and Co crying like little bitches to the stewards over it?

 

A full protest of DAS has begun. I suspect Mercedes would protest if it were to be banned the weekend of a grand prix having been known about and legal since February.
It's all set up to be a classic F1 mess. They should have just banned it back when Mercedes asked last September as it was blatantly going to be controversial.

 

Whilst we're on the topic of classic FIA messes.