The 'just about on time' brazilian GP chat & predictions

it would've been until you pointed it out, now it'll be Monaco II.

I'd like a bit of rain at some point, that's generally quite fun.

 

Tempting fate , but Brazil is USUALLY entertaining , as Big Ern says , Rain YES PLEASE

 

when that turn 1 is there every single lap there can be no holding up if anyone.

my disaster would be ricciardo car blow up. verstappen hits vettel lap 1 and then Bottas drives off while Raikkonen tools about shouting abuse at his engineer

 

and then takes a short cut through a cul-de-sac.

 

Hmmm Mad Max - concerning really that the start is likely to be dictated by what he does or doesn’t do.

 

You know what . I Would like Bottas to win , but what I REALLY want for the next 2 races , is weather disrupted , hell for leather exciting races

Not that it will happen ....

 

Bottas won’t win :-(

 

Bottas is pretty average in that Merc compared to whom I class as the elite.

Vettel and Ferrari aren't exactly setting it alight today yet Bottas can't seem to respond.

 

Piss poor race by Bottas to come 2nd. You know if that had been Hamilton he would have won even after being overtaken by Vettel at the start

 

Doubt it, Vettel had the race won and was taken it easy for most of the second half of the race and Hamilton couldn't even get pass Kimi with faster tyres on.

 

There’s a big difference between leading against Bottas than leading against Hamilton

 

Two things that are evident today.

1. The Merc (or at least the Merc/Lewis) combo is by far the fastest car. An average under performing Bottas kept Vettel honest and was never under threat from Kimi. Lewis put 20+ seconds on Ricc after the stops!

2. The theory that grid penalties are enough (or punish the driver unfairly) to punish teams for overuse of PU’s is flawed. We have seen Vettel and Lewis come from the back in Mexico to 4th with no safety car, and today from the pit lane Lewis managed 4th and could have won.

Up bank, not a huge straight..... crazy

 

Is finishing 4th in a race either could have won not a penalty? I think the bigger issue is the gap between the top 3 teams and everyone else. Force India, Renault and McLaren are at least a minute behind over race distance most races. If that gap was smaller, it'd be much harder for the big teams to scythe through. The penalties are working on everyone else, unfair as that seems.

 

Not really, if you can introduce new PU’s and only drop a couple of places but have fresher units for future races it’s advantagious. A manufacture can afford to introduce a new PU over its customers on both a cost perspective and a performance perspective. Its why I believe that over a season WCC points loss isn’t a deterrent and grid penalties isn’t enough - given they don’t alwats start from the back anyway.

 

It really was a boring race...

 

I think it's fair to say that Bottas is bang average at best. He really doesn't deserve that seat, it's an absolute waste.

 

Ah fair enough, I wasn't considering the longer term. How would you like to see teams penalised then for the use of additional engines - given it's going to be an even greater issue next season?

 

was a good race but not a great one.

it lacked that fight up front. hamilton and ricciardo made the race really.

 

I honestly don’t know mate, I can’t see what else can be done that isn’t all ready being done. What concerns me is that there is growing support for the abolishment off grid penalties in exchange for constructors points. For me the driver then gets an unfair advantage over his competitor in the WDC.

 

I'm not sure there is a fix for it tbh. Can't really penalize drivers points, some teams won't give a crap about losing championship points, big teams wouldn't care about financial penalties. Only way you could make it a real penatly is if it carried over two races, but that would just be ridiculous. It is what it is. If the teams were closer in performance it would be fine I guess.