I don't think Bottas ever consistently put the fight to Lewis like Nico, and now George, did. And I'm a Bottas fan. He's not having the best of luck at Alfa, either. Almost makes it seem like going back to Williams would have him in a better spot right now.

Ferrari just can't get it right.

Looking forward to Monza this weekend!

^^^ Bottas fan here as well. We are not having a great season and a string of bad luck. I wish Ricardo would join the Alfa team, but I think they depend on the China money too much.

Yeah, mostly mechanical. Hoping Ferrari can get the PU sorted & they can start putting up some results. Would love to see them at the top of the midfield.
We'll see what the Audi money & PU brings.

I didn't think it was a fun race. Ferrari was a clown show. Verstappen obviously has the fastest car, and then the safety car allowed him to take the lead late without any real effort. He might have done it anyway, but . . .

I enjoyed it more because Zandvoort really doesn't give much chance to catch your [driver's] breath. Seems like a non-stop track, which I liked.
Short enough to keep cars constantly on each other (even if they're 1-2 laps down) but not Monza hyperspeed where you can just blow by.

I guess this is real, wtf?!


Perez running over Ferrari wheel gun, eventually.

I do like that the current F1 “harassment” issues with the F1 Twitter twats are that Yuki Tsunoda intentionally took a dive to help Max were started by Sky Sports F1.

https://racer.com/2022/09/06/a...conspiracy-theories/

quote:

Perez running over Ferrari wheel gun, eventually.

Launch mode.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

quote:

Perez running over Ferrari wheel gun, eventually.

Launch mode.

Yup, I recall them saying the Zandvoort has a tighter pitlane than Monaco, not sure if that hyperbole or truth, but it's definitely not spacious.

quote:

Originally posted by DanH:
I do like that the current F1 “harassment” issues with the F1 Twitter twats are that Yuki Tsunoda intentionally took a dive to help Max were started by Sky Sports F1.

https://racer.com/2022/09/06/a...conspiracy-theories/

They seem to have missed the fact that it was Bottas car stopping that caused the FC yellow, not Yuki.
I suspect that Yuki actually did think he had a loose wheel for some reason and had unbuckled his belts, not just loosened them. That's why he was so slow driving back.
The mechanic was doing a lot more than pulling them tight, he was re-buckling them. Had that been shown to the FIA, that he drove without the belts being buckled, there would have been hell to pay I suspect.
The team knew the wheel wasn't loose from the data. Not sure why they couldn't tell the diff or a Tripod joint was broken from data.

They were strapping Yuki back in because he had loosed his belts because he thought they were retiring the car and was going to get out.

Lew was complaining during the race about the VSC really screwed them. It allowed max to take a pit and it did not cost him the full 21seconds. But SkySports Hypothesized that this was a conspiracy. which they rolled back but too late. Then the pic of Hannah smiling when the VSC came out, really sends them over the edge. You get a gift of 10 seconds in F1 and you smile and take it.

The reality is I dont think for one second they called down to Alpha, and said, we need a caution.

quote:

Originally posted by DanH:
They were strapping Yuki back in because he had loosed his belts because he thought they were retiring the car and was going to get out.

I guess it's a difference in terminology.

Loosened to me, implies slackening them at the adjusters and they are only at the shoulder belts. The main lap belt and crotch straps only adjust by unbolting and would normally be done when basic fitting of the driver is done. Something I don't think happened there. This looked more like he had undone the central buckle, releasing them all at the latch on the lapbelt, as he expected to get out once the correct lights showing the electrical charge was safe. Meanwhile the pitwall convinced him to drive back to the pits.

That's what I think he did, based on the mechanics actions during the pitstop.
Driving the car on the track with the harness completely released would be a major no-no under the safety rules and I'm surprised the FIA didn't seem to pick up on that.

quote:

Something I don't think happened there.

I think you're right on this one. If he had just loosened they'd have leaned in, pulled him so tight his ass drug pavement and been done. All that fiddling around looked like loosening enough to be able to reattach and then snugging down again.

If asked directly by the FIA, my advice would be to be truthful whatever is was.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

quote:

Something I don't think happened there.

I think you're right on this one. If he had just loosened they'd have leaned in, pulled him so tight his ass drug pavement and been done. All that fiddling around looked like loosening enough to be able to reattach and then snugging down again.

If asked directly by the FIA, my advice would be to be truthful whatever is was.

With how many cameras are on the cars & in the pit lane (downward camera over the pit box) I'm sure the FIA already knows if he was driving around the circuit unlatched.
Guessing a couple penalty points & a fine, best case.

Ferrari Monza livery:

https://www.formula1.com/en/la...Qv3SMH1pHKIqIBM.html

It's better than the weird neon green from last year, but not loving the yellow.
Hopefully it doesn't trigger some Mercedes/Hockenheim special livery woes.

It is evidently not Tsunodo's first time on track with loose belts either.

I mean the guy might not be tall enough to ride a roller coaster. Not too surprising about the loose belts.

quote:

After years of speculation, the details of Porsche's entry to Formula 1 became clear in late July. The German automaker would buy a 50-percent stake of Red Bull and a deal was set to be announced in early August. A little over a month after the tie up was supposed to be confirmed, Porsche announced today the deal is dead.

Sorry to read this; I was looking forward to the Porsche/Red Bull partnership. Apparently, the hang up is that Red Bull wants to maintain total control.

Road &Track Article