OT: Racing 2017 (Spoiler Alert)

[F308GTB]

The news keeps getting better for NASCRAP. With dwindling TV ratings and track attendance Roger Penske says teams will have to face budget cuts.

And meanwhile, you can watch a mere 5 minutes of the 12 Hours of Sebring today and get more enjoyment than a whole season of NASCAR.

[Rodster]

Any predictions for the opening round of the F1 championship? I think the Scuderia finally have a car worthy to pose a challenge to Mercedes. When it was reported that Vettel backed off several times to hide the SF70-H's true speed while even still setting the fastest laps may bode well this year for the prancing horse. We won't really know until qualifying how much of a gap there is between the two cars. I also read that Merc had purposely dialed down their car so the Merc could be the ones who are sandbagging.

I'm hoping for an opening win for either Finger Boy or the Iceman !

[Dave]

Ferrari was obvious about their sandbagging, at least to some extent. But like you said, we really have no idea how much Mercedes might have been masking their true pace.

I have a hard time going against Mercedes until Ferrari or Red Bull prove they are faster during Saturday's qualifying. Hopefully those three teams are in the same ballpark at least, could be a pretty big gap to the rest of the field.

I'd love to see a Bottas win, but imagine that would require something happening to Hamilton.

[Rodster]

Same sh*t different year. In both Friday free practices Mercedes turned up the wick and smoked the entire field. Ferrari was a half a second off the pace of Hamilton. Looks like another domination this year by Merc and Hamilton.

Ross Brawn has decided to go NASCRAP and is already warning the teams that if the fans get restless by another Merc beatdown he's going to make changes in season. One thing he did mention which should give F1 fans hope and will make PK happy is that he's looking at doing away with most if not all of the aero crap on modern F1 cars.

[Rodster]

Stroll at it again. Hits the wall at turn 10 in FP3. Daddy's money better be good because if he keeps this up he's going to wind up in a hospital bed, maybe worse.

Oh and Marc Marquez states the obvious by saying MotoGP puts on a better show than Formula 1.

[Rodster]

If not for a few small mistakes Vettel could have been on pole. Maurizio Arrivabene was not to pleased with the result. I wonder if Vettel decides to leave for Merc if Ferrari would bring back Capt Morgan? I think Vettel will stay if Ferrari can stay competitive and improve the car throughout the year. He wants to win with Ferrari and it took Schumacher around 4 years to claim his first title with Ferrari.

[fletcher21]

I think I am getting burned out on F1. It just doesn't excite me like it used to. Sports car racing is SO much more entertaining. It was nice to see the end result, though.

[GB_Simo]

Save for that brief spell early this decade when nobody had a bastard clue how a Pirelli tyre was meant to work, other forms of racing have pretty much always been more entertaining than F1. We talk about classic overtaking moves but very rarely about the races that bred those moves, largely because they weren't often that exciting. The fear this year, which we can't gauge fully just yet because Melbourne is not traditionally a classic, is that we might not get the classic moves either.

Having gone to great, not at all morally dubious lengths to see the race live from Spain, I slept through the whole thing. I am not in the slightest bit compelled to seek out a replay, but I did see qualifying, so I'll ask you this: is it me, or is Pascal Wehrlein doing his best to ensure he'll never amount to anything? Antonio Giovinazzi took his opportunity brilliantly well but I can't fathom how he was ever given it.

Moto GP was well worth a watch not just for the leading tussle but for a fleeting, magical cameo appearance from Johann Zarco, who won't be kept awake tonight by thoughts of whether he could have pushed harder.

[pk500]

The MotoGP race in Qatar was far more entertaining today than the F1 race in Australia. In other breaking news, the sun sets in the west.

[XXXIV]

I didnt see the race so a stupid question.

I see the result....( I have been out of many loops)... Will there be competitive racing racing this year or is it going to be all Vettel as it was all Mercedes last few years?

I want to see some racing aside from the two mercedes parading to champagne.

[Rodster]

I didnt see the race so a stupid question.

I see the result....( I have been out of many loops)... Will there be competitive racing racing this year or is it going to be all Vettel as it was all Mercedes last few years?

I want to see some racing aside from the two mercedes parading to champagne.

This year both Ferrari and Mercedes are evenly matched. Races this year will be won in the pits as it's hell trying to pass another car. Welcome to Formula One circa 2000-9.

[XXXIV]

I didnt see the race so a stupid question.

I see the result....( I have been out of many loops)... Will there be competitive racing racing this year or is it going to be all Vettel as it was all Mercedes last few years?

I want to see some racing aside from the two mercedes parading to champagne.

This year both Ferrari and Mercedes are evenly matched. Races this year will be won in the pits as it's hell trying to pass another car. Welcome to Formula One circa 2000-9.

Thats a good thing no?

Are you okay with vettel winning a race?

[Rodster]

It's a good thing to have two teams and 2 drivers equally matched but you will see more procession racing where DRS won't work because it's much harder to pass. That's why Pirelli back in 2011-16 used tires that went away after a few laps and drivers could use DRS to pass another car.

Unless a driver makes a mistake one car won't pass another which is why Lewis was a sitting duck behind Verstappen and gave the race to Vettel. Even if Lewis had gotten in front of Max he still wouldn't be able to pass Vettel. Which is why Vettel couldn't get around Lewis and had to wait for his pitstop.

[pk500]

I didnt see the race so a stupid question.

I see the result....( I have been out of many loops)... Will there be competitive racing racing this year or is it going to be all Vettel as it was all Mercedes last few years?

It's only one race, and Melbourne always is a bit of a wild card because teams don't have their reliability sorted, it's a street circuit, etc. But it sure looks like Ferrari will offer a stiff challenge to Mercedes this season. We should have a real race between the two teams and between Hamilton and Vettel.

But too bad, as Rodster said, that F1's reliance on aerodynamic grip will neuter many overtaking attempts.

I'll watch F1 because I love racing. But I'll rub my hands together in glee and continue to relish MotoGP as the most exciting circuit racing on Earth. And IndyCar will more than satisfy my jones for truly competitive four-wheeled, open-wheel racing this season.

[XXXIV]

Me like Hamilton vs Vettel.

I tried to enjoy last few seasons but I really could not stand Nico at all.

[pk500]

You'll see more overtaking for the lead in this short clip from Qatar today than you'll see in F1 all season. And this wasn't even a classic MotoGP race:

[pk500]

Here's a classic MotoGP finish from 2009 at Catalunya between Rossi and Lorenzo. Think we'll see racing this good at this track in F1 this year?



The IndyCar finish last year at Texas was about as good as it gets in car racing:

[GB_Simo]

No, you'll see nothing like that in F1. It'd be an interesting exercise to write down all the times you had seen it without there being a major, Suzuka 2005-style curveball as the root cause. Not a long exercise, but an interesting one.

Don't forget, though, that it has never been possible to overtake easily in Melbourne. Even in the more interesting races there - 1997, 2003, 2010 - the interest didn't come from cars passing each other at will. Christ, even in the first Pirelli season, when the Turkish race had so many passes that I genuinely couldn't keep up with them well enough to write a race report, Oz was a snoozer.

Don't get me wrong: I realise this year isn't going to be a classic year of on-track action. Too much reliance on over-body downforce, no consideration of how to improve overtaking (!) and too much willingness to listen to people who, Lord knows how, don't realise that those gummy Pirellis were the only reason we had overtaking to start with. (Proof? Russia, every year, and Mexico, every year - tyres that could go the full distance, drivers who couldn't get close to one another on the road.) Let's at least get China and Bahrain out of the way before we fully assess how bad it is, though.

Tl;dr version: we're in agreement that it'll be sh*t, but we shouldn't use today to determine exactly how sh*t.


If it's absolutely dire, then they'll just tweak DRS until people are sitting ducks, or worse, McLarens down the straight. There was no DRS in 1999, which is part of the reason that the Spanish race that year featured exactly 1 on-track pass, Damon Hill passing Rubens Barrichello into turn 5 for 7th place. The move was ultimately futile, not only because points stopped at P6 back then but also because Rubinho was disqualified post-race anyway. Something for the class of 2017 to aim for there.

[Rodster]

Random thoughts:

Is it me or is Jolyon Palmer quickly becoming the British version of Sebastien Bourdais? His best skills so far in F1 have been excuses and complaints.

Is Capt Morgan finally regretting his departure from Ferrari?

Will Valterri Bottas make the quantum leap into stardom and join the likes of Hakkinen and Raikkonen? I think he has the skills but does he have the mental capacity to handle the pressure? We'll find out soon enough.

What if Daniel Riccardio and Max Verstappen had Ferrari powered cars? Shame they both have Renault engines.

Who will replace Kimi next year?

And finally my favorite livery and paint scheme goes to none other than Torro Rosso.

[GB_Simo]

Random thoughts:

Is it me or is Jolyon Palmer quickly becoming the British version of Sebastien Bourdais? His best skills so far in F1 have been excuses and complaints.

Jolyon Palmer is not 3.4 seconds a lap slower than Nico Hulkenberg, so I find it very hard to believe there wasn't a rabbit away with his car from Saturday morning onwards, though Jolyon has accepted that there wasn't an issue before he crashed it. His Q1 time was about a second slower than he managed in FP1 on tyres two compounds harder and with heavier fuel - even allowing for the fact that he had the lion's share of the team's winter troubles and did minimal performance running, that doesn't feel like the sort of thing you could pin on the driver. On top of that, you'll tend to find that if he's really stuffed up, he says so - he tore strips off himself after more than one ordinary qualifying session in 2016, after all.

I don't think JP is ultimately going to stick around, mind. He takes too long to reach his potential, always has done, and the kind of patience he needs is not going to be found in the F1 paddock unless he's bringing more cash than I think.

Is Capt Morgan finally regretting his departure from Ferrari?

One swallow doesn't make a summer, he'd never have made it through 2015 and 2016 without crossing Marchionne once too often and, let's face it, he's an incredibly stubborn fella. I don't think he's going to regret departing McLaren, though, as he's surely going to do in the relatively near future.

Will Valterri Bottas make the quantum leap into stardom and join the likes of Hakkinen and Raikkonen? I think he has the skills but does he have the mental capacity to handle the pressure? We'll find out soon enough.

Not convinced he's quick enough. I was convinced about 20 months ago, as were Ferrari, but nagging away at me since then has been the thought that if he was that good, he'd have seen off Felipe Massa more comfortably than he actually did. Could go either way, though we're all winners if he gets anywhere near Hakkinen at his peak.

What if Daniel Riccardio and Max Verstappen had Ferrari powered cars? Shame they both have Renault engines.

They'd be a slightly closer 5th and 6th than they are now. Their current issues appear to have just as much to do with the car as with the power plant - it seems as though there's a very narrow window in which the car works, one which isn't always in exactly the place they'd left it.

Who will replace Kimi next year?

Here's a wild punt for you: Grosjean to Ferrari, Giovinazzi in at Haas. Short term deals for both, giving freedom for Ferrari to take Gio if he proves The Next Big Thing, which he might. I think Ferrari are in a better place with him than Red Bull are with Pierre Gasly as their next cab off the rank, though Gasly is no slouch.

And finally my favorite livery and paint scheme goes to none other than Torro Rosso.

Yup. I quite like the Renault and Haas too.

[pk500]

Here's what a proper open-wheel race car can look like. Modern safety, retro look, tech specs that encourage overtaking:



http://www.indycar.com/News/2017/03/03- ... ign-update

The outlines show the dimensions of the current car compared to the proposed car.

This car is a HUGE fillip for IndyCar. If it races as good as it looks, 2018 and beyond will be a new, incredibly fun era for the series.

[DChaps]

Love that new proposed Indycar! Pretty fun recap of Australia by Bill Burr.

[Dave]

Some thoughts heading into a fun weekend of racing.

I'm looking forward to an outburst from Alonso as he gets passed down the long straight in China this weekend. He seems to be at a breaking point, how much longer will he last?

It doesn't look good for the rest of the DPi field when IMSA has to mandate long gear ratios for the Cadillacs on top of the usual BoP measures. That monster V8 is going to be tough to beat on the streets of Long Beach.

I think Newgarden gets his first Penske win this weekend. Really want to see Hildebrand have a good run too, Long Beach has been about the only street/road course bright spot for him (and doing that at Panther says a lot).

NASCAR's format really takes away from the season-long points narrative. Would be pretty cool for the story to be the big lead two of the future stars, Larson and Elliott, have over perennial challengers like Harvick, Johnson, and Hamlin. Instead, who gives a f*ck, those guys will get a win at some point before the playoff cut-off.

[pk500]

This is an insane weekend of racing: IndyCar, F1, NASCAR, IMSA, MotoGP and WRC all on U.S. streaming or TV this weekend.

I'm praying for a weekend of driving rain in Syracuse. "Sorry, honey, I can't clean the yard or the gutters. Weather is too sh*tty, so I'm down here watching racing and The Masters."

[GB_Simo]

Fernando Alonso's running the Indy 500 with Andretti. This year.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alon ... 00-892869/

That's a million kinds of cool.