Grand Prix 2018 Brazilian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

One of the biggest factors to shape the way humanity has interacted in the 20th and 21st centuries is Oil. Wars have been fought over it, alliances made and broken, blind eyes turned to shocking human rights abuses in one country while sanctions and threats of invasion are given to another because of the supply.

It’s hard to imagine now but for around 400 years before this, it wasn’t oil that brought misery to many but sugar.

Prior to the 16th century sugar was seen as a valuable spice and something to only grace the tables of the very rich. As methods of refinement improved so the amount of sugar that could be extracted from the cane rapidly increased and soon, the cost of sugar fell.

It was the Portuguese who first introduced sugar into Brazil and by the mid-16th century there were thousands of sugar plantations along the Brazilian coastline. To maximise production and minimise costs, a large amount of cheap labour was required to work these plantations and in 1526, the first slave ships departed West Africa for Brazil. This set-in motion a human trade that by the eventual abolition of slavery, it is estimated somewhere between 11 and 20 million souls were transported across the Atlantic.

I know what you’re thinking. What the Tate and Lyle has all this got to do with Formula 1 ??

Well, in 1959 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a company was formed that would go on to be the world’s largest exporter of sugar and ethanol products. Employing 11000 people and producing a crop of over 70 million tons of sugar cane per year. The name of that company is Copersucar.

In 1974, Wilson Fittipaldi, the brother of the 1972 F1 world drivers champion, Emerson, decided he was going to establish his own F1 team and that effort would be entirely based in Brazil. With a Brazilian designer, parts being manufactured by the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer; who also donated time in their wind tunnel; and with funding from Copersucar, this was to be a truly homegrown effort.

While driving for his new team, McLaren, Emerson acted as a consultant for his brothers fledgling outfit, something that would be unimaginable today. The new team first turned out ready for the start of the 1975 season but, with only a single car and running Wilson behind the wheel, results were hard to come by. Running 3 different chassis to try and find a working aero package, the season yielded 2 failures to qualify and no points.

For the 1976 season, the team would get a major boost. In a move that shocked F1, including McLaren, the team he was driving for, Emerson quit to join Wilson and state to the world that Fittipaldi would, in a few short years, produce a team that would make Brazil proud.

The teams results gradually improved, 3 points in 1976, 11 in 77 and 17 in 1978 including a genuinely competitive run to 2nd place at that years Brazilian GP. Sadly, for the team, that season marked the high point. With ground effect now ruling chassis design and despite the fact that the team had relocated to the UK to be closer to their gearbox and engine suppliers, they couldn't find the breakthrough needed to push on. Copersucar pulled out at the end of 1979 and, despite taking another podium for the team in 1980, Emerson walked away at the end of that year.

Having hired a young Finn named Keke Rosberg to partner Emerson for 1980, the team were at least able to run two cars for a full season for the first time. Keke rewarded the team by scoring a 3rd place on his debut.

The team struggled on through to the end of 1982 but, despite having a car in production for 1983, Emerson and Wilson were unable to raise the funds to continue for another season and the team closed its doors.

1983 wasn’t all bad for Brazil however, while Nelson Piquet was busy winning his second world title for Brabham, a young Brazilian driver brought home the British Formula Three Championship for West Surrey Racing. His name was Ayrton Senna Da Silva, but that’s another story.

Enjoy the race.
 
What a very bizarre race. Opening laps gave some excitement, then we moved into the Kwik Fit phase followed by Estaban Ocon trying to delete the race leader as he attempted to un-lap himself gifting the race to Lewis. Something new to add to the list of things I've not seen before in F1.
 
One might suggest that the Ocon/Verstappen incident was the result of the fact the Force India has a Merc in the back, and Ocon wants to impress his employers (Mercedes).... I would never be so cynical though!
 
Hamberg. Put it this way- I could not have imagined Ocon doing the same thing to Hamilton- but that’s more that he would have been more circumspect with a Mercedes (as evidenced in Monaco) than he would have done with Verstappen.
 
Totally agree with that. Much like I’d expect a STR to give an easier time to a Red Bull.

Hamilton saying what he did afterwards was pretty fair but Max did not like it one bit!

Anyway the kids (Max and Esteban) have been called to the stewards following some shoving near the scales!
 
Despite the rights and wrongs of the incident Ocon was clearly 2/3rds alongside Vestappen and it would have been more circumspect to give Ocon a touch more room, especially as he wanted to win the race, cars just don't vanish because Max is in a hurry, race craft says to win you do need to finish and collisions have a habit of helping failing to finish
 
well maybe Ocon was preparing himself for future battles with Verstappen given Max hates the fact he lost the F3 championship to Ocon. Watch this rivalry develop in the future once Ocon gets into a Merc
 
Everyone knows support anyone British. So Lewis included. He got lucky today because red bull were fastest today shouldve won by 10secs. But hey Lewis did a great job as he has done in parts of season outperforming the car. But strange race was both Mercedes & Ferrari were off colour. Vettel worse race for a while

But i was furious at ocon incident as im a fan of fair play, Absolute moron. Ocon got off lightly because I wouldn't have blamed him if max knocked his block off would've been fully deserved. As max says that was :censored: move cost him victory & 4th place in the championship. Ok max could been more patient, but ocon was 16th & lap down he had no right to be 1st messing with the lead of the race its the same in any race series. 2nd to stick his nose in gap that didn't exist.

RasputinLives Would it be harsh of me to say bottas was anonymous again & in the 1st stint was losing a second a lap to his team mate & verstappen
 
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As it looked to me from my settee we were robbed of a new race winner by good old testosterone. Both drivers in my view were equally wrong, and stupid.
 
Not harsh F1Brits_90 as long as you mention that Kimi couldn't overtake a car 1 second off the pace that Red Bull had flown by in one lap.

As for Ocon/Verstappen - this has been brewing since Max took Ocon out off the start back in F3. The two hate each other and Esteban is not too chuffed with the direction his career is going in when he feels he is clearly the better driver. Today was completely idiotic of him though.

What did Max do later?

Edit - don't worry just seen it. Silly boy. But then when your daddy is Jos Verstappen you probably think that's the right way to do things.
 
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I have an idea for these dumb grid penalties: If a part fails and puts a car out of a race, that part can be replaced for the next race without penalty. Yes, I realize that teams may claim that more than the actual part failed but I would rather have to police that problem than drivers having to drop grid spots because some corner worker jammed a fire extinguisher up a tail pipe.

It was an exciting race and I couldn't believe the speed of the Red Bulls or how Ocon took out Max. I suspect that if it was Lewis instead of Max, he would have left more room and wouldn't have been spun out. If, by some miracle, the Red Bulls are as fast as the Mercedes next year, I think Lewis will still get more points than Max because Lewis has more wisdom.
 
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