Grand Prix 2018 United States Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I could have totally borrowed C_A_T’s last years’s writeup as it’s completely applicable to this year’s race. I would but I don’t as I have a ton of respect for our moderator and I owe to the site something new, even if I’m nursing a 40-degrees cold and I’m nursing a hernia. Sorry for the brevity of my article and I hope the race more than make up for it.

America the land of opportunity and excess is the next stop the the F1 circus this year. With a shinny new Justice Kavanaugh in charge of waving the checkered flags (sorry he probably won’t), the few f1 fans left in the room cheer and wait in expectation to see if a nearly crowned leader Lewis Hamilton bagged the title (he probably has already). This put him ahead of Frenchman Alain Prost and tie in number of titles with Argentinean Juan Manuel Fangio. Quite the achievement. Mercedes a class on his field, even if he Ferrari is at least as fast, will see Bottas victorious as soon as the the title is settle. Vettel has singlehandedly managed to derail his own path to a 5th title by making a little too many mistakes.

Let’s hope for a real old fashion show and a mano-a-mano between the 2 4-title champions rather than an anticlimactic “Bottas, Lewis is faster than you” affair like last race.

Gentlemen, start your engines and Make Racing Great Again!

 

[olegg]

 

[F1Brits_90]

I was thinking knowing how F1 title battle is all but sown up. Who do we think will be the best of rest effectively F1 version of LMP2 world champion. Bit like late 80s when they had normally aspirated championship. Because currently we have 4pts separating 5 drivers Pérez Magnussen Hülkenberg all on 53, Alonso (50) & Ocon (49) who do we think will win. As For me i was shocked 1 alonso in contention in a shocking mclaren & that he has more points than ocon whose widely touted as having a good season. Hes unpopular but that shows his quality still

Also for a interesting take on it. I wondered If you had a 2nd tier points system who would be leading. Did a bit working out & this would be the championship table

1) Hulkenburg 193pts
2) Perez 187pts
3) Sainz 186pts
4) Ocon 174pts
5) Magnussen 169pts
6) Alonso 147pts
7) Grosjean 122pts
8) Gasly 118pts
9) Leclerc 114pts
10) Ericcson 85pts
11) Vandoorne 84pts
12) Stroll 54pts
13) Hartley 44pts
14) Sirotkin 21pts

 

[olegg]

Circuit of The Americas‏@COTA 21h.21m.
Only referencing the most controversial moment of last year's GP and the reason the FIA installed this curb.
It's clearly not intended as a dig at all, and to insist otherwise is to force subtext on a mere silly tweet.

 

[F1Brits_90]

Dont expect much running in Fp1 very wet. Saw a tweet from force india when there was just standing water everywhere & paddock was a lake. I thought it boded badly when accuweather had flash flood risk for austin

 

[olegg]

 

[olegg]

 

[Ruslan]

Not much to say here....except Hamilton looks comfortable and confident. Pretty certain he is going to get pole and win the race. We shall see.

 

[F1Brits_90]

Vettel for me its a harsh 3 grid pen for what it turned out to me but its a slam dunk as it was careless

Looking at the onboard sky sports had & graphics showed that he slowed down to just above 100kph but then through the red flag zone & why it had been deployed, through 8, 9 & 10. he went from 115kph (72mph) - 165kph (102mph) no matter how minor a red flag is. They always have to treat it upmost serious you cant like today assume oh its just gravel ive passed it. Ill speed up then come across another incident

 

[marksawatsky]

I feel bad for Vettel and was hoping for a battle between him and Lewis but this penalty likely scuttled that plan. But, isn't this just another example of Vettel making mistakes and handing the WDC to Lewis?

 

[F1Brits_90]

Potentially a drier day today & as forecast just cloud now at around 5pm

 

[Il_leone]

I remember Jacques Villeneuve one time in practice ignored waved yellows in Japan and got disqualified . His reasoning was that the car on the other side of the track where the flag was and there was no need to slow down. It was a stupid ignorant move because he tried to race under appeal and got dqed despite finishing 5th and managed to secure the title only after Schumacher's ill judged move

So Vettel should not really argue because red flag situation is far more serious and its still fresh what happened with Bianchi not slowing down enough on a wet track when asked to

Its one of those needless and reckless mistakes that has summed up Vettel's challenge this season

 

[Speshal]

I always said they should have stuck with Fernando.

Ahhhh I needed a laugh today.

 

[olegg]

 

[olegg]

 

[F1Brits_90]

That was entertaining Q3. I might be a hamilton supporter but im glad that ferrari are back because noone wants a 1 horse race. & it Couldve been a potentially great race with Lewis with 2 ferraris behind. But vettel potentially ruined it for us by being idiot on friday

Bottas poor again since Russia ive kept eye on him i know he is a teammate to 1 of greatest F1 Drivers in history highly likely to match fangio & nuts to say its in striking distance to match impossible Schumacher record. But come on 4 tenths off again you cant just turn up once in while & expect to be Able to win. Take last 5 races 4 tenths in italy, 7 tenths singapore. Pole & 3 tenths suzuka. In best car on the grid

Sorry cider_and_toast but id have to side with brundle you want as many drivers as you can get on the circuit. As what happens as in few races were 5 or 6 cars where taking 10+ grid drops like sochi it makes Q1 & Q2 almost pointless as 60% of elimination taken place in paddock not on track & alonso could be higher up but not on merit because the car so bad

 

[Ruslan]

Wondering if Vettel will have an easier time passing Ricciardo early in the race than he did Verstappen.

 

[Il_leone]

Ricciardo has nothing to lose is prepared to throw a few "missiles" pardon the pun to pass other cars

Watching C4 yesterday .. the bit on Ferrari sums them up perfectly - arrogant, secretive lacking leadership and disorganised. Even after the clip the C4 team could not get anyone from Ferrari to speak to them whilst standing outside their pit garage.

The Italian press have been pretty savage and critical with Ferrari and Vettel and have been heaping praises on Hamilton

The other rumour there was suggestion that Ocon might have signed for Williams or is certainly very close to

The quali was interesting seeing Ferrari appear to be much closer and took a brilliant lap from Hamilton to put it on pole. It is difficult to say but the heavy rain might have washed off some of the grip on the track and given Ferrari a better chance for the race

 

[cider_and_toast]

Sorry cider_and_toast but id have to side with brundle you want as many drivers as you can get on the circuit. As what happens as in few races were 5 or 6 cars where taking 10+ grid drops like sochi it makes Q1 & Q2 almost pointless as 60% of elimination taken place in paddock not on track & alonso could be higher up but not on merit because the car so bad

In the CaT plan, cars with penalties would still run in Q1. My model just would disadvantage cars with no penalties.

Lets use Ocon as an example. He has a car that can make it into Q3 sometimes. Let's say he has been given a 5 place grid drop. He goes out in Q1 and sets the 8th fastest time. At the end of Q1 the grid drop is applied. He's 13th and through. Now he goes out in Q2 and sets the 9th fastest time. At the end of Q2 the penalty is added and he's 14th and out. The cars shuffle up and the car that finished Q2 in 11th is now 10th and through. This car gets to run again and have a crack at finishing higher. Without the CAT plan, Ocon would still have be dropped to 14th. The car in 11th would still move up 1 slot but in reality would have be denied a Q3 run that they should have had.

Mapping my method onto a Merc that is virtually guaranteed to get to the front end of Q3, my plan sees them need to run hard in Q2 if for example they had a 5 place drop then they would need to finish top 5 in Q2 to get through. If they had a 10 place drop they would need to top the time sheets in Q2 to finish 11th overall which is where they would end up if they had a final drop of ten but set the fastest lap anyway. The only difference is the 11th placed car in Q2 gets to run again.

Finally, for the back markers it makes no difference. Under the current rules, yesterday we saw Hartley finish ahead of Alonso, knock the McLaren out but then neither TR ran in Q2. Again, under the CaT plan, both TRs would have had their penalties applied at the end of Q1 and been out. This would have increased the cars running in Q2.

I didn't hear what Brundell said but he's wrong and I'm right. (Unless Brundell was on about reducing the number of penalties overall in which case I agree with that).

 

[F1Brits_90]

cider_and_toast that is quite good actually in theory brundle was just on about like me worried that we could end up with 12 cars in qualifying. but I like that idea would make sense for the small penalties. but like Q1 still wouldn't work for the large penalties 10+ because why would toro rosso run if they knew they would be last regardless because of amount of penalties taken & a force india would know that it be all but impossible to finish 5th or higher In Q1 or top in Q2

still say Alonso would've been 13th at best (last in Q2) because I dont see where that car finds 7 tenths to challenge for Q3

 

[The Artist.....]

So, once again, the stewards decide to punish one car (Vettel) for breaching a hard and fast rule relating to timings, but ignore another car (Bottas), which breaks a rule, albeit in a different circumstance

Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Ocon escape qualifying penalties

If Bottas broke the rule, given how Vettel has been treated, then Bottas should also receive a penalty!