Grand Prix 2019 French Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

It's finally time to bring the discussion surrounding the Canadian GP to a close as the whole band wagon moves back across the pond to the Paul Ricard circuit in France.

I've spent ages trying to come up with the perfect PQR thread for this GP.

After much thought. I came up with this.

All you need to know about the circuit is here: Circuit Paul Ricard - Wikipedia

Let's hope its a good race.

 

[Izumi]

Over years Button, Alonso, Hamilton and Ricciardo they all are well known to demand on radio during races from Whiting to interfere on their behalf. Vettel with his "effing Whiting" has adopted slightly more direct approach to solve his problem. Their strategy worked, his didn't.

 

[Publius Cornelius Scipio]

Alex Wurz says the drivers themselves are to blame for how things are now. As soon as anyone does anything wrong they're on the radio claiming a breach of the rules. He does have a point when you think about it. What is the answer though?

a good start would be to ban radio communications, so the drivers would have to figure out by themselves what is going on and strategies would become less important.

Then they should clarify what the aim of the rules is, and finally ensure some consistency.

Oh, and the rules should be drafted by third parties, no input from the engineers, no input from the team owners, no input from the drivers, thay should all be allowed to express their views but a third party should have the final word on what rules are implemented

 

[Izumi]

Alesi, Berger, Andretti, Zanardi and some others could be good help. Engineers are very seldom involved in writing rules, unless your name is Newey, Brawn, and similar. Maybe that's a problem.

 

[Angel]

a good start would be to ban radio communications, so the drivers would have to figure out by themselves what is going on and strategies would become less important.

Then they should clarify what the aim of the rules is, and finally ensure some consistency.

Oh, and the rules should be drafted by third parties, no input from the engineers, no input from the team owners, no input from the drivers, thay should all be allowed to express their views but a third party should have the final word on what rules are implemented

Can't argue with any of that

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Introduce a budget cap that is properly enforced on the teams. Distribute prize money more evenly, and do away with the 73 million dollars that Ferrari get for turning up.

 

[cider_and_toast]

a good start would be to ban radio communications, so the drivers would have to figure out by themselves what is going on and strategies would become less important.

Then they should clarify what the aim of the rules is, and finally ensure some consistency.

Oh, and the rules should be drafted by third parties, no input from the engineers, no input from the team owners, no input from the drivers, thay should all be allowed to express their views but a third party should have the final word on what rules are implemented

Agree with the spirit of what your saying and fully agree that the teams should have no say in the rules, no veto powers or anything like that.

I would love to see a return to teams communicating to the driver by pit board alone however the teams would argue this is not possible due to the complex nature of the cars. That brief period where teams were only able to pass safety critical messages was an absolute and uninforceable joke.

As for third parties being involved, that would very much depend on who the third party is. Bernie was a third party and all his "for the show" involvement with the rules has created the mess F1 is in now.

 

[Ruslan]

....by what I have gathered from your various posts I think that tonight I won't be watching the recording of the race

Fast forward through most of it. Towards the end there was an interesting fight for 7-10th. Would like your opinion on the Ricciardo penalties. Besides that contest, the only other real story of the race is why did Vettel toddle around in 5th, instead of rising up to take his expect 3rd place? Mechanical issue, set up problem or demoralized driver?

 

[Publius Cornelius Scipio]

I would love to see a return to teams communicating to the driver by pit board alone however the teams would argue this is not possible due to the complex nature of the cars.

As for third parties being involved, that would very much depend on who the third party is.

Pit boards would be great as they would have to disclose any meaningful issue to their opponents

third party IMHO should be the FIA, the FIA should set the rules. Of corse Todt would have to go as he's in a massive conflict of interest (same applied to Mosley, maybe they should bring back someone like Balestre, a bit bonkers but with no massive links to any team/manufacturer)

 

[Publius Cornelius Scipio]

Fast forward through most of it. Towards the end there was an interesting fight for 7-10th. Would like your opinion on the Ricciardo penalties. Besides that contest, the only other real story of the race is why did Vettel toddle around in 5th, instead of rising up to take his expect 3rd place? Mechanical issue, set up problem or demoralized driver?

I deleted it before going for dinner... what happened to Ricciardo?

Re Vettel maybe it was a bit of all the three items that you listed

 

[Publius Cornelius Scipio]

Fast forward through most of it. Towards the end there was an interesting fight for 7-10th. Would like your opinion on the Ricciardo penalties. Besides that contest, the only other real story of the race is why did Vettel toddle around in 5th, instead of rising up to take his expect 3rd place? Mechanical issue, set up problem or demoralized driver?

I just watched the bits about Ricciardo on you tube

re the first one I don't think that he rejoined unsafely, he simply rejoined the track

re the second one he should be praised, he pulled a great move, the other car squeezed him against the wall and he kept his foot down. that's what I like about Ricciardo. With such a move I would have voted him driver of the day!!!!!

great stuff, on the first one I think that he was honest, he was a bit long and rejoined the track rather than cut the corner, you used to be praised by the stewards for such moves a few years ago, now you get punished, bah

for the second one I am speechless, there are places where everyone gets out of the white lines and they do nothing (for exaple on the exit of the chicane where Vettel had his little accident in Canada, everyone of them was crossing the white line with all four wheels, it's just the racing line...), here good old Ricciardo had nowhere else to go - unless of course we want to assume that he's not supposed to race - that Sauber didn't leave him many options.

 

[Publius Cornelius Scipio]

Regarding Ricciardo I wasn't super keen on his defensive moves with Bottas on the straight line in Canada, IMHO he was moving a bit too much but other than that I don't see any problem with what he did yesterday

 

[Il_leone]

So before the season started there was high hopes that Ferrari would take the fight to Mercedes and Red Bull with Honda engine be a lot closer to the two

Fast forward 8 races which reads Merc 8 and the rest NIL. People are saying its boring these era should not blame Hamilton... it is not like his teammate is being asked to move over all the time for him.

Hamilton's nearest challengers should be Ferrari and not just Bottas but the scarlet team keep tripping up over themselves either with team errors or driver errors.

In my mind Hamilton is having a psychological edge over Vettel where 9/10 times he will win the battle much like Senna against Prost. It just seems that Hamilton seems to be able to raise the bar higher when faced with greater challenges. Few could live with Hamilton maybe Alonso stood a chance at his peak but this is relentless consistency from him and Mercedes that has got the rest of the field especially Ferrari scratching.

Bottas has improved but he is now finding out the difference from being a very good driver to a great driver

 

[RasputinLives]

Senna did not beat Prost 9 out of 10. Prost very much held his own both race wise and physiologically whatever certain documentary films will tell you.

 

[HansyRod]

why did Vettel toddle around in 5th, instead of rising up to take his expect 3rd place? Mechanical issue, set up problem or demoralized driver?

I think there's no story there; the Ferraris and Verstappen have been at a pretty close level pace-wise most of the time. Vettel lost some time in the beginning as he was following midfield cars, so he stayed 5th.

 

[F1Brits_90]

Senna did not beat Prost 9 out of 10. Prost very much held his own both race wise and physiologically whatever certain documentary films will tell you.

when he couldn't he just drove in him

 

[RasputinLives]

The final score was 1 all on that front

 

[Ruslan]

I just watched the bits about Ricciardo on you tube

re the first one I don't think that he rejoined unsafely, he simply rejoined the track

re the second one he should be praised, he pulled a great move, the other car squeezed him against the wall and he kept his foot down. that's what I like about Ricciardo. With such a move I would have voted him driver of the day!!!!!

great stuff, on the first one I think that he was honest, he was a bit long and rejoined the track rather than cut the corner, you used to be praised by the stewards for such moves a few years ago, now you get punished, bah

for the second one I am speechless, there are places where everyone gets out of the white lines and they do nothing (for exaple on the exit of the chicane where Vettel had his little accident in Canada, everyone of them was crossing the white line with all four wheels, it's just the racing line...), here good old Ricciardo had nowhere else to go - unless of course we want to assume that he's not supposed to race - that Sauber didn't leave him many options.

I liked what he was doing and thought it was exciting racing. By the same token, I was pretty certain he would get at least one penalty and perhaps two.

The good news is that the stewards are now getting very consistent....the bad news, these may not be the rules we want enforced.

 

[Jimbob]

Was it just me or did anybody else find that the blue slowdown lines at this circuit make the race seem even more monotonous than it actually was?

 

[Publius Cornelius Scipio]

The good news is that the stewards are now getting very consistent....the bad news, these may not be the rules we want enforced.

After the controversy surrounding what happened in Canada the stewards were bound to take a very harsh approach, in a sense they had to show that the decision in Canada was justified, it's very sad but that's how very often these things go. Let's hope that in a few weeks time, when the dust has settled, the powers that be will see sense and let the drivers race, as it is F1 IMHO is totally pointless

 

[Angel]

Was it just me or did anybody else find that the blue slowdown lines at this circuit make the race seem even more monotonous than it actually was?

I hate those kinds of lines, they really get to me but then I do have to be careful of all kinds of visual effects. They certainly don't add to the racing in my view, they're just an annoying distraction.