The Motorsport Thread 2017

I really want to like Formula E but the cars are too slow and I'll be glad when they finally ditch car swapping next season.

I really wanted to like the new era for IMSA but the Cadillac's have such a huge advantage it's killing the racing.

I liked the high level of competition between the drivers and the fact that they are considered "too slow" doesn't bother me as some of the best racing I've seen has been in junior formulas like North American Formula Atlantic. "Too quiet" doesn't bother me either. The turbo Audi LMP diesels fixed that problem for me.

SteveG wrote: I liked the high level of competition between the drivers and the fact that they are considered "too slow" doesn't bother me as some of the best racing I've seen has been in junior formulas like North American Formula Atlantic. "Too quiet" doesn't bother me either. The turbo Audi LMP diesels fixed that problem for me.

Edited by MillsLayne - March 23 2017 at 19:07

FE cars would be rediculously slow on pemanent race tracks, they look terrible around Donington for instance, it's why they use short street circuits. The problem with them being so slow is that they reach v-max very early on the straights so when 2 cars are moving at the exact same speed for the majority of the straights length it makes for rather bad racing IMO. It is changing though, the cars are steadily getting faster and the car swapping will be gone next year when the new battery comes in.

Practice times from Australia, a bit disappointed that Ferrari isn't closer.

Pos

	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m23.620s	-	34
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1m24.167s	0.547s	35
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1m24.176s	0.556s	34
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m24.525s	0.905s	30
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m24.650s	1.030s	27
6	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1m25.013s	1.393s	8
7	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m25.084s	1.464s	34
8	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1m25.436s	1.816s	29
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1m25.478s	1.858s	36
10	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m25.493s	1.873s	39
11	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m25.591s	1.971s	35
12	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1m26.000s	2.380s	19
13	Esteban Ocon	Force India/Mercedes	1m26.145s	2.525s	37
14	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m26.331s	2.711s	6
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1m26.498s	2.878s	29
16	Lance Stroll	Williams/Mercedes	1m26.525s	2.905s	27
17	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren/Honda	1m26.608s	2.988s	33
18	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber/Ferrari	1m26.919s	3.299s	30
19	Kevin Magnussen	Haas/Ferrari	1m27.279s	3.659s	8
20	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1m27.549s	3.929s	4

Enough talk about Formula "slot car" and the parade of Cadillac prototypes. Go Grosjean!

Qualy times, nice to see Vettel get stuck in there. Pascal Werhlein has been withdrawn before FP3 as a legacy of his Race of Champions crash at the start of the year where he injured his neck, Antonio Giovanazzi has taken over and is a Ferrari young driver.

Pos

	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m22.188s	-
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1m22.456s	0.268s
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1m22.481s	0.293s
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m23.033s	0.845s
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1m23.485s	1.297s
6	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1m24.074s	1.886s
7	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m24.443s	2.255s
8	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m24.487s	2.299s
9	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m24.512s	2.324s
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	-	-
11	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m25.081s	2.893s
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1m25.091s	2.903s
13	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1m25.425s	3.237s
14	Esteban Ocon	Force India/Mercedes	1m25.568s	3.380s
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1m26.465s	4.277s
16	Antonio Giovinazzi	Sauber/Ferrari	1m26.419s	4.231s
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas/Ferrari	1m26.847s	4.659s
18	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren/Honda	1m26.858s	4.670s
19	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1m28.244s	6.056s
20	Lance Stroll	Williams/Mercedes	1m27.143s	4.955s

MillsLayne wrote: Are we surprised Lewis is on top already?

No, but I'm disappointed all the same. F1 has been a bore lately and I was hoping the new specs would shake up the competition, at least in the short run until the cars are better sorted. I'm very tired of F1's "follow the leader" status quo, unless in rains. That's why I'm impressed with the level of competition in FE. There is actually overtaking and out breaking. Let's see if F1's new cars follow suite.

Edited by SteveG - March 25 2017 at 08:50

MillsLayne wrote: Are we surprised Lewis is on top already?

^ Not really, at least not in the top 6 or so.

Wow! Ferrari!