*****Official Formula 1 Thread*******

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by kepp

Very cool to see Leclerc get his first Monaco win. The top 10 finished in the same order they started...don't know if I've ever seen that.

And I don't know what is up with Alonso. It's kind of a replay of last year...did well through the first 5 or 6 races then fell off. IDK. I heard Aston is making a big push for Newey and Verstappen. Newey I'd like to see at Aston, and it would be hard to anyone to argue against getting Verstappen, but I know it would mean Alonso would be pushed out.

My understanding is that Aston shot their shot with Newey and he said no. But things change when the checks get bigger, I suppose.

Alonso's issue is the same as it's always been - immense talent, but...uh...mercurial.

He'll just check out if things aren't going his way. And Aston's gone backwards a bit this year so he just gets frustrated and coasts. My memory is that he got held up a bit by traffic during one of his qualy runs in Q1 and then ended up duffing his other effort; nicked the wall.

He just never got a clean run in qualifying and it put him at the back of the grid so he just tuned out. He knew there wasn't anything to do from back there, really. So he just put his laps in. I mean, at least he didn't 'feel a vibration' and retire the car. He's done that before.

Ultimately I think it was just bad form and a little bad luck. Stroll's just not a very good driver so he did what he could. But Alonso really should've had that car starting around P8 and just didn't put the laps in.

And as Mercedes seems to have slotted themselves squarely back into the 4th best team spot, with VCARB gaining momentum as well, things aren't going to get easier for Aston. If Haas could get out of their own way, Aston would be in a world of hurt.

[alpha_omega]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Attaboy, Charles!

Boring race, but Ferrari managed to stay out of their own way at Monaco for a change. Was also nice to hear Sainz really concerned about team orders and maximizing LeClerc's chances at the front.

The red flag really did duff that whole race. A) It put Sainz back in P3 (which probably wouldn't have made a difference - 1 McLaren behind him or 2, LeClerc still had that race in his pocket) and B) it eliminated any pit stop strategy so it allowed LeClerc to back up the field.

Still - we have ourselves a fight for the constructors, fellas. It's fun to blame Magnussen for everything but I think that was on Checo; bad run up the hill into turn 3 and he made a late commitment because he knew he was in trouble with the 2 Haas cars coming up either side. Rather than pick one or the other to defend, he tried to hang the middle and defend against both, then just took Magnussen into the wall. After his P18 qualifying run, he really had nobody to blame but himself.

And now Ferrari is within a single race of passing Red Bull.

They've been remarkably consistent this year. 4/3, 3/7 (with Sainz out), 2/1, 4/3, 4/5 (only race without a podium), 3/5, 3/5, 1/3. 9 podiums through 8 rounds is awfully damn impressive. Their main drivers haven't had a finish worse than 5th all season and even their green rookie pulled a 7th at a tough track.

If Sergio is going to continue to show the form he showed in the 2nd half last season (3,4,8,Ret) over the rest of the season, Ferrari will get past Red Bull. Max can do a lot on his own, but he can't fend off two drivers who are routinely putting it 2nd through 5th. Especially if they can occasionally get a win, as Ferrari has now done twice.

Let's go, Red Devils!

Thanks for the update.

[ReynardMuldrake]

It's looking like both the McLaren and the Ferrari upgrades are paying off. Constructors should actually be competitive for once.

Is it me or has Red Bull actually gotten worse since their last upgrade? Max hits the wall in Monaco, hits the bollard in Miami, etc.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by ReynardMuldrake

It's looking like both the McLaren and the Ferrari upgrades are paying off. Constructors should actually be competitive for once.

Is it me or has Red Bull actually gotten worse since their last upgrade? Max hits the wall in Monaco, hits the bollard in Miami, etc.

Hard to know about Ferrari's upgrades yet.

Ferrari's been good with slow corners for awhile now. It's why they've constantly been competitive in Monaco and why Sainz won Singapore.

We'll see what happens when they get to more 'normal' tracks with a variety of corners and some higher speeds/tire deg. I can't get past the mediocrity of Imola that easily. They really should've done better there if those upgrades were as advertised. I really wish they'd have had them ready one week sooner for an optimization run at Miami before they got to Imola. As it stands, we still don't really know.

McLaren, OTOH, is legit. Their upgrades have definitely worked.