Congrats to Lewis and all that. I thought for a moment Bottas had raised his game but it was shortlived.

 

The start of the race was great but the 2nd half became a bit dull. Raikkonen's opening lap was stunning and the reaction to Sainz at the front was a reminder that pretty much everyone is getting fed up with Mercedes' dominance. Apparently, even Toto Wolf loved it, but then he knew it was no contest.

 

Leclerc was driver of the day for me too. It is however, quite clear that his car has a significant, high performance component in it that Vettel's doesn't. Unfortunately for Seb it's the driver. Vettel continues to convince me that for all his skills, he really can't perform with a car that isn't perfectly balanced and out front.

 

Both he and Verstappen and outperforming what the car should be capable of. I remain far from convinced that the Red Bull is the 2nd best car out there Albon, crisis of confidence or not, is a good, quick driver but the car handles poorly, a claim that Vertsappen has made himself. Max just has the skills to deal with it.

 

Gasly, Perez and Sainz all had great drives again and Stroll threw all perception of having improved this year in the bin,

 

Russell potentially being turfed out of Williams might be for the best. He may have to sit out a year or 2 but a Mercedes seat will be available before long and he could spend the meantime being a promising test driver with them. Ocon has clearly blown his chances of a race seat there.

Kimi driving his Alfa like he's on a Playstation with the difficulty level set to easy.

 

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So no re-promotion for Gasly to RB. If I were Albon I would not be taking this as a sign to breathe easier

Thought he might stay at Alpha Tauri for next season, Pierre Gasly.

Great for him, he's much more likely to do better there than at Red Bull so makes absolute sense.

Imola was always one of the iconic circuits in the old days, yet, for those of my generation, it always holds sadness as a consequence of the events of the 30th of April and the 1st of May 1994.

Imola was always one of the iconic circuits in the old days, yet, for those of my generation, it always holds sadness as a consequence of the events of the 30th of April and the 1st of May 1994.

Of the current tracks You can add in Monza, Paul Ricard and Canada (among others) for those of us who are old gits too. Not to mention Zandvoort, Zolder (particularly) and Hockenheim, Spa and more. There isn’t an old circuit that doesn’t have a similar story.

 

That said 2 in 2 days was especially tough. Senna had been my idol for 10 years and he had filled the whole Villeneuve had left behind. The magic (if you’ll excuse the pun) has never quite returned

Edited October 28, 20204 yr by Severin

I read a few days ago that Red Bull were certain they didn't want Gasley

I'm also starting to think he'll be better off away from Verstappen

they were also saying Kviat is a goner for sure and he's gonna be replaced by some Japanese but the name escapes me now

Not sure if you’ve all seen but the draft calendar has been released to the teams - they’ll be 22 races again (most likely) with Saudi Arabia replacing Brazil! The Dutch Grand Prix is also moving from early April to later in the summer!

Not sure if you’ve all seen but the draft calendar has been released to the teams - they’ll be 22 races again (most likely) with Saudi Arabia replacing Brazil! The Dutch Grand Prix is also moving from early April to later in the summer!

Thanks Dan, :)

 

Welcome to the F1 discussion thread, :).

 

 

Of the current tracks You can add in Monza, Paul Ricard and Canada (among others) for those of us who are old gits too. Not to mention Zandvoort, Zolder (particularly) and Hockenheim, Spa and more. There isn’t an old circuit that doesn’t have a similar story.

 

That said 2 in 2 days was especially tough. Senna had been my idol for 10 years and he had filled the whole Villeneuve had left behind. The magic (if you’ll excuse the pun) has never quite returned

That's true, there isn't an old circuit that doesn't have a similar story. You're right there.

I read a few days ago that Red Bull were certain they didn't want Gasley

I'm also starting to think he'll be better off away from Verstappen

they were also saying Kviat is a goner for sure and he's gonna be replaced by some Japanese but the name escapes me now

 

Yuki Tsonoda that would be

Not sure if you’ve all seen but the draft calendar has been released to the teams - they’ll be 22 races again (most likely) with Saudi Arabia replacing Brazil! The Dutch Grand Prix is also moving from early April to later in the summer!

 

Christ above. Is there anything more depressing than replacing one of the highlights of every season with no doubt another big heap of pig snot in a county that has no place in the sport. Modern times...

Christ above. Is there anything more depressing than replacing one of the highlights of every season with no doubt another big heap of pig snot in a county that has no place in the sport. Modern times...

Sadly Brazil's no fee contract has expired and for years the organizers have ignored making any kind of investment in the circuit's facilities believing they were an automatic slot because they were Brazil and could guarantee great atmosphere and racing. However great those factors are the truth is that the place is out of date and somewhat rundown, local crime has always been an issue and now both the Brazilian government and Liberty Media want a more modern and saleable track somewhere near the site of the old Jacarepagua circuit at the more affluent Rio.

Unfortunately Interlagos dropping away is every much a failure of the owners arrogance as it is Liberty's commercial endeavours. As much as I'd love it to stay it will inevitably join other great lost circuits.

 

And no matter how great the circuit in Saudi might be and how amazing the racing could be I'd still prefer they didn't race there but politics have almost never interfered with where the FIA have held races - S Africa, Russia, Bahrain, China, Spain, Argentina, they've all held races under dubious regimes, and that's before we even consider Nazi Germany or Italy.

The GP will be held behind closed doors.

Both Raikkonen and Giovanazzi retained for next year:

 

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That's surprising. I thought one of them would go, probably Gio to make room for Mick.

Sad to see the loss of Brazil. But as good as Interlagos is, it’s one race that while I would love to experience live I would never go to because of the security situation. But I’m not that sure Rio is much better.

 

 

 

Quite annoying to see another sand race. None of them are good circuits, none provide good racing and none have regimes that meet any form of values that F1 claims to uphold. If you claim „we race as one“ then why go to a country where gays are subject to the death penalty. The sooner the UAE is wiped from the calendar the better and we should never be racing in SA. I get that people don’t bring politics into sports but this isn’t politics it’s basic human decency and basic human rights.

 

 

The fact that in spite of the pandemic, in spite of the snoozefest that is who will pick up the top 2 spots on the podium every weekend and in spite of the insistence of including Sochi, Bahrain and the UAE in the calendar, this season has had some of the best races for years should be a giant hint to Liberty that blindly following the Ecclestone model of go where we get the most money will not pay off in the long run when the races are dull

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George Russell confirmed at Williams as well as Latifi thanks to some dough.

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