2017 FORMULA 1 U.S. COTA GRAND PRIX: PRACTICE 1/2/3***SPOILERS***

Max signs to Red Bull till end 2020

 

Welcome back Bas. Interesting development considering there's a strong possibility RB will have Honda power for 2019/2020. Maybe he is repaying them with loyalty, unusual for F1. Or maybe Ferrari are committing to Ricciardo and Merc don't want to upset the peace they finally have.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-renews-red-bull-contract-967910/?s=1

 

Hi!! Nice to see this live in early evening

 

Yo! Source....???

 

I would be surprised if there is no exit clause in case they do not deliver....Nowadays signing until 2020 does not necessarily means driving until 2020...

 

United States GP: Verstappen gets grid penalty for Austin F1 race

Max Verstappen will take a grid penalty into Formula 1's United States Grand Prix weekend after Red Bull committed to an engine change before practice.

Verstappen is expected to take a new Renault V6 engine and at least one other new element on Saturday, which means he will earn a minimum grid drop of 15 places.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/132522/verstappen-picks-up-grid-penalty-for-us-gp

 

+1 there must be a few of those in the new deal....

 

15 grid places? Hopefully that's far enough back that he doesn't wreck Lewis, Kimi, or Seb.

 

So what happened in practice?

 

Hmmmm...let’s see... Lewis and Merc have the field by half a sec. Oh and RB is faster than Ferrari.

It’s hard to win a race when you’re always on your back foot. That Merc. They rarely suffer from anything and if the do. It’s rarely for very long. They just have their **** together.

 

The fat lady is clearing her throat.

I think what you'll see after Hamilton wins the WDC early is F1 and Liberty putting a PR campaign together about Max and RB fighting against Mercedes as a prelude of "see what could happen next year". It's the only way to have any TV audience for the remaining races. Surely Ferrari fans won't have much to cheer about winning meaningless races this year.

 

What happened to Speedy .. awol?

 

We will be lucky if Seb starts the race. They just replaced his entire chassis trying to find something wrong that they couldn't find

http://www.planetf1.com/news/ferrari-forced-to-change-vettel-chassis/

 

I just read that. It just seems Merc is able to short circuit their bad luck through meticulous engineering and attention to detail whereas Ferrari seem to build on their difficulties. They just can't seem to change the trajectory they're on.

 

So Max signs a new deal, and Red Bull award him with an engine change. Then the FIA punishes him and Hartley fella with drop places. All is well in F1..all is well..

 

One can always hope but that isn't what a championship is built on. Could it be that they are setting up their excuses for failure? This is emblematic of the entire Italian automobile industry. On the track they get beaten by the Germans. In the market place they get beaten by everyone. Ferrari is probably the only strong name they have left...but even that flower is faced with strong competition from every side. I was thrilled to see the teams performance at the beginning of the season but at this point they may even come in third.

 

Vettel has some tendency to feel "strange things" in the chassis. Same happened at Red Bull some years ago. They said that after dissasembly they found a crack that went unnoticed, but maybe the crack was actually in Vettel´s head.

 

Welcome back mate, maybe we can get our mojo back with you onboard

 

Cheers pedro mate. Hope your house hasn't burned down

 

Sky F1 Germany reported to be talking about it ....

http://en.f1i.com/news/283192-arrivabene-set-replaced-binotto.html

 

Max gets a 15 grid penalty ? Where's he starting from Oklahoma ?
With nothing to lose, he could pounce on all of them......might be the only bit of the race worth watching.....as long as his new engine holds together.
Does Seb get a penalty for a new chassis ?

 

I don’t think so because it’s safety related and I don’t think the chassis itself counts. Either way, it shows that they’re not prepared. These sorts of things should be sorted out before ... not the night before qually. When you always seem to be feverishly working on the car on Saturday...let alone on the grid on Sunday...something’s amiss.

 

They really need to ditch the whole grid penalty fiasco ...no one outside the paddock has a clue what the hell is going on ...what a turn off.