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

No penalty for replacing chassis.

Ferrari trying their usual **** of replacing their team manager. done it many times always fails. What a colossal **** up.

 

Mate even after qualifying it's a bloody mystery. No one likes it yet FIA doesn't bother

 

Hopefully Ross B will sort it all out ..eventually.

 

I have to add that RB and MB definitely put in way more time behind the wheel for one reason or other. Lewis and Bottas got so many good laps in and it was very cool to watch in person (at least where I was T12 Cota club) all the adjustments made in P2. Kiki put in time but didn't seem as aggressive as the other drivers. And Seb ... well no comments ; reminds of some NFL players, complete sense of entitlement yet no results to speak of , embarrassing -- yet if you see him prance around cota and on his interviews you'd think he was leading the WDC. May have to buy an ugly RB shirt today , don't think the Scuderia is competitive enough.

 

Nice -- a dry Prac 3.....

 

vettel pulls up in the R Bull pit....wtf

grandstands look a bit bare

 

Freudian slip

 

Quality issues have dogged Ferrari. Maybe Arrivabene was too slow in reversing the bad QC but maybe Uncle Sweater is being too impulsive.

-F

 

One would think it would be an on-going monitoring process for such a set of sophisticated systems/process - QC. Mercedes have no such issues it appears in terms of its employment consistently.

 

Ferrari are behind for a number of reasons:

They don't have the fastest car in quali, this has been rectified in great finishes by Vettel and sometimes capitalizing on Mercedes struggles at street tracks.

Vettel is to blame for some unnecessary mistakes. Baku he shouldn't have banged wheels, it proved very costly. I fully understood him being angry, and he should've reacted a different way...had he reacted using his head Hamilton might have found himself a penalty, either a stop/go, grid penalty, reprimand + penalty points...whatever.

Singapore, whilst it was somewhat a racing incident, it was instigated by himself only. Irvine put it nicely: "a racing incident, with zero to blame to Kimi and Verstappen, and Vettel 20% responsible"

Whilst Ferrari was stupid to forgo decent Quality control (cost them dearly in 2008!), there was no way Kimi's part could've been inspected, redesigned and flown to Japan in the time available. As for the spark plug...that was just horrendous luck I imagine.

Vettel isn't solely to blame for losing the title (pretty much inevitable now unless Lewis DNF's at the very least tomorrow), neither is Ferrari. Had Ferrari been a tad more reliable, it would've been fine. Had Vettel not lost his head, we would've been fine. Win together lose together and all that.

However I do think they where extremely expensive mistakes. Ferrari to my mind don't have a star team working on the current and next car, Mercedes and Red Bull do. I fear next year Red Bulls chance against Mercedes is far greater.

 

Thanks, althoug everything was a chaos nad tehre were major fires every were nothinh happened around me....but things tend to burn around here, my house is not in a very dangerous place, even if i have woods relativly nearby

 

Many here forget that in rhe beggini9ng of the eyar nobody gave a rats ass chance for ferrari chances, i say we had a good year, even if the end result left a sour taste...

 

Qualification under way, and I believe I just saw BIG TEX smiling for the cameras. Am I correct?

 

That's exactly what I thought.....

 

I agree. The last half of the season has been a disappointment from Ferrari /Vettel and they certainly let Mercedes /Hamilton off the hook.

No wonder Hamilton is so relaxed and happy this year. No real competition in his team and Ferrari's challenge falling apart. Anyway, good for them! They still had to get the job done.

I can't help but wonder how Nico would have gone this year. Certainly better than Bottas.

 

By the way; no qualy thread on this great GP ?

 

As long as SOMEONE stops Elton, I'm OK with it!! I used to resent Red Bull's streak of dominance with Seb, but it retrospect, at least it wasn't Elton.

 

So if you get rid of the grid penalties for changing engines/gearboxes, what would stop teams such as Mercedes and Ferrari from putting in a fresh engine and gearbox for every race? (or even every session?)

Some people have suggested docking constructors points to put teams off using 20 engines and gearboxes in a season, but if the WDC is more important to a team than the WCC (as tends to be the case with Ferrari), they will happily finish with 0 points in the WCC (or even a minus figure), if they know it will get their driver a World Championship.

A financial penalty? - Again, teams such as Mercedes/Ferrari and Red Bull can afford to pay to keep fitting new engines and gearboxes far more than the likes of Williams/Force India/HAAS/Sauber etc., etc.

So if you get your wish, and there are no longer any grid penalties for changing engines and gearboxes, your next complaint will be that it's not fair that the top teams can fit a new engine and gearbox ever race, whilst the poorer teams have to use as few as possible because they simply can't afford 20 engines and gearboxes for a season.

 

On C4 here in the UK Jordan said that he understands Arrivabene will be relieved from his position and moving upstairs next season- don't think sweater man realizes the difference between managing an F1 Team and let's say AC Milan.

I would like to see exactly what Arrivabene's failings were - quality control ? Responsibility for the two Ferrari's crashing ?

Best,
Sammy

 

I hope so. And has to be next year. I'm falling out of love with the sport. This year is the least I've seen it since I've started watching. I've seen most races live but missed many sessions.

 

exactly

 

+1 Me too!

 

After the debacle in Monza, Ross Brawn has said the two things F1 needs to sort out are engine Grid Penalties and DRS.

How to do it is of course not so easy ..but they will find a solution.