Formula 1 2015 Discussion

I really thought McLaren was going to pull it together in time to have a good showing in Australia. Perhaps even a bit of old school F1 sandbagging so as not to show their hand.

No.

They are a mess. They went from being one of two teams with a legitimate shot at keeping up with the Works Mercedes, and they flushed it. They were so close last year. The only thing separating them and Williams from the Silver Arrows was nothing more than slightly improving the chassis and aero. Both teams have the resources and the personnel to pull that off.

The decision to ditch the Mercedes power plant and go with Honda now looks like sheer madness. I don't doubt that Honda can eventually put together a brilliant engine, but that takes time, and with the strict testing limits, that task is made infinitely more difficult.

They are royally screwed as far as 2015 is concerned. I feel bad for Alonso and Button. Being the oldest two drivers in the field, wasting an entire season in a turdmobile is tragic.

But hey! Hows about my boy Felipe Massa!?

Look out Lewis and Nico, Felipe is coming to eat your lunch and steal your girlfriends.
 
Well, that was...interesting. Rather comical that two cars went out on the recon lap. Looks like no one has anything for Mercedes again, and Rosberg still can't keep up with Hamilton. At least Ferrari put in a good showing except in the pits. thwap0
 
I suspect Ferrari will have an opening for a rear wheelman in tomorrow's classified section. Darn shame, the wheel incident, as Kimi looked like he would have scored quite a few points with a 5-6th place finish.
 
The two best things about the race,
1. Lewis won.
2. The post race interview when Lewis looked at Arnold and said, "I thought you were taller."
 
What a pathetic race. Half the field didn't even finish, and 1/4 didn't even start. I hate this engine formula so much. I think it is the stupidest thing the FIA have ever done to this sport. I think F1 has begun a death spiral.
 
I won't argue against that point TomcatMF. With the lack of teams and unfortunately the lack of competition since the only question seems to be whether Lewis or Nico will win interest will wane. Some of the racing last year was great but it was always back in the pack and we need to see more teams competing for the podium with great racing. It tends not to be fun for the casual fan if the outcome seems predetermined. I can live with the engine format if it produces great races all the ways from 1st to last
 
I suspect that's just saber-rattling, à la Bernie.

I agree with you about the engines. I can't stand them. They sound like the V8s and V10s did when they blew.
 
I typed out an in depth and lengthy response earlier, but since my new Galaxy is an asshole, the whole thing got nixed when I hit the back button instead of the tab button.

Ugh!

So, rather than do it all over, I will summarize.

I didn't get to watch the race until Friday evening. I deftly managed to avoid any spoilers throughout the week.

My abbreviated assessment:

McLaren/Honda is a mess. Fernando Alonso was lucky he didn't have to drive that flaming turd this week. He and Jenson both deserve MUCH better. What a shame.

Ferrari has certainly improved. The 80 or so added horsepower has given them a fighting chance right up until the turns appear. At that point, the chassis and aero are nowhere near good enough. Kimi got screwed so bad by that tire debacle, he was having a fantastic race until then. Why oh why was it not Vettel who got bit by the pit crew blunder?

Williams looks ok, but they need to seriously improve their aero if they want to catch the Mercs. Big bummer about Bottas being unable to race.

Sauber was the ultimate shocker. After all of the turmoil and uncertainty that plagued them right up to race time, they absolutely BROUGHT IT. Very impressive.

Force India isn't long for this sport. Total clusterfuck.

Renault is hosed. The teams with their power plants are even more hosed. What a nightmare.

Toro Rosso looks much more racey than RBR, which is priceless to witness.

The very young rookies, Sainz and Ver Stappen really impressed. Good on them.

Pastor Maldonado wasted no time proving once again that he has no business in an F1 car. How in the world does that no talent ass clown still have a seat when there are so many great drivers out there? At least he's in a Renault powered Lotus, so he isn't likely to have many laps of opportunity to crash out a front runner. Hack.

The pathetic number of cars on the grid, and even more troubling number of cars to finish the race is very bad for the sport. I am starting to question whether F1 has a future beyond the next 2-3 years.

Something needs to change. Time for Bernie to step down and enjoy his remaining years counting his money.
 
OGG said:
Pastor Maldonado wasted no time proving once again that he has no business in an F1 car. How in the world does that no talent ass clown still have a seat when there are so many great drivers out there? At least he's in a Renault powered Lotus, so he isn't likely to have many laps of opportunity to crash out a front runner. Hack.
Click to expand...


Lotus are running Mercedes PU's now. So now there is more opportunity for Crashtor to wipe out some front runners.
 
Maldonado gets his drive because he pays the team 67 million dollars in sponsorship cash. 67 million will buy a lot of replacement wings. :messedup:
 
I forgot that Lotus switched to the Mercedes power.

As for Pastor, I know he's a pay driver, but at what point does the amount of damage he does to the car, and the lack of championship points from watching the end of every race from the garage outrun that $67M?

Lotus has financial problems, this is no secret. But, I don't know if his money is worth the cost.

Unlike Romain Grosjean who grew out of his crashiness, Pastor hasn't changed a bit. He's a safety issue for the entire field.
 
Eventually he is going to seriously hurt someone (himself included), requiring a serious look into pay drivers with questionable qualifications by the FIA.
 
Wow.

Spoilers below if you haven't watched Sapang yet.












Looks like there is finally a car that can take it to Mercedes. The silver arrow team looked a bit frantic, as F1 is much harder when you actually have to race other cars. Looks like Ferrari is really on their game this season. I figured it would be Williams that would be the Mercedes challenger after last season, where they were the only team to even get close, well, except for Red Bull, but it seems it is Ferrari this year. I'm sure Williams will still get in the mix too, as they seem to be pretty close to the top, and they were catching up fAst last year. A couple more races and they should be in it.

Poor McLaren. It looks like it is going to be a long time before they get their shit together. I'm sure Mr. Alonso is kicking himself for leaving Ferrari to drive the Honda powered car right now. Again, Red Bull is spanked by their junior team, and complaining about their engine.

Thumbs up to Kimi for making from the back to 4th. An impressive drive, and another indicator that Ferrari has genuine pace this year.

Pastor Maldanado barely managed to hit anyone.
 
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Just finished watching the race (on replay). Agree on Ferrari's pace, at least for now it looks good that there will be competition at the front. Williams also looks decent but they have some work to do. I do like Ferrari though I am not a Vettel fan. Also Verstappen was pretty impressive for his age in particular. McClaren is a disaster right now and have a ton of work to do, no pace and no reliability.

They almost got 20 cars on the grid too :P
 
Well that was an interesting GP.

Mercedes - bad tyre choices all weekend long and a bad call to pit under the safety car to compound it. Rosberg looked fragile all through the race. Championship is Hamilton vs Vettel rather than vs Rosberg.

Ferrari - found genuine pace and made the right strategy calls. Kimi was shit out of luck or would have been properly in the podium fight.

Williams - clearly the number 3 team, behind Mercedes and Ferrari but we'll clear of the rest.

Toro Rosso - clearly the number 4 team, kicking the senior Red Bull team firmly in the nuts.

McClaren - still at the back but a good step forward from Australia in performance if not in seeing the chequered flag reliability.
 
Ferrari certainly brought it. This could turn out to be a very interesting season. Too bad for Kimi, if he didn't have bad luck he'd have none at all. That safety car saved his race (a bit of Karma for Ericsson after cutting Kimi's tire). Great drive back to the front.

Mercedes got complacent, not realizing that Ferrari had the pace to hang with them, they made some stupid strategy calls. That being said they still have the overall pace over the Ferrari as they continuously closed the gap on them during the race. They should have put Lewis on the hards on the 2nd stop and saved the last set of mediums for the final stint at the end since Vettel ended the race on the hards. Of course given the tire wear they had vs Ferrari this day belonged to Ferrari since they could run a superior strategy (this car was designed by James Allison who also did that Lotus in 2012 that was good on tires and had just enough pace to hang with the big boys).

McLaren look like a mess, but I think since they didn't run hardly at all in the preseason tests these first few races are basically testing sessions for them. It is said that this car has very good corner speeds, so if Honda can sort out the engine the McLaren will be very quick. Due to reliability issues the ERS is only running at 30% and the ICE is running on low power mode too. I wouldn't expect to see too much more from McLaren until the Europe swing begins. They should have resolved the gremlins by then (unless it's a fundamental design flaw) and we should start to see what they really have.

Torro Rosso beating Red Bull is just gold.
 
I think Ferrari may have more to offer than they showed. I thought Vettel ran a masterful race and when you take into account Kimi's showing I think Ferrari will be able to challenge all year long.

Hamilton's weakness showed in Sepang: He started whining the moment he realized that he may be on the wrong tires. He tends to get moody when things don't go his way.

I was a Hamilton fan when he joined McLaren. Until he showed how much of a baby he can be if he is challenged. We saw the petulance show in '09 and '10 when he had inferior cars and people tried to pass him. I believe Hamilton won last year due to the car, not his ability.

Vettel, yesterday, along with Kimi, showed their ability to win.

As a McLaren fan, a Ferrari hater and not a fan of Vettel, I see Vettel winning the championship. I see Merc, if they are challenged again, fading fast as the year progresses. Neither Hamilton nor Rosberg has the plums to drive the way they need to drive to challenge Vettel in a good car.
 
Finally got to sit down and watch the race last night. Ho Lee Fook was that a much more entertaining race than that Australian debacle! I will always be a Ferrari fan, despite how much I think the way handled Alonso, Kimi, and especially Felipe Massa. I am still upset by the comments coming from their camp during the offseason which blamed their miserable 2014 on their drivers instead of the shitburger car they put on track. I am definitely NOT a Vettel fan in any way, shape or form. After all of that, I was both stunned and pleased to see the Scuderia take it to Mercedes and make it stick. I didn't think they were capable of making such a huge turn around in one short offseason considering just how bad last year's car was, but I was wrong. They have legitimate pace, and may well win a championship this year. All of the above mentions of Hamilton and Rosberg not having the cajones to rise to the challenge when suddenly confronted with an equal or better car, are dead on. If the Ferrari's can keep pestering them, they will both start making huge mistakes and likely spend a good amount of time watching their freshly wrecked car being removed from the circuit by a crane.

I expected better from Williams. Massa is my hero, and I want to see him succeed. I also love Team Williams in general and want to see them return to glory with that fantastic Livery they are sporting. They were so close last year. It almost seems like they have stepped backwards a little bit. I hope they can work out whatever it is that is slowing them down, and soon.

Poor Alonso and Button. McLaren is a joke. Honda is a joke, and this whole season looks to be one extremely long joke on them. They were just on the heels of the Merc and the Williams last year, they were ever so close to dialing that chassis into a real championship contender. All of that is gone. The engine sucks. Who knows if the chassis is really any good? How do you say the car has good corner speed, when you are entering those corners slower than every other car on track including the MANOR car? What an ugly decision the Honda partnership turned out to be. It may eventually pay off, but not this year and probably not before Fernando and Jenson are both retired from F1.

I too thoroughly enjoyed watching Toro Rosso Hand RBR their ass once again. I feel bad for Ricciardo and Kviat, but not for RBR overall. Absolutely LOVE the young rookies throughout the field. Some very impressive young kids out there.

It's going to be a fun, interesting, and exciting year. Who would've predicted that after the last several years of single team domination?

I like it.
 
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