All-purpose open-wheel (F1, IRL) racing thread

Or, put another way:

 

Not much chatter about the race in Silverstone on Sunday. Not surprising as it was largely a dull affair until Lap 50 when Bottas blew a tire and Hamilton damn near lost a 30-second lead on the final lap because of similar troubles. The wild finish mostly made up for the lack of action earlier. Verstappen and Horner have to be kicking themselves about the decision to take the "free" pit stop to go after the fastest lap.

Bummer for Hulkenberg, who didn't get to drive after Racing Point couldn't get his car started.

Ferrari lucked into a podium, but they still look largely like dogshit. It's a testament to LeClerc that he was even in position to make it up there. As the broadcasters pointed out, even Ferrari chairman John Elkann knows they won't be competitive until 2022, which is too bad.

 

Ok Ok Ok I retract my comment; didn't mean to offend the whole damn open-wheeled racing world. SMH.

 

Hulkenberg has the worst luck. As I recall, back in 2017 he signed for Renault about a week before Rosberg's surprise retirement at Mercedes. I'm pretty confident he would have been in the second Mercedes instead of Bottas otherwise.

I was surprised Verstappen pitted given the flat for Bottas and Hamilton clearly having tire trouble of his own. Pitting was the safe play but I thought at the time that it was probably worth staying out and hoping Hamilton had his own problem.

Hamilton was going 140mph on the back straight on the last lap... on three tires. No thank you.

 

There was one shot as he came through the chicane where he was on only his front right and rear left wheels. How he got through that, I have no idea.

 

Hamilton's car was handling "like a shopping trolley" as Martin Brundle would say. Incredible bit of driving.

 

Nice race by Verstappen yesterday and great strategy by Red Bull. LeClerc also raced really well. What's up with Mercedes' tires lately?

 

I've gone to races at the Speedrome pre-COVID where I probably was the only person in the stands with sleeves and should have probably burned my clothes afterwards for sanitary reasons. But it's a crazy fun place if you want to mingle with the LCD.

 

A guy I used to work with who thought COVID is a hoax got it at a local dirt track the first night they opened back up. He and his wife went, had them a big ole time, caught it and brought it home to their two children. He sings a different tune now.

 

I don't know, but God bless them for creating a car with at least one minor flaw so we could get a couple of interesting races in the middle of their march to domination. Gotta suck to lose a race after being a second faster than anyone else in qualifying.

 

I was thinking the same thing. If the tire issues keep up, it's going to make just about every race interesting because you'll have to wonder if 44 or 77 can get home without a blowout. I'm a Mercedes fanboy, but I really like Verstappen and Horner at Red Bull, and I'm happy to see some success from McLaren and Racing Point. I'd really like to see Renault insert itself into that third tier with Racing Point, Ferrari and McLaren, although it doesn't look like they've got the car to do it. The season as a whole would be better if Ferrari and Red Bull could give Mercedes a better challenge, but that race for third could be really interesting to watch.