[TSIboy]

It was 'Hammer Time' at SPA today. Great work done keeping off Vettel especially after the restart. 200 race starts & 111 podiums!
Perez & Ocon cross paths once more. Force India really need to get some team building 'exercises' done. Poor Alonso though! Engine failures are becoming standard fare for Mclaren Honda these days.

[jfxavier]

The second half of the season has not thrown any surprises so far.



Hamilton wins again.



Closing in on Vettel in the Driver's standings.



Close racing at some times. Entertaining.
Force Indias' hit each other as usual.



Alonso retires "thinking" he has a PU issue.
Max is waylaid in front of this fans.
More of the same as before.



Mercedes looking pretty on top of the standings.

[gtonsing]

I missed the start and I missed the finish as well. But how stupid of the Force Indias. Perez lost a points position due to their silly fight.
Nice to see Ferrari and Mercedes competing almost equally. Hope to see closer battles before we end the year.
That was a good drive from Hulkenberg too.
Nice to see Force India strongly at number 4 and Williams far away - more wins please

[anachronix]

Fantastic win for Lewis, I expected the final few laps to be a lot closer but Lewis had it clearly covered. Superb drive from both Vettel & Lewis.

The way Bottas was swarmed by Daniel & Kimi was amazing.

A good race weekend after the long summer break! Looking forward to Monza now

EDIT: That 10-Second Stop-Go penalty for Kimi was ridiculous. Heck, Kvyat got only a drive-through penalty for his dangerous crash with Sainz and 2 Penalty points. Kimi was given 3 Penalty points as well!

[sgiitk]

Saw the recording this morning. Interesting race.

Something just struck me, it looks like it is the qualifying sequence which decides the result. Also, at least at the top there is almost no overtaking.

[sun_king]

Excellent race control by Hamilton, it is not quite often that we see the slower (marginally) car keeping the faster car behind. But then such is the aerodynamics these days, stuck behind a fast car, you don't have the teeth to overtake. With the last 10 laps being Ultrasoft vs Soft, Seb had to do it in the restart lap or forever hold his piece. We the Tifosi had hopes for about 10 seconds and then Eu Rouge was past, Hamilton defending quite brilliantly.

Christian Horner was saying something like they will outscore Ferrari in this half of the season. I don't think so, here is the current score starting from Belgium: Ferrari 30 (Seb -18 + Kimi 12), Red Bull 15 (RIC -15). In your dreams Christian!

Originally Posted by anachronix

<snip>

EDIT: That 10-Second Stop-Go penalty for Kimi was ridiculous. Heck, Kvyat got only a drive-through penalty for his dangerous crash with Sainz and 2 Penalty points. Kimi was given 3 Penalty points as well!

I am with the stewards on this one. An on field crash between cars is different from a deliberate ignoring of safety flags. The race car is designed to survive substantial impacts, whatever happens between two drivers, no matter how stupid or inconsiderate it is, it's between protected systems. Marshals on the field don't have any protection and Kimi was accelerating well past 300 kmph in a yellow zone. It was not that he didn't see the flags, he saw and chose to defy it. Imagine spilt oils or other fluids on the track, losing control at 300 kmph and ploughing into unsuspecting marshals would be disaster. Kimi deserved much harsher penalty in my opinion and thats a Tifosi speaking.

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by anachronix

EDIT: That 10-Second Stop-Go penalty for Kimi was ridiculous. Heck, Kvyat got only a drive-through penalty for his dangerous crash with Sainz and 2 Penalty points. Kimi was given 3 Penalty points as well!

The incident involving Kvyat and Sainz cannot be compared to a safety violation!. Nothing in F1 comes before safety. Having been involved in motorsports for a fair while, I can surely say, safety is first and nothing at the cost of safety. One can't, at any time, ignore warnings on the track. This was a "double yellow" that Kimi chose to ignore!

In fact, at the beginning of every event, safety is what is inspected and certified first, everything else comes later.

Certainly, the risk of a F1 car traveling at close to its max speeds with track marshalls working, would definitely not be viewed well. Penalties such as this would hopefully be a deterrent to all drivers. Kimi, being a senior driver, is expected to set an example to the younger drivers as well.

[deetjohn]

The race is now replaying on YouTube in case anyone is interested. Good job Liberty! Hopefully, it will also be shown live soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcRf23s6aiM

And Mercedes gets a massive shot in the arm for the rest of the season.

FIA confirms Mercedes can keep higher oil burn limit

The FIA has confirmed that Mercedes will be allowed to run its latest engine at a higher level of oil burn for the remainder of the season, following the German manufacturer’s move to introduce it at the Belgian Grand Prix.

With a new oil burn limit of 0.9 litres per 100km coming into force at the Italian Grand Prix, Mercedes pre-empted that cut-off point by bringing its fourth and final power unit into play in Belgium last weekend.

According to an FIA technical directive issued by the FIA in July, engines introduced before Monza would be allowed to run at an oil burn level of 1.2 litres per 100km.

If this stands, then the title fight as we know it is well and truly over.

[shibujp]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Saw the recording this morning. Interesting race.

Something just struck me, it looks like it is the qualifying sequence which decides the result. Also, at least at the top there is almost no overtaking.

True and it shows too. Whenever Mercedes fails to lock down the front row they struggle. And I think Ferrari is going about this in the right way. They have ensured a fast, reliable car on every type of circuit, proved that they could keep up with Hamilton at Spa and I assume that the next logical move would be to address qualifying pace. However it remains to be seen what impact the latest oil burn issue will have on their plans. Or perhaps on Mercedes on having introduced a power unit in haste to beat the oil burn deadline.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[Hatari]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

The race is now replaying on YouTube in case anyone is interested. Good job Liberty! Hopefully, it will also be shown live soon.

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=fcRf23s6aiM

Unofficial it seems, blocked now

[anachronix]

Agree with you lads, ignore the rant in my OP

Safety first!

Originally Posted by sun_king

I am with the stewards on this one.

Originally Posted by swissknife

The incident involving Kvyat and Sainz cannot be compared to a safety violation!.

[Hatari]

I am still reeling from the Honda statement that the Spa PU upgrade was worth 0.1 seconds (which still had issues). I would have imagined them having some shame and not mention numbers when the opposition is 2 seconds faster.

[sun_king]

Originally Posted by Hatari

I am still reeling from the Honda statement that the Spa PU upgrade was worth 0.1 seconds (which still had issues). I would have imagined them having some shame and not mention numbers when the opposition is 2 seconds faster.

The PIT to ALO conversations was, well let us say, embarrassing, really embarrassing. The "some shame" might be quite low in threshold.

Alonso: “Embarrassing, really embarrassing.”
PIT: “Yep Fernando we see that. Be careful, we have two warnings for turn four.”

PIT: “Fernando, Stoffel is pitting this lap.”
Alonso: “Why? The only ******** car that I will overtake.”

PIT: “Fernando we didn’t want to be pushed back into Hulkenberg and Stroll. Sorry Palmer and Stoll.”
Alonso: “They will pass me in the next lap. I have no protection now. But anyway it doesn’t change my life.”

The 0.1 second didn't really change his life

[jfxavier]

Originally Posted by sun_king

The PIT to ALO conversations was, well let us say, embarrassing, really embarrassing. The "some shame" might be quite low in threshold.

Alonso: “Embarrassing, really embarrassing.”
PIT: “Yep Fernando we see that. Be careful, we have two warnings for turn four.”

PIT: “Fernando, Stoffel is pitting this lap.”
Alonso: “Why? The only ******** car that I will overtake.”

PIT: “Fernando we didn’t want to be pushed back into Hulkenberg and Stroll. Sorry Palmer and Stoll.”
Alonso: “They will pass me in the next lap. I have no protection now. But anyway it doesn’t change my life.”

The 0.1 second didn't really change his life

Originally Posted by Hatari

I am still reeling from the Honda statement that the Spa PU upgrade was worth 0.1 seconds (which still had issues). I would have imagined them having some shame and not mention numbers when the opposition is 2 seconds faster.

There is definitely more to the issues that what meets the eye.
The way Alonso is behaving, it looks like he is doing it with blessings from McLaren.
At best, the antics are to put max. pressure on Honda.
Some say that the whole game is to force Honda to quit.

What is intriguing, is the amount of downforce that the McLaren cars are running with. Probably they could trim down a bit of the downforce to compensate for the lack of power. It doesnt help being fast in the corners when you are easily overtaken on the next straight. Probably a good strategy for qualifying, but in a race where you spend time behind the cars in corners, it will be useless. The last years car was supposedly not able to manage the tyres with low downforce, however nobody has indicated the same about this years MCL32.

In this whole fiasco, Alonso and to an extent McLaren looks restless, while Honda have been accepting that the major deficit is from the Engine and they are working towards a solution. Obviously since the solution for them is to develop the technology rather than buy from existing patent holders, it is a time consuming affair. And time is what McLaren doesn't have.
In this modern world where everything is to be done yesterday, Honda looks like a couple of generations old.

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by jfxavier

There is definitely more to the issues that what meets the eye.

Yeah. See the posts below.

Alonso says he is surprised by accusations that he gave up and parked a healthy car at the Belgian Grand Prix, after Honda revealed there was no problem with his engine.

Alonso retired from the Spa race, reporting an "engine problem" on the radio, but Honda said after the race it found nothing in the data to suggest there was an issue.

the power unit was taken back to Milton Keynes for analysis but Honda could not find anything wrong and as a result have put it back in the pool.

source

source