The handling of tyres in F1 now is a world apart from the 1970s. There has been a fair amount of criticism of Pirelli since they came into F1 (some justified), but I don't think there is any doubt that they treat all teams the same.
Difference in tyre degradation is due to tyre management, which is in the hands of the teams and drivers. The current tyres are on such a knife edge, if you overstress them, you can easily get into a vicious circle of degradation and then there's no real way back. There are various reasons why that is, compared to say the Michelin and Bridgestone era, but I think that's out of the scope of this discussion!
Was it just me, but some of the cars were quite hard to tell apart when seen head on. The Mercs and Aston Martins looked amazingly similar in colour. Even the Alfa Romeos were getting in on the act with their black colour scheme. I'm wondering if the lights contributed to making the green look black on TV.
It will be interesting to see how long Mercedes persist with current design... or have the folks back in the UK already started building a better mousetrap. Both drivers did well with what they had.
The fact that RBR were 37+ seconds ahead of the field with the same budget is amazing. They just don't seem to put a foot wrong.
Great efforts from Gasly and Albon. The former seemed miles away from it in the lead up, while the latter is reminding everyone how talented he is.
Like many, I've not been a big fan of Lance but he gets the chocolates from me for his efforts.
Meanwhile down at Papayaland, it could be a long year.
Whilst the race was a non-event, the action from 3 to about 12 was pretty good.
Bruce
#64- I agree . I cannot believe how F1 teams spend gazillions, take themselves so terribly seriously but don't apparently even check how their car looks on a TV screen , or even make much effort to distinguish their own two cars from each other.The little green highlight is often hard to spot , helmets designs change every two minutes and it is now longer the convention that the junior/newer/less experienced driver carries the highlighting .
An average race on a circuit with all the charisma of a light industrial estate in Newark at 2am . Alonso was mighty . and of the new intake I was impressed with Logan Sergeant . Largely ignored by the coverage and an un-fancied driver in an un-fancied team . I saw him in F2 last year at Silverstone and thought he looked very handy .
I enjoyed the race. It will be an interesting battle behind RB. It's a seriously impressive step up taken by Aston Martin. If it's maintained, I look forward to Alonso taking on the recent stars. The man deserves a car to match his relentless talent.
Mercedes have the cost cap standing in the way of producing another car concept during the year. It's made more embarrassing by Aston's use of their wind tunnel and rear end to much better effect. Christian Horner must be doubly pleased.
Just stumbled across a review on Autosport of the new 8 part series about Bernie Eccelstone, it sounds like it is worth a watch despite what opinion you have of Bernie.
The handling of tyres in F1 now is a world apart from the 1970s. There has been a fair amount of criticism of Pirelli since they came into F1 (some justified), but I don't think there is any doubt that they treat all teams the same.
Difference in tyre degradation is due to tyre management, which is in the hands of the teams and drivers. The current tyres are on such a knife edge, if you overstress them, you can easily get into a vicious circle of degradation and then there's no real way back. There are various reasons why that is, compared to say the Michelin and Bridgestone era, but I think that's out of the scope of this discussion!
Mmm. It would be nice to think so .
Was it just me, but some of the cars were quite hard to tell apart when seen head on. The Mercs and Aston Martins looked amazingly similar in colour. Even the Alfa Romeos were getting in on the act with their black colour scheme. I'm wondering if the lights contributed to making the green look black on TV.
Yes, on a couple of occasions I thought it was 2 AMs when it was one and a MB.
It will be interesting to see how long Mercedes persist with current design... or have the folks back in the UK already started building a better mousetrap. Both drivers did well with what they had.
The fact that RBR were 37+ seconds ahead of the field with the same budget is amazing. They just don't seem to put a foot wrong.
Great efforts from Gasly and Albon. The former seemed miles away from it in the lead up, while the latter is reminding everyone how talented he is.
Like many, I've not been a big fan of Lance but he gets the chocolates from me for his efforts.
Meanwhile down at Papayaland, it could be a long year.
Whilst the race was a non-event, the action from 3 to about 12 was pretty good.
Bruce
#64- I agree . I cannot believe how F1 teams spend gazillions, take themselves so terribly seriously but don't apparently even check how their car looks on a TV screen , or even make much effort to distinguish their own two cars from each other.The little green highlight is often hard to spot , helmets designs change every two minutes and it is now longer the convention that the junior/newer/less experienced driver carries the highlighting .
An average race on a circuit with all the charisma of a light industrial estate in Newark at 2am . Alonso was mighty . and of the new intake I was impressed with Logan Sergeant . Largely ignored by the coverage and an un-fancied driver in an un-fancied team . I saw him in F2 last year at Silverstone and thought he looked very handy .
Well.....3rd place for AM & Alonso. He did really wring the cars neck.
I enjoyed the race. It will be an interesting battle behind RB. It's a seriously impressive step up taken by Aston Martin. If it's maintained, I look forward to Alonso taking on the recent stars. The man deserves a car to match his relentless talent.
Mercedes have the cost cap standing in the way of producing another car concept during the year. It's made more embarrassing by Aston's use of their wind tunnel and rear end to much better effect. Christian Horner must be doubly pleased.
Just stumbled across a review on Autosport of the new 8 part series about Bernie Eccelstone, it sounds like it is worth a watch despite what opinion you have of Bernie.
In the UK its on Discovery+ wherever that is.
Lucky!
I've just finished watching that series, it's very good. Some fantastic archive footage.