[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

He'll be sharing the remnants of that prossecco with his tigress Kelly

I didn't see Kelly in Vegas . But Jos was there in front of the podium and he looked very proud of his son .

And today Checo secured his P2 in the WDC . About time .Finally !
Because LEW screwed it up

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

I didn't see Kelly in Vegas . But Jos was there in front of the podium and he looked very proud of his son .

And today Checo secured his P2 in the WDC . About time .Finally !
Because LEW screwed it up

I've seen the highlights and both Mercs were on a wing and a prayer with their sliding jalopies.

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by dfox

Way better race than any non-American predicted.

When it came to the actual race then Vegas delivered big time.

[HeelToeShift]

What seems like a mundane race going into it, only to be intriguing due to the temps ended up being a pretty wild race with lots of action. Max, despite the penalty (which IMO shouldn't have been) and the extra pit stop seemed well in control. Great race from Lec and Per (securing P2 in WDC).
Crazy that in a year where Max sets the record for wins in a row at 10, he is now on a 6 and running win streak, and winning at Abu Dhabi will be 7 which would put him #1 and top 3 I believe. He, of course, keeps the new record of points, wins, laps led too.

[OG Shark]

Great race - very entertaining. Vegas absolutely pulled it off and had one of the best debut weekends for a new race. All the hate and complaining about FP1&2 was way overdone. Yes it was unfortunate but they addressed it pretty well (except the part with the fans having to leave - understandable but that sucked). The part that failed was installed correctly and in the best accepted method. A piece of cast iron and chunk of concrete breaking off like that is not something they could have predicted. It is not the same as the actual lid not being welded properly to prevent it have moving. They addressed it correctly by lowering all valve boxes on the track and temporarily paving over them to prevent any more failures. It’s unfortunate and never want to see that happen (especially for driver safety) but it was addressed and fixed. They made the right call delaying the start of FP2 until they were all covered. Really sucked that it happened and that cars were damaged but thankfully no one was hurt. Stuff like this isn’t unprecedented on road courses either but the extreme backlash seemed to be a product of so many people having negative views of the race going into the weekend and jumping on it wanting to be validated.

The actual race was very entertaining. When was the last time so many drivers expressed how much they enjoyed it post race - especially at the top…. For all the negative going in it ended up being one of the best races of the year. VER again shows he’s the top of the field and a nice drive by LEC and recovery PER. Really enjoyed another late podium battle but wish PER could have pulled this one off for P2. DRS was strong but good passes in corners as well.

Look forward to next year’s race.

[Car-Addicted]

Great Race. Great venue. Props to Checo on 2nd in drivers championship. (You remember Checo Perez? He was the one a lot of you wanted sacked a couple weeks ago) Weird Podium Celebration but then again it is Vegas.
I'm good with not seeing any Elvis drivers suits for 360days

[Jbrown7403]

Very entertaining race with more overtakes than usual. 👍🏁

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by HeelToeShift

What seems like a mundane race going into it, only to be intriguing due to the temps ended up being a pretty wild race with lots of action. Max, despite the penalty (which IMO shouldn't have been) and the extra pit stop seemed well in control. Great race from Lec and Per (securing P2 in WDC).
Crazy that in a year where Max sets the record for wins in a row at 10, he is now on a 6 and running win streak, and winning at Abu Dhabi will be 7 which would put him #1 and top 3 I believe. He, of course, keeps the new record of points, wins, laps led too.

MAX's record list is actually very long

[MilehighM3]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

And Mercedes didn't dominate for 8 years ?

Case and point! We don’t need another cycle like this. It’s no fun to watch.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by MilehighM3

Case and point! We don’t need another cycle like this. It’s no fun to watch.

About time, that MAX changed that by breaking through the 8 years of Mercedes dominance.

If it's no fun to watch for you , who do you want to see win the next race at Abu Dhabi ?

[MilehighM3]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

About time, that MAX changed that by breaking through the 8 years of Mercedes dominance.

If it's no fun to watch for you , who do you want to see win the next race at Abu Dhabi ?

Lando or Alonso

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by Car-Addicted

Great Race. Great venue. Props to Checo on 2nd in drivers championship. (You remember Checo Perez? He was the one a lot of you wanted sacked a couple weeks ago) Weird Podium Celebration but then again it is Vegas.
I'm good with not seeing any Elvis drivers suits for 360days

MAX ran today extremely strong . He ran this race like ELVIS on speed !

Logically speaking : He should keep his ELVIS race suit ...'

Viva Las Vegas !

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by MilehighM3

Lando or Alonso

MAX won't take prisoners ,so that won't be easy for Lando or Alonso .
If MAX gets a 'DNF , they can do it and I can live with that . But Ferrari has made a huge step forwards .

[Killed by Death]

I do also. My problem is with the terminology. “Raiding”

[dfox]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Well mate , I completely agree with that . Checo ran a fantastic race

On the other hand : Once again ,Checo lost his P2 in the last lap .Just like he lost it from Alonso on the finish line.
This would 'never happen with MAX ...'

Max is on another level then Checo. 100%. Ferrari had better place than RB though, for Checo to bring the fight to him was pretty impressive. A few times I thought Checo was going to pull away, but Charles kept him reeled in.

Max showed that his dirty side is still present... I was not impressed with his turn 1 shenanigans, and his pass on George was overly aggressive, had Checo done either of those every Max fan would be talking about how dirty of a racer he is.

[Forzanerazzurri]

DRS is retarded.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by MilehighM3

Case and point! We don’t need another cycle like this. It’s no fun to watch.

If we get a cycle like this, it'll be on equal grounds/resources for the teams.

In the MERC domination era, MERC had well over half a billion to spend every year on producing a car, whereas others were on budgets sub 100 million.
If that had continued, looking at how big F1 has become in the last 3 or 4 years, that half a billion would now have been 1 and a half billion or some ridiculous number.
Now, every team has that 145 million (or whatever it was this year), and every team has afaik managed to come up with that money for development.
So if a team dominates now, it's because they're doing a better job with the same money. Their performance is actually better.
If you don't want antother cycle where the base starting point for all teams is more or less the same, then you're not watching it for the sport.
You're watching it because you want to see spectacle.
But looking at how the races are organized in the US (especially this event) that might be very much a 'murica thing.

I think the battle that we saw today has only been possible due to the cost cap. RB has stopped developing the car halfway during the season to focus on next year. Ferrari obviously hasn't. That's a strategy call. Wheter or not that's wise can only be seen in 1 or 2 years, but if the ridiculous budgets still had been the order of the day, obviously RB kept developing the RB19, and their dominance would've only been even bigger. And the next year too.
Now, their dominance is not because they have the most money, but because the have the best people, doing the best job, with the same means as any other team.

[OG Shark]

Originally Posted by Car-Addicted

Great Race. Great venue. Props to Checo on 2nd in drivers championship. (You remember Checo Perez? He was the one a lot of you wanted sacked a couple weeks ago) Weird Podium Celebration but then again it is Vegas.
I'm good with not seeing any Elvis drivers suits for 360days

Great to see Checo competitive near the top again. Wish he could have pulled off P2 but still a good recovery for him after the bad qualy call from the team. I still think it's probably too little too late for him - which sounds really freaking weird for someone who just wrapped up P2 in the championship - but in the overall grand scheme of things I feel like the amount of baggage that came along with that could very well outweigh the results in the eyes of RBR.

I was going to put a pic of me in my Elvis suit but I guess I'll refrain now

Originally Posted by MilehighM3

Case and point! We don’t need another cycle like this. It’s no fun to watch.

There is a BOP in place - it's called the spending cap. They all have an equal amount they can spend and it is up to each time to maximize their performance with that money. It is not like the Mercedes run where they overspent all the other teams by 100s of millions just in the initial development of their car and then proceeded to outspend every team by a huge amount every season. Mercedes got their championships by outspending everyone else my a huge margin. RBR earned their championships by outperforming everyone else with the same amount to spend - and in VERs case by a huge margin. To be punished for success when you can throw unlimited amounts of money into development is one thing - but to be punished for winning when you all have an equal amount you can spend is entirely different. You should not be punished for being better when you are all working within the same rule set and with the same amount of money you can spend. Being smarter, working harder, being more talented - things like that should not be reasons to penalize people. The balance of power should come from the losing teams working to do better to achieve success - not by making the winning team slower so that the losers get a turn too. It's already too much that wind tunnel time is allotted based on final standings. Competition should be created by the loser rising up to challenge the winner - not by dragging the winner down to the loser's level.

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

MAX won't take prisoners ,so that won't be easy for Lando or Alonso .
If MAX gets a 'DNF , they can do it and I can live with that . But Ferrari has made a huge step forwards .

Ferrari made a huge step forward this week... but just like the rest have little consistency across the whole season. Also very hard to judge any other's team progression in comparison to RBR when RBR has done next to nothing the 2nd half of the season to improve their cars. Versus each other sure - but they are all so all over the place that a good read is almost impossible.

[OG Shark]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

If we get a cycle like this, it'll be on equal grounds/resources for the teams.

In the MERC domination era, MERC had well over half a billion to spend every year on producing a car, whereas others were on budgets sub 100 million.
If that had continued, looking at how big F1 has become in the last 3 or 4 years, that half a billion would now have been 1 and a half billion or some ridiculous number.
Now, every team has that 145 million (or whatever it was this year), and every team has afaik managed to come up with that money for development.
So if a team dominates now, it's because they're doing a better job with the same money. Their performance is actually better.
If you don't want antother cycle where the base starting point for all teams is more or less the same, then you're not watching it for the sport.
You're watching it because you want to see spectacle.
But looking at how the races are organized in the US (especially this event) that might be very much a 'murica thing.

I think the battle that we saw today has only been possible due to the cost cap. RB has stopped developing the car halfway during the season to focus on next year. Ferrari obviously hasn't. That's a strategy call. Wheter or not that's wise can only be seen in 1 or 2 years, but if the ridiculous budgets still had been the order of the day, obviously RB kept developing the RB19, and their dominance would've only been even bigger. And the next year too.
Now, their dominance is not because they have the most money, but because the have the best people, doing the best job, with the same means as any other team.

Beat me to it - well said!

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by dfox

Max is on another level then Checo. 100%. Ferrari had better place than RB though, for Checo to bring the fight to him was pretty impressive. A few times I thought Checo was going to pull away, but Charles kept him reeled in.

Max showed that his dirty side is still present... I was not impressed with his turn 1 shenanigans, and his pass on George was overly aggressive, had Checo done either of those every Max fan would be talking about how dirty of a racer he is.

Think , you don't know what happened during the drivers parade ?

LEW's 'oldtimer car was leaking oil , the oldtimer ran on the inside line at the startgrid to Turn 1 .
And that was right on MAX's P2 inside start line . P2 was already the dirty side of the track . And if that wasn't enough , LEW's oldtimer was leaking oil on the P2 start line .
They had to remove the oldtimer ASAP and throw sand on the long oil trail.
The Red Bull Team was really concerned about the oily asphalt layer for MAX on the inside at P2.
One hour before the start the asphalt was still shiny and greasy from the oil !

In other words : MAX was actually sliding through T1 . That's why he was going too wide and took Charlie with him on the outside .
This while MAX and Charlie braked too late ..

[GuidoK]

I still wonder, if there hadn't been any SC/VSC, I think LEC would've won.
He was better in managing tyres, he overtook Max in lap 16 or so.
With that Max had to go for a 2 stop. Lec maybe too, but his stints would've been more optimized.

But it's all 'if'. A big part of strategy is also how you handle SC's, making the split second decision then and there.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by dfox

Max is on another level then Checo. 100%. Ferrari had better place than RB though, for Checo to bring the fight to him was pretty impressive. A few times I thought Checo was going to pull away, but Charles kept him reeled in.

Max showed that his dirty side is still present... I was not impressed with his turn 1 shenanigans, and his pass on George was overly aggressive, had Checo done either of those every Max fan would be talking about how dirty of a racer he is.

Did you see what LEW did to MAX ?

MAX went in for his first pitstop and took his 5 sec. penalty in the pit .
MAX came back on track behind LEW .
What LEW did while he ran with his tyre puncture was elbows wide and close the doors for MAX !
Just to slow MAX down !

How would you describe such driver behavior ? A dirty side ?