TSR's Official F1 2018 Thread!

Thought that was dismal... incredibly boring race. I normally keep races to watch again a few days later, but this one's getting deleted straight away.

Only highlight for me was Alonso's beautiful move around the outside of Turn 3.

I dont know if it is the jetlag I have or what but I slept through most of the race, only saw the 1st stint till Vettel's pit stop and the last 3 laps. I knew once the 1st few laps were done that Hamilton would win (looked supreme today) but am curious to know why / how Verstappen finished 3rd (was it another Ferrari strategy blunder due to safetycars)

Also glad to see my boy Charles in the points again this race, I have a suspicion if he does well, he will be replacing grosjean at haas next year with a view on 2021 at Ferrari (depends really on Raikkonen, Vettel and Ricciardo situations).

Ocon stopped causing a VSC. Vettel pitted during it and had a slow pit stop, so Max jumped him.

We've been treated this season in terms of excitement, in a way it was good to get a duller race to see the pace of the teams in a race not messed up by a safety car.

If we thought the Force India drivers were wasting their fastest ever car last season, I dunno how to even describe what Grosjean is doing right now to what still appears to be the 4th fastest car atm.

It seems as though Hartley and Grosjean are having a race to see who can be the first to get sacked, with Vandoorne not too far behind (although to be fair to him the main reason for his question marks is the comprehensive beating he is currently receiving from Alonso)

Read somewhere that Grosjean span in every session this weekend, can someone confirm this loooool.

Ok (5.6 seconds right?). Also what happened to kimi and Ocon?
I read kimi had a PU failure over the weekend. was this a recurrance?

Re: Tyres - does anyone else feel that the tyre changes made for this weekend feel like that which occured in 2013?
(2013 - Ferrari started off with fastest car of season with lotus and mercedes also being faster than RB. Due to safety grounds, everyone reverted back to the 2012 spec tyres and RB / Vettel dominated after this temporary change became permanent;
2018: due to safety grounds(which may or may not have been heavily instigated by Mercedes) the reigning champs, who were slower on pace compared to Ferrari and red bull during earlier races, have started enjoying dominance again as the new tyres suited their car more than everyone elses. (prime example, Ferrari and RB had way better tyre management than Merc yet this weekend, the Mercs were better).

As it stands, France and Britain will also have the thinner tyres (translation, hamilton dominance in Silverstone and Paul Riccard) but depending on which camp you are in, you may or may not want these tyres for the rest of the season

In anycase, Monaco I expect to be a red bull lockout in qualiy with the race either a procession or chaotic depending on weather and how the red bulls behave with each other.

Bring on the race after monaco!!!

It seems the pace of Williams and Force India at Baku was only because of the long straight rather than a permanent thing. I'm not sure if Mercedes are really that quick though - in qualifying on most other tracks Ferrari has been on top. I would say the Mercedes is fastest in good conditions, but far more sensitive.

Reminds me of the time when I tried to get fired as quickly as possible in the F1 2017 game. Grosjean is just not doing well enough right now - maybe he's been influenced by his ex team-mate at Lotus. In my opinion, Hartley just isn't cut out for F1 - he's consistently slower than Gasly and nearly caused a horrific accident with him in Q1 at Baku. Wehrlein or Kvyat deserve that seat more than he does.

Did you get fired?


Also when the game first came out did you have that glitch where the entire grid had penalties from Austria onwards?

Eventually yes. But I think I could have done it faster because I always made it a point to take my team-mate out which actually improved my reputation because I would finish 19th and my team-mate 20th xD.

I only got the game a few weeks after it was first released so I didn't experience that glitch. A few things do bug me though, such as the Renault R26 using the engine sound of the RB6 which makes it sound like it's doing 18k when on screen it says 20.5k. And of course the sheer number of Maldonados that inhabit the online lobbies.

I see. I don’t have online so don’t experience that.

Also in my career 1st season at Monaco, it was wet (full wets) but drying, for some reason none of the AI pitted even though I was going 4-5 secs a lap quicker in a Sauber.

Yeah sometimes AI drivers do weird things, like the time a lot of them did a 3-stop at Singapore in a 50% race which was totally dry, or the time they pitted and replaced semi-worn inters (I was probably on about 30% wear at the time) with new ones just a couple of laps before they pitted for dry tyres.

If you're 4-5 seconds quicker per lap in a Sauber, you should probably turn the difficulty up lol. Unless you somehow made your Sauber super OP, like the time I managed to make the Ferrari about 5 seconds per lap faster than all the other cars. I think the two Ferraris 1/2-ed every race until COTA, where I decided that I wanted to enforce some team orders and brake-checked Vettel in order to make him lose his wing and pit (we were probably a lap ahead by then). Ended up completely taking him out xD.

1) It seems the pace of Williams and Force India at Baku was only because of the long straight rather than a permanent thing.
2) I'm not sure if Mercedes are really that quick though - in qualifying on most other tracks Ferrari has been on top. I would say the Mercedes is fastest in good conditions, but far more sensitive.

1) havent seen the entire spanish GP so cant really comment but the long straight aided williams massively as their car lacks downforce (and drag, which is good for places like Monza or Montreal but an absolute nightmare for monaco, singapore or mexico)

2) combination of factors today...cooler conditions, new type of tyre which is specifically for spain, britain and france (which a lot of people suggest were instigated by merc due to heavy tyre wear in testing and this tyre was designed to address Mercedes' issues) and Hamilton and Bottas being happy, hitting the best setup window

regarding qualifying (and engine power), the situation is a bit weird.

So this year, all components have to last longer (2-3 elements vs 4 from last year) for the power units.

Now the performance figures are supposed to match those from the end of last year (despite less oil burning and designed to last longer) for Renault and Mercedes but Ferrari gained 10hp on their end of season unit

The reason they are fast in quali is because their 062 Power Unit, introduced last year around Malaysia, was in fact more powerful than Mercedes' PU. However due to the sheer reliability issues which cost vettel the championship and Raikkonen podiums, they had to detune the engine. It seems however they sorted out the issues (and supposedly got rid of the 3d printed elements) and gained 10hp vs. the 062. Thus they started the season with the 062EVO engine which is more powerful than the engines in the Renault, Honda and possibly Mercedes.

Did you get fired?


Also when the game first came out did you have that glitch where the entire grid had penalties from Austria onwards?

I will do my Monaco preview tomorrow. Still trying to decide my classic race. I have it narrowed down to 4 or 5.

So apparently the new hypersofts will be able to do 77 laps at the weekend

Yeah, it's ridiculous. Surely it can't be too difficult to artificially make them less durable? At this rate we'll be seeing a choice between ultrahypersofts, hyperultrahypersofts and ultrahyperultrahypersofts next year.

I think the problem we have is that as soon as Pirelli May three that wear, people starting moaning at them. In all honestly Pirelli can’t win.