re: F1 2019 Season Thread (Next race: Dec. 1 Abu Dhabi)

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Max was a monster the second half of the race after the tire change. Im interested to see what happens after the race with the stewards. Im honestly not going to be surprised if they do penalty Max for the move.

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Yep, this race was won by Max being able to keep speed on his first set of tires longer, so he had the most speed at the end of the race on fresher tires.

Lot of supposed reports it is 5 sec.

I say supposed because it looks like someone might have made a fake note.

The results stand! Woohoo!

It's close to the halfway point of the season. Here are some facts and opinions after Round 9 of 21:

First win for a non-Mercedes this season.

Youngest P1 - P2 finish ever in F1. Max and Charles are both 21 yrs old.

First win for Honda since Button won the Hungarian GP in 2006.

First race of the season where everyone was classified at the end of the race. This was only the 9th F1 grand prix to finish with no DNFs, but the 5th since the hybrid era began in 2014. The cars are not only way more complex than before (notwithstanding going backwards from the active suspension era), they are also more reliable. The rise of the modern Tilke track probably helps as well.

McLaren is emerging as the "best of the rest," Renault is underperforming, and Räikkönen is giving Sauber/Alfa Romeo a nice boost.

Giovanazzi finally picked up his first F1 point. He had been the only non-Williams driver without a point. Williams is the only team on the grid that doesn't have a chance in Hell of scoring a point this season, so Giovanazzi must have been pretty desperate considering that everyone else had scored points.

After 9 races who is underperforming the most compared to their teammate? Here's a chart of driver points sorted by the teams:



I would say these are the three biggest underperformers:
Gasly
Grojean
Giovinazzi

However I would say Gasly is the only real notable underperformer because he's on a top-three and now race-winning team. Grojean is underperforming considering how experienced he is, but Haas as a whole team is underperforming with so many mistakes. Giovinazzi can be forgiven somewhat for underperforming next to a former world champion as a teammate.

I would also add that Ricciardo has been a bit of a disappointment. Maybe it's really just a big adjustment to a new car and team. It's also possible that Hülkenberg has been somewhat underrated all these years. I know there are fans who have felt that he deserves a chance to prove himself on a top team.

For the 2nd half of the season I'm looking for what I have been looking for since the start of the season: for Leclerc and Gasly to be competitive with their teammates. I'm neither a Vettel nor Verstappen fan so I want their teammates to shine. Leclerc is coming on strong and has been pretty good for the whole season so he's looking good to continue rising. Gasly has been a huge disappointment! I'm not a Verstappen fan but I am rooting hardest for Red Bull because I am a big fan of Honda because of their commitment to racing all over the world on both two wheels and four wheels.

McLaren finishing as the clear “best of the rest” would be interesting. They have the money and will to legitimately challenge Red Bull in 2020 with further improvement.

Give Zak an off-season where he can sell sponsors on “get on board now because McLaren is back,” and they’ll have the funding to make it a big four from now til the 2021 rule changes.

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Profit sharing like the SEC or similar?

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LINK

Short video explaining the payout system. It's not balanced. I guess the short answer is that the low level teams just have smaller budgets which is why they don't win races.

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What happened to Williams to make them so bad compared to the past?

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LINK

Not a short video but explains their problems pretty well. I think it's just been a failure on pretty much every level. The sad thing is that it was a fairly quick drop for them. They were pretty good not that long ago.

Rich Energy has terminated sponsorship with Haas.

LINK

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Today @rich_energy terminated our contract with @HaasF1Team for poor performance. We aim to beat @redbullracing & being behind @WilliamsRacing in Austria is unacceptable. The politics and PC attitude in @F1 is also inhibiting our business. We wish the team well #F1 #richenergy

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What a bunch of tools. I guess payment was due to Haas so Rich Energy pulls this stunt.

F1 is probably happier that the administrators took less money from Lawrence Stroll rather than allow Rich Energy to buy Force India.

"Poor performance" = don't have $ and just lost a lawsuit.

For Lando fans:

Lando Norris handed McLaren contract extension after impressive start to F1 season

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It is unusual for any team to confirm its driver line-up for the following year so early, but McLaren saw it as crucial to secure the long-term services of a precocious talent whose reputation rises with every race. Zak Brown, the chief executive, who also announced that Spain’s Carlos Sainz would continue as Norris’ team-mate next season, said: “A lot of teams were sniffing around, a lot are unhappy with both their drivers, and given how Carlos and Lando were doing it was in our best interests to eliminate any speculation.”

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