[Official] Italian Grand Prix 2017: Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[thetool]

It's time to make it official that F1 doesn't run in the wet isn't it? Like NASCAR. It would save the teams a bit of money on equipment they never use.

[gert]

Sigh ...

[GTRMagic]

[steve nielsen]

Max and Dan get penalties, so Stroll will start on the front row

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Originally Posted by gert

Restart postponed to 15:00
First booing from the tribunes.

What are they waiting for? Until the track is bone dry? Until the first snow?

Best drivers in the world, best cars in the world and especially: best tires in the world. How can this happen?

They always do this. It's pathetic. The FIA wouldn't be willing to let me drive one of those cars in these conditions, so I'm absolutely no different to any of the "best drivers in the world." If the drivers feel it's too dangerous, don't run. Simple. If you go out, you accept the risk. If nobody goes out, so be it. But what are the chances of that? I'm glad they bothered starting, but because one driver strayed from the clear line and as a result aquaplaned doesn't mean that they are all incapable of safely circulating at once. I'm just glad that they had the guts to actually run a session where Pirelli could use their wet tyres for once.

[Aysedasi]

Well, when it did get going it was pretty entertaining. Great job by Stroll and Ocon and a miserable performance by the Ferraris. As to Hamilton, it was as superb as it seemed inevitable.... Even the farcical penalties situation was forgotten - if only for a few moments.....

[djinvicta]

So everyone lower than about 7th moves up 6 places or so. Crazy..We will have Saubers in the points next..mad..
Back to "Three Word Story" in Parc Ferme, least thats sensible..

[wolfhound]

I thought C4 were going to have live qualifying rather than delayed highlights!

Would I be correct in thinking that M. Grosjean was the only one that was complaining about the conditions?

[Aysedasi]

I suspect Vettel and Raikkonen were less than delighted as well.....

[Armco Bender]

Even the farcical penalties situation was forgotten

What a joke qualifying was....whats the point in having a top ten qualifying if half the cars can't start in the grid positions.
F1 is just taking the mick(substitued for the rude word because its Sunday morning here and most people are at church) with F1 watchers..

[Paradise City]

Grid penalties give qualifying the air of farce. It's lucky Hamilton stole the show otherwise the RBR frontrow-that-never-happened would've created a terrible impression. There's gotta be another way.

And making an announcements for announcements is more nonsense. Just silly overbureaucratic rubbish.

I've no problem with them lining up according to championship rankings in such cases that they can't get it in on Saturday after a sane delay. I think that may even be better than doing qualifying on a Sunday morning that relatively few would watch.

[Armco Bender]

The GP2/F2 race was a cracker,why can't F1 put on a show like that?.

[Razzzor]

We almost had Stroll, Ocon on the front row for tomorrow, how amazing would that be?

If not for Hamilton. Can someone please chuck a spanner in his engine tomorrow? So sick of him always at the front. He'll probably just cruise off to another win tomorrow and take the points lead Luckily we've got F2 to be excited about.

Horner will have his head under a rock, of all the places to take those penalties he chooses the race where they qualifying 2-3.

Nice to see Vandy outqualify Alonso. Same with Stroll and Ocon.

[F1Guy]

Williams say they have no idea why they were quick in qualifying, with a chassis that naturally does not like wet weather, and slow speed track conditions. This really does summarise the engineering situation at Williams doesn't it? So sad for Williams F1.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/w...ifying-948524/

On a positive note, Stroll did an exceptional job (P4 in Q3, P2 for the start) considering where is more experienced team mate was (P9 in Q3, P7 for the start). Watching the onboards, Stroll handled the wet conditions very well. He wasn't doing his usual sawing of the wheel as much as he does in the dry. Much smoother in the wet. He seems to like the wet and slower conditions. If he can adapt this same driving style for the dry, he would do well. I'm guessing this is something he's working on with his frequent 'secret tests' in the '14 Williams car. The last one being in Austin just before the Belgium GP.

As for the wet conditions, they say the best drivers always shine during wet conditions. And five of the top ten at the end of Q3 I rate as some of the best and more talented drivers on the grid. And that's based on natural, gifted talent. Not by how many wins they have. And no, SV and KR are not on that list. Sorry.

[wnut]

Does anyone know what this refers to?

"Sadly, major issues with the timing system, not to mention the long delay in getting the session resumed, have taken the shine off what was a scintillating performance, not just by Hamilton, but Stroll, Ocon and the RedBull duo."

https://www.pitpass.com/60016/Hamilt...-pole-at-Monza

Are the published results accurate?

[F1Guy]

At least Vettel is good enough to admit he isn't as good as most people think. With a top ranked chassis (better than the Mercedes IMO) and a top ranked engine (2nd only to the works Mercedes), he (and KR) could only manage eighth and seventh respectively in wet conditions. Says a lot about both of their natural and gifted driving talents.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/i...ri-qualif.html

[wnut]

Originally Posted by F1Guy

At least Vettel is good enough to admit he isn't as good as most people think. With a top ranked chassis (better than the Mercedes IMO) and a top ranked engine (2nd only to the works Mercedes), he (and KR) could only manage eighth and seventh respectively in wet conditions. Says a lot about both of their natural and gifted driving talents.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/i...ri-qualif.html

Or something about the wet weather set up of the Ferrari.

Bear in mind tomorrow's race is forecast to be dry.

[F1Guy]

Originally Posted by wnut

Are the published results accurate?

Yeah I've read that Ferrari fans are questioning the results as they cannot believe the cars are only 7th and 8th on the grid. And I completely agree with them. The cars are much better than 7th and 8th. Much, much better.

[F1Guy]

Originally Posted by wnut

Or something about the wet weather set up of the Ferrari.

Umm.. you mean the dry weather set up and the small tweaks for wet weather?? The same set up and tweaks that the entire grid had done before qualifying?

Do you know for sure Ferrari was on a wet weather set up? And will they then be given permission to change the cars to a dry weather set up for the race under "exceptional circumstances" ??

So then, with the only wet weather set up on the grid, and one of the best chassis and engine combo's on the grid, the Ferrari drivers only managed to qualify seventh and eighth!?? Wow! This is worse than I thought it was.

[Compromised]

Yeah Seb Vettel is pretty useless in the wet... The guy that won Monza in 2008 in a Torro Rosso, he goes alright though.

You're clueless F1Guy. Are you Crofty by any chance?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by F1Guy

At least Vettel is good enough to admit he isn't as good as most people think. With a top ranked chassis (better than the Mercedes IMO) and a top ranked engine (2nd only to the works Mercedes), he (and KR) could only manage eighth and seventh respectively in wet conditions. Says a lot about both of their natural and gifted driving talents.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/i...ri-qualif.html

Vettel won his first GP at Monza in 2008 in a wet race. With both Ferraris uncharacteristically down the grid, I think this is to do with car set up, as opposed to natural gifted driving talents.

[F1Guy]

Originally Posted by Compromised

Yeah Seb Vettel is pretty useless in the wet...

Yep, you're right. Not very good in wet conditions is he?

https://youtu.be/ynVhimT2qNY?t=9s

[F1Guy]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Vettel won his first GP at Monza in 2008 in a wet race. With both Ferraris uncharacteristically down the grid, I think this is to do with car set up, as opposed to natural gifted driving talents.

You could be right there BJS.

STR was the only team using Brembo brakes at the time. At a track famous for being hard on brakes. The new Brembo brakes introduced for that weekend, according to STR at the time, were 'switched on' much better in the wet conditions. Something the other teams could not achieve with their brakes. STR had a better car set up than the others. Well done to STR.

But before we can talk of the race results, we should look at what happened the day before in qualifying. Quali was an absolute mess. With a mixed result. I mean.. Vettel had claimed pole ahead of Kovalainen, Webber, Bourdais in the other STR, and Rosberg in the Williams-Toyota. With the 'big boys' well down the order. That is nothing really to get too excited about. Well.. for me anyway.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by F1Guy

Umm.. you mean the dry weather set up and the small tweaks for wet weather?? The same set up and tweaks that the entire grid had done before qualifying?

Do you know for sure Ferrari was on a wet weather set up? And will they then be given permission to change the cars to a dry weather set up for the race under "exceptional circumstances" ??

So then, with the only wet weather set up on the grid, and one of the best chassis and engine combo's on the grid, the Ferrari drivers only managed to qualify seventh and eighth!?? Wow! This is worse than I thought it was.

Umm NO, I believe Ferrari were on a dry setup in preparation for tomorrow, so they were not set up for the wet qualifying at all!

[Sodemo]

Could it be that the Williams performed so well because the old adage that "bad cars perform well in the wet". If the car is naturally not as stiff, it would be more forgiveable and be of benefit in the wet, but not helpful in the dry.