[Official] Austrian Grand Prix 2018: Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

...what do you think of this track?

If you were to ask me which F1 track I would like to do a track day on, this would be #2 after Spa. It's a similar style to Road America and looks like a blast. I'm not sure if that translates to a good F1 race, but you could say the same about Spa.

[F1Guy]

I don't think Vettel deserved a 3 place penalty. I know, shock horror, I'm actually sticking up for Vettel. Maybe the stewards wanted to make up for the pathetic penalty they handed him last week.

Ruin someone's entire race on lap one and get 5 seconds. Impede someone that made absolutely no difference to the final result anyway, and get 3 places.


And wile I'm at it, I'm sticking up for Verstappen too. DR was at fault and a little out of line on the slipstream issue. Austria being a very short lap time, they could have 3 runs for pole in Q3 as opposed to the normal 2 runs. DR felt (wrongfully) that he was entitled to one of those 3 runs as the following car. Sorry DR, that's bad luck.


Can't believe I'm actually sticking up for Vettel and Verstappen. I'm off to take my medication right now!

[Peter Mallett]

The comments from some of the drivers about the kerbs beggars belief. Stay inside the kerbs and you go quicker. Stray outside and you damage the car and go slower.

[F1Guy]

Haven't heard too many drivers complain about the outside kerbs this year, except for Perez, who seems to have taken over from Massa as the resident serial whinger.


Many of the drivers have defended the kerbs and have said they are a good thing.

[karting]

Why are F2 doing rolling starts instead of grid starts?

[tux]

Originally Posted by karting

Why are F2 doing rolling starts instead of grid starts?

They are having problems with stalling on the grid so until the series can fix the problems they've moved to rolling starts. Personally why they need to do it single file rather than double file is beyond me.

Anyone else notice for the GP3 start there are beeps that are in sync with the starting lights at the start of the race? Proper Mario Kart.

[S griffin]

So well done Bottas on pole position. Seems to love this track. Vettel penalty may be seem harsh, but I can see why he got penalised, it could have caused an accident

[F1Guy]

Hartley will start from the back of grid. New Honda engine fitted.

Alonso will start from pit lane. New (the updated) Renault MGU-K fitted.

[steve nielsen]

Originally Posted by F1Guy

Hartley will start from the back of grid. New Honda engine fitted.

Alonso will start from pit lane. New (the updated) Renault MGU-K fitted.

so we have Vandoorne P15 and Alonso from the pits, last year with the Honda they started P12 and P13

[karting]

Originally Posted by steve nielsen

so we have Vandoorne P15 and Alonso from the pits, last year with the Honda they started P12 and P13

They also can’t seem to make front wings. They have gone though 4 of them so far and Alonso is on the old spec wing as they can’t handle the kerbs like some the others can

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by karting

They also can’t seem to make front wings. They have gone though 4 of them so far and Alonso is on the old spec wing as they can’t handle the kerbs like some the others can

I was watching qualifying yesterday and the McLarens were running the front wing much closer to the ground than other teams, so if the car goes over those sausage kerbs, it's going to damage the front wing, which is what happened.

[Peter Mallett]

Can't work the clutch.

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was a clean start but Lewis got the jump on Bottas.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Hulkenberg's engine blows up in spectacular fashion.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Bottas retires bringing out the VSC. Seems to be a gearbox issue.

[broadrun96]

Any odds on whether Hartley makes the trip to Silverstone next week? Not his fault but that's a lot of retirements in his season so far

[bjohnsonsmith]

Lewis is out. I wonder if Ferrari will tell Kimi to give up second place to Vettel?

[Articus]

Who could have predicted Mercedes double DNF....well good to spice up this championship. Great race! A classic

[bjohnsonsmith]

Congrats to Max and RB, winning for the first time at the RB Ring. Great result for Haas, Grosjean and Magnussen 4th and 5th.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Articus

Who could have predicted Mercedes double DNF....

Last time we had a Mercedes double mechanical DNF was Italy 1955!

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Any odds on whether Hartley makes the trip to Silverstone next week? Not his fault but that's a lot of retirements in his season so far

I can't see any reason to pitch him out. He was doing a decent job until he retired.

[S griffin]

What a race that was. Felt sorry for Bottas yet more bad luck, but must have felt a bit better knowing Hamilton also broke down. Merc once again goofed on strategy, but that didn’t seem to matter in the end

Great win for Max, on Red Bull’s home circuit, shame things didn’t work out for Danny. Ferrari seemed to look after tyres better, Kimi gave good chase at the end. Vettel, could he have won without that penalty? Who knows, certainly enlivened it, although having seen it properly now, it did seem harsh.

Well done to Grosjean, at last scoring this season, great result for Haas and nice to see Force India working as a team. Great recovery from the pitlane for Fred, still a great racer, and well done to both Saubers, both finishing close together in 9th and 10th

And nice to see drivers learned the lesson of the kerbs from practice, by staying off them

[Nikki Katz]

That was a good race, but I'm still finding myself irritated by the lap that everyone had to drive through a CGI Budweiser star. I know it was about 20 seconds of screen time, but I really hate that sort of thing, the camera lying about things on the track. And Budweiser's horrible.

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by S griffin

And nice to see drivers learned the lesson of the kerbs from practice, by staying off them

That seems to be overstating it somewhat. They were all over the kerbs, as usual. They just seemed to have worked out which ones were damaging and which ones were meaningless.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Nikki Katz

That was a good race, but I'm still finding myself irritated by the lap that everyone had to drive through a CGI Budweiser star. I know it was about 20 seconds of screen time, but I really hate that sort of thing, the camera lying about things on the track. And Budweiser's horrible.

Obviously the marketing failed then - it was meant to be promoting Heineken!!