[WraithApe]

Still. They are managing to finish races which is something the Honda powerplant cannot seem to manage. 3 seconds a lap at Sochi is pure brutality. Alonso will be stressing that unit trying to retire the car.

He sounded very dejected on the radio at the end of Q2 yesterday. It must be incredibly frustrating. McLaren really do need to shed themselves of Honda one way or another if they want to take the first steps to getting back to where they once were. It's a sorry state for a once great team and a constructor a lot of people still hold great affection for. Maybe Honda just need to accept it's been a massive failure and walk away from the sport, rather than trying to palm off their substandard engines on another team next season with a kind of double or nothing approach.

 

[Hutnicks]

Alonso is master at sabotaging his own career so I have less sympathy for him than I do for VanDoorne. Kid has won everything he ever entered and gets to what he assumes to be a top rate team with promises the engine is going to be better this year, only to find he's signed up with the new Manor. That has to hurt.

Honda is just unfathomably out of touch on this program for some reason. The more Hasegawa claims they are committed the more I suspect the board is ready to pull the plug. How can they be dominant in Indycar and not even get out of the gate in F1? There is an engineering case study to be had there.
I hope the rumours of them talking to Illmor are true, they need help and fast.

In Bernies bio, he mentioned Honda and Toyota and said their issues are cultural. They insist on working from Japan when the sport is centered in England. The epitome of the "not invented here" syndrome. They just refuse to follow the winning ways of Merc, Red Bull and the like in favour of the nationalist approach like Ferrari, which of course has only ever worked sporadically if you happen to be Ferrari

 

[MuZo2]

Sauber was the rumour I heard yesterday. Kinda makes sense - you couldn't really make that team any worse...

And its confirmed now.

 

[Hutnicks]

Just read that as well as Monisha's justification for it. It's uncompetitive now but that has nothing to do with the future?
Uh girlie, it's been going backwards for 3 years straight, care to share what wizardry they have up their sleeve. Have they stolen a merc motor to reverse engineer or something.

Meanwhile, Mac is tripping all over itself to deny Jordans assertation that they have signed with Merc for motors .

 

[MuZo2]

FIA wants all engines to be withing 0.3s so at some point Merc or FIA will help Honda.
http://www.espn.co.uk/video/clip?id=19262637

Merc might have helped Ferrari last year.
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2016/09/12/ecclestone-continues-to-claim-mercedes-helped-ferrari/

 

[Hutnicks]

Ha, Bernie raking it up.

Unfortunately with the FIA's miracle formula for engine parity it now becomes in the interest of the engine builders to see their competitors close in on them. In short the FIA is attempting to remove competitive aspects from the formula.

 

[MuZo2]

race after initial few laps. I guess its nature of track..

 

[WraithApe]

Maybe it's the nature of the sport in 2017...

Bit of excitement towards the end as it looked like Ferrari's strategy might pay dividends, but Massa made sure there was no real drama (don't think he would've caught him anyway).

 

[MuZo2]

Let's see what RB brings at next race & if Honda can make decent step at Canada.

Anyways better than last few years.

 

[Hutnicks]

Maybe it's the nature of the sport in 2017...

Bit of excitement towards the end as it looked like Ferrari's strategy might pay dividends, but Massa made sure there was no real drama (don't think he would've caught him anyway).

I don't think Vettel could have gotten by either. It's one thing to catch up these days yet quite another to make a pass from dirty air.
So much for the touted engine parity

Sauber, good choice with the Honda motor for next year. Alonso probably has the right idea with going to indy. Not much point in showing up for races this year with the Mac being in the state it is.

Real surprise is the continuing Red Bull woes. I cannot help but wonder what that car is capable of if you could really lean on it without worrying about having your brakes send you into the wall. That should be a fairly simple fix. Would love to see them at least nipping at the heels waiting for any opportunity to grab a podium.

Kudos to Bottas. Give Merc a little to think about with regards to the much mused about team orders. A three way fight for the title might open up some interesting scraps at the front of the pack.

 

[WraithApe]

Kudos to Bottas. Give Merc a little to think about with regards to the much mused about team orders. A three way fight for the title might open up some interesting scraps at the front of the pack.

Kudos indeed. Nice to see the guy on the top step of the podium finally. I'm a little bemused how Hamilton ended up so far adrift though. Listening to the radio messages, they seemed to be telling him Bottas's car had exactly the same temp issues but it wasn't affecting him because he was in clean air. Would that really account for the huge differential? Weird. Rarely seen him having to focus so much on engine management at the expense of racing. Didn't make for a great spectacle... ideally you want to see both cars from both teams duking it out!

 

[Hutnicks]

Kudos indeed. Nice to see the guy on the top step of the podium finally. I'm a little bemused how Hamilton ended up so far adrift though. Listening to the radio messages, they seemed to be telling him Bottas's car had exactly the same temp issues but it wasn't affecting him because he was in clean air. Would that really account for the huge differential? Weird. Rarely seen him having to focus so much on engine management at the expense of racing. Didn't make for a great spectacle... ideally you want to see both cars from both teams duking it out!

Rumours have persisted since the rise to dominance about Merc requiring clean air to function properly. Still given the difference between he and Bottas in the race I would suspect an energy recovery issue somewhere along the line.
Curious to see how Valteri handles the next few races now that he has tasted blood

 

[oqvist]

Bottas dominated Hamilton in qualification just seemed like he had no speed on this track. Driver rather then car issue I recon.

There is no future at all with the Ferrari 2016 engine that will never ever get better so it´s the right thing to do to go to the second worst engine that has a chance to improve.

As for Stoffel he is a known cheater so I wish him all the bad luck.

 

[Hutnicks]

Perhaps Hammer is now regretting his choice to not share data between drivers

Second worst would be Renault.

Well, he pairs well with Teflonso then. Won't be getting much chance to cheat in that car.

 

[gr8soundz]

Bottas dominated Hamilton in qualification just seemed like he had no speed on this track. Driver rather then car issue I recon.

Sochi is one of Bottas' best tracks. From 2014-16 he qualified 3rd each time and finished on the podium in 2014, all in a Williams.

I'd say outqualifying all the Ferraris and Red Bulls in Sochi for 3 years in a slower car is pretty good. I wasn't surprised he outpaced Hamilton by half a second per lap.