Topic: Push Square Formula 1 thread - F1

@themightyant That number one has got to be frustrating for Lando if he is aware of that.

Shame there is another weekend off before the next race.

Aw man. Roscoe died. That sucks. 😭

Yeah I just heard. RIP Roscoe. Sending ♥️ to Lewis, he will be gutted..

Have the other teams narrowed the gap to McLaren? Things are certainly tight in qualifying and Max is looking competitive at a track not usually suited to their car.

EDIT: Drivers starting on slicks at a walled street circuit that has wet sections. The potential for first lap(s) incidents are extremely high I think.

Got to agree with Jenson and Karun that Oscar was risking it all by trying a switch back on TURN ONE after going deep. There’s almost ALWAYS going to be someone on your inside in that situation on turn one. It’s still a racing incident but it’s a high probability you will hit someone. It’s a poor percentage play by him.

There’s still 166 points for winning everything (6 races, 2 sprints), Max isn’t out of this yet if they keep dropping points. If he does keep closing I wonder if they will have team orders to push for Oscar (or whoever is ahead) to try and secure the drivers title. That’s a LOT of “if’s” but could be shades of McLaren with Alonso and Hamilton… and Raikonnen stealing it in 2007 if they aren’t careful.

@themightyant yeah they are right. Probably a rare sign of a little bit of inexperience to attempt it in that scenario but also think it boils down to a racing incident and nothing needs to come from it. I thought Lazenby was trying to make way too much out of it from a McLaren stand point though.

I really hope it all narrows up and we go to the final race of the season with all 3 able to win it.

Also, just hearing from Stroll, sloppy move but why on earth did he try to keep on going driving further down the track with a clearly wrecked front wheel?
I think Ollie should have given the place up straight away when he went wide when Kimi tried to pass. He might have had a slim chance to take it back.

@BearsEatBeets totally agree. Stroll nuts to keep going, though he did pull up just by the maintenance gap and cherry picker, I thought we might have had a one lap shootout, but alas.

Also agreed on Bearman, team should have told him to give the place back, so it just before the DRS line and have another go on the main straight. Another poor percentage play. Seems super obvious.

Would love to see it come down to the final race.

@themightyant With main qualifying about to start I'm reminded of the mayhem of everyone trying to get their lap done in Sprint quali. I was thinking with 2 extra cars to cram in next season I can see a lot more incidents like that as well as more instances of cars getting in each others way next year.

EDIT: What is going on? McLaren 6/7 and Ferrari & Merc both faster!

@BearsEatBeets last few races McLaren haven’t looked as dominant and beatable, will be interesting to see if that holds for the rest of the season. If so beware of Max. George is consistently competing for podiums and could take more points off them. We’ll see.

(Now I’ve said that they will probably be on pole lol.)

Gutted for Albon with the track limits, I really like the Williams drivers/team. Fingers crossed Sainz can keep up the strong showing.
Ferrari have definitely found a stronger setup since the Sprint.

EDIT: Feels like everyone is struggling to keep grip and get a clean lap done. I'm assuming it's not worth attempting a lap on a medium, there has been a few races where it worked for some teams.

Agreed on Albon. But he’s having his run of bad luck now as Carlos did for a long time. It happens.

Crazy that max still got P1 on just an earlier lap. Dominant in that car. Lando v Max again.

Piastri down in 6th is interesting. Will see if he can keep a cool head and progress through the field OR be a bit impatient again. I feel the pressure has got to him a bit the last few races… finally showing he’s human! lol

Ferrari are all over the place. It sounds like they didn’t change anything major but performance is just yo-yoing.

Russell continues to be so consistent. Antonelli do well. And hats off to Ollie Bearman with P8.

Looking forward to the race.

@themightyant Yes Piastri needs to be cool and play the long game tomorrow. Purely getting past George and the Ferraris should be considered good enough as Lando (and more so Max) need big chunks of extra points almost every race so limiting it to just a few on an off weekend isn't too bad.

Looking forward to it. After a few averages races Cota is pretty reliable for a good (🤞I haven't just jinxed it).

Piastri has shown he's not a champion driver this year, his turn one move was a rearly careless piece of novice driving. If Lando deserves ' consequences' for hard fair racing, then Piastri deserves double consequences for being so stupidly unaware he took both cars out. I feel sorry for Hulk, brilliant performance to be there and then broadsided by Piastri who forgot he was in a race with other cars...

Hoping for a race with lots of 'good' talking points where drivers look a bit more like professional drivers. 👍

I’m genuinely starting to think Max might win this. He was 104 points beind just 4 races to go and now it’s 40 with 5 races and 2 sprints. McLaren don’t look like the fastest car and Max in clean air looks unbeatable. With Oscar and Lando both dropping and sharing points it could well come down to the wire.

@themightyant Very much agree. McLaren already knew Vegas was liable to be a weak track for them for a while so if Max ends up being stronger at Mexico and Brazil it's done.
I think Lando's race has clearly shown that being stuck behind a decent rival they can struggle to get enough pace to overtake but when in clear air they can pull away. If Oscar or Lando want to win this they really need to beat Max in qualifying.

Great result today to spice up the remaining season. After this weekend I think Max has started to genuinely think it's on.

Blimey! That has got to be one of the most exciting Q1s in a long time. Not because of any incidents but lots of unusual drivers putting in fastest laps.

I'm finding Crofty more and more annoying with every passing race. He seems to be getting loads wrong of late and took about a minute to notice Bearman stealing P1 from Lando.

EDIT: What a bizarre qualifying. The RBs first and fifth in Q1 and then last and just scraping through in Q2. Piastri really struggling and needs to find something in Q3 with the others doing well.

@BearsEatBeets was out last night but managed to keep this a surprise. Just watched all of qualifying… wow! So many surprise.ms. I would have put good money on Max being in the top 3 in quali for the rest of the season (he may still be in the race). Piastri nowhere over half a second down. Lando pulling an epic lap out.

Ferrari’s for once continuing their practice pace into Qualifying, especially Q3. Russell continuing to be solid and ahead of of Max in P5. Would not have guessed this grid. Bonkers.

Not to mention Sainz continuing his strong form, Antonelli did well after scraping through the early rounds. Hadjar and Bearman continue to impress.

Bring on the race.

@themightyant I forgot about Sainz, a great performance. He clearly has a good feel for this track winning it last year for Ferrari (their last win). Shame about his grid penalty but hopefully he has a strong race to gain some places back.

Just putting the build up on now, looking forward to this one. Nervous about turn 1, hope everyone gets around it clean.

Yeah, If Lando gets through turn 1 in front, its hard to see anyone catching him. So much interest through the rest of the positions too, Im looking forward to lights out!

Wow, that’s a stat. Apparently in the last 5 race weekends Max has gotten the exact same points as Lando and Piastri combined.