Topic: Push Square Formula 1 thread - F1

Feel the poor start for Lando slightly wrecked his race. That meant he was stuck behind Mercedes and he then had to pass the Mercs again in the second stint and come in a lap or two early on the second pit stop to cover them off. Never quite felt it was going to be the grandstand finish with Max the commentators did after that.

But still a pretty good race. Seems close at the front though You never quite know whether Max has more to give though.

Good to see Hamilton back on the podium I didn’t realise it had been 12 races. George slightly unlucky with the pit stop, and the hard tire though. Good race for Mercedes overall. They might have passed Ferrari as the third fastest car after their most recent upgrades, but still behind Red Bull and McLaren, though every track is different. Have to wait and see.

@themightyant yeah Lando lost about 4 seconds to Max stuck behind George so we probably missed out on an actual fight right from the start. Even though Lando was catching Max, your right that it was never at a rate which would have given a fight for the win with the amount of laps left.
I'm curious if Max would have been so chill about the space (or lack thereof) Lando gave him at the start if Lando had gone on to win.
Pretty decent race all in all but I'm really optimistic for the next 2. Lando always tends to do well on those tracks so should be even better. If the Merc stays strong we could see something special from Lewis at Silverstone too. The season is definitely improving.
I think the Driver's title is still Max's to lose but feel the constructor fight is well on with how Perez is struggling.

@BearsEatBeets Agreed on all points. Bring on Austria and Silverstone.

@BearsEatBeets Forgot it was a sprint weekend so sprint quali at 3:30 bst. Hoping for a close one.

In FP1 I was about to say Max might be in trouble as he's used all his allocated engines and seemed to have an engine issue, but he's straight back on track. I was getting a bit excited about the idea of a 10 place grid penalty! Bit mean perhaps but it's not personal I just want a title fight!!!

@themightyant Looked like turning it off and on again fixed Max's issue. I still think the engine thing will become a hindrance at some point in the season. Even if he is able to go back and re-use previously used engines there is going to be a slight loss of power from an older engine.
I think sprint qualifying could end up being crazy close at this track. It's normally one of the tightest just because of how short it is so with the recent convergence it really might throw up some surprises. I think there is also strong possibilities there are going to be drama with getting a clean lap with all the cars on at the same time. Looking forward to it.

@BearsEatBeets Agreed. I think it's an issue for all drivers but Max has.... errr... maxed out his Engine (4/4), Turbocharger (4/4), MGU-H (4/4), MGU-K(4/4), Energy Store (2/2) & Control Electronics (2/2). Only his Exhaust (5/8), Gear box case (2/5) & Gearbox driveline (3/5) are not at the limit. Considering we are only coming into race 10 of a potential 24 this is going to big issue for all drivers but Max is by far the worst off of the top runners. Full table here https://www.f1-fansite.com/2024-f1-season/2024-used-f1-power-...

It's a 10 place grid penalty for the first time they exceed each element and a 5 place grid penalty after that. As he has so many on the limit they might just take a hit and replace several in one race where it's easier to pass and start at the back of the grid, calculated losses. Reliability has always been a part of F1 but with the cost cap, parts penalties, combined with the longer seasons it could be an interesting side story this year.

Excited for Sprint Quali and main Quali. Hoping for close ones!

@themightyant Thanks for the link. It's not something I had thought about until they recently started talking about it for Max. Glad to see Lando (and a lot of others) have only used half as much.

Some grid penalties later in the season will certainly help to mix things up.

Almost time to kick this weekend off proper.

Stroll outperforming Alonso and Sargeant finally beats Albon. Craziness already.

@BearsEatBeets Indeed Stroll beating Alonso. Sargent beating Albon and getting into Q2 for the first time even if it's SQ2. Madness. Bring on SQ3

@themightyant Unless I was distracted am I right in thinking that Stroll beat Alonso again even though he almost lost it in the final corner? Alonso in a bit of a slump recently.

Madness how many were waiting at the end and trusting to luck ahead of them, made it more thrilling than it might have been.

@BearsEatBeets Yes 100% Alonso doesn't currently seem at his best now that AM is struggling.

@themightyant It's bonkers that the session starts and they sit there for a few minutes then all try to go at the same time. I can't believe in the track is going to be any different in such a short time frame.
Curious to hear from some team bosses about that. I want to see the Alpines and Perez's lap, they must have been pretty close to each other.

Not a bad sprint but would have liked to have seen if Lando could have kept up with Max, Piastri & Norris held themselves up. Bring on Quali.

@themightyant I bet Lando is wishing he had defended the inside for turn 4 now. I'm guessing in the moment he thought he had it covered but Max really lunged for it and only just made the corner. Which of course opened the door for Oscar and paid off doubly for Max.
I was definitely wondering the same if Lando would have been able to better keep with Max but fair play to Maclaren for allowing them race. Shame it means an extra point lead for Max. Maclaren as a team managing to squeeze a few points closer though.
I've got a feeling qualifying might be even closer than yesterdays'.

I still haven't seen footage of Perez and the Alpines racing for their sprint quali time, maybe it wasn't quite as close I think it was.

P1-P15 in Q1 all within 0.4 of a second, small margins here and surprised some big scalp didn’t miss out. Q2 perhaps?

Max looking super comfortable with the car again, he hasn’t for a while. Ominous. Piastri’s deleted time looked harsh on first reply, need to see again

@themightyant Looks like Max had found a little extra again over the others. I just missed the replay on Piastri's track limits although I'm pretty sure they will go into it more in a bit (hopefully). Without that it would have been the same top 6 from the Sprint grid.

The Alpine drivers doing a great job getting camera time for their team. With the Haas drivers doing the same earlier it's the inter-team fighting providing most of the entertainment so far.

Max would not back down. I think he’ll get the penalty.

Wow! That got crazy. Feel bad for Lando, takes the fight to Max but Max bumps into him under braking. Even with his penalty he is going to extend his championship lead with Lando having to pull out.