Brutal, brutal race. Surprised there was only one crash with all the stuff like Ocon throwing up in his helmet, Stroll passing out in high speed corners, and Albon struggling to even get out of his car. But that one crash sure was dumb, Lewis had a huge chance to really close in on Checo but oh well. McLaren is awesome, Piastri is such an exciting driver to watch grow over this season, sprint win and a P2 after starting from 6th with Norris going from P10 to P3. Alfa Romeo with their best race this year it feels like, Zhou was electric, maybe his best drive. It seems like the Alfa can really go if it isn’t worrying about tire life. And of course congratulations to Max Verstappen, simply the best in world.
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Sports Formula 1
- Thread starter WilhelmTheOkay
- Start date
Personally I thought Bottas’ race to be the more impressive one, but that’s just me, due to the nature of the race and timing of the pit stops Zhou *looked* more impressive but Bottas’ race was really underrated.
Well well, track limits strikes again for Verstappen and Hulkenberg, Verstappen I’m cool with, much better to watch him try and come through cars rather than just drive away at the front. Hulkenberg very sad though, think he had the pace to challenge the edge of that top 10. Aston Martin wtf. Like they said Alonso’s first time not making Q3 and he’s out in Q1. Solid performances by both Alpha and Alfa, great stuff for Alpine. Norris and Verstappen clearly dominating their teammates in Q3.
Only just watched the sprint but god damn Haas is so depressing to watch in races. They can’t hold on to a tyre for crap.
Hopefully a bit more excitement this morning with Verstappen in 6th, McLaren (well Norris) and Alpha Tauri both looked to have pretty great long stint pace. Hopefully brake issues don’t continue for Aston. Hopefully Sargeant comes in the actual race as well and disappoints the home crowd lol. (Albon could be a fun watch though)
Hopefully a bit more excitement this morning with Verstappen in 6th, McLaren (well Norris) and Alpha Tauri both looked to have pretty great long stint pace. Hopefully brake issues don’t continue for Aston. Hopefully Sargeant comes in the actual race as well and disappoints the home crowd lol. (Albon could be a fun watch though)
wat da hell
logan point wooooooo
logan point wooooooo
Wowow so that was a fun race but damn Hamilton and Leclerc disqualified rip. Congrats to Sainz for the podium then! Williams and Tsunoda big winners there, Sargeant scores his first point and its at the US GP! Shame for Alonso, he would’ve passed Gasly, was a great recovery drive up til then. Not a great day for my Aussies either :(
A unit of measurement that actually makes sense..
Wtf @ Ricciardo in 4th place for quali. Expect him to go backwards during the race ofc but he’s throwing his hat right in there. Right as me and my mate were discussing why are Red Bull bothering hitching their wagon to him with guys like Lawson waiting in the wings, he shows right up. Would love to see a good result for him tomorrow, just a solid top 10 run race would be great. Expecting some exciting racing from Lando.
Interesting race just finished. Gotta feel for Perez god damn. Awful awful weekend for Aston Martin. Norris was just amazing. The gap between Hamilton and Russell’s pace at times is quite shocking - Ricciardo so close to getting Russell that last lap, great drive from him, got screwed by the red flag, probably gets 5th without it. Tsunoda has 0 patience sadly. Haas did their usual thing just a lot more slowly than usual. Albon and Alpine fighting over points scraps as usual.
Alpha Tauri had genuine pace - only question is if it was a one time thing.
Alpha Tauri had genuine pace - only question is if it was a one time thing.
Yea, I feel really bad for Perez really just a disaster race, Ricciardo has a great weekend, Lewis maximizes his points, and he ends up with nothing at home. At least we fans might get a cool battle for 2nd these few races. Also looks like Sainz has taken 4th from Alonso on countback and I have to imagine he keeps it so props to him. Btw did anyone watch Alfa Romeo this race? I was surprised to see them end up last on track after sneaking both cars into Q3, thought they at least be ahead of Haas. Aston Martin just makes me sad.
They both lost out at the start a bit and then couldn’t make back any places. After the restart Zhou had tyres twice as old as anyone else (iirc Ricciardo actually had second oldest - 13 laps to 7) and Bottas was in the Hulkenberg/Ocon/Gasly train and then dropped off them before getting caught up amongst the Stroll stuff last few laps.
Alonso is the fucking goat
I know it wasn’t much of a race out front but wow that was entertaining as all hell. Two blokes who I was rooting for both to have a good result today having an epic battle for the podium and it being decided by 0.053s?! Amazing stuff from both drivers but damn you’ve really got to give it to Fernando.
Norris is right now as in form as Verstappen possibly, he’s blowing me away every race - wonder what the record for most 2nds in a career without a win is? Great to see Stroll up there too - not a big fan of daddy’s boy but good on him. Meh days from Ferrari and Merc especially - Leclerc is right though, he’s one of the unluckiest drivers I’ve witnessed. Speaking of bad luck - rip both my Aussies, what might’ve been for both - Ricciardo finishing 8s up the road from Piastri was cool to see. Solid jobs from Alpine and Tsunoda.
Edit: After checking Norris has tied Hulkenberg after this race for most podiums without a win (13). 7 second places, 6 of them this season.
Norris is right now as in form as Verstappen possibly, he’s blowing me away every race - wonder what the record for most 2nds in a career without a win is? Great to see Stroll up there too - not a big fan of daddy’s boy but good on him. Meh days from Ferrari and Merc especially - Leclerc is right though, he’s one of the unluckiest drivers I’ve witnessed. Speaking of bad luck - rip both my Aussies, what might’ve been for both - Ricciardo finishing 8s up the road from Piastri was cool to see. Solid jobs from Alpine and Tsunoda.
Edit: After checking Norris has tied Hulkenberg after this race for most podiums without a win (13). 7 second places, 6 of them this season.
I assume you meant Heidfeld instead of Hulkenberg, because I think Nico would love to have that many or at least one podium by now :P
Regarding the Aussies, they really should have been allowed to un-lap themselves before the formation lap.
I understand that the pit-lane was quite small to allow them through, but having two cars a lap down for the whole race was sad to see.
It kinda incentivises drivers to stay out with a broken car hoping to get a red flag to avoid being 1 lap done.
Im glad Stroll showed again a glimmer of him being a decent midfield/2nd driver for Aston.
He isn't as bad as a lot of people think he is (check his junior career) but this season was poor from him even if you excuse the first few races due to the injured hand.
Yeah lol Heidfeld you’re 100% right. I agree wrt the unlapping, would’ve been better but oh well - especially for a series where points are only given for the first 10 places (as opposed to the whole field) there’s little incentive to keep running after an issue like that. Fortunately for Ricciardo and Piastri they both ran the rest of the race - Piastri will always be looking for more laps and experience at this stage of his career and Ricciardo still familiarizing himself with the car and looking for more race time. I was surprised Ricciardo didn’t run the mediums the first stint like Piastri did to sort of test their performance to get info for the sister car.
Looking like Monza perhaps with Ferrari in quali, but a battle with Max in the race. McLaren seem nowhere and now its Aston on the rise. Wtf @ Red Bull with Perez in Q2 smh. Hamilton no pace compared to Russell this weekend apparently. Great jobs by Williams, Gasly, Bottas and Magnussen.
Also interesting fact - Albon currently 21–0 vs Sargeant in quali, if he completes the sweep it will be the first time since Verstappen did it to him in 2020.
Also interesting fact - Albon currently 21–0 vs Sargeant in quali, if he completes the sweep it will be the first time since Verstappen did it to him in 2020.
Bloody hell Sergio again? But was a great race from him though, did not expect him to be fighting for the lead/podium - not sure why they didn’t tell Max to just let him in DRS range tbh. And we actually got to see a fair bit of fighting for the lead - makes a nice change. Expected to see him clear out the other early stoppers and follow Perez but it never manifested.
Awesome races for Ocon and Stroll after the Lap 1 shenanigans, quite well done. Unfortunate for Gasly and Williams who also didn’t stop under SC with tyre wear. Alpha and Alfa with no pace. Haas rip in race trim as usual.
First race in a while where Norris hasn’t had an awesome run sadly, good on Piastri for salvaging a point.
Awesome races for Ocon and Stroll after the Lap 1 shenanigans, quite well done. Unfortunate for Gasly and Williams who also didn’t stop under SC with tyre wear. Alpha and Alfa with no pace. Haas rip in race trim as usual.
First race in a while where Norris hasn’t had an awesome run sadly, good on Piastri for salvaging a point.
So the season is now over, thank you to everyone who participated in this thread. Not sure if there will be a thread next year or just this one again but either way, to have some form of conclusion I'm going to go back and answer the questions that I asked to start this thread.
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I guess this would be my final driver rankings based on their performance this season. Checo is a pain to rank.
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So it turned out that Spain would be Mercedes' only double podium and one of the few highlights of Mercedes as a whole this season, in fact George would only end up with two podiums this season. Lewis would indeed overtake Alonso for 3rd place after Singapore and would hold onto it for the rest of the season. Aston Martin's development ended up stalling out/going backwards after Spain as well and were rarely even the third fastest car for the rest of the season.
Hulkenberg firmly beat KMag in qualifying this year and did eventually pull ahead in the race head-to-head as well. Haas had very little to show for the rest of the season with the only two points-scoring occasions after Spain coming from a great Austria Sprint from Hulkenberg and KMag holding on to 10th in Singapore after a good quali performance from both.
Alpine did finish the season in no-man's land but now in 6th after McLaren's incredible midseason turnaround. Alpine did indeed grab a second podium after a great drive from Gasly in a rain-soaked Dutch Grand Prix and in fact were the third team to have both drivers score a podium this season. I wouldn't say either driver really pulled away from each other, Gasly had four more points and won the quali head-to-head but Ocon won the race head-to-head. Overall, Alpine was in top form this year with some truly amazing incompetence that I keep seeing being blamed on the drivers for some reason.
Charles had a pretty awesome run to end the season this year, taking the points lead against Carlos at the last race and just barely losing out to Alonso for 4th place in the standings. Starting with Spa, Ferrari started to close in on Mercedes for second in the Constructor's but fell just short. Also, Ferrari filled its quota of weirdness with incidents like two DNS's from mechanical problems in Qatar and Brazil, as well as Sainz being being given a 10 place grid penalty for allowing that manhole cover to hit him in Vegas.
Well by the end of the season the AlphaTauri was easily the quickest of the three here, scoring 20 points in the final 5 races. Also just want to say Racing Bulls sounds awful and I am horrified that that name made it through. Alfa Romeo was the only team here to have a double points finish this season with a P8 and P9 in Qatar but the highlight of their season is probably qualifying 5th and 7th in Hungary, just don't talk about what happened next. Haas was predictably bad all year, decent quali pace that didn't end mattering because the car was in reverse gear every Sunday.
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I guess this would be my final driver rankings based on their performance this season. Checo is a pain to rank.
Quality analysis.
Will just say I kinda find it hilarious that the other two drivers who won races are in the “Good but not quite there” and “Not so Good” categories. (not undeservedly of course but its just funny)
Seconded on Racing Bulls.
Probably the driver who disappointed me the most besides Perez was Russell tbh. Take last year vs this year:
2022 Quali: 13-9 Lewis Race: 12-10 George Points: 275-240 George
2023 Quali: 11-11 Race: 15-6 (16 without DQ) Lewis Points: 234-175 Lewis
Probably we all expected too much especially since its you know, Lewis. But based on his performances at Williams and last year, this year was a massive disappointment.
Hamilton and Alonso being 3/4 really showing these whippersnappers they’ve still got it. Love it when the old guys show up the kiddos.
Its a bit sad this offseason will be quite boring.
Next year though:
Not a surprising end to the Andretti ‘26 campaign but still disappointing, still far more interested in Andretti-Cadillac over Haas so fingers still somewhat crossed for 2028. In other news, these are the strongest Lewis to Ferrari rumors I’ve ever heard wtf, I have no clue how to react yet so I’m just going to wait and see.
Both Andretti’s rejection and Hamilton moving to Ferrari will be the worst decisions for the 2025 season imo.
It would be nice to see him get destroyed by Leclerc though.
How do you say "let's keep pushing" in Italian?
My money would be on Leclerc in qualifying, but Lewis to score more points.