• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

Incredible Singapore Qualifying!

Why 'incredible' ?

Singapore is a track where engine is less important than chassis, which means Red Bull and McLaren are more competitive there than what they are used to. Add to this the fact that Mercedes have always been less dominant there, and the starting grid is all but a surprise.

The only 'incredible' fact is the way every pilot brushed the wall once or more, though only Massa got a puncture after a contact.
 
Why 'incredible' ?

Singapore is a track where engine is less important than chassis, which means Red Bull and McLaren are more competitive there than what they are used to. Add to this the fact that Mercedes have always been less dominant there, and the starting grid is all but a surprise.

The only 'incredible' fact is the way every pilot brushed the wall once or more, though only Massa got a puncture after a contact.
You have to look at it in the big picture:

1) Outside of Ferrari itself, all the other Ferrari customer engine folks faired poorly.
2) All Mercedes powered teams faired poorly but when you look at Williams, you have to ask which engine is the better one between Mercedes and Ferrari?
3) With regards to engines, it's also drivability, not necessarily speed per se'...
4) McLaren obviously has a strong chassis so the question is, did they make a mistake and leave Honda too early?
 
I'm Dutch, so I thought the qualifying was incredible as well :biggrin-new:.

Last year there was still a Mercedes on pole. The race was won by a Mercedes and the other Mercedes finished in third place. I don't think "less dominant" is really an applicable statement here..........

Cheers,
Huub
 
Lots of folks hate Lewis....so for this race, I'm going to grab a good seat in the stands, and watch the Vettel and Max fans go at it....:mixed-smiley-010:
 
4) McLaren obviously has a strong chassis so the question is, did they make a mistake and leave Honda too early?
They are far behind other top-teams this year... excepted on tracks where engine doesn't matter. Imagine where they could be with any other engine!!!

I think McLaren will be back on front (where they deserve to be actually) next year. Many people argue the Renault is behind both Mercedes and Ferrari engines, and think McLaren made the wrong choice. But coming from Honda it will be night and day for them.
 
They are far behind other top-teams this year... excepted on tracks where engine doesn't matter. Imagine where they could be with any other engine!!!

I think McLaren will be back on front (where they deserve to be actually) next year. Many people argue the Renault is behind both Mercedes and Ferrari engines, and think McLaren made the wrong choice. But coming from Honda it will be night and day for them.

With Toro Rosso in the catbird seat! - It would be interesting to see TR win a Virgin/Brawn type of championship... :mixed-smiley-010:
 
With Toro Rosso in the catbird seat! - It would be interesting to see TR win a Virgin/Brawn type of championship... :mixed-smiley-010:

Toro Rosso is a 'junior team' and was never supposed to win races (2008 Monza win was an accident). Red Bull uses it to make drivers/engineers/mechanics gain experience before joining the primary team. Now they use it to develop the Honda engine before this one join Red Bull in the future.

That's why I would make two statements:
1> a struggling Toro Rosso in 2018 would not be a real issue (remember they were called 'Minardi' before they were bought by Red Bull)
2> I don't see Honda being miraculously competitive next year.
 
Toro Rosso is a 'junior team' and was never supposed to win races (2008 Monza win was an accident). Red Bull uses it to make drivers/engineers/mechanics gain experience before joining the primary team. Now they use it to develop the Honda engine before this one join Red Bull in the future.

That's why I would make two statements:
1> a struggling Toro Rosso in 2018 would not be a real issue (remember they were called 'Minardi' before they were bought by Red Bull)
2> I don't see Honda being miraculously competitive next year.

Brawn wasn't considered to be a top team either....:mixed-smiley-010:
Toro Rosso is still struggling now in 2017....So moving to Honda isn't a loss...
:mixed-smiley-010:
 
Interesting start...
A typical case when nobody is to blame.

> Raikkonnen had already made his pass on the inside and never changed his line.
> Vettel tried to block Verstappen but had no idea Raikkonnen was further left.
> Vertappen was between the Ferrari's and couln't do anything.
 
Proves that trying to win a race at turn one on lap one is not very clever, and the stewards have called all three up for an 'interview'.
Shame that Alonso was caught up in it.
Bottas did a very good job considering that he had no liquid available through the entire race.

JFTR, I (just me, myself) really dislike Singapore, and that's not just as a pseudo F1 venue.
:kilroy:
 
Proves that trying to win a race at turn one on lap one is not very clever,

Trying to win it well before you even reach turn one is just downright stupid, Think Vettel just threw away his chances of winning the title..
 
I'd call it a 'Racing Incident' but preface it with 'Bloody Stupid'. :173go1:
At least it gave several of the supporting cast a chance to snap up points.
:encouragement:
 
Back
Top