Formula 1 Discussion - And favourite driver?

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737 MAX Stan Account said:
Mika's last win (Also Murray Walker's last race as commentator)
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I'm a pedant, it wasn't Murray Walker's last commentary of Formula 1.
It was his last one as a full-time television commentator, yes, but not his last race commentating. He did commentary in Australia in 06 and 07, and also commentated the 2007 European Grand Prix for BBC Radio 5 Live.
I believe that 2007 job was his last time commentating F1.
 
Some more good Williams news, they've picked up Logan Sargeant for their academy. It's also good news for Logan because apparently he ran out of money for feeder series.

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Pretty good driver even if possibly not as good as Piastri and Pouchaire who beat him in F3 last year by a hand full of points while being rookies, but this year he did really well in a bad car scoring 80% of the teams points. Hopefully has a seat in F2 next year.

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So, according to Ralf Schumacher, Andretti Racing now owns 80% of Alfa Romeo and they might bring in a driver called Herta. Andretti will fire around 200 people from the team, according to Ralf.

Also, Hülkenberg will start training for Indycar next week it seems.

Edit:

Attempts to run off opponent on highspeed straight for no fucking reason. During Free Practice.
Our 7 times world champion everybody.

Video cut it out, but Verstappen goes "Ha, stupid idiot" before giving him the one-finger-salute. :story:
At least we saw that their straight line speed is on par.
 
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This was from a week or so ago when the Andretti news first started making the rounds. Shows the difficulty with Herta being on the grid for '22.

WHAT F1’S SUPERLICENCE RULES MEAN FOR A POTENTIAL HERTA SWITCH​

Oct 15 2021 By Scott Mitchell

The possibility of an Andretti-led buy-in to Sauber’s controlling company has prompted speculation that it could lead to IndyCar frontrunner Colton Herta making a shock switch.

The potential for Herta to become the first driver since Sebastian Bourdais (pictured below) to swap US single-seater racing for F1 depends entirely on whether his IndyCar boss Michael Andretti seals a deal to take the famous family name back to F1 as a team owner.

Part of the appeal for Andretti, and F1, would be the potential benefits around a frontrunning American team in F1’s new era of lower costs and more equal teams, and greater fan and commercial interest in the United States with the number of races there potentially rising to three.

An American driver, something F1 has previously declared its interest in, would complement that nicely. Hence the speculation around Herta, arguably IndyCar’s brightest talent and a six-time winner at just 21 years old.

Unless the FIA’s superlicence criteria changes, though, Herta is currently ineligible.
A superlicence is mandatory to race in F1 and to qualify a driver must have scored 40 points through the FIA-controlled superlicence system across three seasons.

Previously this was only the three most recent seasons but it has been extended to cover three of the four most recent seasons amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Herta has finished seventh (2019), third (2020) and fifth (2021) in IndyCar over the past three seasons. He received 20 superlicence points for finishing third in 2020, eight points for finishing fifth this year, and four points for finishing seventh in his rookie campaign in 2019.

That means Herta only has 32 superlicence points – and he can’t look to trade his 2019 superlicence points for his 2018 season (making use of that fourth available year), because while he finished runner-up in Indy Lights that year the series had so few entries that it isn’t eligible to award any superlicence points.

Based on the current system, Herta is therefore eight points short.
There are a few ways for him to qualify for a superlicence from here but to switch as early as 2022, as some parties have suggested, would require intervention from the FIA.

It would either need to change the points system with immediate effect, or (even less likely) make an unprecedented exception and unilaterally award Herta a superlicence despite his official ineligibility.
Or it could apply the loophole that allows a superlicence to be awarded to a driver who only has 30 superlicence points, which Herta has, if any of their seasons have been impacted by “circumstances outside their control or reasons of force majeure”.

One argument would be that Indy Lights’ poor grid in 2018 or IndyCar’s inherently undervalued superlicence points contribution are out of Herta’s control.

But this rule was actually inserted for cases such as the COVID-19 pandemic preventing a driver from travelling to compete in a championship in which they are entered and have competed in for positions that would have allowed them to gather superlicence points.

The only sure-fire ways for Herta to earn his eligibility would have to be with a 2023 move in mind.
He could compete in IndyCar again next season and finish in the top three (which would give him 48 superlicence points in total) or he could seek the bonus points that are available.

Herta is eligible for a ‘Free Practice Only’ superlicence that allows a driver to take part in free practice at a grand prix.

From 2021, the FIA grants one additional superlicence point per event if a driver completes at least 100km during one free practice session and picks up no licence penalty points.

A maximum of 10 additional points can be earned this way – so the most practical way to get Herta a superlicence, irrespective of any changes to the system, would be for him to undertake eight free practice outings between now and the end of the 2022 season.

This would make him eligible for a superlicence in time to make a switch in 2023, and count towards a serious preparation programme that he would need to change series anyway.

It would seem sensible for the FIA to review its system and rejig the points that IndyCar offers towards a superlicence qualification.

Presently the champion gets as many points as the winner of F1’s main feeder series Formula 2 but whereas F2 also offers 40 points for the runner-up and the third place finisher, IndyCar’s scale goes 40-30-20.
A driver who has finished third in a championship as competitive as IndyCar, in the top five two years in a row, and even finished seventh as a rookie, is not the sort of driver the superlicence system was devised to protect F1 from.

Herta’s results are clearly those of a driver capable of competing in F1, not a driver who should be scraping around trying to pad out his official tally.

But unless something changes, that’s what Herta will be doing – assuming of course the opportunity to make the switch materialises in the first place.
 
I enjoy the every decade or so getting all excited about F1 breaking through in America before it just doesn't pan out and goes back to worrying about the racing rather than the yank money.

Detroit, Las Vegas and New York GPs that were either crap or just didn't happen. Special "american driver" events that whittled down their drivers to Scott speed being the best of the bunch. That Indianapolis GP.

I'm looking forwards to Miami and some other pointless GPs being added because Murica, some back marker drivers being fast tracked through because of their passport and a couple of American owned teams that are barely competative and have to bend over for Russians to not go bankrupt. God bless America!
 
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I'd love to see some more Indycar drivers move into F1. We know F1 drivers can hold their ground in Indycar, but the other way around wasn't that successful in the past and it would be interesting to see a bit more overlap.

Unfortunately, F1 car performance depends a lot on the competetiveness of the team, so I feel Indycar drivers never really had a chance to shine... it would be nice if that changed over the next couple years.
 
You now remember Michael Andretti as Senna's teammate in 93. He had zero commitment to the team, preferring to spend his off-time in his own home in the US rather than being close to the McLaren headquarters for eventual tests.
As a result, he had an incredibly poor grasp of how to handle the car, which led to him DNFing his way to an early sacking.
 
Yuuichirou Kumada said:
You now remember Michael Andretti as Senna's teammate in 93. He had zero commitment to the team, preferring to spend his off-time in his own home in the US rather than being close to the McLaren headquarters for eventual tests.
As a result, he had an incredibly poor grasp of how to handle the car, which led to him DNFing his way to an early sacking.
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I was actually thinking more along the lines of Zanardi, since I could not remember which Andretti it was that raced in F1 and couldn't be arsed to look it up lol.
 
RomanesEuntDomus said:
I was actually thinking more along the lines of Zanardi, since I could not remember which Andretti it was that raced in F1 and couldn't be arsed to look it up lol.
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Both did. LOLOL Mario won the title in 78, while Michael IIRC got turfed before end of 93 season. Hakkinen may have been his replacement?

Villeneuve of course came over in 96 after winning CART/500 to bolster his resume but he was quite fortunate to get straight in the Williams and Schumi having his first year at Ferrari so basically just his teammate was his competition the first year in F1.

I'd like to see some of the younger Indy drivers come over, but again with way F1 is, they would no doubt be in teams that are likely to not be in for a podium position let alone a win.
 
Hey commentators I know why Hamilton is so sucessful at this track. It begins with M and ends in ercedes. "Oh he's the most sucessful", yeah because there was only 2 races here prior to merc wins everything.
 
Possibly the most wholesome interaction between driver and engineer I've seen all year.


If you don't like Danny Ric then there's something wrong with you.
RomanesEuntDomus said:
Hülkenberg will start training for Indycar next week it seems.
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It'll be great to see Hulk racing again.
Coccxys said:
Hey commentators I know why Hamilton is so sucessful at this track. It begins with M and ends in ercedes. "Oh he's the most sucessful", yeah because there was only 2 races here prior to merc wins everything.
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I can tell that Crofty wasn't in the commentary box. The commentary didn't conflate "most successful" with "greatest of all time".
 
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Pee Cola said:
Possibly the most wholesome interaction between driver and engineer I've seen all year.


If you don't like Danny Ric then there's something wrong with you.
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Frankly, it seemed rather standard to me and there have been a lot of really wholesome moments between, for instance, Mick Schumacher and his engineer, Ricciardo had many other much more wholesome moments.
 
New Fag said:
LOL it's currently wet at the circuit, 4 hours to go though...
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Just imagine this is the third race in a row where inters are used and Hamilton refuses to pit for new tyres, saying he'll be fine on his tyres till the end, just to pit way too late and then bitching about "Hurr, you should have pitted me earlier!"

Other than that, a bit of rain in Austin could shake up things, could be cool.
 
The problem with the buildup amd coverage of an American GP is it floods with "famous" people who don't even know what "an F1" is then the pundits and cameras decide we really want to see and hear from them rather than says the cars and drivers of the actual sport we're watching.

I just hope if Hamilton runs Vestappen off the track at turn 1 that the stewards actually do something about it because we can all see it coming with that front row.
 
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