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Ooh, tough team! And since we share some drivers the margins will be thin. Thanks for signing on. Good luck!

Be careful with the mega driver as I think you can only use that twice per season. The best approach seems to be to wait for one of your drivers to be on a hot streak over several races before playing that chip. But I'm as new as you are, so be wary of following my advice

Who are your constructor? I'll log in later and check it out.

Ferrari, forza !

I can't see how to view your team on the site, maybe pop up blocker or something? Can you see my team?. But based on what you said, our matchup would come down to Max vs Gasly, and Ferrari vs Alfa Romeo, since all of our other picks are the same, with turbo driver being a wildcard. Am I right that you missed the lockout for this race and cannot score points? By all means go Leclerc for TD if that's what you want. Especially if he's your driver in real life. Monaco is almost France anyway, so yeah

Of course when it unlocks either of us can make changes based on the track, or form, or illness or whatever reasons we find. Plus, I expect the pricing is dynamic, so depending on result we might have to replace someone to meet the cap. Should be fun. I hope a few more guys join up.

With your arrival, my team needed a name

Verstompin'

I did miss Barhain lockout indeed.

I expect Sainz to do well this year, so I'll keep him for now. If leclerc wins I'll be happy as a fan, if Sainz wins I'll be happy as your competitor, win/win

I can see your team.

How sporting of you

What do you click on to see my team?

Sainz outscored Leclerc last year and every chance to do it again. It will be interesting watching the dynamic at Ferrari this year if those two are tight in the battle for the title. That's a long way off, but an interesting sideline to ponder anyway.

I first choose "all", left of "my team", then I hover over your team, that is just above mine, and it turns to grey.

Then left click.

Sainz indeed has his chances, Leclerc has raw talent but Sainz compensates with hard work.

Thanks, but I still can't see yours. Might be because it's locked out at the mo. We'll see if that changes after the race. Maybe a different browser.

Bahrain's usually a two-stopper. I'd expect to see soft-medium-soft for most teams, but some of those near the back could try a one stop. Pirelli brought the hardest set so I think we'll see most everyone on softs. But these tires are brand new, and this is the first race. So something to keep an eye on.

We've entered what I am calling ground-effect 2.0 era and there's a sort of shift to how these cars perform. They are even better now in high-speed turns, but there's significantly less downforce than before in slow speed corners. Add to that the fact the new cars are heavier and I think it could be a factor in some incidents where cars are battling tightly in those spots. Since we expect that the racing will be even closer this year -- after all that's what the redesign was all about -- then I think we could see some fireworks as cars attempt to overtake in tight turns. It also means it will be easier for drivers to get slow turns wrong, to make mistakes there, running wide, locking up or sideways on the exit. It feels to me as if the new cars put more driver in the equation and that can only be good for the sport.

I like the fact that activated DRS is so visible now. The rear wings are more vertical, showing more surface when viewed from in front and when it activated it's like the entire wing disappears. Looks cool, but is also good from a viewing perspective to better see when cars have DRS at the far end of the straight. I wonder, if the new regs result in the sort of racing they were design for, if eventually DRS will be removed.

Max missed pole, but I watched qualifying after work (F1 TV Pro!) and it's clear he has the pace, he just didn't put together his best lap when it counted. I hope he can avoid an early tangle. Race simulations through testing and practice show Red Bull are very strong on full loads and I expect he has a great chance to win this one.

Very excited for the race. The start of a Formula 1 race is the best thing in sports for me.

Lights out and away we go!

Well, that's racing.

Formula 1 is Formula 1.

Red Bull says it is a fuel pump problem.

That 17/19th lap scrap between VER and LEC, we've got quite a season to come !!!!!

Super happy for MAG.

Congrats to Leclerc and Ferrari. They fully deserved the win. I'm obviously disappointed in the result for Red Bull, that was a gut punch. If it's a fuel pump then that's OK, I was afraid it was some sort of fundamental flaw in the ICE, and if they needed to replace that after one race then they'd be one down already in their allocation. Red Bull have good pace and they'll be fine. The harder the conflict the greater the triumph, or something. It's a deep hole though with zero points to show for all their hard work.

The new regs didn't have a drastic effect on how close the racing was I don't think, but it was there. Straightline speed is a function of several factors, one of which is exit speed on the preceding corner. In the past virtually all overtakes took place in to the following turn, but I think we saw a number of examples of the new regs allowing cars to follow closer through the turn, maintain speed because it retained downforce, and attempt the overtake right out of the exit. So overall I think the new cars are delivering as intended, even if the actual overall effect is not drastic.

A quick report of my experience with the F1 TV Pro service... What I essentially did was switch back and forth between the timing screen and Max's car. I had a two or three second delay on the stream, but that's fine. The timing screen is really nice, showing gap and interval, tire compound and laps on, last lap time and more. It's well laid out -- some game devs could do well to make a UI so nice haha -- and gave me more info. At a glance I could see which cars were fastest on the track or what the relative pace was for each battle on the track. Very nice.

But what I liked even more was having Max's team radio on for the entire race. The television broadcast will play snippets here and there of important messages, but you don't get the mundane. Engine map instructions, intervals, calls to mind heat, tire and brake wear and that sort of thing. It gives amazing insight in to the team as the race progresses. As a result, I knew of Max's troubles well before they got to it on the broadcast, unedited too! I'm going to keep it after the trial is over. It added quite a lot to my experience.

rollnloop, I scored about 192 points in fantasy, with of course a massive hit with the double Red Bull DNF. Until that point was looking at a fantastic week and would have been amongst the leaders. That's racing I reckon. I still can't see your team. I can see the team name, but cannot see how it is comprised, who's on it.

Formula 1 is right back at it this week in Saudi Arabia. I expressed last year my concerns about the safety of the Jeddah circuit, and about whether it's a suitable track for F1 cars. Over the past year they made a few tweaks, making small improvements to sight lines in a couple turns. But I don't think that's anywhere near enough. This track is too fast for how blind it is. A stopped car in the wrong spot is a disaster waiting to happen. They just signed a new long-term deal, so it's not going anywhere I guess.

Thankfully crash sustainability has been upped on 22 cars....

You need to allow popups to see my team.

Nope still can't get it, either in Firefox or Chrome, and Chrome is a virgin copy, never used aside from this, with no pop-up blocker as far as I can tell. Well, if you don't mind please post your final lineup before the race until I can get this squared away. Good luck this week.

Is there anyone else who wants to sign up? It's free.

True to my word, here I am doing stuff in the racing forum. Thanks to the SimHQ staff! I do believe this makes me first one to post haha. Nice AR C42 atop the forum too

Thanks rollnloop. I won't finalize until Saturday after practice I reckon, but no plans to make changes right now.

And 11 hours later I remain so.

Let's kick it up! Shift this sh!t in to second gear.

I don't think I'll change for the next 6 races. Bring on Jeddah !

Vettel to miss this race too, with Hulkenberg again deputizing.

It was interesting to see some comments from the drivers about Jeddah's safety. The Ferrari drivers in particular expressing concern. I hope I'm proven wrong, and no serious injury or worse ever happens here. Personally, I want to see it scrapped. An unsuitable track in an unsuitable nation.

Jeddah's a very different sort of circuit than Sakhir, so it will be interesting today to see if there's any hint of a different order at a track with different characteristics. The teams with the best high-speed corner performance will stand out today.