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Ah yes, this too.

Back at it this week boys, with Paul Ricard the next circuit on the docket. Most seem to hate this track, but I think it's a fine one and always serves up a good show. However it's future is in doubt for remaining on the F1 schedule. Hopefully we'll see another cracking affair there on Sunday. I couldn't say which team is favorite and I expect this track will suit Mercedes so it could be at least a three-team shootout. We'll see what the weather is supposed to do later in the week. Just two races before the month-long summer break.

I like the layout, but the surroundings are awful. Change those blue lines for grass and gravel and many more will love it I'm sure. I have no idea who can dominate here, but I fear for reliability with the extreme heat we have. I hope it won't be too hard on pilots, too. They're athletes, but have human limitations still.

Paul Ricard is fun to race on, it has a nice variety of corners and there are like 9000 possible configurations in the layout. I shouldn't have said 'most' hate it, which probably isn't true. But there is vocal opposition anyway.

Last year's race was good, with Max winning after undercutting Hamilton.

It was difficult to access the circuit, so probably didn't help popularity.

Yeah good point. Just wait until they get a load of Kyalami!

Not completely related, but I enjoyed this rather long interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofqBgZnWovM

[Fabulous interview! I watched it last night. Nigel is just such a hero. Even after he retired, he came back for Le Mans, to race with his son. Sadly Nigel crashed and got knocked to such a degree that he lost his ability to speak. He then took up practicing magician''s tricks as a way to recover.


quote=rollnloop.]Not completely related, but I enjoyed this rather long interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofqBgZnWovM[/quote]

FP1 is done and dusted with Leclerc on top by a hair. Very hot, no rain expected through the weekend.

I should not have made changes to my fantasy team for Austria as now I can't get it back because of the shifting pricing. I'm 500k short of a good one. As it is I have to leave 2.1 million on the table.

Sainz is taking new components which we speculated after his car caught fire last week. So a grid penalty for him and possibly more. Let's see how FP2 shakes out later.

I feel this race is quite unpredictable with the very high temperature. Ofc Ferrari and Redbull are favourite but anything can happen reliability/tactically wise. If it's tactical, redbull and Mercedes have the edge, if it's reliability, who knows ?

Fez look really good, Red Bull a little off the pace and Merc not showing the gains they had expected. Right now it's looking really good for Ferrari, especially for tomorrow, but Red Bull tend to come back with good race pace.

All to play for but advantage Leclerc. Sainz will need to come from further back with his grid penalty, and others could follow suit.

I'll refrain from any predictions

FP3 is done and a good session for Max, who looks odds on for pole, but nothing's in the bag. Perez out of sorts a bit, so it looks to be a straight shootout between Leclerc and Verstappen with Sainz starting at the back. Good opportunity here for Red Bull to put some daylight between themselves and Ferrari. Should be a good qually.

Charles nails it again, but will have two charging bulls breathing on his neck tomorrow !

Is Merc finally making a come back with a 2cd and a 3rd?

Ferrari does it again > questionable late pit stop,

Was it driver error or a throttle problem?

Driver error.

Shocking one.

Otoh, good on track fights, everywhere

So my understanding is that the sub-par performance of Lewis Hamilton so far this season is not due to any declining driving skills but the fact that the Mercedes cars have not adopted well at all to the new manufacturing rules?

Indeed.

And most of his overwhelming performances were due to mercedes fitting perfectly previous regs.

Then again, it's even more infrequent that bad drivers win in good cars than great drivers win with bad cars.

Mercedes being now on the rise, end of season will be quite exciting, even if on paper Max is most likely 2022 champion.

Good result for Red Bull, who needed that after Ferrari won the last two races. Too bad for Leclerc, who once again looked like the fastest car on the grid and would have won I think. Max would have had track position after Leclerc came in, but on fresher tires I have to expect that Leclerc would have gotten by before the end. It's all academic now because Leclerc lost the rear and out of the race.

I expected Sainz to have to come in again, especially with the blistering on the right front, but the manner in which it was done seemed disorganized and amateurish. Ferrari have built a fast car, and have two top drivers, but the decision making on race day has cost them points this year. If F1 were a theoretical exercise, Ferrari would have a big lead at this stage. But that's why we run 'em.

Good result for McLaren, who have come a long way since Bahrain. Alpine are better though.

Terrible fantasy week, a write-off, and my lowest haul of the season. But I had a bad feeling coming in.