1 hour ago, theguru said:

After watching Practice 1 I am very surprised by those results and can only say great job Lewis!

This season really is really unpredictable.  But when you have a hungry 7-Time World Champion fulfilling one of his dreams (to drive for famed Ferrari) anything can happen, and it did.  Hamilton hasn't been that good through last weeks single race and a practice here in China but to his credit put it all together when it mattered (similar to Verstappen who was down around 12 in the first practice).  But when the lights shine and it matters, those with experience can never be counted out.

Going to be great Sprint Race, Qualifying and Grand Prix!

15 minutes ago, Purple88 said:

This season really is really unpredictable.  But when you have a hungry 7-Time World Champion fulfilling one of his dreams (to drive for famed Ferrari) anything can happen, and it did.  Hamilton hasn't been that good through last weeks single race and a practice here in China but to his credit put it all together when it mattered (similar to Verstappen who was down around 12 in the first practice).  But when the lights shine and it matters, those with experience can never be counted out.

Going to be great Sprint Race, Qualifying and Grand Prix!

Agree on all counts and I am watching Sprint Qualifying on my DVR right now.  

Really good race weekend, but I wouldn't call it a great one.  

The Sprint Race LATE Friday night was entertaining as Lewis Hamilton had a Roman Candle burst pop out and he won the Sprint Qualifying and went on to win the 19-lap Sprint Race over the charging Oscar Piastri (McLaren) in second, who overcame current World Champion Max Verstappen, who is clearly getting more out of his new RedBull than just about any other driver would.

This led to the All-important Qualifying (starting off about 3 am our time) where Piastri stood tall again putting his papaya-colored car on pole just ahead of this teammate Lando Norris who had a less stellar lap.  BUT give Mercedes Driver George Russell credit as he put in a "cracking" (nod to our Brit friends) flying lap in and he split the McLarens and put his Silver Arrow on the front row for the race.  Norris started in 3rd and Verstappen in 4th.  Hamilton 5th and his teammate LeClerc 6th.  Notable midfield cars were the pair of Racing Bulls in Hadjar in 7th and Tsunoda in 9th.  Well done.

The race was "really" interesting for about 4 or 5 laps honestly; most of those right at the beginning as Norris got around Russell for 2nd and Verstappen didn't find luck wide and LeClerc was unlucky as he clipped his teammate Hamiltons right rear tyre and damaged his front wing, but amazingly did not require him to come into the pits and LeClerc was surprisingly fast.  So much so, he was allowed to pass his teammate Hamilton around midway through the race (something they won't do unless it's clear one team car is faster than the other team car).  

From there, Russell (Mercedes) did a nice job undercutting Norris from McLaren to move back into 2nd place.  But Norris was close and closed in to battle Russell.  It was nip and tuck for a few laps, but the McLaren was just faster, and Norris passed Russel to get back into 2nd place.  At the top of the grid that was about it except Lando Norris was having break problems so much so he had to lift and coast and lost about 3.5 seconds to Russel on the last 2 laps of the race.  That had to be scary for Norris driving at those speeds and then to have bad brakes!  Yikes!

In the midfield, Hass had a great bounce back race where last week in Australia they are sleds and today they really battled and surprised all I'd say.  Ocon moved from 11th up to 5th (5th thanks to the BOLD below) - WOW - Incredible really!  His teammate Bearman started down in 17th and moved all the way into the points to 8th!  Great rebound!

William did ok.  Racing Bulls had a great racing going with Hadjar and Tsunoda, but they rolled the dice and chose to go with a 2 pit stop strategy and it BOMBED!  They lost SO much track position.  They pitted when both were down around 8th or so and when they came back out they were down in about 15th.  They anticipated the tyre wear would hurt their opponents, but the Hard tyre held on well and they only rose to 11th for Hadjar and Tsunoda had a crazy front wing piece simply fracture down the main straightaway.  Never seen anything quite like that!  Wow!  Bad luck for sure.

So, the race ends with McLarens 50th ever 1-2 finish with Piastri 1 and Norris 2 with George Russell earning Mercedes 300th podium finish in F1 History!  WELL DONE!

But that isn't all as 3 driver were DISQUALIFIED AFTER THE RACE!!!!!  Lewis Hamilton was disqualified (he finished 6th) from the race due to "the rear skid block on his Ferrari was found to be under the minimum thickness required in the technical regulations".  The nightmare wasn't over for Ferrari either as their other driver Charles LeClerc was found to be underweight at the checkered flag by 1 kilogram, so he was also disqualified (along with Piere Gasly for Alpine for the same thing as LeClerc).  Terrible news for Ferrari!

So now we wait 2 weeks to the Japanese Grand Prix!

The other story I failed to type on was the seeming never-ending saga now at Red Bull with their lack of a second driver.  Here is an article on the latest:

Christian Horner addresses speculation that Liam Lawson could be replaced at Red Bull for Japanese GP | Formula 1®

Basically, starting back last year with Sergio Perez's loss of performance and he was ultimately booted off the Red Bull train.  Instead of signing Carlos Sainz who was being ousted by Ferrari for Lewis Hamilton, they decided to pass and elevate lower team driver Liam Lawson.  This all came about the same time legendary car designer Adrian Newey left Red Bull.  They haven't been the same since.  It is only by the immense skill of Max Verstappen has Red Bull stayed on top last year to win the drivers' championship, BUT they LOST the constructors championship!  And the cracks were clearly visible then!

Lawson was a train wreck in Australia (to be fair, the wet conditions were an anomaly).  BUT in China he qualified at the bottom of the entire field for the Sprint and the Race.  Red Bull decided to make significant set up changes and it allowed Lawson to rise to 15th and now 12th with the disqualifications, but this is NOT what Red Bull had in mind to start this season.

It's clear to me that by the quote below, Red Bull has just said "we give up this weekend and let's try to make this a testing session".  We're talking about one of the top 4 teams in the World with the reigning 4-Time World Champion no less.  WOW!

“We elected to take him off the grid, out of Parce Ferme, to do a significant set-up change, so we managed to get 56 laps of reasonable data from that. Obviously, we’ll take that away, we’ll have a good look at it, and as a group we’ll do our best to support him.”

Lawson isn't a bad guy or a poor driver.  BUT he is NOT a step up from Sergio Perez either, which is easy for most to see what WAS needed.  What now Red Bull?  How soon do they pull the plug on Lawson?  I don't know.  But even to be speaking about this on the world media just a mere 2 races in is catastrophic for Red Bull IMO.  This won't go away as the world media is now on it as you can tell by the article.

Red Bull drops Lawson, Tsunoda to replace him for Japanese GP

As the Red Bull World Turns....

Honestly not surprised by this.  Tsunoda has more experience than Lawson, but is he really ready for a top 8 spot on the grid?  I don't know.  I like Tsunoda, but this is a LOT to ask.  You basically are pulled from Racing Bull and thrown into the second Red Bull that honestly has not been good this season.

Why?

I believe it's because that car (both Red Bull cars really) are designed for Max Verstappen period.  And the second guy has to work from there.  That's a lot to ask from Tsunoda, but because of their inaction in the offseason here they are!  Who now gets the second Racing Bull seat.  Not sure.  Going to be interesting.

2 hours ago, Purple88 said:

Red Bull drops Lawson, Tsunoda to replace him for Japanese GP

As the Red Bull World Turns....

Honestly not surprised by this.  Tsunoda has more experience than Lawson, but is he really ready for a top 8 spot on the grid?  I don't know.  I like Tsunoda, but this is a LOT to ask.  You basically are pulled from Racing Bull and thrown into the second Red Bull that honestly has not been good this season.

Why?

I believe it's because that car (both Red Bull cars really) are designed for Max Verstappen period.  And the second guy has to work from there.  That's a lot to ask from Tsunoda, but because of their inaction in the offseason here they are!  Who now gets the second Racing Bull seat.  Not sure.  Going to be interesting.

You nailed it before the season started and although I didn't speak up about it I thought Yuki was the better choice alongside Max and now we all get to see how this ultra tough assignment goes. 

Do we have any idea what is going to happen with Lawson?  Is it is a swap, is he going to be a reserve, or is he getting the boot?

From 2023!

7 minutes ago, theguru said:

You nailed it before the season started and although I didn't speak up about it I thought Yuki was the better choice alongside Max and now we all get to see how this ultra tough assignment goes. 

Do we have any idea what is going to happen with Lawson?  Is it is a swap, is he going to be a reserve, or is he getting the boot?

And you would be absolutely right on the first bolded item above G!  They didn't go with Yuki to start because Yuki is a "little hot headed".  He's a race car driver!!!!  What do you want Red Bull - a Yoga Instructor!!!  You don't get rewarded for driving the taxi cab here!  Come on man.....  

IF they had Yuki for the offseason and into this season, I personally think he would have done respectably well battling up into the lower end of the points every race (about position 10 to ? and I think that's all Red Bull can ask for.  Right now, I can't think but it will be a VERY tough assignment.  One question, I don't know is how comparable the two cars are.  The one Yuki just finished driving in the first 2 races (that he did well at) vs the one he's about to climb into?  Like is the stirring assembly the same?  Most F1 stirring assemblies have about 50 to 75 gizmo's on them that do different things.  If Yuki's stirring assembly is the same or similar (and it might be as Racing Bull - Yuki's former team is Red Bull's little Brother team), then I think he will give it a good go.  They are going to have to give him time.  But Red Bull had to act.  Why?  They are going into Japan.  Yuki is a hero over there.  Good PR move, just about 4 or 5 months too late.  And I think Lawson would have tanked again.

The last bold item, I honestly don't know.  I'd say Red Bull tries to save a little face here and keep him on in some capacity, but to me he's broken merchandise as most will be alongside Verstappen.  That's what I don't get about Red Bull passing on Sainz.  It's said, they didn't want to bring him on because they didn't get along great in a former team situation.  And I say....  So Freakin What!  Your professional drivers and F1 does NOT promote a "kumbaya" situation with teammates.  They need a yes man like Valteri Botas was for Lewis Hamilton.  BUT they didn't do that.  They got an upstart kid swimming at the deep end of the pool and that clearly hasn't worked. 

It's good drama really.  I like it.  But this likely pushes Max Verstappen to a new team when he signs next.  Won't that be interesting!!!!  The Japanese Grand Prix just got a lot more interesting!@!!!

From F1 Lead on Facebook!

Well the Japanese Grand Prix was pretty much a dud for me.  A couple factors:

1.  Track really only has one place to pass.

2. It was really cool and rained before the race.  This matters because you can go flat out and not really have to manage your tire wear.  Meaning you just get a line of cars going around and that's what happened today for the most part.

Of the Top 10 who qualified on Saturday there was only 1 movement to how the entire top 10 finished the race.  Lewis Hamilton got one spot higher than Isacc Hadjar and that's it for the whole race in the Top 10.

Max Verstappen stole the Pole Qualifying and he led wire to wire and really wasn't tested throughout dispite one incident in the pits where RedBull was about a second slower than McLaren and that put Lando Norris right on the Red Bull but it's a one line pit exit and Verstappen was already there and that was the race really.

Verstappen is the best driver and McLaren has the best cars and the best team of drivers right now.  So the Driver won the race today.  

Verstappen wins with Norris in 2nd and Piastri the McLaren teammate in 3rd.

Yuki Tsunoda the rushed fill in Red Bull second driver finished 12th.  He is disappointed with that, but I thought he did a great job with all the commotion he had to deal with  Give him some time as @theguru said, Yuki is a much better driver than Lawson.

Kimi Antonelli the YOUNG Mercedes driver led the race during pit stops and became the youngest driver ever in F1 history.  Mercedes did the right thing (although it was risky) to promote the youngster who will only get better from here.

On to Bahrain next week!  Looking for better weather for a F1 race in the desert.  I look for McLaren to get back on top but Verstappen to be on the podium.  We'll see.

12 hours ago, Purple88 said:

Well the Japanese Grand Prix was pretty much a dud for me.  A couple factors:

1.  Track really only has one place to pass.

2. It was really cool and rained before the race.  This matters because you can go flat out and not really have to manage your tire wear.  Meaning you just get a line of cars going around and that's what happened today for the most part.

Of the Top 10 who qualified on Saturday there was only 1 movement to how the entire top 10 finished the race.  Lewis Hamilton got one spot higher than Isacc Hadjar and that's it for the whole race in the Top 10.

Max Verstappen stole the Pole Qualifying and he led wire to wire and really wasn't tested throughout dispite one incident in the pits where RedBull was about a second slower than McLaren and that put Lando Norris right on the Red Bull but it's a one line pit exit and Verstappen was already there and that was the race really.

Verstappen is the best driver and McLaren has the best cars and the best team of drivers right now.  So the Driver won the race today.  

Verstappen wins with Norris in 2nd and Piastri the McLaren teammate in 3rd.

Yuki Tsunoda the rushed fill in Red Bull second driver finished 12th.  He is disappointed with that, but I thought he did a great job with all the commotion he had to deal with  Give him some time as @theguru said, Yuki is a much better driver than Lawson.

Kimi Antonelli the YOUNG Mercedes driver led the race during pit stops and became the youngest driver ever in F1 history.  Mercedes did the right thing (although it was risky) to promote the youngster who will only get better from here.

On to Bahrain next week!  Looking for better weather for a F1 race in the desert.  I look for McLaren to get back on top but Verstappen to be on the podium.  We'll see.

I can't say dud but it was very uneventful.  Max maintained the lead at the start and like you said the incident in the pits between Max and Lando was the race.  It is a fine line in F1.

Right, have to give Yuki some time.  I don't think it is fair to judge him in a new car until he has three or four races under his belt.  

And like you said 88, really only one place to pass and that can make for boring races.

On to Bahrain!!

From BBC Sport on Facebook.