Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM.....

[Pulsar77]

It looks like Alonso has another big chance ahead to finish a race on podium. He is going to start in second position already thanks to Leclerc's ten-place grid penalty. Alonso is really fast with Aston Martin's new car and he just wants to take advantage of this opportunity as much as possible. We all know how competitive and ambitious Alonso is as well. Hence he would even like to fight for the championship this season. But it is better to be realistic mostly as his chance is not too much against Verstappen.

Verstappen's starting in 15th position is really unfortunate for him. But I still expect him to climb to top and win the race as well. Because his car is like a rocket now and he is an amazing driver to use this for his advantage.

[swogerino]

It looks like Alonso has another big chance ahead to finish a race on podium. He is going to start in second position already thanks to Leclerc's ten-place grid penalty. Alonso is really fast with Aston Martin's new car and he just wants to take advantage of this opportunity as much as possible. We all know how competitive and ambitious Alonso is as well. Hence he would even like to fight for the championship this season. But it is better to be realistic mostly as his chance is not too much against Verstappen.

Verstappen's starting in 15th position is really unfortunate for him. But I still expect him to climb to top and win the race as well. Because his car is like a rocket now and he is an amazing driver to use this for his advantage.

I think if the odd of Alonso to win the race is over 3 is worth trying,even if he does not win,it can greatly increase our emotions while we are watching the race.I am sure he will be giving his 101% despite his age to try and maximize on every opportunity that will be shown to him during this race.The big favorite is Perez of course to win the race tomorrow and Verstappen to be in top 3 would be a nice bet also.Judging how things are I think that with those bets,especially Perez to win which has more chances than Alonso and Verstappen to be in top three are kinda like "free money" although in motorsport an engine failure can make everything go in vain.

[coinlocket$]

Why do you think Ferrari and Leclerc can deliver such a good performance?

As you saw he did the second time, third if we consider the potential of Verstappen.
Ferrari is very strong this weak in the telemetry with low usage of tires.

The problem is RBR is too much stronger, they are in another category,

[Velvet78]

Maybe Verstappen is going to be at the 15th position on the grid but I think there isn't any problem anyway. Red Bull is extremely fast this season as well. They are like one of the few teams that have made a big progress for this season now. Verstappen is also one of the best drivers right now as well. These combined are becoming a huge threat to the others even in this situation.

Verstappen wouldn't have big problems on climbing to the first position unless he has another engine issue. I have my doubts for now until seeing the car okay.

[Captain Corporate]

Being fast is one thing, and Max with that Red Bull car could always go super high with this car, I don't doubt that. But lets be realistic and face the fact that if Perez and Alonso takes off without crashing, and Max can't pass too many cars right on the first turn, then we are going to end up seeing him hunt cars one by one. To do that you spend a lot of laps, you don't pass 10 cars in a single lap normally, which doesn't mean its impossible, of course he could be 5th after first lap too, but usually that's not how it happens. So that means Perez and Alonso would be already gone by the time he has a chance to chase them, and that is why this race will be pretty difficult for him to win. I still think Perez will win, so Red Bull will be fine, but Max has a very hard job tomorrow.

[alegotardo]

Just speaking the truth... Ferrari approached again with Charles Leclerc being a thousandths slower, but we know very well, because it's no secret to anyone that Ferrari drive much better on Saturdays than on Sundays

Anyway, apart from the truth above, if you can say something about this classification is that nothing went as expected because I had Max Verstapen being the big favorite in the grid definition... but what I saw is that the leader of the championship, despite of even letting rivals get close, ended up being the victim of a problem that can affect any driver. Lucky for Sergio Pérez... will he be able to take advantage of this pole position?

[Juggy777]

Just speaking the truth... Ferrari approached again with Charles Leclerc being a thousandths slower, but we know very well, because it's no secret to anyone that Ferrari drive much better on Saturdays than on Sundays

Anyway, apart from the truth above, if you can say something about this classification is that nothing went as expected because I had Max Verstapen being the big favorite in the grid definition... but what I saw is that the leader of the championship, despite of even letting rivals get close, ended up being the victim of a problem that can affect any driver. Lucky for Sergio Pérez... will he be able to take advantage of this pole position?

@alegotardo indeed what happened with Verstappen was totally shocking, but in a way this incident makes this race very exciting to watch because if he can yet end up winning it then he’ll do it in style. However Alonso and Leclerc will be also be keen to make sure that he doesn’t win it and they definitely do have the advantage, thus I’m eagerly waiting for this race to begin and dying to know who’ll end up winning it.

[tokeweed]

Just speaking the truth... Ferrari approached again with Charles Leclerc being a thousandths slower, but we know very well, because it's no secret to anyone that Ferrari drive much better on Saturdays than on Sundays

Anyway, apart from the truth above, if you can say something about this classification is that nothing went as expected because I had Max Verstapen being the big favorite in the grid definition... but what I saw is that the leader of the championship, despite of even letting rivals get close, ended up being the victim of a problem that can affect any driver. Lucky for Sergio Pérez... will he be able to take advantage of this pole position?

Perez will try to take advantage of the pole position but then there's a possbilty that if Verstappen squeezes himself into second place and the gap between him and Perez isn't more than 5 seconds and with Verstappen closing in at every lap, we'll def see team orders here.  Dunno...  We've seen it a couple of times last year with RBR and a lot of times over the years in F1...  It's gonna be hilarious but what choice do they have?  If Verstappen is gaining ever lap might as well get ahead of themselves and let Verstappen pass.  It would suck for the fans tho as we wanna see these guys race.

[swogerino]

Just speaking the truth... Ferrari approached again with Charles Leclerc being a thousandths slower, but we know very well, because it's no secret to anyone that Ferrari drive much better on Saturdays than on Sundays

Anyway, apart from the truth above, if you can say something about this classification is that nothing went as expected because I had Max Verstapen being the big favorite in the grid definition... but what I saw is that the leader of the championship, despite of even letting rivals get close, ended up being the victim of a problem that can affect any driver. Lucky for Sergio Pérez... will he be able to take advantage of this pole position?

Perez will try to take advantage of the pole position but then there's a possbilty that if Verstappen squeezes himself into second place and the gap between him and Perez isn't more than 5 seconds and with Verstappen closing in at every lap, we'll def see team orders here.  Dunno...  We've seen it a couple of times last year with RBR and a lot of times over the years in F1...  It's gonna be hilarious but what choice do they have?  If Verstappen is gaining ever lap might as well get ahead of themselves and let Verstappen pass.  It would suck for the fans tho as we wanna see these guys race.

I don't think that there is that big of a difference between the drivers judging from their starting positions,Perez if able to get out first from the first corner has a clear road ahead of him which gives him a great chance to start increasing the gap to Verstappen.Verstappen may start to do faster laps only after the third lap which is the lap that the DRS is enabled and since he most likely will be chasing cars I think that DRS can help him move up the grid but unfortunately this won't be enough to stop Perez who probably has already created the distance.There are a lot of scenarios for this race but a Safety Car here would greatly enhance the chances of Verstappen for a win,in every other way I doubt he can win if no Safety Car has entered the track.

[Zackgeno96]

In just over an hour we will start the race in Saudi Arabia. We have many questions, but the key question is how will Verstappen do from 15th place? That can go either way. it will also depend on how many places he can take up with the start, 14 cars in front of you is very difficult to get close right away. Actually, only Perez is really better now, not as a driver but purely because of the fact that he can start 1st later. Also great for Alonso that he is doing so well in the Aston Martin. Leclerc did well in qualifying but the engine was tinkered with so was moved back 10 places. Top speeds of 240 km per hour are reached on this circuit. That's really very very fast.

[BitcoinAccepted]

In just over an hour we will start the race in Saudi Arabia. We have many questions, but the key question is how will Verstappen do from 15th place? That can go either way. it will also depend on how many places he can take up with the start, 14 cars in front of you is very difficult to get close right away. Actually, only Perez is really better now, not as a driver but purely because of the fact that he can start 1st later. Also great for Alonso that he is doing so well in the Aston Martin. Leclerc did well in qualifying but the engine was tinkered with so was moved back 10 places. Top speeds of 240 km per hour are reached on this circuit. That's really very very fast.

I think Verstappen is just going to win this. I think they were 1.5 seconds per lap faster than Mercedes in free practice and in the GP, which says something. It is a dangerous circuit because of these high speeds, Max is the one who can handle this best and would still drive through the streets at 500 km per hour if he had to. No other driver dares to ride with such risk and precision, which also sets him apart from the rest. We shouldn't be surprised if Verstappen is already in the first 3 after 10 laps, and then it's countdown. But for Perez it would also be nice to stay ahead of his teammate. Tricky mission for Leclerc from 12th.

[swogerino]

In just over an hour we will start the race in Saudi Arabia. We have many questions, but the key question is how will Verstappen do from 15th place? That can go either way. it will also depend on how many places he can take up with the start, 14 cars in front of you is very difficult to get close right away. Actually, only Perez is really better now, not as a driver but purely because of the fact that he can start 1st later. Also great for Alonso that he is doing so well in the Aston Martin. Leclerc did well in qualifying but the engine was tinkered with so was moved back 10 places. Top speeds of 240 km per hour are reached on this circuit. That's really very very fast.

I think Verstappen is just going to win this. I think they were 1.5 seconds per lap faster than Mercedes in free practice and in the GP, which says something. It is a dangerous circuit because of these high speeds, Max is the one who can handle this best and would still drive through the streets at 500 km per hour if he had to. No other driver dares to ride with such risk and precision, which also sets him apart from the rest. We shouldn't be surprised if Verstappen is already in the first 3 after 10 laps, and then it's countdown. But for Perez it would also be nice to stay ahead of his teammate. Tricky mission for Leclerc from 12th.

Verstappen can only win this race if he is helped by a Safety Car as there is no other possibility under normal race conditions as Perez who will start first surely will make a distance no matter that Verstappen is faster than him.He is faster than Perez but they have the same car,so he can only be faster from 0.3-0.5 seconds per lap and this on a very optimistic prediction.Nevertheless all of our doubts will be shortly answered as just 15 minutes from now the race will start.What is nice is that maybe Alonso can overtake Perez in the start which would make the race much but much better to watch then,Alonso is not that fast compared to Redbull so he can play a role in shortening the distance between the cars.

[coinlocket$]

Don't know why they even called this a safety car.
Stroll was outside the track, now Max got an huge advantage and he will probably win.

[swogerino]

Don't know why they even called this a safety car.
Stroll was outside the track, now Max got an huge advantage and he will probably win.

They justified themselves by saying that we put the Safety Car in because in the GPS we saw it saying that the Aston Martin has been parked on track and that is why they put the Safety Car in.That was a clearly huge advantage to Max Verstappen but at least Perez did not lose his lead like he did on last year where he lost the lead because he entered the pits 1 lap before the Safety Car coming in.Even if it was no Safety Car I think Max Verstappen would have managed to come third or second,that Redbull looks like another planet,when it surpassed another car Verstappen made it look like F1 vs F2 while F2 I am referring to the other cars,not a single car being able to hold him off,it will be a boring season for us fans.

[Zackgeno96]

Perez has won and Verstappen has become 2nd after a catch-up race. What a top weekend for Red Bull, although they might have preferred to see the numbers 1 and 2 reversed on the podium. Max will perhaps be disappointed somewhere because he wants to trade his record from last year to smithereens. You can still do that. However, he will give it to Sergio Perez. Mercedes has again been quite disappointing, or is that perhaps part of the expectations of Mercedes these days? De Vries did not drive badly in itself, but had some bad luck here and there in certain parts of the race.

[LTU_btc]

It's ridiculous, Alonso got 10 second time penalty for not serving penalty correctly. Ok, rules are rules, but why did they waited so long to make decision and announced it after podium? So, now Russel becomes 3rd.
Perez is doing great in city circuits, it's his 5th win, 4 of them were achieved in street circuits.

Don't know why they even called this a safety car.
Stroll was outside the track, now Max got an huge advantage and he will probably win.

For me it also looked strange. Virtual Safety car or even yellow flag would be enough. It helped a lot for Max and with fastest lap he keeps 1st place in championship.

[swogerino]

It's ridiculous, Alonso got 10 second time penalty for not serving penalty correctly. Ok, rules are rules, but why did they waited so long to make decision and announced it after podium? So, now Russel becomes 3rd.
Perez is doing great in city circuits, it's his 5th win, 4 of them were achieved in street circuits.

Don't know why they even called this a safety car.
Stroll was outside the track, now Max got an huge advantage and he will probably win.

For me it also looked strange. Virtual Safety car or even yellow flag would be enough. It helped a lot for Max and with fastest lap he keeps 1st place in championship.

That is stupid and intentional,first of all how did they know that they didn't touch the car to become ready and not to gain an advantage but they read it as gaining an advantage which was not the case and this clearly shows the impact that the Mercedes team still has on the FIA together with Redbull who got a Safety Car for nothing,they even justified it that it was because of the GPS saying Stroll parked the car on track,ridiculous decisions during this race which impacted the race for the worse,I think that Alonso fully deserved the podium but that is racing.

[BitcoinAccepted]

It is that Verstappen had to start from 15th place, otherwise he would have easily won this race again. But the luck for Verstappen was that he had mechanical problems during qualifying and not during the race itself. It must be extremely frustrating for Hamilton to drive around in this car. For almost 10 years, Mercedes has dominated this sport, but since the rise of Red Bull everything is changing. It seems that Red Bull is the team that exudes pure control and dominance. There are a few new riders, they must have swallowed twice if you ride with more than 300 on certain parts.

[Pulsar77]

Perez was lucky about getting that win by the way. Because Verstappen would have got past him quite easily if he didn't have a problem in his car again. This problem just caused the gap between him and Perez to get bigger and be maintained later on. Actually Perez also had an issue for some time but it wasn't a hindrance for him to win the race comfortably. This was a solid work by Perez in the Saudi Arabia GP after having an unlucky race here in the previous season. Even the safety car was in favour of him in this race unlike the previous one here.

I also agree that the safety car decision was totally wrong. Stroll positioned his car in a great place outside the track. It was like there wasn't any danger as it was out of the track completely.

[Captain Corporate]

Between Alonso having 5 second penalty (which then turned into 10 seconds) and Max having trouble in Q2 that made Perez win a lot easier. Otherwise, if Alonso didn't had that penalty or Max started at anywhere top 5 which he would have been easily pole position but even assuming top 5, Perez wouldn't have won this. Just look at the difference by the end, about 5 second difference even though Max started at 15th and Perez had pole. All in all this shows once again, even though Perez won, we can easily say that Max is clearly the better driver, some argue that they may have some fight on who to with ala Nico vs Hamilton style but there is absolutely no way that happens.