FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE 2018: QUALIFYING *** SPOILERS ***

or Silverstone?

 

silverstone mate

 

Great 75th pole for Hamilton, wow.

 

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Not according to Claire's computer

 

Silverstone.....another Merc. track.

 

Well earned today.

 

Alonso: “disaster”

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/136954/alonso-doing-all-he-can-amid-disaster

Fernando Alonso doing 'everything possible' amid McLaren F1 'disaster

 

It is a disaster. Theyre worse now than they were with Honda. Amazing

 

Right. A bit of vindication for Honda . . . . for all that's worth.

 

K-Mag is not impressed with Kimi today - https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/136963/magnussen-lashes-out-at-desperate-raikkonen

Kevin Magnussen has lashed out at a "desperate", "erratic" and "confused" Kimi Raikkonen, accusing the Ferrari driver of ruining his Q3 effort in Formula 1 qualifying.

The Dane came up on Raikkonen while preparing for a decisive last-ditch effort in the final qualifying segment at the French Grand Prix, having not yet set a lap time in a session disrupted by his team-mate Romain Grosjean's crash.

He got past Raikkonen but the Finn raced him on the main straight as his final timed lap began and got ahead once more into Turn 1, only to finally back out of his attempt.

Magnussen carried on but could do no better than ninth, 2.9s off the pace, and was left fuming at Raikkonen's actions, asking his Haas team: "What the **** is he doing?"

Asked about his anger on the radio, Magnussen said: "[I was] very upset. Because, what is he doing?

"He ****ed all his laps, he had fuel for I don't know how many laps, everyone else has fuel for one lap, so to begin with I thought he would box because he ****ed his lap.

"And then he tries again immediately the lap after. Overtakes us, backed off again - then surely he's going to box. But then he tries again.

"So it's three laps in a row that he tried to push and it makes no sense. There's no way to predict what he is going to do.

 

Seb next to Max....again. And if it's wet, very interesting.

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I always like Magnussen being outspoken.

but Kimi was on a fast lap also, whether he ****ed it or not is irrelevant. By that reasoning, Grosjean should get at least a triple penalty as by crashing he by default impeded at least 3 drivers.

 

Exactly. There are extremely serious problems going on at Mclaren. Quite what I don't know.

Alonso is obviously a very fast driver, no one can deny that...but I have to go back to the 1st Renault days: Fisichella was said to have primarily been there to develop the car. As was Trulli. His 1st stint at Mclaren was too short to make an impact either which way. At Ferrari it was said quite often by insiders that Alonso was not a good developer, and one of the reasons why Kimi drove around in circles way of the pace (when the car was rubbish) was rumoured to purely be to develop the car...pound the laps in, report, progress. Alonso left for Mclaren. Kimi stayed at Ferrari. Year by year the Ferrari improved more and more. Mclaren? They had the excuse of a poor Honda engine, obviously...but there is plenty of evidence that the car handled like a turd also. Last year it seemed better but internal accusations of Mclaren, wanting to get rid of the Honda engine, dialed up the aero to maximum ''proving'' the honda provided terrible horsepower, ''proving'' their car was fantastic and with a functioning engine, they'd be fighting for podiums, wins even! So now they got a Renault engine and guess what? They're massively off the pace. The chassis doesn't look bad at all, no better or worse than last year. Same goes for the aero, no irregularities there. And Honda...now in the Toro Rosso....whilst still unreliable to a certain extent, certainly seems to be on top of the power issue and more or less matching Renault!

Alonso seems to have the ability to drive around certain problems, often making a car appear better than it is. That's one of his many talents. But it seems to me, his car developing skills seems to be lacking.

 

Just a bit...

The points awarded on Sunday are what count. Mac is still winning that battle (more than twice the points of STR). Top that off with the fact that Honda have used up most of their allocation of parts and we aren’t to the halfway point of the season yet. Like it or not they are the regulations...STR will spend the rest of the season trying to strategically manage penalties.

 

Why its worse for McLaren after Honda:

Because for 3 years they blamed Honda. Now, there is no question Honda was a problem. Poor reliability and poor power. But the message was always one sided: "We have the best chassis on the grid!"

Then they decided to cut ties with Honda. All winter it was sweetness and light how they were going to finally be competitive. "Now we can fight!". But the preseason testing went poorly. Cars poorly prepared, engineering that caused the body to burn, Alonso no better than mid pack.

Then it was "we have an upgrade coming!". The upgrade came-- no change. Now there's reports of the team falling apart at the factory. If there is any proof to that you would have to say its reflected in their falling backwards week after week.

Alonso wins LeMans -- so they can't "blame" him. Vandoorne not doing much better. The Renault actually showing it can win races. The Torro Rossa out performing them and RB actually picking up the engine they dumped.

So they can only blame themselves this time. And that's why its worse.

 

Romaine Grosjean has 131 races starts and has learned nothing in all those races. He needs to wear a salad bowl instead of a helmet.

 

In the meantime, they've signed Red Bull. While I don't like where Honda has been over the past few years, I like where they're going.

 

Totally valid point and I agree...

But, the current reality is that Mac is doing better than they were and Honda is still having major reliability issues. STR tends to qualify better but moves backwards during the race. Mac has had serious qualifying difficulties, but have managed to scrap into the points. I know which I’d prefer as a team.

 

Yep... but you kinda figured that would. Honda could have bowed out after the McLaren "divorce". Instead they worked incredibly hard to convince RB to give them a chance at TR. There was no way Honda wanted or wants to leave F1 as "a failure".

Can you imagine the humiliation at Honda if TR kicked them out too?

 

Before long, they will call you a Alonso hater too, for speaking your mind.

But you may be correct. What's happening now at McLaren is abysmal.

This was the worst qualifications result since the beginning of the season.

 

Kimi ??

Last season for Kimi in a Ferrari F1. He underperforms compared to Vettel.

 

The problem is, time is running out for Honda to come good.

This hybrid formula will only have 2 more years to run at the end of this season.

The other engine manufacturers have already won; Honda is still in the starting blocks.

Will Honda win a GP with Red Bull before the end of 2020? I am not sure.

 

Kimi for some reason does better at quailifiyig sessions than the actual race. He can’t keep up.

 

McLaren 2.27s off RBR's pace.

From AS:
Vandoorne claimed nothing felt "particularly wrong" in the car in qualifying and that he was just lacking "overall performance", while Alonso said he was "missing performance, missing grip, speed, the pace".

The two-time world champion added: "We need to keep developing the car, probably a bit faster than what we are doing now.

"We see everybody bringing updates every race and we are probably bringing updates every two or three.

"Those [races] we are not bringing anything, we seem to step back."

I wonder if McLaren are so low on cash they cannot develop their car at a competitive pace?

 

good point