Formula 1 Emirates United States Grand Prix 2019Formula 1

[DesertPenguin]

Bottas on pole and Hamilton in 5th? Could Bottas seriously crawl this back?

 

[PaMu1337]

Well done by Bottas. Only P5 for Hamilton. Top 5 times were incredibly close, though.

 

[BrainsBush]

Well done Bottas! Great mix of starting grid for tomorrow

 

[AshenGraey]

With this qualifying result, this should be a very interesting race tomorrow!

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Bottas on pole and Hamilton in 5th? Could Bottas seriously crawl this back?

No

 

[PeterJB]

No

I predict Hamilton breaks something at turn 1 or wrecks his suspension over the bumps while Bottas sails off into the sunet, take 3 at Interlagos.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I predict Hamilton breaks something at turn 1 or wrecks his suspension over the bumps while Bottas sails off into the sunet, take 3 at Interlagos.

I predict a fairly processional race with a botched strategy from Ferrari losing them 1 or 3 places.

 

[Liquid]

Bottas on pole and Hamilton in 5th? Could Bottas seriously crawl this back?

Valtteri, it's James...

 

[Parker]

My favorite part of the weekend so far...

 

[McLaren]

FP1 is underway and I think we can take Sebring off the mantle of "bumpiest track in America". It looks awful out there. The worst is the large bump in the middle of the high speed Turn 18, but the pit exit has a dodgy one and there are so many more terrible bumps.

Recent rains have unsettled the track. I doubt there was much time to fix anything, they happened around 1-2 weeks ago, from south Texas well north of Nebraska from a front.


Speaking of which, hello from the track this year.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

It was good to see McLaren first in Q1. Hopefully they can keep on closing in the fastest teams for next year along with the rest of the midfield. All the power units and top teams and midfield are close to each other so should get some close racing today. 👍

If it's character it's fine. Apparently the worst of the bumps have been ground down overnight, we'll see what difference that makes today.

In other news: Leclerc has just blown an engine.

It is good they tried addressing it to an extent so early instead of waiting after the GP, looked much better on Saturday. 👍

Hopefully they do a good job in the winter: COTA to close in winter for "extensive" repairs

 

[Jimlaad43]

Bumps are fine, the mountains that we saw on Friday aren't.

This is why I believe Sebring desperately needs resurfacing too, but that's for another thread.

 

[TenEightyOne]

It is good they tried addressing it to an extent so early instead of waiting after the GP, looked much better on Saturday. 👍

I wonder if some of that was car setup too, I heard an interview with Hamilton where he said the Ferrari onboards looked ontroubled by bumps. If I had to guess I'd say the improvements are a combination of track workers with grinders and the teams altering their setups to accommodate.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

I wonder if some of that was car setup too, I heard an interview with Hamilton where he said the Ferrari onboards looked ontroubled by bumps. If I had to guess I'd say the improvements are a combination of track workers with grinders and the teams altering their setups to accommodate.

Maybe but it seemed teams were still going quite aggressive with setup no matter the car philosophy they have for ultimate performance. So much sparks especially Red Bull in qualifying, I wonder if it is a risk getting disqualified if plank wears down in the race.

 

[twitcher]

What he should be wondering is why they're using Roman numerals in the U.S.

Same reason they use Arabic numerals in England (and most of the rest of the world)?

Also, why do most American political buildings look like Roman temples? Why is the Lincoln Memorial surrounded by Roman columns (36 for the 36 states when he died...but why Roman columns?), and inside, his arms rest on two Roman columns?

Why is there Latin on American money?

I predict Hamilton breaks something at turn 1 or wrecks his suspension over the bumps while Bottas sails off into the sunet, take 3 at Interlagos.

Hamilton and Verstappen have an incident on the opening lap which takes Lewis out, Bottas cruises to an easy victory?

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Same reason they use Arabic numerals in England (and most of the rest of the world)?

Also, why do most American political buildings look like Roman temples? Why is the Lincoln Memorial surrounded by Roman columns (36 for the 36 states when he died...but why Roman columns?), and inside, his arms rest on two Roman columns?

Why is there Latin on American money?

Woah, easy there cowboy. It's because they haven't built the border wall yet.

 

[twitcher]

Woah, easy there cowboy. It's because they haven't built the border wall yet.

Wait, what?


On a different note, I just read that after FP2, Vettel said he kept smelling weed at T1 and T11, and Kravitz says he smelled it in the pit lane

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Wait, what?

There was a bit of sarcasm in those posts.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Also, why do most American political buildings look like Roman temples? Why is the Lincoln Memorial surrounded by Roman columns (36 for the 36 states when he died...but why Roman columns?), and inside, his arms rest on two Roman columns?

I know this one! Original Roman architecture survived all over Europe and its proportions (themselves based on Greek architecture) were copied again and again in significant buildings like churches and burg-halls. The works of Palladio in the 16th century brought a Romanesque revival in two waves - the second we know in Britain as "Georgian" architecture, sometimes known as "Burlington" in the UK. Unsurprisingly this neo-Palladian revivalist style was equally popular amongst Europeans who emigrated to the new States and it continued to be a sign of wealth and grandeur. That's why Roman (or Greek) architecture is so ubiquitous in Europe and America, and why it's still so associated with grandeur. Eastern architecture has similar roots but with a different evolution, many of the "golden" proportions are the same although the finishing details differ.

Back to the race... Mrs. Ten has just cooked a massive joint of pork (I've cooked every day for the last two months, apart from some takeaways) and got me some beers in. I'm looking forward to it but worried that I might nana-nap my way through the race. Burp.

EDIT: New sausage kerb in Turn 8. After quali? Stupid idea.

 

[Ether]

I'm sure this has been proposed before, but how hard would it be to surround the true racing surface with maybe 3 meters of nice grass on both sides of the track surface and then pavement beyond that as usual. That way if you slide off track, you're in the grass and are losing time. And if you go beyond that, you've still got pavement to slow you down if need be. Now driver's have consequences for pushing the limits but a safety net as well if things get really out of hand. How hard can that be?

 

[DesertPenguin]

I'm sure this has been proposed before, but how hard would it be to surround the true racing surface with maybe 3 meters of nice grass on both sides of the track surface and then pavement beyond that as usual. That way if you slide off track, you're in the grass and are losing time. And if you go beyond that, you've still got pavement to slow you down if need be. Now driver's have consequences for pushing the limits but a safety net as well if things get really out of hand. How hard can that be?

Even quickly installed astroturf would create the same affect.

 

[Ether]

Even quickly installed astroturf would create the same affect.

True, probably easier and cheaper to maintain than real grass. I know there are definitely a few circuits out there with this, but I think it should become a standard.

 

[twitcher]

I'm sure this has been proposed before, but how hard would it be to surround the true racing surface with maybe 3 meters of nice grass on both sides of the track surface and then pavement beyond that as usual. That way if you slide off track, you're in the grass and are losing time. And if you go beyond that, you've still got pavement to slow you down if need be. Now driver's have consequences for pushing the limits but a safety net as well if things get really out of hand. How hard can that be?

Fuji has a grass strip on the outside of a number of corners, and it seems to work quite well.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Even quickly installed astroturf would create the same affect.

The problem is that it needs to be fastened very strongly - an F1 car at full speed weighs about 1.5 tons, that's a lot of lateral force in a 5g turn. We've seen astroturf pulled up by F1 cars when it's been a permanent fixture. As an emergency measure it seems like a bad idea.

With that said this new kerb seems like a bad idea too, and I don't understand why they didn't fit it sooner. Doing it after three practices and a quali seems too late.

 

[DesertPenguin]

Okay, so real grass it is. I'm sure they can put down some sod and pre-grown grass before they come back again next year

 

[twitcher]

I find it strange that this isn’t just standard practice at all circuits for almost all corners



There’s a grass strip around the entire circuit. It looks like in a few locations, it’s concrete cinderblocks on edge, with grass growing through the openings. Seems like a novel idea.

Only issue I see with this setup is would it pass motorcycle safety standards? I could see someone maybe breaking bones on the transition from the grass to the paved runoff. I think a lot of the issues with circuit design for car racing come from sharing those circuits with bikes.

 

[Ether]

Ah, yeah didn't think about bikes. That's something I can't speak to in regards to safety as I'm simply not educated on that, but I can see why that might be an issue. Do they race bikes at Fuji anyway?

 

[TenEightyOne]

Can Bottas win today and prevent Hamilton taking the championship in the USA?

Formula1 don't think so

 

[McLaren]

Someone suggested astroturf. Would that be safer for bikers than real grass?

 

[Veinz]

Not a huge fan of the layout but this track had some interesting races in the past, the bumps add character.