F1 2018

I would rather pay my money to watch racers like Max Verstappen than Ocon and Hamilton circulating with an engine turned down from the pits.  Ocon rightly got penalised but as Hamilton said he had nothing to lose anyway.

Ocon is struggling for a drive next year which says something about his ability although there have been rumours from Williams as he is cheap.

Whilst I agree about Max being exciting to watch, he is also a danger to others safety until he makes better judgements. If you can check out the Martin Brundle piece on skysports.com regarding the race, he shares my comments on several points including Max making better judgements although he still holds Ocon responsible.

There is a very interesting pic of Max overtaking Vettel where is is clearly not able to pass without either hitting Vettel or leaving the track, all but a couple of inches of tyre at turn 1. Had Ocon done the same he would probably have been made to hand back the place.

I would also remind you that Max asked his team to also turn down his engine, something that Ocon did not do.

I doubt whether Mercedes would be considering Ocon for a drive in 2020 if he had limited ability and most commentators are of the opinion that he is being squeezed out of a drive by paying pilots.

Having watched F1 for many years, the process is the same. young driver, new to the circus mad as a hatter risky moves and tries to show his bravado.

Only when he gets into a team capable of challenging does his real ability show. 

Take Schumacher in his early days at Benneton, he did not have the fastest car but he was ruthless and more experienced drivers gave him room in preference to a crash. Max has done the same over the last two years, and now Ocon is following in that tradition. Our very own Nigel Mansell, Senna, Prost, Montoya, even Hamilton and Rosberg all the same, that is why gentlemen like Bottas do not make champions, they are not ruthless enough.

When Ocon has a decent car, he will be the one taking on Max and making the racing interesting, but not if Stewards continue to penalise drivers for trying to pass or allowing  dangerous late manouvers to prevent overtaking.

Most of the overtaking is done with control at very high speeds with very skilful drivers respecting each other and leaving the required amount of room. When push comes to shove it sometimes ends in a bump or two. Just what most fans want, so the stewards should either leave them alone to race unless something is blatant or be consistent in decisions for the top teams and the lesser funded ones.

The channel 4 team yesterday, whatever they know,  seem to agree that the only current driver that in a Mercedes would challenge Hamilton was Max Verstappen.  I remember following Ocon and Verstappen in F3 and Ocon has certainly got a few scores to settle.

After Verstappen the other driver they felt should do well in 2019 was Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari and gave him as the driver to watch.

I will be following my fairly local man George Russell in his Williams as I thought he was first class in F2 this year.

I like the Channel Four team, a good mix without anyone dominating, good entertainment. I am quite a fan of Verstappen but in fairness to Ocon he has not yet been given the opportunity to drive a like for like car in F1 so quite how the two really match up is difficult to tell. Having said that he could have been put in the Mercedes instead of Bottas but clearly someone didn't think he was ready for that. 

The situation at Ferrari will be interesting next year, will it be a repeat of what happened at Red Bull when Daniel Ricciardo took over from Mark Webber?

David

What a difference a couple of weeks make.

Almost identical incidents, one car trying to pass another around 2 bends both collide in both cases.

However when a slower car tries to stop a faster car passing, which it is perfectly entitled to do, the collision is deemed to be the fault of the faster car. Move on two weeks and two cars travelling at similar speeds the two cars collide in identical positions on the track as the previous incident, it is deemed no one is to blame as both cars have the right to contest the corner.

Max was lucky only to loose the lead as Hulkenberg was to escape injury. Open wheel racing has seen this type of accident many times where the tyres rotate around each other and throw the trailing car into the air.

That is the main reason for rules that require a driver to allow enough space when a car is alongside.

Should be spectacular when Ocon is driving a Mercedes and Max is in the Ferrari.

Same old qualifying today for the 2019 Australian Formula 1 GP as previous years so expect race to be the same as rain is not forecast.

Looks like another boring year again - great shame !

Give it chance Bill, I think at least three races are needed before a likely pattern will emerge after which there might be the odd interesting race. Just as well we only now have highlights available unless you have Sky.

peedee

If you haven't heard the result I bet you can nearly guess it anyway.  Used to try to get to 2 or 3 GP's per year but didn't bother last year and didn't miss it.  Won't buy $ky but don't mind just the highlights which I record and can fast forward fairly quickly.

Watched the first Moto GP last week with no tyre changing or engine saving management and with one lap to go you would have to be a brave man to bet on the winner !  Real racing !!

Have to agree with you Bill, I'm not looking forward to this season as in previous years. I think it'll be a boring procession as per the last couple of seasons and I'm certainly not setting my alarm for 5am for the opening race - I'll watch the highlights later.

I tend to agree with Peedee I think you have to give it a few races before you can start to reach any sort of conclusion. At least we seem to have a Ferrari boss who seems to be willing to talk to the non Italian press so we might get more background information? There are lots of other unknowns at this stage of the season. quite a few new drivers or team changes for drivers. At least one team with a different engine so it could take a time to settle down. For those of us who are unwilling to pay Sky for the pleasure of watching F1 I suspect the highlights will be shorter as I understand Channel 4 can't talk to drivers in the pit lane or interview drivers after the race, they can only broadcast what Sky have done which comes over a bit odd as you never get the question only the answer! No disrespect Bill but Moto GP would not rock my boat, not the least interested in motor bikes. However I could become interested in Formula E, especially as the UK has a race next year in London. Not too far from Abbey Wood.

David