Official 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix **SPOILERS**

[Byker28i]

HustleRussell said:

Adrian W said:

Its a shame that Mercedes couldn't be bothered to write Valtteri for the pictures, says it all

If by 'it all' you mean that Mercedes are the Constructor's title winners and Hamilton is the Driver's champion, then yes.

I know it's not a mathematical certainty but it's near enough, and I'm very tired of people who continue to believe that there is some kind of conspiracy in the team to keep Bottas looking like the second best driver of the two

If that was true, they'd knobble Bottas's car to stop him getting all those poles

[rdjohn]

Derek Smith said:

Remember, I might be wrong as well, especially as I'm depending on memory.

There was a chat about setting up a car, this on Ch4 when they had rights to the live race. An engineer said something like 'balancing downforce against speed is oversimplification of the process[/]. He reckoned that they needed to take into consideration tyre wear, fuel consumption and lots of other stuff. Bigging the problem in fact. But he said – possibly – that more downforce equalled less tyre wear despite higher cornering speeds and later breaking.

I might have got that back to front. Can an engineer, preferably one who is not quite so patronising, explain?

More downforce reduces the amount of lateral movement across the track surface. So it becomes more like going straight on.

The sidewalls are designed to absorb that load

[Adrian W]

thegreenhell said:

Adrian W said:

ZX10R NIN said:

I have to say Racing Point really didn't cover themselves in glory by giving up a podium especially when they already had clear indication that passing was hard on this track.

But wouldn’t they look stupid if the bloke they have fired gets a podium whereas the bloke they kept is way down the order

They look more stupid by throwing away an obvious podium chance. It's also cost them two places in the WCC, and potentially many million$. I highly doubt it was a deliberate act to make Lance look less bad.

its ok us armchair experts commenting because we know better, I wonder if it had had Been Vettel or Hamilton, if they would have said no and stayed out.

[Munter]

On the plus side of Perez's strategy that did happen. Constructors championship has 3 teams within a point of each other. If Perez had scored more points, this would not be the case. It's helped keep the fight for 3rd very hot.

3 RENAULT 135
4 MCLAREN RENAULT 134
5 RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 134

[The Moose]

I have to say, the whole unlapping yourself thing is so dumb and wasted a lot of time, especially at longer circuits.

Just pull over, let the rest of the train go by and then they can sort the order out themselves.

[Byker28i]

The Moose said:

I have to say, the whole unlapping yourself thing is so dumb and wasted a lot of time, especially at longer circuits.

Just pull over, let the rest of the train go by and then they can sort the order out themselves.

Then they've driven a lap less, have a lap more fuel to play with?

[MiniMan64]

Munter said:

On the plus side of Perez's strategy that did happen. Constructors championship has 3 teams within a point of each other. If Perez had scored more points, this would not be the case. It's helped keep the fight for 3rd very hot.

3 RENAULT 135
4 MCLAREN RENAULT 134
5 RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 134

Yup, for all the Mercedes & Verstappen teams have been dominant at the top this year the upper-midfield teams have been really worth watching. Very close fight.

Bit crazy to realise that Ferrari sit below all of these though.....

[Piginapoke]

Has anyone seen the viewing figures for the last few GPs?

They've been a bit dull (minor placings aside) and I wonder if people are still tuning in. Last weekend I lasted until Lewis lucked into the lead & then switched off.

[TheDeuce]

Piginapoke said:

Has anyone seen the viewing figures for the last few GPs?

They've been a bit dull (minor placings aside) and I wonder if people are still tuning in. Last weekend I lasted until Lewis lucked into the lead & then switched off.

You'd have to wait for next year to see anything solid (or at least reasonably solid..) based on this year I think. Liberty typically release their own interpretation of the data from the season, early the following year.

I'd think with other sports cancelled/limited and people spending more time at home for various reasons, it could be a good year! Also for everyone that's bored of the same guy winning, there are people that are absolutely loving the super-tight midfield battles and storylines this season. It's certainly not a 'bad' year for F1.

Also the draw of one off GP's at places we never dreamt would appear or return on the calendar

[Oilchange]

Absolutely and that ‘draw’ made me fly over to see the race in Portugal

[TheDeuce]

Oilchange said:

Absolutely and that ‘draw’ made me fly over to see the race in Portugal

Good for you!

Regard Piginapoke's comments... I just did some googling about sports viewership in general (can't find anything about F1 2020 figures), it appears that the networks were mostly expecting to people to watch more sport after it returned to screen this year, which is what I assumed - as per my post above. BUT... apparently the opposite has happened. Lots of theories as to why, perhaps people found other interests to replace the missing sports early this year and haven't returned, or there is a theory that with the massive covid increase in on demand box set viewing, people have stopped following TV fixtures altogether and simply forget to check when their sport is on. The most convincing theory was that people got used to not watching the sport when it was normally on, have filled that part of their day with new routines and are instead just following the sport via social media - which has shown some increases that reflect the TV viewership decline this year.

The above is for sports in general, not F1. It perhaps does give an insight in to how tough things could still get for F1 though. Have to wait and see on that point. Hopefully any loss of interest for F1 will be somewhat offset by the fact it was one of the very first sports to return and as such might have attracted previous fans to give it another go, or attracted some new ones - as there was chuff all else for sports fans..

Strange times we live in!

Edited by TheDeuce on Monday 2nd November 16:06

[Piginapoke]

TheDeuce said:

Good for you!

Regard Piginapoke's comments... I just did some googling about sports viewership in general (can't find anything about F1 2020 figures), it appears that the networks were mostly expecting to people to watch more sport after it returned to screen this year, which is what I assumed - as per my post above. BUT... apparently the opposite has happened. Lots of theories as to why, perhaps people found other interests to replace the missing sports early this year and haven't returned, or there is a theory that with the massive covid increase in on demand box set viewing, people have stopped following TV fixtures altogether and simply forget to check when their sport is on. The most convincing theory was that people got used to not watching the sport when it was normally on, have filled that part of their day with new routines and are instead just following the sport via social media - which has shown some increases that reflect the TV viewership decline this year.

The above is for sports in general, not F1. It perhaps does give an insight in to how tough things could still get for F1 though. Have to wait and see on that point. Hopefully any loss of interest for F1 will be somewhat offset by the fact it was one of the very first sports to return and as such might have attracted previous fans to give it another go, or attracted some new ones - as there was chuff all else for sports fans..

Strange times we live in!

Edited by TheDeuce on Monday 2nd November 16:06

Interesting, thanks Deuce. I also wonder if there is F1 fatigue, after so many races so close together.

[C350Akra]

Piginapoke said:

Last weekend I lasted until Lewis lucked into the lead & then switched off.

Not sure what race you were watching? Lewis was on a different strategy to Valterri following MB covering Max by bringing Valterri in early. Lewis had to stretch his lead to more than +27 seconds before coming in, which he had done a couple of laps before the safety car, there was no luck involved. It was interesting to see if he could do this whilst lapping the back-markers, which he did.

[TheDeuce]

Piginapoke said:

Interesting, thanks Deuce. I also wonder if there is F1 fatigue, after so many races so close together.

Not in my house there isn't

But maybe for some. I think it's a tough sport to remain passionate about when you've watched for a very long time perhaps? I'm on my second ten year stint of watching now - I took a break during the RBR blown diffuser years as it really was a foregone conclusion and the midfield wasn't managing mmuch of interest either.

[thegreenhell]

TheDeuce said:

Good for you!

Regard Piginapoke's comments... I just did some googling about sports viewership in general (can't find anything about F1 2020 figures), it appears that the networks were mostly expecting to people to watch more sport after it returned to screen this year, which is what I assumed - as per my post above. BUT... apparently the opposite has happened. Lots of theories as to why...

Sports were restarting at the same time as lockdown was being eased. We'd just been locked up for months, the sun was shining, and the choice was to go outside and taste freedom again or stay inside and watch more TV...

[miniman]

I don’t think F1 is as susceptible as other sports to the lack of live audience at the event. A lot of other sports are less watchable when there’s no crowd there reacting.

[Piginapoke]

C350Akra said:

Piginapoke said:

Last weekend I lasted until Lewis lucked into the lead & then switched off.

Not sure what race you were watching? Lewis was on a different strategy to Valterri following MB covering Max by bringing Valterri in early. Lewis had to stretch his lead to more than +27 seconds before coming in, which he had done a couple of laps before the safety car, there was no luck involved. It was interesting to see if he could do this whilst lapping the back-markers, which he did.

You don't think that Lewis being able to take his stop under the VSC killed the race?

[MiniMan64]

Piginapoke said:

C350Akra said:

Piginapoke said:

Last weekend I lasted until Lewis lucked into the lead & then switched off.

Not sure what race you were watching? Lewis was on a different strategy to Valterri following MB covering Max by bringing Valterri in early. Lewis had to stretch his lead to more than +27 seconds before coming in, which he had done a couple of laps before the safety car, there was no luck involved. It was interesting to see if he could do this whilst lapping the back-markers, which he did.

You don't think that Lewis being able to take his stop under the VSC killed the race?

Nope.

Because he already made the gap work for a pitstop anyway before the VSC and then later we had a real safety car anyway that bunched them up.

I’d say the thing that took away any chance of change at the front was Max’s puncture

[thegreenhell]

Piginapoke said:

C350Akra said:

Piginapoke said:

Last weekend I lasted until Lewis lucked into the lead & then switched off.

Not sure what race you were watching? Lewis was on a different strategy to Valterri following MB covering Max by bringing Valterri in early. Lewis had to stretch his lead to more than +27 seconds before coming in, which he had done a couple of laps before the safety car, there was no luck involved. It was interesting to see if he could do this whilst lapping the back-markers, which he did.

You don't think that Lewis being able to take his stop under the VSC killed the race?

It certainly removed a degree of jeopardy. He only had a second, or perhaps slightly less, ahead of the pitstop delta at the time of the VSC, so it would have required a perfect pitstop for him to come out just ahead of Bottas on track. The VSC bought him an extra five seconds of breathing space. However, without the VSC he would probably have stayed out a few more laps and increased the gap further before stopping with more in hand.

[TheDeuce]

thegreenhell said:

Piginapoke said:

C350Akra said:

Piginapoke said:

Last weekend I lasted until Lewis lucked into the lead & then switched off.

Not sure what race you were watching? Lewis was on a different strategy to Valterri following MB covering Max by bringing Valterri in early. Lewis had to stretch his lead to more than +27 seconds before coming in, which he had done a couple of laps before the safety car, there was no luck involved. It was interesting to see if he could do this whilst lapping the back-markers, which he did.

You don't think that Lewis being able to take his stop under the VSC killed the race?

It certainly removed a degree of jeopardy. He only had a second, or perhaps slightly less, ahead of the pitstop delta at the time of the VSC, so it would have required a perfect pitstop for him to come out just ahead of Bottas on track. The VSC bought him an extra five seconds of breathing space. However, without the VSC he would probably have stayed out a few more laps and increased the gap further before stopping with more in hand.

At the time I had a good level of confidence he'd still win, even before the VSC. It definitely sealed the deal, but there was a very good chance for him without it. And regardless, other than shuffling the order on the podium - it would have made very little difference in terms of titles either way.