F1 2019 (Not the game) Spoiler-All

Like, I like Hamilton, but good GOD this is boring. Is this how it felt when Schumacher was just obliterating everyone else?

Prederick wrote:

Like, I like Hamilton, but good GOD this is boring. Is this how it felt when Schumacher was just obliterating everyone else?

Yes.

At least when McLaren won fifteen of the sixteen races in 1988 it was Prost and Senna in the car, so there was a race of equal drivers as the team walked the season.

Yeah. I'd be a lot happier with Merc's dominance if it was Bottas in P1 all the time.

Nothing against Lewis, mind.

Yeah, I don't like rooting against Lewis, because he is a damned good driver and he started from the bottom to get where he is, but it's hard to be excited to see the same car on the top week in and week out.

In Merc's dominant run Lewis has won 51% of races. Michael won 58% during his, so it could be much worse. Imagine this season was every season.

One of the things that made it worse as a spectator was that Michael's teammates were not allowed to win (See Austria 2002, (or even come second (see Austria 2001))).

I feel like some of that might have been low-key in play this weekend. Why was Valteri so far behind? Was it to allow Lewis to achieve a gap long enough to pit without losing P1? Kinda feels that way, maybe.

He led all but one lap last year, and this year he led every single lap. Not a bad feather for your helmet.

r013nt0 wrote:

Why was Valteri so far behind?

If you want to move past the obvious answer, then Valtteri said he was having to work his tyres too much to try to keep up with Lewis in the early laps, so he had to come off the pace to preserve their life.

Yeah, fair enough. But man, Lewis' lead was like playing F1 2018 on easy. Also about as interesting.

I don't think I've watched much more than a single race this season because it was pretty obvious that Mercedes was walking away with this championship since lap 1 of Australia.

I really don't remember when I heard it but the commentators were talking about Schumacher's time at Ferrari and it was said they had a car testing on track somewhere in the world at all times during a racing season. Regardless of how accurate that statement was it showed Ferrari's willingness to just outspend their competitors.

With the cost cutting F1 is constantly trying to achieve testing is pretty much only when you show up for the race weekend. It seems like since Button was able to get his championship in 09 everything has been decided by pre-season designs with little in the way of car development to narrow the gap once the season has begun.

I will watch the last few races of the season if Bottas has a chance of winning the Driver's championship but from everything I've seen up to this point I don't think Bottas has enough to beat Hamilton.

It's been mentioned in this thread before, but it does seem (to me) like the vast, vast difference in spending power between teams is what's making all the difference.

It certainly splits the teams into tiers and makes the "Formula 1.5" jokes sadly too real, (current leader: Carlos Sainz), but you still have to do a good job once you spend the money.

With what information is available it seems Ferrari traditionally slightly outspend Mercedes, but just having more money hasn't worked out for them.

I'm looking forward to the proposed budget cap and hope that can pull things closer together. F1 has always had rich and poor teams, but in the old days if a poor team came up with a clever idea they could get results above their regular position, even if it was only a particular type of track. That doesn't really happen any more when you have two teams who have practically infinite dollars.

The increased reliability of the cars also makes it so there aren't so many random upsets. I miss the races from the 70s and 80s when like 6 cars *might* actually finish all the laps. Wouldn't it be interesting to see Lewis' (for example) car break down on the penultimate lap?

'82 Monaco P1 changed place like 5 times in the last 3 laps or some sh*t. Incredibly fun to watch.

..I don't miss all the carnage of those years, mind.

I gotta admit, I am a deeply casual fan, like I only keep up via race recap videos and Chain Bear, but I have been sorely tempted to try out either F1 2018 or Motorsport Manager.

2019 is out today. It was supposed to be out Friday.

*not my joke incoming*

Unsafe early release.

Anyway the games are awesome and you'll really understand a lot more about the inner workings of the sport if you play.

I'll go the other way and pimp for Motorsport Manager. With the new Fire 2019 mod you get the current F1 landscape and it plays out really well.

It's taken me five years to take McLaren from the mid-pack to challenging for wins again and then that was mainly because we handled the technical rules refresh in 2022 better than anyone else.

Motorsport Manager is also fun! But I always miss driving.

Why not both?

Also, since racing video games came up, why not join the Racing Dorks?

If we have already tried to recruit you and you turned us down, sorry, but...

IMAGE(https://media0.giphy.com/media/4ZrFRwHGl4HTELW801/giphy.gif)

I am leaning Motorsport Manager, since I was never particularly good at racing games and I don't think I have the time anymore to truly invest in learning it up good.

Also, from what I've seen online, I kind of like the variety in MM more, especially with the various rule changes that can be introduced.

I haven't played F1 2018, but I do own Motorsport Manager. I have to imagine they are very different, mainly the driving vs management! Motorsport Manager is fun if you like the management and don't want to be behind the wheel making the real time track decisions.

Mr Bismarck wrote:

I'll go the other way and pimp for Motorsport Manager. With the new Fire 2019 mod you get the current F1 landscape and it plays out really well.

It's taken me five years to take McLaren from the mid-pack to challenging for wins again and then that was mainly because we handled the technical rules refresh in 2022 better than anyone else.

Wow... I just looked into Fire 2019 and it looks like it changes the game. I've been playing MM on Switch and wish I could leverage the mods. May have to double dip and get it on PC when I get a new PC.

MM vs F1 201X comes down to whether you want to drive or not. MM lets you manage a few different types of teams. F1 lets you drive on the tracks. If you have XBox GamePass you can download F1 2018 to give it a shot.

As for the current season... I've been a bit disappointed watching it. The last few I've just watched the highlights and even then it's not very exciting. The current field has been pretty stale and I'd love to see some shake ups. Maybe caps will help with that?

You can do a LOT of management and strategy in the F1 games, too, if that's a thing you want to do.

Speaking as a longtime FM nerd, I think that'd interest me most.

This might be interesting. Even the F2 cars are just completely annihilating their tires in Austria.

C'mon, 2 stops!!!

Also Porsche Supercup this weekend. Hell yes.

Christian Horner: ‘The F1 product is fundamentally wrong and needs addressing’

I wonder if France was a bit of a tipping point. Horner, Perez, even Hamilton all were in the press saying "Yeah, this is boring."

That's going to involve Red Bull giving up some money, Christian. Something it has always been very clear Red Bull will not do.

Grosjean... ffs man!

F1 IG account Grosjean silliness

Too much right foot when he turned the pit limiter off.

Also apparently the Aus aero package. That ride height!

FP1 & 2 both good.

Not gonna lie, feel a bit bad for Gasly. Kid's gonna lose his seat at this rate.

Oh Ferrari.