F1 F1 2024 thread

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Nothing better in world sports than hearing self entitled pommy sports commentators blaming Aussies for their team/player's loss.

But spare a thought for poor Ted here.

Poor bugger has spent the last two years sobbing into his shorts about the decision of the then Australian Race Director (Michael Masi) allowing Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to race for that last lap of the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP that cost Lewis Hamilton the World Championship.

He's just got over that and along comes another Australian refusing to play the game and spoiling the party for his latest pommy F1 hero Lando Norris.

Those damned colonial peasants.

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Nothing better in world sports than hearing self entitled pommy sports commentators blaming Aussies for their team/player's loss.

But spare a thought for poor Ted here.

Poor bugger has spent the last two years sobbing into his shorts about the decision of the then Australian Race Director (Michael Masi) allowing Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to race for that last lap of the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP that cost Lewis Hamilton the World Championship.

He's just got over that and along comes another Australian refusing to play the game and spoiling the party for his latest pommy F1 hero Lando Norris.

Those damned colonial peasants.
Great response from Piastri though: "Coming out of that corner in 1st and 3rd was not ideal for the team."

Subtext: "I did my bit, why don't you go ask Lando why he bottled it?"
 
Just watched that. Assuming this is spill over from his Ricciardo feud.
I'm guessing Dannii Minogue made fun of his penis size or something because he sure hates Aussies.

And it's as if he thinks everyone has forgotten how he treated other drivers in his F1 and Nascar/CART days.
 
Before last night, this is the way I see things. Top 5 all time Australian drivers.

1 - Brabham or Jones. I'm not certain which is no1, probably Brabham. But I don't care that much and whoever it sin't would be no2.

3 - Ricciardo.
4 - Will Power (He's an Indycar champion and Indy 500 winner for those not aware there's motorsport outside of F1) :p
5 - ******* Webber.

6th and onwards, I haven't thought too much about it because there are a fair few accomplished non-F1 international Australian drivers, and it's too hard to think about since I'd also have to account for domestic racers. I can't completely shit on supercars as much as I love doing it. It's probably Ryan Briscoe anyway.

But after last night,I wondered where Piastri sits right now. If he just had those two wins, particularly last night and give him 4th in the wdc. Where would he be?
 
Before last night, this is the way I see things. Top 5 all time Australian drivers.

1 - Brabham or Jones. I'm not certain which is no1, probably Brabham. But I don't care that much and whoever it sin't would be no2.

3 - Ricciardo.
4 - Will Power (He's an Indycar champion and Indy 500 winner for those not aware there's motorsport outside of F1) :p
5 - ******* Webber.

6th and onwards, I haven't thought too much about it because there are a fair few accomplished non-F1 international Australian drivers, and it's too hard to think about since I'd also have to account for domestic racers. I can't completely shit on supercars as much as I love doing it. It's probably Ryan Briscoe anyway.

But after last night,I wondered where Piastri sits right now. If he just had those two wins, particularly last night and give him 4th in the wdc. Where would he be?
I'd have Jack Brabham at #1 - he won 2x WDCs, and is the only driver to win the Championship in a car he built himself.

Allan Jones won the 1980 WDC, and with 12 F1 victories is clearly #2 on the list.

Happy with your other ranking.

Here's the list of past Australian F1 GP drivers (excluding the current pair) to have driven* at least 1 race:
  • Jack Brabham
  • Allan Jones
  • Mark Webber
  • Tim Schenken
  • Tony Gaze
  • Larry Perkins
  • David Walker
  • Vern Schuppan
  • David Brabham
  • Frank Gardner
  • Paul Hawkins
  • Paul England
  • Warwick Brown

Schenken was the Race Director for V8 Supercars for many years, only retiring in 2021. He's one of the few Australian F1 drivers to have finished a race on the podium.

Larry Perkins is the other notable name on the list. He's best known as a Touring Cars driver, with 6 wins at Mt Panorama - but he also drove in 11 F1 GPs.

* Excludes drivers who have driven in F1, but never qualified to drive in any races.
 

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Now one of their own favoured personalities in the sport says it, maybe UK's Sky F1 will listen? Although it's not just Max who's in their pro-Brit sights of course.



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I watched this last night. It was nice to hear from a British person.
 
Good write up on Oscar from The Age.

Gary Anderson​

September 17, 2024 — 10.00am
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Oscar Piastri is only 39 races into his Formula 1 career but with victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix he showed again why he is such a talented driver. The most impressive attribute the McLaren driver has – alongside the natural talent and raw speed, of course – is his ability to learn.
In his debut season alongside the more experienced Lando Norris he fared well, finishing with 97 points to his teammate’s 205 and two podiums to seven. This season he has taken another step with two victories to his name. Since Max Verstappen’s last win in Spain in June, Piastri is the leading points scorer.


Oscar Piastri was all smiles after winning in Baku.


In Baku, I believe he took a car that was a podium contender and turned it into a race-winning car through his driving and race strategy. That is a quality we see from only the very best drivers.
There are so many that operate in this grey area where the same problem arises time and time again and that means they are not learning. Piastri can take in what is going on and apply the knowledge to get out of that situation when it arises again.

Of course, every new F1 driver learns a lot but learning is one thing – improvement will always come with experience. Putting those lessons into practice is another. Piastri has been a master at that. Perhaps he does not quite have the outright speed that Norris has, but he is able to match him very closely over a race distance.

His biggest weakness last year in comparison to Norris was managing his tyres during a race. While the pair were closely matched in qualifying, this led to a greater gap appearing on Sundays. That weakness has almost been eradicated in 2024 with Piastri’s tyre management and knowledge a crucial part of Sunday’s winning drive.


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In Baku, Piastri was able to look after his rear tyres in a way that at the end of the race paid big dividends, with Charles Leclerc falling back. Piastri did his utmost to get into the lead as soon as he could because he knows “clean air is king”. In the first stint you could see he was falling away from Leclerc as he was caught in the dirty air. That lesson was learnt in the second stint as he approached Leclerc. He made a bold move for the lead from a long way back that caught the Ferrari driver by surprise. Another couple of laps and his tyres might not have been up to that and he, not Leclerc, would have spent 30-odd laps in dirty air with the chances of a win fading.


A lot of the talk since Monza has been about team orders, No.1 and No.2 drivers at McLaren and favouring Norris and his championship attempt. Having two talented and closely matched drivers is a positive for McLaren but also comes with its downsides, as we are already seeing in 2024. With Piastri’s rapid improvement, I think it will continue to be a problem as long as those two are at the team and they have a competitive car.

We have seen teams have a clear No.1 and No.2 driver but with McLaren it is a little bit greyer. How can the team manage this next season? Firstly, they need to come up with a set of rules before the season starts. I would let them race freely for the first half of the season or so, under the usual caveat of not taking undue risks.
Then when you reach a certain point midway through the season you assess the drivers’ championship and if one driver has an obvious advantage you give him priority. That would not necessarily mean always asking one driver to cede position but perhaps having priority when it comes to strategy, new parts and so on.
If I was looking at a driver for the future, though, it would be Piastri. Yes, Norris has more experience but he seems to be more error-prone and that has hampered his championship hopes this year. Piastri seems to be able to eliminate those mistakes better.

The opening lap in Monza two weeks ago was also a good demonstration of the Australian’s skills. In those first two braking zones you are going into the unknown as far as tyre grip is concerned but Piastri just seemed to have more confidence on the brakes as he took the lead from his teammate. He was able to push the car to a different level and closer to the limit than Norris. Again, he had a chance and he took it.
He is a very capable racing driver and he is going to win a lot of races.
 
If the Sky coverage around Lando on the weekend is anything to go by, it appears as though Sky have opted to ignore this criticism and amplify their bias towards Brittish drivers.
It would be nice if a genuine alternative emerged. I don't mind Sky personally but nothing between Monza and Baku was watchable.
 
It would be nice if a genuine alternative emerged. I don't mind Sky personally but nothing between Monza and Baku was watchable.
The US used to have Leigh Diffey and someone else doing their local coverage on ESPN in the states, but then they switched to Sky like the rest of us.

What other english speaking broadcasters are there doing F1 though?

Do Channel 4 still do live commentary?
BBC?
F1TV?

I'm not sure an all Aussie Fox/Kayo provided commentary team would be better either (not to mention they'd never do it due to costs).
 

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