Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso, Circuit de Catalunya, 2018

No Honda reliability problems so far – Gasly

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In the round-up: Honda’s reliability so far has impressed Toro Rosso driver Pierre Gasly.

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It hasn’t been a great start to testing for Force India but @HemzShaw has confidence:

Force India have always had problems during test and come up trumps during the races. Every year looks different and so does this one on the onset. You have a resurgence of Renault F1 Team on the cards, and McLaren with new PU hoping to take as many points as they can in the midfield. Williams may come up with a better performance car gap than from last year, and that could mix up a lot of things.

If Force India manage to keep pushing, then they can be good contenders for fourth or fifth this season.
@HemzShaw

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On this day in F1

  • McLaren locked out the front row of the grid for the Australian Grand Prix on this day 20 years ago, seven-tenths clear of Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari

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Keith Collantine
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36 comments on “No Honda reliability problems so far – Gasly”

  1. What a great watch that Merc video is! :)

    1. +1

      James Allison would some day make the ideal TV pundit. Hopefully a long way away though!

  2. Thats a fascinating video from Merc. Would love to see the 2 cars go head to head to see the progression from last year to this year

  3. That is truly remarkable. Assuming Murray really wrote this in person, he seems to be astonishingly fit mentally, considering he is over 90 years old. What a legend, You just have to love him.

    1. He’s spun his pizza 180 degrees! Still remember that being broadcast @mrboerns. Classic.

    2. you’ve got to love murray – it sounds trite but he really was irreplaceable.

  4. Honda reliability, good news, but what about power, are there any top-speed results out there and do they look competitive ?

    1. Don’t quote me on this, but I saw a comment from someone saying Honda was third fastest on day 5 of testing.

      1. @hohum @aliced actually STR-Honda clocked the third highest top speed so far, which is a bit different from saying Honda is the third fasted, since there are only 4 engines that might led to some confusion

        The two fastest teams so far are RBR and Renault. In last place we have McLaren with Mercedes just ahead of them. The only conclusion that we can take from it is that it appears the Honda is actually working

  5. i have a feeling that this standing restart rule is going to cause some big problems; especially for restarts later in the race when half the grid is going to be starting on the dirty side & not only get poor starts because of this but also get down to turn 1 on tyres covered in dirt/marbles and struggle to slow down.
    this not bringing up that we don’t know how the tyres are going to start up to been put through a race stint, cool off on the grid and then have to be got back upto temperature quickly.

    it’s just another example of show/entertainment been put before the actual sporting aspect of racing and whenever you do that it just ends up not working as planned because most of the time nobody looks at the consequences because there too busy looking at ‘show’….. case in point the high degredation tyres which did nothing but result in drivers managing then all day & not been able to follow for very long due to tyres overheating thus ruining the ‘show’ they were brought in to entertain.

    the second a race result is lost due to half the grid struggling to get away on the dirty side or due to a big crash at a turn 1 late race restart because of similar issues or whatever i promise i won’t come and say i told you so!

    1. oh and i forgot to add this. having cars on fresh tyres starting with cars on older tyres with the at times massive performance difference let alone how older tyres may struggle to get upto temperate as quick is simply a recipe for more restart lap accidents.

      this whole thing is horrendously poorly conceived.

      1. @PeterRogers Agreed.

        But the good news is the FIA really care about putting a halo around driver safety and would never make a careless rule tweak that could result in major accidents just to score political power points.

    2. @PeterRogers I couldn’t agree more with you. One of the most useless rule changes if not the most useless ever made

    3. Agreed. Let’s hope we don’t get music as they line up for the grid also.

    4. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      7th March 2018, 9:36

      It has the putrid whiff of the ‘competition caution’ about it. Why don’t they just go the whole hog and divide the race into segments like NASCAR? Throw in sprinklers and a blue shell while they are at it.
      Plus the blatant paradox of putting new safety cells on the cars, then encouraging situations where they are going to be tested. Cautions breed cautions.

      1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
        7th March 2018, 9:41

        Its also ripe for Flavio style exploitation

        1. Strangley enough with all the safety improvements we’ve not seen another driver like Schumacher prepared to exchange crashes into other cars to take points off rivals. Which was farcically always deemed a lesser crime than crashing into safety barriers too.

          1. Given that at times the most exciting part of a race is the start and the first corner suspense and action, and given the continued addiction to aero downforce creating processions, I have no problem with standing restarts. I think they will only be used occasionally and for me it seems likely that a situation has happened to cause a restart and thus many will have taken advantage of the circumstance to pit for fresh tires anyway. So I don’t think there will necessarily be the big divergence of tires and their states as some seem to think. And you know what? That will be up to the drivers to adapt to. If they choose to stay out on ‘old’ tires, then they will just have to exercise caution on the restart knowing they have left themselves vulnerable to those who have pitted.

  6. I largely agree. This is a random shuffle gimmick.

    If it helped faster cars pass, or rewarded daring strategies that would be different. But we can reasonably expect it will benefit whichever half of the field is on the racing line. Then whoever has the best clutch/launch system cheat.

  7. Carmen Jorda is probably feeling a little lonely now…

    1. To be honest, I think what she said isn’t as bad as many made out. There have been many calls in the last 10 years to return F1 cars to the physically demanding beasts of the late 80s and early 90s, and it is simply a physical fact that on average men are stronger physically. Sure, her comments do not look good but she is probably simply telling the truth from her perspective.

      I don’t know, it’s so easy to jump on the bandwagon here. I might be wrong, but we need healthy debate listening to the views of many on this. The fact that there aren’t as many women in the lower categories is more of a concern.

      1. The counter-argument to men being stronger on average is that it is an average of humanity, with people like me offsetting the fitter people. :-) The people in F1 cockpits are extremely fit – combining both strength and endurance, and it is weird on Jorda’s part to say that women can’t hit that mix. She’d have a point if it were pure strength, but its not just that.

        As has often been pointed out numerous times, air forces around the world have women piloting fighter jets that massively exceed the G-forces encountered in F1. Fighter pilots share attributes with F1 drivers, they tend to be small and wiry.

        Let me quote her relevant statements, from a CNN article:

        After getting behind the wheel of a Formula E car for a demonstration ahead of last weekend’s race in Mexico, Jorda was asked by reporters if the car was indeed easier to drive for women.

        “I think so,” she replied.

        Jorda continued: “It’s a less physical car than in Formula One because of the downforce and because of the power steering as well. So yes for sure. The challenge that we women have in Formula Two and Formula One is a physical issue and I think in Formula E, we won’t have it.

        “It’s not for me to decide what’s good for women or not in the sport. But in my experience I can say Formula One — not all the other championships, karting, Formula Three, GT, I think women are capable of good results in all those series — in Formula One and Formula Two there is a barrier that is a physical issue.

        “I think there is a big issue for women and that’s why there aren’t any in those championships.”

        She was fine as far as she said FE was easier than F1, but then the parts where we generalized and said women face a physical barrier in F1 and F2 are the parts that have drawn criticism, and rightly so, in my opinion.

        Carmen Jorda seems to have conflated her lack of success and opportunities in F1 with these physical differences. As you’ve rightly pointed out, the issue (or a symptom) is that there aren’t as many women in lower categories (which she says are easy to drive in), and it will take that grassroots change to possibly make an F1 driver who happens to be a woman.

        Its worse that given her role in the FIA’s Women in Motorsport commission, these statements tend to be treated not just as opinions, but a window into the commission’s thinking.

    2. She has been caught out for calling a spade, a spade.

      The problem is misunderstanding the statement. She said it was an issue and not impossible. By saying there are women fighter pilots you are just showing that creamy layer which rose above these issues.

      I think she understands women mentality more than men, sure there will be women who will overcome these barriers. But 1 or 2 examples doesn’t become a norm.

  8. That Merc video is so refreshing to see a team openly talk about their new car for the season in detail, rather than trying to hide it at all costs..I wish all teams would do something similar it really makes fans feel more in the know about the sport and what makes F1 what it is, every team after just the first test will have access to 100’s of pictures of every detail of each car on the track in the pitlane etc so it is completely pointless to be secretive about the details of the outside of the car.

  9. Standing Restarts is even worse than elimination qualifying in my opinion. At least that gimmick didn’t cause any chaos or unfairness

    1. elimination qualifying in my opinion. At least that gimmick didn’t cause any chaos or unfairness

      doubt so

  10. If they are going to do standing restarts them I think they should use different slots than from race starts. For restarts it should be more spaced out so that the cars arrive at the first corner with a bit of daylight between each other. Not sure how practical that would be to achieve though.

    1. I agree, 20 cars hitting a corner at full speed and two abreast is a silly idea.

  11. First time Hass got on the front row of the grid! 🙄

  12. Mallya – and thus Force India – are in trouble. His yacht isn’t just impounded, a lien has been granted to members of the crew who haven’t been paid in months (many of whom have not left the ship). If money is not forthcoming the yacht could be sold to pay the bills. We’re talking about a $90 million boat that costs a hundred thousand a day to run in mooring fees, fuel, staff costs etc. Given that most of the crew will leave once paid, Mallya must be looking at a bill of several million dollars just to get his boat back. The F1 team must be concerned…

    1. Mallaya does not inject new equity capital to cover the team’s operating budget so his situation really doesn’t impact the team at all. The team will be sold, and likely (hopefully) to, as Bernie would say, “another billionaire” that can afford to lose money in F1.

  13. How Long until Liberty Media ask the FIA to implement the “green-white-checker” and “Lucky Dog” pass?

  14. Why not double file lines and no green til the SF straight, rather than the leader being able to go whenever they like.

    That way, more bunched up, but still rolling

    1. Indycar tried that a few years ago & all it did was create more accidents, Especially later in the race so they quietly reverted back to single file restarts.

  15. Can’t say I like the idea of these standing SC restarts, I just think it’s something that hasn’t been thought through fully & that is been done for completely the wrong reasons.

    Half the grid is going to be disadvantaged because half of the grid is more than likely going to be covered in marbles & other dirt thrown up during the race. The Fresh tyre/Old tyre thing is going to cause problems & who knows how the tyres are going to react to it given how difficult the Pirelli’s can be sometimes.

    It’s just a really stupid idea as far as i’m concerned.

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