Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Silverstone, 2018

Verstappen: It felt like I had an F2 engine

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In the round-up: Max Verstappen says Red Bull were unable to compete at Silverstone because of their lack of power.

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What they say

Max Verstappen offers a frank assessment of his Tag Heuer-badged Renault power unit following his battles during yesterday’s British Grand Prix.

It was good fun. I think it was not completely fair of course, because it looked like we were 20kph down on the straights. It feels like you’re driving with an F2 engine against an F1 engine. This weekend we couldn’t really do much because of the deficit.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

After a dramatic British Grand Prix saw an exciting scrap for the win, @docnuke was left thoroughly entertained.

After seeing Hamilton getting clipped in beginning and the car was okay and it got going again, I stayed glued to the TV. The last race I recall where he came back like he did was in Hungary a few years ago. Despite how dull that race was in the past that race by Hamilton I was amazed by. I was expecting something similar with there being no rain, sunshine, great weather for racing. Watching the battles unfold as the race went on you could see that something was going to happen.

As the end of the second safety car period was coming to a close, you could see after the first one that nobody was going to let Bottas get away like he did. Those closing laps is what F1 fans needed. A good solid all out scrap like Ferrari and Mercedes had. Add in the Red Bulls who were coming at a steady pace it had the makings of a dynamite ending.

This race didn’t disappoint.
@docnuke

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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91 comments on “Verstappen: It felt like I had an F2 engine”

  1. ColdFly (@)
    9th July 2018, 8:55

    To me this comment by @ceevee or this one by @neilosjames should have been COTD.
    After a busy triple header it would be good to reflect on the comments section of this site/blog.

    1. Indeed. We’ve had three fantastic races in a row and yet some people can’t give the race its due if their own favourite driver doesn’t start form pole and drive into the distance. The internet (and modern world in general) just seems so binary these days, it is very annoying.

      Yesterday’s race was a cracker and this season is shaping up to be a modern classic, and I say that even though my favourite driver (Bottas) can’t seem to get a break and my favourite team (Williams) is rooted to the foot of the timesheets with seemingly no idea how to improve their situation.

      1. Sush meerkat
        9th July 2018, 10:13

        That thread makes for grim reading, it’s more about people judging other people’s opinion of the race and a lot of projecting onto each other instead of the actual race.

        Welcome to RaceFeels.net

        Yes I am aware of my own hypocrisy.

      2. my favourite driver (Bottas) can’t seem to get a break and my favourite team (Williams)

        @geemac – I feel for you, these times are sent to try our souls.

        1. It’s nothing new @phylyp, I’ve been waiting for Williams to get their act together since 1997!

  2. “If somebody comes along and wants to pay an attractive price for anything, you have to put your commercial hat on and think about it commercially, not emotionally.”

    If some scribes are to be believed, the issue is that Mallya and Roy want to high a price for the team. So the issue isn’t whether someone will but the team, but whether they are willing to think rationally and accept the offers on the table.

  3. I wonder if all this “deliberate tactics” conspiracies from Mercedes is a way to attract more media and attention to the sport. I mean, they have Lewis who is a huge fan of drama and mind games.

    1. Doesn’t seem the best way to do it, what kind of person will start to follow a sport with the base that some teams say that others are cheats?

      I think however, if Mercedes does feel so strongly about these deliberate tactics the FIA should start an investigation, but before hand they should lay out the consequences (with crashgate being a good example), and if they find Ferrari to be guilty they should suffer, but if they don’t, Mercedes has to take those consequences upon themselves for these despicable comments.

      We have a very interesting championship this year, but for some reason Mercedes has been trying to play its cards outside of the track as well, the oil burning, the Ferrari’s energy system, nos this. They are starting to sound like…Ferrari!

      1. The thing is, you cannot prove that Ferrari did this on purpose. Unless the fia decides to completely monitor their cars because from the onboard shot, Kimi was clearly turning into the corner and he almost went full lock, but due to the lock up, his car had no chance to rotate. It was not like Rosberg’s one in Austria where he clearly turned very very late to avoid colliding with Hamilton and probably did not even bother to turn.

    2. I picked up on the ‘deliberate tactics’ comment yesterday and thought they were talking about Ferrari pitting Raikkonen early to make sure he could ‘hold up’ Hamilton. @krichelle
      That was a deliberate tactic indeed, and an acceptable one (don’t necessarily like it, but they all do it).

      Not for a second (and not until today) I realised that the tactics they referred to was the misjudged overtake from Raikkonen on Hamilton on lap one!

  4. Gasly has an excellent point. I couldn’t agree more with him. Arrivabene and the COTD have valid points as well.

  5. F2 engine?! Sounds more like excuses again or plain rant because he/they cannot win. Probably not even making it to the podium just after 1 week he took a win must be at fault. Other than that, the way things unfolded in the race, VER overtaking (a faster RAI) on the outside in a corner it just proves RBR probably went for more downforce… which “killed” their top speed OR Ferrari opted for less downforce, and this version kinda makes more sense given what happened to their tyres last year. Also noticed that Ferrari was losing ground to the RBRs when exiting corners. Given that RBR always was very good in the corners and under braking for years now, probably the best car, I think they build and set up their car under this philoshophy (thanks to aero by Newey too) and if others choose other variant and beat them…. it’s the engine. Of course it’s the engine, it’s obvious the best engine is needed to be able to keep up with the rest on all kind of sections of a circuit when you set up your car for max downforce possible.

    1. Yep @mg1982, well said; these complaints ring pretty hollow to me too. I am sure they have some point, but it isn’t any better than when McLaren did it until they changed engines and turned out not to be that much better off this year.

    2. If you take Max comment correctly he says during safetycars you notice the power difference very clear as he had to defend vey hard against Kimi on the straight part in the corner he could use his balanced car to take Kimi on the outside (which cost not so much power) as Kimi couldn’t deploy his power but after the corner you see Kimi blasting past. Also it was the reason RB didn’t use their DRS on the third DRS as they lost speed … which shouldn’t be IF they had too much drag. RB opted for very low drag configuration and it wasn’t enough while in Austria they still had speed.

    3. Max actually drove a low downforce setup. That’s why he couldn’t take the corners with DRS open during qualy.

      I

      1. Yes we know they had a low downforce setup but that is not why he stopped using it. He was one of the few using the drs during pratice but they lost speed due friction and the engine couldn’t overcome that.
        In really high speed corners you losing speed through the friction of the tyres not the drag in a low downforce setup.

    4. It’s not even worth to discuss Red Bull comments any more. They just won last week, on merit and on a power track with that “F2” engine. Somehow when they win they’re brilliant, but when they mess it up and they are off the pace, it’s some Swiss clock maker’s fault.

      1. @afonic What this highlights is what RBR has been saying all along, which is that they lack hp and it really shows at tracks like Silverstone. At a few tracks where hp is a little less important they can do well, but it takes those certain minority of tracks throughout the season for them to have more success. So at tracks like Silverstone the engine feels like it belongs in F2. At other tracks, and especially if there is some attrition from other cars, they can have more success, but unfortunately for them this is only at a small number of tracks.

        1. @robbie Austria is one of the power hungry tracks, but they did just fine. Probably their engine is a bit down, but the chassis seems to lack in certain tracks as well. You can’t win 3 races with an “F2” engine. If they were “80bhp” down as Max says, they would be close to the midfield than the top.

          Remember that in qualifying they don’t have a quali mode that powerful, like Ferrari and Mercedes do, so it looks worse, but in race trim they are usually fine.

          1. Sitting a sole third in the WCC is likely not fine for them though. And a bit more speed from a better Pu hp wise would have their car’s aero working even more for them.

          2. That’s what you get when you only design the chassis though. They have decided to be a customer and not a works teams since entering F1. It gets them more founds to spend on the chassis, but you can’t always get what you want. It worked brilliantly well for them from 2009 to 2013, now less so. Lets hope Honda can get up to speed, even though I wouldn’t bet for that, before 2021 at least.

          3. @afonic For sure. When they won their 4 Championships with Renault that was at a time when it was much easier to slap someone’s engine in back and have half a chance. Now there is just too much integration involved, as it crosses over into affecting braking for example.

          4. @robbie and they decided to use another fuel provider, which makes it even harder to get the maximum out of the hardware they have.

            Seeing how good the Ferrari engine is this year (some say it’s the class of the field now) compared to 2014, makes me think that Renault hasn’t invested enough to make their engine better. Even though the “80bhp” claim is probably bogus, they are still behind in raw power (qualifying mode) and reliability. It’s definitely a race winning engine, just not a championship winning one.

    5. Archit (@architjain07)
      9th July 2018, 14:30

      Just pulling in more bad PR for Renault and trying to life Honda at the same time by showing that Renault engine is no better than Honda! They forget just last week, Verstappen won with the same engine at a track where 70% is full throttle too. RBR just wasn’t fast enough in the corners! All bold moves are down to Verstappen and all losses are Renault’s fault! SORE LOSER!

      1. Silverstone is now 80%+ as the most corners are full throttle.

      2. They won in Austria because the tyres didn’t allow pushing all the time. Maybe you noticed the blisters. I’m not sure if the post race analysis covered this (LOL)

  6. Ricciardo has been outqualified and outraced by team-mate Max Verstappen in the grands prix since his Monte Carlo triumph.

    That’s a quote from AutoSport after the British GP. Now I didn’t get to see the race but quite a few are saying the same thing. Verstappen may have gained unfair advantage when he when off track to get around the Hamilton incident three places I believe.
    Then when Ricciardo caught him again and was looking to pass the team called him in on very short notice saying he was on a different strategy? Which also removed any chance of getting past Verstappen or getting a podium.
    I believe Ricciardo made mention of both these decisions to his team and was told not to go there? Is RB going back the the dirty play of the Vettel yrs.

    1. I don’t know about the 2nd bit with Ric (I do have a recollection they radio’d), but as for the 1st, Verstappen going off the track to get around Hamilton @johnrkh, I just re-watched the start and he only had the choice of a) go into HAM – not a good one; b) go around him over the runoff, which is there for such cases too – that’s what he did; c) bog down and try to dive in behind RIC, in the lack of gap there on track – not a good one, bc. prone to get him and others swept up in a follow-up crash. In summary, I don’t think this was like the French GP, where you could argue some made it very easy for themselves to avoid the track, cut off a bit, and avoid the 1st lap problems, so I cannot see it as much of an unfair advantage. VER was ahead of RIC ahead of that corner, and after.

      1. This year is turning out like last year where Max out qualifies DR and leads him more often in the races. He simply has more pace more often, and then it comes down to each driver’s mistakes or unreliability, luck or bad luck.

        1. Nice try. RIC had more pace in the race.

          1. Krxx
            Ricciardo was behind Verstappen all race long… he was on a two stopper while Verstappen was on a one stopper managing tyres all race long.
            Obviously Ricciardo had more pace, but overall needed to make a 20 sec pitstop more.

            It all looked like planned at RBR, two differents strategies to split their chances.
            Based on those different strategies it’s a bit daft to say the driver behind was faster, they did a different race

  7. LOL max… if this is F2 engine wait till next year what you will get.
    Is it time for RB to stand back from Honda?

    1. Sush meerkat
      9th July 2018, 10:17

      @bluechris
      Yes Max, let the hate flow through you

    2. No standing back from Honda. If they aren’t ever going to win the Championships again with Renault, they might as well try a closer relationship with Honda. I’m not saying I have a ton of confidence in Honda right now, but then we haven’t yet seen a 2019 Honda Pu in a 2019 Newey RBR car. What have they got to lose? The odd win here and there and third place in the WCC?

      1. Don’t think they can even lose 3rd place with honda tbh, there’s too much margin on the others and I don’t buy into renault or mclaren improving massively, would however be annoyed if they can’t win races any more, nowadays they won’t be title contenders but they are definitely race winner contenders in several races, they should win more this year.

        1. Hass will probably be more improved than Renault or McLaren next year, and probably fight with RBR for 3rd. The Renault engine is clearly not getting to parity anytime soon, as they have been struggling to close the gap for 4 seasons now and it doesn’t seem to be much closer than 2014.

          The new aero regs for 2019, that simplify the front wing flow, will benefit the cars with more powerfull engines, and Ferrari engine seems to be a match or even a bit better than MB. So Hass, if they continue to keep their close relantionship with Ferrari and bring in a better driver to replace GRO, they should be the ones to watch for 3rd in the championship next year.

  8. Imagine that next year he will have GP2 engine

  9. “If I win, I was the hero… if I lose, The engine was zero”
    This is the most common comment in F1 nowadays

    1. What a pity that so much comments by F1 ‘fans’ these days are nothing more than oneliners robbed from their context just to try playing down the driver that is not in favor.

      1. I hope you are at least paid by Verstappen for defending him so fanatically and not doing this for free. But even so, I am happy that my comment was spot on.

        1. Hardly spot on since Max may have called the Pu F2 level because it is too weak for tracks like Silverstone, but he never called himself a hero in Austria.

        2. @sl300forf1

          Hey Einstein, how on earth can i be defending Verstappen when i simply refer your remark about what you think is the most comment, in general, in F1???

          And even more, how does that make your none-liner spot on???

          1. Because you talk fanatically full of offensive words…. If you get paid, good for you. If not, you are just one of those fanatics making this world a better place to live

          2. @sl300forf1 Fanatically and offensive? Would you be so kind to point out the fanatic and offensive parts of my first remark so i can learn a lesson here?

          3. I am not your teacher… read you comment and you’ll find the fanatic and offensive words / phrases. I am glad we do not talk in real and don’t know each other

        3. @sl300forf1
          No, he’s not getting paid. He’s just from ‘the low countries’, just like robbie. They can’t help themselves. If you make only one remark that questions their idol, they’ll jump right on it, proven by robbie’s other comments (regarding this article and others).
          Peter is calling you a F1 ‘fan’, which is funny bc the only reason he’s following the sport, is Max. He can’t even see he ís defending Max, simply bc he lives on planet Max, his selfmade bubble, just like 95% of all the orange ‘F1 fans’.
          As for the other fanatic, robbie, he simply ignores the fact that the RB Ring is a power hungry track too, hence the Merc-engine domination of past years.

  10. Fact: Renault has 70 Hp less then Ferrari and Mercedes.

    1. Re-fact: You’re an orange

  11. C’mon Max, you never drove an F2

    1. Haha, touché!

    2. good one ;-)

    3. You got him there!

    4. And Alonso never drove a GP2-car ;) (it was F3000 back then)

  12. Hey Max, if you think you have an F2 engine now, 2019 awaits…

    1. And you think VER is driving for Red Bull next year? whahaahaa! This forum is a JOKE !

  13. @ Verstappen’s ‘F2 engine’ and ’20 kph down on the straights’ comments:

    From the ‘Qualifying Session Maximum Speeds’ document:

    Speed trap:
    1 K. RAIKKONEN 325.6
    3 E. OCON 323.3
    10 M. VERSTAPPEN 319.0
    14 P. GASLY 316.8

    Finish line:
    1 K. RAIKKONEN 263.4
    3 V. BOTTAS 262.4
    10 M. VERSTAPPEN 258.5
    18 P. GASLY 253.8

    Intermediate 1:
    1 K. RAIKKONEN 317.5
    3 S. PEREZ 314.1
    10 M. VERSTAPPEN 311.6
    16 P. GASLY 307.6

    Intermediate 2:
    1 S. VETTEL 271.3
    3 V. BOTTAS 269.6
    4 M. VERSTAPPEN 268.1
    16 P. GASLY 261.4

    6 kph down on the long straights, closer to the front than to the fastest Honda in the early phases of an acceleration zone (finish line, intermediate 2) – if he thinks those are the symptoms of an F2 engine, he’s in for a world of hurt in 2019.

    1. Very nice factual comment, nase

    2. Yeah but RB were running a low downforce setup to counter their of speed on the straights, which means their cornering speed was sacrificed in order to be closer to the Ferrari and Merc on the straights. Essentially, their lap times were slower.

      1. @jaymenon10 Yet Verstappen says they are faster in the corners. Which would indicate they still have something going on which would hold them back on the straights other than simply blaming everything on the engine.

        McLaren also said they had the best car and would be competing for the podium if only they had a better engine …

    3. He was commenting on the dragrace after each safety car the acceleration part of it.

    4. I cannot comment about Honda, but I saw a scrap between Ricciardo and Raikkonen and the power deficit was very apparent. The recording of the live speed started just before Luffield. Because Ricciardo was leading Raikkonen, he was on the power earlier and had a higher pace exiting Luffield. But before the old finishline Raikkonen already matched Ricciardo’s speed and by the time they reached Copse, Raikkonen was 8 kmh faster. The run from Copse to Becketts was identical. Both runs were without DRS.

      1. @matthijs That’s why there was suspicion Ferrari “did something” with the batteries. They have the best acceleration.

    5. Here is some factual for you:
      From the Race Maximum Speeds Document:
      SPEED TRAP:
      1 7 K. RAIKKONEN 346.8
      2 11 S. PEREZ 345.7
      3 44 L. HAMILTON 339.5
      18 33 M. VERSTAPPEN 313.2 (-33.6)

      FINISH LINE:
      1 7 K. RAIKKONEN 257.8
      2 5 S. VETTEL 256.3
      3 44 L. HAMILTON 253.9
      6 33 M. VERSTAPPEN 252.1 (-5.7)

      INTERMEDIATE 1
      1 11 S. PEREZ 332.9
      2 5 S. VETTEL 327.8
      3 7 K. RAIKKONEN 327.4
      19 33 M. VERSTAPPEN 300.5 (-32.4)

      INTERMEDIATE 2
      1 5 S. VETTEL 270.3
      2 7 K. RAIKKONEN 265.2
      3 3 D. RICCIARDO 263.9
      8 33 M. VERSTAPPEN 259.6 (-10.7)

      At least use the right document when trying to prove a point.

      1. At least use the right document when trying to prove a point.

        You do know you’re comparing apples and oranges, don’t you?
        I quoted from the qualifying document because the conditions in qualifying are more or less the same for everyone: Everyone uses the highest engine settings, tries to find a gap on the track so as not to be affected by dirty air (the downside is no slipstream either), everyone gets to use DRS in the three activation zones. The resulting figures allow to draw a comparison between cars and engines, at least to a certain extent.

        The race data, however, are badly distorted over the course of a race. Some drivers, like Hamilton and Räikkönen, end up out of position and get plenty of slipstreams on their way back to the front. They get to use DRS repeatedly, they might use higher engine settings for short periods to minimise the time they lose in traffic.
        Other drivers, like Verstappen, may spend the entire race more or less in the position their car belongs in, and never catch a slipstream or get to use DRS.
        And that’s the entire explanation for these seemingly alarming figures you’ve produced. They aren’t any less real than the qualifying figures, but utterly useless for the comparison between cars and engines.
        The figures for intermediate 1 (Wellington straight) and the speed trap (Hangar straight) are nothing but outliers. None of the top 3 regularly went through the speed trap at 340 kph or more. On a normal lap without DRS or slipstream, their speeds would’ve been much closer to Verstappen’s. How much closer? That’s impossible to tell on the basis of this document. But the qualifying document offers solid evidence.

        And now for the obvious flaws in your treatment of these already inherently flawed data:
        I used the fastest driver of each engine manufacturer. You used the top 3 vs. Verstappen. But Verstappen isn’t the only Red Bull or Renault driver.
        Daniel Ricciardo was 4th fastest in the speed trap on the Hangar straight, at 334.2 kph. 10.9 kph faster than Bottas, 21 kph faster than Verstappen. I’m not saying these figures are any more meaningful, but see how easily your statement can be turned on its back using data that you omitted?

        Then there’s intermediate 1, where Verstappen was the slowest of all cars who completed at least one lap, at 300.5 kph. Daniel Ricciardo was 8th fastest in that speed trap, at 319 kph, and he wasn’t even the fastest Renault driver. That honour goes to Stoffel Vandoorne, 6th fastest at 322 kph.

        Then there are the two speed traps that are the least DRS- and slipstream-sensitive: Finish line and intermediate 2 at the beginning of the Hangar straight. Verstappen was indeed the fastest Renault driver over the finish line, just 5.7 kph slower than the Ferraris of Räikkönen and Vettel, and just under 2 kph slower than the Mercedes duo.

        And through intermediate 2, Verstappen again wasn’t the fastest Renault. Ricciardo was 3rd fastest through there, at 263.9 kph, i.e. just 6.4 kph slower than Vettel in front, whose figure appears to be an outlier as well, as it’s 5.1 kph faster than Räikkönen’s.

        tl;dr
        You’re in no position to belittle my attempt to prove a point.

        1. But it proves my point that Max was complaining about the dragrace speed which was in the race. In Qualiflier they use as much DRS as possible which isnot being used in the Race. So both of you are somewhat correct.

        2. I think the top speeds are also depending on how much speed can be carried through the corners. As Red Bull has the best chassis, they can compensate quite a bit of “GP2” engine. But the straights were just too long to be competitive. Naturally a competitive driver like Max gets frustrated by this and exaggerates to make his point. You can not deny the Renault engine lacks a lot of power. to speak with Eddie Jordan: “put a Mercedes or Ferrari engine in the Red Bull and you never see them again.

          1. Bit of a daft comment… a F1 circuit is not a drag strip… each sectoer has corners and straights.
            Alle sector times noted above are a combination of both.

            RBR has refered to lack of pace n the straights, motivated by the fact they where slower with DRS open than Ferrari and Mercedes with DRS closed… usualy DRS is good for around 20km/h.

            Team have much more data than just sector times, at Austria RBR lost over a second on the straights while Verstappen was ‘just’ 0.710 behind on pole, meaning they found some pace in corners.

            With Silverstone being a high speed track, Verstappens Q3 run was 85% flat out, no chance they’de ever come close to Ferrari and Mercedes…and it showed

          2. Who are you reacting to?

  14. Things were so hectic around the track that Max’s spin and dropping out was barely covered. Here’s the onboard of what happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2isKQyueiFg

    1. Wow unceasered!

      1. Glad you found this and referenced it. My takeaway from this…Max kept his frustration between himself and the team on the radio. His post race comments were far far more mature than LH’s, and at least LH finished second.

        1. @robbie – good point. And I’ll give him a free pass for his on-radio comments, since they were as the event unfolded, and during a time when the Red Bulls had one chance to attack the Mercedes ahead, given their respective tyres.

          @azmo – many thanks for that onboard, I thought the gap between his spin and retirement was longer, but it seems that Max parking the car was only broadcast much later.

        2. @robbie My takeway from this … this must come as news I guess … drivers who are actually in the race for the WDC are under a lot more pressure.

          Hamilton was all cool and breezy too when Button put him in the wall in Canada 2011. It’s easy to be nonchalant when you lost nothing.

          1. @patrickl I don’t disagree with that, but then LH still managed second, so it’s not like he got put into a wall. But the theatrics afterwards…he’s lucky he has a car that can carry him from the back to the front so well. Lucky for a few safety cars too. And that’s racing. He’ll live to fight another day and doesn’t need to sound like the whole world is against him and that he can barely walk…other than to saunter off and sulk of course. He has every possibility of winning the WDC again this year, so a bit of perspective and gratitude for what he does have going for him would go a long way. He lost 7 points to SV…that’s it. And he did that from SV’s way better start and his poor start before he even got tapped by Kimi.

        3. My takeaway from this is robbie gets on the defensive whenever Max, MV or the younger Verstappen is getting mentioned, even when nobody is on the attack.

  15. Nick (@theawesomefish)
    9th July 2018, 11:52

    With regards to CotD, there were a great many parts of the race that I enjoyed – including the four-car scrap for the win in the closing laps – but sadly Hamilton recovering back through the field was not one of them. If nothing else, it started making me angry about the obnoxious gap between the top three teams and the rest of the grid, with the way pretty much every single driver from 6th back wasn’t even bothering to defend their position against him at all. Just stayed out wide and waved the Mercedes through, from what I saw on the feed.

    I completely understand that they don’t want to lose time to their nearest rivals, but I just don’t (or can’t) enjoy watching a top car driving through from the back anymore. Not when the pace advantage they have borders on the absurd and forces 70% of the grid to give up the fight before it has a chance to start.

    1. Yeh. I always fool myself in to thinking “this’ll be fun!” whenever a top driver has to carve his way through the field. But in reality, the top 2 (3?) teams are so, so far ahead, that drivers don’t bother to defend.

      That’s one modern trait to Formula One that I cannot stand – “it’s not worth defending your position”. It completely goes against the whole point of racing. That’s when we know computers and engineers have a little too much say in the sport.

      1. @ecwdanselby the top teams are so much faster that even if you tried to defend, you’d probably only last about half a lap. It’s simply not worth it, you better take care of your tires and fight the cars around you, not the ones that would lap you twice if run at full pace.

        1. But that’s what I mean. It’s a modern problem that we never used to have.

          The two key factors here are designed to degrade tyres, and DRS. If it wasn’t for those, you’d want to try and fight to retain your position. I can’t stand the ‘no point fighting’ mentality. I remember di Resta used to do it quite a lot when the Pirellis came in, then slowly many other drivers and subsequently teams adopted it. I just hate it. It’s anti-racing.

          But weirdly, I do think the ‘designed to degrade’ tyres have a place in F1, just not the DRS.

    2. @theawesomefish What baffles me is that people seem to think this is something new. Are you guys just watching F1 for the last few years or so?

    3. + 1. I completely agree. The speed and handling differential between the top 3 cars and the rest is ridiculous and bad for the sport. Faster cars could always come back through the field but not as easily as they do now. DRS is mainly to blame for this but also drivers having to nurse the tyres on the car so much.

  16. Nice clickbait headline but we were already bored with GP2 ENGINE.

  17. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
    9th July 2018, 13:37

    Well Verstappen, you will be getting what Alonso calls a GP2 engine for a likely 3 years given your contract with Red Bull. That is if Red Bull keep the engine after 2019. Will have to get used to it! Anyhow, I think that if Red Bull have confidence with Honda, they will have made the right decision.

    1. Couple things…we haven’t yet seen a 2019 Honda Pu in a 2019 Newey RBR car, and…what have they got to lose other than the odd win at the less hp requiring tracks. Even if it goes rough for them initially, which it should in a new marriage and because F1 is hard, they might as well go with a more close relationship in the form of a works agreement with Honda. They’re only going to be third for the foreseeable future with Renault anyway. They’ll not regret their decision.

  18. “F2 engine”…CrashMax again complaining, every day is more like Alonso. At any time soon, he will ask his partner to hit the wall …

    1. You seem afraid of what max can do with a real engine.

  19. Wait until you race that real F2 engine next year.

  20. Maybe Max accidentally received Fernando’s GP2 engine from last year.

  21. Max needs to get his own material … plagiarizing Alonso is pretty, well, childish.

    Nothing worse than junior trying to play the politics of F1.
    Stick to driving without hitting people for now …

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