2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Pee

[MBKF1 91]

To be fair to Stroll, his qualifying lap in Q2 was spectacular.

Spectacularly shit.

1.1 seconds slower than a retiring and well past it Massa. Go back to F2 for a year and come back and have another go next time! 

[RevolvingPrawn 1]

MBKF1 said:

To be fair to Stroll, his qualifying lap in Q2 was spectacular.

Spectacularly ****.

1.1 seconds slower than a retiring and well past it Massa. Go back to F2 for a year and come back and have another go next time! 

He never even did F2, daddy paid for him to go straight to F1. A season or two in F2 might have helped. He has improved over the season, but not by enough really.

[Syn 2]

Can we all agree the Halo is ugly AF? F1 needs to make some sweeping changes to these cars. Uglier each year.

[MBKF1 91]

RevolvingPrawn said:

MBKF1 said:

To be fair to Stroll, his qualifying lap in Q2 was spectacular.

Spectacularly ****.

1.1 seconds slower than a retiring and well past it Massa. Go back to F2 for a year and come back and have another go next time! 

He never even did F2, daddy paid for him to go straight to F1. A season or two in F2 might have helped. He has improved over the season, but not by enough really.

Yeah, I totally agree. I know it'll never happen, but I think it should be a requirement that young drivers must progress one by one from F4 > F3 > F2 > F1, just for the experience mainly. I know it means the likes of Verstappen and Ocon wouldn't have gotten into F1 as quickly as they did, but they'd have got there pretty soon anyway so it wouldn't have been a problem.

[Liaveil 137]

Halo's a load of rubbish. I'm honestly shocked they're still going through with it considering all of the negatives next to the pros and that it seems most of the paddock are against the idea of it.

As for $troll... ugh... Complete waste of a decent seat. The results are extremely flattering to him. He looked like he was finally improving mid season but in the last third of the season, the gap between him and Massa is even bigger than it was at the start of the season. Think I'd rather see Maldonado in the seat. As destructive as he was at least he had speed.

[Jiggy 5]

MBKF1 said:

To be fair to Stroll, his qualifying lap in Q2 was spectacular.

Spectacularly ****.

1.1 seconds slower than a retiring and well past it Massa. Go back to F2 for a year and come back and have another go next time! 

Respect the Stroll of Life. Future race winner.

Also, **** the ******* halo, it can **** my **** ******** *** * * * * * **** * * ********* ** *, ****** *  *** "******* *** *****"; **** ** * ****** ***** ****!

And don't forget ******* **** ***** ****, therefore **** *** **** ***** ********* ***.

Like honestly, if I was a driver, I would rather die than to have to deal with that mess. And it's probably not even beneficial to safety.

[Hughesy 254]

Last ever F1 open cockpit race, how sad  :( They get rid of shark fins next year, yet add something even worse, and then have the balls to say this...

https://twitter.com/SkySportsF1/status/934707285603115008

[couger1981 89]

The only action on track is between Stroll and Grosjean.

[Hughesy 254]

Why doesn’t this track produce good racing? The layout looks perfect for overtaking.

[couger1981 89]

Not a great season mostly boring.

Goodbye Massa :)

[Chadwick8505 0]

Wow that was one heck of a boring race. The first couple of laps looked like it was gonna set up some great battles.... and then nothing. 

[Hughesy 254]

That logo is just awful. It looks like an r, ruined 1 now. They probably spent millions designing it, logos are meant to be easily recognisable, that’s the perpose and they have failed. Really starting the doubt these new owners are going to change F1 for the better.... 

[VetteIfan 0]

Thoughts on the season and the future:

- Ultimately the destiny of the title was decided in 3 races between Singapore and Japan. But even with the bad luck and driving errors taken out of it for both of them, the Mercedes' was the clear faster car over the course of the season (I don't know how you could justify otherwise) so Hamilton would still be the champion all things equal. You could argue both sides as to who deserves the championship. Hamilton was super consistent and annihilated Bottas in the second half of the season, but he had his qualifying error in Brazi, a possible race costing drive through penalty in Bahrain and his his two exceptionally poor weekends in Russia and Monaco. Vettel never had these kind of weekends of exceptionally poor performances in comparison, but made more obvious mistakes in the heat of the action in Baku, Mexico and, depending who you ask, Singapore. A mantra I've always stuck with in F1 is in some cases more than one driver could be considered to have "deserved" the title, as was the case in 2012. So all I will say with certainty is both performed to an extremely high level for 85%+ of the season.

- I'm starting to wonder if Ricciardo's time is going to come for a world title now. He's been a superstar in Red Bull for years while they've not been capable of challenging for the title and now he's starting to lose control of the team just when they may become good again. Despite finishing ahead, he's been outperformed by Verstappen this season when both cars have been working. Verstappen has addressed the one area of his driving which I felt needed work last season - his qualifying. And now there are not many reasons left why you'd choose Ricciardo over Verstappen if you had the choice right now. What he decides to do after next year when his contract is up will be the huge for his career, especially with Red Bull rumoured to be stuck with Honda for 2019 if Renault bail on them as expected. 

- I know he won in Abu Dhabi but I think Bottas this season has ended up demonstrating what a fantastic driver Rosberg really was. He had his moments but for most of the season Hamilton was in a different stratosphere. Rosberg at the very least always kept Hamilton honest and never endured a stretch of races as bad as Bottas did between Spa and Mexico. Ricciardo and Ocon are going to be breathing down his neck for that seat in 2019 unless he has a much better year in 2018. 

- I've enjoyed the era of Mclaren Honda being the leading meme of Formula 1 but this should now be the final season of it. I have very high expectations for them given their claims about their chassis and clearly still having one of the very best drivers in their car. If they turn up next season and have moved up the order but are still getting trounced by Mercedes, Ferrari and most importantly by the identically powered Red Bull, then I think Alonso's head will just implode and rightly so.

- Ocon has turned out to be a real gem and I think Perez is just pissed off now because his stock rose massively when he outperformed Hulkenberg for two years and now Ocon has rocked up and pretty much put him out of all contention for a top drive ever again. I could dig a future with Ocon in the second Mercedes' and maybe Leclerc in the second Ferrari, although it's too soon to be calling that one. 

- By my count Renault will be in year 3 of their 5 year plan to return to the "pinnacle of the sport". With better reliability and having Sainz in the car all season instead of just 4 races, they may have beaten Williams this year but next year I'm quietly hopeful they may be able to make a reasonable number of appearances in the top 5. With the driver lineup they've got they're certainly gonna be a problem if they can provide a fast car.

- I can't decide whether Stroll is a great driver who is currently just plagued by inconsistency or whether he's an average driver who can get brilliant results only when the conditions suit. I'm leaning towards the latter. He has to beat whoever they put in the other Williams seat in 2018 or his career will be done. 

[couger1981 89]

Hughesy said:

That logo is just awful. It looks like an r, ruined 1 now. They probably spent millions designing it, logos are meant to be easily recognisable, that’s the perpose and they have failed. Really starting the doubt these new owners are going to change F1 for the better.... 

Looks like a Force India logo.

[inspiretheworld 98]

I'd rather have Maldonado then Stroll.    

[AMSKRR 3]

Maldonado was fast enough for F1 but just too much of a complete tool. At least stroll is too slow to cause chaos at the front.

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

RevolvingPrawn said:

MBKF1 said:

To be fair to Stroll, his qualifying lap in Q2 was spectacular.

Spectacularly ****.

1.1 seconds slower than a retiring and well past it Massa. Go back to F2 for a year and come back and have another go next time! 

He never even did F2, daddy paid for him to go straight to F1. A season or two in F2 might have helped. He has improved over the season, but not by enough really.

Stroll is always off the pace in qualifying and he is almost always last in the race. I don't know why Williams would keep him.

[couger1981 89]

DiRTKiNG808 said:

RevolvingPrawn said:

MBKF1 said:

To be fair to Stroll, his qualifying lap in Q2 was spectacular.

Spectacularly ****.

1.1 seconds slower than a retiring and well past it Massa. Go back to F2 for a year and come back and have another go next time! 

He never even did F2, daddy paid for him to go straight to F1. A season or two in F2 might have helped. He has improved over the season, but not by enough really.

Stroll is always off the pace in qualifying and he is almost always last in the race. I don't know why Williams would keep him.

His dad is rich so money talks at Williams.

[Hughesy 254]

I’m still giving Stroll a chance, yea he’s been pretty slow, but at times he has been quick. It was too much too soon, but next year he needs to perform and show improvement.