The Official 2016 European Grand Prix Thread ***Spoilers***

Fri 17 – Sun 19 Jun 20162016 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE
Baku

The Real Story of the Race was that the Renault's fell apart and the Ferrari's didn't.
Rosberg headed for the sliproad and retired, probably because of Nicotin starvation they have still not given him a helmet with a little hole in it.

We should not be having a race in this shitty, corrupt little corner of the world where human rights abuses are rife and the government run what is essentially a dictatorship.

But enough about the UK, the Baku circuit looks class and should give us an interesting race.

On paper it looks better than it is in reality. It's like two Tilkedromes stitched together side-by-side, that's how wide it looks in places (obviously one fairly narrow area, but we'll see just how narrow it is in reality). If this was a proper street track it could have been a good track, but it looks more like Valencia than anything else.

I can't comment about the politics as I've never heard anything, but as we know F1 isn't afraid of going to corrupt and sometimes volatile countries, shoving it and history aside in favour of a bit of $$$.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2016 03:52PM by gav.

Basically there are some journo's in prison for standing up against the government and most of the media coverage is state media. There are also reports of other human rights abuses especially with regards to working conditions in the less wealthy part of society.

But, we went to Bahrain, so...



Is it not that narrow? I like the fact that it looks like a very fast circuit in places, and the old town narrow bit looks interesting. Let's see what it does in real life.

Oh it'll be fast, no worries about that!





Perhaps it will be narrower if they're adding barriers.

I hope we're not just talking about the beautiful archicture and so on and that the racing is worthy of discussion...

Anyway, this was earlier this week...

Ah man that's pathetic.

The castle section is unbelievably narrow it's really remarkable that it was approved - hopefully nothing goes wrong in that part of the track over the weekend.

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X (@ed24f1)

I must say I really like the track. The last sector seems pretty damn awesome, extremely high-speed kinks with no escape areas leading to the main straight. The castle sector, while insanely narrow, doesn't appear too dangerous since drivers are just getting back in the throttle from a Q turn before. That being said, if someone does clip the barrier, that would be insta-red flag, unless they've installed the fastest crane ever and get the car out in less than a lap But I really doubt a side by side collision there. The high speed sector after that is more worrying for me, since it's tempting to dive down the inside of the car ahead, but if the driver doesn't notice you you're up for the mother of all shunts.

Still, I'll be keeping my eyes on the LM start and finish. For the latter I'll try a double screen setup (just hardcore fan things). But the track has definitely caught my attention.



Stats: 139 Starts / 7 Wins / 9 Poles / 5 Fastest laps

There are going to be a few cars in the wall during the race if FP is anything to go by.

Surprised nobody has mentioned the similarity to Macau with the variation in track width, so I will anyway. :P
Nice track layout, I've got to say - a lot of variety in corners for a Tilkedrome, and combined with the elevation changes and low-grip surface, it should make a very entertaining race. The track seems unusually treacherous - with barriers that seem better than usual at plucking wheels off. I was amazed at how such a minimal contact buggered Lewis's right front.

Great Pole by Nico, and awesome performance by Perez.

Ricciardo is truly inspirational. I always liked and respected him as a driver, but since the start of this season he's moved up a gear and become one of my favourites. Maybe it was the anomaly in Spain and then being cruelly denied the win in Monaco which tugged at my heartstrings, I dunno. But I've become a huge fan lately. His lap here was just brilliant to steal what would become a front row grid position, and his flourish kicking up the dust as he went over the line was the icing on the cake.

Plus the Bottas-Verstappen carry-on in Q2 and Q3 was amusing. (Bottas getting involved in an amazing amount of action altogether, with the unsafe release and Hoovering up the drain cover in P3 too.)


Laton Wrote:
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> There are going to be a few cars in the wall
> during the race if FP is anything to go by.

Not to mention GP2...!

PS - Slightly OT but the AutoCorrect on my phone just tried to change your name to Luton. :P

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Unbelievable how bad Hamilton was in qualifying but it sets the race up well - will be interesting to see if he can avoid the inevitable chaos on lap 1.

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X (@ed24f1)

gav Wrote:
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> Anyway, this was earlier this week...
>
>

LMAO!
This can be my accommodation next time I go to a music festival.

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SchueyFan Wrote:
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> Unbelievable how bad Hamilton was in qualifying
> but it sets the race up well - will be
> interesting to see if he can avoid the inevitable
> chaos on lap 1.

Totally, it summed up his season so far IMO. Seeming not to be his usual/previous self for whatever reason.

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It's a track that is mixed for me. I love the old town section with its bonkers corners with bags of character and the two really quick corners offer a nice change, but equally I dislike the stupendous straight, the silly wide sections and the utterly retarded run-offs. I don't mind long straights (old Hockenheim and pre-2000 Monza are two of my favourite tracks, watching the cars jolt and twitch along the straights), but not on a track where slightly higher downforce is required - it's just a long straight, which of course is a Tilke wet dream. EC83 said that it was like Macau, which it is in places I guess, but it's equally reminiscent of the terrible aborted Valencia. The final (proper) corner, flatout in qualifying, will be a real challenge in dirty air with a full tank.

Whoever prepared the track needs fired. Having pure concrete walls, as much of the track has, is plain dangerous and there's a couple of 170mph+ corners with zero run-off. We've had cars reversing on track for the entire weekend in multiple different braking zones, with rarely more than a couple of minutes between yellow flags at times. For all we've clamoured about obvious safety standards after Bianchi's crash and we turn up here with kerbs and drain covers coming away. There is a not a chance in hell the FIA would have approved this track without some persuasion from Bernie.

The race today should be half decent behind Rosberg as the long straight will at least allow for DRS passes, but if we're not lucky there will be a series of safety cars as there's little in the way of cranes and very few gaps in the barriers to remove cars. I do like that the track is unforgiving and isn't smooth as silk, but Tilke didn't think of what would happen when a driver did make a mistake - he's raced cars, he should know!

Good track elements, bad track elements but there's no way on earth it is ready.

Yes I'll certainly be nervous for the first couple of laps! If the GP2 races have taught them anything hopefully they use VSC rather than full SC if at all possible as restarts have the potential to be extremely chaos (albeit largely due to abysmal driving standards)

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X (@ed24f1)

Yeah that was some of the worst driving I have ever seen.

Well the race was a victim of its own hype. Of course it wasn't the best but I think some I've seen have exaggerated how bad it was, probably because there were expectations of a chaotic race.

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X (@ed24f1)

Yeah, it was on the processional side. I'm probably cooler with that than most this time, as a Nico fan, but... Yeah.
I guess it demonstrates why F1 drivers are considered the best in the world, too.

Brilliant performance from Nico, deserved the Grand Chelem. He's starting to build up some impressive statistics on the sly, and he's got the vibe of a Champion-elect too now IMO.

Great drive from Perez, I get the impression he's ready to move up to a top team now, even if he looks like staying on at Force India.

PS - Just saw on Ted's Notebook that Kimi is apparently unwell with food poisoning. Yeah... "Food poisoning". Hehehe.

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Parklane anyone? Love that track already.

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REHAB IS FOR QUITTERS

what a boring race