Best Driver: Worst Driver: Best Rookie/New Driver: Best Team: Surprise Team: Worst Team: Best Overtake: Most Surprising Result: Least Surprising Result: Funniest moment: Excuse of the week: Special Mention: Best post from the race thread: Race Rating: ?/10
Best Driver: Lewis, would have given it to Max, but felt he knackered his teammates race and fell asleep on the safety car restart. Then again, Bottas probably ensured Lewis a win...either of them then? Worst Driver: thought Kimi was poor but probably Ericsson Best Rookie/New Driver: Ocon Best Team: Merc - different formula - has to be applauded. Surprise Team: FI Worst Team: McLaren Best Overtake: Lewis on Bottas Most Surprising Result: RB keeping Merc honest Least Surprising Result: Lewis win Funniest moment: Perez trying to convince the team to let him “ATTACK” Ocon Excuse of the week: Just Ferrari in general Special Mention: Palmer, gave it ago but shows what’s wrong with a 4 year veteran winning a lower formula. Wish him the best Best post from the race thread: Race Rating: 5:10
Best Driver: Hamilton Worst Driver: Best Rookie/New Driver: OCON Best Team: Mercedes. The Qualifying engine mapping is a race killer when they start in front. Surprise Team: Worst Team: Ferrari 3rd time in a row Best Overtake: Kimi did some good ones. Most Surprising Result: Ferrari fail again Least Surprising Result: Funniest moment: Excuse of the week: Special Mention: Best post from the race thread: Race Rating: 3/10
Best Driver: Max, gave Lewis something to think about even though he has a much slower car Worst Driver: Ericsson, as usual Best Rookie/New Driver: Ocon somehow has the record for consecutive finishes Best Team: Merc, as usual Surprise Team: Haas double points finish Worst Team: sauber Best Overtake: Magnusson on Massa Most Surprising Result: Ocon's car didn't have any missing bodywork Least Surprising Result: Merc win Funniest moment: Excuse of the week: Special Mention: Best post from the race thread: Race Rating: 6/10 the main attraction was ruined at the start for the 3rd race in a row, and it was already ruined for me by then anyway.
Best Driver: I would say Raikkonen but he made a bad error to lose so many places at start. Gave us the best entertainment. Best driver? I dunno... hamilton for consistency and qualifying as an overall weekend review. Worst Driver: no opinion really Best Rookie/New Driver: nobody is really a rookie right now are they REALLY? Best Team: Mercedes yes. Red Bull were not really at races. Surprise Team: someone pointed out Haas getting double points. Must be no braking zones in Japan Worst Team: Ferrari all day. Spark plug my was. Best Overtake: kimi probably Most Surprising Result: meh.... Least Surprising Result: Mercedes car whining prove total lies as they smash lap record and drive away from all. Funniest moment: Excuse of the week: Special Mention: vettel for not killing someone when he was going backwards. Best post from the race thread: Race Rating: 6/10? All drama was killed so at this point in season this kills the race for me.
Best Driver: Hamilton. Worst Driver: Ericsson. Best Rookie/New Driver: Probably Ocon. Best Team: Mercedes, despite Bottas' (relative to Hamilton) lacklustre performance. Surprise Team: Ferrari. Three consecutive disastrous weekends is a surprise to me, despite the fact that I've expected some problems in reliability with such an advance in performance this season. Worst Team: As above. Ferrari under-performed according to even their own expectation. Best Overtake: Agree with Big Ern here: Magnusson on Massa was neatly done. Most Surprising Result: As per 'surprise', above: Ferrari. Least Surprising Result: New lap record with these mega-quick cars. Funniest moment: As per Smithers, (above). Perez simply doesn't understand that part of F1 is a team game. Excuse of the week: Something about a spark plug… Special Mention: Gasly will probably make it into F1, full time. Race Rating: 6.58/10 P.S. In terms of this being a driver's first season in F1, yes; how about Gasly, for instance?
I imagine the Haas garage was full of high-fiving, the perfect over-take from a team perspective. He caught Massa with his pants down and he couldn't pull them up until Grosjean had snuck past. I think a bit of end plate flew off which could've been the cause of Stroll's tyre failure shortly after. I really despise carbon fibre front wings, if I could introduce a rule into F1 it would be simplified front wings made of a material that doesn't shatter into hundreds of razor-sharp pieces with a bit of wheel to wheel, though it does bring out the yellows and, if it's good for the show, the SC. Stroll and Vandoorne are still technically rookies.
Yes. A good appraisal, BE. I also despise carbon fibre front wings for the very same reason. Damaged front wings often interfere with racing disproportionately, thus spoiling both competition and spectacle. Altering regulations to prescribe a different material has the potential to be a legislative minefield, not least because other materials do not have the 'flexibility' (sic) to be formed into virtually any shape without loss of rigidity – never mind the inherent problems of joining disparate materials together (essentially with good old nuts and bolts at some point), which weakens both sides of any such connection with a corresponding increase in weight in order to compensate – which has further ramifications for the whole chassis! I always find your thinking creative and interesting. (And often very amusing!)