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Formula One 2017


Lineker

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1 minute ago, MDK said:

4th I'm afraid 

I just saw :( I mean, he had two wheels on the track, that's all they need I thought. Silly, really, kinda like what happened in Mexico (?) last year...

EDIT: Ah. There's a picture on Twitter which does show him very clearly with all four wheels off track. Nevermind.

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Really not a big surprise. I personally was a bit surprised they gave him another year for STR this year, and he's wholly been unable to show any sort of consistency or good form in his drives. He's been massively outscored by Sainz (who is now with Renault), and it's obvious that he's just not good enough for the Red Bull team.

STR is still a test bed for drivers, and Kvyat is a known product, and the product just isn't good enough to warrant keeping him around.

Gasly is an obvious driver who has replaced Sainz, and he'll be the main guy at STR. Makes complete sense they're putting Hartley in the other seat to see how much potential he has in F1, and if Hartley doesn't pan out, they'll probably find another guy they want to scout in a F1 car.

Honestly, Kvyat has achieved more than anyone ever expected, but at the same time, he's completely failed to build on it. He just doesn't have the right mental fortitude for F1, at least not for a top tier outfit.

Expect that second seat to become very flexible in the coming few years.

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Vettel on pole from Verstappen then, how many times have Mercedes been kept off the front row this season? Once? At all?

(This is pending them looking at an incident where Verstappen may have impeded Bottas on a flying lap mind)

Can our true ITK F1 fans tell me, what is the likelihood that the top three teams will be this close next season? It's been great to follow the last few races with them all fairly well matched for pace.

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I honestly don't see Renault keep up, even with Honda, Red Bull, AND Renault F1 having the Renault engines next years. The past few tracks have been quite heavy on the technical sections, which has flattered the Renault powered cars (they tend to have good chassis/downforce), but they still have a bit of a power gap compared to the Ferrari and Mercedes engines.

Brazil will be another race that'll have a very close grid, since it's such a small twisty track that favours good cars/drivers rather than good engines, so we might see some action again. But Abu Dhabi is a neutral circuit with two high speed pieces of tarmac that can allow faster cars to pull away.

After next year, Red Bull is poised to make a drop down the order, since they'll be switching fully to Honda power (STR gets it next year, RBR has one more year on the Renault deal). And unless they can make significant strides in power/reliability, Red Bull will struggle a lot until they can get a deal with a possible new supplier coming into the sport in 2021.

Either way, I think at the very least Ferrari will have made another step up, and that they'll be side by side with mercedes next year to truly compete for a title. But Mercedes has been staying ahead of the curve every year now, and nothing is stopping them from doing so again.

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Horner actually seemed quite coy yesterday about Renault's engines making a step up next year, and that they might have an extra qualifying setting which would give them a jump up there

I think the really telling thing next year will be just how far up McLaren get. Alonso being 0.2 off the fastest in Q1 on pure pace says a whole lot about just how good that chassis is.

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