Formula 1 2018 Discussion SPOILERS

**Robert Nixon** · 10-14-2018, 09:27 PM

5port,
nice shot, too bad it looks like a Mercedes up ahead!

The US Grand Prix comes up next Sunday from Austin, with the SUPER CONVENIENT race time of 2PM Eastern! Note that the Saturday practice and qualifying are later than normal, I think practice at 2PM (east) and Qualifying at 5 or 6 PM (eastern). Maybe they're trying to avoid conflict with college football or something?

Anyway, Hamilton could lock up the championship this week, and the odds of Vettel winning pretty much rely on HAM breaking down and not finishing in all of the last 4 races! Oh well, it's been closer than most of the last few years, other than the Mercedes duo of Rosberg/Hamilton fighting to the end two years ago.

Williams has named George Russell as one of their drivers for next year, and since it's not Stroll or Sirotkin, we still don't know for sure if Stroll moves to Force India next year.

Haas is still getting really close to 4th place for teams, behind Renault, so look for some drama in that race to the end of the season at least.

**Robert Nixon** · 10-28-2018, 11:07 PM

SPOILER ALERT!

Lewis Hamilton is the 2018 F1 champ, making him a 5 time winner like Fangio. Congrats to him, and also to Max Verstappen for winning today's race, with Vettel 2nd and Kimi in 3rd.

Bad day for Haas, they tried a long first stint, but they just had nothing for the high altitude in Mexico and finished last of the cars running at the end, yuck!

Brazil in two weeks, and then Abu Dhabi ends the season two weeks after that. The Constructors title is still up for grabs, so Mercedes will have to keep racing to stay ahead of Ferrari. The Renault guys have about a 30 point lead on Haas for 4th, so even if Haas ends up 5th that's a great improvement over their first two seasons (both in 8th place, pretty good for a brand new team I'd say!).

Just a couple of driver seats still up for grabs in 2019, so I feel like the season is pretty much over, but the race in Brazil is always a classic, so that will be fun to look forward to at least.

**Robert Nixon** · 11-08-2018, 11:05 PM

Brazil F1 race this weekend, practices 1-2 tomorrow on Friday, so this is the next to last race of the year. The Constructors title is still up for grabs, so we'll hopefully have a big battle between Ferrari and Mercedes, and just maybe the Red Bulls will be in the mix too. Haas has an outside chance of catching Renault, but they'll have to score big in both of the last two races to make that happen in the battle for 4th best team.

I guess Williams still hasn't confirmed their drivers for 2019, so who knows how that will go. Ocon would be a great driver for them, but they might go with someone else that brings in more money.

**Robert Nixon** · 11-10-2018, 09:34 PM

Hamilton on poll just barely ahead of Vettel, but the Ferrari driver will be on softer tires in the race, so it will be a good battle with different pit strategy. Also a chance of rain in Brazil for race day, and that will likely mix things up.

Haas will start with GRO in 8th and MAG in 10th, thanks to a grid penalty for Ricciardo that moves the Haas guys up one spot each. They are a few spots ahead of the Renault drivers, and have just these last two races to make up 30 points in the battle for 4th, so for me this might be the best battle to watch.

**Robert Nixon** · 11-11-2018, 11:38 PM

Congrats to Mercedes (again) for winning Constructors this year. Ferrari tried a different tire strategy, but it just didn't work. The Red Bulls surprised everyone by being very competitive in the race, and in fact Verstappen was in the lead and headed for victory when he and Ocon got tangled at turn 2 in the Senna S and Max was spun off track, and ended up 2nd to Hamilton. Ocon was penalized, so if you're looking for a good topic to debate, find the video and see which driver you think was more at fault. Or, was it a racing incident. Or, should a car being lapped/unlapped (Ocon) who is a full lap down on the RACE LEADER be doing anything but getting out of the way? To add more drama, after the race Max found Ocon at the weigh-in, and shoved him 3 times, so he was not happy about losing a race victory!

Haas scored an other double points day, while Renault failed to score at all. With only 6 points on the day though, Haas is still 24 points behind Renault, and unless the top three teams all blow up in the final race, it looks like Renault ends the year in 4th, and Haas in 5th, which is still a GREAT result for the American team in only their 3rd season.

In two weeks we'll wrap up the season in Abu Dhabi.

**Robert Nixon** · 11-23-2018, 10:45 PM

After two practices in Abu Dhabi, Mercedes and Red Bull seem to have a gap on Ferrari, but I'm thinking it will close up for the race. Grosjean of Haas was best of the rest in FP2, with MAG also in the top 10, so a big haul of points for Haas would be cool.

Kubica now confirmed as a Williams driver next year, so no good news for Sergei Sirotkin.

Practice 3 and Qualifying on Saturday morning, and the race at about 8am Eastern on ESPN for Sunday will finish off the 2018 season.

**Robert Nixon** · 11-24-2018, 11:51 AM

QUALIFYING: Mercedes takes the front row, epic lap from HAM with BOT very close, VET and RAI put Ferrari on row 2 and Red Bulls on row 3, pretty much the story of all of 2018!

Haas has GRO a fine 7th as best of the rest, MAG back in 13th so he'll have to fight to get into the points.

Watching the qualifying is always fun, and seeing these great drivers going right up to the limit through the corners makes you appreciate both the technology of the cars and the skill of the drivers.