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  1. #1
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    Post 2018 mid-season review

    It’s the summer-break. So I take a bit of time to make an overview of how I have seen the 2018 season unfolding. Some things are the same as in 2017 - title contenders (Hamilton, Vettel), Red Bull as third best team. In midfield there are some differences though.

    Mercedes - Hamilton looks good for another championship, but looks like the challenge for Mercedes gets tougher each year. Arguably they have lost their engine advantage and are now lagging behind? Hamilton is leading by the virtue of consistency. It’s his strength and he has to keep it up. Bottas has been inconsistent, but unlucky too. Should have won a race already, if things went his way.

    Ferrari - Compared to last year their qualifying seems to have gone a notch better, as Vettel has achieved quite a few pole positions. However, he has made some mistakes in races and thus is lagging behind in the title race. Can he bring the battle down to the wire? In 2017 the title fight collapsed after summer-break, so would be good if we had a proper one this year. Räikkönen seems to somehow end up on the podium a lot this year. Perhaps because usually someone tends to hit trouble in front of him, while he himself keeps it clean.

    Red Bull - Three victories is quite a lot for them, but there have been a number of retirements as well. Which is why Ricciardo and Verstappen are losing touch with Räikkönen and Bottas in the points race. Overall not really massively different from last year. Verstappen had a bad string of form early on with crashes, but seems to have overcome that now.

    Renault - Better than last year and crucially more reliable, but still doesn’t seem particularly impressive? Haas seems faster quite a lot and Renault is 4th in the championship due to consistency. Sainz has been getting outpaced by Hülkenberg too, which perhaps has put a serious dent to Sainz’ reputation.

    Haas - Most impressive improvement of the season. They are very quick on most circuits and would be sitting 4th in the constructors if not for lost wheel nuts in Australia and Grosjean’s erratic driving. Magnussen has been quite consistent though. Didn’t think much of him before the season, but I wonder, how good is he?

    Force India - Mounting money problems have finally taken its toll on the team and they have dropped backwards. However, as a driver pair Ocon and Pérez have kept doing a good job and salvaged whatever points possible for F.I. Pérez even scored his annual podium in Baku, he has a knack of capitalizing on attrition races!

    McLaren - Renault engines instead of Honda, but still 7th in the championship? Dear god. Early in the season things looked slightly better with Alonso scored lots of decent points, but things have gone properly pear-shaped in mid-season. With the loss of Honda $$$ and also Alonso possibly pondering retirement it does look like this legendary team is firmly confined to midfield. Vandoorne looks unimpressive, certainly no star he was claimed to be based on GP2.

    Toro Rosso - On the flipside a bit of a positive surprise. Honda was a laughing stock last year, but with Gasly achieving three head-line results and Red Bull also going for Honda works engines next year suddenly Honda’s image looks much better. Still, Toro Rosso’s performance looks massively inconsistent - is it due to chassis, PU or drivers? Maybe we would get a better answer next year with RBR running Honda PU’s. Hartley I think is on borrowed time in F1.

    Sauber - Definite improvement on 2017, Leclerc in particular has featured in contention for points quite often. This Monegasque looks like a proper talent for the future, but we need to see him in a top team to judge his potential properly. Ericsson has been unimpressive, but he owns the team.

    Williams - Two unimpressive paydrivers, a crap car, and title sponsor Martini leaving at the end of the season? A pretty bad combo. They need all the help in the world to save them from this hole. A new sponsor/investor definitely.

  2. Likes: Mia 01 (3rd August 2018)
  3. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by jens View Post
    Williams - Two unimpressive pay drivers, a crap car, and title sponsor Martini leaving at the end of the season? A pretty bad combo. They need all the help in the world to save them from this hole. A new sponsor/investor definitely.
    Quite frankly, I'll be surprised to see them on the grid next year. Unless under a new owner and name.
    "Old roats am jake mit goats."
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  4. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Starter View Post
    Quite frankly, I'll be surprised to see them on the grid next year. Unless under a new owner and name.
    I think they will be on the grid. Liberty & Co will want to make sure there are still 20 cars on the grid. But who could invest into them? Maybe Mercedes with George Russell as a junior driver?

    Mercedes also saved Manor for a season back in 2016, when they put Wehrlein into the car.

  5. #4
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    I would say Ferrari has turned out to be the team to beat this season. They have squandered lots of opportunities due to driver or team errors, as such it is not looking that way on the points table. Vettel has made a few costly errors which has seen his advantages disappear. Unfortunately, Ferrari has not taken full advantage of their performance superiority in the first half of the season.

    Mercedes on the other hand has found themselves for the first time in the hybrid era without the clear advantage over the entire field. Last season they had to contend with what seemed like a dodgy chassis but had engine superiority which got them out of trouble enough times to ensure they came out ahead by the end of the 2017 season. This season, they have both chassis and powertrain deficiencies compared to their immediate competition [Ferrari], which implies that when they are in trouble, they need the Ferrari to mess up to get out of it [as Hungary would attest]. So far, Mercedes has displayed the best operational efficiency at both the team and driver front. However, they have weaknesses on the in-race strategy front.

    Haas should be further ahead than they are at the moment. Like Ferrari, they have not taken full advantage of their package. But they have turned out to be a very refreshing revelation of the 2018 season. One forgets that they are a new team still bedding into F1, In their short F1 career, they have really impressed massively this season. I think the second half would be better for them.

    Renault promised to be the best of the rest behind Redbull at winter testing but has struggled to cease that position convincingly. Hass, Torro Rosso and Sauber have on occasions relegated Renault to the lower reaches of the top ten.

    Torro Rosso and Sauber have regularly surprised everyone with great top ten positions. Gastly and LeClerc have turned out to be real stars of the future.

    Mclaren and Williams have both found things very tough this season. The change of engine has not manifested any real change in fortune for the woking team. The pretty Williams car has turned out to be a three legged dog.
    Last edited by Nitrodaze; 18th August 2018 at 01:20.
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  6. #5
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    I'd have to see I agree with most of Jens original post. It's been a season of changes all across the grid, but the changes have brought about some good racing as well.

    Among the top teams, I think the tires have played a huge role this season. It seems that especially among Mercedes and Ferrari that tire strategy and car setups have spiced things up. It's often a matter of tire management at some point in the race, and we have seen some really, really long stints on tires that were predicted to give up earlier. In a straight out fight both the red and silver cars seem fairly evenly matched again.

    RB seems to be kind of just hanging on at the top. They still have the great handling car, but haven't figured out the power issues well enough to compete at many tracks. Which is a shame really. They are clearly the best of the rest under most circumstances.

    As for the midfield after RB, lots of improvements. It seems all but those at the bottom have made some good progress, and there is actually some good racing to be had in the midfield at many races. Completely agree that Haas would do better to find a replacement for Grosjean, he seems rather inconsistent at best and KMag seems to just go with things and get it done.


    At season start, I thought we would see a much better sorted out Mclaren. But as the season moves on, they almost seem destined to join Williams with the struggle. It's amazing to see teams with that much experience do so poorly. I hope they can sort things out and fight through to the new changes.

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