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Man, Ferrari is violently shitting the bed.

It would take a colossal series of fuck ups for Hamilton to lose now.

I laughed at them changing a spark plug prior to the start. I suspect they are pushing too hard on the engine performance to try to out qualify Hamilton and it's killing the engines.

I doubt that Hamilton has the number of retirements he had last season. I truly believe many of those were caused intentionally as Mercedes wanted to get a title for Rosberg thinking it would keep him on the team. Rosberg had to see what was going on which was why he decided to retire a winner.

I'm wondering about Bottas. He doesn't seem to be having power plant problems but seems to have good and bad tracks.
 
I laughed at them changing a spark plug prior to the start. I suspect they are pushing too hard on the engine performance to try to out qualify Hamilton and it's killing the engines.

I doubt that Hamilton has the number of retirements he had last season. I truly believe many of those were caused intentionally as Mercedes wanted to get a title for Rosberg thinking it would keep him on the team. Rosberg had to see what was going on which was why he decided to retire a winner.

I'm wondering about Bottas. He doesn't seem to be having power plant problems but seems to have good and bad tracks.

Probably what it is. Seems like the reliability happened after the upgrades though as well.

Yeah the was something fishy about last year. Hamilton had issue after issue, Nico crashed into him like 2-3 times with no repercussions, had no reliability issues and Hamilton still almost won.

Yeah he doesn't seem to have consistent fast pace at all. He plays well with the team but other than a couple races he is definitely slower.
 
Hamilton fastest in both practices at Texas today.
 
Hamilton on the poll again but Vettel comes up with a final lap .092 of a second slower than Hamilton but .1 faster than any he ran before. I suspect Ferrari upped the power on the system for the final run. I suspected that in Japan too where Vettel's car was pulled from the starting grid. Ferrari might be desperate to get a pole to sidetrack Hamilton but it might take Vettel out of second if it leads to another engine failure.

@Graverobber hasn't been here since August and apparently he hasn't been on Sherdog since August 30th. I hope he's just taking a break.
 
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Vettel got the jump at the start but Hamilton ran him down and passed him a few laps in and pulled away. With the win and Vettel coming in second, Hamilton has a 66 point lead. If Vettel could win the last three races, he could earn 75 points. Hamilton only needs 10 more points over the final 3 races to guarantee a title. That is one 5th place finish which is almost guaranteed. Hamilton only had one finish lower than 5th all season with a 7th at Monaco.
 
Vettel got the jump at the start but Hamilton ran him down and passed him a few laps in and pulled away. With the win and Vettel coming in second, Hamilton has a 66 point lead. If Vettel could win the last three races, he could earn 75 points. Hamilton only needs 10 more points over the final 3 races to guarantee a title. That is one 5th place finish which is almost guaranteed. Hamilton only had one finish lower than 5th all season with a 7th at Monaco.

Mercedes almost made the mistake of leaving Hamilton out too long for that first change.

Verstappen did a great job, I realize he exceeded track limits but one could argue Kimi didn't give enough racing room as max had a front tire ahead of Kimi's rear. Also the others that did it throughout the race. They shouldn't have taken it from him imo.
 
Mercedes almost made the mistake of leaving Hamilton out too long for that first change.

Verstappen did a great job, I realize he exceeded track limits but one could argue Kimi didn't give enough racing room as max had a front tire ahead of Kimi's rear. Also the others that did it throughout the race. They shouldn't have taken it from him imo.

I wish Mercedes would have left Hamilton out longer so he could have passed Vettel again. Steve Matchett was so excited when Vettel got by Hamilton in the first turn. It looked like Hamilton was concerned about being knocked out of the race and backed off. It seems that the pole sitter should start on the inside of the first turn. He passed Vettel rather easily and was able to go much farther on a set of tires.

I thought the penalty on Verstappen was a bad call.

I can't figure out why Bottas is having so much trouble with his brakes locking up.
 
I wish Mercedes would have left Hamilton out longer so he could have passed Vettel again. Steve Matchett was so excited when Vettel got by Hamilton in the first turn. It looked like Hamilton was concerned about being knocked out of the race and backed off. It seems that the pole sitter should start on the inside of the first turn. He passed Vettel rather easily and was able to go much farther on a set of tires.

I thought the penalty on Verstappen was a bad call.

I can't figure out why Bottas is having so much trouble with his brakes locking up.

True.

Sounds like a bunch of racers were upset with the penalty. Niki Lauda called it one of the worst he's ever seen.

Other than Valtteri's couple wins he has been much slower than Hamilton, almost .5 in qualifying this time. Mercedes can't be too happy with him. If Ricciardo didn't have the failure Bottas would likely have finished 6th.
 
So no one is talking about Kenseth getting parked for an extra crew member jumping the wall?

Nascar has ruined the sport with useless rules. Like how did the discussion about this rule go? Who could support it. Total backfire. Parking him made no sense and made Nascar look retarded.

I give Nascar 2 more years of operation tops with them losing huge amounts of money each year. No Gordon, no smoke, no Junior, no Edwards and drastic rule changes every year that have dedicated fans scratching their heads at. I can't keep up and only check results now. Used to watch all practices and qualifying for almost every race.
 
So no one is talking about Kenseth getting parked for an extra crew member jumping the wall?

Nascar has ruined the sport with useless rules. Like how did the discussion about this rule go? Who could support it. Total backfire. Parking him made no sense and made Nascar look retarded.

I give Nascar 2 more years of operation tops with them losing huge amounts of money each year. No Gordon, no smoke, no Junior, no Edwards and drastic rule changes every year that have dedicated fans scratching their heads at. I can't keep up and only check results now. Used to watch all practices and qualifying for almost every race.

Actually they said that rule was decided by the teams. They went to the 5 minute clock to try to keep so many damaged cars off the track. The normal penalty for too many men over the wall was to start at the back of the longest line. Teams would put 10 men over the wall to effect repairs faster. Smaller teams felt they were at a disadvantage because they didn't have other teams to draw crew members from. Teams also thought that cars that crashed early in a race had more time to work on their cars and get back in the race. The decision was made to only allow work to be done on pit road and a total of 5 minutes per incident if the car can't get back up to the pre determined speed at that track. They also decided that only 6 could be over the wall to perform the work so the 5 minutes would be fair for all teams. If they gave any other penalty for too many crew over the wall teams would certainly do it to stay in the race. Everybody should have been aware of the rules under the crash clock as they have been the same all season.

Hendrick had two of their teams in danger of not making the cutoff. Hendrick supplies engines to the team that Kyle Larson drives for and that engine expired early in the race. Was it a coincidence or strategy?

Buying engines from a competitor seem counterproductive. Back when teams could only get the Chrysler 426 Hemis from the Petty team, one driver commented that you know your engine won't be as fast as Richards. Truex appears to have a good chance to win the championship but I think their engines come from Joe Gibbs racing. I expect Truex will have an engine failure soon or have a low power engine for the final race.
 
Actually they said that rule was decided by the teams. They went to the 5 minute clock to try to keep so many damaged cars off the track. The normal penalty for too many men over the wall was to start at the back of the longest line. Teams would put 10 men over the wall to effect repairs faster. Smaller teams felt they were at a disadvantage because they didn't have other teams to draw crew members from. Teams also thought that cars that crashed early in a race had more time to work on their cars and get back in the race. The decision was made to only allow work to be done on pit road and a total of 5 minutes per incident if the car can't get back up to the pre determined speed at that track. They also decided that only 6 could be over the wall to perform the work so the 5 minutes would be fair for all teams. If they gave any other penalty for too many crew over the wall teams would certainly do it to stay in the race. Everybody should have been aware of the rules under the crash clock as they have been the same all season.

Hendrick had two of their teams in danger of not making the cutoff. Hendrick supplies engines to the team that Kyle Larson drives for and that engine expired early in the race. Was it a coincidence or strategy?

Buying engines from a competitor seem counterproductive. Back when teams could only get the Chrysler 426 Hemis from the Petty team, one driver commented that you know your engine won't be as fast as Richards. Truex appears to have a good chance to win the championship but I think their engines come from Joe Gibbs racing. I expect Truex will have an engine failure soon or have a low power engine for the final race.

I get it, but how can Nascar not see that teams not being able to afford to race is a sign that the end is coming soon. I wonder how many cars will be a "full field" next year. 36? Parking a chase car for 1 extra guy going over the wall is ridiculous.
 
I get it, but how can Nascar not see that teams not being able to afford to race is a sign that the end is coming soon. I wonder how many cars will be a "full field" next year. 36? Parking a chase car for 1 extra guy going over the wall is ridiculous.

For many years there were a few factory sponsored cars and most cars were built in a backyard or shed somewhere. Each driver had one car to race for the season. If it was crashed, they straightened it or cut and welded pieces in it. Now, each team brings 2 cars for every driver every weekend. They even have different cars for different tracks. There are still some teams with only one car. NASCAR started paying cars that start a race and there were 5 to ten teams that just did a start and park to collect that money without wearing out their equipment and having to pay for tires and fuel.

As Junior Johnson said: "The best way to make a small fortune in racing is to start with a big one."

When we raced on dirt tracks, it cost more per person to get into the pits than to watch from the stands and there was an entry fee per car. As one driver put it, it's like the clown having to pay to perform in the circus.
 
Well, Nascar has fucked up its own sport so badly that teams can't attract the quality sponsorship that they used to, so they make ridiculous rules to make racing less expensive. Bravo idiots. Great business plan. Have fun going out of business with no big draw drivers left and Toyota's dominating most races.
 
Well, Nascar has fucked up its own sport so badly that teams can't attract the quality sponsorship that they used to, so they make ridiculous rules to make racing less expensive. Bravo idiots. Great business plan. Have fun going out of business with no big draw drivers left and Toyota's dominating most races.

Like everyone, they killed the goose that laid the golden egg. NASCAR got popular because ESPN was just starting out and needed programming. Prior to that, only a few races were televised. ABC Wide World of Sports would have delayed coverage and condensed races down to an hour of coverage. In 1979 CBS did the first live coverage of the Daytona 500.

ESPN all of the races except for a couple that other networks had the rights to. They were good about mentioning the sponsors and the money rolled in from sponsors and manufacturers. Teams had money to build more cars, do wind tunnel testing and engine development. Then the television contract was put up to the highest bidder. The networks wouldn't mention the car sponsors unless they paid the network to. It became more cost effective to buy commercial time than to sponsor a team so the money started drying up. Teams started leasing engines and cars. Now there are basically 4 teams.

Formula One is similar as there are a limited number of power plant suppliers.
 
Bottas and Hamilton were the fastest in the first practice followed by the Red Bulls and Ferraris. The Mercedes were on ultra soft tires while the others were on super soft tires. The Mercedes both ran the majority of the practice time on the same set of ultra soft tires.
 
Ricciardo fastest in FP2 with Verstappen in third behind Hammy.
Hope Red Bull has a good Sunday.

Kvyat cut from red bull/toro roso completely, opening the door for Gasly and Hartley
 
Ricciardo fastest in FP2 with Verstappen in third behind Hammy.
Hope Red Bull has a good Sunday.

Kvyat cut from red bull/toro roso completely, opening the door for Gasly and Hartley

Welcome back. You've haven't been here for a couple of months.

Hamilton spun on his first attempt at a fast lap in FP2 ruining a set of super soft tires. They put on a set of ultra softs, set the second fastest lap and proceeded to run another 26 consistent race pace laps on the ultra soft tires which could give him an advantage over the field in a 1 stop race. Most teams will run a 2 or 3 stop strategy.

Hamilton let Vettel go at the start in Texas to avoid contact and Vettel tried to get and maintain a 1 second advantage. It caused him to quickly wear out his tires and allowed Hamilton to catch and pass him. Ferrari had Raikonnen try to push Hamilton which used up his tires and fuel.

All Hamilton needs is a 5th place or better finish to take the championship. Mercedes will likely be more conservative than other teams to secure the championship. As long as Hamilton doesn't crash or have a failure, he's almost certain to be in the top 6 with the Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes and Mercedes would certainly have Bottas drop back or pit to give Hamilton 5th.
 
All but certain Hammy clinches in Mexico.
Also certainly heads will roll at Scuderia after this
debacle of a season.
 
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