LNERandBR

One thing is clear to me even if Lewis had gotten more of his car alongside, Max would have still turned in. The other drivers Lewis passed there realised that Lewis had the inside and momentum to pass. They knew he'd won the corner just by being where he was with that much momentum. Meanwhile, Max just didn't care and turned in to put the decision of to back out or not onto Lewis. Sadly, there wasn't time for any other decision to be made, Lewis was committed and as soon as it was clear he was still in the race I knew he'd get a penalty. As for Horner, if the two positions were swapped and Lewis had been on the outside and pitched into the wall he'd be saying it was a racing incident with just as much vigour. Max is his golden boy who cannot do anything wrong.

I was actually thinking the same thing. Maybe not a hole in the halo as that needs to withstand crashes but maybe a fip out addition to it so a flag can be located by the winning driver. Even if all it does is help the Driver hold it aloft for all the publicity pics.

Deeping Lane is currently sat stored in my room along with my other layouts. Sadly, I had to turn the space I had into a home office during the lockdown. Deeping Lane and my other two layouts have therefore been stored since covid started. When I'm able to get them out I'll be checking them all over and hoping to get out and about to shows again with it.

I suppose the problem for Vettel was that he was setting up for his own flying lap. In the end he didn't get one as he crossed the line too late. Would be interesting to hear the radio communications between him and his Team though. See if he got proper warning of Alonso's progress.

I think the choice is extremely hard for Toto. Stick with Bottas and he keeps the harmony within the team but accepts that on some races the results will not be there. Swap to Russell and there's a chance of upsetting the harmony within the Team but there's the possibility of the new young charger gaining valuable insight from the old master that is Lewis. Whichever option he chooses I'm sure it will be made with the Team's best interests at heart.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/57615056 Bottas has a grid penalty for spinning in the pit lane.

I think you misunderstand. Showing passion and getting upset over things not going your way is fine. As I mentioned, Lewis has shown that passion in the past without resorting to swearing. However, using lots of bad language to do so sets a poor example. Max's tirade in Monaco comes to mind. I agree that he has a right to be upset because he was on a good flying lap and had lost it. However, there a red flag for a reason, most likely because someone has crashed and could be hurt.

At least when Lewis grumbles he's not 'effing and blinding' away like Max does. Even when he was younger and less mature Lewis still seemed to censor himself. Yes the words said over the radio are 'heat of the moment'. However when it's getting played out to a TV audience we want to be hearing it asap for the context and that cannot happen if they're having to check and stick 'beeps' over every second word.

Well, I pre-ordered one of the upcoming Hornby BR Blue 56's from one retailer when that was first announced. Only to have that order canceled by the retailer who shall remain nameless. I placed another pre-order for it with another retailer but have just canceled that myself after hearing about this. You could say that the fact the first Pre-Order got cancelled was fate! Very interested though I feel I'll hold off placing another Pre-Order for these until I've seen the price. Especially as I want to decide between having a Sound Fitted one or not and that would depend on the cost difference.

Can just see Toto having a conversation with himself swapping between multiple hats now

Okay apart from Max hasn't been replaced has he so the fact he's taller than the others is irrelevant. Red Bull swapped Drivers mid season and planned to do so. Therefore they had plenty of time to carry out the required changes to fit the drivers into the car and Toro Rosso had plenty of time to do the same. I don't think George even had a proper seat fitting for the Merc, he used one from a few years prior which didn't fit properly. The swap was that late. I doubt anything would need to be changed that would require the new crash tests.

Red Bull seem to have no issues changing cars to fit different drivers mid season. Last year, George was temping for one race so it made sense not to make major changes to the car.

I think it is clear that DC controllers have more robust electronic components that can handle small short circuits better than their DCC counterparts. Hence the reason for protection on DCC controllers to ensure the more fragile components are not damaged. In my opinion, the whole 'DC vs DCC' debate is just the same as the 'RTR vs Kit' one. People choose the method of operation they prefer. You'll never convince those with polarised opinions either way to change those opinions. Everyone should choose the method of operation they are most comfortable with. As long as their layout operates reliably then nobody has a right to say they have chosen incorrectly.

That just sounds like poor wiring practice to me. Having sections so that faults can be isolated is just as important on DCC as it is on DC. My club's layout used to be one large section however that was soon changed after the first show and the number of times the entire layout was shut down due to shorts. It's now got a seperate section for each Mainline and one for the yard. A short on one does not impact the running on the other two.

I think you can easily read into Red Bull's radio message to the FIA many ways. It kind of feels silly that the tyre's should just let go like this. Pirelli have had many of these instances throughout their time as supplier to F1. They've just taken over as Tyre supplier to the WRC too and in Rally Sardinia over the weekend many Drivers suffered delaminations. Not something they had whilst Michelin were supplying the tyers. Theirs seemed bullit proof and the only punctures came from issues with the wheel rims.

Completely agree with this. One of my friends who regularly helps me at shows tends to have a 'warm up' period in the morning of the first day. He's operated the layout many times and nothing has changed on the controls but it just takes him a short time to remember where everything is and how it all works. This is even after an at home refresher session. However, once he's remembered he's a very, very good operator.

In some of the videos I've seen now you can see the shards of metal flying off as the wheel gun ground the nut away. Kind of feels silly it should be the nut that is made of the weaker metal. If the gun's teeth had been stripped they'd been able to just swap guns. Not sure if they'd end up with more issues with stripped guns though

Let's see what next years rules do to the whole 'dirty air' problem. The swap back to more underbody downforce generation will either work or not in that regard. All we can hope is that it does and it gets easier for cars to pass on all tracks.

Especially when it goes from dry tarmac to ice to snow and back to dry tarmac again

Depends when they want the season to start. The season opener for the WRC is Rally Monte Carlo and that's famous for ever changing snow/icy roads. Granted, the stages are up in the mountains but F1 is known to chase the sun.

Lewis may have felt that he should have stayed out and could have made that call. However, whilst he's done that before and it's worked he's also ignored the team in the past to his cost. Ultimately, the Team have more information about what's happening in the race than Lewis has access to from the cockpit. Therefore he has to trust the calls they make are the right ones and is bound to get frustrated if they turn out to be wrong. Ultimately, they win as a Team and loose as a Team. I'm sure they'll all feel the same frustrations and will have big discussions about what they did wrong and what they should have or could have done.

I'd say that pretty much every rally stage is like a lap of Monaco, lots and lots of things to hit. You have to have 100% concentration 100% of the time if you want to be on the pace. A Lot is mentioned about having the rhythm and drivers who are well in the lead tend to still set fast times because they're comfortable at that rhythm. Backing off and 'cruising to the end' often isn't the best thing to do in rally.

Well, the Monaco GP was pretty boring wasn't it. About the only on track overtake by Vettel after coming out the pits was never even shown properly on TV either. A very bad weekend for Mercedes and I'm sure there will be some tough questions being asked around their briefing table before the next race. There was action in the WRC this weekend too. Rally Portugal that had far more intense action over the last three days in my opinion. Multiple Driver's trading best times and a few crashing out from good positions. It was won by Elfyn Evans which I'm really happy about I personally feel Rally Drivers are far more talented than GP drivers. Being able to do the speeds they do on loose surfaces requires a huge amount of commitment and talent.

Amazingly, it looks like he didn't crash in FP1! Is he going to turn out be a Monaco specialist

Ah, now will Mazepin even survive an entire session over the weekend? Or will every single one see him buried in a wall somewhere!