F1 2017...How is your career going?

[sethisthegoat]

Man, the US Grand Prix was fun. I was able to qualify in P5, behind the Mercedes and Ferraris, with Raikkonen in 4. In the overall championship, Vettel started out way ahead and Hamilton has been storming back. If he could win in the US or Mexico and score ahead of Vettel in the other, they'd be about tied. Also, Mercedes took over the Constructor Championship lead.

Race starts, and I pass Raikkonen on the first turn, and stick there for a while. I think about pitting early, but decide to wait till lap 8...I get lucky and there is a full-lap yellow during that lap, just before I get to the pit. Pit in P3 and emerge in P5, just behind Raikkonen again. Pass him to get to P4 in DRS. Then something happens with Hamilton and he is unable to finish the race, so I'm up to P3. Then Vettel and Bottas didn't pit during the caution, so I was able to get by them in their pit. Then I just had to hang on for 5 laps, which I was able to. So I won on my home Grand Prix! 1 race after finishing P20 in Japan...

Next was Mexico. I qualified in P7. Top 6 included each of the Ferraris, Red Bulls and Mercedes, except Verstappen was P11 and Perez was P6. The race was pretty standard. I knocked my front wing during the first lap, but hung on to P7 until I hit my strategy. I was falling behind P6 by about a second per lap, but was able to hold Hulkenberg and Grosjean off behind me till my pit.

Out of the pit in P20, behind Kvyat. Got up to P14 after 2 laps. Then passed a couple of others in the pits. Then Verstappen retired, and Hamilton had another issue (he finished in P12).

Got up to P7 again, trailing Grosjean. I passed him for 6th in that L turn after the last long straight, in a rather dangerous move, on the final lap.

Anyway, Vettel has now clinched the World Championship. Personally, I'm headed into the last 2 races 10 points behind Perez for 7th place. After I won in America, Red Bull was interested in me, but now Sauber is back ahead of them. If I can do well enough in Brazil and Abu Dhabi to attract a Red Bull offer, that's where I'm headed. If not, I'll probably stick with Haas.

[jasontoddwhitt]

Mercedes Civil War
Last lap contact allows Sebastian Vettel to lock down 2017 title by one point.



Sebastian Vettel came into the Abu Dabhi Grand Prix twenty points behind Lewis Hamilton and thanks to grid penalties, was starting the race dead last. Vettel had the drive of his life, but it still looked like Lewis Hamilton was well on his way to his fifth World Championship. On the last lap though, it all changed.

It all started with Hamilton trying to pass rookie Jason Whitt going down the backstretch. Whitt made a move to the inside to squeeze Hamilton towards the wall, but then he moved back to the racing line. This disruption in Hamilton's line allowed Valtteri Bottas to slide his Mercedes between Hamilton and Whitt heading into turn 8. Hamilton and Bottas banged tires, which allowed Whitt to beat them to the inside of turn 9.



Three cars went for the same real estate. The Silver Arrows ended up sitting in the middle of the road. Then out of frustration, Hamilton made sure to hit Bottas again as he was able to get going, but not before they were passed by several cars. In the end, Vettel won the race, and Hamilton lost the world title by one point. Mercedes' 37 point cushion in the Constructor's race nearly evaporated completely, but Mercedes hung on by 3 points.



Hamilton called it a bush league move by the rookie and by his teammate. Whitt said he was on the racing line and that somebody else should've back out. The FIA called it a racing incident and deemed nobody at fault. There's going to be a lot of soul-searching at Mercedes this offseason. Ferrari has caught them. The relationship between Hamilton and Bottas is about as frosty now as Hamilton and Rosberg were. Then there is the emergence of the rookie Jason Whitt, who had a season for the ages for the severely underpower McLaren team.

The book has been closed on the 2017 season and it will be interesting to see how the 2018 season shakes out.

[jasontoddwhitt]

The last race of the season showed something to me. It's probably time to up the difficulty level. I mean I ran up front for several laps in that race. Now part of that was due to the jumbled field because of the grid penalties. But I'm sure I've improved as a driver as well. Plus, I read in a few threads at other sites that the AI in qualifying is actually faster than the race AI still, and that bumping the difficulty four spots will help with that.

So after running a few one-shot qualifying runs with the 2010 Red Bull at Monza...I'm upping the difficulty from 80 to 88 for Season 2. Yes, I have improved. Which means I'll up the difficulty to 92 for the races.