F1 Chat

[Palfy]

1 hour ago, Zoo 2.0 said:

Fantastic qualifying session, so strange but Lewis is so out of character this season. Won title after title from not making mistakes yet he's making tons this year - hitting the wall and pretty much writing off his chances of pole. Funnily enough in Russia that's probably for the best with the long straight(s) to start but still. 

Made up with the top 3 though, Lando on pole and George P3. A glimpse of the future no doubt . What I'd give for it to end Lando, George, Lewis (in any order). 

Still think Max will be Top 5 despite the back of the grid start. A Red Bull with all new parts will be lightening quick.

I think knowing that he takes the record of most drivers championships won if he wins this year is slightly getting to him, but I’m confident he will come good  

[Romey 1878]

3 hours ago, Zoo 2.0 said:

 Funnily enough in Russia that's probably for the best with the long straight(s) to start but still. 

 

Not when his starts are terrible, meaning he'll probably get gobbled up by a couple rather than overtake a couple.

[MikeO]

57 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

Not when his starts are terrible, meaning he'll probably get gobbled up by a couple rather than overtake a couple.

He's on the "dirty" side of the track as well, Sainz was pretty negative about it in his post Q interview.

[Gwlad]

Hamilton is rattled, I think he can see the heirs to his crown in his mirrors. Russell qualifying 3rd in a Williams will not be easy to take.

[Romey 1878]

12 minutes ago, Gwlad all over said:

Hamilton is rattled, I think he can see the heirs to his crown in his mirrors. Russell qualifying 3rd in a Williams will not be easy to take.

I think Russell is going to be something special. I hope Mercedes have got the regulations right and give him a car to showcase his talent to the max.

[MikeO]

12 minutes ago, Gwlad all over said:

Hamilton is rattled, I think he can see the heirs to his crown in his mirrors.

Doesn't need to look in his mirrors, they're ahead of him, going to be fascinating to see how the rest of the season pans out. For one thing, if it's wet/damp tomorrow Verstappen still has loads of new tyres in the bank which nobody else does.

[Gwlad]

Looking forward to this one. At last this season is proving interesting for the fans. Pleased to see Fernando up in 6th too.

[MikeO]

9 minutes ago, Gwlad all over said:

Looking forward to this one. At last this season is proving interesting for the fans. Pleased to see Fernando up in 6th too.

With the way he's been starting this year the guys ahead of him should be worried.

[Zoo 2.0]

Terrible start from Hamilton (again). Looks as though rain is coming which will make things really exciting, could turn into a race where whoever blinks first gets the chequered flag. 

Great start from Danny Ric .

[MikeO]

2 hours ago, Zoo 2.0 said:

Terrible start from Hamilton (again). Looks as though rain is coming which will make things really exciting, could turn into a race where whoever blinks first gets the chequered flag. 

Great start from Danny Ric .

Devastated for Lando, drove a perfect race, until his decision to stay on slicks; his call so down to him but all the same. Probably the team should've overruled him but another day it might have been the correct choice.

Was in a bar full of Hamilton fanboys celebrating his demise, knobs. He's British as well guys (and driving a British car).

[Gwlad]

Well done to Lando for holding his hands up and saying it was his call to stay out. Today will be part of his learning curve. Max to second, couldn't have predicted that.

[Palfy]

The first driver since the start of F1 to win 100 races, a true champion we should all be congratulating Hamilton for a immense achievement, which may never be repeated and he’s still in the hunt to win his 8th championship we never ever thought Schumacher’s records would be broken. If you are a fan of F1 and not Hamilton you should still be congratulating him and acknowledging such a magnificent achievement in the sport. Well done Lewis fantastic achievement

[Romey 1878]

One of the best races I've seen this season. I properly enjoyed that from start to finish.

[MikeO]

53 minutes ago, Palfy said:

The first driver since the start of F1 to win 100 races, a true champion we should all be congratulating Hamilton for a immense achievement, which may never be repeated and he’s still in the hunt to win his 8th championship we never ever thought Schumacher’s records would be broken. If you are a fan of F1 and not Hamilton you should still be congratulating him and acknowledging such a magnificent achievement in the sport. Well done Lewis fantastic achievement

Still a dick though.

[MikeO]

39 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

One of the best races I've seen this season. I properly enjoyed that from start to finish.

And the reason it was a great race is that there were more than two cars involved; never agreed with this being the oft quoted "classic season" because of the Hamilton/Verstappen head to head, two horse races are very tedious imo opinion no matter how good the horses might be.

[Gwlad]

Boring qualifying on the whole. Max came from 20 to 2 last race. Ham now in 11th with penalty must be favourite.

[MikeO]

12 hours ago, Gwlad all over said:

Boring qualifying on the whole. Max came from 20 to 2 last race. Ham now in 11th with penalty must be favourite.

Going to miss most, if not all of today's race; have a covid test at 1.15 twenty miles away

[Romey 1878]

Mercedes made the wrong call today and cost Hamilton.

Perfect race from Bottas though, never in any danger of not winning. 

[Gwlad]

Hamilton opted to stay out when Mercedes called him in on lap 42, so he was partly to blame.

[MikeO]

1 minute ago, Gwlad all over said:

Hamilton opted to stay out when Mercedes called him in on lap 42, so he was partly to blame.

Apparently Ocon (who stayed out) was losing around five seconds a lap by the end, with that sort of drop off he'd have finished lower than 5th; and if he'd come in when they told him to he'd have got third, so I'd say he was totally to blame rather than partly.

[Romey 1878]

4 minutes ago, Gwlad all over said:

Hamilton opted to stay out when Mercedes called him in on lap 42, so he was partly to blame.

He shouldn't have come in then. The only thing he's to blame for is not trusting his gut because staying out is what he should have done.

[Romey 1878]

Just now, MikeO said:

Apparently Ocon (who stayed out) was losing around five seconds a lap by the end, with that sort of drop off he'd have finished lower than 5th; and if he'd come in when they told him to he'd have got third, so I'd say he was totally to blame rather than partly.

He was holding his position well. I think he'd have been fine.

[MikeO]

Just now, Romey 1878 said:

He was holding his position well. I think he'd have been fine.

We shall never know.

[Romey 1878]

2 minutes ago, MikeO said:

We shall never know.

Indeed. No chance of winning the race anyway, but could have limited the loss of points to Verstappen a little more.

Like I've said though, I don't see him winning the Championship so it's all moot really. More chance of the constructors (didn't think they'd get that either tbh) though with Perez not being quite as good at picking up points as RB would have been hoping.

[Romey 1878]

On another note, that Red Bull looks perfect in the white Honda livery.

[Bailey]

20 hours ago, Romey 1878 said:

He was holding his position well. I think he'd have been fine.

He seemed to have really good pace considering. They might have got closer to him, but I don't think they would have got to the stage of passing him.

Although, I did see a picture somewhere of Hamilton's used tyres and they looked very ropey! I think Merc just wanted to make sure he picked up some points rather than none which is understandable.

[MikeO]

45 minutes ago, Bailey said:

He seemed to have really good pace considering. They might have got closer to him, but I don't think they would have got to the stage of passing him.

Although, I did see a picture somewhere of Hamilton's used tyres and they looked very ropey! I think Merc just wanted to make sure he picked up some points rather than none which is understandable.

Mercedes disagree with you..

On Lap 41 Mercedes had called Hamilton in but he’d insisted then on staying out. The team was quite relaxed about allowing him to do so, as he looked likely to be finishing third if the tyres could hold out – and if it did somehow become dry enough for slicks towards the end, he might even be in contention for the win.

As Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin explained, “If it transitions to dry, Lewis is suddenly back in the fight for a win because he’s made a whole load of race time back by not having to do the extra stop. And, can he actually get to the end on the intermediate and by doing that banking that P3?”

But by the time Leclerc’s rubber had died, Mercedes was already seeing some worrying signs. The temperatures of Hamilton’s rears had dropped and bottomed out and meanwhile the earlier stoppers, having nursed their new tyres through the delicate stage, were now upping the pace. “It started to become clear to us that it was never going to be right for the slicks and our strategy tools were showing that we'd get beaten by Perez and Leclerc anyway if we stayed out,” continued Shovlin.

Had Hamilton pitted on Lap 41 he’d likely have finished third. Had he ignored the call to come in on Lap 50 he may have suffered a tyre failure (the right-rear was down to the canvas and Pirelli’s Mario Isola didn’t believe it would have made the remaining eight laps) and would certainly have been passed by Perez and Leclerc anyway.

It was clear to the Mercedes pit wall earlier than to Hamilton that the staying out gamble had already bust. He was now in a strategic no-man’s land – and it might potentially have got worse if he’d not pitted when he did, because if he’d pitted just a lap later he’d have rejoined behind Pierre Gasly, who was lapping up to 2s faster than Hamilton.

“We’d started to see a bit of a drop-off with Lewis anyway,” says Shovlin, “and on the [race-sim] planners, suddenly we were seeing that those places we would lose by doing the stop we were going to lose anyway on track - and there was even a risk from further behind if he’d really dropped off the curve. So it was really just a case of cutting our losses, not getting too greedy.”

Even Ocon’s non-stop run to 10th showed the problem Mercedes potentially faced. He was passed by Lance Stroll with five laps to go. In those remaining five laps he lost 17s to the Aston Martin man. “That’s how quickly you fall off,” says Shovlin, “and that’s what’s in our mind. That’s where it goes wrong.”

These are high-jeopardy calls in the context of the fight for the world championship. A gamble was taken, it didn’t work, further damage was limited by taking action. Once the emotion of losing those places had faded, Hamilton could see the logic behind the call.

“In a championship battle there’s a point where you’ve got to stop taking risks and cut your losses,” summarised Shovlin, “and although those decisions are difficult to do you’ve got to be strong and you’ve got to take them.”

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.monday-morning-debrief-hamilton-was-furious-at-mercedes-late-pitstop-call-in.4wR2L8lu1jrpU8AnfFQYWN.html

[Gwlad]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't but those tyres looked shot and Pirelli had advised a change. Hey ho, Max leads the drivers' championship!!

[Gwlad]

Bored during the break. Why is it I see pics of Mazepin and want to slap him? I've had a few!!

[MikeO]

10 minutes ago, Gwlad all over said:

Bored during the break. Why is it I see pics of Mazepin and want to slap him? I've had a few!!

I think I said a while back that the kid has a face that just begs to be slapped, compounded by the fact that he's where he is thanks to daddy rather than talent.