He also would have been able to come back across on HAM as he was on the racing line, and Lewis would have had to give up a ton of speed at that first corner, and checo likely woulda come back on him by turn 2. I thought it was very fitting that Lewis didn't get a huge, unwarranted boost against Max in the championship due to that. Also amazing that Lewis has scored points in every race for something like 3 seasons in row. Just incredible driving, paired with incredible reliability from Merc.
He has no business being out there. Seriously. He's a danger for the sport. Every other pay driver has shown a level of skill and professionalism that he just completely lacks. I hope Haas can find new funding from expanded American interest so that they can give him the boot as soon as humanly possible.
He has no business being in that car. Daddy's money won't matter if he's the cause of a serious wreck
He sees the writing on the wall. Mercedes isn't pretending to be giving them both a fair shot anymore. It's all about getting Lewis another title
They did him dirty in quali. Sent him out to open the slip stream for Hamilton, and subsequently the rest of the field.
Mercedes has always allowed Bottas to race with his interest first. So they would let him set strategy for qualifying and race to do his thing. If he got on pole he could race to win. Lewis being the more talented driver would at some point best him anyways on pure talent. Very few times would Mercedes actually treat Bottas as a B driver. But this season with the race for constructor and driver titles being razor thin Mercedes is using Bottas as a B driver. So in Baku they sent him ahead of Lewis so he could punch the air and give Lewis a massive slip stream. All season they have used him to counter red bull vs win the race. I think it's all had a mental impact on Bottas. Also got to factor in there is a good chance he wont be driving for Mercedes next season as Russell seems like he's destined to be in that car shortly
In all of the madness, I just realized that Yuki finished 7th. Young guy has some pace. 3rd and 7th for AT is great. So happy to see that team do well. Pierre's win last year was probably my 2020 highlight.
Seb and AM in general have been improving all year. Glad to see it after the struggles he's had the last couple years at Ferrari.
My favorite storyline so far has probably been Gasly's redemption at AT after getting the boot from the RB #2 seat.
Red Bull and Max sure are feeling themselves. Let’s see how it plays out over the course of the season.
Feeling themselves? If you don't have that same mindset that Max does in that quote you don't get to his level.
I expect all of the top drivers to have similar mindsets. I just think Max has always been a bit of a shit talker/instigator - which is fine. Mostly I just find the game of chicken between Red Bull and Mercedes over who has the better car quite funny. They both are trying to downplay themselves vs their rival.
Nice to see viewership rise. I, and I’m sure many others, watch on F1 TV Pro so the viewership is probably even higher.
The fact that Hamilton on a low downforce setup with DRS (and on a new power unit) couldn’t get by Perez on the straights is certainly something.
lol... The load of bullshit on what happened to Lewis on the final re-start. "he did all the changes required, but accidently hit the brake magic button when he swerved" F O H
I highly doubt Lewis clicked the button on prior to the start. I would put money on him forgetting to hit the button entirely. They claimed he clicked and by accident unclicked it in the 3 seconds from start to run off. idk man sounds like they just wanted to take heat away from Lewis fuck up. The next statement he made was Lewis never makes mistakes and we as a team need to do better so this mistake wont happen again. Like what is the team to do lol...
Yup. Honda are also saying that they figured out some reliability issues with the engine which will allow them to run it as they did in Bahrain (and haven’t since). They claim it’ll give them an extra 10/12kmh of pace. Remains to be seen if it holds up but, the next month should be interesting. I already noted that both Red Bull and Mercedes are playing chicken about their cars, but I do think it’s a reasonable opinion that Red Bull have passed Mercedes slightly. Certainly not enough to guarantee anything, but it’s still something.
I feel like they have sensors to track a lot of that and they would have been able to tell him to reset if it was ducked at the start. additionally if it’s a lie it was a quick one. Team radio immediately told him that he had it set properly initially and he clicked it on when Perez came over.
Apparently the drivers are pretty pissed off at the race director from Baku. France will be interesting.
I bought the explanation initially; however, if it is that easy to switch on and off while shifting it seems like that type of mistake would happen way more often considering how many times the drivers are shifting during the race
The explanation I've seen is Lewis has a somewhat unique grip on the wheel to start (I guess for clutch reasons) that is close to the "magic" button. The unique position is confirmed with video, guy has his hand on the top of the steering wheel. I could see it either way, but I'd be surprised if in real time his race engineer had the foresight to tell him that he did flip it off and then back on again in order to protect his reputation.
went down a rabbit hole of youtube videos releated to F1... This was the best breakdown of what happened to Ferrari and how they changed the car.
Lewis holds his left had on top of the wheel on restarts so I could see how in between repositioning his left and up shifting could cause that.
Charles and others were pretty pissed that it took nearly an entire lap to put a safety car on Max’s crash. They were also late on throwing the safety car for the other crash. McLaren was correct to bitch about the Apha not lifting and he went full out. He should’ve received a penalty.
Seeing chatter that folks are expecting Mercedes to announce Hamilton/Russell at Silverstone next month
Speaking of IMSA our old friend Kevin Magnussen won their last race. It’s great seeing the old HAAS guys really enjoying life outside of F1. Also should add that Marcus Ericsson won his first Indy race .
Thinking about going to the Petit Le Mans this year. Need some in-person racing in my life and would be neat to see K Mag in person. COTA F1 was way too much $ for me.