Lol holy shit that was the craziest last 3 laps of a race I've ever seen!! All from out of freaking nowhere. When they showed Hamilton and his tire on the last lap I was absolutely freaking out. Bottas out of the points! Ferrari once again getting a car on the podium even though they suck! And......Lando AGAIN getting the better of Sainz!
That ending was something. Announcers are debating if Verstappen should have pitted or not at the very end to go for the win. Can’t predict that his tires would have not had the same problems as a bunch of the other guys and that Hamilton was going to have a problem.
Yeah you can't fault Red Bull. They couldn't have known Lewis was gonna suffer the same fate as Valteri plus as you said Max's own tires weren't that great at that point.
yeah, it was one crazy ending and hamilton didnt push as much as bottas and it was his better looking tire even than blew.
The middle of the pack team standings is now fantastic. McLaren was, and maybe is still 3rd but they only got one car in the points this race. Racing Point is supposed to be the poor man's Merc but they only got Stroll to finish 9th. Meanwhile Renault went 4th and 6th to pick up some big points.
Racing Point seems to have a slick car on Saturday... When Sunday comes around the lack of skilled drivers and probably a car not as quick always has them going backwards. middle of the pack is where the action is. And probably what are Redbull going to do with seat 2. Since there seems to be a ton of smoke around Albon
I have heard that too and imo it's pretty early to think about pulling the plug on him. With that being said, I'd be ecstatic if they got my boy George to be in that seat. What a combination of talent that would be between Max and him.
I fell asleep twice trying to watch the race, finally just finished it. Sort of surprised Horner played it safe and brought MV in. They know they're not going to win driver or constructor's this year (surely), so why not go for broke? The one point for fast lap is crumbs. But, it also shows why it's good to have...it's tempting to take the easy point, but if they'd risked it, MV would've won.
You have the benefit of hindsight. They didn't and couldn't have known Lewis was going to blow a tire. Hell, Max himself could've blown a tire on that last lap if he was going to push hard on the old tires.
They are running it back this weekend. Hotter temps softer tires Hopefully a more entertaining race before the final 5 minutes.
So the FIA said that Racing Point cheated but Mercedes giving them the documents didn’t lol. And if Racing Point decides to add any 2020 Mercedes parts before season end so they can work around the rules in place the worst that will happen is a warning. Such a fucked decision
So is the idea that they will force a two stop strategy? Last week the soft tire was trash in race setting, if they go softer then what was medium last week hill be the hard compound and the only decent tire to race on.
I’m watching the first practice now and they’re trying to explain the decision and the announcer can’t even really do it. Formula 1 has always been super political and their decisions never make any sense. Ferrari should have been bent over and violated for that engine cheat.
It’s just nuts how much faster those Mercedes cars are than the rest of the field. If they don’t wreck they’ll be 1-2 in every race.
What they did before these sporting regulations translated into outright dominance. At the time they took all focus on the new specs and essentially bailed on an entire season. Only Ferrari had the money to keep within striking distance and they got caught bending the rules last year that killed them this season. Ferrari was ok with having a shit car this season thinking 2021 season would be the year of new specs and all is well. Welp covid hit and we will now have not only this huge difference in cars this season but also next.
I fully realize that it's very likely far more complicated than this but you've got to think that the primary thing that makes Merc so dominant was their undoing in this race vs Red Bull. They have got their cars engineered to provide so much down force that it puts that much more pressure on the tires compared to everyone else. Regardless, just more proof that Max and Lewis are just on another level when it comes to pure racing talent.
Verstappen seems like a dick but I’ve always felt he was the most talented driver on the grid. Also think 1 is right about that set up. That much down force has to be tough on the tires. Hamilton is talented enough to manage it in most situations.
I think it has to do with the way he treated Ocon a couple years ago when he wrecked him. Maybe it was justified but it seemed harsh.
The Mercedes has always struggled in high temps. This goes back 4 or 5 years. Today was probably the hottest temp they have seen all year and that car chewed up those tires quickly. If I was Bottas I would be furious. They fucked him with the calls in the pit. Just handed Lewis 2nd place. They knew there was zero shot at winning that race given how good Max was on the hard tire. But they still tried to let Bottas stay with Max. Seb also should be pissed with Ferrari. Only running 10 laps on the hard tires when they clearly could go way way longer and keep good pace was stupidity at its highest level. Not sure I agree with him calling the team out in the press because ultimately his race was ended when he fucked up and spun the car. He keeps that up in the media and I wouldn’t be shocked if Ferrari replaced him before season end.
Ocon got off easy in my eyes. Dude cost him a win, lord knows how much money, etc. If I were in his shoes I woulda started a nascar style brawl.
If I’m racing point I tell Checo that he should take another week off. Hulk 100% should have a drive in F1. Ferrari should’ve put him in the seat next to Charles.
Mercedes handling the heat just fine so far. Tomorrow and Sunday should be the hottest days of the weekend and match or surpass the temps from last weekend. On a side note... Seb just has to not give a fuck right? He can’t be .2 to .4 seconds slower than Charles every weekend.
Vettel got a new chassis this weekend. Doesn't seem like it helped thus far. Bummed about Hulk not having a ride. He's better than quite a few in the field, IMO.
Living on the west coast sucks when you try to get into F1. The race starts earlier than the practice times I watched this morning.
They were talking about it in FP1 or maybe it was the F1 weekend warmup on Youtube. They were gushing over the idea of Checo and Hulk in a Hass. Hass could use that extra money that comes along with Checo, and would probably love to be the "americas" team