The F1 thread

Octafish

Fretwired said:

TimmyO said:

Bottas was confirmed for 2020. You're confusing the enthusiasm of your friends for pitlane gossip with the evidence of Wolff's character. 

Wolff is used to winning. Ferrari has the fastest engine and Red Bull are about to get a major engine upgrade. The days of Mercedes dominance are over - if Bottas can't keep up he'll be out of Mercedes. Simple.

Bottas may well be going into his last season with Mercedes in 2020, but it's highly unlikely he will be dropped mid-season next year. Bottas has driven no worse than the last two seasons, in fact he didn't win any races last year. Wolff is realistic and Bottas is a known quantity, he's not expecting much more from Bottas then he has already seen, he has Hamilton there to do the majority winning and lead the team.

stickyfiddle

I feel sorry for Max there (for once!). Kimi shold've known better than to turn in that tight on T1...

But game on for Lando, assuming he doesn't have whatever problem Sainz has :-s

stickyfiddle

FFS Ferrari strategy...

stickyfiddle

All ok in the end for Leclerc. FINALLY. Cracking last few laps. 

Norris having a nice calm afternoon after a clean lap 1 and lost on the line  

And a properly great second half from Albon after an anonymous start, presumably just getting calm and gaining confidence towards the end. 

Fretwired

Excellent race .. glad Leclerc won .. good to see Hamilton chase him down. Sad for Norris .. one lap short. Albon impressed .. hope he keeps the Red Bull seat.

stickyfiddle

Fretwired said:

Excellent race .. glad Leclerc won .. good to see Hamilton chase him down. Sad for Norris .. one lap short. Albon impressed .. hope he keeps the Red Bull seat.

Yeah, same here. Any more drives like that and he'll be a no-brainer for next year. 

All bets must now be on Charles to win at Monza now. That would be a good result. Next weekend? (also loving the Monaco anthem!)

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

stickyfiddle said:

All ok in the end for Leclerc. FINALLY. Cracking last few laps. 

Norris having a nice calm afternoon after a clean lap 1 and lost on the line  

And a properly great second half from Albon after an anonymous start, presumably just getting calm and gaining confidence towards the end. 

Nice bit of lawnmower racing at the end there from Albon too!  

I'm a big Hamilton supporter normally, but I'm chuffed for Leclerc, about time he got a victory! Think he owes Vettel a Belgian pilsner or two tonight - holding Lewis up for those laps was a massive help!

Great race!!

stickyfiddle

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

stickyfiddle said:

All ok in the end for Leclerc. FINALLY. Cracking last few laps. 

Norris having a nice calm afternoon after a clean lap 1 and lost on the line  

And a properly great second half from Albon after an anonymous start, presumably just getting calm and gaining confidence towards the end. 

Nice bit of lawnmower racing at the end there from Albon too!  

I'm a big Hamilton supporter normally, but I'm chuffed for Leclerc, about time he got a victory! Think he owes Vettel a Belgian pilsner or two tonight - holding Lewis up for those laps was a massive help!

Great race!!

Brilliant move on DannyRic as well. "Red Bull gives you massive balls, apparently!"

Loving Albon's chat about DRS with the Sky team as well. I like him a lot.

TimmyO

Good race. 

I think Max was dumb for being where he was when he was - imo if it hadn't been first corner rules then the stewards would have had a word. I think Max must have known that too given how meek he was about it in the interviews. 

Poor bloody Lando 

Ace for Leclerc - but I still think overall it showed Ferrari up by being that close and them not holding the 1,2 

Cols

I thought Max took it on the chin very well; admitted he was braking too late into the corner and Kimi couldn’t have been reasonably expecting him to materialise there.  I was genuinely expecting the usual “Kimi didn’t leave me any room, etc etc”, and was genuinely impressed that he took a more mature view.

TimmyO

Cols said:

I thought Max took it on the chin very well; admitted he was braking too late into the corner and Kimi couldn’t have been reasonably expecting him to materialise there.  I was genuinely expecting the usual “Kimi didn’t leave me any room, etc etc”, and was genuinely impressed that he took a more mature view.

We did get the expected "he just turned in on me" on the radio initially

Cols

TimmyO said:

Cols said:

I thought Max took it on the chin very well; admitted he was braking too late into the corner and Kimi couldn’t have been reasonably expecting him to materialise there.  I was genuinely expecting the usual “Kimi didn’t leave me any room, etc etc”, and was genuinely impressed that he took a more mature view.

We did get the expected "he just turned in on me" on the radio initially

I’m sure Kimi’s radio message was more... colourful.

Garthy

Fretwired said:

TimmyO said:

Bottas was confirmed for 2020. You're confusing the enthusiasm of your friends for pitlane gossip with the evidence of Wolff's character. 

Wolff is used to winning. Ferrari has the fastest engine and Red Bull are about to get a major engine upgrade. The days of Mercedes dominance are over - if Bottas can't keep up he'll be out of Mercedes. Simple.

That’s Bottas confirmed for 2021 then lol.

Fretwired

Garthy said:

That’s Bottas confirmed for 2021 then lol.

Probably - not my idea though. The pundits have pointed this out and Russell was interviewed and looked quite happy that he has moved up the Mercedes pecking order. Hamilton's getting older so Mercedes will need some new talent at some point and Bottas hardly set the world alight on Sunday - he's a steady Eddy. Vestappen and Kimi were potential threats until they had their coming together.

And if Bottas was totally secure why did Wolff go public on the the fact he was considering replacing him with Ocon over the summer break?

boogieman

And if Bottas was totally secure why did Wolff go public on the the fact he was considering replacing him with Ocon over the summer break?

Bit of psychology to get him motivated maybe? He was fired up and seriously challenging Lewis at the beginning of the season but seems to have lost his edge as it went on. Maybe Toto thought he needed the threat of being replaced to get him going quicker again. 

TimmyO

Fretwired said:

Garthy said:

That’s Bottas confirmed for 2021 then lol.

Probably - not my idea though. The pundits have pointed this out and Russell was interviewed and looked quite happy that he has moved up the Mercedes pecking order. Hamilton's getting older so Mercedes will need some new talent at some point and Bottas hardly set the world alight on Sunday - he's a steady Eddy. Vestappen and Kimi were potential threats until they had their coming together.

And if Bottas was totally secure why did Wolff go public on the the fact he was considering replacing him with Ocon over the summer break?

they were proving a threat..... until the 1st corner?? 

Nobody has said that Bottas WAS totally secure - that would be a bonkers statement in the circumstances, we're saying that he is now secure post-decision and announcement and that it's a decent decision. Only you are trying to navigate a narrative that takes the current points tally and arrives at sticking with Bottas being bad for the team :-) 

Fretwired

TimmyO said:

they were proving a threat..... until the 1st corner?? 

Nobody has said that Bottas WAS totally secure - that would be a bonkers statement in the circumstances, we're saying that he is now secure post-decision and announcement and that it's a decent decision. Only you are trying to navigate a narrative that takes the current points tally and arrives at sticking with Bottas being bad for the team :-) 

I'm actually looking at next year .. but .. Ferrari have had some bad luck and made some bad decisions. They could have won more races this year and performed better and Bottas could be further behind. I predict Ferrari will be strong next year once they iron out their gremlins and poor decision making. Bottas will need to seriously up his game. The consensus on the BBC F1 Podcast was Bottas should have been swapped for Ocon .

Honda will have an improved engine which they claim will be on a par with Mercedes - Vestappen is a class act. Albon did well at the weekend. Bottas could find himself languishing in sixth place next year. Hamilton seems to be able to find another gear and is far more aggressive. He makes Bottas look pedestrian. And no I don't think his performances warrant a seat in a top team. Hamilton is a whopping 65 points ahead of him. Hamilton's probably happy, Wolff is glad he doesn't have the Hamilton/Rosberg friction but next year will be different - it will be more competitive. Let's see if Bottas wins another race this year. On present form I'd say unlikely.

Horner has said he thinks the top teams will be very close in terms of the performance of their cars. Could be an exciting season. I'm not sure Bottas will competitive enough. He seems mentally fragile to me. I'd love to see Ricciardo in a Mercedes - he's wasted in the Renault.

sinbaadi

Nice to get some parity between two top teams just in time for a rules change to undo all of that, but at least we'll get one full season (?).  Maybe even have RedBull on a genuine par with Mercedes and Ferrari, too!

Fretwired

sinbaadi said:

Nice to get some parity between two top teams just in time for a rules change to undo all of that, but at least we'll get one full season (?).  Maybe even have RedBull on a genuine par with Mercedes and Ferrari, too!

Agreed. I think Red Bull/Honda could steal Mercedes crown next year. The car design is good, the team is well run and Vestappen's as good as Hamilton. It just needs Honda to deliver more engine power which their CEO believes they'll have for the race after next. Ferrari have to sort out their tyre deg issue and make their car perform better in the twisty bits of the track and we'd have a good three-way scrap.

I don't think the rule changes will be that drastic. It won't be like the move to the hybrid era.

Boromedic

Agreed, if we can get some semblance of parity next season with the cars it should be a genuinely great scrap between 3 drivers of equal talent in LeClerc, Verstappen and Hamilton. Although Charles still has a tiny bit of maturity to gain.

Vettel has never been on the same level as Lewis and Fernando when they've been at their best, like all greats they've had that extra level of performance, he's just been luckier his team mates were never as good as him. Clearly an excellent driver but just not quite the same level. Charles has shown him up as that this season as Danny Ric did at Red Bull, he's beaten him in quali and races now fair and square.