The F1 thread

fretmeister

I can't see Ocon getting the Merc seat now. He did not do well against Alonso.

TimmyO

boogieman said:

prowla said:

Bottas got stuffed by the pit-stop; without that, he would've been pressuring Verstappen and making Red Bull think about their strategy.

I don’t think Bottas would’ve got past Max even if he’d got close enough, Max is good at defending and Bottas is far too cautious on overtakes. How many times last year did Bottas take lap after lap to get past slower cars when drivers like Norris, LeClerc and Perez would just shoot around with seemingly very little effort. Bottas is a steady driver but I hope Mercedes take a chance on a more ambitious one next season. I really hope the rumours about Russell going there next year are true. 

Agree re the likelihood of Bottas succeeding but it would surely have meant RB needed to think about it. 

I actually think the more interesting/impactful turn of events was Perez ending up out of position. If all.4 truly fast cars had been in contention then you get a more interesting situation. Although it was still quite a show 

boogieman

TimmyO said:

boogieman said:

prowla said:

Bottas got stuffed by the pit-stop; without that, he would've been pressuring Verstappen and making Red Bull think about their strategy.

I don’t think Bottas would’ve got past Max even if he’d got close enough, Max is good at defending and Bottas is far too cautious on overtakes. How many times last year did Bottas take lap after lap to get past slower cars when drivers like Norris, LeClerc and Perez would just shoot around with seemingly very little effort. Bottas is a steady driver but I hope Mercedes take a chance on a more ambitious one next season. I really hope the rumours about Russell going there next year are true. 

Agree re the likelihood of Bottas succeeding but it would surely have meant RB needed to think about it. 

I actually think the more interesting/impactful turn of events was Perez ending up out of position. If all.4 truly fast cars had been in contention then you get a more interesting situation. Although it was still quite a show 

Yeah that’s true. My heart sank when Perez’s car stopped on the parade lap, what a piece of shitty luck. 

Most interesting race for quite a while. If Bahrain is the marker for the rest of the season, it should be a classic year, especially if Ferrari, Alpine and McClaren get their cars in contention too. 

Couple of interesting new drivers. Tsunoda looks a force for the future. Mazepin drove like a bell end and looks a complete liability. 

chillidoggy

My lounge last night - "Old man shouts at telly".

Best finale I've seen for ages.

FIA - sort out the fucking track limit rules, eh? Either it is or it isn't, stop pissing about.

stickyfiddle

I do think it's worth noting the Haas looks borderline undriveable. Mick is no slouch and still spun it and basically came last. Puts Grosjean & KMag's efforts in a new light as we know it's virtually the same car. 

But also fuck Mazepin.

Fretwired

chillidoggy said:

My lounge last night - "Old man shouts at telly".

Best finale I've seen for ages.

FIA - sort out the fucking track limit rules, eh? Either it is or it isn't, stop pissing about.

In fairness they did. Hamilton was told to stop exceeding limits during the race or get a penalty (based on an RB radio message to Max which the stewards heard). But the issue with Max was the 'lasting advantage rule' - you're never going to get away with exceeding track limits whilst overtaking the race leader. As Brundle said Max should have stopped moaning and held on for a few hundred metres and given the place back where he could have got a tow and DRS whilst forcing Hamilton onto the dirty side of the track to pass. Max needs to up his racecraft if he wants to beat Hamilton regularly. It's clear Red Bull have a really quick car and Max is exceptional over the single lap of qualifying - he just needs to hook things up in the race.

Fretwired

fretmeister said:

I can't see Ocon getting the Merc seat now. He did not do well against Alonso.

There are commentators who are wondering whether Bottas will last the season in a Mercedes. Perez went from the pitlane to fifth place and beat Ricciardo and LeClerc in the process. Bottas was always OK whilst the Mercedes cars had an advantage and whilst Red Bull's second driver underperformed. Perez was impressive and could give Bottas a hard time and win podiums. Would Wolff send for Russell if Perez regularly beats Bottas?

Norris was excellent as well - fourth place. If Hamilton retired could he end up in a Mercedes seat with Russell for a British dream team?

Teetonetal

boogieman said:

prowla said:

Bottas got stuffed by the pit-stop; without that, he would've been pressuring Verstappen and making Red Bull think about their strategy.

I don’t think Bottas would’ve got past Max even if he’d got close enough, Max is good at defending and Bottas is far too cautious on overtakes. How many times last year did Bottas take lap after lap to get past slower cars when drivers like Norris, LeClerc and Perez would just shoot around with seemingly very little effort. Bottas is a steady driver but I hope Mercedes take a chance on a more ambitious one next season. I really hope the rumours about Russell going there next year are true. 

The pressure though would have made an impact on MV and the way he had to drive though. Just another element to the strategic battle, bit merc screwed that one up.

chillidoggy

Max also had a diff problem, didn't he?

Fretwired

fretmeister said:

Fretwired said:

This should silence those who claim Hamilton only wins as he has the best car. Today he didn't. He gave a masterclass in how to drive defensively and not for the first time Verstappen cracked under the pressure and made mistakes. Had it been the other way round Hamilton would have won. Hamilton is clinical when it comes to overtaking and he reeled in Verstappen in similar circumstances to win a gripping Hungarian Grand Prix in 2019.

Verstappen is not as good as he thinks he is and there are a number of young drivers in F1 who could eclipse him. And had Verstappen driven off into the distance after leaving the track and not let Hamilton past he'd have been disqualified. The rules are clear. Max needs to calm down and think logically - that was a race he lost.

And you'd have thought that Red Bull would have wised up to Hamilton's radio messages .. "this is as fast as I can go" .. a red rag to Max who sped up and took the life out of his tyres. Hamilton has become a master at preserving his tyres. If Red Bull want to win they should ignore Hamilton's radio messages .. :-)

Bottas was out of sorts and was filmed having words with Toto who basically told him to shut up by waving his hand over his throat. Perez did well today - I could see him regularly beating Bottas and if he can out-qualify Bottas it would give Red Bull options strategy wise. A smart move by Red Bull.

Twitter is now full of accusations against the FIA for ensuring "that woke BLM twat won"...

I wish I could identify a single thing that was different about LH that makes him the subject of so much abuse....

It doesn't help when the BBC puts up a headline Hamilton wins in Bahrain after Verstappen forced to give up the lead .. if you hadn't watched the race, nor read the article in detail you could easily assume the FIA were playing dirty tricks on Verstappen.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Fretwired said:

Bottas was out of sorts and was filmed  having words with Toto who basically told him to shut up by waving his hand over his throat. Perez did well today - I could see him regularly beating Bottas and if he can out-qualify Bottas it would give Red Bull options strategy wise. A smart move by Red Bull.

Only just seen this. Didn't look too clever! Toto will have been foaming with him considering they were in front of the cameras and there to celebrate a great victory. Hugely unprofessional of Bottas...

https://twitter.com/FemmeNoiresque/status/1376233425510621185

skunkwerx

Race was good. 

I was rootin for Max to win.. 
Though before the race I put a bet on Lewis to win, so, can’t complain with the cash. But it was close, don’t think I’ll be putting many more bets on this season lol. 

Brio

Just leaving this here... a sort of Crashtor tribute 

http://mazesp.in/?fbclid=IwAR0y4rAC558RgzdikvYMa6vBXVswkxIbweUNMWO8HsnkVfv65lpsBlEv5zc

Fretwired

Clarification from the stewards:

FIA race director Michael Masi said “What was mentioned and discussed with the drivers at the drivers meeting is that if an overtake takes place with a car off-track, and gains a lasting advantage, I will go on the radio and suggest to the team that they immediately relinquish that position,” he continued. “And that was made very clear.”

“Red Bull was actually given an instruction immediately by myself. I suggested that they relinquish that position as listed in the sporting regulations, which they did.

“It wasn’t for exceeding the track limits. It was for gaining a lasting advantage by overtaking another car off the race-track.”

prowla

TimmyO said:

boogieman said:

prowla said:

Bottas got stuffed by the pit-stop; without that, he would've been pressuring Verstappen and making Red Bull think about their strategy.

I don’t think Bottas would’ve got past Max even if he’d got close enough, Max is good at defending and Bottas is far too cautious on overtakes. How many times last year did Bottas take lap after lap to get past slower cars when drivers like Norris, LeClerc and Perez would just shoot around with seemingly very little effort. Bottas is a steady driver but I hope Mercedes take a chance on a more ambitious one next season. I really hope the rumours about Russell going there next year are true. 

Agree re the likelihood of Bottas succeeding but it would surely have meant RB needed to think about it. 

I actually think the more interesting/impactful turn of events was Perez ending up out of position. If all.4 truly fast cars had been in contention then you get a more interesting situation. Although it was still quite a show 

Yep - that was it.

Also, as per his radio message, he was in the right place to be if Hamilton & Verstappen had contretemps.

Cols

Vettel didn’t come away from the weekend entirely empty handed.  5 penalty points for his various transgressions.  Just one race into a 23 race season and he’s nearly halfway to a race ban.

chillidoggy

Fretwired said:

chillidoggy said:

My lounge last night - "Old man shouts at telly".

Best finale I've seen for ages.

FIA - sort out the fucking track limit rules, eh? Either it is or it isn't, stop pissing about.

In fairness they did. Hamilton was told to stop exceeding limits during the race or get a penalty (based on an RB radio message to Max which the stewards heard). But the issue with Max was the 'lasting advantage rule' - you're never going to get away with exceeding track limits whilst overtaking the race leader. As Brundle said Max should have stopped moaning and held on for a few hundred metres and given the place back where he could have got a tow and DRS whilst forcing Hamilton onto the dirty side of the track to pass. Max needs to up his racecraft if he wants to beat Hamilton regularly. It's clear Red Bull have a really quick car and Max is exceptional over the single lap of qualifying - he just needs to hook things up in the race.

Hang on, in the drivers meeting they were told it was banned in quali, but OK for the race. Ham and Bot were going off track all the time, Max wasn't. But as soon as he did, FIA got shitty, and told them to stop it.

That's what I was banging on about, not the 'lasting advantage' stuff.

Emiel

Apart from the usual track limits BS, Mercedes once again outsmarted everyone. With no second Red Bull in the game and the Mercs very similarly matched in pace to Max, Lewis could make the undercut work while Valtteri hold station. All Max could do was to stay out and hope that his newer tires would make the difference. With two very evenly matched cars you'll need to make that first overtaking attempt stick or otherwise the tire advantage will be gone. Max failed on his first attempt and that was it.

Did anyone hear Toto say yesterday they had some issues with the ERS deployment cutting out at the end of the final straight. If they sort that out as well as the balance, the Merc will be again be the car to beat (let's hope not!).

The midfield teams once again lost a second per lap to the leaders. Shame about Gasly, we could have seen whether Alpha Tauri is the third best team or not. We'll need to give Tsunoda some time as quite frankly he was quite off Gasly's pace.|

By the way, Alonso has to retire because a sandwich wrap slipped into one of his rear brake ducts. No joke!

Cols

chillidoggy said:

Hang on, in the drivers meeting they were told it was banned in quali, but OK for the race. Ham and Bot were going off track all the time, Max wasn't. But as soon as he did, FIA got shitty, and told them to stop it.

That's what I was banging on about, not the 'lasting advantage' stuff.

Race Director Michael Masi on how to square that particular circle:

“If an overtake takes place with a car off track and gains an advantage, a lasting advantage, I will go on the radio and suggest to the team that they immediately relinquish that position, and that was made very clear.”

“It wasn’t for exceeding track limits – it was for gaining a lasting advantage by overtaking another car off the race track.”

Brio

Best comment of the weekend for me was by a mate. "Mazepin hasn't got a chance, not after killing John Wick's dog."