The F1 thread

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Great race, gripping from start to finish. Gotta hand it to Max, got all the big calls right. 

I'm sure Red Bull are thrilled with the win, but I bet a big part of their management is thinking "what the f*** were we thinking, signing up Sergio for another two years?!" tonight. 

skullfunkerry

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Great race, gripping from start to finish. Gotta hand it to Max, got all the big calls right. 

I'm sure Red Bull are thrilled with the win, but I bet a big part of their management is thinking "what the f*** were we thinking, signing up Sergio for another two years?!" tonight. 

Yep, totally agree with that.

sweepy

I wonder if there is a performance clause in Sergio’s contract ? part of me would be amazed if there wasn’t 

danishbacon

Not seen much mentioned about the massive shunt in Monaco and how it might be affecting Perez in getting back to pace. Not an easy one to mentally get over, though I accept that it’s a ‘feature’ of all the greats. 

TimmyO

Great race. Bit of everything. 

Albon for overtake of the season? (albeit 80% deliberate, 20% ohfuckohfuckohfuck :-) ) 

Piastri for overtake-defence of the season? 

As lucky as Norris got previously with safety car timing he got the opposite this time - just. He’s got to be on for 2nd this season now? 

Was impressed how Norris drove away from Max in that earlier stint - performance was the other way around in the full dry though.

As for the Pérez situation I honestly can’t get my head around it. 

Boromedic

RiftAmps said:

You can't resist can you,  

Fair play to Max looks like he did the best out of everyone, think it's safe to assume he'll win the next few races to, given the nature of the tracks. 

Hope someone takes the constructor title over the MK moaners as payback. Most commentators believe there's performance clauses so maybe Perez will be gone before the end of the season. 

markr76

TimmyO said:

Great race. Bit of everything. 

Albon for overtake of the season? (albeit 80% deliberate, 20% ohfuckohfuckohfuck :-) ) 

Piastri for overtake-defence of the season? 

As lucky as Norris got previously with safety car timing he got the opposite this time - just. He’s got to be on for 2nd this season now? 

Was impressed how Norris drove away from Max in that earlier stint - performance was the other way around in the full dry though.

As for the Pérez situation I honestly can’t get my head around it. 

I could only guess with Perez that his confidence is totally shot. I think he brings a lot of money with him. Which maybe Redbull really needs. They are trying to set up an engine plant after all and I’d imagine that’s not cheap! 

markr76

While I’m pleased we are looking a little better performance wise at Mercedes. The mistakes George can make at crucial moments is a bit worrying. He does some excellent stuff too, then seems to undo his hard work when it really matters. Maybe he’s trying too hard I don’t know. 

RiftAmps

Boromedic said:

RiftAmps said:

You can't resist can you,

Well, no, I can't resist....but to be fair it was an exceptional race and my driver came out on top of a great 3-way battle. I was genuinely delighted that he won because, in all fairness, my other two favourites (Lando and George) should have beaten him.

We're now on the cusp of a situation where on any given weekend, any of the Top 4 teams can fight for the win. I can honestly say that I have ZERO idea who will win the Spanish GP. That's all I want...proper competition.

Boromedic

Well, a Wiz to that and TBF as long as he has to work for it, you can't say fairer than well deserved. He is a great driver, I just don't like Red Bull or him personally 

I can't see them being beatable in Barcelona though.

sinbaadi

sweepy said:

I wonder if there is a performance clause in Sergio’s contract ? part of me would be amazed if there wasn’t 

They aren't just going to offer to give all the money back. 

Is this like a taboo subject?  Do we want to pretend that drivers like Perez aren't buying their seats in the top tier of Motorsport? 

boogieman

Three place grid penalty for Perez in Spain thanks to him driving his car, with bits of bodywork and carbon falling off it back to the pits after his spin. (To be fair the team told him to do it because they didn’t want to risk another safety car buggering up Max’s chances). 

So that’ll put Checo 19th or 20th then? 

stickyfiddle

TimmyO said:

Great race. Bit of everything. 

Albon for overtake of the season? (albeit 80% deliberate, 20% ohfuckohfuckohfuck :-) ) 

Piastri for overtake-defence of the season? 

As lucky as Norris got previously with safety car timing he got the opposite this time - just. He’s got to be on for 2nd this season now? 

Was impressed how Norris drove away from Max in that earlier stint - performance was the other way around in the full dry though.

As for the Pérez situation I honestly can’t get my head around it. 

I'm back in the main thread. Great race and agree with all of this 

Shame only 1 Mclaren on the podium and shame Lando wasn't on the top step but it was great to see Max have to work for it this week. 

Key takeaways are that McLaren & Mercedes have clearly both closed the gap to RB significantly. Marc apparently have a new floor coming for Spain as well so Max should have his hands full with Perez apparently no longer helping run defence!  

stickyfiddle

And Lando's massive slide out of the pits was FANTASTIC

Boromedic

Max still has a 60 point lead though, and I think any other wins this season will come from multiple sources. Not sure anyone will take enough to challenge, but at least the whole race has improved not just the race for second. McLaren for constructors would be awesome

bobblehat

Isn't it about time they closed the pit lane under the safety car?  I believe the reasoning behind it is that there may be debris on the track, risk of punctures etc , However if that is the case then shouldn't everyone should be forced to make a pitstop for safety reasons and the leader  picked up again after everyone has made a stop? 

Cols

boogieman said:

Three place grid penalty for Perez in Spain thanks to him driving his car, with bits of bodywork and carbon falling off it back to the pits after his spin. (To be fair the team told him to do it because they didn’t want to risk another safety car buggering up Max’s chances). 

So that’ll put Checo 19th or 20th then? 

Perez will strike back by qualifying last, thus negating any ill effect of his penalty.

Cols

Just watched this after getting back home from travels last night.  Man, if I had to pick one race which I shouldn’t have missed…

Haas did exactly the right thing at the start by bunging full wets on.  Conventional wisdom for racing in mixed conditions is to always be on the right tyre, as you’ll quickly lose more time being on the wrong tyre for the conditions than you would have done with a pit stop.  It was just a shame the Haas pit crew undid all of Magnussen’s good work by putting in a pit stop worthy of the Keystone Cops.

All of which makes it even more baffling that Ferrari chose to put Leclerc out onto a wet track on hard slicks, promising him “don’t worry, we’re sure it’ll dry out”.  After a few laps slithering around helplessly Charles was back in for proper tyres, what had already been a miserable race now entirely ruined.

Shame for Ricciardo that he jumped the start - quite badly too, also contriving to lose a bunch of places in the process.  Salvaged it well with a reasonable result.

The less said about Perez the better.  Qualified poorly, failed to make any progress from the back of the field and then spun off.  On a weekend where his pressured teammate came through with a win, it’s no way to pay back the confidence of the team in giving him another two years.

boogieman

Cols said:

 
The less said about Perez the better.  Qualified poorly, failed to make any progress from the back of the field and then spun off.  On a weekend where his pressured teammate came through with a win, it’s no way to pay back the confidence of the team in giving him another two years.

Which must pretty much prove it’s all about the sponsorship money from Checo, it can’t be for any other reason. Max has said he’s not particularly bothered about having him on the team, he’s just concentrating on his own race every time. 

Boromedic

Na, it's all about trying to settle Max down, they announced it really really early, usually they do these things around September time. It's all about getting Max to stay with a small element of trying to encourage Checo not to be so shit. They failed in one of those aims. Max absolutely believes he can beat any teammate, cos all they greats do, but he doesn't want to be battling with them either like Lewis and Nico or Seb and Mark.

I'm pretty sure the cash is handy, but they don't "need" it, if his form stays this shit I'd expect him to be bumped to RB.