The F1 thread

Cols

It’s going to be a long afternoon today for anyone who isn’t Verstappen.  Four tenths faster than the next car on such a short track is astronomical.

If you were just looking at Verstappen then you’d say Red Bull have solved their recent car difficulties.  But looking at Perez’s time, I’m not quite sure.  I know Sergio isn’t as fast as Verstappen and isn’t expected to be, but even allowing for that the gap simply doesn’t add up.  It could be that the Red Bull is the second or third fastest car and Max is currently dragging it up the grid.

Sprint race was good up until Verstappen and Piastri swooped past Norris.  After that Oscar didn’t have the pace to challenge Verstappen, and Lando either couldn’t or wouldn’t have a crack at getting back into second.

TimmyO

Aye whatever they did to the car for him between the sprint and quali seems to have worked. 

Maybe if someone gets stranded in gravel at some point it’ll bunch things back up 

Boromedic

Hopefully his engine will grenade, it's the only hope!

Seriously though I think they still have engine/reliability issues but they haven't had to run them full chat for a weekend until recently when the gap closed. I'm hoping McLaren's race pace is improved so we can see how quick they truly are. Perez did his lap on used tyres because he used all his new sets getting into Q3,

Cols

Boromedic said:

Hopefully his engine will grenade, it's the only hope!

Seriously though I think they still have engine/reliability issues but they haven't had to run them full chat for a weekend until recently when the gap closed. I'm hoping McLaren's race pace is improved so we can see how quick they truly are. Perez did his lap on used tyres because he used all his new sets getting into Q3,

That makes a bit more sense (if he was a faster driver though, he wouldn’t have had to burn up all his new softs to scrape into the top 10).  I wonder how much time you lose by having a set of tyres which are a few laps old?

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Well that certainly spiced this up a bit! Great entertainment!

Brio

Epic fun and games...

TimmyO

Max “If I can’t win then neither can you” Verstappen  - good grief 

fretmeister

Well done Checo, only 2 places behind Max this time! 

Penn

God, Max is a monumental arsehole. 

Nice to see a different winner mind. 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

fretmeister said:

Well done Checo, only 2 places behind Max this time! 

Got pipped to the line by a Haas, bless him. Chin up lad, sure you'll break into the top 6 one of these days!

Will be interesting to see Max's 'welcome' from the British fans next weekend! 

Majorscale

Max isn't a dirty driver, he's a filthy one. Talented yes, but a complete bellend too. Shades of 2021 reemerged today...

stickyfiddle

Just caught up with the replay. Not the race I was expecting!!!! 

Interesting to see Max go straight back to running people off the road the moment he’s under genuine pressure. I thought maybe he was past that but obviously not

Haven’t seen any follow up interviews with Max or Lando but I’m guessing they ain’t best mates any more. 

TimmyO

The reaction of the 3 drivers in the warm down room when they saw was telling - all 3 had the same immediate reaction 

TimmyO

I’ve seen the post race interviews and Ant’s Sky pad analysis now - I think Max is going to need to make some conciliatory noises before next weekend - he was kind of signposting them in his interview (less bullish than he sometimes is) but who knows. 

skullfunkerry

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

fretmeister said:

Well done Checo, only 2 places behind Max this time! 

Got pipped to the line by a Haas, bless him. Chin up lad, sure you'll break into the top 6 one of these days!

Will be interesting to see Max's 'welcome' from the British fans next weekend! 

I'm sure it will be simply lovely.

sinbaadi

Typical Max, honestly.  Toys would be right out the pram were it the other way round.  

The hypocrisy is what really grates.

Let's see what his friendship with Lando is worth.  Lando seemed genuinely disappointed in him.  I get where he's coming from, it's not about the points, the team, the money.  It's about the racing, and you can't race someone who does that shit.

TimmyO

Horner’s obfuscation in the interview with Ted post race was telling too. 

Cols

TimmyO said:

I’ve seen the post race interviews and Ant’s Sky pad analysis now - I think Max is going to need to make some conciliatory noises before next weekend - he was kind of signposting them in his interview (less bullish than he sometimes is) but who knows. 

So far he’s not.  Can’t blame him TBH - he’s spent his entire career shoving people off track without consequences.  Actually getting punished for it - and at the Red Bull Ring, of all places - must have come as a considerable shock to him.

His behaviour in defence was classic Max - float around in the middle of the track until the other driver commits to a line and then move over under braking to take that line.

Boromedic

Yeah, now he's actually facing serious racing, he reverts to type, as the other drivers and team principals have said, if he had been punished properly in 21 when they contrived the WDC he wouldn't be doing it now. Hence his fake surprise, he should've been penalised when he first shoved him off instead of waiting for the inevitable crash. 

stickyfiddle

Boromedic said:

Yeah, now he's actually facing serious racing, he reverts to type, as the other drivers and team principals have said, if he had been punished properly in 21 when they contrived the WDC he wouldn't be doing it now. Hence his fake surprise, he should've been penalised when he first shoved him off instead of waiting for the inevitable crash. 

Thing is it’s clearly been 1 rule for Max and 1 rule for everyone else pretty much since the day he joined the sport. 

His fans consistently reach back to Silverstone 21 for literally the one time the other guy didn’t yield and Max suffered real consequences. But they fail to remember the countless times he’s punted others off and got zero or meaningless penalties. 

Pretty much all the other drivers (ok maybe not Ocon..) manage to race hard at every opportunity without repeatedly getting shoved off, but every time it involves Max against an equally-matched car its fisticuffs. 

I was starting to respect Max a little this year, but after this weekend it’s clear he hasn’t changed. I hope Lando beats him more and more and he ends up fucking off to nascar or some shit where bumping is part of the sport