Formula 1 Discussion - And favourite driver?

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Thought I could at least take solace in Checo leading, but the good old RB Team Orders kicked in, as expected. And just as things start to calm down too, I was enjoying the chaos.
 
The Grognard said:
Unsurprising that once they sorted out that porpoising issue, the Merc emerged as a car capable of real results.
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Notr really Leclerc was WAY faster then Russell and both RedBull were also able to pass with ease. Not enough speed imho. and this was a track were porpoising wasn't much of an issue (at least visible)
 
With a 1-2 win for Red Bull this already seems to be aging quite well.
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Good race, could have been more overtakes here and there, but in general some really good moments, especially with Sainz and Verstappen spinning, put a bit of tension in there.
DRS failure was unfortunate, but they sorta figured it out, it seems.

And credit where credit is due: Hamilton did a great recovery drive. The Merc might not be "win effortlessly"-tier anymore, but it's certainly not a dud.
Though, how much of that depended on fresh engines, excessive fuel consumption and the track layout remains to be seen.
That being said: Russel P3, Hamilton P5, suck it LewLew.

Oxous said:
With a 1-2 win for Red Bull this already seems to be aging quite well.
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Wait a minute, I thought "fending off a quicker car" wasn't a big deal last year in Abu Dhabi, when the Mexican Minister of Defense cockblocked Hamilton for a full lap?
Well, gee, here I goe trying to use the same metric for two different drivers, allow me to make the propper alterations:
Lewlew #1 huehuehue.
 
LetterlandMafia said:
Why are stans so unrelentingly strange?

Didn’t see the GP today so what went on with Leclerc?
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Engine failure, when they cut to his car as it happened it just sounded like his turbo had just totally cut out. Complained he was down on power shortly before that too. Horrible to see it, but at least I've become jaded enough by Carlos that I didn't react too badly to his mandatory once a race sbinella.

Gained a whole new appreciation for George out of this though. Some fantastic defensive work from him when he was out in front, managed to get RB to change its entire pit strategy too, which has to speak for something.
Weirdly enough though, I think the part of the whole race I was least happy about was when Team Orders kicked in and Checo was forced to take second. Really felt like he'd ended this one, and I don't like the idea of him turning into Red Bottas
 
Wild Wild Sonichu said:
Engine failure, when they cut to his car as it happened it just sounded like his turbo had just totally cut out. Complained he was down on power shortly before that too. Horrible to see it, but at least I've become jaded enough by Carlos that I didn't react too badly to his mandatory once a race sbinella.

Gained a whole new appreciation for George out of this though. Some fantastic defensive work from him when he was out in front, managed to get RB to change its entire pit strategy too, which has to speak for something.
Weirdly enough though, I think the part of the whole race I was least happy about was when Team Orders kicked in and Checo was forced to take second. Really felt like he'd ended this one, and I don't like the idea of him turning into Red Bottas
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The thing is, he was always Energy Drink Bottas.
 
JoseRaulChupacabra said:
"Checo, it's Christian..."

https://youtube.com/watch?v=qfKLplcYh4Q
Trouble in paradise, perhaps?
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I guess that very long silence and the tone in his voice speaks volumes...
... but to his credit, he's a perfect professional about it.

"We'll talk about it later", rather than whining. Perez is such a great driver and such a great team-mate. A shame we most likely won't see him win a title.

But Verstappen now has a 6 point lead on Leclerc, while Perez still has a somewhat decent buffer against Russel (9Points) and Carlos (20 points). Even if he won with fastest lap, he'd be in P3, 13 points behind both Verstappen and Leclerc.

It's a shitty situation, but strategy wise, it was a sound decision.
 
Checco will probably ask why after the swap which happened right after max slid off at T4, they sat around hoping max would pass russel for so many laps before pitting max and releasing checco back on Russel. It was just a matter of time hoping that max would get the drs to work at the same time that he was closer to george, but they could have cut their losses earlier on. However, for the final max pass on checco at the end i don't think there's realistically any way that checco would have defended that position from max considering the different strategies at that point (consider if they were on different constructors in that situation). It sucks because I was hoping that checco would win this one too, and it was looking good for him after he finally passed Russel, but the 3-stop turned out to be the supreme choice.

Edit: looks like fun time is over, and merc have finally got their shit sorted out, although their performance in the next few races should also be considered (except for monaco, especially race performance). It will be interesting to see if they will really elevate past their solid third-place level which they were still at with bouncing. However, this may in face be the one race where they are able to get the car into its skinny window of good performance. Also, the incident where Lewis binned Magnussen, realistically i think this one was not really Ham's fault like Gasly and Albon incidents were, because he was hugging the inside of the track, and Kevin got a little greedy (also remember it was more akin to a first lap incident).
 
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Hamilton, with one foot out the door, telling his engineers that they should retire his car after he sustained a puncture (a puncture, for Christ's sake!) was only slightly less shameful than the Sky commentators attempting to pass this off as a noble, engine-saving gesture rather than what it was - a butthurt former World Champion trailing his wounded ego back to the pits, while exerting more drag on his team than any aerodynamic issues they might be battling. As soon as he got his head down he was fine. However, the glib words of gratitude that he occasionally throws in the direction of the backroom multitudes who provide him with a car in which to race, are not reflected in his self-absorbed bearing. If you put Alonso or Vettel in the Merc they would probably set up the car better and maybe even drive it as well.

Mercedes, for all the overflowing promise of their mercurial rookie driver, and for all the positive steps they have taken to undo their lowrider bounce, are still at a point where they are reliant on DNFs and spergery from the Red Bulls and the Ferraris for podiums. I foresee a frustrating season bogged down in the dirty air of their rivals.
 
Congrats to the Mercedes engineers. They're the real heroes of this round.

Honourary mention: Checo.
 
As for the lewis radio message, i feel like we aren't seeing the whole picture here. Guy falls to second to last place on the second lap of the grand prix and says "we should just go ahead and retire" when they are comfortably the 3rd fastest constructor in F1, even before the upgrades this weekend, there's just no way (and i'm no fan of lewis myself)...like if that radio message was during the lap when he was limping around with the puncture, the car probably felt like shit. Maybe he thought he had some suspension damage or something. Like does he really think that if you are in 19th place or lower you should just quit and go to the next race after qualifying to save the engine? Tell that to Checco in sakhir 2020. This also reminds me of what Vettel said about misrepresenting driver radio messages in the heat of the moment.
 
Full Race Replay said:
Edit: looks like fun time is over, and merc have finally got their shit sorted out, although their performance in the next few races should also be considered (except for monaco, especially race performance). It will be interesting to see if they will really elevate past their solid third-place level which they were still at with bouncing. However, this may in face be the one race where they are able to get the car into its skinny window of good performance. Also, the incident where Lewis binned Magnussen, realistically i think this one was not really Ham's fault like Gasly and Albon incidents were, because he was hugging the inside of the track, and Kevin got a little greedy (also remember it was more akin to a first lap incident).
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As others have pointed out, there is speculation that they will fall off later in the year. Word is they spent a significant amount of their development cost trying to understand and counter the performance issues related to the bouncing. Everyone who got a handle on it much faster (or just didn't have a real issue with it) can make that money go farther with upgrades that actually improve the car instead of fix it.
 
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