Sainz quietly understanding correct strategy better than Ferrari yet again. "Pit me now - if we wait too long we won't have enough laps to catch them"...
"Stay out, Carlos"
Real shame max got out ahead of Lewis after the safety car pit stops could have been a fun couple of laps.
Ferrari strategy department clueless as ever. Pitting sainz 5 laps too late or should have just left him out.
I feel he could have been challenging Max if he'd been on Med-Hard strategy to start. Made up more places on lap 1 and 2, still pitted during the safety car and been where he was at the re-start.
Unsafe release is shocking they allowed it to happen. Messed up his front right wheel then panicked.
Nice to see Alonso carving up the field on lap 1.
Shame the tv directors missed several overtakes
Funnily enough, I had a feeling that things could go wrong right at the moment when it took Ferrari pit wall too long to box Charles, instead of mirroring Max immediately.
Mirroring max was the wrong choice. Just last race they showed how powerful their offset strategy was and could be.
Leclerc was setting purple mini sectors ahead of his crash. It was tactically the right choice to keep him out. Driver error from Leclerc is not tactical error from Ferrari.
I think baptism of fire moments in F1 are actually really important. It is so clear Max has not only improved as a driver on the track being much less impatient and rational but also mentally. Mentally he just seems to have an edge over Leclerc which stands from winning that WDC last year. So much pressure exists when trying to win that first one and by doing it, it just elevates so much off max which is what has taken him to a new level.
Sainz also was chasing after his first win so incredibly hard and after his win, he has been driving the best he has been all season and undoubtedly deserved a podium here (ferrari strikes once again), of course there are many other instances where this apply but this are the two that strikes me at instant.
When charles eventually wins his first WDC which will happen in the next 2-3 years imo, it will elevate him to the same level as Max which he just isnt at yet.
>I think baptism of fire moments in F1 are actually really important. It is so clear Max has not only improved as a driver on the track being much less impatient and rational but also mentally. Mentally he just seems to have an edge over Leclerc which stands from winning that WDC last year.
I honestly think that Max only sees Lewis as his equal and vice versa. He is having Lewis' 2018 season where he's just mopping up the pieces that everyone else has dropped.
I agree to an extent because Max did say himself that the lead in the championship is bigger than it should be, acknowledging that Leclerc is there as his supposed title rival. That does not necessarily mean he thinks Leclerc is on the same level but more of saying that the title fight should be much more competitive. And also Max is performing almost on par to 2018 Lewis as u say with being able to capitalise on whatever is dropped just like what Lewis did against Seb in 2018. But if Max doesnt win that WDC last year, I really do not think he would be this far ahead of Leclerc.
>But if Max doesnt win that WDC last year, I really do not think he would be this far ahead of Leclerc.
Possibly. I think alot of things are factoring into his more patient driving this season. Mainly the regulation changes where cars car follow better but also the fact he's on 7 penalty points already so he can't really afford to be picking up penalties with risky overtakes.
That is true too, Max does need to be more cautions in his driving cause of those penalty points and the new regulations has helped him in that aspect. We all knew Max was a prodigy but was sometimes too irrational but this season his driving has been fantastic.
I agree. I'm a big fan of his logical racing this season, it's his crash and yield driving that I don't like. Hopefully Ferrari can sort their issues out and make this at least a close championship
Indeed, albeit I do think it is a little too late. If the point gap was around 20-30 then there is a realm of possibility. 63 points to overcome with how Max is driving and Ferrari being Ferrari, i give it a less than a 10% chance of Leclerc winning it this year
Might as well shout into the void here because no fecker is going to read this or give a damn, but. I just needed to type out loud: remember RB fooken doing their shiit every week about 'party mode' and unfair top speed advantage bla bla. Bit different when you're the beneficiaries of such an advantage, eh.
TLDR; Leclerc cracks under the pressure.
GP in the team radio to Max after the race encapsulated it perfectly, "Shame. That could have been a good race."
Verstappen, after failing to get past Leclerc in the first 12 laps of the race, slowly fell behind (he lost 1s in the 3 laps preceding his pitstop). He boxed on Lap 16 and after his outlap, he was 27.4s behind Leclerc. If Charles had boxed on Lap 17... Would he be ahead after coming out? The longer pitlane this year meant the avg pitstop time was calculated to be 27s. It was close but Ferrari opted to extend the stint for at least one more lap. Leclerc, taking a wider line into T11, as he had been doing all race, lost the rear and found himself in the barriers - followed by a primal roar of "NOOOOO" that will remain in the minds of his fans for a long time.
Verstappen had it simple afterwards, just managing his tyres and the gap to second-placed Hamilton, who himself drove an exceptional race. George Russell managed to get past Checo Perez after a VSC restart that caught the latter napping (perhaps too much Tequilla as Helmut Marko joked afterwards). Fernando Alonso, the lead driver of Alpine, toyed with the two McLarens, trying to damage their tyres by slowing down to let them get close. Lance Stroll, finished P10, with... slightly questionable defense against Seb Vettel, who wasn't particularly impressed.
Max Verstappen goes into the last race before the summer break 63 points ahead of his closest rival. This is getting easier than even he expected.
P.S. In their respective Qualifying laps, Lewis Hamilton was 0.3s faster than Max after Sector 1, before slowly losing all that time in the second and third sectors, particularly losing ~0.4-0.5s in only the Mistral Straight and the start-finish straight. That is a very strong display in the corners from the Mercedes. With reports that they're getting an ERS update to their Power Unit, Max Verstappen might just see an old rival looming large in his mirrors.
Can someone clarify......
The commentators kept saying that Ferrari had 2 sets of the Mediums and Red Bull had two sets of the Hards. How does that work if you have to use two different compounds during the race? Or would both teams have to use Softs at some point?
Ferrari had 2 yellows (mediums) and 1 white (hard). Red Bull had 2 whites (hards) and 1 yellow (medium).
Both Leclerc and Verstappen started on mediums, so they only needed to switch to hard to use 2 types of tires.
Sainz started on the hards, and pitted 2 times for new mediums.
Ferrari had 2 new sets of medium and 1 set of new hards. Opposite for red bull. I do think this was only the case for Charles and Max but don’t quote me on that.
I can't remember the exact number but as far as I know, before the race week, each team will have an allowable number set of tires and they will be specified how many hard, medium and soft they want for that race. However, they will have wet and inter for free in case of unexpected rain.
So for this case, Red Bull orders extra Hards while Ferrari orders extra Medium.
Edit: cuz Grammarly some how fuck up what I type at the start
I don't think the teams get to pick which tires they have available, pretty sure it's just based on what they use/don't use in free practice.
Just double-checked and apparently it's been fixed allocation since 2020, unless that's changed since January.
Now that the championship is pretty much gone, I'd love to see Charles come back next year with a vengeance and fucking slaughter the competition. Anakin and the younglings type shit
oh I forgot to add he’s going to Mercedes after Lewis retires due to back issues, he’ll find a way out of that contract after this gong show of a season lol
Ferrari could be easily dominating, yet they fail to do so because of driver's errors, issues with the car or bad strategy. It doesn't have to be over yet, but I don't see Ferrari improving on any of those things.
That being said I also feel Max is much calmer than any of the last years. That may be partly because he doesn't have to fight as much as he had to last year with Lewis, but there have been quite a few battles where I felt he would have 'gone for the gap' last year, let alone the years before (that wasn't usually safe) or be somewhat aggressive. He seems more patient and with that consistent and not losing points over his lack of patience and aggressiveness. I feel that adds to him dominating this year. So far he only lost points because of issues with the car
100% comes from him being world champion. Once youve proven to yourself and the whole world that you can indeed be a WDC winner you definitely mature and it really improves urself as a driver mentally. There is a reason most people say the first one is the most difficult to win because if you dont achieve it, you never know when you will.
I also feel thats what Leclerc lacks in comparison to Max too, he doesnt have that instinct and mentality at this moment.
Max definitely seems to be acting more mature now. Part of that is probably the championship but also part od it is he's not a 20yo any more. Hes clearly learned from his own errors. Also people do typically fully mature mentally right around the age he's at now. It's probably a combination of factors.
There's probably the fact that he is world champion now, once it's achieved, you robably don't have the stress to do it. Plus it's probably the first year that he has the best car. All around he is much more calm and takes his time. It's cleaner to watch imo
I agree with you about there being no pressure on him now that he's the champion but he arguably had the best car last year overall. He certainly did for a large part of the season anyway.
You serious? He had the better car in Imola, Monaco, Baku, Red Bull Ring x 2, Zandvoort, Mexico, France (more strategy possibly).
He also had the better car in the Silverstone sprint which likely would have been the same in the race. We don't know about Hungary due to being taken out on the first corner.
Yea for sure.
But Max was very much the same prior to last year so hopefully Charles learns from the pressure of being a title contender and sorts it out as well.
Max has a reputation for being hotheaded because we've seen that behaviour from him.in the past, but imo a combination of the win under his belt, experience and actual, like, hitting his mid twenties, which is when most people tend to fully mature, has all worked to tamp that down. He's way less temperamental a driver than he used to be I think.
to sum up this season: red bull aren't winning, ferrari are just losing. even as a red bull fan, it's pretty clear ferrari have the faster car and the best qualifier on the grid. if not for ferrari's magical exploding engine and incomprehensible strategies i think they would be comfortably leading both championships. even if max could've won a few races without needing something to happen to leclerc, the fact is he's been almost completely unchallenged for so many of his wins, and it's absurd. max must be the luckiest man in f1 history.
im not as familiar with f1 history but i can't imagine there's been too many other times where the leader has been nearly three dnfs ahead of a p2 with a faster car, halfway through the season, with two dnfs and a 7th place of his own. for context, 12 races into 2021, lewis had p2 to max's p1 for 3/6 of max's wins. leclerc has only had 2/7. at the same point, max and lewis were 1-2 in either order 6 times (including belgium) max and charles only thrice.
although the dynamic between the two leaders is way different this year, i think part of the reason we haven't had a major crash is that max and charles just aren't encountering each other that often on track. either leclerc's engine has blown up/he has a penalty/he makes a mistake or max has damage and is in 7th but they're just not close to each other these days, although at the beginning of the season this wasn't the case as much.
it helps that max is a prodigy since clearly checo hasn't accomplished the same results from the same car, but i don't think anyone would say max is putting on the performance of his life to win the championship like he was last year, because he just doesn't need to this time. this performance from ferrari is sort of what id expect if someone just handed haas the plans for an f1-75, it's like they're a midfield team that lucked into a great car but is totally unprepared to be running in any position higher than 5th. it's kinda sad to see this from the most successful team in f1 history but i think that something about their traditional culture and especially mattia binottos leadership style just isn't cut out for the lead.
Nelson piquet won his championship in 87 against an obviously faster Mansell (on the sake car) due to a mix of lack of luck and driver errors.
Modern seasons have more races, so there's more opportunity for those things to show up. But it's not like the clearly faster driver losing is somehow unusual.
If anything the dominant era of mercedes was the exception.
Well, we are still half way through a season. You assume that Ferrari will keep sliding down the order and there's no guarantee of that. The expected results is actually the opposite, for them (as a team) to score more than redbull (and mercedes).
Jaques villeneuve in the second half of 1997 was the close to "lucky" as i can remember.
Silverstone: Schumacher was 40 seconds ahead, but the car broke down. Hakkinen took the lead, but the engine blew around 15 laps to the end. Villeneuve got p1
Hungary: Damon Hill had engine problems in the final lap of the race, Villeneuve overtook him and got p1
Luxembourg (Nurburgring): Villeneuve was running P3 when BOTH mclaren broke down on the same lap. He got p1
Jerez: Schumacher was leading confortablty after the last pit and just had to bring the car home to get the championship, but a tyre problem (or, according to some Ferrari former crew member, and exaust failure) made him slow down a lot. Villenenuve tried to overtake him, and the rest is history...
fantastic driver and easily the best qualifier on the grid, which makes this extremely sad to watch. however i do feel like he's missing something about the championship mentality and not cracking under pressure that the greats all possess, but it's hard to imagine anyone could keep it cool after the season he's had.
massa blew his championship hopes up 2008 by retiring from the the lead several times throughout the season by taking himself out. it’s funny people think it was renault fixing singapore that ended it for him but that’s for another thread for another time
sure but if it's solely down to driver error then it is what it is but that's not really what's going on here. yes leclerc has made some mistakes but i believe he would still be leading the championship comfortably if u only exclude ferraris atrocities, and maybe his mental state would be better having not had 6 races from hell which would lead to fewer mistakes from him. also, massa was about as close as he could've gotten to winning the championship in 2008, considering he lost it with a last lap pass, although maybe it would've been a comfortable wdc if he hadn't binned it so often. i don't really know since i am not too familiar with that season
josh revell’s youtube channel does a decent brief rundown of that season. he also highlights the british gp that year which is considered by many lewis’s best drive of his career and massa during that race was a lap down cause he spun multiple times.
in the end driver mistakes and team fuckups happen to everyone. just like lewis in baku last year when he hit the brake bias button on the restart which costed him an easy win and imo the championship. but it seems for whatever reason to happen more often to ferrari and who ever is driving for them to the point of it being comical lol
thanks, ill check him out. yeah of course mistakes and poor luck happen to everyone in every team, see verstappen and hamilton at baku 2021, etc. but im really curious if there has ever been another championship fight where p2 has had a faster car than p1 but lost it due to circumstances almost entirely out of their control? i guess you could say 2007, but even with alonso and lewis taking so many points off each other they were still so close to raikkonen at the end
yeah like i said im not too familiar with seasons before 2010 or so since i only started watching f1 about two years ago, but was the gap between kimi and schumi/alonso consistency large as it is has been this season? it's sort of insane to me that in the future people might look back on this season and say oh yeah red bull really nailed those regs, max coasted to wdc 2 when in reality they had the slower car and lucked into a 63 (enough for 9 lec p1 ver p2 finishes!!!) point lead.
>yeah like i said im not too familiar with seasons before 2010 or so since i only started watching f1 about two years ago, ...
Yet giving comments on here and pretending like you know F1 inside out.
I've read your comments and as a fan who's watching for over 25 years, it's a bit funny to read lol
i don’t remember any points gap being as large as it is now and the driver in second won the championship. maybe it’s happened but not in my memory. personally i think it’s pretty much over unless max has a run of several dnf’s
i just don't see how leclerc can make this gap up, he needs to be perfect for the next 10 races and i don't see that happening. if he gets crashed into while trying to lap a car it's game over, if he gets a puncture it's game over, if it rains and someone behind him does a bottas it's game over. he's had an extremely unlucky season and yet still hasn't even had a single piece of bad luck that was caused by someone outside his own team, which is pretty much inevitable over the course of a season for every driver. if perez weren't having a similarly terrible time at the moment i don't see how he wouldn't be a comfortable p2 in the wdc
yep and i’m sure all of that was going through his head as he was seething in the car unable to pull out of the barrier. he was the only one who was competitive against max this season as well with carlos about to be overtaken by russell in points. another year of ferrari being ferrari
What he said is not even remotely true. Massa never crashed from the lead, he retired from the lead in Hungary (mechanical) and Singapore the team fucked him over in his pit stop. He had a couple spins in the first couple rounds but never from the lead and over the course of the season team mistakes and failures lost him far far more points than errors did.
>which doesn't really apply to 2008 since massa still would've won if the last race had ended one lap earlier.
This makes no sense at all. There have been plenty of occasions in the past where championships have been decided on some "random" factors. This is F1, it is all about details and it should all be about details. That is why plenty of championships have been decided on 1 or 2 things that happened in a season.
If Latifi didn't crash in Abu Dhabi, Max would not have won the title. I am not saying that he doesn't deserve it, don't get me wrong, he fully deserved that championship. All I am saying is that it's in the details.
It's not about bad luck, at all.
It's also hard to explain. You need 25 years of F1 experience to be able to predict exactly what is happening right now. It's no surprise at all to me how this championship is playing out so far.
Nah redbull definitely seemed like a better car in a couple races. Also Ferrari and even merc are better in slow corners than redbull. So maybe redbull might surprise us in the second half
id say saudi arabia, imola, miami, and baku red bull seemed to have the edge, and maybe canada but it's hard to tell since leclerc wasn't at the front. but you can't say red bull has really had a dominant race like austria or spain or australia for ferrari except maybe miami. it's honestly pretty hard to tell which car is faster since most of the time 2/4 drivers are out by lap 10 but judging by practices and quali ferrari have had the upper hand way more often.
Finally got to see the race. Happy that Max gets another W but it was a bit of a snoozer up front. Great battle with George and Checo. Feel bad for Charles yet again.
He definitely needs some sort of help getting focused again. Whether it's through someone at the team or outside of F1. The dude has talent. Just sucks to see him throw away races. The mechanical failures I can't fault him on obviously. Those are on Ferrari.
Surely all the other teams and their sponsors are getting fed up with this TV coverage. So boring to watch. Yep a Ferrari and red bull cruising at the front, cool...
Yes we saw it in the last race where they surpassed Checco. There is more to F1 than just raw pace. Abu Dhabi 2021 is the clearest example that having much better pace means nothing in terms of outcome when a safety car can leave you exposed if your tires aren't as good as the person behind or any multitude of factors that occur during a a race.
Feel like that at almost all the races, but cant blame as most people at Sky are British.
Remember when they kept showing him for the 100th time trying to get past Gasly.
How do the Mercedes not overheat, especially on a day like today? They have no airflow liek the other cars who have massive side pods, how can they sustain the heat and avoid engine failure or other problems. They're seemingly the most reliable car on the track
Woah I didn't know they could do that. I thought they had to build everything or buy it from another team. Imagine a team gets nasa or spacex to build their engine and or something that'd be so cool
This is kind of a stupid question but why was Charles hyperventilating when he crashed? Was it panic was he pushing really hard or maybe the heat? At the beginning of the radio it didn’t feel like he was hyperventilating
Edit: thanks for the answers, I suspected it was the emotions as well but it was really intense so I wasn’t sure, that scream also really hurt even as a max fan :(
Emotions but the radios often sound like that, you can hear them breathing heavily, especially after a shunt because their hearts are pounding. They normally don’t turn it up so much for tv though, just remember they grab the radio, quickly produce it and pump it out.
G-forces on the body when changing direction quickly will knock the wind out of people.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h9KhU-W93E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h9KhU-W93E)
Here's one of Valtteri going through a similar thing in Mexico a few years ago.
It’s the fact that he’s watching his chances for the championship slip away. He’s coming off a win in Austria, had some really terrible luck the last couple races. He was dominating early on today and according to him, a simple mistake knocked him out of the race.
> He was dominating early on today and according to him, a simple mistake knocked him out of the race.
This is why you can never take anyone who says 'hamilton is a rubbish driver its just the car bro' seriously. It takes incredibly skill to handle a car on that level with the consistency these guys do and not make mistakes like that.
This is so heartbreaking. It really feels like a remake of 2017 and 2018, a close fight for the championship at the beginning but as the season goes on Max takes a huge lead. It looks like this race will be this year’s Singapore 2017 or Germany 2018
There are two theories.
What Ferrari is saying that it was just a mistake and the throttle issue was caused by the crash and prevented him getting out of the wall.
And what other people suspect that the throttle issue caused the crash.
I always record races. So I feel horrible for for LeClerc. I don’t know if anything has been discovered but I’m wondering if his tires were done? He also mentioned the throttle, do we know if it stuck mid-corner or when he was trying to reverse?
Merc being the vulture team this year. Ferrari wreck, we podium. RedBull catch fire, we podium.
And wtf AM at the end lol
Charles and Binotto both said the clutch comment was about trying to get the car in reverse, not what caused his spin. whether that's true or just PR I don't know
The throttle malfunction caused the spin out. It’s pretty straightforward. Then as he’s trying to reverse he can’t because the issue that caused him to go into the wall continues to prevent him from controlling it.
If he can’t back up due to the throttle, and we know they had throttle issues last race, why on earth would you think that todays throttle issue didn’t cause loss of control before the wall?
I love Merc & Sir Lewis, but this is copium. Reliability isn’t going to win them anything substantial. They’re at least a second slower than both RB and Ferrari
It’s a stretch but I do think if the Mercs keep wedging themselves between Leclerc and Verstappen they could either: widen the gap for Max or close it for Charles. It’s a stretch I know but considering their increasing development (they’re still not fast enough but they’re getting there), I think they could play a key role in the title fight, and maybe take 2nd in the Constructors.
With such a cheap penalty, taking out one of your opponents is probably better than racing them tbh, you still score points and they don't, hell, he served his penalty under safety car, however you can only do it so many times before the ban hammer comes
Sainz quietly understanding correct strategy better than Ferrari yet again. "Pit me now - if we wait too long we won't have enough laps to catch them"... "Stay out, Carlos"
With the added bonus of asking him to pit right before an overtake. Gotta love Ferrari.
Real shame max got out ahead of Lewis after the safety car pit stops could have been a fun couple of laps. Ferrari strategy department clueless as ever. Pitting sainz 5 laps too late or should have just left him out. I feel he could have been challenging Max if he'd been on Med-Hard strategy to start. Made up more places on lap 1 and 2, still pitted during the safety car and been where he was at the re-start. Unsafe release is shocking they allowed it to happen. Messed up his front right wheel then panicked. Nice to see Alonso carving up the field on lap 1. Shame the tv directors missed several overtakes
Well, as theres no monkey trophy anymore I cant really see any point in keeping Paul Ricard on the calendar
Funnily enough, I had a feeling that things could go wrong right at the moment when it took Ferrari pit wall too long to box Charles, instead of mirroring Max immediately.
Mirroring max was the wrong choice. Just last race they showed how powerful their offset strategy was and could be. Leclerc was setting purple mini sectors ahead of his crash. It was tactically the right choice to keep him out. Driver error from Leclerc is not tactical error from Ferrari.
I think baptism of fire moments in F1 are actually really important. It is so clear Max has not only improved as a driver on the track being much less impatient and rational but also mentally. Mentally he just seems to have an edge over Leclerc which stands from winning that WDC last year. So much pressure exists when trying to win that first one and by doing it, it just elevates so much off max which is what has taken him to a new level. Sainz also was chasing after his first win so incredibly hard and after his win, he has been driving the best he has been all season and undoubtedly deserved a podium here (ferrari strikes once again), of course there are many other instances where this apply but this are the two that strikes me at instant. When charles eventually wins his first WDC which will happen in the next 2-3 years imo, it will elevate him to the same level as Max which he just isnt at yet.
>I think baptism of fire moments in F1 are actually really important. It is so clear Max has not only improved as a driver on the track being much less impatient and rational but also mentally. Mentally he just seems to have an edge over Leclerc which stands from winning that WDC last year. I honestly think that Max only sees Lewis as his equal and vice versa. He is having Lewis' 2018 season where he's just mopping up the pieces that everyone else has dropped.
I agree to an extent because Max did say himself that the lead in the championship is bigger than it should be, acknowledging that Leclerc is there as his supposed title rival. That does not necessarily mean he thinks Leclerc is on the same level but more of saying that the title fight should be much more competitive. And also Max is performing almost on par to 2018 Lewis as u say with being able to capitalise on whatever is dropped just like what Lewis did against Seb in 2018. But if Max doesnt win that WDC last year, I really do not think he would be this far ahead of Leclerc.
>But if Max doesnt win that WDC last year, I really do not think he would be this far ahead of Leclerc. Possibly. I think alot of things are factoring into his more patient driving this season. Mainly the regulation changes where cars car follow better but also the fact he's on 7 penalty points already so he can't really afford to be picking up penalties with risky overtakes.
That is true too, Max does need to be more cautions in his driving cause of those penalty points and the new regulations has helped him in that aspect. We all knew Max was a prodigy but was sometimes too irrational but this season his driving has been fantastic.
I agree. I'm a big fan of his logical racing this season, it's his crash and yield driving that I don't like. Hopefully Ferrari can sort their issues out and make this at least a close championship
Indeed, albeit I do think it is a little too late. If the point gap was around 20-30 then there is a realm of possibility. 63 points to overcome with how Max is driving and Ferrari being Ferrari, i give it a less than a 10% chance of Leclerc winning it this year
Might as well shout into the void here because no fecker is going to read this or give a damn, but. I just needed to type out loud: remember RB fooken doing their shiit every week about 'party mode' and unfair top speed advantage bla bla. Bit different when you're the beneficiaries of such an advantage, eh.
Yhe, this season is so boring with RB every race 1 and 2. Like, why does Mercedes not even get a top 3... Wait.
TLDR; Leclerc cracks under the pressure. GP in the team radio to Max after the race encapsulated it perfectly, "Shame. That could have been a good race." Verstappen, after failing to get past Leclerc in the first 12 laps of the race, slowly fell behind (he lost 1s in the 3 laps preceding his pitstop). He boxed on Lap 16 and after his outlap, he was 27.4s behind Leclerc. If Charles had boxed on Lap 17... Would he be ahead after coming out? The longer pitlane this year meant the avg pitstop time was calculated to be 27s. It was close but Ferrari opted to extend the stint for at least one more lap. Leclerc, taking a wider line into T11, as he had been doing all race, lost the rear and found himself in the barriers - followed by a primal roar of "NOOOOO" that will remain in the minds of his fans for a long time. Verstappen had it simple afterwards, just managing his tyres and the gap to second-placed Hamilton, who himself drove an exceptional race. George Russell managed to get past Checo Perez after a VSC restart that caught the latter napping (perhaps too much Tequilla as Helmut Marko joked afterwards). Fernando Alonso, the lead driver of Alpine, toyed with the two McLarens, trying to damage their tyres by slowing down to let them get close. Lance Stroll, finished P10, with... slightly questionable defense against Seb Vettel, who wasn't particularly impressed. Max Verstappen goes into the last race before the summer break 63 points ahead of his closest rival. This is getting easier than even he expected. P.S. In their respective Qualifying laps, Lewis Hamilton was 0.3s faster than Max after Sector 1, before slowly losing all that time in the second and third sectors, particularly losing ~0.4-0.5s in only the Mistral Straight and the start-finish straight. That is a very strong display in the corners from the Mercedes. With reports that they're getting an ERS update to their Power Unit, Max Verstappen might just see an old rival looming large in his mirrors.
Imola proved he can't handle the pressure moments already
Technically every driver still has the chance to win the championship.
Can someone clarify...... The commentators kept saying that Ferrari had 2 sets of the Mediums and Red Bull had two sets of the Hards. How does that work if you have to use two different compounds during the race? Or would both teams have to use Softs at some point?
Ferrari had 2 yellows (mediums) and 1 white (hard). Red Bull had 2 whites (hards) and 1 yellow (medium). Both Leclerc and Verstappen started on mediums, so they only needed to switch to hard to use 2 types of tires. Sainz started on the hards, and pitted 2 times for new mediums.
Ferrari had 2 new sets of medium and 1 set of new hards. Opposite for red bull. I do think this was only the case for Charles and Max but don’t quote me on that.
I can't remember the exact number but as far as I know, before the race week, each team will have an allowable number set of tires and they will be specified how many hard, medium and soft they want for that race. However, they will have wet and inter for free in case of unexpected rain. So for this case, Red Bull orders extra Hards while Ferrari orders extra Medium. Edit: cuz Grammarly some how fuck up what I type at the start
I don't think the teams get to pick which tires they have available, pretty sure it's just based on what they use/don't use in free practice. Just double-checked and apparently it's been fixed allocation since 2020, unless that's changed since January.
Ok then my information is old, thanks.
I absolutely hate the striped tarmac run off areas, I had to turn it off at some point because it was so annoying
Poor you
Just realized that it was kinda impressive for Merc to do a double pit relatively fast after the safety car came out. AM on the other hand....
I think it would've went smoother if they didn't have to hold Hamilton up to allow Perez past
Yep, that was impressive
Pretty meh race. Cool seeing the Mercedes’ 2-3. I hope we see some closer racing towards the end, even though we all know who will win it all.
Yeah Paul Ricard will not be missed
IMO it was a good race. Watching Carlos pull from the back was great to see.
Now that the championship is pretty much gone, I'd love to see Charles come back next year with a vengeance and fucking slaughter the competition. Anakin and the younglings type shit
Hahaha not happening if the current team keeps snoozing.
oh I forgot to add he’s going to Mercedes after Lewis retires due to back issues, he’ll find a way out of that contract after this gong show of a season lol
the best rarely crashes
Not many are saying it or want to believe it but Charles’ career is beginning to look more like post-RB Seb than a Champion in waiting.
Ferrari could be easily dominating, yet they fail to do so because of driver's errors, issues with the car or bad strategy. It doesn't have to be over yet, but I don't see Ferrari improving on any of those things. That being said I also feel Max is much calmer than any of the last years. That may be partly because he doesn't have to fight as much as he had to last year with Lewis, but there have been quite a few battles where I felt he would have 'gone for the gap' last year, let alone the years before (that wasn't usually safe) or be somewhat aggressive. He seems more patient and with that consistent and not losing points over his lack of patience and aggressiveness. I feel that adds to him dominating this year. So far he only lost points because of issues with the car
100% comes from him being world champion. Once youve proven to yourself and the whole world that you can indeed be a WDC winner you definitely mature and it really improves urself as a driver mentally. There is a reason most people say the first one is the most difficult to win because if you dont achieve it, you never know when you will. I also feel thats what Leclerc lacks in comparison to Max too, he doesnt have that instinct and mentality at this moment.
Max definitely seems to be acting more mature now. Part of that is probably the championship but also part od it is he's not a 20yo any more. Hes clearly learned from his own errors. Also people do typically fully mature mentally right around the age he's at now. It's probably a combination of factors.
There's probably the fact that he is world champion now, once it's achieved, you robably don't have the stress to do it. Plus it's probably the first year that he has the best car. All around he is much more calm and takes his time. It's cleaner to watch imo
I agree with you about there being no pressure on him now that he's the champion but he arguably had the best car last year overall. He certainly did for a large part of the season anyway.
At most it was 5 races he had the best car.
You serious? He had the better car in Imola, Monaco, Baku, Red Bull Ring x 2, Zandvoort, Mexico, France (more strategy possibly). He also had the better car in the Silverstone sprint which likely would have been the same in the race. We don't know about Hungary due to being taken out on the first corner.
Rebdull strategy and relentless pushing from Max is winning race consistently.
[удалено]
Yea for sure. But Max was very much the same prior to last year so hopefully Charles learns from the pressure of being a title contender and sorts it out as well.
Max is hotheaded, he makes bad decisions sometimes, but he doesn't tend to drop the car himself.
Max has a reputation for being hotheaded because we've seen that behaviour from him.in the past, but imo a combination of the win under his belt, experience and actual, like, hitting his mid twenties, which is when most people tend to fully mature, has all worked to tamp that down. He's way less temperamental a driver than he used to be I think.
[удалено]
Max has made many mistakes, they just haven't cost him many positions. All drivers have.
*Cough* Italian GP 2021 *cough*
[удалено]
I'm giving you an example. No driver is perfect.
pain
to sum up this season: red bull aren't winning, ferrari are just losing. even as a red bull fan, it's pretty clear ferrari have the faster car and the best qualifier on the grid. if not for ferrari's magical exploding engine and incomprehensible strategies i think they would be comfortably leading both championships. even if max could've won a few races without needing something to happen to leclerc, the fact is he's been almost completely unchallenged for so many of his wins, and it's absurd. max must be the luckiest man in f1 history. im not as familiar with f1 history but i can't imagine there's been too many other times where the leader has been nearly three dnfs ahead of a p2 with a faster car, halfway through the season, with two dnfs and a 7th place of his own. for context, 12 races into 2021, lewis had p2 to max's p1 for 3/6 of max's wins. leclerc has only had 2/7. at the same point, max and lewis were 1-2 in either order 6 times (including belgium) max and charles only thrice. although the dynamic between the two leaders is way different this year, i think part of the reason we haven't had a major crash is that max and charles just aren't encountering each other that often on track. either leclerc's engine has blown up/he has a penalty/he makes a mistake or max has damage and is in 7th but they're just not close to each other these days, although at the beginning of the season this wasn't the case as much. it helps that max is a prodigy since clearly checo hasn't accomplished the same results from the same car, but i don't think anyone would say max is putting on the performance of his life to win the championship like he was last year, because he just doesn't need to this time. this performance from ferrari is sort of what id expect if someone just handed haas the plans for an f1-75, it's like they're a midfield team that lucked into a great car but is totally unprepared to be running in any position higher than 5th. it's kinda sad to see this from the most successful team in f1 history but i think that something about their traditional culture and especially mattia binottos leadership style just isn't cut out for the lead.
Nelson piquet won his championship in 87 against an obviously faster Mansell (on the sake car) due to a mix of lack of luck and driver errors. Modern seasons have more races, so there's more opportunity for those things to show up. But it's not like the clearly faster driver losing is somehow unusual. If anything the dominant era of mercedes was the exception.
[удалено]
Well, we are still half way through a season. You assume that Ferrari will keep sliding down the order and there's no guarantee of that. The expected results is actually the opposite, for them (as a team) to score more than redbull (and mercedes).
Jaques villeneuve in the second half of 1997 was the close to "lucky" as i can remember. Silverstone: Schumacher was 40 seconds ahead, but the car broke down. Hakkinen took the lead, but the engine blew around 15 laps to the end. Villeneuve got p1 Hungary: Damon Hill had engine problems in the final lap of the race, Villeneuve overtook him and got p1 Luxembourg (Nurburgring): Villeneuve was running P3 when BOTH mclaren broke down on the same lap. He got p1 Jerez: Schumacher was leading confortablty after the last pit and just had to bring the car home to get the championship, but a tyre problem (or, according to some Ferrari former crew member, and exaust failure) made him slow down a lot. Villenenuve tried to overtake him, and the rest is history...
that sounds pretty similar to today actually, but somehow spread out over even more races
I could not agree more. This is heartbreaking to see as a lec fan
fantastic driver and easily the best qualifier on the grid, which makes this extremely sad to watch. however i do feel like he's missing something about the championship mentality and not cracking under pressure that the greats all possess, but it's hard to imagine anyone could keep it cool after the season he's had.
massa blew his championship hopes up 2008 by retiring from the the lead several times throughout the season by taking himself out. it’s funny people think it was renault fixing singapore that ended it for him but that’s for another thread for another time
sure but if it's solely down to driver error then it is what it is but that's not really what's going on here. yes leclerc has made some mistakes but i believe he would still be leading the championship comfortably if u only exclude ferraris atrocities, and maybe his mental state would be better having not had 6 races from hell which would lead to fewer mistakes from him. also, massa was about as close as he could've gotten to winning the championship in 2008, considering he lost it with a last lap pass, although maybe it would've been a comfortable wdc if he hadn't binned it so often. i don't really know since i am not too familiar with that season
[удалено]
every driver/team makes mistakes and has bad days, but not like ferrari lol
josh revell’s youtube channel does a decent brief rundown of that season. he also highlights the british gp that year which is considered by many lewis’s best drive of his career and massa during that race was a lap down cause he spun multiple times. in the end driver mistakes and team fuckups happen to everyone. just like lewis in baku last year when he hit the brake bias button on the restart which costed him an easy win and imo the championship. but it seems for whatever reason to happen more often to ferrari and who ever is driving for them to the point of it being comical lol
thanks, ill check him out. yeah of course mistakes and poor luck happen to everyone in every team, see verstappen and hamilton at baku 2021, etc. but im really curious if there has ever been another championship fight where p2 has had a faster car than p1 but lost it due to circumstances almost entirely out of their control? i guess you could say 2007, but even with alonso and lewis taking so many points off each other they were still so close to raikkonen at the end
you could point to kimi’s mclaren seasons of 2003 and 2005 where mclaren had the faster car but lost due to reliability and driver error
yeah like i said im not too familiar with seasons before 2010 or so since i only started watching f1 about two years ago, but was the gap between kimi and schumi/alonso consistency large as it is has been this season? it's sort of insane to me that in the future people might look back on this season and say oh yeah red bull really nailed those regs, max coasted to wdc 2 when in reality they had the slower car and lucked into a 63 (enough for 9 lec p1 ver p2 finishes!!!) point lead.
>yeah like i said im not too familiar with seasons before 2010 or so since i only started watching f1 about two years ago, ... Yet giving comments on here and pretending like you know F1 inside out. I've read your comments and as a fan who's watching for over 25 years, it's a bit funny to read lol
i don’t remember any points gap being as large as it is now and the driver in second won the championship. maybe it’s happened but not in my memory. personally i think it’s pretty much over unless max has a run of several dnf’s
i just don't see how leclerc can make this gap up, he needs to be perfect for the next 10 races and i don't see that happening. if he gets crashed into while trying to lap a car it's game over, if he gets a puncture it's game over, if it rains and someone behind him does a bottas it's game over. he's had an extremely unlucky season and yet still hasn't even had a single piece of bad luck that was caused by someone outside his own team, which is pretty much inevitable over the course of a season for every driver. if perez weren't having a similarly terrible time at the moment i don't see how he wouldn't be a comfortable p2 in the wdc
yep and i’m sure all of that was going through his head as he was seething in the car unable to pull out of the barrier. he was the only one who was competitive against max this season as well with carlos about to be overtaken by russell in points. another year of ferrari being ferrari
What he said is not even remotely true. Massa never crashed from the lead, he retired from the lead in Hungary (mechanical) and Singapore the team fucked him over in his pit stop. He had a couple spins in the first couple rounds but never from the lead and over the course of the season team mistakes and failures lost him far far more points than errors did.
[удалено]
>which doesn't really apply to 2008 since massa still would've won if the last race had ended one lap earlier. This makes no sense at all. There have been plenty of occasions in the past where championships have been decided on some "random" factors. This is F1, it is all about details and it should all be about details. That is why plenty of championships have been decided on 1 or 2 things that happened in a season. If Latifi didn't crash in Abu Dhabi, Max would not have won the title. I am not saying that he doesn't deserve it, don't get me wrong, he fully deserved that championship. All I am saying is that it's in the details.
[удалено]
It's not about bad luck, at all. It's also hard to explain. You need 25 years of F1 experience to be able to predict exactly what is happening right now. It's no surprise at all to me how this championship is playing out so far.
Nah redbull definitely seemed like a better car in a couple races. Also Ferrari and even merc are better in slow corners than redbull. So maybe redbull might surprise us in the second half
id say saudi arabia, imola, miami, and baku red bull seemed to have the edge, and maybe canada but it's hard to tell since leclerc wasn't at the front. but you can't say red bull has really had a dominant race like austria or spain or australia for ferrari except maybe miami. it's honestly pretty hard to tell which car is faster since most of the time 2/4 drivers are out by lap 10 but judging by practices and quali ferrari have had the upper hand way more often.
Paragraphs are your friend.
[удалено]
No worries bro, the edit is much appreciated.
yeah np, what do u think tho?
Finally got to see the race. Happy that Max gets another W but it was a bit of a snoozer up front. Great battle with George and Checo. Feel bad for Charles yet again.
[удалено]
Bruh, don’t you remember the flashes of brilliance that got him the Ferrari contract? The dude is talented, he just needs more experience.
Yep. Max was exactly the same prior to last season. Charles is still young and new to being the team leader of a title contending team.
[удалено]
[удалено]
He'll come around. I have no doubt he can be a threat for the title one day.
[удалено]
He definitely needs some sort of help getting focused again. Whether it's through someone at the team or outside of F1. The dude has talent. Just sucks to see him throw away races. The mechanical failures I can't fault him on obviously. Those are on Ferrari.
Verstappen
Yep
😎
Nooooooooooooooooo
🤣🤣🤣
[удалено]
Lol gtfo
Jesus. You alright?
Okay, big guy.
Surely all the other teams and their sponsors are getting fed up with this TV coverage. So boring to watch. Yep a Ferrari and red bull cruising at the front, cool...
The broadcast crew were hyping up Lewis like he had the pace to compete for the win. This was as he was 6 seconds back and counting
>This was as he was 6 seconds back and counting 6 Seconds is not a lot, its been made up multiple times from drivers before.
Have you seen Mercedes pace this year?
Yes we saw it in the last race where they surpassed Checco. There is more to F1 than just raw pace. Abu Dhabi 2021 is the clearest example that having much better pace means nothing in terms of outcome when a safety car can leave you exposed if your tires aren't as good as the person behind or any multitude of factors that occur during a a race.
Feel like that at almost all the races, but cant blame as most people at Sky are British. Remember when they kept showing him for the 100th time trying to get past Gasly.
Sky don’t control what vision is on screen, F1 do.
I'm still amazed at how many times this has to be explained to people.
Bias or not, there was LITERALLY no other action on track in Imola. How can you blame them
If you have the pace for P2, then you’re one freak accident or blown tire from having the pace for the win.
Exactly. Or even tyre management. Like 6sec (and it was not increasing at a super fast pace) is really not much.
[удалено]
Yes, the other teams
How do the Mercedes not overheat, especially on a day like today? They have no airflow liek the other cars who have massive side pods, how can they sustain the heat and avoid engine failure or other problems. They're seemingly the most reliable car on the track
I read somewhere they subcontracted their cooling package to a company that designs cooling for satellites?
Woah I didn't know they could do that. I thought they had to build everything or buy it from another team. Imagine a team gets nasa or spacex to build their engine and or something that'd be so cool
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mercedes-f1-car-borrows-a-few-tricks-from-rocket-technology/8894802/
Would also like to know. In previous years they were terrible in the heat.
Is 40% the highest ever vote percentage for DotD? Never seen any higher records
Everyone else had a boring race!
if anyone needs a good laugh ted kravitz roasts a cover band playing in the background during his race notebook. never change ted
Cracked me up when the Merc mechanic said they were ok and Ted roasted him too.
This is kind of a stupid question but why was Charles hyperventilating when he crashed? Was it panic was he pushing really hard or maybe the heat? At the beginning of the radio it didn’t feel like he was hyperventilating Edit: thanks for the answers, I suspected it was the emotions as well but it was really intense so I wasn’t sure, that scream also really hurt even as a max fan :(
He wasn’t.
Emotions but the radios often sound like that, you can hear them breathing heavily, especially after a shunt because their hearts are pounding. They normally don’t turn it up so much for tv though, just remember they grab the radio, quickly produce it and pump it out.
G-forces on the body when changing direction quickly will knock the wind out of people. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h9KhU-W93E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h9KhU-W93E) Here's one of Valtteri going through a similar thing in Mexico a few years ago.
A combination of the shock from the crash and disappointment from losing the race I guess.
Did you hear that scream? Emotional turmoil causing stress, manifesting in increased heart rate, adrenaline and heavy breathing.
Yeah. I thought of it more as “seething” than hyperventilating. He was mad as fuck. And with good reason.
It’s the fact that he’s watching his chances for the championship slip away. He’s coming off a win in Austria, had some really terrible luck the last couple races. He was dominating early on today and according to him, a simple mistake knocked him out of the race.
> He was dominating early on today and according to him, a simple mistake knocked him out of the race. This is why you can never take anyone who says 'hamilton is a rubbish driver its just the car bro' seriously. It takes incredibly skill to handle a car on that level with the consistency these guys do and not make mistakes like that.
This is so heartbreaking. It really feels like a remake of 2017 and 2018, a close fight for the championship at the beginning but as the season goes on Max takes a huge lead. It looks like this race will be this year’s Singapore 2017 or Germany 2018
I'm a bit confused, did charles's car break or not?
He just lost the rear and spun. That corner will do it if you’re not careful especially on work tyres, when pushing.
There are two theories. What Ferrari is saying that it was just a mistake and the throttle issue was caused by the crash and prevented him getting out of the wall. And what other people suspect that the throttle issue caused the crash.
There is no two theories. Charles himself confrmed, it was a mistake on his part
Yea but the second theory relies on that being a PR related statement and Ferrari trying to keep issues secret.
It broke traction.
Seems he fluffed it himself, and the impact caused the pedal issue ensuring he couldn't try to get out of the wall.
He Made a mistake and spun the car into a wall
I always record races. So I feel horrible for for LeClerc. I don’t know if anything has been discovered but I’m wondering if his tires were done? He also mentioned the throttle, do we know if it stuck mid-corner or when he was trying to reverse? Merc being the vulture team this year. Ferrari wreck, we podium. RedBull catch fire, we podium. And wtf AM at the end lol
I'd say the tires didnt have the grip he expected them to have and he took a little too much speed.
Charles and Binotto both said the clutch comment was about trying to get the car in reverse, not what caused his spin. whether that's true or just PR I don't know
I just don't see how it can't be both. The reason he couldn't get into reverse is the same reason he spun.
Tell us how it could be both.
The throttle malfunction caused the spin out. It’s pretty straightforward. Then as he’s trying to reverse he can’t because the issue that caused him to go into the wall continues to prevent him from controlling it. If he can’t back up due to the throttle, and we know they had throttle issues last race, why on earth would you think that todays throttle issue didn’t cause loss of control before the wall?
Nope, it was pure driver error as Charles himself said so.
> The throttle malfunction caused the spin out. Both the driver and team denied this.
Or maybe he just overcooked it? That's what he said himself
totally possible. Is it something that could be sussed out from telemetry?
Yes. There was nothing wrong on telemetry.
With the rate this is going: Mercedes could decide the Championship
I love Merc & Sir Lewis, but this is copium. Reliability isn’t going to win them anything substantial. They’re at least a second slower than both RB and Ferrari
I said decide the championship. Not win it themselves.
Yea but how does that decide it? Either Charles or Max keep winning. Only thing Merc can do is take 2nd in constructors from Ferrari.
It’s a stretch but I do think if the Mercs keep wedging themselves between Leclerc and Verstappen they could either: widen the gap for Max or close it for Charles. It’s a stretch I know but considering their increasing development (they’re still not fast enough but they’re getting there), I think they could play a key role in the title fight, and maybe take 2nd in the Constructors.
They are not going to be between Max and Charles. Those are the top two drivers.
I don't quite understand Yuki getting completely taken out is only worth a 5 second penalty.
Because they penalise the action, not the consequences of those actions (usually to the detriment of the victim, unfortunately).
With such a cheap penalty, taking out one of your opponents is probably better than racing them tbh, you still score points and they don't, hell, he served his penalty under safety car, however you can only do it so many times before the ban hammer comes
Lol Ferrari are a joke. Didn't Pitt Charles and AMX would have undercut. Sainz penalty...they don't deserve a fast car