2022 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, May 20 - 22

[Hoffman900]

What was also nice, NO VSC or SC today, so no one got screwed by bad luck.
Errors and reliability were the only to variables.

Gusts of wind, DRS issues, being crashed into, and engine failures are also bad luck.

[ringo]

Seems the mercedes had overheating issues similar to Australia. They need to see whats going on under the hood.

Sainz race was relatively poor. I think he just needs to relax.

Great racing from Russel. The guy js the real deal. Very hungry driver!! If mercedes is not careful Ferrai will put him as Charles Teammate.
Noris doing a good job despite being sick.

The young drivers are doing well overall. As much as people bash Hamilton they need to look at the beat down the older drivers are getting from the young guys.
Alonso, Riciardo, Vettel, these guys are getting smashed. Hamilton at least has the pace.
He is doing well at his age to even be as quick as he is and having the race stamina.
But Riciardo's stock as no point of recovery. He might as well let another young guy get that seat. His career is done.

[101FlyingDutchman]

I’m extremely relieved these new regs are making the racing closer in general. Now for Merc to join the fight at the front. Stunning

[jz11]

The guy got hit on lap 1 , got his diffuser damaged and was almost a minute behind, everything that was happening and knowing how difficult it is to pass on this track, thinking about retiring the car to save the engine wasn't a bad idea....

save the engine for what exactly?

the purpose of his run today was to see how much they can push their insufficient cooling package they had on today, that is the reason why they were so fast at times today, because the reduced drag made the car look quicker that it really is under normal circumstances, perhaps they gambled on the weather, or safety car periods, that is what the slower team has to do and which they didn't have to for what - 7-8 years?

the team shouldn't play carrot on a stick with their driver to get him going, especially since he isn't in the championship run, his job is to give it all to let the team figure the car out quicker - today they learned something about their cooling, which wouldn't be very easy to simulate in the factory (not to mention the expense), it was basically free testing-development work for him today which he tried to pass on

[NicoS]

What was also nice, NO VSC or SC today, so no one got screwed by bad luck.
Errors and reliability were the only to variables.

Gusts of wind, DRS issues, being crashed into, and engine failures are also bad luck.

driver errors, Gusts only effected two drivers...
DRS failure = reliability
Engine failure = reliability.

[Hoffman900]

What was also nice, NO VSC or SC today, so no one got screwed by bad luck.
Errors and reliability were the only to variables.

Gusts of wind, DRS issues, being crashed into, and engine failures are also bad luck.

driver errors, Gusts only effected two drivers...
DRS failure = reliability
Engine failure = reliability.

And component failure sometimes comes down to luck.

You certainly post like someone who only found this site in 2022. It's a shame what this place has become. (l'm a long time lurker from 2010 era under a different username).

[ringo]

Gasly has been top notch since 2020. He has done enough to be in redbull.

Gasly was beaten by Tsunoda in this very race. It would be a huge risk for Red Bull to take Gasly again -- they would look so stupid if they put Gasly back in and Gasly was off the pace again. IMO Gasly has not demonstrated talent on the Verstappen or Russell level, it's more likely that Gasly is similar to Fisichella or Frentzen, an impressive at times but inconsistent midfield driver IMO (and I say that as a big Fisico fan!).

Fisichella seemed really good, had beaten so many teammates, but put him against Alonso and it was a disaster.

It's very likely Gasly would have upset Max were he to return to redbull after gaining a better understand of F1 in Alpha Tauri and getting a race win.

I can guarantee that the reason the Gasly is not back in RBR is not because they think Gasly will be too fast! Quite the opposite unfortunately.

There's zero evidence that Gasly would be extremely fast in the RBR. They put Gasly in the RBR and Gasly was terrible, and worse Gasly offended the engineers by not following their setup instructions.

If RBR thought Gasly was really fast, they would put him in the car in an instant. Many people thought Sainz was really fast and it was silly for RBR to overlook him, but Sainz's poor performance against Leclerc tends to suggest that sadly maybe RBR were right.

George manhandled him today with very great defense. And we have seen Charles outmaneuvre Max.

George is on the same level as Charles and Max. There is little evidence that Pierre is. Pierre isn't even comfortably ahead of Yuki all the time.

Then why are redbull keeping Gasly under their control?
If he was so bad then why not let him go like Kyvaat and Sainz?
They clearly see value in him.
I am not saying he is going to beat Max. I am just saying that he will not be slow and he will make Max uncomfotable. Redbull simply has no interest in having two top drivers
It is against their business model, their operations model and even their development model. They make the car to suit one guy, they run strategy to suit one guy and they even release new parts to suit their #1 guy.
It is just not in their DNA.
So today was not a suprise. It's just u fortunate Checo has been neutered by his own team; despite being the more clinical driver today.

[silver]

Gusts of wind, DRS issues, being crashed into, and engine failures are also bad luck.

driver errors, Gusts only effected two drivers...
DRS failure = reliability
Engine failure = reliability.

And component failure sometimes comes down to luck.

You certainly post like someone who only found this site in 2022. It's a shame what this place has become. (l'm a long time lurker from 2010 era under a different username).

Red Bull had a problem with the DRS actuator since yesterday and even before going to the grid, they were trying to repair it. As they didn't have any spare of the same spec, they had no choice but to continue with a known problem. That's not luck. That's life now with budget restrictions. It has happened to Verstappen today, similar issues might happen to Ferrari or Mercedes drivers down the season.

[cplchanb]

I think the driver pair is the same as with Bottas. Close in qualifying, but Hamilton just finds something special over a race distance. Presumably part of that is tyre management.

Are you sure? I think if that wouldbe true HAM first needs to show he can finish in front of his team mate.

to be fair we already saw that he was leading Russ in 3 races before the VSC/SC killed his race.

[cplchanb]

driver errors, Gusts only effected two drivers...
DRS failure = reliability
Engine failure = reliability.

And component failure sometimes comes down to luck.

You certainly post like someone who only found this site in 2022. It's a shame what this place has become. (l'm a long time lurker from 2010 era under a different username).

Red Bull had a problem with the DRS actuator since yesterday and even before going to the grid, they were trying to repair it. As they didn't have any spare of the same spec, they had no choice but to continue with a known problem. That's not luck. That's life now with budget restrictions. It has happened to Verstappen today, similar issues might happen to Ferrari or Mercedes drivers down the season.

more like they had the DRS problem since their triple header last year lol

[JordanMugen]

The point of the matter is the team formerly known as Jaguar is now Team Max with Redbull Energy drinks as title sponsor.

That's true, but Red Bull Racing put their faith in Max because he gets the job done most of the time.

Ricciardo was there as equal number one, he was provided equal equipment but not equal political support, so he decided to leave... Which is fine, that's up to him. That was a shame for Jaguar/RBR fans, Honda fans and Ricciardo fans, but it is what it is.

At least RBR showed they have the willingness to promote Bernoldi ASAP, to promote Klein ASAP, to promote Ricciardo ASAP, to promote Kvyat ASAP, to promote Verstappen ASAP, to promote Gasly ASAP, to promote Albon ASAP etc (indeed to the point where they ran out of their own juniors to promote, though it's true that Coulthard and Webber did blockade the RBR seats for a while which was unfortunate for Buemi, Vergne and Alguersauri!).

It is against their business model, their operations model and even their development model. They make the car to suit one guy, they run strategy to suit one guy and they even release new parts to suit their #1 guy.
It is just not in their DNA.

I'm just not sure that's correct. If anyone was RBR #1 driver it was Sebastian Vettel, yet Ricciardo beat him with three wins to zero.

If Newey, Wache and Monaghan feel corner entry oversteer will make the car fast they will leave it in the car, they are not going to dial that out just because Vettel or Gasly don't like that if the car is already fast inclusive of the corner entry oversteer.

Then why are redbull keeping Gasly under their control?
If he was so bad then why not let him go like Kyvaat and Sainz?
They clearly see value in him.

Midfield teams need solid lead midfield drivers I guess, be it Magnussen or Gasly or Bottas etc, so Gasly is the one for AlphaTauri. Once it's clear that Tsunoda is up to being AlphaTauri lead driver, which is starting to become the case, then they'll bring in Lawson, Vips or another I suppose, and release Gasly to go on to somewhere else.

[Hoffman900]

driver errors, Gusts only effected two drivers...
DRS failure = reliability
Engine failure = reliability.

And component failure sometimes comes down to luck.

You certainly post like someone who only found this site in 2022. It's a shame what this place has become. (l'm a long time lurker from 2010 era under a different username).

Red Bull had a problem with the DRS actuator since yesterday and even before going to the grid, they were trying to repair it. As they didn't have any spare of the same spec, they had no choice but to continue with a known problem. That's not luck. That's life now with budget restrictions. It has happened to Verstappen today, similar issues might happen to Ferrari or Mercedes drivers down the season.

I'm not tying a DRS actuator issue to budget issues, if they are that tight, then I'd be worried about my paycheck bouncing...

[Hoffman900]

The point of the matter is the team formerly known as Jaguar is now Team Max with Redbull Energy drinks as title sponsor.

That's true, but Red Bull Racing put their faith in Max because he gets the job done most of the time.

Ricciardo was there as equal number one, he was provided equal equipment but not equal political support, so he decided to leave... Which is fine, that's up to him. That was a shame for Jaguar/RBR fans, Honda fans and Ricciardo fans, but it is what it is.

At least RBR showed they have the willingness to promote Bernoldi ASAP, to promote Klein ASAP, to promote Ricciardo ASAP, to promote Kvyat ASAP, to promote Verstappen ASAP, to promote Gasly ASAP, to promote Albon ASAP etc (indeed to the point where they ran out of their own juniors to promote, though it's true that Coulthard and Webber did blockade the RBR seats for a while which was unfortunate for Buemi, Vergne and Alguersauri!).

There are also a trail of broken tears in the RedBull camp who aren't those names and never were given that final nod. It's documented that Marko plays favorites.

[WaikeCU]

Seems the mercedes had overheating issues similar to Australia. They need to see whats going on under the hood.

Sainz race was relatively poor. I think he just needs to relax.

Great racing from Russel. The guy js the real deal. Very hungry driver!! If mercedes is not careful Ferrai will put him as Charles Teammate.
Noris doing a good job despite being sick.

The young drivers are doing well overall. As much as people bash Hamilton they need to look at the beat down the older drivers are getting from the young guys.
Alonso, Riciardo, Vettel, these guys are getting smashed. Hamilton at least has the pace.
He is doing well at his age to even be as quick as he is and having the race stamina.
But Riciardo's stock as no point of recovery. He might as well let another young guy get that seat. His career is done.

Doubt it will happen, but I understand where you are going. I think Russell will be Merc's poster boy when Lewis decides to call it a day, just like Leclerc is Ferrari's poster boy at the moment. I think George has everything he needs right now at Merc. A great engineering team, alongside a fast, valuable and well experienced teammate. He'll improve quicker alongside a driver like Lewis I think.

[silver]

And component failure sometimes comes down to luck.

You certainly post like someone who only found this site in 2022. It's a shame what this place has become. (l'm a long time lurker from 2010 era under a different username).

Red Bull had a problem with the DRS actuator since yesterday and even before going to the grid, they were trying to repair it. As they didn't have any spare of the same spec, they had no choice but to continue with a known problem. That's not luck. That's life now with budget restrictions. It has happened to Verstappen today, similar issues might happen to Ferrari or Mercedes drivers down the season.

I'm not tying a DRS actuator issue to budget issues, if they are that tight, then I'd be worried about my paycheck bouncing...

I suggest you better not take any cheques from any F1 teams right now!