2022 French Grand Prix - Le Castellet, July 22 - 24

[TimW]

Note that the rules (or interpretation of the rules) has changed this year. You have to leave spaces for the driver in the outside of you are not ahead. Moves like max did in Imola l to hamilton lap 1 last year are not allowed anymore. Russell let Perez no space, so Perez was perfectly entitled to keep position. Like the Mercedes pit wall told Russell.

[ringo]

Charles not ready to be champion. You cannot be making unforced errors like these.
He needs to be in full control of his car at all times if he wants to be considered a great contender.
Now he's just bleeding points and Max is having the easiest season of his career. Max is not bothered at all by Ferrari, he is just driving around in circles and collecting trophies.
Hamilton in P-2 in a slow mercedes looks more ominous than Charles right now. Max managed his gap carefully at 10 seconds to Hamilton. You could see redbull feels more threatened by mercedes and hamilton. Sad.

[GrizzleBoy]

Charles not ready to be champion. You cannot be making unforced errors like these.
He needs to be in full control of his car at all times if he wants to be considered a great contender.
Now he's just bleeding points and Max is having the easiest season of his career. Max is not bothered at all by Ferrari, he is just driving around in circles and collecting trophies.
Hamilton in P-2 in a slow mercedes looks more ominous than Charles right now. Max managed his gap carefully at 10 seconds to Hamilton. You could see redbull feels more threatened by mercedes and hamilton. Sad.

To be fair, Di Resta was commenting from the start of the race that the Ferrari seemed quite unstable at the rear in the long corners.

I think it just finally caught Charles out.

[bosyber]

Charles not ready to be champion. You cannot be making unforced errors like these.
He needs to be in full control of his car at all times if he wants to be considered a great contender.
Now he's just bleeding points and Max is having the easiest season of his career. Max is not bothered at all by Ferrari, he is just driving around in circles and collecting trophies.
Hamilton in P-2 in a slow mercedes looks more ominous than Charles right now. Max managed his gap carefully at 10 seconds to Hamilton. You could see redbull feels more threatened by mercedes and hamilton. Sad.

Yeah, it does look like that; though on the fearing Merc. ironically if HAM gets a race winning car, it is more likely to aid Verstappen by dividing the available points with Leclerc while VER can go like Rosberg in 2016, as the large gap in points he has protects his lead. He won't just slow down, but fighting a different competitor every weekend certainly, objectively would be good for him.

edit: good point that it did indeed look like Leclerc's Ferrari was a bit unstable at the back right from the start, and perhaps wind also played a role, but even so, I strongly feel neither Hamilton or Verstappen (or Alonso, for example) would have made such a mistake.

[TimW]

Charles not ready to be champion. You cannot be making unforced errors like these.
He needs to be in full control of his car at all times if he wants to be considered a great contender.
Now he's just bleeding points and Max is having the easiest season of his career. Max is not bothered at all by Ferrari, he is just driving around in circles and collecting trophies.
Hamilton in P-2 in a slow mercedes looks more ominous than Charles right now. Max managed his gap carefully at 10 seconds to Hamilton. You could see redbull feels more threatened by mercedes and hamilton. Sad.

Yeah, it does look like that; though on the fearing Merc. ironically if HAM gets a race winning car, it is more likely to aid Verstappen by dividing the available points with Leclerc while VER can go like Rosberg in 2016, as the large gap in points he has protects his lead. He won't just slow down, but fighting a different competitor every weekend certainly, objectively would be good for him.

It could also go the other way. If Ferrari keeps the upper hand in pace, and Mercedes starts to challenge red bull, you could be looking at a few P5-P6's. And then a 60 point lead evaporates quickly.

Sadly we can count on Ferrari to have a few mess ups.....

[bosyber]

Yeah, it's that Ferrari factor that has shown again and again when they are fast which makes me think it won't go Ferrari's way with Verstappen getting stuck in 5th, but who knows. Certainly would make things interesting.

[chrisc90]

Yeah, it's that Ferrari factor that has shown again and again when they are fast which makes me think it won't go Ferrari's way with Verstappen getting stuck in 5th, but who knows. Certainly would make things interesting.

I can’t see Verstappen ending up in 5th place. That’s 2 Ferrari and 2 merc in front of him.

Max and Charles are a league above the likes of sainz and Russell

[Sieper]

Note that the rules (or interpretation of the rules) has changed this year. You have to leave spaces for the driver in the outside of you are not ahead. Moves like max did in Imola l to hamilton lap 1 last year are not allowed anymore. Russell let Perez no space, so Perez was perfectly entitled to keep position. Like the Mercedes pit wall told Russell.

Max took Hamilton at the start there. Hamilton then simply tried to use the outside line as if Max hadn’t passed him yet. Imho he had full right to that corner and it has no bearing on todays race. Even less as the AD opening lap. But somehow some category always need to bring up Max. Drag him by the hair into the conversation.

[gandharva]

The first reasoning I cannot follow, to me it seemed Perez was approaching the corner the normal way (on the racing line), RUS went for a gap that didn't exist, and could only make the corner by pushing PER wide, which PER did to avoid contact.

Yes, he went left half way up the staight but did't go full defense line. I think that's what led Russel to go for the dive bomb. Daniel Avocado move.

[GrizzleBoy]

Note that the rules (or interpretation of the rules) has changed this year. You have to leave spaces for the driver in the outside of you are not ahead. Moves like max did in Imola l to hamilton lap 1 last year are not allowed anymore. Russell let Perez no space, so Perez was perfectly entitled to keep position. Like the Mercedes pit wall told Russell.

Max took Hamilton at the start there. Hamilton then simply tried to use the outside line as if Max hadn’t passed him yet. Imho he had full right to that corner and it has no bearing on todays race. Even less as the AD opening lap. But somehow some category always need to bring up Max. Drag him by the hair into the conversation.

There wasn't another line for Hamilton to use, because Max dive bombed and parked on the racing line.

Lewis would have had to literally park his car and wait for Max to actually rotate his car just on the white line, then go once Max was no longer 90 degrees across the track.

Since that is not a reasonable ask for a person driving an F1 car, his other option was to go off the track to avoid the car parked sideways across the racing line ahead of him and continue on his way.

It's part of common sense reason why he wasn't penalised there and its part of the common sense reason why the Checo wasn't penalised in France either.

[Sieper]

Indeed, so let Russell stop about it. Max too just spent one radio message on it, and back then politicking on the radio was still allowed.

[GrizzleBoy]

Indeed, so let Russell stop about it. Max too just spent one radio message on it, and back then politicking on the radio was still allowed.

I don't hear Russel complaining anymore. Pretty sure he stopped a while ago now.

He complained I think twice and then overtook Checo at the VSC restart and has been a happy boy ever since.

[chrisc90]

Indeed, so let Russell stop about it. Max too just spent one radio message on it, and back then politicking on the radio was still allowed.

I don't hear Russel complaining anymore. Pretty sure he stopped a while ago now.

He complained I think twice and then overtook Checo at the VSC restart and has been a happy boy ever since.

He said it in the media interview too

[TimW]

Note that the rules (or interpretation of the rules) has changed this year. You have to leave spaces for the driver in the outside of you are not ahead. Moves like max did in Imola l to hamilton lap 1 last year are not allowed anymore. Russell let Perez no space, so Perez was perfectly entitled to keep position. Like the Mercedes pit wall told Russell.

Max took Hamilton at the start there. Hamilton then simply tried to use the outside line as if Max hadn’t passed him yet. Imho he had full right to that corner and it has no bearing on todays race. Even less as the AD opening lap. But somehow some category always need to bring up Max. Drag him by the hair into the conversation.

Last year Max' move was perfectly Ok(at least to me), hard but ok according to how things were judged then (and many years before). I don't even recall Hamilton complaining. It was just an example that came mind. However this year they judge things differently.

[Sieper]

Indeed, so let Russell stop about it. Max too just spent one radio message on it, and back then politicking on the radio was still allowed.

I don't hear Russel complaining anymore. Pretty sure he stopped a while ago now.

He complained I think twice and then overtook Checo at the VSC restart and has been a happy boy ever since.

I guess you missed the cooldown room.