Max Verstappen has won his home Grand Prix at Zandvoort for the second time in a row after a strategical race involving all three Pirelli tyre compounds. Mercedes' George Russell finished second with Charles Leclerc completing the podium.
This epoxy layer of fixed gravel was a success, wasn't it? I was convinced it would not survive an F1 car, but it did.
It’s an interesting choice. You won’t find marine grade gravel used anywhere on a regular highway, meaning that they intended for it to offer little grip and it looks like the drivers stayed away from it.
I don’t think there’s an equivalent material in use right now in raceway design with equiv properties, so it could be an interesting addition.
"Marine grade" sounds fancy. Any aggregrate from a flowing body of water like a river or the sea will have smooth grains/stones in them and will be slippery to the tyres.
That answer by Lewis was taken way out of context by that journo. He was trying to incite Max but Max had the class not to take the bait. Here's more information on the answer from Lewis, nowhere does he downplay Max at all:
That answer by Lewis was taken way out of context by that journo. He was trying to incite Max but Max had the class not to take the bait. Here's more information on the answer from Lewis, nowhere does he downplay Max at all:
Actually, given Max' answer, I think Max knew exactly what Lewis said.
Not downplaying, but omitting Max’s contribution entirely. It’s perfectly okay, I don’t expect any driver to worship another or think anyone is better than them. Lewis without doubt thinks he is a better driver than Max and vice versa.
Journos should stop baiting drivers. What drivers think about one another is not that interesting in most cases.
That answer by Lewis was taken way out of context by that journo. He was trying to incite Max but Max had the class not to take the bait. Here's more information on the answer from Lewis, nowhere does he downplay Max at all:
Actually, given Max' answer, I think Max knew exactly what Lewis said.
Not downplaying, but omitting Max’s contribution entirely. It’s perfectly okay, I don’t expect any driver to worship another or think anyone is better than them. Lewis without doubt thinks he is a better driver than Max and vice versa.
Journos should stop baiting drivers. What drivers think about one another is not that interesting in most cases.
That's because the question was "Do you have a handle on why that Red Bull is so good?" and "Why is that so good, that RB18?" The entire topic was about the cars (first the W13 then the RB18). The entire interview here:
Again, journos taking words out of context to pit one driver against another.
It's weird RedBull were struggling in free practice and yet they made some changes and dominated the race. This car has no weakness.
Expecting them to dominate Monza AND singapore!?
Max Magic. We have seen Lewis do this in the past too with Diva cars in his career.
Singapore is Merc and Ferrari territory.
The cheapest sort of pride is national pride, every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud adopts, as a last resource, pride in the nation to which he belongs; thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.
It's weird RedBull were struggling in free practice and yet they made some changes and dominated the race. This car has no weakness.
Expecting them to dominate Monza AND singapore!?
They had almost no running in fp1 due to gearbox issue, and they said on Saturday that in Fp2 Max's car setup was not correct because they put the car back together after changing gearbox in such a hurry. For fp3 they had time to actually put the car together as intended and also were able to optimize the setup. So their laptimes on Friday looked much worse than where they actually were
The rb18 certainly seems easier to get into a good window than earlier in the season. As the weight dropped, the balance/ease of the car has improved significantly. It was not long ago that Ferrari was talked about as the car that always worked, whereas the rb18 was temperamental and with more weaknesses.
The RB18 was dominant in Spa. But else? Performancewise there was very little to choose between the Ferrari and the Redbull. In the paddock consensus was Ferrari might have had the slightly better car untill the summer break. And had the team as a whole performed on a higher level Leclerc probably still would be a title contender. Do the math I'd say.
Having said that, the RB18 clearly has taken a step in the right direction. Monza could well be another dominant display. But Singapore will be much more competitive, just like Zandvoort. Leclerc should have taken pole there.
They make a post being upset with people making accusations of dishonesty, while also making statements like "we have always competed independently".
As if everyone hasn't been watching Toro Rosso/Alpha Tauri drivers wave Red Bull drivers past in races for years and years.
It's not too much different to FErrari and Mercedes junior drivers waving their motherships through.
The key is AT are saying they are not race fixers. They don't bring out safety cars to benefit RB. That's absurd.
Or more generally, slower teams typically deciding not to pick fights with frontrunners as to not compromise their race, regardless of which team they 'belong' to...
There are times when there is a 'best car' times with a 'best driver' but at times like this with best car best driver and best pitwall it is very difficult for the ordinary good car-good driver to have any chance.
Also, as in the days of Merc, Ferrari Mclaren etc it seems that when a crew like this get together it takes a special event (like new rules) to break the crew up, so it seems we are in for the same at least until 2026, which will put Max in distance of Lewis's record.
Don't change the channel
Edit
BTW, I hope Merc and Ferrari get their act together, it could be a classic period
When arguing with a fool, be sure the other person is not doing the same thing.
Can’t really understand why pit Russel! They should have let him defend from Verstapen and maybe Lewis could escape a bit! At least they would have got away with a 2-3!
Russel has got lucky on so many occasions this year and he’s never been truly faster than Lewis! Apart from that this is clearly Verstapen’s year….nothing seems to ever go wrong for him even with the VSC and SC! I expect him to achieve 15 wins this season and break the record!
Mercedes sometimes feel like they are the old Mercedes from before. In the past Hamilton could keep other behind on older tires. But now they are not fast enough.
This is why they made the strategy errors. They went for track position at the SC instead of pitting, which was according to the team radios a predefined strategy. They went into the race with wrong assumptions just like Ferrari did in Hungary with the hard tire...and simply did not adopt to what was happening on track.
At least Rus corrected the error with his input.
Wrong!
The strategy was fine until the SC...Hamilton and Russel were both on faster tires than Verstapen and would have easily ended up 2-3! I don't want to talk about victories as I think Verstapen was out of reach that weekend!
But Russel's input instead of correcting a team error just made up his own race! The plan would have been for both Mercedes to stay out and defend together against Verstapen using slipstream and DRS with Hamilton ahead! But Russel's input destroyed that chance and I can't really understand why the team let him pit...! After that their strategy made absolutely no sense at all! It was only logical Hamilton would end up 4th or even worse...
"The only rule is there are no rules" - Aristotle Onassis
Mercedes sometimes feel like they are the old Mercedes from before. In the past Hamilton could keep other behind on older tires. But now they are not fast enough.
This is why they made the strategy errors. They went for track position at the SC instead of pitting, which was according to the team radios a predefined strategy. They went into the race with wrong assumptions just like Ferrari did in Hungary with the hard tire...and simply did not adopt to what was happening on track.
At least Rus corrected the error with his input.
Wrong!
The strategy was fine until the SC...Hamilton and Russel were both on faster tires than Verstapen and would have easily ended up 2-3! I don't want to talk about victories as I think Verstapen was out of reach that weekend!
But Russel's input instead of correcting a team error just made up his own race! The plan would have been for both Mercedes to stay out and defend together against Verstapen using slipstream and DRS with Hamilton ahead! But Russel's input destroyed that chance and I can't really understand why the team let him pit...! After that their strategy made absolutely no sense at all! It was only logical Hamilton would end up 4th or even worse...
Why would you ever go for track position on slower tyres with that few laps remaining?
Question yourself why did everyone else on the grid except for Lewis and Perez swap for soft tyres if they werent already running them after the VSC. Lewis lost positions with the harder tyre and somehow Perez managed to hold onto his position on the Medium - probably down to the sheer pace of the red bull against a also very quick Alpine of Alonso.
Do you think Charles wouldnt have got past one or two Mercedes on the harder tyre in a 10 lap dash? There was more than enough time to double stack both Mercede's, with a Williams of Albon between them both. Russell simply could have dropped back a fraction and would have allowed both cars to double stack and probably would have only lost 1 place to Max.
Its simply a case of Mercedes pit wall not being able to adapt to the scenario of whats occuring on track and knowing what your other racers are going to do in the same situation. George rightfully questioned it as he knew what was going to happen. It was even the same in lewis' radio messages at Dubai last year when he questioned TWICE why they didnt pit him for fresh tyres.
Do they never look back and review such odd decisions and learn from them? Toto, as he always does, gambled on track position. Toto said to one interview they didnt expect the medium to collapse like it did, But the Medium they had on from lap 49 had only done 12 laps until the safety car restart, whereas they had data for that tyre from their first stint which was 29 laps....and guess what....it never dropped off. (link:
This is why they made the strategy errors. They went for track position at the SC instead of pitting, which was according to the team radios a predefined strategy. They went into the race with wrong assumptions just like Ferrari did in Hungary with the hard tire...and simply did not adopt to what was happening on track.
At least Rus corrected the error with his input.
Wrong!
The strategy was fine until the SC...Hamilton and Russel were both on faster tires than Verstapen and would have easily ended up 2-3! I don't want to talk about victories as I think Verstapen was out of reach that weekend!
But Russel's input instead of correcting a team error just made up his own race! The plan would have been for both Mercedes to stay out and defend together against Verstapen using slipstream and DRS with Hamilton ahead! But Russel's input destroyed that chance and I can't really understand why the team let him pit...! After that their strategy made absolutely no sense at all! It was only logical Hamilton would end up 4th or even worse...
Why would you ever go for track position on slower tyres with that few laps remaining?
Question yourself why did everyone else on the grid except for Lewis and Perez swap for soft tyres if they werent already running them after the VSC. Lewis lost positions with the harder tyre and somehow Perez managed to hold onto his position on the Medium - probably down to the sheer pace of the red bull against a also very quick Alpine of Alonso.
Do you think Charles wouldnt have got past one or two Mercedes on the harder tyre in a 10 lap dash? There was more than enough time to double stack both Mercede's, with a Williams of Albon between them both. Russell simply could have dropped back a fraction and would have allowed both cars to double stack and probably would have only lost 1 place to Max.
Its simply a case of Mercedes pit wall not being able to adapt to the scenario of whats occuring on track and knowing what your other racers are going to do in the same situation. George rightfully questioned it as he knew what was going to happen. It was even the same in lewis' radio messages at Dubai last year when he questioned TWICE why they didnt pit him for fresh tyres.
Do they never look back and review such odd decisions and learn from them? Toto, as he always does, gambled on track position. Toto said to one interview they didnt expect the medium to collapse like it did, But the Medium they had on from lap 49 had only done 12 laps until the safety car restart, whereas they had data for that tyre from their first stint which was 29 laps....and guess what....it never dropped off. (link:
The point I'm trying to make is that Mercedes had 2 options!
1.Either pit both of them
or
2.None of them
Pitting one of them made absolutely no sense at all! Had they both stayed out at least they could have worked together to keep track position! I know they wouldn't have lasted long against Verstapen but if they wanted track position as Toto said that was the only way of doing it!
Instead they only pitted Russel and then there was nothing Lewis could do to defend Verstapen! On the other hand they could have easily pitted both of them without even double stacking since Verstapen pitted one lap before Russel, so Mercedes had the opporunity to pit Lewis right behind Verstapen and Russel the next lap just like they did!
Can't really understand what they were thinking! They had quite a bad experience in the past of Lewis being P1 in older, harder tires than Verstapen in P2 with new softs...
"The only rule is there are no rules" - Aristotle Onassis
I agree. If Merc keeps both Lewis and Russel on harder tyres, Max would most definitely have overtaken both and so will Charles Leclerc.
Hence I am not sure why so many people think that if Merc didnt pit Russell, Merc may finish the race with a Merc. 1-2. or Lewis will win the race.
(This track is not Monaco).
IMO, Merc strategy is messed up because they are thinking too much about Lewis's welfare, while Russell is fighting for his own career to finish the season ahead of
7x WC in the same machinery. (Lewis did the same when driving along side Alonson in Mclaren)
