Yes Hamilton always hits his peak after the summer break : 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2021 comes to mind.ringo wrote: ↑30 Jul 2023, 18:54Yes ferrari were faster in Canada.
I am not confident in mercedes being a clear second best.
Russel took forever to pass Stroll showing that even the Aston is still formidable.
Signs that p2 to p5 is an ugly cage match between ferrari, aston, merc and mclaren.
As for 49 points gap, at halfway mark. It's a bad time to be behind Lewis. He traditionally wakes up in the second half of the season.
We can look back over the half season and say that it has not been too bad a run for Mercedes. Both drivers pushing themselves and getting very good results. The updates have improved the car. Maybe not as much as we would have liked. But so far i would give the drivers an A and the team a B plus. Only Max has driven as well as these 2. Theyve dropped the least amount of points when taking the car's capacity into context.
Merc are still 2nd best team at the operational level. And imo they have got the best line-up.
Alonso is good, but Stroll... no comment needed
Same for RB
Ferrari have a good line up on paper but Sainz lost 51 points on his own (mistakes) and Leclerc had a few inconsistency (Miami, Barcelona) even if he's the better driver.
All in all it's not particularly good because Merc are clear 2nd in the WCC despite not being so clear 2nd in terms of race as I tried to show it earlier !