2023 Singapore Grand Prix - Marina Bay, Sep 15 -17

[Bill]

I see a crazy Marko action coming up and swap Perez and Lawson asap.

lawson benefitted from a big upgrade that alpha brought in singapore while nick was unfortunate to be stuck with slowest car in the grid .its a case of being at the right place at the right time.the retirement of alonso,ocon,russell ,helped him he need to work on race pace and tire wear that car was faster than alpine of gasly who finished p6.

[ValeVida46]

I see a crazy Marko action coming up and swap Perez and Lawson asap.

I thought Marko wasn't employed by Red Bull.

[Astro85]

I see a lot of people criticizing Russell for the last stint, which has some merit given he crashed. However, there's no way I'm giving up my position for my teammate to battle up front if we're not in contention for a championship. And even then it would be difficult unless given direction by the pit wall.

If Hamilton wanted to be in contention, he needed to qualify better. I'm sure he knows this, but it seems that some others don't.

Sainz proving everything I've said about him since he joined McLaren correct. Never going to regularly be outright fastest, but he's an extremely well rounded driver. More so than some of those quicker than him, which is a short list on this grid. Hopefully next year's Ferrari is palatable for both drivers because I think Sainz gaining experience being on pole/winning, will only help Ferrari if the car is a contender even if Leclerc ends up being #1.

My donkey of the day goes to Checo. Incredibly bad driving against Tsunoda and Albon. Mentally, he's not in the game right now. Horner will need to help get him back to normal, although they might just be looking for excuses to make room for Ricciardo at this point...

I've seen this all over Twitter, absurd. As though Russell is going to move over for Hamilton when he is fighting for the win himself, he was fractions off passing Norris, doing so would have seen him grab the win.

[Spoutnik]

It’s easy to crap on Russel, but I appreciate he tried. He deserves credit for that.

What he tried exactly ? Taking off the Singapore Airlines sticker off the wall ?

[djones]

I see a lot of people criticizing Russell for the last stint, which has some merit given he crashed. However, there's no way I'm giving up my position for my teammate to battle up front if we're not in contention for a championship. And even then it would be difficult unless given direction by the pit wall.

If Hamilton wanted to be in contention, he needed to qualify better. I'm sure he knows this, but it seems that some others don't.

Sainz proving everything I've said about him since he joined McLaren correct. Never going to regularly be outright fastest, but he's an extremely well rounded driver. More so than some of those quicker than him, which is a short list on this grid. Hopefully next year's Ferrari is palatable for both drivers because I think Sainz gaining experience being on pole/winning, will only help Ferrari if the car is a contender even if Leclerc ends up being #1.

My donkey of the day goes to Checo. Incredibly bad driving against Tsunoda and Albon. Mentally, he's not in the game right now. Horner will need to help get him back to normal, although they might just be looking for excuses to make room for Ricciardo at this point...

I've seen this all over Twitter, absurd. As though Russell is going to move over for Hamilton when he is fighting for the win himself, he was fractions off passing Norris, doing so would have seen him grab the win.

But it's a team sport and the team comes first.

Hamilton was considerably faster in the last stint and had a much better chance of bringing a win home for the team. When they saw the extra pace Hamilton had they should have moved George out of the way. I can guarantee they are now regretting not doing that!

[chrisc90]

I thought there was no team orders?

[Astro85]

I thought there was no team orders?

Double standards isn't it? I respect Mercedes approach, they did the right thing.

[Astro85]

I see a lot of people criticizing Russell for the last stint, which has some merit given he crashed. However, there's no way I'm giving up my position for my teammate to battle up front if we're not in contention for a championship. And even then it would be difficult unless given direction by the pit wall.

If Hamilton wanted to be in contention, he needed to qualify better. I'm sure he knows this, but it seems that some others don't.

Sainz proving everything I've said about him since he joined McLaren correct. Never going to regularly be outright fastest, but he's an extremely well rounded driver. More so than some of those quicker than him, which is a short list on this grid. Hopefully next year's Ferrari is palatable for both drivers because I think Sainz gaining experience being on pole/winning, will only help Ferrari if the car is a contender even if Leclerc ends up being #1.

My donkey of the day goes to Checo. Incredibly bad driving against Tsunoda and Albon. Mentally, he's not in the game right now. Horner will need to help get him back to normal, although they might just be looking for excuses to make room for Ricciardo at this point...

I've seen this all over Twitter, absurd. As though Russell is going to move over for Hamilton when he is fighting for the win himself, he was fractions off passing Norris, doing so would have seen him grab the win.

But it's a team sport and the team comes first.

Hamilton was considerably faster in the last stint and had a much better chance of bringing a win home for the team. When they saw the extra pace Hamilton had they should have moved George out of the way. I can guarantee they are now regretting not doing that!

Not at all, Toto was asked the question and shrugged it off. It's absurd to even suggest to Russell to move out the way for Hamilton when he himself is in contention for the win.

[chrisc90]

I thought there was no team orders?

Double standards isn't it? I respect Mercedes approach, they did the right thing.

Yup. Especially when people call out other teams for their team standards.
Now when one driver is behind, and both are racing for position they just want the team mate to move over out the way.

Merc had the right call - let them race - if your that much quicker you will overtake. Other, slower cars on the grid managed to crawl up through the field perfectly fine.

At 2s seconds a lap pace difference - it should have been easy overtakes

Same with Ferrari in monza - both fighting and the team let them race - another correct call.

Amazes me now it’s completely different

[Astro85]

I thought there was no team orders?

Double standards isn't it? I respect Mercedes approach, they did the right thing.

Yup. Especially when people call out other teams for their team standards.
Now when one driver is behind, and both are racing for position they just want the team mate to move over out the way.

Merc had the right call - let them race - if your that much quicker you will overtake. Other, slower cars on the grid managed to crawl up through the field perfectly fine.

At 2s seconds a lap pace difference - it should have been easy overtakes

Same with Ferrari in monza - both fighting and the team let them race - another correct call.

Amazes me now it’s completely different

Emotions often get in the way of common sense. The truth is, Hamilton had blistering pace for a number of laps but by the time he had passed Leclerc that blistering pace relative to Russell had all but disappeared. The gap stayed consistent for a few laps and then he was slightly faster until they both came up to Norris.

[Spoutnik]

I thought there was no team orders?

It's not a "big deal" when there's probably the only non-RB win of the season on the line.
Ferrari, in a way, did some team orders in order to protect their best chance of winning which was Sainz.

[djones]

I've seen this all over Twitter, absurd. As though Russell is going to move over for Hamilton when he is fighting for the win himself, he was fractions off passing Norris, doing so would have seen him grab the win.

But it's a team sport and the team comes first.

Hamilton was considerably faster in the last stint and had a much better chance of bringing a win home for the team. When they saw the extra pace Hamilton had they should have moved George out of the way. I can guarantee they are now regretting not doing that!

Not at all, Toto was asked the question and shrugged it off. It's absurd to even suggest to Russell to move out the way for Hamilton when he himself is in contention for the win.

But his chances of a win were much smaller than those of Hamilton. And as we saw, not only did he have no chance of getting past even Norris, but he binned the car due to pressure.

They should have let the faster car through and said "if you can get through too then you can have the place back".

It's nothing about which driver wins. I would have been saying the same was it George who was faster. All those millions of £ chasing race wins.... when a rare chance comes along after X months of nothing you do EVERYTHING you can for the team to win it.

[Astro85]

But it's a team sport and the team comes first.

Hamilton was considerably faster in the last stint and had a much better chance of bringing a win home for the team. When they saw the extra pace Hamilton had they should have moved George out of the way. I can guarantee they are now regretting not doing that!

Not at all, Toto was asked the question and shrugged it off. It's absurd to even suggest to Russell to move out the way for Hamilton when he himself is in contention for the win.

But his chances of a win were much smaller than those of Hamilton. And as we saw, not only did he have no chance of getting past even Norris, but he binned the car due to pressure.

They should have let the faster car through and said "if you can get through too then you can have the place back".

It's nothing about which driver wins. I would have been saying the same was it George who was faster. All those millions of £ chasing race wins.... when a rare chance comes along after X months of nothing you do EVERYTHING you can for the team to win it.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, he was inches away from passing Norris and would have surely got the win had he done so. Again, it's absurd to even suggest to Russell to move over.

[djones]

The data was there. We all saw it in real time.

I don't have the exact numbers. But what was the last stint? 20 laps maybe?

Hamilton pulled back I think it was 6 seconds from the peak after the pit stop. That means he was circa 0.3 per lap faster than George. It may have been less, it may have been more. The point is there was a marked difference in pace at that stage.

If driver B is faster than driver A then you switch them. I know some people have never done competitive sports and are not competitive people; so like the world to be fair. But it's not fair and the aim of the game is to win. To maximise your chances of a win you take the facts at the time and act on them straight away.

Indecision in the name of fairness very likely cost Mercedes a win, or at least second place yesterday.

[basti313]

Hamilton pulled back I think it was 6 seconds from the peak after the pit stop.

No, it was 4.3sec in racing speed, which grew to 5sec after the first lap. The 6sec was still under VSC.

That means he was circa 0.3 per lap faster than George. It may have been less, it may have been more. The point is there was a marked difference in pace at that stage.

No. George was much faster the first lap after the VSC. They just stopped him from ruining his tires.
Laptimes suggest they tried to go a 36.5 laptime delta with both cars. Looks like on lap 50 George had some error, but the rest is just not possible to discuss in terms of laptime difference.