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I hope Oscar picked up some damage at some point, because this big gap to Lando doesn't really make sense. Seems unlikely Oscar just cooked his tires by "mistake".
If it is due to setup, it would even be worth breaking parc ferme for Oscar to have Norris' setup!
I hope Oscar picked up some damage at some point, because this big gap to Lando doesn't really make sense. Seems unlikely Oscar just cooked his tires by "mistake".
We have to remember Oscar is still new, which is why the hype has been a bit much at times. He is learning.
I wouldn't be counting chickens before they hatch. Nothing suggests that Verstappen will blast through the field as easily as he did before. He has to pass Rusell, Sainz, Hamilton, Norris and Leclerc and noone of them will be easy opponents. If Norris gets Leclerc early then he can use all of those behind him as shields to gain time to Verstappen. I believe anything can happen.
Last edited by Darth-Piekus on 22 Oct 2023, 00:43, edited 1 time in total.
Not even frustrated with the result for Lando. If our pace is like that tomorrow, with Verstappen hopefully held up by the straight line rocketship Ferraris. Lando clearing Leclerc at the start may be critical if we're going for the win. Excited!
Let's not get carried away, Max is still the clear favourite tomorrow. 2nd or 3rd are probably the best bets.
I don't think anyone disagrees that Max is faster than us. It's about how big that difference is, and if we can manage with the cars in between us and him to build enough of a gap. If it's only 1 or 2 tenths pace differential we have a shot and the strategy should be about that. We've had enough safe P2s this year.
Let's not get carried away, Max is still the clear favourite tomorrow. 2nd or 3rd are probably the best bets.
I don't think anyone disagrees that Max is faster than us. It's about how big that difference is, and if we can manage with the cars in between us and him to build enough of a gap. If it's only 1 or 2 tenths pace differential we have a shot and the strategy should be about that. We've had enough safe P2s this year.
In clean air after Norris cleared Sainz Max was still 4-5 tenths on average quicker. That includes Norris pushing to catch Leclerc while Max had no reason to go quicker
Last edited by organic on 22 Oct 2023, 00:53, edited 1 time in total.
Tomorrow's race will be decided at the start. We seem to struggle a bit to settle the pace in this track. If Lando comes out P1 after lap 1, then it's gonna be a bit of nail-biter race. Lando had pretty much the same race pace as Lewis (if not a bit quicker), so an on-track overtake with these two cars seems unlikely.
Whether or not Lando finishes P1, P2 or P3 tomorrow depends entirely on his position after lap 1, and how long Max takes to clear the cars behind.
It's nice to see though that on pure pace, it seems like we are going to get away with at least a podium assuming a straightforward race. Considering the very challenging nature of this track, I am honestly kind of surprised. I saw a lot of optimistic posts for Austin, but I didn't really understand the optimism.
This is a very challenging track for this package if you consider the low speed weakness we are supposed to have. And yeah, it's clearly still there because before tire wear kicked in, Lando was losing 0.2s to Carlos and Sergio on the 13-15 corner complex.
But that was probably going to be a lot more without the Singapore update, which has also made the car very kind on the tires. And that's a very very powerful trait to have around here, because Ferrari in particular, but also Lewis, were getting slower than Lando as the stint got longer.
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