Mercedes' George Russell has taken victory at the Belgian Grand Prix after a gutsy late switch to a single stop strategy. Lewis Hamilton finished a very close second while McLaren's Oscar Piastri ended up third, less than a second behind the Mercedes duo.
I doubt no team would have not known or not acknowledged the fact the shorter DRS would have this effect.venkyhere wrote: ↑28 Jul 2024, 17:34
DRS overtake was difficult, because the pace delta across the top four teams isn't much. Plus, the shortening of the Kemmel straight DRS, killed atleast 10-15 overtakes that would have easily happened, had they kept the zone same as it has always been until last year. Is FoM/FiA trying to reduce overtaking, to make the races more 'entertaining' ?
Defending should be possible.
Piastri couldn't even gain on Hamilton on several laps younger tyres until the later properly arrived into Russell's dirty air... His middle hard stint was also marginally worse, and HAM didn't have to push to cover other's coming in and out of the pit...venkyhere wrote: ↑28 Jul 2024, 17:34I still think RB20 (Max) & MCL38 (both drivers) were the fastest cars.
But they spent almost the entire race in dirty air, driving to the pace of the car in front. Both teams simply chose the vanilla option for their stops, where in-lap and out-lap were all in dirty air. I think Norris' 2nd stop was the only one where he was able to run in clean air on fresh tyres. Max's race was killed (he was on for an easy P3) as he couldn't take advantage of sector2 where all his pace was lying unexplored. His race was further killed by RedBull team allowing Perez to pull Russel in a DRS train for some 10-15 laps, making it impossible for Max to DRS overtake Russel (I think this is where Russel gained his tyre life as he didn't need to late brake into T1/T5 to defend against Max) as the pace delta wasn't much. Norris' race was killed by his own team by being pussies (pardon my french) when it came to pit-stops - they should trust their car's and driver's ability to preserve tyres, and could have easily extended his stints that would have allowed more clean air running.
DRS overtake was difficult, because the pace delta across the top four teams isn't much. Plus, the shortening of the Kemmel straight DRS, killed atleast 10-15 overtakes that would have easily happened, had they kept the zone same as it has always been until last year. Is FoM/FiA trying to reduce overtaking, to make the races more 'entertaining' ?
Though Russel and Hamilton maximized with their driving, Mercedes "lucked into" a 1-2 because McLaren and RedBull made too-conservative calls about their pit stops and also because Russel's intelligence to scope out a single stop. McLaren, i would say, gifted the 1-2 to Mercedes.
Ricciardo comprehensively beat Vettel and Seb bailed on the rematch after a single season. Hamilton came back for the rematch, beat Russell in 2023 and is still ahead in 2024.
What the... What kind of blunder would that be from Mercedes?Luscion wrote: ↑28 Jul 2024, 17:54Uh oh, Russell might be in trouble
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTlfnOLW8AA ... =4096x4096
A 1,5kg discrepancy is way too lare for excessive plank wear.GrizzleBoy wrote: ↑28 Jul 2024, 17:55And I just said on the discord I wonder if anyone is going to be pulled up for plank wear etc
Hamilton was told to lift and coast early in the race because they under fueled the car. I'm presuming for better tyre wear. How does Mercedes make the mistake of forgetting to tell Russell to lift and coastLuscion wrote: ↑28 Jul 2024, 17:54Uh oh, Russell might be in trouble
https://i.imgur.com/IXg5gUz.jpeg
It's not about too little fuel remaining in the car, which makes this case extremely curious...Spacepace wrote: ↑28 Jul 2024, 17:58Hamilton was told to lift and coast early in the race because they under fueled the car. I'm presuming for better tyre wear. How does Mercedes make the mistake of forgetting to tell Russell to lift and coastLuscion wrote: ↑28 Jul 2024, 17:54Uh oh, Russell might be in trouble
https://i.imgur.com/IXg5gUz.jpeg
