FittingMechanics wrote: ↑06 Nov 2024, 10:38
What were really Landos mistakes this year? Starts and restarts obviously but other than that?
1. Starts and restarts
(actually not the biggest issue, all this "pole but not leading after lap1" narrative is overblown, IMHO. Almost every race post Miami the Mclaren has had enough pace and enough straight line speed to overtake the other three big teams). But I think the bigger issue (that is getting oversimplified as 'starts') is that despite the super-talent that he is, Lando needs to accept that his core skills still need some polishing - things like over-hammering of fresh tyres on outlap, 2nd phase of acceleration on race starts (it can't all be 'software', it has to depend on throttle modulation), ultra crash-fear on lap1 etc.
2. Racecraft
On a pure 'driving a car at the limit' aspect, he is up there with the best, hence the brilliant qualifying record post Miami once he had a 'winning car'. The issue comes in race situations, where 'sensing the behavior of the car' is not the only thing that has to be processed by the mind. Sussing out what the guy ahead is doing, what the guy behind is doing etc overloads the mind, and on top of it, needs to plan attack/defence 'before the corner arrives', without letting the other guy know too much beforehand. He copes well, but not very consistently.
3. Indecisiveness
Partially the pitwall/team to blame for this, but on many occasions I've heard Lando's indecisiveness on the team radio. He almost never puts his foot down and 'demands' something - right or wrong, that's not the main thing. He needs to have confidence to tell the team -
'look you have the data, I have the 'feel'. And on this occasion, I go by 'feel', not data'. Don't remember such a radio exchange (from whatever I've seen). Whether this is due to his inability at 'race reading' or whether it's due to his inability to 'take command' within the team, I am unable to say.