Jurgen von Diaz wrote: ↑17 Dec 2024, 16:26
proteus wrote:zeroday wrote: ↑17 Dec 2024, 11:10
Crazy how Lewis utterly destroyed Russell in 2023 and just barely missed out on P2 of the WDC. Geez, what happened. tbf, HAM still beat RUS in total points as teammates, continuing that ongoing record against teammates of his.
Bravo to Russell improving -- he is making less mistakes finally. He still isn't as superior to Lewis in races but he will obviously get better over time. Lewis car still looks crazy unpredictable during his onboards. It seems when the car is predictable he is back to his normal total domination self.
Should be fun to see how Antonelli and Russell get along. Saw some quote that ANT thinks RUS is a d--k, and unsurprisingly loves HAM.
Almost every driver on the grid can achieve a great result with a predictable car. Getting results with a difficult one sets drivers apart.
That's right. The most dominant dynasty Merc 2014-2020. Those peace of arts went like train in rails. Even Merc's reserve driver could drive that car straight on the way to victory (Sakhir 2020) which is unheard.
Ok, I gotta add some nuance here.
Difficult car != slow, predictable car != fast.
Forget about loving or hating the driver, if what Lewis described is true then recent Merc cars were usually slow AND unpredictable. If you're disproportionately losing rear downforce on corner entry while trail braking, then that's an engineering problem, there's nothing the driver can do. You're never gonna GAIN on corner entry relative to Red Bull, all you can do is minimize the loss. Then, because the rear is unstable, you're gonna lose on the EXIT as well
As a counter example, Schumacher was great at driving difficult cars that were still very fast, like the B195 (not gonna mention the B194 bc controversy). It was so oversteery that even a veteran like Berger found it difficult. However, that car DID allow Schumacher to brake very deep, trail brake right to the apex and flick it around by TAKING ADVANTAGE of the oversteer, then get on power very early. If the B195 was punishing Michael for trail braking, then he'd have never been able to beat Williams (Hill driving) on mid corner apex speed alone.