2017 Hungarian Grand Prix - Hungaroring, 28-30 July

[Sevach]

He had a rear gunner the whole race yet he appeaerd to be celebrating like he fought and held off kimi for the whole race. I was just saying how Bottas knew what happened on the podium, yet Seb appears to think he did all the work today. And he didnt.

He won the race with a damaged car he should be happy.

[Shrieker]

He had a rear gunner the whole race yet he appeaerd to be celebrating like he fought and held off kimi for the whole race. I was just saying how Bottas knew what happened on the podium, yet Seb appears to think he did all the work today. And he didnt.

He won the race with a damaged car he should be happy.

Why was it damaged ? Kerb riding ?

[f1universe]

What's up with Hamilton and this "off" weekends?. Kudos to him for giving the position back to Bottas.

[hotochan]

He had a rear gunner the whole race yet he appeaerd to be celebrating like he fought and held off kimi for the whole race. I was just saying how Bottas knew what happened on the podium, yet Seb appears to think he did all the work today. And he didnt.

He won the race with a damaged car he should be happy.

Why was it damaged ? Kerb riding ?

Going over the curbs/kerbs (which one is the correct spelling btw?) made it worse at least. No one so far knows what caused it to occur in the first place. Maybe happened in the reassembly process after repairing the gear box/hydraulics.

[Artur Craft]

Verstappen is gonna cost the tittle to Vettel as he would've finished 2nd in Canada and Lewis 6th today, if it wasn't for Max.

Now, Mercedes is gonna dominate on the next two tracks and Ferrari will be able to win again only on Singapore.

[Treble]

Did you ever heard about cruising while leading? Also he soon after SC got problems with steering

No. The fact is, whatever the times were being delivered, should be considered. Everything else is just whatever you want to think.

If you look at the track speed of the first 12 laps you will see, the Ferrari was cruising a lot despite Mercedes.Btw I'm waiting for your race analysis after your post.

"Should be an easy one for Mercedes, barring any drama. Long run times, especially for Bottas shows a large gap to Ferrari and then Red Bull. One thing is for sure, Unlike RB, both Merc and Ferrari would be running their PU components in a very conservative mode. The situation is so reminiscent of Baku."

[foxmulder_ms]

I am happy to see the quality difference between the two teams. Ferrari uses their #2 as a bait whereas Mercedes "#1" honors his promise and gives back the podium position. BRAVO to Mercedes and Hamilton for not acting desperate.

[basti313]

Did you ever heard about cruising while leading? Also he soon after SC got problems with steering

No. The fact is, whatever the times were being delivered, should be considered. Everything else is just whatever you want to think.

Yes. And looking at this:
- Ham had 0.5sec pace advantage on Bot after the stops. Bot had to do a second pit stop in turn 1 to let him pass.
- Bot lost 7sec on the Ferraris.
- Ham had maybe 0.8sec pace advantage on Vet. There is no lap, even in free air after passing Bot where he catched Vet with more than 0.8sec.
- Looking at laps without traffic, Ves had also only something like 0.8sec on Vet. He closed down 20sec to 10sec gap in 20laps before catching Bot, makes an average of 0.5sec.

This is simply not enough to overtake anyone in Hungary...I do not get the drama

Now the pitstop: The free air lap of Rai was a 23.7, how can anyone talk about an overcut if Vet did a 21 on the first lap with new tires???

[hotochan]

Despite Toto saying that Lewin giving back the position to Valteri was fully intended, he looked seriously pissed when the position swap at the end of the race happened.

[ripper]

On italian tv (RAI, not SKY IT) they interviewed Riccardo Adami, Vettel's race engineer, that said that Vettel told him on the radio that had more or less half a second in his pocket if needed but they were nervous for the problem he was having. They still didn't know what happened and why.

By the way, help me improving my english: is there a more elegant or better way to say "that said that Vettel told him on the radio that ... " ? Thanks!

[Treble]

For all the people talking about Ferrari and Mercedes different strategies. It's been 10 years since the last Ferrari win. Mercedes has been winning for many years now. This year finally with an incredible job on the chassis Ferrari managed to close the gap without a super Power Unit. It's pretty obvious that Ferrari at this point of the championship with Raikkonen with only the half of the points of Vettel decide to back their strongest driver.
In the Merc Box, at the end, i saw TOTO WOLF very angry against Lauda. Anyone knows the reason?

[Phil]

Fairly odd reaction on here. If you race the entire distance with a steering issue and maintain a pace good enough to keep your rivals behind you (and yes, Alonso showed that if your pace delta is big enough you can overtake - even with a slower engine) then you've done a pretty good job and deserve a real sense of satisfaction.

That's just it though. You can tell me what you want, but IMO it was quite clear to me that Kimi wasn't allowed to pass Vettel. He was on the radio, practically begging the team to let him by and yet it felt like they were letting him out to dry for the Mercedes just to defend the win for Vettel at all costs. Given the issue that Vettel was nursing to the finish line, Kimi could have been way more aggressive and put on more pressure, yet we saw none of that.

Ferrari IMO are very interested in resigning with Vettel for next year and beyond. Kimi is dependant on Ferrari keeping him. Those are the realities of the dynamics at Ferrari. Kimi would and will do nothing to compromise that, I'm fairly confident, just as Bottas wouldn't dare do the same at Mercedes, given his contract extension is in the hands of Mercedes.

Bottas, however, worked hard since Saturday to get that third position and it may have been even more unfair should that be taken away by Lewis after their agreement. I say he deserved that podium as much as Kimi and Seb deserved theirs.

Yes and no. IMO that return favour expired the second Bottas showed he couldn't go the pace and fell back by over 5 seconds. There's nothing wrong with a team letting the "faster driver win the race". If he had stayed glued to Hamilton's rear until the closing laps, then yes, I agree, giving places back would be absolutely justifiable.

For a team, it's the worst thing to have your two drivers tangled up by each other because the one ahead is slower and holding up the quicker one. It gets worse, when the slower driver then tries to protect his position by driving defensively and further compromises the race for both cars. They gave Bottas more than a few laps to "speed up" and show that he could go the pace that was required. He didn't, he couldn't and quite frankly, the decision to swap positions came way too late. Once positions were swapped, Lewis demonstrated how much quicker he was and IMO that should have been the end of it. For Lewis to slow down by 5 seconds, practically stop at the side of the road (yes I am exaggerating) to wave his team-mate past IMO is apaling and the bigger farce here. IMO it's bordering humiliation as in "hey, thanks buddy, I had 20 laps to try and disappeared in the horizon, but no probs, I'll slow right down to enable you to stand on the podium. Very strong pace you had there mate, congrats for 3rd place".

Also, if Mercedes hadn't issued team-orders - who is to say with the pace that Hamilton had, that he wouldn't have been more aggressive towards his own team-mate, perhaps trying to push him into a mistake? He most likely wouldn't have prevailed, but Max closing in from behind, surely would have made it a fun tussle. So while we won't know how that would have paned out, I'm not certain Hamilton couldn't have ended up ahead with a legit overtake. Or who knows, both Mercedes drivers tangling with each other and we might have seen Max on the podium instead. Bottas 3rd place podium was anything but a given if there hadn't been team-orders.

At the end of the day, I respect the team for doing so (swapping back the positions), I respect Hamilton even more so for doing so, but it was pathetic none-the-less. A great demonstration of fair play and sportsmanship though, no doubt.

[Pramesi]

On italian tv (RAI, not SKY IT) they interviewed Riccardo Adami, Vettel's race engineer, that said that Vettel told him on the radio that had more or less half a second in his pocket if needed but they were nervous for the problem he was having. They still didn't know what happened and why.

By the way, help me improving my english: is there a more elegant or better way to say "that said that Vettel told him on the radio that ... " ? Thanks!

English isn't my first language either, but maybe: "...to whom Vettel spoke on the radio that he had..." perhaps?

Hope this helps.

[PlatinumZealot]

For all the people talking about Ferrari and Mercedes different strategies. It's been 10 years since the last Ferrari win. Mercedes has been winning for many years now. This year finally with an incredible job on the chassis Ferrari managed to close the gap without a super Power Unit. It's pretty obvious that Ferrari at this point of the championship with Raikkonen with only the half of the points of Vettel decide to back their strongest driver.
In the Merc Box, at the end, i saw TOTO WOLF very angry against Lauda. Anyone knows the reason?

Lauda probably gave instructions without Toto's permission. By protocol only Toto can give high level decisions outside of the strategist's prescription.

[TAG]

Oh and let's not overlook the obvious, were the shoe on the other foot Vettel wouldn't have given the position back to his teammate. But that's why we support the drivers we support.