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Daniel Ricciardo can celebrate a brilliant victory that he made possible thanks to several decisive overtakes after a safety car period 20 laps from the end. Valtteri Bottas struggled to second on old tyres with Raikkonen finishing a close third.
Agree. But then again Vettel was treated pretty amateurish himself. Basically after everyone pitted he was left on track for 2 more.laps. While HE was in lead. Ferrari made biggest strat blunder of the year on Seb today...
CreepierEnd wrote: ↑15 Apr 2018, 11:32Well personally I didn’t expect Ferrari to have 0.5s a lap every lap in the race over Mercedes, but as you say - “Vettel was able to build a gap and control the race. Bottas in the other hand, could not shake Vettel” - so they did seem to have the quicker car.Poleman wrote: ↑15 Apr 2018, 10:15We are saying the same thing, what i was trying to point is that Ferrari didnt have a huge advantage in pace (if any advantage at all) over Mercedes after yesterday's qualy speculation.Cheers
Ferrari seems to have an advantage in race pace. Vettel was able to build a gap and control the race. Bottas in the other hand, could not shake Vettel away until the saftey car came out. Ferrari should of pitted Vettel sooner.
At least in Vettel’s hands. A lot of people like to vilify Ferrari for favouring Seb, but it’s completely logical when experience shows you he consistently performs better during races. In the first stint today Kimi dropped a long way behind Max, who was himself dropped by Vettel and Bottas, with Lewis pressuring from behind; there was no ‘dirty air’ for Kimi to deal with (and Seb showed it was quite possible to stay close anyway) and yet he was still well off his teammate’s pace. Anyone who’s watched Kimi throughout both his tenures at Ferrari will know he just doesn’t show the consistency that a Michael/Fernando/Seb does during races, which is why they always double down on the teammate (even including Massa who was notoriously more a one-lap/race-from-the-front specialist than a real race-long battler).
But to return to my initial point, in Vettel’s hands the Ferrari still looked the slightly stronger package than the Mercedes in the race. Game on for Baku and the rest of the season now - particularly with Mercedes somehow still being on top in the constructors despite not winning a race yet.
Yup. When asked in the post race interview what annoyed him most, their strategy or Max's attack he said that it was their mistake with the pit stop strategy.
Well, like his namesake the Austin Maxi, he sure does have a fair bit - to be humble about..
Seb had a 3.2 second lead and boxed straight after Bottas, they didn't leave him out for 2 more laps. Ferrari thought the gap would be enough to react but Seb didn't have the tyres left and Bottas did a phenomenal outlap. I think a lack of communication on tyre life around that point let them down probably trying to keep it quiet from mercedes but mercedes just went for it.
Amazing post, just wow. You couldnt say any better.Bisonas wrote: ↑15 Apr 2018, 12:09RB didn't try anything extreme.
Yes they can take more strategic risks, because they have a huge gap behind them, but today it was not the case of such a risk.
They simply had a faster reaction to what was clear to all, one lap l8r, that it was the right call.
Ferrari with Vettel and Mercedes with both cars they instantly knew they where in trouble after RB stopped.
It was not a 50/50 scenario that may work and may not. It was clear to all parties almost instantly that RB would had the upper hand after the SC.
First of all the TRs collided on lap 30, they all saw the incident, they all saw the debris. All Cars actually passed from the debris once before SC. They had time to calculate strategies since the SC didn't came out instantly. SC call was made almost one lap l8r on lap 31. The timing of the SC was marginal for BOT and VET. Watching the GPS traces on f1-app when the track went yellow for SC they where just passing the pit entry. I don't know for sure if they had just passed or they where about to pass the pit entry. For those 2 it was marginal. So VER was pulled in instantly he was for sure a few meters before the entry when track went SC yellow and RIC followed.
Mercedes has no excuse for Hamilton. Even if BOT had marginally missed the entry, HAM certainly didn't . They should have pulled him in. Mercedes caught napping for sure.
If track went SC yellow just after BOT and VET pass the entry, it was bad lack for them. Ferrari was not at fault, VET lost the advantage of going in first, and RAI had just done his pit stop so no point for pitting again.
If track went SC yellow before they past the entry , then it was a blunder for Ferrari also because they should have anticipated it and react immediately.
But it was a blunder for Mercedes for sure, because even if BOT had past, they should have brought HAM in.
They had one lap to figure out that in the event of a SC call, they should come in for tyres. Regardless of what all others will do. because even if no one else came for tyres, who ever had the new tyres, would have been able to re pass them.
If we keep in mind that Mercedes explained their massive lack of pace in qualifying by having done a setup for warmer race conditions then their pace in race was not so spectacular either.CreepierEnd wrote: ↑15 Apr 2018, 11:32
Ferrari seems to have an advantage in race pace. Vettel was able to build a gap and control the race. Bottas in the other hand, could not shake Vettel away until the saftey car came out. Ferrari should of pitted Vettel sooner.
Ferrari and Vettel haven't been good at managing leads and pit windows, on both races Bottas started to get closer right before the cars start to pit, if Ferrari has a more powerful racing mode they should be on that for those laps.
