Mercedes suffered a massively disappointing Sunday at Spielberg, Austria after practice and qualifying had been so promising for the Mercedes AMG F1 team. But two car failures along with a big strategical error made it a day to forget for the world champions.
I think you're right and most Hamilton guys would tell you they'd be happy for Bottas if he got the win this weekend. This has always been a strong circuit for him. Vettel is starting on the back foot and on the wrong tires for being that far down the grid, if I were you I'd be more worried about that than about Hamilton losing seven points to his teammate.
Exactly. Cmon we are not monsters, Bottas is really a nice guy and he has been robbed a win already. I genuinely think that Hamilton himself would love Bottas to win just this time, provided that he is in front of Vettel.
Lol, Hamilton would love to see himself win. It helps his lead.
Unlike Ferrari and vettel.....Lewis does seem to be genuinely want Bottas to win...Remember Hungary 2017 perfect example of how selfish Vettel was and how selfless Lewis was.
If Hamilton will be happy to see Bottas win then he needs to reconsider if he wants to give that seat up, he seems to have no fire inside whatsoever and the performances are showing it IMO.
Exactly. Cmon we are not monsters, Bottas is really a nice guy and he has been robbed a win already. I genuinely think that Hamilton himself would love Bottas to win just this time, provided that he is in front of Vettel.
Lol, Hamilton would love to see himself win. It helps his lead.
Unlike Ferrari and vettel.....Lewis does seem to be genuinely want Bottas to win...Remember Hungary 2017 perfect example of how selfish Vettel was and how selfless Lewis was.
I don't think Hamilton would have just moved over if he and the team where in the same situation as Vettel and Ferrari in Hungary 2017.
What was Danny Ric saying about not being fair? In the post qual interview
Red bull has a system where they switch driver position every weekend, during qualy. This weekend it was RiC’s turn to drive in front, but since he was running a higher downforce configuration he wanted to reverse the order and have VES run in front. In the end he forced the issue by almost stopping on track.
Despite being a Danny Ric fanboi, I thought that was rather undignified - Max handled the interview extremely well too, I was very impressed.
I wonder if Dan is playing games due to the contract discussions?
It was surprising that Danny did it. If it was someone else I expect it wouldn't have been such an issue.
Danny was wrong, they have a system which makes that plain even if at some tracks it is more advantageous to others.
I hope he finds a place where he is properly valued next year.
It seems they varied this rule in Baku for Max to get a tow...
I guess in Montreal it played a part that Vettel was not on a qualifying lap anyway though (not one that he planed to finish at speed at least)
No, he was on a quali lap till he reached those cars in the back straight.
Very different circumstance. Those three cars were backed up by all the cars in front. There’s a line of them going into the final turn. They can’t simply disappear. You could have a point about one of the cars though that was over on the left where all the others were on the right. In Sebs case he was totally on his own dawdling on the racing line. He very easily could’ve been told by his team or should’ve made sure himself that he didn’t block anyone. If you don’t give a penalty for what Seb did then I don’t think you can ever give a penalty for blocking.
If penalty is given to <Driver you like>, then stewards are a joke.
and when penalty is not given to <Driver you hate>, then stewards are a joke.
Come on people, you can't have it both ways.
Erm what? Are you suggesting that Vettel is my favourite driver?
See, I didn't quote anyone. It was a general comment and I'm not talking about this incident alone. I said this because this is what usually happens here. You go back and check any race thread and you'll realize what i'm saying.
I would agree but it’s not a general rule. I find Vettel too petulant for my liking but I think it’s harsh if he had no idea.
I’m struggling to understand Ferrari’s fascination with starting on the Softest tyre when they didn’t need to.
Their long run pace on the US was very good and it gives you a better start off the grid.
That sounds fine but it still boxes you in on strategy as Vettel is now probably going to find. The SS gives you better options all around. There is a reason why most teams when given the option prefer the middle tyre to start on.
Erm what? Are you suggesting that Vettel is my favourite driver?
See, I didn't quote anyone. It was a general comment and I'm not talking about this incident alone. I said this because this is what usually happens here. You go back and check any race thread and you'll realize what i'm saying.
I would agree but it’s not a general rule. I find Vettel too petulant for my liking but I think it’s harsh if he had no idea.
I understand what you're saying. But as they say, it's a team sport. Sometimes team suffers from drivers mistake and vice versa. Having said that, Vettel is no rookie. So, he has no business being on racing line on the cool down lap in qualifying.
So I guess for a competitive race we probably need some combination of the following things to happen:
- Hamilton not to get into the lead; for whatever reason, there’s yet to be race where Bottas goes with him and challenges him, so if Lewis is ahead, I think he’ll romp off
- nothing else to happen to Vettel off the start; I can see Lewis challenging Bottas for the win if running behind him - and doubt Mercedes will engineer a switch - so that could be fun regardless, but doubt there’ll be too much hard racing between the two, so we’re likely depending on Seb if we want a result that’s in doubt (Kimi never seems to have consistency in the race; RB race pace doesn’t seem strong enough)
- US tyres to work well off the start and in the stint; if Vettel can get ahead of Grosjean right off the bat and then the tyres provide a pace advantage for the first few laps, this could see him make some places - they then need to last long enough for a viable one stopper but with a slightly earlier stop allowing some undercutting
- the 3rd DRS zone to make overtaking that much more possible; last year Seb had the pace to catch Bottas but not enough delta to get past - regardless of who’s fighting for the lead, it’s less fun if there’s zero chance of getting past (albeit it shouldn’t be too easy either)
- A strategically placed Verstappen divebomb could also liven things up but could equally do the opposite (e.g. Bottas taken out and Lewis freed up to romp away) and I prefer to hope for a clean start.
What was Danny Ric saying about not being fair? In the post qual interview
Red bull has a system where they switch driver position every weekend, during qualy. This weekend it was RiC’s turn to drive in front, but since he was running a higher downforce configuration he wanted to reverse the order and have VES run in front. In the end he forced the issue by almost stopping on track.
Despite being a Danny Ric fanboi, I thought that was rather undignified - Max handled the interview extremely well too, I was very impressed.
I wonder if Dan is playing games due to the contract discussions?
I think Ric main point was that they were going for three runs and it would have been easy to do a 2:1 split in Q3 and have Ver take one for the team. That meant that RB would likely have been 5 & 6 on the grid.
A mature driver would have simply said sure and got on with the job trusting that his two attempts would have been more than enough to still be in front. A mature driver would have been thinking of a future championship where he may need help from a team mate one day.
See, I didn't quote anyone. It was a general comment and I'm not talking about this incident alone. I said this because this is what usually happens here. You go back and check any race thread and you'll realize what i'm saying.
I would agree but it’s not a general rule. I find Vettel too petulant for my liking but I think it’s harsh if he had no idea.
I understand what you're saying. But as they say, it's a team sport. Sometimes team suffers from drivers mistake and vice versa. Having said that, Vettel is no rookie. So, he has no business being on racing line on the cool down lap in qualifying.
It the natural line to take unless you know somebody else needs it.
Back to Q1 yesterday. There was a moment where Clare Williams was showing a text message on her phone to an engineer, and she was looking at him, seemingly very concerned about what the text message said. Any ideas what that could have been? I'm thinking that if it was anyone in the garage or at the track, they would have come over to her, so maybe it was the UK base that had spotted something on the telemetry. Any ideas? Or was anyone watching on a 4k TV and could read the text?
