2018 Hungarian Grand Prix - Hungaroring, 27-29 July

[Moose]

For me, the Vettel/Bottas incident was a racing incident. Vettel shouldn't have cut across so tight, Bottas shouldn't have been so late on the brakes when he'd already lost it.

Bottas does though deserve slagged off for the Ricciardo incident.

What is your opinion on France T1 incident?

Slightly different due to the fact that Bottas was following the racing line, unlike Vettel at Hungary.

[poolboy67]

Raikkonen now has 9 podiums in Hungary. The most of anybody.
(note I said podiums, not wins)

[Restomaniac]

I do not share that same vision. Most of hamiltons teammates where not good by any means and he stil lost to some of them.
The pole record i do not give it to him ill see it as a courtesy of mercedes by giving him 4years kwalimode advantage
And bad team mates.

Sure he is good. But merc is key here

Not impressed by them both. And there strange behaviour especially hami does not know how the behave inside and outside the car.. and i wonder why is he so childish and needs so much confirmation

Lets hope future drivers will not learn the same antics

lol... not good teammates? the only one was maybe kovalainen, but alonso, button and rosberg all world champions.

say what you want about button and the brawn double diffuser but he was the modern day prost, he could've won another or multiple championship in a redbull or the merc. mclaren was just to inconsistent form 2010-2012 to make a real run and "one" of the reasons why they lost lewis in 2012.

rosberg i have to admit i didn't think he was going to be able to match lewis, but he did from 2014-2016, and whether it was data sharing, class leading cars, studious, he was always there 90% of the saturdays and sundays. unlike bottas that needs help on sundays race pace.

alonso... enough said. say what you want but the guy can drive and F1 would be so much better if he was in a competitive car.

id like to see a kart championship at the end of the season, 3 races in 3 different tracks between all the current drivers.

yess alonso is good the rest not so much and he did loose to rosberg how on earth and button how can you say button is good ?
button and rosberg are in my book the worst champions .....still champions ofcourse.
prost/senna/mika/schumi/ are far beter, and maybe other where to but i was to young then

the boardradio of lewis just says enough, the best don't talk like that, they will tell you the opposite what he is telling

You are aware that Team radio has moved on and so we have no idea what was being said to this degree right?

[rscsr]

RedBull have suffered more than the other Renault teams which must point the finger at RedBull as the source of the problem. I doubt their (i.e. Newey's) drive for tight packaging isn't helping their reliability.

I think the ballistic reaction from Ves and Horner suggests that something is going on behind the scenes, besides the known performance issues.

Last race Renault refused to deliver the parts that RB requested. So much is clear. Perhaps this week something similar happened to VES.

It is the only reason I can think of for these outbursts.

I thought Red Bull doesn't want to use the new spec because it has a different package.

[iotar__]

I think the ballistic reaction from Ves and Horner suggests that something is going on behind the scenes, besides the known performance issues.

Last race Renault refused to deliver the parts that RB requested. So much is clear. Perhaps this week something similar happened to VES.

It is the only reason I can think of for these outbursts.

- it's a manufactured outburst for attention, do you really believe Sixth Sense would be fake edgy if it was hydraulics, gearbox, badly attached wheels etc.? The only thing missing is him asking if it's really the engine so I can start our planned rant.

- distraction from RB's and VS's performance in the wet qualifying and overall. You see it works, you and I are wasting post on Junior following another (after Germany) unremarkable drive. They messed up Ricciardo's Q but let's ignore that as well.

- Verstappen: "Red Bull just 'doesn't work' in wet". Why didn't they say it before? Why did they claim rain is preferred? They didn't know I hear you say. No, they didn't say they didn't know, they said they liked their chances in the rain (not Hun, some race earlier), because in the wet engine is less crucial. Why Sky experts were telegraphing "another special performance" by Seventh Place? Didn't they know the car doesn't work in the rain with Horner on all the time? Does anyone question this BS? No, it's all about MV and the engine.

[zac510]

Please, guys ... don't turn the "2018 >>HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX<<" thread into another pointless driver (preference) discussion

Too late...

[sAx]

Haven't been watching for very long have you?

I have seen schumi killing every driver next to him i have seen senna and prost fighting ...ofcourse alonso and kimi in there best days even and so on.....but the years are just not the same. Missing killers in the field ...have ever noticed hamiltons radio message or his totaal off weekends ....what about hothead vettel.....its just wel below true champions standart in my book

But hey ...it is what it is

Did you see Andretti and Peterson only having each other to beat, did you see Piquet only having himself to beat, did you see Prost only having Lauda to beat, did you see Mansell and Schumacher winning their WDC's before half the season was over? Very little difference in what we are seeing now except that 3 teams are capable of victory!

[Phil]

I feel gutted for Bottas. With the rotten luck and overall very good performance he has shown so far this year, he didnt deserve this.

He defended beautifully, but for it to all go to hell towards the end wasn’t nice to see.

Was it necessary? Probably, unfortunately. If Mercedes had given two optimal strategies to both drivers, they might have been more vulnerable towards the win. Ferrari did a brilliant job and used Kimi just as much as Bottas had to play the strategy game. By pitting Kimi early, and if Mercedes had not reacted with Bottas, they would have lost track position to Kimi which would have compromized their pace vs Vettel. So Kimi needed to be covered, which in turn compromized Bottas stint 2 length. He held on courageously and he would have deserved to finish 2nd, but it wasnt meant to be.

[Schuttelberg]

I feel gutted for Bottas. With the rotten luck and overall very good performance he has shown so far this year, he didnt deserve this.

He defended beautifully, but for it to all go to hell towards the end wasn’t nice to see.

Was it necessary? Probably, unfortunately. If Mercedes had given two optimal strategies to both drivers, they might have been more vulnerable towards the win. Ferrari did a brilliant job and used Kimi just as much as Bottas had to play the strategy game. By pitting Kimi early, and if Mercedes had not reacted with Bottas, they would have lost track position to Kimi which would have compromized their pace vs Vettel. So Kimi needed to be covered, which in turn compromized Bottas stint 2 length. He held on courageously and he would have deserved to finish 2nd, but it wasnt meant to be.

I can imagine the comments if the shoe was on the other foot.

[Fede90]

Lewis is more "pure" than Vettel (baby schumi) in that he just wants to race no strings attached. He is apolitical almost to the point of childish naivity, and welcomes all commers. In the other garage,I see Vettel as a more "win at all costs" character who is not as politcal as Alonso but stil does his fair share of polticking. He requests number 1 status and does things like ramming others off the road if he has to. That selfish bit of character is still normal in sport as i see it and he should not be scolded for it. At the end of the day they are there to win and be legends. I am quite liking the Vettel Hamilton rivalry that we have been waiting for so long . They're not in the same car, that would be so incredible but I like this right now. 2-0 Hamilton i hope.

Every time i read your comments i only see toxic arguments just to flame the topic.

[Sierra117]

I feel gutted for Bottas. With the rotten luck and overall very good performance he has shown so far this year, he didnt deserve this.

He defended beautifully, but for it to all go to hell towards the end wasn’t nice to see.

Was it necessary? Probably, unfortunately. If Mercedes had given two optimal strategies to both drivers, they might have been more vulnerable towards the win. Ferrari did a brilliant job and used Kimi just as much as Bottas had to play the strategy game. By pitting Kimi early, and if Mercedes had not reacted with Bottas, they would have lost track position to Kimi which would have compromized their pace vs Vettel. So Kimi needed to be covered, which in turn compromized Bottas stint 2 length. He held on courageously and he would have deserved to finish 2nd, but it wasnt meant to be.

Hamilton answered a lot of what the plan was at the end of the Sky transmission - first was the start - whoever maintains 1st and 2nd sticks to it. Hamilton started first and remained first and they both had agreed to keep a gap of around 3-4 seconds (as we saw from the race as well) because otherwise it would hurt Bottas' tyres and temps. With that gap in place, plan was for Hamilton to push after taking care of tyres, then Bottas would push and maintain, but he wasn't able to match the pace Hamilton was at. Then Kimi stopped which threw it all up in the air, so Bottas had to cover for Kimi. That's it. The only thing would be as Allison said that they could've brought in Bottas again to bank 3rd position, but if that had happened, everyone would be up in arms about not being racers and letting them race to the best of what he could achieve.

[NathanOlder]

I feel gutted for Bottas. With the rotten luck and overall very good performance he has shown so far this year, he didnt deserve this.

He defended beautifully, but for it to all go to hell towards the end wasn’t nice to see.

Was it necessary? Probably, unfortunately. If Mercedes had given two optimal strategies to both drivers, they might have been more vulnerable towards the win. Ferrari did a brilliant job and used Kimi just as much as Bottas had to play the strategy game. By pitting Kimi early, and if Mercedes had not reacted with Bottas, they would have lost track position to Kimi which would have compromized their pace vs Vettel. So Kimi needed to be covered, which in turn compromized Bottas stint 2 length. He held on courageously and he would have deserved to finish 2nd, but it wasnt meant to be.

Spot on Phil. Thats how I see it, and it wasn't the 'sacrifice Bottas to block the Ferrari's' that loads are moaning about. It was the best chance they had to keep 2nd place. Bottas just didn't have the race pace to go on Hamilton's strategy.

Vettel needs to outscore Hamilton in Spa/Monza otherwise I feel his head will drop.

[i70q7m7ghw]

Last year, continuing into this year there have been countless articles/suggestions that Ferrari have a no.1 and no.2 driver. Anyone who's followed this season and is true to himself will tell you there's no such crap happening at Ferrari and Bottas is definitely doing no.2 duties at Mercedes. He was basically lamb chop today when they didn't cover for Kimi. I find this hypocrisy absolutely pathetic. Lewis doesn't need to be portrayed like this messiah more than he already is and Vettel as the pantomime villain. The narrative seems to be that Lewis is driving a slower car since 2017 against a competitive team mate against a stronger Ferrari with a German who has all the cards laid out in his favour including a team mate to serve him at back and call. The reality and the narrative are very different. Mind you, I think Mercedes are being smart about this and Ferrari daft!

How many races now and this is the third employee Toto has managed to throw under the bus in front of the press? He basically called Bottas a lapdog who's been a brilliant team man this year and again insinuated that the Ferrari's crashing into him was standard protocol? The guy is smoking some high quality --- and Lewis is the only reason he is still in that job. I've followed F1 for 25 years now and I've not seen a team principal who has 0 qualities to be one. People will talk about the 4 championships.. this is the real challenge and he might win again but the first time he's been under the pump and there's more than enough to indicate that he doesn't cut the mustard!

A 2 stop was clearly the slower strategy, Kimi was used as a pawn just as much as Bottas so don't try to claim Ferrari don't have a no. 1 driver. In a championship like this, it would be madness for either team not to employ this kind of strategy. Running Bottas on a 2 stop wasn't going to improve his race, he would have just been stuck behind the Ferraris. Bottas said the plan was always to go long in the second stint, and he said on paper it should have worked, but on race day it was just a few laps too much.

The contact was unfortunate, I don't think for a moment anyone was suggesting anyone did anything on purpose, but I think the point was more Vettel could have given Bottas more room just for his own protection. Trying to go around the outside of a car on worn tyres is always going to be risky. For someone fighting the championship, it was an odd risk to take, Bottas didn't have the grip and was struggling to make the corner so I'm surprised Vettel didn't take the line he used on lap 1.

[gdanielwesley]

Vettel needs to outscore Hamilton in Spa/Monza otherwise I feel his head will drop.

Vettel's mentally in a negative space, he knows he had his chance and blew it. He has not been able to put pressure on Lewis this race where Mercedes was not expected to be competitive, it was the other way round that vettel was under pressure, made that risky move on Bottas. Mercedes is going to be strong in the later part of the season and Ferrari don't have the car for twisty Singapore. Ferrari's spec 3 engine didn't look that special with Haas ..even if they show good pace in Monza and spa..unless Lewis has a dnf it is going to be incredibly difficult to bounce back from here...

[Gettingonabit]

Please, guys ... don't turn the "2018 >>HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX<<" thread into another pointless driver (preference) discussion

Too late...

Just use the ignore button, it makes this forum much cleaner.