2018 Belgian Grand Prix - Spa Francorchamps, 24-26 August

[Phil]

1.)
Well done Vettel/Ferrari. Excellent weekend, great execution. Though i strongly criticise them for failing Kimi yet again.

2.)
The pass on lap 1 looked worse than it was (like a DRS pass) because there was a strong head wind. Strong head wind = tow is greatly exagerated = bigger advantage for the guys behind.

3.)
Disappointed by Hamilton on the restart. He lost lap 1, but then was handed the perfect opportunity on the safety restart. What does he do? He challenges Vettel into the bus stop chicane? What in gods name was that going to accomplish? The smart racer he is, should have remained close behind Vettel, at a slight gap, into Eau Rouge for that massive tow. It would have been a no brainer. He got too close way to early and messed up,

4.)
Yes, i too felt that the yellows came on way too late on that first lap. At the moment the crash unfolded, i was half expecting Charlie to hit the big yellow button in his office. I honestly dont think it would have changed the outcome of the race in the slightest, but it did feel just slightly odd.

5.)
Ferrari quicker as i suspected, but i think Mercedes made a step in the right direction and the gap has closed a bit. On that first stint, they were pretty close, slight advantage to Ferrari. Just. Oh and Ferrari was extremely quick in S2 despite probably running less wing.

[TwanV]

I have only one thing to say after this race.. Stop drs at spa. Killed all the racing after lap one

But there was no DRS on lap one? Were you watching the same race the rest of us were?

C'mon, just because you're a Lewis fan doesn't mean everything is broken when he doesn't win.
Botas had a cracker of a race because of DRS.

Sent from my SM-T815 using Tapatalk

Wowww take it easy, when you post never drink.. Bottas race could have been interesting but sailing past the field with 345 kph isn't my idea of racing.

[Vanja #66]

1.)
Well done Vettel/Ferrari. Excellent weekend, great execution. Though i strongly criticise them for failing Kimi yet again.

How and when did Ferrari fail Kimi now?

[MtthsMlw]

5.)
Ferrari quicker as i suspected, but i think Mercedes made a step in the right direction and the gap has closed a bit. On that first stint, they were pretty close, slight advantage to Ferrari. Just. Oh and Ferrari was extremely quick in S2 despite probably running less wing.

I was following the sector times and Vet and Ham were mostly matched in S1 and S3 but in S2 Vet was often over half a second faster, I wonder why. I mean if Ham settled for second he would turn down the engine and lose out in S1 and S3. Maybe he was nursing the tyres after being affected by blistering in the first stint. Or Ferrari was just able to get more out of the tyres without stressing them too much.

[Juzh]

Here's bottas' early race

https://streamable.com/wpyxy


Wouldn't need any drs to sail trough the field. Perhaps would need one for verstappen, but he was long gone.

[ripper]

1.)
Well done Vettel/Ferrari. Excellent weekend, great execution. Though i strongly criticise them for failing Kimi yet again.

How and when did Ferrari fail Kimi now?

I guess he's referring to lack of fuel in qualy (team mistake) that made him start behind where the mess happened

[Vanja #66]

I guess he's referring to lack of fuel in qualy (team mistake) that made him start behind where the mess happened

In which case, Phil should know it was Kimi's choice to get out on track with low fuel and as soon as possible after he switched to Inters in Q3.

[MtthsMlw]

Any ideas why Hamilton didn't use 8th gear on the first lap?

[ripper]

Someone asked about Mercedes' rear wing flexing showed on italian Sky, i found the video

https://sport.sky.it/formula1/2018/08/2 ... cedes.html

[mani517]

On the general discussion on "HALO has done its job":

Just my opinion, but, wanted to share it anyway. It isn't nice when people make conclusive statements based on a possibility that may or may not have materialised to promote a product or view. HALO did take the hit, but, is it conclusive that Alonso's car would have hit Leclerc's helmet in its absence?

Yes, Leclerc has started turning in, but, the side or front of his car wasn't fully exposed to the direction of the impact. Alonso's car flew over Leclerc's and was moving across and away from Leclerc's helmet when it made contact with HALO. I'm not trying to belittle the importance of HALO or the intention behind its introduction, and I'm not suggesting it DID or DIDN'T do the job in this situation.

All I'm saying is, it isn't nice for people to conclusively state that the accident would have been worse without HALO - it makes it sound like a desperate argument to justify existence of HALO. Especially, because, any counter argument would naturally sound like an argument against safety, thus, easy to refute or reject.

[basti313]

3.)
Disappointed by Hamilton on the restart. He lost lap 1, but then was handed the perfect opportunity on the safety restart. What does he do? He challenges Vettel into the bus stop chicane? What in gods name was that going to accomplish? The smart racer he is, should have remained close behind Vettel, at a slight gap, into Eau Rouge for that massive tow. It would have been a no brainer. He got too close way to early and messed up,

It was not clearly shown, but it looked like Vettel liftet before the bus stop or at least took it very gently on the brake. Hamilton had to brake too much or was too late on the brake and locked it. Something was strange there.
My bet is, that Vettel saw Ham too close and stepped on the brake too early in order to let Ham pass.

[TwanV]

3.)
Disappointed by Hamilton on the restart. He lost lap 1, but then was handed the perfect opportunity on the safety restart. What does he do? He challenges Vettel into the bus stop chicane? What in gods name was that going to accomplish? The smart racer he is, should have remained close behind Vettel, at a slight gap, into Eau Rouge for that massive tow. It would have been a no brainer. He got too close way to early and messed up,

It was not clearly shown, but it looked like Vettel liftet before the bus stop or at least took it very gently on the brake. Hamilton had to brake too much or was too late on the brake and locked it. Something was strange there.
My bet is, that Vettel saw Ham too close and stepped on the brake too early in order to let Ham pass.

I agree, very smart move by Vettel, you're more or less a sitting duck if you don't have a gap after la source in a restart. And he did it without it appearing to be a braketest too, clever.

[Mandrake]

Anyone who didn't look at the strengths of the cars this year, at this track, and didn't think " if Seb gets the tow on lap 1 he'll be gone" then they're not F1 fans, or rather, they're not very bright.

All fine. I just do not recall you writing anything like that in the last 4 years. Where the certainty that a Mercedes would win was astronomical.

If anything, 2018 is the first exciting season again after 2017 started strong but faded in the middle.

[Brenton]

4.)
Yes, i too felt that the yellows came on way too late on that first lap. At the moment the crash unfolded, i was half expecting Charlie to hit the big yellow button in his office. I honestly dont think it would have changed the outcome of the race in the slightest, but it did feel just slightly odd.

There weren't any cars near the crash, and weren't going to be for well over a minute, and if the SC was to be deployed it was going to be over a minute before the field reached the SC deployment. It would have been a big disappointment for the racing to pointlessly throw the yellows right away during the most important and dramatic part of the grand prix (the first half of the first lap)... instead of letting them battle it out for the first few corners.

I understand how it could be seen as against usual protocol and could lead to questions of favoritism/conspiracy, since yeah they always throw it immediately don't they? But I think for incidents like this they should always wait a few corners before throwing the SC, if everyone has passed the incident.

1.)
Well done Vettel/Ferrari. Excellent weekend, great execution. Though i strongly criticise them for failing Kimi yet again.

How and when did Ferrari fail Kimi now?

You remember Q3? I often think very critical of Kimi so I'm not one to blame Ferrari for all his disappointments, but Ferrari messed up his qualifying badly. I really don't understand how these top F1 teams pay big bucks to get the supposed best race engineers and strategists in the world, yet regularly make such moronic errors. No competent plan could have involved him sitting out the last few minutes of Q3.

Anyway ... was Hamilton alluding to a 'trick' up Ferrari's sleeve? Suggesting that rather than simply having a combined slight overall better package, instead they're faster due to one special trick? What do you all think of that? Or am I misinterpreting him?

[GrandAxe]

...
All I'm saying is, it isn't nice for people to conclusively state that the accident would have been worse without HALO - it makes it sound like a desperate argument to justify existence of HALO. Especially, because, any counter argument would naturally sound like an argument against safety, thus, easy to refute or reject.

+1