2019 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 29 - 31

[selvam_e2002]

His abilities to win is not the issue here. I agree with what you are saying regarding his abilities.
It's his stifling personality that engulfs a team is the problem. He will play politics around young leclerc.

Alonso is the Tantalus of Formula 1.

Has the talent and skill, but when he goes into a team the car turns to a dog. When he leaves the team, the car turns to a winner.
When he joins a team and get a winning car... he gets a once in every 25 years prodigy as a teammate. He's cursed!

Most convenient excuses that people have found out to hide the inefficiency of 500+ people who work to create a F1 car. In the modern times of F1 racing, teams have such sophisticated tools (cars laden with thousands of sensors), to the extent that they even know when a driver is going to pee, before the driver feels it. To then blame the driver for having lead them to create dogs, can at the least be termed as out rightly ridiculous. You should blame the problems of Ferrari to their own way of working.

McLaren was already sliding downwards by the time he joined. He joined with full understanding of the situation as he had experienced the fact that, at that point, Ferrari weren't in a position to create a winning car. He can only be blamed for his untimely choices, but to make him a scapegoat for the inefficiencies of a large racing team, is just too convenient.

He is also responsible for McLaren getting back to shape this year as he has been involved in their decision making. He is testing the car for them, despite not driving full time, which shows his level of involvement and commitment.

McLaren also created dog of a car in 2009 and 2011, did anyone blame Hamilton for that? They did that in 2013 and 2014. Did anyone blame Button for that?

2007 can always be debated in multiple different ways, depending upon who you want to represent.

Indeed. well explained.

[sAx]

Hamilton is the only driver in history to win at least one pole position in every season he's raced, that should indicate how fast he is. He hasn't always had the best car on the grid but he always finds a way to be the fastest man out there. No way half the grid would be beating him in the other car, not even close.

Hamilton is a fast driver, and I'm saying this as a fan: Getting that statistic is a bit easier when you're in a fast McLaren in your first year and get on the podium in your first race. Alonso started in a Minardi, Raikkonen in a Sauber, Button & Rosberg in Williams (midfield at the time), Vettel in a Toro Rosso (not counting the one race for BMW in USA 2007, standing in for Kubica). Those cars were midfield or backmarkers. Hamilton has had some years in a not so fast car, but he's never had to race a dog of an F1 car where scoring a point would be great and a podium would be a dream.

It would be interesting to see how far up the grid he could drag a Williams or Racing Point this year though...

Perhaps you missed one of the worst cars on the grid at the start of the year in 2009!

[Juzh]

sainz race start onboard and battle with verstappen

https://streamable.com/et41s

[sAx]

Hamilton is the only driver in history to win at least one pole position in every season he's raced, that should indicate how fast he is. He hasn't always had the best car on the grid but he always finds a way to be the fastest man out there. No way half the grid would be beating him in the other car, not even close.

Hamilton is a fast driver, and I'm saying this as a fan: Getting that statistic is a bit easier when you're in a fast McLaren in your first year and get on the podium in your first race. Alonso started in a Minardi, Raikkonen in a Sauber, Button & Rosberg in Williams (midfield at the time), Vettel in a Toro Rosso (not counting the one race for BMW in USA 2007, standing in for Kubica). Those cars were midfield or backmarkers. Hamilton has had some years in a not so fast car, but he's never had to race a dog of an F1 car where scoring a point would be great and a podium would be a dream.

It would be interesting to see how far up the grid he could drag a Williams or Racing Point this year though...

Perhaps you missed one of the worst cars on the grid at the start of the year in 2009! Button in a midfield car that scored three podium finishes, finishing third place Constructor behind Ferrari and McLaren?

[PlatinumZealot]

Leclerc can handle the car better than Vettel so far. Is he more talented? very likely. Lets see how more races go, but this juicy match up is eerily reminiscent of Hamilton vs Alonso in 2007!

[erudite450]

Hamilton is the only driver in history to win at least one pole position in every season he's raced, that should indicate how fast he is. He hasn't always had the best car on the grid but he always finds a way to be the fastest man out there. No way half the grid would be beating him in the other car, not even close.

It also indicates he always was in a pole capable car. Ofcourse half the grid would not beat him, he is one of the all time great and rightfully so.

I wouldn't call the 2009 and 2011 Mclarens Pole capable as you put it. Take 2011 as an example, His Team mate Jenson Button never got pole position, and had an average gap to pole of 0.644 which is huge! the 2011RedBull was just too strong! Yet Lewis pulled out a mega lap in Korea and stole 1 pole position that year

Exactly! Most people conveniently forget that Hamilton's pole in Korea 2011 was the only non-Redbull pole that season. The Redbull that season was easily the class of the grid. He did that in a season that was the worst of his F1 career to date.

[Just_a_fan]

sainz race start onboard and battle with verstappen

https://streamable.com/et41s
https://streamable.com/et41s

I hadn't seen the onboard previously and so hadn't seen how little room Sainz left Max on the inside. I guess he just thought he was far enough ahead to claim the line as his own. Bit of a shame as that would have been a good battle for the whole race, I think.

[mzso]

sainz race start onboard and battle with verstappen

https://streamable.com/et41s
https://streamable.com/et41s

I hadn't seen the onboard previously and so hadn't seen how little room Sainz left Max on the inside. I guess he just thought he was far enough ahead to claim the line as his own. Bit of a shame as that would have been a good battle for the whole race, I think.

Curiously though he was the one who couldn't believe Verstappen... I think the made multiple dumb moves like this. (Ignoring other drivers on the track) Though only something in Canada comes to mind off the top of my head.

[GPR-A]

sainz race start onboard and battle with verstappen

https://streamable.com/et41s
https://streamable.com/et41s

I hadn't seen the onboard previously and so hadn't seen how little room Sainz left Max on the inside. I guess he just thought he was far enough ahead to claim the line as his own. Bit of a shame as that would have been a good battle for the whole race, I think.

Curiously though he was the one who couldn't believe Verstappen... I think the made multiple dumb moves like this. (Ignoring other drivers on the track) Though only something in Canada comes to mind off the top of my head.

It was a similar move that Max tried to pull over Hamilton last year in that very next corner and got a puncture. It should have been a great weekend for McLaren if Sainz would have kept his head right. The problem with some of these drivers is that, they drive as if every lap is the last lap of the race and want to make gains. Kvyat did something similarly stupid move on Giovinazzi in the race.

For as long as Max is not in contention for championship, he is going to be reckless in defending his position as he hardly cares about the result of a race.

Haas is becoming worse team in terms of managing their drivers, race strategy execution and overall operations. While they are bringing good cars that deserves to be so far up ahead of mid-field, but goes back empty handed almost every time.

[mzso]

For as long as Max is not in contention for championship, he is going to be reckless in defending his position as he hardly cares about the result of a race.

Perhaps, the he got much more moderate by the second half of last year. And in this instance there wasn't anything borderline reckless. Sainz didn't even half overtake him. He was tho one who tried avoiding the collision by using the kerbs more than normal as Sainz was foolishly driving into him.
Edit:Looking at last years incident it was far more moderate, it was on the exit at which point he might not have been able to turn tighter. And he barely clipped Hamilton.

Haas is becoming worse team in terms of managing their drivers, race strategy execution and overall operations. While they are bringing good cars that deserves to be so far up ahead of mid-field, but goes back empty handed almost every time.

Yeah. I don't know why Steiner fell in love with these two drivers either.

[hollus]

The Carlos-Max incident highlights how sometimes it is impossible to decide what happened or who is to blame. Kudos to the stewards for just letting things continue.
One could argue that Carlos was passing Max, and he closed the line too much. Crucially, there was just enough space in there for Max to keep one wheel in the track, so it is not clear if closing the line like that would be ilegal in any case.
One could also reasonably argue that Carlos had already passed Max before the corner, in that case we are looking at Max trying to pass Carlos again. He went very deep on the inside, but remained in control, went as far right as possible and looked like he could make the corner in a reasonable fashion. So nothing illegal to be found there either.
Or one could argue that the corner is a longer thing, with approach, apex and exit, to be considered holistically including the braking zone. Then both had a very aggressive line and touched front wheel on front wheel, so who was ahead?

Still gutted for Carlos, though 4th or even a dream might have been there for grabs!

[mzso]

@hollus
In my eyes it's clear from the on-board footage. Verstappen was on the kerb, far forward than than Sainz's rear wheel at which point by the rules he needs to leave space. Verstappen didn't under-steer into Sainz, he just ignored him completely. (or didn't look)

[Just_a_fan]

I am reminded of Brazil last year where it was Max on the outside. Carlos ended up with a bigger "punishment" than Max did back then for a similar situation as Max was just spun around whereas Carlos had a full lap of slow driving plus the eventual DNF.

[FittingMechanics]

sainz race start onboard and battle with verstappen

https://streamable.com/et41s
https://streamable.com/et41s

Sainz made a mistake covering the Haas at the start, he was clear ahead of Verstappen and Haas by that time, if he kept to the outside (followed the Mercs) he would have cleared Verstappen on race start. Hopefully he learns from it .

[GrandAxe]

Sainz and Max had equal right to the corner, so no wrong by either driver.