2019 British Grand Prix - Silverstone, July 12-14

[ispano6]

Toto Wolff

"Strategy and the safety car just went against him, it's just bad luck."

And as has been pointed out ad nauseam Hamilton changed his strategy to make the difference. Hamilton, not the team. Bottas just drove the race without thinking about the options. Hamilton used his experience and the knowledge he personally gained on Friday, to try an alternative.

Sorry that your driver didn't win. "Must try harder" as it says on so many school reports.

Well now Bottas never had the option to change his strategy now did he?
I have tremendous respect for Hamilton and Bottas isn't my driver so I have no qualms about the stupidity of his side of the garage. Read the ESPN article. The safety car neutralized what was and should have ended as a dramatic race end. Point is after the safety car it was your normal boring Mercedes 1-2 and the only real entertainment came from Ferrari and more so Red Bull for hounding them down. Hamilton got an easy win, Leclerc waltzed onto a podium and got driver of the day. It could have been a come from behind win, it could have been an epic battle for 3rd, perhaps even 2nd. Coulda, woulda, shoulda, sure. But we were denied that. I've been watching Formula 1 since 1986 that very race Mansell overtook Piquet and sent the crowd bonkers. Sure was hoping for something like that again.

[Just_a_fan]

turbo, I disagree about the safety car luck. I thought that too at the time, but even if there was no safety car, Hamilton's call to go one stop instead of two gave him the win. Bottas was always going to have to pit again and lose 20seconds on track. So even though Bottas would have been ahead after Hamilton's stop, Bottas had to stop again and Hamilton had only to stay within a few seconds of him to take the win after Bottas's second stop.

It was the choice of risking the one stop that won the race. That needed skill to make work - skill in keeping the first set of tyres alive longer, and then the skill to make the hards go longer than was predicted by Pirelli.

Hamilton made his luck and the safety car wasn't part of it.

[turbof1]

Toto Wolff

And as has been pointed out ad nauseam Hamilton changed his strategy to make the difference. Hamilton, not the team. Bottas just drove the race without thinking about the options. Hamilton used his experience and the knowledge he personally gained on Friday, to try an alternative.

Sorry that your driver didn't win. "Must try harder" as it says on so many school reports.

Well now Bottas never had the option to change his strategy now did he?
I have tremendous respect for Hamilton and Bottas isn't my driver so I have no qualms about the stupidity of his side of the garage. Read the ESPN article. The safety car neutralized what was and should have ended as a dramatic race end. Point is after the safety car it was your normal boring Mercedes 1-2 and the only real entertainment came from Ferrari and more so Red Bull for hounding them down. Hamilton got an easy win, Leclerc waltzed onto a podium and got driver of the day. It could have been a come from behind win, it could have been an epic battle for 3rd, perhaps even 2nd. Coulda, woulda, shoulda, sure. But we were denied that. I've been watching Formula 1 since 1986 that very race Mansell overtook Piquet and sent the crowd bonkers. Sure was hoping for something like that again.

Well, I feel your pain. I think we all had something like "more, give us more! MOREEEEE!!!" after their first stint duke out. I don't know if it would have happened, Hamilton just stretched rediculous Bridgestone-like life out of those tyres, but chances that it would have happened were atleast higher before the safety car.

I get you are dissapointed not to get more. Any race fan out there, no matter who your favorite is, was and should be dissapointed. But let's not get carried away too much into the emotions. Both just drove a stonker of a race.

[Restomaniac]

Guys, it is getting a little bit toxic in here. Why all the drama about Hamilton and Bottas? Yes, Hamilton did make the correct strategy choices. However, you can't also ignore he had some luck with the safety car. Would it have mattered? Well maybe not, but for sure it gave Hamilton much more of a cushion then he would have had if there was no safety car. Hamilton also was in a better position, the chasing car, to off set the strategy. It could very well have been that Hamilton would have made the same choice as Bottas if the former was in the lead.

I think both drove a very respectful race. Lets not convolute that performance with subjective performance from strategic choices.

The pretence that Hamilton would have pitted again without the safety car is a none starter though surely. He had 32 laps to run on laps that could do 30 and by all accounts had kept the idea of a 1 stopper to himself pre-race.

Now remember that Bottas and Hamilton were trading fastest laps in the middle of the race. Whilst on difffering compounds. Take the safety car away and Bottas is in front no doubt however it’s highly likely that he can’t shake Hamilton on his Hard Tyres and then when Bottas pits Hamilton wins anyway. The only thing that changes at the front is the amount of time between the 2 Mercedes cars.

Also remember that after the safety car Bottas was on faster rubber but could do nothing with Hamilton. That surely just confirms that Hamilton was just faster on the day.

[turbof1]

turbo, I disagree about the safety car luck. I thought that too at the time, but even if there was no safety car, Hamilton's call to go one stop instead of two gave him the win. Bottas was always going to have to pit again and lose 20seconds on track. So even though Bottas would have been ahead after Hamilton's stop, Bottas had to stop again and Hamilton had only to stay within a few seconds of him to take the win after Bottas's second stop.

It was the choice of risking the one stop that won the race. That needed skill to make work - skill in keeping the first set of tyres alive longer, and then the skill to make the hards go longer than was predicted by Pirelli.

Hamilton made his luck and the safety car wasn't part of it.

Well, maybe. You have of course arguments in favour of that, the excellent average pace and lifespan Hamilton was somehow able to extract out of those tyres and the track position.

However, Bottas' strategy was screwed the moment the SC went out. We just can't know if Bottas had more pace to play with, when he would have went in and how quick he'd be closing the gap towards Hamilton after the second stop. Instead, he dropped behind Hamilton while without a SC he would have stayed in front after Hamilton's change of tyres. We can argue that Bottas would then have stopped earlier and probably went for the hard tyres instead (can anyone confirm he still had a set of those left?). He definitely would have been faster, but we don't know by how much because again the SC threw that out of the window, instead having to settle for an attempt for the fastest lap (and I think he royally screwed that one up).

In the end, we don't really know how the race would have played out. There's certainly a case to be made for Hamilton winning the race anyway. However, nobody will disagree it at the very least gave him a healthy margin.

It is basically luck. But you can argue if that luck played a role at all

[ispano6]

I get you are dissapointed not to get more. Any race fan out there, no matter who your favorite is, was and should be dissapointed. But let's not get carried away too much into the emotions. Both just drove a stonker of a race.

Thank you for your fair comment. Coming from a Red Bull Honda fan we didn't get to see what we expected to see, Max on the podium. The good thing is there's no hard feelings between Max and Seb, and Horner too wasn't critical of Seb either, which makes it easier to move on.

[izzy]

Thank you for your fair comment. Coming from a Red Bull Honda fan we didn't get to see what we expected to see, Max on the podium. The good thing is there's no hard feelings between Max and Seb, and Horner too wasn't critical of Seb either, which makes it easier to move on.

Christian couldn't be too critical of Seb, because there was in fact a gap, briefly:

[Restomaniac]

I’m gunna ask a question. I’m asking because I don’t know.

Verstappen admitted that his seat was unsecured after he was punted by Vettel. I mean by his own admission he had a seat that was going forwards, backwards and side to side. Would that fall foul of any regs in normal circumstances?

[turbof1]

I’m gunna ask a question. I’m asking because I don’t know.

Verstappen admitted that his seat was unsecured after he was punted by Vettel. I mean by his own admission he had a seat that was going forwards, backwards and side to side. Would that fall foul of any regs in normal circumstances?

Yes, safety regulations. Hamilton was forced to pit due to it back at 2017 Baku when he had a loose headrest.

In this case it probably got overlooked. Did he perhaps mentioned it after the race?

[Restomaniac]

I’m gunna ask a question. I’m asking because I don’t know.

Verstappen admitted that his seat was unsecured after he was punted by Vettel. I mean by his own admission he had a seat that was going forwards, backwards and side to side. Would that fall foul of any regs in normal circumstances?

Yes, safety regulations. Hamilton was forced to pit due to it back at 2017 Baku when he had a loose headrest.

In this case it probably got overlooked. Did he perhaps mentioned it after the race?

He did yes. He said he was amazed he could bring such a damaged car home.

[jz11]

it is my assumption that the difference between a "quali" and "race" setup is in the amount of energy that is put into the tires via suspension geometry, which means that a quali setup during a race (especially beginning, with full tank of fuel) will be very hard on the tires, they will have a tendency to overheat, which requires the driver to be very gentle with them (think Bottas), the "race" setup on the other hand hinders the quali performance - not being able to get absolute max grip in every corner during quali, but allows more punishment during the race

If the above is true, and Bottas had the "quali" setup agains Hamiltons "race" setup, then the start of the race makes a lot of sense, also the pit strategy - the "quali" setup being harder on the tires forces you into the 2stop (Bottas) against Hamiltons 1stop in the race setup.

To continue the thought - the team set this up so they (Ham and Bot) wouldn't spend the whole race fighting each other (think RB vs Ferrari), so they would be overall quicker for the whole race duration, hence why Hamilton didn't really defend against Bottas coming back at him to take the lead.

Now the safety car stirred up this strategy, but if there was no SC, I would expect Bottas to be chasing Hamilton down near the end of the race - which would be quite interesting, seeing how they fought in the beginning.

And why was it important to split the strategies to not fight each other for the whole race duration - well, one look at the end result shows it - Ferrari/RB nearly 30 seconds down near the end of the race, and with Hamilton setting fastest lap with the old hards just proves how much more they had in reserve (apart from exposing how little real racing is going on having to nurse the tires, safe fuel and what not during this "taxi-endurance" era)

So Mercedes did the right thing, Hamilton and Bottas performed as expected (apart from the really weak fastest lap attempt by Bottas on the fresh tire), SC messed it up a bit, but then again - safety cars are part of the sport, a welcome part IMO, because it throws a wrench in otherwise predictable show, virtual safety car is easier for strategists, because it eliminates the randomness - which again IMO is really bad for the overall spectacle

[Wynters]

Well now Bottas never had the option to change his strategy now did he?

He could've stayed out instead of pitting in the 3-stop window. It's not like Merc can take over the car and drive it into the pits without him (see Hamilton in the closing laps of the race). He could've asked for Hard tryres instead of staying with the default, the driver has always had the option to specify tyres. He could've insisted on a different strategy at any point. He chose not to. At each point, it was Bottas' call, no one else. Other people might have advised things, but the final call was with Bottas as the only person who could feel the car, the wear and the circuit.

If you continue to hold to your belief that these decisions were part of a deliberate sabotage of Bottas, then you are continuing to say that Bottas deliberately sabotaged Bottas.

[Wynters]

Whilst I remember, Pirelli press release on the 13th July. https://press.pirelli.com/2019-british- ... lifying-0/

The quickest strategy for the 52-lap British Grand Prix is a two-stopper, with a one-stopper practically ruled out.
The best two-stopper goes like this: start on the soft, after 13 laps take a new set of softs for another 13-lap stint and finally take the hard to the finish.
Alternatively, start on the medium for 15 laps, change to the soft for 13 laps, and finally hard to the end.
A three-stopper is also possible, if wear on the soft is higher than expected. This would work as follows: soft for eight laps, soft for 11 laps, soft for another 11 laps, and then hard to the end.
Theoretically, a two-stopper using the hard tyre for two stints would also work well here – but in fact no driver has more than one set of hards available.

[turbof1]

I’m gunna ask a question. I’m asking because I don’t know.

Verstappen admitted that his seat was unsecured after he was punted by Vettel. I mean by his own admission he had a seat that was going forwards, backwards and side to side. Would that fall foul of any regs in normal circumstances?

Yes, safety regulations. Hamilton was forced to pit due to it back at 2017 Baku when he had a loose headrest.

In this case it probably got overlooked. Did he perhaps mentioned it after the race?

He did yes. He said he was amazed he could bring such a damaged car home.

He was clever not to mention it during the race

[Restomaniac]

Yes, safety regulations. Hamilton was forced to pit due to it back at 2017 Baku when he had a loose headrest.

In this case it probably got overlooked. Did he perhaps mentioned it after the race?

He did yes. He said he was amazed he could bring such a damaged car home.

He was clever not to mention it during the race

Sounds like he’s been smart then