Lewis Hamilton has won his home race, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone for the 6th time in his career. Valtteri Bottas ended up a disappointed second, followed by Charles Leclerc in third.
Go and look at that piece of track, it's not a straight, its a slight bent with narrowing on both sides.
Vettel is showing a new level of incompetence here, where his main rivals (and teammate) put on a glorious show of race craft, he does not. At least this time he directly said it was his fault and maybe he will be doing some reflection and actually learning from his mistakes.
They're past the bend by then and the track isn't really narrowing. Check out the video, like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KUixlLrO6c . At 33s they're going under the gantry, there's the gap opening as Max goes to the right, Seb goes for it and Max closes it. Slow it down to .25 speed it's quite clear
Seb was being quite aggressive as he often is, but he had a gap to go for. You can't say that's not a gap. What made it not quite so obvious was how he gave it up and drove square into the back of Max, exactly like Ric did, to avoid colliding wheel to wheel which is a takeoff scenario
I do think SKY have a question to answer here though as they were the ones banging on about luck/poor luck due to the S/C which then became the common view. In fact only Damon Hill saw the facts for what they were and his view was pretty much ignored.
That's because Crofty is a drama queen, he is always trying to make everything as dramatic as possible. Honestly, I would pay to have him fired!
it isn't just him, almost all of them do it, trying to add excitement to everything whether it is needed or not
interviews have got to a new level of bad as well, almost all the time interviewer is trying to put words into the mouth of the person being interviewed, expecting them to agree with what they want to hear, instead of actually getting an opinion
...
the line is to the outside obviously, on the right, not directly towards the apex! But here's the next frame, with the white line nice and straight on the left and Max's front wheels now steering gently left and Seb's gap starting to disappear. It was very subtle https://66.media.tumblr.com/2e990141891 ... 1_1280.png
As many have mentioned and I know a birdeye view of this piece of track was posted prior. The track itself narrows. The white line on both side are not parallel all the way to the corner. Max is going straight but the white line converge towards his car.
the white lines are the track and the racing line is near the other one, not the left one. Nice try but
we both know the track, it doesn't save you from the obvious fact there was a GAP do i need to quote Ayrton? The track has an apex coming up and a racing line and they are on opposite sides, as you know perfectly well
the white lines are the track and the racing line is near the other one, not the left one.
it isn't when you are covering the inside!
yes exactly, Max was covering the inside, defending, but too late as Seb was carrying a lot more speed. If he'd defended it consistently it would've been fine, but he covered the left then the middle then the left again
we both know the track, it doesn't save you from the obvious fact there was a GAP do i need to quote Ayrton? The track has an apex coming up and a racing line and they are on opposite sides, as you know perfectly well
He didn't go for a gap... he drove into the back of him on a piece of track where he should know that the gap wil not be there because the track stops to exists.
I find it strange with Vettel, for the past few years he's been driving (almost) into other competitors on the most strange occasions, Baku, Singapore, Imola, Russia, Canada and now Silverstone and even this time he took full blame himself, his fans keep trying to blame everybody but their guy. Is it because his car is red and therefore has no blame?
yes exactly, Max was covering the inside, defending, but too late as Seb was carrying a lot more speed. If he'd defended it consistently it would've been fine, but he covered the left then the middle then the left again
You should talk with the Stewards then, because they didn't see it that way!
we both know the track, it doesn't save you from the obvious fact there was a GAP do i need to quote Ayrton? The track has an apex coming up and a racing line and they are on opposite sides, as you know perfectly well
He didn't go for a gap... he drove into the back of him on a piece of track where he should know that the gap wil not be there because the track stops to exists.
I find it strange with Vettel, for the past few years he's been driving (almost) into other competitors on the most strange occasions, Baku, Singapore, Imola, Russia, Canada and now Silverstone and even this time he took full blame himself, his fans keep trying to blame everybody but their guy. Is it because his car is red and therefore has no blame?
look at the overhead part of the video as they go under the gantry. Max is nowhere near the white line. he's not driving to have a straight line he's just 100% driving to defend as he knows he was slow through Stowe. the shape of the track isn't on his mind whatsoever, it has nothing to do with it. Seb dummied him to the right, so he went right, then Seb went to the left so Max went left
i'm not especially a fan of either Max or Seb, i'm just looking at the evidence and thinking how frickin useless the stewards were, that they penalise petty things and let this actually dangerous stuff go completely
yes exactly, Max was covering the inside, defending, but too late as Seb was carrying a lot more speed. If he'd defended it consistently it would've been fine, but he covered the left then the middle then the left again
You should talk with the Stewards then, because they didn't see it that way!
And maybe you should talk with Vettel as he too did not see it that way either.
But is is Max, so he is not allowed anything. He simply needs to sit there and be passed (and even repassed) as that is what Max always needs to do, any other outcome is illegal doing by Max.
If we see Leclerc battling very hard for laps moving all over and even wheelbanging Max off track (wait a minute, Max was off track, how very illegal of him) it is all fine and good racing, and finally somebody does it to him, but if Max makes the slightest move he is in the wrong.
Max was already defending the inside, he just kept a bit of room there not to make it too easy for Vettel to take the racing line and try a repass on the right. Somehow Vettel thought that Max would grant him free access on the inside, which he was never going to get and which Vettel also literally said himself post race, was an error of judgement on his behalve.
P.s. I think Vettel catches a lot of flak, (too much imho) sometimes for trying to hard (but offcourse, when it is on Max there is no too hard a try, then it is illegal by Max).
Last edited by Sieper on 15 Jul 2019, 17:44, edited 1 time in total.
Just to throw in another point of view. With the videos on the F1 site, I don't get the feeling that Vettel braked so late that he automatically rammed into Verstappen. I get the feeling that both braked very late, but at approximately at the same time, and, for a moment, it appears that both slow down similarly.
Verstappen brakes so late as to barely make the corner, which is 100% his right.
Vettel braked equally late in a line what was arguably to the left of the apex (but on tarmac). Essentially he dive bombed (which is why he apologized, likely), into a gap that he hoped would appear.
But the gap did not appear, Max closed it perfectly to a bit less than a car width.
Once braking, Vettel could not go left (grass) and could not go straight to the apex (would meet a red Bull in there which was, clearly, ahead), so he tried to go right. He would miss the apex, miss the corner but slow down to almost zero before running out of tarmac, lose 3-4 seconds, and survive... except that that got him into Verstappen's wake. Downforce drops, wheels lock, car slides, ---> ramming from behind. It might be just my imagination, but Vettel's wheels lock exactly as he get in the wake.
Vettel, IMHO, got himself too optimistically into an imaginary gap, but he would not have rammed Verstappen it he had not crossed into his wake. Which of course was the only possibility once the gap did not appear.
Physics is a bitch.
Watching Hamilton's onboard from his second stint, there is a lot of lift & coast going on.
At first I thought that maybe Verstappen would've done it, snatch 2nd position, but after the onboard shot I can't help but think that, even if he had been into play, Ham (+ Bottas) would have gone faster and would have covered him as well.
do i need to quote Ayrton? 
The track has an apex coming up and a racing line and they are on opposite sides, as you know perfectly well
