2020 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, August 14 - 16

[Hoffman900]

Silverstone 2 was manufactured drama by Pirelli at the FIA’s request by mandating overinflated tires to introduce an outside variable to the mix and make it exciting.

No different than sprinklers at the edge of the track.

The mistakes Mercedes made in that race will unlikely be repeated by them.

[Moore77]

The compounds and conditions didn't work in Red Bull's favor. Max knew he wasn't going to catch Hamilton, so there was no reason to try to catch him. He just needed to do enough to stay ahead of Bottas. Next race is back to Silverstone2 compounds which should suit Max better.

do you really think it's going to be as hot in spa in two weeks as it was in Barcelona today?

All weekend long, the track temperature was around 50C here and it was only 44C in Silverstone2 on race day, which was the hottest day there.

[ispano6]

The compounds and conditions didn't work in Red Bull's favor. Max knew he wasn't going to catch Hamilton, so there was no reason to try to catch him. He just needed to do enough to stay ahead of Bottas. Next race is back to Silverstone2 compounds which should suit Max better.

do you really think it's going to be as hot in spa in two weeks as it was in Barcelona today?

I never claimed anything about temperatures in SPA. I only talked about compounds. Go to AccuWeather if you want to know the temp for the next 2 weeks but take it with a grain of salt. No promises.

[Sieper]

Congrats to Lewis and his fans, great race, flawless, Start, timing, pace. did everything he could even to help Bottas (to no avail) but well executed and kept his tires so good he could have enormous pace. Max did what he could, again splitting the Mercs. With his old PU (changed out this morning). Left Bottas chanceless. But OK, that is then one point more .

Ferrari got some karma. Weird how that works. Vettel’s last race?

[LM10]

I've told it last time, got answers counterattacking me and I'm gonna tell it again: Bottas is a really weak racer. He might be there or thereabouts in qualifying, but him being behind Max yet again and not even coming into a position to fight him despite being in a dominantly fast car, says it all.

[JordanMugen]

I've told it last time, got answers counterattacking me and I'm gonna tell it again: Bottas is a really weak racer.

That much is clear, yet Mercedes refuse to replace him with Russell in 2021, so what can fans do?

Write a strongly worded letter to Mercedes-AMG F1 Team noting the benefits of signing Russell or Alonso for that matter?

It's absurd that Alonso is excluded from the Mercedes-AMG team for trivial reasons (a $100m fine for McLaren-Mercedes over a decade ago, which was not Alonso's fault anyway).

[holeindalip]

I've told it last time, got answers counterattacking me and I'm gonna tell it again: Bottas is a really weak racer.

That much is clear, yet Mercedes refuse to replace him with Russell in 2021, so what can fans do?

Write a strongly worded letter to Mercedes-AMG F1 Team noting the benefits of signing Russell or Alonso for that matter?

Well for one Claire will not release him from his contract so Mercedes had to resign Bottas....

[dans79]

The compounds and conditions didn't work in Red Bull's favor. Max knew he wasn't going to catch Hamilton, so there was no reason to try to catch him. He just needed to do enough to stay ahead of Bottas. Next race is back to Silverstone2 compounds which should suit Max better.

do you really think it's going to be as hot in spa in two weeks as it was in Barcelona today?

I never claimed anything about temperatures in SPA. I only talked about compounds. Go to AccuWeather if you want to know the temp for the next 2 weeks but take it with a grain of salt. No promises.

The heat, in conjunction with the tire compounds, and tire pressures are what cause Mercedes problem and Silverstone.

Unless you get all three of those conditions, and Mercedes learned nothing, then you won't see a duplicate of the second Silverstone race.

[JordanMugen]

I've told it last time, got answers counterattacking me and I'm gonna tell it again: Bottas is a really weak racer.

That much is clear, yet Mercedes refuse to replace him with Russell in 2021, so what can fans do?

Write a strongly worded letter to Mercedes-AMG F1 Team noting the benefits of signing Russell or Alonso for that matter?

Well for one Claire will not release him from his contract so Mercedes had to resign Bottas....

Alonso was a free agent on the other hand.

[atanatizante]

HAM has many qualities as a racing driver but today he just showed us one of we didn`t think of he has and that is to be a strategic driver!

He just managed for some 18 laps or so his soft tyres and the real purpose was to force VER to run his tyres suboptimal aka. under the operation window. Hence he was sliding more coz RB16 has a very soft suspension setup in order to preserve longer the tyres. The result was that he finally complained to the radio at the end of his first stint putting faith to his race end result ...

What`s most impressive, in POV, is that HAM even amazed his team with his tyre and strategy, something that speaks volumes about his race experience and maturity, I should say ...

Now he has to improve at the restarts after the SC phase - one of the last weaknesses he has - and I think he could be a flawless driver ...

[foxmulder_ms]

Enjoyed that a lot:

[NathanOlder]

Max losing his head.

TBF I can see his point.

He needs to calm down or only bad things will happen.

If it was Hamilton everyone would just criticise him for whinging.

100%

[ispano6]

Congrats to Lewis and his fans, great race, flawless, Start, timing, pace. did everything he could even to help Bottas (to no avail) but well executed and kept his tires so good he could have enormous pace. Max did what he could, again splitting the Mercs. With his old PU (changed out this morning). Left Bottas chanceless. But OK, that is then one point more .

Ferrari got some karma. Weird how that works. Vettel’s last race?

It's smart of Max and Red Bull Honda to choose their battles and save their engine. Perhaps they hoped Bottas would challenge Hamilton more but once Max was in 2nd Hamilton bolted to prevent DRS. Max underscored the importance of starting position by getting ahead of Bottas and never was threatened afterward. Alex got a good start too but was hampered by the RPs and Bottas going slow through the first corner. Alex was doomed with the hard, that call was a blunder.

[Schuttelberg]

I've told it last time, got answers counterattacking me and I'm gonna tell it again: Bottas is a really weak racer.

That much is clear, yet Mercedes refuse to replace him with Russell in 2021, so what can fans do?

Write a strongly worded letter to Mercedes-AMG F1 Team noting the benefits of signing Russell or Alonso for that matter?

Well for one Claire will not release him from his contract so Mercedes had to resign Bottas....

Yes, it's much tougher to find a driver at the start of the season than it is in November like 2016.

Jeez! Some of you are just so gullible.

[tangodjango]

The compounds and conditions didn't work in Red Bull's favor. Max knew he wasn't going to catch Hamilton, so there was no reason to try to catch him. He just needed to do enough to stay ahead of Bottas. Next race is back to Silverstone2 compounds which should suit Max better.

Sorry, but which race were you watching? Lewis and Max both used the exact same tyres that was used in Silverstone2. C2 and C3. Mercedes didn't touch C1 here and Max didn't use C4 in Silverstone2.

That was the best thing to see! From September onwards as the weather starts cooling down I can see RBR dropping away even further though that will be crappy from a competitive perspective. Also very impressive is that Mercedes have practically had zero upgrades so far, at this rate they won't even have to take a new engine for another 2-3 races.