2020 Belgian Grand Prix - Spa-Francorchamps, August 28 - 30

[proteus]

People are blinded when it comes to LH.. Haha. It is hilarious.

It is clear to see Hamilton is not just a racer, but a celebrity and an activist. Making himself stand out to raise his stature is what celebrities, and activists do!

Great men stand out by themself. They dont need to seek for attention.

The way how you dislike and handle an opinion that doesnt suit yours, is prooving my point.

[Big Tea]

Most interesting things I take away for this race are the shifts in pecking order: Renault beats fair and square their costumer team and Ferrari has 'some work' to do, and that's not only on the engine... Or did they turn their engine down so can run it harder at Monza? We'll see.

Don't know if it is fair to say Renault beat Mclaren 'fair and square' as the leading Mclaren DNS due to a Renault problem.
Not that I think it was deliberate.

[PlatinumZealot]

Great men stand out by themself. They dont need to seek for attention.

The way how you dislike and handle an opinion that doesnt suit yours, is prooving my point.

In show business that's what you have to do. It is a bit cringey sometimes but it has worked very well for him.
If you do not follow his instagram yet, chek out all the celebrity replies he gets to his posts. At first it was a bunch of C- list celebrities but he has worked his way up the ladder. I would say he rubs elbows with B-listers now.

[Sieper]

Of course not, but Sainz could have put up a fight.

Have a good look at the Renault car, it’s whole engine cover and rear are much lower than Mclaren, they clearly are on different development paths and Renault is slippier. They don’t have as much efficient downforce as Mclaren but on tracks where that is not needed Renault outperforms Mclaren. And have been doing so for quite some time.

[bucker]

That must have been one of most boring races lately.

[Sieper]

Except for the start where Ricci and Max put a nice few corners in nothing happened in the top4. Not even a fear if somebodies strategy would work. Sometimes a safety car can have that effect. Midfield on it was an Okay race. All in all somewhat unsatisfactory, yes.

[zibby43]

Is Albert Fabrega suggesting Merc didn’t use their “party mode” this weekend?

No, Albert isn't suggesting Mercedes didn't use their Party Mode.
He says that Hamilton doesn't need the pm to become a champion.

Thanks for the clarification. Was wondering if something was lost in translation.

[Wouter]

All caps comes across as shouting. Bold or italics comes across as emphasis. Have a good day.

That's what YOU think! We sometimes use italics, sometimes bold letters and sometimes capital letters to emphasize something or a word. Everyone is free to decide that for themselves. If you write an entire sentence in capital letters, then it looks like you are shouting .
@Sieper always writes neatly and decently here and is not one who shouts in his posts. He only wrote ONE word in capitals..

[zibby43]

All caps comes across as shouting. Bold or italics comes across as emphasis. Have a good day.

That's what YOU think! We sometimes use italics, sometimes bold letters and sometimes capital letters to emphasize something or a word. Everyone is free to decide that for themselves. If you write an entire sentence in capital letters, then it looks like you are shouting .
@Sieper always writes neatly and decently here and is not one who shouts in his posts. He only wrote ONE word in capitals..

Irony.

[Mchamilton]

Except for Heikki Kovalainen i really doubt Fernando and Jenson werent "there" where he "was" at Mclaren. Even though Button had some periods when he underperformed, he was more or less "there" most of the times, so this is the part which is making me think.

I used to be a big fan of Lewis when he was driving for Mclaren and i still liked him when he started to drive for Mercedes, but season after season i have started to lose respect for him, even though he is achieving more and more. I just dont like his attitude which he is making more and more annoying to me. Every year he finds some new way of trying to make himself stand out and to be something special. No other legendary drivers forced themself so much to try and be something special the way Hamilton is trying. - And that is my personal opinion.

He has the fastest car for the longest period in history of sport now, and it is quite obvious the whole thing is making him kind of bored because he can win titles so easily.

Max is more than capable enough to bring the fight to him, he just needs to get an equal machine. It is not fair from Lewis to downplay Max as not good enough, if he knows that the car of Mercedes is a step clear of RedBull.

At what point did Lewis say max wasn't good enough? Oh yeah... He didn't.

In the part "he and Albon" are not where "me and Valteri" are... He forgot that actually RedBull and Honda aint "where" Mercedes is jet.

I think you heard him wrong, probably chose to hear him wrong to give yourself something to hate about.

[Unc1eM0nty]

The Hamilton interview I mentioned earlier, he was being candid yes but shouldn't be making those comments IMO.

He's stating the obvious isn't he ?

Untill Red Bull can get both cars right up behind the Merc's they can't apply any real pressure, Max can't do this on his own, Red Bull are always outnumbered, simple as.

[sosic2121]

How is he not a second driver

He is. They throw him under the bus whenever opportunity arises. And that's fine!
What is not fine is pretending that that's not the case. Similar to pretending that RB is close and it's going to be a tough race...

[Mamba]

He's stating the obvious isn't he ?

Untill Red Bull can get both cars right up behind the Merc's they can't apply any real pressure, Max can't do this on his own, Red Bull are always outnumbered, simple as.

Indeed. The second car doesn't need to match Max, but it should be able to prevent cheap pitstops from Merc or try a different strategy. If you have two Mercs fighting a lone Red Bull they'll always win except in exceptional circumstances like Silverstone 2. RB needs that second car much more than they are willing to admit. But that is the issue of having a tricky car. Look at Gasly at & post RB. Give him a good car he can work with, and he is very fast.

[Sieper]

And here I was just thinking it was trying to cause an upset at a competitor. It was well meant advise. How kind.

[grubschumi13]

The Hamilton interview I mentioned earlier, he was being candid yes but shouldn't be making those comments IMO.

He is putting a spin on things to protect his legacy. Bottas is nowhere near him. The delta between the Mercedes and the Red Bull is so big that even a perfect Verstappen can't prevent front row lockouts and 1-2 sweeps.

As far as Albon is concerned, he has more talent and racing vigour in his little finger than Bottas and he would have had a win and a podium by now if Hamilton didn't crash into him.

Albon and RedBull are also fighting the rest of the midfield and it's evident to even an idiot that the delta between RedBull and the midfield is smaller than the one between Mercedes and RedBull. A bad weekend for either Mercedes driver is P2 while Albon could easily finish 3rd or 8th if things really go south. Albon also hasn't been in F1 or a top team for umpteen years now. Verstappen is simply one of if not the best driver on the grid and he's getting the maximum out of a difficult car. Albon, will get there. At least, he will fight Verstappen a lot harder than Bottas vs Hamilton.

It is exactly this sort of interview that gets fans dawn the red mist. On Friday, it was going to be close with racing Point and Red Bull were quicker and on Sunday it's the second RedBull driver unable to participate in strategy fights. RedBull could have had P3-P6 today with the Alpha Tauri's as well and they were not touching the Mercedes. The only way Max had any hope of getting P2 was if he got those few hundredths in quali. Even then, I don't see him being able to hold Bottas behind considering the power in that Merc engine.

Mercedes got an easy 1-2 today with a wet set up. That says a lot. The fact that Verstappen is P2 in the classification is a testament to his talent and the heap of mediocrity that Bottas is.

I don't think it is in Hamilton's nature to speak badly about Albon, especially considering he (Hamilton) made two mistakes that cost Albon podiums one mistake of course is debatable but it was an incident involving him that cost Albon a podium possibly a win.

Lewis got stuck trying to claim that the Redbull is as fast as his Mercedes then had to back up his claims because Albon is not producing the same results as Max so accidentally trashing Albon somewhat.

I got to agree Bottas under performed yesterday and it was still enough to beat RedBull. Today Bottas in the early stage made Lewis work a bit but Mercedes will never allow him to seriously trouble Hamilton.