2020 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, Nov 27 - 29

[Moore77]

I don’t think so. He would likely be further off. You are underestimating what Max is doing. Year after year. He made Gasly look por as well.

You can't argue with people who are hell bent on proving Bottas is a good driver to make Hamilton look more glorious. It's their day job.

lol Bottas is no way a bad driver. Saying he is the worst driver on the grid would suggest your Formula 1 knowledge is questionable. As I have said before, Bottas is somewhere between 6-10th in the current 20 driver lineup. No Hamilton fan is saying he's in the top 3 or 4.

lol Another fabulous race for your legendary great driver, Bottas and a fabulous, almost out of points finish! So much for your Formula 1 knowledge.
His secret is clearly out there, which you need to accept and move on. It clearly appears that he sets up his car completely biased towards qualifying, so that he can make an impression that he is has great one lap speed fast and all that. Whereas Hamilton is most likely setting up his car for race and yet, beats Bottas to pole with that. In race, Bottas struggles with his qualifying setup, whereas Hamilton goes on to win comfortably with his setup without any tyre life issues. If Bottas goes for similar approach to Hamilton and sets up his car for race, he probably would qualify 5th or 6th at best, leaving him exposed.

When was the last time Bottas had a decent get away? I can't remember. Even this race, he lost tons of positions and then as usual, some or other issue and couldn't recover back with best car on the grid.

[PlatinumZealot]

Bottas has been nervous on the grid that's for sure. He is capable of good starts ot must be said, but he has been dropping the ball much too much recently.

[e30ernest]

You can't argue with people who are hell bent on proving Bottas is a good driver to make Hamilton look more glorious. It's their day job.

lol Bottas is no way a bad driver. Saying he is the worst driver on the grid would suggest your Formula 1 knowledge is questionable. As I have said before, Bottas is somewhere between 6-10th in the current 20 driver lineup. No Hamilton fan is saying he's in the top 3 or 4.

lol Another fabulous race for your legendary great driver, Bottas and a fabulous, almost out of points finish! So much for your Formula 1 knowledge.
His secret is clearly out there, which you need to accept and move on. It clearly appears that he sets up his car completely biased towards qualifying, so that he can make an impression that he is has great one lap speed fast and all that. Whereas Hamilton is most likely setting up his car for race and yet, beats Bottas to pole with that. In race, Bottas struggles with his qualifying setup, whereas Hamilton goes on to win comfortably with his setup without any tyre life issues. If Bottas goes for similar approach to Hamilton and sets up his car for race, he probably would qualify 5th or 6th at best, leaving him exposed.

When was the last time Bottas had a decent get away? I can't remember. Even this race, he lost tons of positions and then as usual, some or other issue and couldn't recover back with best car on the grid.

I'm not Bottas' biggest fan, but I think this race was a bad representation of his abilities. He did get punctures which pushed him to the back of the grid.

[Moore77]

lol Bottas is no way a bad driver. Saying he is the worst driver on the grid would suggest your Formula 1 knowledge is questionable. As I have said before, Bottas is somewhere between 6-10th in the current 20 driver lineup. No Hamilton fan is saying he's in the top 3 or 4.

lol Another fabulous race for your legendary great driver, Bottas and a fabulous, almost out of points finish! So much for your Formula 1 knowledge.
His secret is clearly out there, which you need to accept and move on. It clearly appears that he sets up his car completely biased towards qualifying, so that he can make an impression that he is has great one lap speed fast and all that. Whereas Hamilton is most likely setting up his car for race and yet, beats Bottas to pole with that. In race, Bottas struggles with his qualifying setup, whereas Hamilton goes on to win comfortably with his setup without any tyre life issues. If Bottas goes for similar approach to Hamilton and sets up his car for race, he probably would qualify 5th or 6th at best, leaving him exposed.

When was the last time Bottas had a decent get away? I can't remember. Even this race, he lost tons of positions and then as usual, some or other issue and couldn't recover back with best car on the grid.

I'm not Bottas' biggest fan, but I think this race was a bad representation of his abilities. He did get punctures which pushed him to the back of the grid.

Isn't that the case almost every race? He getting one or the other issue? Besides, I don't know at what point in time he got that puncture and how it affected. Here are his laptimes and the laptimes doesn't tell the story of puncture.

[basti313]

lol Bottas is no way a bad driver. Saying he is the worst driver on the grid would suggest your Formula 1 knowledge is questionable. As I have said before, Bottas is somewhere between 6-10th in the current 20 driver lineup. No Hamilton fan is saying he's in the top 3 or 4.

lol Another fabulous race for your legendary great driver, Bottas and a fabulous, almost out of points finish! So much for your Formula 1 knowledge.
His secret is clearly out there, which you need to accept and move on. It clearly appears that he sets up his car completely biased towards qualifying, so that he can make an impression that he is has great one lap speed fast and all that. Whereas Hamilton is most likely setting up his car for race and yet, beats Bottas to pole with that. In race, Bottas struggles with his qualifying setup, whereas Hamilton goes on to win comfortably with his setup without any tyre life issues. If Bottas goes for similar approach to Hamilton and sets up his car for race, he probably would qualify 5th or 6th at best, leaving him exposed.

When was the last time Bottas had a decent get away? I can't remember. Even this race, he lost tons of positions and then as usual, some or other issue and couldn't recover back with best car on the grid.

I'm not Bottas' biggest fan, but I think this race was a bad representation of his abilities. He did get punctures which pushed him to the back of the grid.

Even when he had free air in front of him, he was lapping 2 sec off pace in the first stint. Slower than Albon...especially the first stint was horrible, there is no "puncture" excuse as they fitted four new tires.
In the second stint he won 5 sec on Albon with 6 laps younger tires...not really impressive.
Given the 3 wheel pitstop the last stint was ok, but hard to judge.

Even with a good start Bottas would have been way off the pace in the first two stints. I do not think he would have had any chance against Ves and most likely a hard time with Per.

[e30ernest]

If memory serves me right, he got his first puncture during the safety car period during Stroll's crash. That would be his pit into lap 4. That pushed him to the back of the grid and would explain his laptimes after that.

He also got a second puncture if I remember correctly after his last pit stop (or maybe they were just replaying the old radio message). At that point he was able to just nurse the car back since Perez triggered another safety car.

[basti313]

If memory serves me right, he got his first puncture during the safety car period during Stroll's crash. That would be his pit into lap 4. That pushed him to the back of the grid and would explain his laptimes after that.

No. Free air is free air. His car was easily 3 sec faster than the cars around, still he could not overtake...when everyone in front of him pitted at some point the problem showed up...he was about 2 sec off pace from the top cars.

He also got a second puncture if I remember correctly after his last pit stop (or maybe they were just replaying the old radio message). At that point he was able to just nurse the car back since Perez triggered another safety car.

The second puncture did not play any role...and I am not sure if it was Bot with the puncture or the car in front of him that had the front wing on the ground during the SC period.

[zibby43]

Max went straight savage on Albon after the race.

Completely unsolicited, too.

Interviewer: “Good thing that Alex takes the podium and score some good points.”

Max: “Well yeah, that’s your conclusion but if you trail your teammate with 30-40 seconds you can hardly say he did a good job. Still nice for Alex to score a podium though.”

Yikes.

[factory_p]

Max went straight savage on Albon after the race.

Completely unsolicited, too.

Interviewer: “Good thing that Alex takes the podium and score some good points.”

Max: “Well yeah, that’s your conclusion but if you trail your teammate with 30-40 seconds you can hardly say he did a good job. Still nice for Alex to score a podium though.”

Yikes.

Yeah I picked up on that too. Rather brutal, but I understand his point : when Lewis pits, Albon is too far to stand in his way and slow him down.
So yesterday he brought good points for the team but he still was not a factor in the race win. He was useless strategy-wise for Max.

[zibby43]

Isn't that the case almost every race? He getting one or the other issue? Besides, I don't know at what point in time he got that puncture and how it affected. Here are his laptimes and the laptimes doesn't tell the story of puncture

Bottas picked up the puncture after the second start (debris from the Grosjean crash).

He then pitted under the Safety Car during the Stroll accident - which dropped him to the back of the field as a result.

He then came through the field to recover to 8th.

You said you didn't know when that happened, or how it affected the race, so I ask this sincerely, with no malice or snark intended, but did you not watch the race?

[zibby43]

Max went straight savage on Albon after the race.

Completely unsolicited, too.

Interviewer: “Good thing that Alex takes the podium and score some good points.”

Max: “Well yeah, that’s your conclusion but if you trail your teammate with 30-40 seconds you can hardly say he did a good job. Still nice for Alex to score a podium though.”

Yikes.

Yeah I picked up on that too. Rather brutal, but I understand his point : when Lewis pits, Albon is too far to stand in his way and slow him down.
So yesterday he brought good points for the team but he still was not a factor in the race win. He was useless strategy-wise for Max.

No doubt. Doesn't seem like that dynamic is going smoothly inside the team right now.

[factory_p]

No doubt. Doesn't seem like that dynamic is going smoothly inside the team right now.

First time I see a proper public display of tension from Max regarding Albon's situation. But that's not good news for Albon. Usually the current driver doesn't have much of a say regarding who is in the 2nd car but Verstappen is taking so much place in this team right now that I believe if he doesn't trust Albon to give him a proper support next year, he might just be able to twist Red Bull's arm until they sign another driver.

[basti313]

Max went straight savage on Albon after the race.

Completely unsolicited, too.

Interviewer: “Good thing that Alex takes the podium and score some good points.”

Max: “Well yeah, that’s your conclusion but if you trail your teammate with 30-40 seconds you can hardly say he did a good job. Still nice for Alex to score a podium though.”

Yikes.

Yeah I picked up on that too. Rather brutal, but I understand his point : when Lewis pits, Albon is too far to stand in his way and slow him down.
So yesterday he brought good points for the team but he still was not a factor in the race win. He was useless strategy-wise for Max.

No doubt. Doesn't seem like that dynamic is going smoothly inside the team right now.

Yes...sounds a bit like they will not drive together next year.

[Just_a_fan]

Yeah I picked up on that too. Rather brutal, but I understand his point : when Lewis pits, Albon is too far to stand in his way and slow him down.
So yesterday he brought good points for the team but he still was not a factor in the race win. He was useless strategy-wise for Max.

No doubt. Doesn't seem like that dynamic is going smoothly inside the team right now.

Yes...sounds a bit like they will not drive together next year.

Or they are going to be driving together and Max isn't happy with that decision. He's basically publicly saying to the team "this guy isn't good enough".

[Phil]

Joe Saward amongst others (some of the-race.com crew too)

Joe Saward is just a jorno, it's just his opinion, he has nothing to back it up such as having worked or raced with Mick. I wouldn't even take it with a pinch of salt, it's a fairly meaningless view.

It's not just his opinion - his insight into what people inside the paddock think is very valuable and I'd take it with a lot more than just a pinch of salt. Mick has the name and that will probably get him a seat even if he doesn't win the F2 championship. That doesn't mean he's the best driver of the lot.