2020 Sakhir Grand Prix - Sakhir, Dec 04 - 06

[fritticaldi]

Russell was in full control and heading for his maiden win until Ironically enough the mayhem was triggered by Jack Aitken (his replacement at Williams).

[Manoah2u]

Russell was in full control and heading for his maiden win until Ironically enough the mayhem was triggered by Jack Aitken (his replacement at Williams).

Its also very very likely that debris from that same incident and car (his own car thus) which gave him the slow puncture which made him come in and then kill his race, which he at that point STILL could have WON.

What's to me the most clear to say from all of that is, that shows George's TALENT,
and that's what sets him apart from Bottas, who i have never seen bounce back like that in my memory.

Bottas struggles even if he feels the slightest hint that an arrow gets pointed to him,
George gets a constant unstoppable rain of flaming arrows and spears thrown at him, doesn't complain, and limping finishes with just corners to spare to still beat Bottas, whom at the very vest only has experienced a minor scratch at his wrist.

[Manoah2u]

Don't forget Kovalainen, even though i think Heikki could have been even worse.

[Racer X]

Just in case there's only 1 race left in Sergio Perez's career I'm going to cheer for him and be his fan for Abu Dhabi. To think he might not race again in F1.

Let's hope he returns if he does leave.

[Moore77]

Merc double stack pit stop:

Hard to tell under the helmets, but did I see Toto, Ham's Dad, and Bot's wife doing the tire changing?

OR

It sure was nice for Ferrari to loan Merc their pit crew for the weekend!

Best thing i read.

Beyond all that which has already been highlighted, I was shocked they let Bottas fight after that cock up, instead of asking him to move away and let George have a go. The only good thing in that was George showed balls to pull a move in that tight section and not waste a lap waiting for DRS zone. Sometimes James Vowell comes with these crazy ideas to throw away races.
Being hindsight genius is easy for any idiot, but it still doesn't make any sense why James made a call to pit them.
The car was easily the fastest by a long margin, even against anyone behind if the pitted with new softs.
The mediums had done half the race with strong pace.
The new hards were there for only a handful of laps with less than half the tank of fuel.
All of that could have pointed to not bring in the drivers. Definitely not to double stack them.
Mercedes has induced pain upon themselves on so many occasions when they double stack. They are not Red Bull for that exercise. Yet, they decide to pit.
In Turkey, they decide not to pit and take a risk of something going wrong, despite Hamilton having safe margin to do so. But here, they pit when not needed!
James need to talk to himself and tell that not every SC is an opportunity to pit. He has lost so many races and the most recent one being in Monza.

[e30ernest]

Merc double stack pit stop:

Hard to tell under the helmets, but did I see Toto, Ham's Dad, and Bot's wife doing the tire changing?

OR

It sure was nice for Ferrari to loan Merc their pit crew for the weekend!

Best thing i read.

Beyond all that which has already been highlighted, I was shocked they let Bottas fight after that cock up, instead of asking him to move away and let George have a go. The only good thing in that was George showed balls to pull a move in that tight section and not waste a lap waiting for DRS zone. Sometimes James Vowell comes with these crazy ideas to throw away races.
Being hindsight genius is easy for any idiot, but it still doesn't make any sense why James made a call to pit them.
The car was easily the fastest by a long margin, even against anyone behind if the pitted with new softs.
The mediums had done half the race with strong pace.
The new hards were there for only a handful of laps with less than half the tank of fuel.
All of that could have pointed to not bring in the drivers. Definitely not to double stack them.
Mercedes has induced pain upon themselves on so many occasions when they double stack. They are not Red Bull for that exercise. Yet, they decide to pit.
In last GP, they decide not to pit and take a risk of something going wrong, despite Hamilton having safe margin to do so. But here, they pit when not needed!

I think pitting them might have been the right call if they did not make that mistake. If they didn't pit, and everyone behind them decides to do so, then they might end up with a tire disadvantage that (as you can see happened to Bottas) could cost them the win.

If the double-stack was successful we would be praising their strategic genius instead.

[Moore77]

Merc double stack pit stop:

Hard to tell under the helmets, but did I see Toto, Ham's Dad, and Bot's wife doing the tire changing?

OR

It sure was nice for Ferrari to loan Merc their pit crew for the weekend!

Best thing i read.

Beyond all that which has already been highlighted, I was shocked they let Bottas fight after that cock up, instead of asking him to move away and let George have a go. The only good thing in that was George showed balls to pull a move in that tight section and not waste a lap waiting for DRS zone. Sometimes James Vowell comes with these crazy ideas to throw away races.
Being hindsight genius is easy for any idiot, but it still doesn't make any sense why James made a call to pit them.
The car was easily the fastest by a long margin, even against anyone behind if the pitted with new softs.
The mediums had done half the race with strong pace.
The new hards were there for only a handful of laps with less than half the tank of fuel.
All of that could have pointed to not bring in the drivers. Definitely not to double stack them.
Mercedes has induced pain upon themselves on so many occasions when they double stack. They are not Red Bull for that exercise. Yet, they decide to pit.
In last GP, they decide not to pit and take a risk of something going wrong, despite Hamilton having safe margin to do so. But here, they pit when not needed!

I think pitting them might have been the right call if they did not make that mistake. If they didn't pit, and everyone behind them decides to do so, then they might end up with a tire disadvantage that (as you can see happened to Bottas) could cost them the win.

If the double-stack was successful we would be praising their strategic genius instead.

Bottas had more problems on his car than just old hards, besides being slow that could have contributed to his lack of pace. He was still in the box for eternity burning his breaks.

[Ringleheim]

This track layout is much too Mickey Mouse for Formula One. I hope we don't see it again.

Toto's post-race F-bomb was the highlight of the event.

Checo and George both drove great races.

As Martin Brundle said, if Bottas didn't have bad luck, he wouldn't have any luck at all.

It's a shame that only a total Mercedes Mess-Up created the opportunity for an interesting result.

[langedweil]

Funny that literally no one mentions Ocon being 2nd .. lucked in today.
Guess he just is that invisible one-day-fly; bet he'll drown next to Alonso next year, just like Stoffel ..

[Racer X]

Funny that literally no one mentions Ocon being 2nd .. lucked in today.
Guess he just is that invisible one-day-fly; bet he'll drown next to Alonso next year, just like Stoffel ..

Sometimes when a driver has s solid consistent performance with no mistakes they can just cruise by unnoticed. With so much drama for P1 and so much drama for P3 nobody noticed P2.

[holeindalip]

Some Hamilton fans were hell bent on proving that Bottas is anything decent! I'm sure they're glad Russell did not win today. Bottas is there for a reason, to keep certain someone happy. It maybe a surprise for us, but Mercedes always knew how quick Russell was (is), yet he wasn't put in the car for next year. And people claim there is no #1/#2 in Mercedes.

Acrually most HAM fans want Russel. They have an appetite for HAM destroying stars.

This x1000
I want russel in the other seat, I think ham performs better under pressure and when he’s pushed. Probably shut all the haters up for a bit as well....

[holeindalip]

It’s also a shame what happened in Italy and ham catching Covid he had a real shot at breaking the single season win record...

[e30ernest]

Best thing i read.

Beyond all that which has already been highlighted, I was shocked they let Bottas fight after that cock up, instead of asking him to move away and let George have a go. The only good thing in that was George showed balls to pull a move in that tight section and not waste a lap waiting for DRS zone. Sometimes James Vowell comes with these crazy ideas to throw away races.
Being hindsight genius is easy for any idiot, but it still doesn't make any sense why James made a call to pit them.
The car was easily the fastest by a long margin, even against anyone behind if the pitted with new softs.
The mediums had done half the race with strong pace.
The new hards were there for only a handful of laps with less than half the tank of fuel.
All of that could have pointed to not bring in the drivers. Definitely not to double stack them.
Mercedes has induced pain upon themselves on so many occasions when they double stack. They are not Red Bull for that exercise. Yet, they decide to pit.
In last GP, they decide not to pit and take a risk of something going wrong, despite Hamilton having safe margin to do so. But here, they pit when not needed!

I think pitting them might have been the right call if they did not make that mistake. If they didn't pit, and everyone behind them decides to do so, then they might end up with a tire disadvantage that (as you can see happened to Bottas) could cost them the win.

If the double-stack was successful we would be praising their strategic genius instead.

Bottas had more problems on his car than just old hards, besides being slow that could have contributed to his lack of pace. He was still in the box for eternity burning his breaks.

Maybe those were mitigating factors, but to me it looks like the tires just fell off compared to the cars around him (which had fresh sets IIRC). He pitted at lap 63 and the race restarted on lap 69. He was on pace with Stroll up until lap 77 when Sainz passed him and he just fell back. Sainz' and Ricciardo's passes were on traction (vs braking) so it could be rear tires going off?

[Schuttelberg]

Love the excuses from Bottas and some people over here about "him matching Russell" or being quicker in the second stint but "unable to pass" because of the characteristics of the Merc!

Wake up and smell the coffee. Russell beat Bottas in an alien car instead of being trumped by him. And, he passed Bottas in the same car that is apparently unable to pass in traffic.

[Moore77]

I think pitting them might have been the right call if they did not make that mistake. If they didn't pit, and everyone behind them decides to do so, then they might end up with a tire disadvantage that (as you can see happened to Bottas) could cost them the win.

If the double-stack was successful we would be praising their strategic genius instead.

Bottas had more problems on his car than just old hards, besides being slow that could have contributed to his lack of pace. He was still in the box for eternity burning his breaks.

Maybe those were mitigating factors, but to me it looks like the tires just fell off compared to the cars around him (which had fresh sets IIRC). He pitted at lap 63 and the race restarted on lap 69. He was on pace with Stroll up until lap 77 when Sainz passed him and he just fell back. Sainz' and Ricciardo's passes were on traction (vs braking) so it could be rear tires going off?

Bottas pitted for new hards on lap 49.
Ocon didn't pit for second stop. First pit stop at 41 for new hards.
Stroll didn't pit for second stop. Fist pit stop at 42 for new mediums.
Sainz pits for seond stop at 55 for new mediums.
Ric pits for second stop at 55 for new hards.
Albon pits for second stop at 62 for new softs.
Kvyat pits for second stop at 53 for new hards.

So essentially, only Albon had much fresher tyres compared to Bottas. Otherwise, he had tyres which were at worst 6 laps older compared to others while he was on the fastest car! 6 laps on such a short circuit on hard compound tyres with less than half the tank. So, tyres isn't a good excuse. By Mercedes' own admission in the first stint, the tyre wear was far less than they had anticipated because of which they went "target + 20" in the first stint. Bottas wasn't up to the job.

It also invalidates the theory that, after SC, the Mercedes cars were under any threat from behind, certainly not from Perez who had pitted on lap 47 for new hards.