2021 Portuguese Grand Prix - Portimão, Apr 30 - May 02

[nevill3]

I don't believe Mercedes will favour Lewis and switch him with Valtteri, they want to win and it's Lewis himself who often influences the teams decisions to give himself the best chance to win, often telling the team to not bring him in early etc. If Valtteri is slowing Lewis up and Max is ahead any team would switch drivers but if Valtteri is performing as he can then it would be up to Lewis to pass him on track.

[the EDGE]

I don't believe Mercedes will favour Lewis and switch him with Valtteri, they want to win and it's Lewis himself who often influences the teams decisions to give himself the best chance to win, often telling the team to not bring him in early etc. If Valtteri is slowing Lewis up and Max is ahead any team would switch drivers but if Valtteri is performing as he can then it would be up to Lewis to pass him on track.

I suspect Bottas will go backwards all on his own, he usually does

[mafeotul]

I don't believe Mercedes will favour Lewis and switch him with Valtteri, they want to win and it's Lewis himself who often influences the teams decisions to give himself the best chance to win, often telling the team to not bring him in early etc. If Valtteri is slowing Lewis up and Max is ahead any team would switch drivers but if Valtteri is performing as he can then it would be up to Lewis to pass him on track.

I suspect Bottas will go backwards all on his own, he usually does

It's funny, ever since the quali, i have debated with myself just this. Now, Mercs are utterly ruthless when it comes to maximising winning chances, and i also feel that people tend to forget just how they manipulate the narrative to come across as this ZEN all encompasing of perfection and equality between drivers, when in fact it simply isn't true.

I am torn at about 70-30% that they will fabricate this result to aim for Hamilton, whom has moulded with the car quicker and better in race trim in comparison to Valtteri. Also, don't forget that Bottas always has a better start of the season, and if this is his starting form, then it's quite clear who the charge is going to be led by. I seriously won't be surprised to see a "fight" between them at the start with Lewis miraculously passing him, and then Bottas doing what he does best. Road-Block FC.

[mafeotul]

Yes. The reason is Michael Schumacher!

Schumacher had four seasons of marginally competitive Ferraris before Ferrari came good, plus the catastrophically uncompetitive 2005 Ferrari.

Always, one of the greatest debates i have ever had with F1 fans, if Michael would have stayed past the 2005-2006 slump, would he have won 2007-08? 07 was a big yes for me, but 2008? We were robbed of seeing Hamilton/Schumacher going head to head there.

[Restomaniac]

Yes. The reason is Michael Schumacher!

Schumacher had four seasons of marginally competitive Ferraris before Ferrari came good, plus the catastrophically uncompetitive 2005 Ferrari.

Always, one of the greatest debates i have ever had with F1 fans, if Michael would have stayed past the 2005-2006 slump, would he have won 2007-08? 07 was a big yes for me, but 2008? We were robbed of seeing Hamilton/Schumacher going head to head there.

F1 is littered with these situations and it’s very rarely a true comparison anyway. It’s very rare you get a peak top drawer driver vs peak top drawer driver in a top car.. It’s normally when one is raising and one is in his later years.

In fact I think we need to look right back to the 80’s to see this consistently.

We would have seen it properly in 1994 (Schumacher Vs Senna) but for Senna’s death. In 2007 Hamilton was still a rookie and then Alonso went back to a Renault that rather underwhelmed people.

However I suppose the 2 years (Hamilton Vs Vettel (17,18)) was up there. Let’s hope this year we have another proper scrap.

[mafeotul]

Schumacher had four seasons of marginally competitive Ferraris before Ferrari came good, plus the catastrophically uncompetitive 2005 Ferrari.

Always, one of the greatest debates i have ever had with F1 fans, if Michael would have stayed past the 2005-2006 slump, would he have won 2007-08? 07 was a big yes for me, but 2008? We were robbed of seeing Hamilton/Schumacher going head to head there.

F1 is littered with these situations and it’s very rarely a true comparison anyway. It’s very rare you get a peak top drawer driver vs peak top drawer driver in a top car.. It’s normally when one is raising and one is in his later years.

In fact I think we need to look right back to the 80’s to see this consistently.

We would have seen it properly in 1994 (Schumacher Vs Senna) but for Senna’s death. In 2007 Hamilton was still a rookie and then Alonso went back to a Renault that rather underwhelmed people.

However I suppose the 2 years (Hamilton Vs Vettel (17,18)) was up there. Let’s hope this year we have another proper scrap.

Aye,

However, despite how incredibly good Max is, we cannot compare 2017-2018 Vettel ( Pre-Germany) with him yet. That Sebastian was quite literally one of the best drivers I have ever seen in my life. All round solid, fast, reliable etc. And they still failed.

To mount a title challenge on the Merc and Ham mix you have to be almost perfect all season, all sessions, all corners, all restarts etc. Mercedes hasn't just won titles on Pace, they won it every year by being consistently fast enough. This is Max's first proper title challenge, but also first proper Team-mate since Daniel. Even if the Bulls have the larger operating window with their car right now, the lack of experience on the Bulls side will decide it i am afraid.

[djones]

Lots of crazy talk here. The RB16 didn't just get slow all of a sudden. Mercedes qualified out of position, tomorrow is what counts.

I agree that Redbull did not get slow. Indeed they will have got faster due to some updates that were brought.

However, Mercedes are starting to tame their car and understand the issues they had in testing and the first race(s).

Let’s see what happens in the race. Mercedes will have warm up issues for the first 3 laps or so and max will probably get ahead. But when it settles I think we will see the Mercedes of Hamilton the fastest car today.

The tides have turned.... service as usual.

[Wouter]

[mafeotul]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E0Xmj9uWYAY ... name=small

Just realised Max has to go to Hard in race, that's going to be interesting. What if Merc do the long stint Medium- Soft?

[MKlaus]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E0Xmj9uWYAY ... name=small

Just realised Max has to go to Hard in race, that's going to be interesting. What if Merc do the long stint Medium- Soft?

max won't go on hards. he will lose a lot of ground if he does that. there was virtually no degradation as the asphant is still very smooth.
medium-soft is a no brainer. unless big safety car drama happens early on.
this is one area mercedes is outsmarting red bull. they are getting their tyre strategy spot on and red bull is at sea.

[mafeotul]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E0Xmj9uWYAY ... name=small

Just realised Max has to go to Hard in race, that's going to be interesting. What if Merc do the long stint Medium- Soft?

max won't go on hards. he will lose a lot of ground if he does that. there was virtually no degradation as the asphant is still very smooth.
medium-soft is a no brainer. unless big safety car drama happens early on.
this is one area mercedes is outsmarting red bull. they are getting their tyre strategy spot on and red bull is at sea.

But that's a major kick if they do that, If Merc can use the Hards, and the Bulls can't, it's race over before they started.

[mkay]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E0Xmj9uWYAY ... name=small

Just realised Max has to go to Hard in race, that's going to be interesting. What if Merc do the long stint Medium- Soft?

FYI the Merc and Aston only did 1 warmup lap on the Hards to scrub the tyres a little bit. Their set of hards is basically brand new.

M/H is definitely the way to go for the race.

[mafeotul]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E0Xmj9uWYAY ... name=small

Just realised Max has to go to Hard in race, that's going to be interesting. What if Merc do the long stint Medium- Soft?

FYI the Merc and Aston only did 1 warmup lap on the Hards to scrub the tyres a little bit. Their set of hards is basically brand new.

M/H is definitely the way to go for the race.

That puts the ball into Mercs court isn't it? Based on how the Bulls performed on the harder compounds this weekend.

[Jolle]

It might be a game of chicken who dares to go on the hards first to get to the end. Good chance RedBull will do this with Perez if he's anywhere close to the top three.
just on wear, the lead driver could possibly do medium-hard, When following Medium-Medium-Hard would possibly be necessary because of the extra wear and heat in dirty air.

[djones]

Redbull will go M-S I think. The soft is the only compound they actually looked fast on, so a hard will be really bad for them.