2021 Monaco Grand Prix - Monte Carlo, May 20 - 23

[El Scorchio]

..... I knew Mercedes would screw Valteri to gift the "GOAT" a position......

Yes. Mercedes denied themselves 18 WCC points on purpose...
What a ridiculous thing to say!

well snoozing by the radio I thought at the time ......
it seemed that LH might be 3rd or 4th (if VB remained untroubled) ..... and therefore .....
a small impediment to VB would gain LH about as many points as it cost VB

ask Mr Coulthard about being forced to twice use a defective refueling rig so giving Mr Hakkinen DC's Monaco win
same argument (though iirc DC was leading the WDC at the time)

Not a chance they intentionally did that to Bottas’ car. They value WCC points first and foremost, and every single one of those are going to count this season.

[MKlaus]

Two poor races from Hamilton in five. It's fair to say that Verstappen is leading the championship in an inferior car. But, expect the narrative to remain that Mercedes is slower!

It’s abundantly clear that the RB was the much faster car around Monaco, given both Max’s and Perez’ pace

For some reason, some can’t understand the concept that the cars are genuinely close, and have their own strengths and weaknesses from circuit-to-circuit.

if the no. 2 driver in that mercedes was a tenth and half slower than max in quali, obviously the star driver should have certainly done better to be ahead of max or at least behind him. things could have looked different. it's not the car's fault.

[JordanMugen]

Hamilton didn't get the job done yesterday. So what? That doesn't suddenly make the car "obviously faster" unless, of course, it fits your hate narrative. But that's your problem, no one elses.

If Bottas had completed qualifying properly (and quite possibly taken the pole) and not had a dud pitstop, he could have won the race. The Mercedes was definitely capable of winning.

Hamilton just wasn't hooked up with the car and circuit for some reason.

[proteus]

Well that was as dull a F1 race as we have seen for some time. Even Brundle called it as such and he's usually effusive about Monaco being special.

Well done to Max taking the maximum advantage presented to him. Well done to Sainz giving the tifosi something to cheer about after the disappointment of Charles not starting. Brilliant by Norris to get a podium in the McLaren. Perez did his team proud after starting 9th on the grid. Aston Martin did a great job leap frogging Seb ahead of Gasly and Hamilton. Gasly did a solid job today. Hamilton had one of his rare off days, sweetened only a tiny bit by getting the fastest lap and a new lap record.

Well, to me all the overtakes on 1 mile straights are boring as well. Even if no particular overtaking took place today, atleast Monaco enabled more interesting development in overall standings and actually punishing Lewis for his bad performance yesterday, and putting Max back into the fight.

It's not the lack of overtaking as such. It's the lack of opportunity to overtake that makes Monaco pointless as a racing circuit. Look at Max and Lewis in 2019, for example. Max was decently quicker but just couldn't get past. That's just silly.

As for punishing a driver for a mistake in qualifying, fair enough, although I'd have thought it more interesting to see drivers fighting back from mistakes. But maybe that's just me.

Yes, fighting. Not pushing the DRS button and breezing past the sitting duck. We saw that in Imola. I just dont like DRS.

[MKlaus]

Hamilton didn't get the job done yesterday. So what? That doesn't suddenly make the car "obviously faster" unless, of course, it fits your hate narrative. But that's your problem, no one elses.

If Bottas had completed qualifying properly (and quite possibly taken the pole) and not had a dud pitstop, he could have won the race. The Mercedes was definitely capable of winning.

Hamilton just wasn't hooked up with the car and circuit for some reason.

if the result is good, it's the driver and if the result is bad, then it's car.

[grubschumi13]

Two poor races from Hamilton in five. It's fair to say that Verstappen is leading the championship in an inferior car. But, expect the narrative to remain that Mercedes is slower!

The season reminds me a lot of 2017. I do think reliability will come and haunt RBR at some stage in the year. Merc historically is bullet proof.

I do think Merc playing "we were just slow" here is a bit of exaggeration. The difference between Max and Bottas was only 0.025 in qualifying.

They did not have the car advantage they usually do yes, but they were competitive and could have taken pole with Bottas. Certainly Bottas felt his lap before the red flag was "the lap". A good strategy call also was enough to change the complexion of the race.

Lewis had a bad day in quali. Just like Ricciardo and Perez but no one is saying the Mclaren and RBR were too slow.
Ricciardo and Perez are owning their lack of performance, but Lewis answer to the question: “Any lessons to learn?”

Lewis: “For me personally, no! The team, for sure.”

His engineers must walk on eggshells when he is around.

[gshevlin]

The Mercedes is a long wheelbase low rake car compared to the Red Bull, which is a short wheelbase high rake car. It may be the longest-wheelbase car on the grid. On a tight circuit like Monaco, a short wheelbase car ought to have a handling advantage. The Mercedes car may just have too long a wheelbase for the track, to the point where other Mercedes handling and powerplant advantages are not enough to compensate.

[Just_a_fan]

Hamilton didn't get the job done yesterday. So what? That doesn't suddenly make the car "obviously faster" unless, of course, it fits your hate narrative. But that's your problem, no one elses.

If Bottas had completed qualifying properly (and quite possibly taken the pole) and not had a dud pitstop, he could have won the race. The Mercedes was definitely capable of winning.

Hamilton just wasn't hooked up with the car and circuit for some reason.

Indeed so. That's what I said - Hamilton didn't get the job done yesterday. But that doesn't make the car "obviously faster". Max was able to pull away from Bottas before the pit stops.

The cars are closer than some want to believe. One is better in some circumstances, the other in other circumstances. That's what is making the season interesting. But that doesn't fit in with some people's dislike of Hamilton and hence the claims made by those people ad nauseum.

[Just_a_fan]

Hamilton didn't get the job done yesterday. So what? That doesn't suddenly make the car "obviously faster" unless, of course, it fits your hate narrative. But that's your problem, no one elses.

If Bottas had completed qualifying properly (and quite possibly taken the pole) and not had a dud pitstop, he could have won the race. The Mercedes was definitely capable of winning.

Hamilton just wasn't hooked up with the car and circuit for some reason.

if the result is good, it's the driver and if the result is bad, then it's car.

[Restomaniac]

Well, to me all the overtakes on 1 mile straights are boring as well. Even if no particular overtaking took place today, atleast Monaco enabled more interesting development in overall standings and actually punishing Lewis for his bad performance yesterday, and putting Max back into the fight.

A race with no overtakes. Just wow.

What about Schumacher on Mazepin?

Oh yeah I forgot that.......as it was on lap 1. So in a 78 lap race we had 1 genuine overtake with 77 processional laps.

[PlatinumZealot]

Two poor races from Hamilton in five. It's fair to say that Verstappen is leading the championship in an inferior car. But, expect the narrative to remain that Mercedes is slower!

Hmm not really. Today isn't really a race the driver could impact. Driver could do nothing about the bad set-up he got for qualifying.

This is the balance of the championship so far imo

Red Bull faster tracks
Bahrain - Max error
Imola - HAM error x 1, Max error in Q x1
Monaco - Mercedes error (bad Q set-up car 44, bad strat)

Mercdes faster tracks
Portimao - Max error x2, HAM error x 1
Barcelona - Max error (burning out his tyres and rushing into the pits, mistake in sector 3)

Baku should be a Redbull track. More downforce and bendy wing.

[Restomaniac]

We need Monaco on the calendar for reasons as what it did to the championship today. It throws a wrench in things and makes things interesting. I get it that the race is not full of action but I always thoroughly enjoy qualifying. And the weekend is never short of drama

No we don’t it’s nothing but a snore fest. It’s the only race I don’t watch until the end because it sends me to sleep.

Luckily for you, you have 22 other races to enjoy


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Why can’t we have 23?

That snoozefest in on the Calendar for $$$$$$$$ it’s certainly not for racing ideals.

[PlatinumZealot]

So Max basically had this race gifted to him, worse there were no other cars there to challenge him. Congrats, he drove well controlled the race. Gotta take the gifts with both hands as they say.

[proteus]

No we don’t it’s nothing but a snore fest. It’s the only race I don’t watch until the end because it sends me to sleep.

Luckily for you, you have 22 other races to enjoy


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Why can’t we have 23?

That snoozefest in on the Calendar for $$$$$$$$ it’s certainly not for racing ideals.

It is a legendary track. Even if it is a snoozefest, it has its place on the calendar. What you are saying is like someone would say that Ferrari should be thrown out or quit, because they are not winning races... Let it go, even if it was boring to watch, the race itself atleast made the championship interesting. It is one race of many in the calendar.

[proteus]

Two poor races from Hamilton in five. It's fair to say that Verstappen is leading the championship in an inferior car. But, expect the narrative to remain that Mercedes is slower!

Hmm not really. Today isn't really a race the driver could impact. Driver could do nothing about the bad set-up he got for qualifying.

This is the balance of the championship so far imo

Red Bull faster tracks
Bahrain - Max error
Imola - HAM error x 1, Max error in Q x1
Monaco - Mercedes error (bad Q set-up car 44, bad strat)

Mercdes faster tracks
Portimao - Max error x2, HAM error x 1
Barcelona - Max error (burning out his tyres and rushing into the pits, mistake in sector 3)

Baku should be a Redbull track. More downforce and bendy wing.

Yes, and Mercedes has the power advantage. I am almost certain, Mercs will be faster in Baku.