2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Baku, June 04 - 06

[Samsthepits]

Just to say I don't work for Sky - dunno why people are saying I do!

Also I always find it odd when people say I'm a fan of one team or another - usually the driver who is the rival of that persons favourite driver. I don't have any favourites!

[Schuttelberg]

It's amazing how perceptions change these days in a matter of weeks. Till pre-season, I was being irked by "Verstappen will never beat Hamilton over a year because he's too aggressive and makes too many mistakes." Now I am being irked by "Hamilton is 37 and obviously not at his best!"

They are humans and both will always make mistakes FFS! Hamilton has won half the races in the season and people are just so dismissive these days it is unbelievable. Vettel went from "he should retire" to "could he replace Bottas next year?" and that is because "Russell doesn't have the experience of racing at the front."

It is mind numbing!!

[sosic2121]

It's amazing how perceptions change these days in a matter of weeks. Till pre-season, I was being irked by "Verstappen will never beat Hamilton over a year because he's too aggressive and makes too many mistakes." Now I am being irked by "Hamilton is 37 and obviously not at his best!"

They are humans and both will always make mistakes FFS! Hamilton has won half the races in the season and people are just so dismissive these days it is unbelievable. Vettel went from "he should retire" to "could he replace Bottas next year?" and that is because "Russell doesn't have the experience of racing at the front."

It is mind numbing!!

lol
yes, people are like that.

Nice to see Vettel preform on "his" level after shaky beginning of the season. Impressive performance from him and AM.

[Big Tea]

I have to say guys, I posted on Sunday eve that I thought it was a terrible race.
I have to admit I was wrong, and here is my excuse. I was out (family) when the race was on, and watched the SKY highlights prog. on Sky GO.
I found it, as I posted, a terrible and unentertaining disjointed afar that seemed to depend on plot luck for a result because, not of the parts included in the highlights, but those left out.
It may be a personal mind set, but I do not think I will ever watch the highlights before I watch the long version again if possible.
If I was a casual first time viewer I would have completely the wrong view of F1 from that highlights prog.

[Sieper]

It's amazing how perceptions change these days in a matter of weeks. Till pre-season, I was being irked by "Verstappen will never beat Hamilton over a year because he's too aggressive and makes too many mistakes." Now I am being irked by "Hamilton is 37 and obviously not at his best!"

They are humans and both will always make mistakes FFS! Hamilton has won half the races in the season and people are just so dismissive these days it is unbelievable. Vettel went from "he should retire" to "could he replace Bottas next year?" and that is because "Russell doesn't have the experience of racing at the front."

It is mind numbing!!

This. Hamilton has lost nothing of his skills. That’s BS. I think Russell will get that second seat and he is ready for it too. Vettel has gone through a rough time, but so has been the criticism received. Overly rough. That year he “lost” to Hamilton he wasn’t so bad, the car just wasn’t there overall and imho Hamilton is also better than Vettel. Vettel is very good, but Hamilton is in my book exceptionally good.

[darkpino]

What a shitshow this place has become. I wonder what the average age is here nowadays… but on the other end i couldn’t care less. Just a shame the dick length competition overshadows the opinions of people actually knowing what they talk about. Time for a different place to read for me

look at it from the bright side. There hasn’t been a single discussion on track limits all weekend. At least Baku got that right. No trackside sensor can beat a broken front wing for evidence.

Haha i lol’d

[Restomaniac]

And actually, since strolls tires blew after like 31 laps? And Max 34? Was almost everyone at danger at that point? We have seen it last year as well, at Silverstone.

The problem was also a bit that everyone was taken hostage by the Stroll blowout. They all lost their pit window. If Max would have pitted he would likely just have thrown the victory away. Even if after that they all stayed out and someone else would be the first to have his tires let go.

Or was it a 1 stopper anyway? Pirelli did advice so.

Exactly. As I said at the time the red flag was thrown so everyone could get rid of them.

[JPBD1990]

What a shitshow this place has become. I wonder what the average age is here nowadays… but on the other end i couldn’t care less. Just a shame the dick length competition overshadows the opinions of people actually knowing what they talk about. Time for a different place to read for me

Agree. When I joined this forum I swear the ‘tribalism’ wasn’t as pronounced. But I do feel like that’s just the way the worlds going (not to sound tooooo old - I’m 30 so old but not that old). Just seems like this idea that every opinion is valid and correct has meant that people just dig their heels in and get more and more biased/one sided in their views.

Good observation. New strains of the fanboy
virus have been running rampant of late.

We need to bring back voting into the race threads! Too many focus is on drivers, controversy and not on the technical observations during the race.

Like

[Artur Craft]

It's all subjective. If you don't like Hamilton then you're bound to pick up on and amplify the things you perceive as lucky and ignore the rest, whereas if you do, then you'll remember the unlucky bits. The truth is undeniably somewhere inbetween. For instance I had it in my young head that Schumacher was the luckiest driver ever at the time he was winning everything, but I'm sure it wasn't actually true. However, what's true of both of them is that they are almost always in perfect position to take advantage of any good fortune and to mitigate any bad fortune by both luck AND design.

Interestingly there was a lot of 'Hamilton is so lucky' on here yesterday when Verstappen crashed, but barely any 'Verstappen is so lucky' when Hamilton had his brake setup issue and went off, when actually they were both equally lucky and unlucky at the end of the day, but the perception on here did not match the reality.

My post was the opposite of what you suggested there. I wasn´t a hater cherry picking things. I even ackowledged that LH had a few bad luck moments, like any driver has, but, overall, on the big picture, he undeniably and objectively has been massively helped by "luck"

Anybody who dispute that is just a biased fan which I don´t bother to debate with

[ThumbsUp]

Did anyone noticed that when Stroll's tire exploded and he went into the barriers, he asked over the radio to red flag it to get him out of the car. But they send out the SC and the team advised him to jump out of the car right now because there was a gap in between cars to get out quickly.

[PlatinumZealot]

Looking back on Gasly pit stop immediately after Hamilton. This has been an unspoken tactic over the years that teams use to stall their opponents in the pits. RedBull however are fortunate to have four cars. I hate what they did, but it is a proper tactic.

[aMessageToCharlie]

Looking back on Gasly pit stop immediately after Hamilton. This has been an unspoken tactic over the years that teams use to stall their opponents in the pits. RedBull however are fortunate to have four cars. I hate what they did, but it is a proper tactic.

Good theory, but I'd give them the benefit of doubt.

IF they indeed did it, I'd welcome that. Championship fights should be exactly like that - gloves off, everything allowed, between two rival teams. We had to wait too many years to see that again.

-TPs going at it calling each other "wind bag"
-Cars on coparable performance level
-Drivers going at it with smug comments in the press
-Pit stops and team work actually matter again
-Aggressive pit stratgies, that sometimes backfire
- teams using every possible area to get an advantage (designs, protests, sister teams, politics, Vetos)

That's what I want to see. [-o<

[ispano6]

Looking back on Gasly pit stop immediately after Hamilton. This has been an unspoken tactic over the years that teams use to stall their opponents in the pits. RedBull however are fortunate to have four cars. I hate what they did, but it is a proper tactic.

Uh hold up. Mercedes has customer teams in Aston Martin(Toto owns shares), McLaren and Williams to do exactly the same. Sure, they aren't sister teams, but they could all "get in the way" of Red Bull's cars equally. Remember Williams nearly taking out Verstappen in the pitlane in Brazil? Hamilton immensely benefited from a red flag between Bottas and Russell. If Mercedes doesn't want to get held up in the pitlane they should pit last after all other cars have.

[Sieper]

Looking back on Gasly pit stop immediately after Hamilton. This has been an unspoken tactic over the years that teams use to stall their opponents in the pits. RedBull however are fortunate to have four cars. I hate what they did, but it is a proper tactic.

Hamilton had exactly zero problems with Gasly. It was not like the Williams having an unsafe release into Max in Brazil a few years ago.

[dans79]

Looking back on Gasly pit stop immediately after Hamilton. This has been an unspoken tactic over the years that teams use to stall their opponents in the pits. RedBull however are fortunate to have four cars. I hate what they did, but it is a proper tactic.

Hamilton had exactly zero problems with Gasly. It was not like the Williams having an unsafe release into Max in Brazil a few years ago.

I think that depends on your definition of issue, having to wait so he could be released safely is an issue in my book! It's the type of thing merc will need to be more careful about going forward!