2021 Styrian Grand Prix - Spielberg, June 25 - 27

[DChemTech]

Lew has been very good over the years, but not as good as a lot of ppl tend to believe ..

Which can exactly be applied to other champions. Michael has stats that are partly down to car dominance. Vettel definitely does, as we can see with him having been decidedly average almost since his Red Bull days with only the occasional short run of competitive driving since.

It's how you do when the car isn't the top car that defines you. Max has driven competitively and dragged the best out of his car for a few years, and now is enjoying a leading car. Lewis has enjoyed a leading car and is now dragging the best out of what he has in front of him. I actually think this year, albeit he won't win the title, will actually be one of those seasons that show how good he really is - just like the last few has shown how good Max really is. Both are generational talents.

One learns very little from success. Failure is the great teacher.

True. What makes Lewis stand out compared to Michael (for me, as a fan of neither, but much more sympathetic towards Hamilton) is that he has a relatively clean sheet - sure, he can be a bit exhausting with playing underdog and with trying to find all sorts of 'alternative explanations', including somewhat obscured accusations of cheating towards competitors, but on track he's fairly clean, in most seasons beating his teammates on merit, and not deliberately driving the competition off when he was losing. Whether he wins or loses this year, if he does so giving his best, it doesn't make him any less of a driver.

In any case (and not particularly in response to you, to be clear ) it's way too early to assert dominance for anyone. We've seen a season so far where the cars were pretty even. RB might have had a tiny advantage race 1, MB seemed to be faster for the races after, RB was back on top in the streets, and they were well matched in France. This time RB, or at least, Max, seemed to have a decent advantage, but really, that's for the first time this season. The same may happen next weekend, but who knows what the next track will bring. So far, both MB and RB teammates are quite close to their counterpart at the other team, overall. That means it can be a great season - let's hope it will turn out to be, whomever you are cheering for.

[i70q7m7ghw]

Another great race, 2 in a row, much better after the silliness of Baku. This is exactly how Verstappen needs to win the championship, 1st with Hamilton 2nd every weekend. If we have lots of stupid races like Baku people will just say Verstappen only won because Hamilton had bad luck. With races like France & Austria nobody can say that, Verstappen won because he was quicker.

I was surprised Mercedes didn't consider pitting Hamilton and trying a 2-stop. There was a point where it looked possible, Hamilton was about 4 seconds away from Verstappen and Bottas was >20 seconds behind. I guess Red Bull could have covered it off a lap later, but if Hamilton had nailed the outlap he might have pushed them in to a pit stop mistake.

[Just_a_fan]

In any case (and not particularly in response to you, to be clear ) it's way too early to assert dominance for anyone. We've seen a season so far where the cars were pretty even. RB might have had a tiny advantage race 1, MB seemed to be faster for the races after, RB was back on top in the streets, and they were well matched in France. This time RB, or at least, Max, seemed to have a decent advantage, but really, that's for the first time this season. The same may happen next weekend, but who knows what the next track will bring. So far, both MB and RB teammates are quite close to their counterpart at the other team, overall. That means it can be a great season - let's hope it will turn out to be, whomever you are cheering for.

Next race is at the same track so we can be fairly certain that the Red Bull will be stronger again. Unless there's a strange circumstance such as rain or a "lucky" safety car, of course.

Then it's on to Silverstone and the new qualifying format. That could throw up some interest but not, I think, at the front of the field.

As the Red Bull is quick on the straights and still able to carry speed through the corners, it would seem that Silverstone will a Red Bull track this year too.

As Mercedes aren't developing the W12 and Red Bull are bringing upgrades to the RB16B (apparently they brought a couple of vans full of new bits to Austria, for example), I think we can safely say that Max has much less to worry about than Lewis this year.

[TimW]

Don't forget that Spielberg is at 600+ meter altitude and the Mercedes has always lost more power due to altitude than others. At sea level RB's advantage could be gone.

[Sieper]

And look at Max’ previous achievements here. Even in years when the car was clearly behind.

[El Scorchio]

Don't forget that Spielberg is at 600+ meter altitude and the Mercedes has always lost more power due to altitude than others. At sea level RB's advantage could be gone.

That's a good point. It probably exacerbated the gap, but let's not pretend there is not still an enormous shift in relative car performance from 2020-2021. It didn't just bring a 33 second gap from MB to RBR down, it completely flipped it around to an almost identical gap the other way.

[zeph]

I was more than a little surprised by the gap between Verstappen en Hamilton, even before the latter pitted for the fastest lap run. 15 seconds or so? That RBR is quicker than I thought.

Schnooze of a race, though.

[Wouter]

I was more than a little surprised by the gap between Verstappen en Hamilton, even before the latter pitted for the fastest lap run. 15 seconds or so? That RBR is quicker than I thought.

Schnooze of a race, though.

Hamilton has been behind Max for quite a few laps the same time. When he saw that he could no longer overtake him, he slowed down and the gap quickly widened. The actual gap was not 15 sec, but much smaller.

[Sieper]

The first stint is where they went on the full limit. Max this time managed to get a undercut safe gap. The first time on a non street circuit. The car has been improved massively (comparatively to Mercedes) and Max is super quick here.

[grubschumi13]

Max has always been very, very strong on this track. In 2018 he came from 5th on the grid in the 3rd fastest car and won. 2019 had started badly fell to 8th but made his way up to beat both Mercs, and both Ferraris again in the 3rd fastest car. It is no surprise that in 2021 in the 2nd fastest car on the grid coupled with starting on pole he beat the faster Mercs. That is why he did so well today and crushed Mercedes.

Yeah. That's nice. Tell me more?

In 2016 Max Verstappen started 9th on the grid in the 3rd slowest car. On race day he combined a youthful exuberance and a great maturity for his tender years in age to finish a very impressive 2nd on the race day.

[Just_a_fan]

I was more than a little surprised by the gap between Verstappen en Hamilton, even before the latter pitted for the fastest lap run. 15 seconds or so? That RBR is quicker than I thought.

Schnooze of a race, though.

Hamilton has been behind Max for quite a few laps the same time. When he saw that he could no longer overtake him, he slowed down and the gap quickly widened. The actual gap was not 15 sec, but much smaller.

The gap opened once the rear tyre degradation increased. The Mercedes degraded the rears quicker than the Red Bull. That's why the gap opened up.

[f1316]

For a team who have won so much, Mercedes have got to be the worst sports. Whenever they lose they try to throw mud at the other team and what they have on the car. They always make themselves out to be underdogs fighting against the odds, despite having had a huge advantage for so long.

It would be nice to hear them just say “well done to the other team, they’re doing the better job, fair play”.

You mean literally like this?

https://twitter.com/f1/status/1409158367541665798?s=21

Good on Hamilton.
Now tell Toto to stop whining.

But actually, if you listen to Hamilton’s post race comments, he kept mentioning rear wings and engine upgrades - it wasn’t a gracious “they’ve just done better than us”; all those little comments about specific parts of the Red Bull car are consciously designed to pull focus and create doubt about the merit of the victory.

It’s just typical Mercedes - and I’m sure not Hamilton’s own doing, I’m sure he’s told to say certain things - but creates the impression that, unless they win everything, things can’t possibly be fair. Just pretty annoying for the neutral.

[nzjrs]

But actually, if you listen to Hamilton’s post race comments, he kept mentioning rear wings and engine upgrades - it wasn’t a gracious “they’ve just done better than us”; all those little comments about specific parts of the Red Bull car are consciously designed to pull focus and create doubt about the merit of the victory.

It’s just typical Mercedes - and I’m sure not Hamilton’s own doing, I’m sure he’s told to say certain things - but creates the impression that, unless they win everything, things can’t possibly be fair. Just pretty annoying for the neutral.

I noticed Bottas awkwardly inserted it into the interview with channel 4, so I think they must have been instructed to mention it all the time. Bottas wasn't as smooth as Hamilton.

[cooken]

The gap was consistent for quite a few laps after they both pitted, hovering around 4.5s. Lewis then got held up in traffic a bit worse (due to back markers overtaking eachother) and after that the gap went up to around 5.5s. After that the gap just grew steadily until Lewis pitted again. Part of that was likely due to slightly worse tyre deg on the Merc, but I also wonder if part of it was Lewis just conceding and going into bring it home mode.

Bono said at one point that loss on straights to Max was ~0.2s, so Lewis was likely pushing harder in the corners and on exit (using more of the available grip) to make up for that, thus using up his tyres more quickly.

[basti313]

The gap was consistent for quite a few laps after they both pitted, hovering around 4.5s. Lewis then got held up in traffic a bit worse (due to back markers overtaking eachother) and after that the gap went up to around 5.5s. After that the gap just grew steadily until Lewis pitted again. Part of that was likely due to slightly worse tyre deg on the Merc, but I also wonder if part of it was Lewis just conceding and going into bring it home mode.

I think the core point was, that Sainz who was lapped overtook Ham at one point. That was the point where Ham lost severely time.