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

[Zynerji]

If they were sandbagging at all they’d make sure they were only doing it enough to still win- as Lowe also said. Topping practice is meaningless and Hamilton only had a pole last time because Verstappen messed up his Q3 lap.

The powertrains have to make 9 races, plus some qualifying races. I’m surprised some of these teams run as much as they do at all in practice. They most certainly are not going all in power wise.

Of course- but running engines to last for reliability reasons as all the teams must do is very different to sandbagging.

Turning your 2014 engine down, while claiming you are in a close fight (to prevent a rule change) IS sandbagging...

[Hoffman900]

If they were sandbagging at all they’d make sure they were only doing it enough to still win- as Lowe also said. Topping practice is meaningless and Hamilton only had a pole last time because Verstappen messed up his Q3 lap.

The powertrains have to make 9 races, plus some qualifying races. I’m surprised some of these teams run as much as they do at all in practice. They most certainly are not going all in power wise.

Of course- but running engines to last for reliability reasons as all the teams must do is very different to sandbagging.

You've heard of rewards weight, right? That's a thing in most production car racing.

Sandbagging to hide your advantage has been around since day 1. You do just enough to win, always. In cases where someone showed their full cards, it's usually because the driver messed up / ego got in the way.

If they ever followed through with Crofty's reverse grid, you BET teams would find all sorts of strategies to sandbag even more.

[DarthPlagueisTheVise]

[El Scorchio]

The powertrains have to make 9 races, plus some qualifying races. I’m surprised some of these teams run as much as they do at all in practice. They most certainly are not going all in power wise.

Of course- but running engines to last for reliability reasons as all the teams must do is very different to sandbagging.

Turning your 2014 engine down, while claiming you are in a close fight (to prevent a rule change) IS sandbagging...

Yes- THAT is sandbagging. But 2014 and now are different. I don't believe they are sandbagging now. Your implication seems to be that they (still) are.

[El Scorchio]

The powertrains have to make 9 races, plus some qualifying races. I’m surprised some of these teams run as much as they do at all in practice. They most certainly are not going all in power wise.

Of course- but running engines to last for reliability reasons as all the teams must do is very different to sandbagging.

You've heard of rewards weight, right? That's a thing in most production car racing.

Sandbagging to hide your advantage has been around since day 1. You do just enough to win, always. In cases where someone showed their full cards, it's usually because the driver messed up / ego got in the way.

If they ever followed through with Crofty's reverse grid, you BET teams would find all sorts of strategies to sandbag even more.

Of course they would, but I don't think there's any sandbagging going on from Mercedes at present at all. They have no advantage to hide.

[Zynerji]

Of course- but running engines to last for reliability reasons as all the teams must do is very different to sandbagging.

Turning your 2014 engine down, while claiming you are in a close fight (to prevent a rule change) IS sandbagging...

Yes- THAT is sandbagging. But 2014 and now are different. I don't believe they are sandbagging now. Your implication seems to be that they (still) are.

My implication is that ALL Mercedes PR is now suspect as their history of sandbagging for WCC benefit is confirmed.

So, please stop the crying, and just race.

[El Scorchio]

Turning your 2014 engine down, while claiming you are in a close fight (to prevent a rule change) IS sandbagging...

Yes- THAT is sandbagging. But 2014 and now are different. I don't believe they are sandbagging now. Your implication seems to be that they (still) are.

My implication is that ALL Mercedes PR is now suspect as their history of sandbagging for WCC benefit is confirmed.

So, please stop the crying, and just race.

TBH I'd take anything that comes out of any team's mouth with a massive grain of salt. I wouldn't trust any of them in the slightest.

[zibby43]

Turning your 2014 engine down, while claiming you are in a close fight (to prevent a rule change) IS sandbagging...

Yes- THAT is sandbagging. But 2014 and now are different. I don't believe they are sandbagging now. Your implication seems to be that they (still) are.

So, please stop the crying, and just race.

I missed you telling that to Binotto in 2019 when Ferrari were blowing away the field on the straights with a likely illegal PU, while Binotto was gaslighting the whole paddock by saying they had a "low-drag concept."

The concept that somehow, only Mercedes tries to hide a competitive advantage, is very disingenuous.

So indeed, with peace and love, let's stop the crying.

[cheeRS]

After Paddy Lowe's interview and sandbagging stories on The Grid podcast, I have ZERO faith in the sob-story news that comes out of Mercedes.

Once again, their PR mouthpieces/fans have people believing they are NOT the fastest, even when they top the timesheets/pole positions/points...

I take it you didn't actually listen to the Podcast. People are taking what he said, and generalizing it to every race of the last 7 years.

He specifically mentioned this about 2014 ONLY and even then, he narrowed it down to Qualifying ONLY. He said they didn't run the highest power modes in Qualifying for most of the season except for a few times in Q3.

He also mentioned the balance was between looking "too fast" and erring on the side of caution so that they'd still win/get pole because otherwise they'd look like idiots for no reason.

He said nothing of the other seasons, namely 2015-present. They were afraid in year 1 (2014) that regulation changes would come to balance things out. With major reg changes next year, there'd be no logical reason to sandbag/hold back in any way.

/rant

[PlatinumZealot]

Observations

Honda has long 3rd gear and short 7th gear.

Max doing more left foot braking so i guess he has more confidence in rotating his car. Consistently braking later than HAM.

Mercedes seems to tuned the ERS for better accelartion more than top speed. Seems their gearing is more all rounded but Honda has it shorter up top probably to defend better or pass better.

[godlameroso]

Dark horse for the weekend is Bottas, his pace is very very strong.

[Zynerji]

Yes- THAT is sandbagging. But 2014 and now are different. I don't believe they are sandbagging now. Your implication seems to be that they (still) are.

So, please stop the crying, and just race.

I missed you telling that to Binotto in 2019 when Ferrari were blowing away the field on the straights with a likely illegal PU, while Binotto was gaslighting the whole paddock by saying they had a "low-drag concept."

The concept that somehow, only Mercedes tries to hide a competitive advantage, is very disingenuous.

So indeed, with peace and love, let's stop the crying.

Actually, I was pretty skeptical of Ferrari in 2019 (I believed Arrivabene was canned because he WOULDNT cheat), so, if you dig, I may have said this very thing about them as well.

I just want to see great racing.

No Sandbagging,
No Kneeling,
No Bullsh1t.

And I'm not sorry to say that the politics and posturing is the most awful part of my favorite sport.

[hUirEYExbN]

....
And I'm not sorry to say that the politics and posturing is the most awful part of my favorite sport.

Politics and fans ruin every sport. Art matching life I guess.

[dans79]

Yep, and I think that is why Max was progressively worse in sectors 2 & 3. He took to much life out of the tires or over cooked them in sector 1 depending on how you want to think about it.

[dans79]

Max doing more left foot braking so i guess he has more confidence in rotating his car. Consistently braking later than HAM.

Or, Lewis was caring more fuel!