2021 French Grand Prix - Le Castellet, June 18 - 20

[Stormblessed]

What’s the forecast for the circuit at race time? It should be getting more reliable as it draws close

[Stormblessed]

What’s the forecast for the circuit at race time? It should be getting more reliable as it draws close

[Zynerji]

Gasly wins in the wet?

[Mr.S]

Max was 2.5 tenths ahead on the Softs but on the Mediums Mercedes were quicker or atleast at par with RB. That is in qualifying when RB better heat up their tyres & are on a light fuel load. On the Mediums & Hards where the race will be, on full fuel load, Mercedes have a quicker car. Clearly with the Hard Compound tyres. Perez is also @ P4 & should have been in P2 or P3 to trouble Hamilton.

I don't if Max will be able to hold Mercedes in race pace with harder rubber because Mercedes is the clear-cut quicker car with harder rubber in race per. Even in Monaco, Bottas was 1 or 2 tenths behind Max before the pit-stop & in Baku Hamilton was a couple of tenths behind. This is in tracks which don't suit Mercedes, with a flexi wing in Baku for RB & with C3-C5 Tyres which suit RB. Now we move to more of the C2-C4 & C1-C3 Tyre range in non-street circuits !

Mercedes-RB will go to the wire. I don't know if what Max said (2 Tenths quicker than LH in the same car is true) but Mercedes are a well oiled team winning 7 straight championships. Lewis has been incredibly lucky & Max could have been 30-40 points up. Although Lewis has lost championships with the quickest car (Nico 16, Raikkonen 07, even almost to Massa in 08 before Glock spun), this is a difference Lewis-Mercedes combo. Max hasn't made many mistakes while Lewis has so far & Max is possibly a shade quicker in raw pace but RB has won nothing so far in the hybrid era.

I am predicting LH win Max at 2 & Bottas @ 3. There is no reason for Mercedes to lose this with C2-C3 tyres in race pace !

[NL_Fer]

What will be LH44 strategy? Push Max33 into an early stop, by trying an undercut (which will not work because of Mercs slow tyre heat up). Than push hum again and do a second stop for a Barcelona all over again?

[Edax]

Since he has also interviewed Max. Max explained it, he cannot even do that agressive turn in as he has not the downforce to have the rear planted. But like you said, a trade off choice that was the right one.

The right one for HIS CAR. There's no magic bullet. Max was the best man on the day as he took pole but he also had the quickest car on the day.

How dare you argue the numbers? The Merc is quicker but Hamilton is only extracting 96,6% of it. AWS says so

All kidding aside. The track seems to be evolving very fast. It wouldn’t surprise me if for instance Bottas is running a higher downforce config than Hamilton seeing the progression of both cars over the weekend as grip levels increased.

Anyway it is already hard to tell who had the better car yesterday, today it might be different.

[skoop]

What will be LH44 strategy? Push Max33 into an early stop, by trying an undercut (which will not work because of Mercs slow tyre heat up). Than push hum again and do a second stop for a Barcelona all over again?

I don't think that's gonna work this time, because it looks like Perez is going to be in the mix as well

[pantherxxx]

Max was 2.5 tenths ahead on the Softs but on the Mediums Mercedes were quicker or atleast at par with RB. That is in qualifying when RB better heat up their tyres & are on a light fuel load. On the Mediums & Hards where the race will be, on full fuel load, Mercedes have a quicker car. Clearly with the Hard Compound tyres. Perez is also @ P4 & should have been in P2 or P3 to trouble Hamilton.

I don't if Max will be able to hold Mercedes in race pace with harder rubber because Mercedes is the clear-cut quicker car with harder rubber in race per. Even in Monaco, Bottas was 1 or 2 tenths behind Max before the pit-stop & in Baku Hamilton was a couple of tenths behind. This is in tracks which don't suit Mercedes, with a flexi wing in Baku for RB & with C3-C5 Tyres which suit RB. Now we move to more of the C2-C4 & C1-C3 Tyre range in non-street circuits !

Mercedes-RB will go to the wire. I don't know if what Max said (2 Tenths quicker than LH in the same car is true) but Mercedes are a well oiled team winning 7 straight championships. Lewis has been incredibly lucky & Max could have been 30-40 points up. Although Lewis has lost championships with the quickest car (Nico 16, Raikkonen 07, even almost to Massa in 08 before Glock spun), this is a difference Lewis-Mercedes combo. Max hasn't made many mistakes while Lewis has so far & Max is possibly a shade quicker in raw pace but RB has won nothing so far in the hybrid era.

I am predicting LH win Max at 2 & Bottas @ 3. There is no reason for Mercedes to lose this with C2-C3 tyres in race pace !

If you look at Q2 actually Red Bull had better pace on the medium tyres, that's why Mercedes needed a second lap to improve their time, their first lap was slower. Also if Mercedes is quicker on the harder tyres, doesn't that mean that Mercedes is warming up their tyres better?

[erudite450]

Anyone have an idea what the weather is doing at the moment?

[Capharol]

Anyone have an idea what the weather is doing at the moment?

clouded, might be a few drops of rain, nothing much.... i am waiting for F3 to been shown to get a better picture

[erudite450]

Anyone have an idea what the weather is doing at the moment?

clouded, might be a few drops of rain, nothing much.... i am waiting for F3 to been shown to get a better picture

Thanks

[Capharol]

Anyone have an idea what the weather is doing at the moment?

clouded, might be a few drops of rain, nothing much.... i am waiting for F3 to been shown to get a better picture

Thanks

there have been reports that there is slightly rain via Twitter

[TimW]

Some weather models predict a bit of rain during the race, others predict dry. Coast is dry, inland there is rain, circuit is on the boundary.

[Capharol]

its pouring at the moment
Full wets for F3 cars

[RZS10]

Yup ... according to a weather radar that rain cloud should be gone within an hour and a bit