2024 Spanish Grand Prix - Barcelona-Catalunya, June 21 - 23

[ringo]

Well if he felt he was quicker then he and his team need to look into why they did not pit to cover Max.
I feel Lando is afraid of Max.
The redbull is good at the race launch and run to turn 1. We saw that in Imola.
Max had a nice buffer with Russel corking Norris' pace.
By Norris not pitting and putting himself in traffic, it then allowed redbull time to regroup and run optimal strategy to take the win.
Sometimes pressure is important even if it seems futile to be following in dirty air.
Mclaren's race was inefficient from having to do all those overtakes to get back to P-2. And when theyre back in P-2 redbull put on fresher tyres and have track position and 8 seconds or so buffer.
Good win by Max, and though the cars are basically equal, this win came without any pressure thanks to Lando defying his team's original plan to cover Russel.

As for Ferrari, not too bad. Sainz being entitled again and defending too hard a lost position.
Aston Martin the green team looking like oscar the grouch. Poor poor form and progress.
Alpine, a team in shambles is a much better machine. Enstone showing their pedigree. Alpine has a heavy chassis and poor engine. Imaging if they had a Mercedes engine? Enstone will rise again in 2026.

All in all a good race. The true pecking order was clear to see at this track.

[Rikhart]

I was ridiculed when I said Norris is quicker than Max in my eyes.

McLaren has been the faster car since Miami on paper. Norris himself said they were faster than RB at Imola and Canada. Miami, Monaco obvious. This is just another confirmation right?

They will never believe it, you might as well quit.

The mclaren had around 0.4/0.5 second advantage this race (just look at last stint, on his used softs vs Max new softs), as acknowledged by pretty much everyone.

I will say this again, Max would probably be winning in either a mclaren, merc (probably not as many, but he would have some wins already), or redbull.

[stephen]

If Lando Norris can just find that last little bit I think we could have a real battle on our hands.

[Spoutnik]

I was ridiculed when I said Norris is quicker than Max in my eyes.

McLaren has been the faster car since Miami on paper. Norris himself said they were faster than RB at Imola and Canada. Miami, Monaco obvious. This is just another confirmation right?

They will never believe it, you might as well quit.

The mclaren had around 0.4/0.5 second advantage this race (just look at last stint, on his used softs vs Max new softs), as acknowledged by pretty much everyone.

I will say this again, Max would probably be winning in either a mclaren, merc (probably not as many, but he would have some wins already), or redbull.

Apart from Canada maybe, Im not sure
But it's clear Lando is afraid of Max, you cannot be so close and play the nice guy and be a killer on track against he same guy the next day

[101FlyingDutchman]

McLaren has been the faster car since Miami on paper. Norris himself said they were faster than RB at Imola and Canada. Miami, Monaco obvious. This is just another confirmation right?

They will never believe it, you might as well quit.

The mclaren had around 0.4/0.5 second advantage this race (just look at last stint, on his used softs vs Max new softs), as acknowledged by pretty much everyone.

I will say this again, Max would probably be winning in either a mclaren, merc (probably not as many, but he would have some wins already), or redbull.

Apart from Canada maybe, Im not sure
But it's clear Lando is afraid of Max, you cannot be so close and play the nice guy and be a killer on track against he same guy the next day

He wasn’t being nice today at all. Pretty much drove VER off the road. It was pretty on the edge. It simply wasn’t a great start and he got mugged. If he kept it a bit further off the side then I still think VER would have had to yield into corner 1. I think he rued his decisions when you see him in the cool down room

[ringo]

Norris will need more races and more errors to learn and get the edge off. Once he gets used to running at the front, the saliva at the corner of his hungry mouth will dry up and he will be more patient. His title challenge will come next year.
2024 is looking good for more battles. Norris will challenge next week and maybe Russel. I don't think Austria is a good track for Lewis with some of the turns. The track limits fiasco would be a nice spicer-upper aslso.

[TimW]

If there is one conclusion drawn from this race, it is by Toto that he needs to get Max. And the car gap may be small enough to convince Max.

[Big Tea]

Norris will need more races and more errors to learn and get the edge off. Once he gets used to running at the front, the saliva at the corner of his hungry mouth will dry up and he will be more patient. His title challenge will come next year.
2024 is looking good for more battles. Norris will challenge next week and maybe Russel. I don't think Austria is a good track for Lewis with some of the turns. The track limits fiasco would be a nice spicer-upper aslso.

Winning is a habit. If you only have one win they become precious and your default option is always the safe one.
Once (if???) he has a few in the bank he will go for 100%ers where today he will only go for a 98%er for the risk of losing a second or third place. It will come, for him and the team. That's basically why winning drivers are winning drivers, because they know how to win and when to gamble.

[AMG.Tzan]

Another embarrassing race by Russell!

Mercedes needed this guy back in 2021! Now he’s basically useless…he does the same thing over and over again! Burn his tires just to keep ahead of Hamilton! A ton of mistakes in the process like not battling Verstapen more at turn 1 and then holding Norris and Hamilton back because he had no pace…

Norris and Hamilton both did the worst starts they could have done! Hamilton should have done exactly what Russell did but he fell asleep at the worst possible moment and then had to fight back as always! This is basically what destroyed today’s race and we ended up with the same winner again…

[venkyhere]

It's almost confirmed in my mind, that the MCL38 has matched (possibly even surpassed) the RB20 in terms of ability. The Mclaren is, I believe, a much wider-window car than the RB20 as of today. The way they are going about the weekend, is with clockwork efficiency and precision like what RB19 used to do in 2023 - no setup drama, no driver complaints, right on the money from FP1 itself. The only remaining doubt is how the tyre deg of MCL38 (in normal summer temp conditions) is going to be, w.r.t the RB20. If that too proves better tomorrow, we can safely say the Mclaren is THE CAR of 2024, usurping the crown from RB20.

Unable to reply individually to all who thought I was being crazy in this post.

That "only remaining doubt" has been confirmed. MCL38 is superior to RB20 even before the half-season mark. There isn't a better representative track than Barcelona.

Stupendous job by Stella and team. Norris driving out of his skin. Just lacks the final 1% killer instinct. Which will eventually come, for sure. No driver stays at the same 'level', they improve. Atleast the clever ones do.

If anyone in this thread still thinks RB20 is the best car this season, they are in denial.

Thanks to RUS going P1 after T1, thanks to VER overtaking RUS (beautifully setup by the T13 and T14 exits) in the first available attempt, allowing NOR to be held behind, thanks to lack of 'match sharpness for P1 fight' from Mclaren strategy team, the race was won by VER. It was NOR's race to lose, and he did. Psychological blow, 3rd time this season. Imola, Canada, Barcelona.

Max, the stratagy team, the pitcrew, all doing 'whatever's needed to be done to win even when 2nd best, and somehow pull victory from the jaws of defeat'. Reminds me of how Real Madrid have always performed in the champions league - winning against better opponents.

[Aesop]

If Lando Norris can just find that last little bit I think we could have a real battle on our hands.

If Norris finds that last little bit there is no battle anymore...

[Hammerfist]

Defo mclaren with the best car at this stage. They have at least 2 tenths on Verstappen, but likely more than that. I mean Norris' fastest lap is almost 7 tenths faster than Verstappen's and that's on same age tyres and both pushing hard. If that's not a faster car I dont know what is. Lets not forget Norris closed down 8s gap twice while overtaking cars. Verstappen literally doing miracles in these last few races to pull out these wins.

We already know that the slightly faster car doesnt always even if thw team and drivw makes mistakes. Only dominant cars do (0.5 second faster and more in equal conditions).

If Norris started in front i dont think his car was fast enough to keep Max behind. 2 tenths is equal cars margin of error to me. Driver will make the difference.

If the mclaren is the faster car then why Norris couldnt pass russell in the first stint when Max only needed one lap with drs to do it?
That is what cost Norris the race really. His failure to overtake Russell in the first stint. Anyone can have a bad start it happens, but it was critical for him to get Russell once Max had done so.

[organic]

Defo mclaren with the best car at this stage. They have at least 2 tenths on Verstappen, but likely more than that. I mean Norris' fastest lap is almost 7 tenths faster than Verstappen's and that's on same age tyres and both pushing hard. If that's not a faster car I dont know what is. Lets not forget Norris closed down 8s gap twice while overtaking cars. Verstappen literally doing miracles in these last few races to pull out these wins.

We already know that the slightly faster car doesnt always even if thw team and drivw makes mistakes. Only dominant cars do (0.5 second faster and more in equal conditions).

If Norris started in front i dont think his car was fast enough to keep Max behind. 2 tenths is equal cars margin of error to me. Driver will make the difference.

If the mclaren is the faster car then why Norris couldnt pass russell in the first stint when Max only needed one lap with drs to do it?
That is what cost Norris the race really. His failure to overtake Russell in the first stint. Anyone can have a bad start it happens, but it was critical for him to get Russell once Max had done so.

Drivers discussed that in the post-race cooldown room. And the implication from GP on the radio is that Max would only have one shot to pass Russell

Before long your tyres are overheating in the dirty air, so you need to close up and get the DRS and make the move before this happens. If you fail to get it done immediately then that's it until the tyres start to degrade and the performance delta widens.

Also the first few laps of a race the red bull has always been mighty, launching straight out of DRS range. Clearly it's the phase of the race where RB has great pace, but over the course of the grand Prix it's plainly obvious to almost everyone that McLaren were faster by a decent margin

[AR3-GP]

If the mclaren is the faster car then why Norris couldnt pass russell in the first stint when Max only needed one lap with drs to do it?

Perez can't pass an Alpine but Verstappen probably could. Does that mean Perez's car isn't faster than the Alpine?

Norris had used soft tires for his final stint that had 3 laps on them already. Verstappen had new softs. Norris pitted 3 laps after Verstappen, so tire corrected (Norris on used tires) there was virtually no tire age difference between them in the final stint. Norris closed the gap from 8.1 seconds to 2 seconds. Norris's fastest lap of the race is 6 tenths clear of Verstappen's, both set in that final stint. Why are people confused about what car was faster today?

[Mosin123]

If the mclaren is the faster car then why Norris couldnt pass russell in the first stint when Max only needed one lap with drs to do it?

Perez can't pass an Alpine but Verstappen probably could. Does that mean Perez's car isn't faster than the Alpine?

Norris had used soft tires for his final stint that had 3 laps on them already. Verstappen had new softs. Norris pitted 3 laps after Verstappen, so tire corrected (Norris on used tires) there was virtually no tire age difference between them in the final stint. Norris closed the gap from 8.1 seconds to 2 seconds. Norris's fastest lap of the race is 6 tenths clear of Verstappen's, both set in that final stint. Why are people confused about what car was faster today?

Over the distance of the race, Max was the faster car. Race isnt won on who pushes the most on the last stint.