This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
How is it Max's to lose, if he has the second or third best car at the moment? His to lose would be if he had a car for victories and made mistakes, it is clearly not the case.
Piastri's race pace isn't great, so we can give him half of the remaining McLaren races to lead Max. Let's give Lando all of them... So at worst Max is ten points behind Lando in half of those races and maybe 7 points in the other. Then for the RedBull tracks he will win those surely. So on average that 75 point gap is basically his to lose.
If Lando/Max first 1/2 for the remaining races, Lando would win the WDC by a mere 1 pt.
I separate "McLaren" races from RedBull races. So i give Max a couple easy wins in there.
High downforce setup, it was already visible on his s2 times in FP1/2. They probably hope on a good launch, than still have enough topspeed for overtaking.
Strategy for Max last year was S-M-S. As it was with most the other teams.
Having 2 Mediums and a full set of soft's might not be as bad as it seems. If the soft degs too much, or grains (like we seen in FP1 or 2) then having a medium rather than a hard to drop back onto is a benefit IMHO.
Strategy for Max last year was S-M-S. As it was with most the other teams.
Having 2 Mediums and a full set of soft's might not be as bad as it seems. If the soft degs too much, or grains (like we seen in FP1 or 2) then having a medium rather than a hard to drop back onto is a benefit IMHO.
I think it's very different to previous years due to new asphalt. There is too much graining on the soft I think to be a great race tyre this year
I have a feeling that Max starting on H is the right thing to do - there are two ways in which he can start the race - do an Alonso/Russel and charge like a bull (and increase risk of damage) and gain atleast 2-3 places OR do a Sargeant and stay clear of everyone and not gain any position, might even lose a position. I reckon the latter way is better considering the outright pace delta of RB20 vs non-McLaren cars. In which case, it makes sense to start on H tyre and not think of tyre preservation when attacking the cars ahead to gain positions after lap1. The careful nature of lap1 execution will anyway guarantee that the H is 'gently introduced' as well. The big risk with H is if there is a safety car around first pit window laps (12-16), others will get a free stop. But I think it's a risk worth taking (to start on H) because that will then ensure that when the two Ms come on later, they will do when there is relatively more chances of running-in-clean-air and making that sector2 count.
Higher temps will play into the higher DF choice, and less graining favours Red Bull I would say. Only issue remaining is the choice of 2 meds 1 hard but we'll see. Tyres can be deceiving
