2020 Eifel Grand Prix - Nürburgring, October 9-11

[Sieper]

So, enough of the trivia, now the serious decisions.

What tattoo is Cyril going to have?

I vote a honeybadger drinking out of a shoe.

Ricci said it would have to have a link to germany also.

[LM10]

In today's race we've seen once again that it's a Lewis Hamilton championship. And it's been like that from the beginning. Bottas is a solid qualifier, but he sadly and clearly lacks race pace. His team mate doesn't even need to go to anywhere near his limits to outperform him. If someone claims the opposite, it's just a lie. Lewis is basically walking to the title.
And since Mercedes is way too strong this season, Max can't challenge Lewis either. It's amazing enough for him to constantly keep pace with the Mercedes.

Hulk has done a very good job today and also Leclerc had a strong race overall.

Its not race pace Bottas lacks, he always loses out with a mistake. Again, he did a huge lock up which spoiled his line and spoiled his tyres for a fight back. Yes, the engine fail was not his fault, but he was beaten by then.

1%, but Hamilton only needs 1%. If just about any other driver was in Hamilton's car I think Bottas would be in the fight all year, but how many mistakes does Hamilton make when it counts?

I'm not so sure about that. I can name you two drivers at least against whom Bottas surely would not be in the fight all year either. Them being Max and Leclerc. Like I said, at least.

[Sieper]

Need a longer boom to be able to lift these big cars. Longer then the small cranes they had today.

[Big Tea]

In today's race we've seen once again that it's a Lewis Hamilton championship. And it's been like that from the beginning. Bottas is a solid qualifier, but he sadly and clearly lacks race pace. His team mate doesn't even need to go to anywhere near his limits to outperform him. If someone claims the opposite, it's just a lie. Lewis is basically walking to the title.
And since Mercedes is way too strong this season, Max can't challenge Lewis either. It's amazing enough for him to constantly keep pace with the Mercedes.

Hulk has done a very good job today and also Leclerc had a strong race overall.

Its not race pace Bottas lacks, he always loses out with a mistake. Again, he did a huge lock up which spoiled his line and spoiled his tyres for a fight back. Yes, the engine fail was not his fault, but he was beaten by then.

1%, but Hamilton only needs 1%. If just about any other driver was in Hamilton's car I think Bottas would be in the fight all year, but how many mistakes does Hamilton make when it counts?

I'm not so sure about that. I can name you two drivers at least against whom Bottas surely would not be in the fight all year either. Them being Max and Leclerc. Like I said, at least.

Ok, fair call, but they have booth made mistakes. If it would be enough I can not say

[PlatinumZealot]

Grosjean did well to finish with a hurt index finger. Good points. Lucky points.

Williams are still scoreless. Russell punted off by Kimi. That Kimi does a few punts every now and then doesn't he?

[Big Tea]

Grosjean did well to finish with a hurt index finger. Good points. Lucky points.

Williams are still scoreless. Russell punted off by Kimi. That Kimi does a few punts every now and then doesn't he?

He has been walking around doing Vettel impressions

[Hammerfist]

In today's race we've seen once again that it's a Lewis Hamilton championship. And it's been like that from the beginning. Bottas is a solid qualifier, but he sadly and clearly lacks race pace. His team mate doesn't even need to go to anywhere near his limits to outperform him. If someone claims the opposite, it's just a lie. Lewis is basically walking to the title.
And since Mercedes is way too strong this season, Max can't challenge Lewis either. It's amazing enough for him to constantly keep pace with the Mercedes.

Hulk has done a very good job today and also Leclerc had a strong race overall.

Its not race pace Bottas lacks, he always loses out with a mistake. Again, he did a huge lock up which spoiled his line and spoiled his tyres for a fight back. Yes, the engine fail was not his fault, but he was beaten by then.

1%, but Hamilton only needs 1%. If just about any other driver was in Hamilton's car I think Bottas would be in the fight all year, but how many mistakes does Hamilton make when it counts?

He is definitely lacking in race pace. It allowed Hamilton to stay well within 1.8 sec throughout the first few laps, then Ham closes to within drs and Bottas reacts to that, overcooks the braking and its game over.

If bottas had better race pace he would never allow Hamilton the drs, he would create a buffer, which would allow him to stay ahead if he made a mistake.

Not easy though with Lewis all over you.just fairly recently he has done the same against Rosberg, Vettel and even Leclerc. Such relentless pressure is bound to produce an error sooner or later.

[Sieper]

Its not race pace Bottas lacks, he always loses out with a mistake. Again, he did a huge lock up which spoiled his line and spoiled his tyres for a fight back. Yes, the engine fail was not his fault, but he was beaten by then.

1%, but Hamilton only needs 1%. If just about any other driver was in Hamilton's car I think Bottas would be in the fight all year, but how many mistakes does Hamilton make when it counts?

I'm not so sure about that. I can name you two drivers at least against whom Bottas surely would not be in the fight all year either. Them being Max and Leclerc. Like I said, at least.

Ok, fair call, but they have booth made mistakes. If it would be enough I can not say

Max Made one mistake this year and his team saved him on the grid. Lewis also had his share of self inflicted problems. Started in qualy for the first race, speeding under Yellow. Causing a collision with Albon in the race. Monza entering a closed pitlane, sotchi track limits On first hot lap in Q2 qualy and then bad luck with vettel loosing him the prime starting tire in and then making test starts where you can’t do that before the race. Just from head.

I am sure none of these are his own mistakes, all the evil FIA trying to subdue are righteous warrior but if you say Max made mistakes (Plural) it is fair to say Lewis had some “situations” and still he is (rightfully and on merit) miles ahead of Bottas. So would be Max and yes leclerc as well. Leclerc actually did have multiple mistakes. But he probably is trying to hard now his car is not as quick anymore.

[Edax]

He is definitely lacking in race pace. It allowed Hamilton to stay well within 1.8 sec throughout the first few laps, then Ham closes to within drs and Bottas reacts to that, overcooks the braking and its game over.

If bottas had better race pace he would never allow Hamilton the drs, he would create a buffer, which would allow him to stay ahead if he made a mistake.

Not easy though with Lewis all over you.just fairly recently he has done the same against Rosberg, Vettel and even Leclerc. Such relentless pressure is bound to produce an error sooner or later.

As Hamilton said Bottas was abusing the tires. He claims that eventually led to the lockup and I tend to believe him.

What IMHO sets Hamilton (and Verstappen) apart from the likes of Bottas and others is that they are fast and very soft on the tires. They are very aware of how to extract the most of the tires over the length of a stint.

Look at Leclerc. The guy has a blistering pace over one lap. But in the end he his always struggling to find some useable rubber on his tires.

I guess in the current age of tire limited racing pace is deceptive. It is how long you can keep up the pace which counts.

[Sieper]

Leclerc can do that too.

How do you keep tires alive? By not make any braking mistakes, at all. Use every last few centimeter of the track to make the corners wider where it matters, not once but everywhere, lap after lap. Understanding how to turn your car, where to be soft and where to be firm. All down to feel, intelligence and diligence. That is why there is no,secret, it comes down to skill. Leclerc cannot be that much faster than vettel if he lacked those skills. I too feel he is a bit too agressive still, and just slightly below the absolute top level where Hamilton and Max are but he is close imho.

[Manoah2u]

Albon again being unworthy of that car, regardless of the DNF.

Shame for Bottas to be having a DNF, i was expecting a fight between Lewis and Valterri and Max possibly getting a benefit there and steal the win, but Bottas car broke down on him.
Also was curious on whether we might see the same DNF threat for Lewis, but that never came about.

Great driving by Daniel, that's a earned podium.

Hulkenberg impressive race, absolutely phenomenal result.

Grosjean i'm wondering about that 'gravel' thing, complaining as usual like a little baby. I'm sure it's not the first time that has ever happened to anyone, it's the first time though i hear somebody complain so much for his mommy. What did he expect? Okay romain, come on in, we'll box the car because your finger is feeling ow ow.
Unlikely that it got broken, as they're wearing gloves to start with, and a piece of gravel hardly will be able to achieve that.
Also, Alonso was driving his Mclaren after a grave incident with broken ribs, so did Niki Lauda.

How about Frentzen in 1999

“My kneecap actually had thousands of tiny fractures, and one of the bones in my leg had completely split down the middle. When they released me from the hospital, I couldn’t walk properly because my kneecap was pushing down against the broken leg bone.”

“It was extremely painful – actually I couldn’t sleep with a blanket touching my right leg – but it didn’t stop me driving the car, or affect my concentration. It only hurt on full throttle, but when it rained I didn’t need full throttle so much.”

And so, on a a “wet, rainy French Grand Prix – although I didn’t realise it at the time, I won with a broken leg!”

How on earth Romain is still in F1 is beyond me.

[Sieper]

Romain can be quite fast. And indeed a nice theatrical drama is also one of his strongsuits.

[zibby43]

However way you try to turn it. Point 1 it was not a DNF, he finished. Point 2 it was not a technical failure he could do nothing for (like todays issue that caused him to retire actually was) it was either bad luck due to debris or just running out of tire. Which is likely to true reason, Lewis had the exact same issue. But in his last lap. You cannot and mustnot try to sell it as a DNF. Bottas has had one DNF this season to which he was innocent. Max 3.

That’s why I said DNF/non-top 10 classification.

PU failures and tire failures go in the same category for me - a combination of bad luck and unreliability.

It was lucky for Bottas to even get to P11 that day, but P11 or DNF doesn’t matter. The results are the same - 0 points. And whether it be via engine software or track debris, it’s not the driver’s fault.

We don’t have to do mental gymnastics to pump up Max here. I agree on one thing, he has 1 more unlucky outing than Bottas this year. 3 to 2.

Then we don’t agree at all as it is 3 to 1 in my opinion and I don’t appreciate you trying to play me off as a fool with quotes like hilarious. Don’t do that. I never do that to you neither. Lewis had his tire delaminate in Silverstone in the exact same way as Bottas. Both on the inside shoulder. Did Lewis then run over the same debris in the same way, but a few laps later? They just overestimated the tire life or had a set up that just a tad to agressive and paid the price with Bottas. It never happened since For Mercedes and we ran over a lot of debris since.

It’s quite literally 3-2 in terms of non-points classifications. Bottas didn’t make a mistake to get his puncture. The strategists weren’t rolling the dice in that race.

Pirelli themselves didn’t know the cause of the failures until days after the race. So to imply that Mercedes somehow knew the tires on both cars were on the verge of catastrophic failures (instead of merely reduced pace) due to unusually high wear, and did nothing instead, was hilarious to me.

Bottas had reported a vibration. And that’s not an uncommon thing. No one at Pirelli or Merc were expecting that consequence that day.

BTW, thinking it’s funny wasn’t a personal attack. Sorry you interpreted it that way.

[PlatinumZealot]

People say the merc is so dominant granny can win the WDC then they say Max scalps Bottas easily signifying that the car is not dominant.

[Scorpaguy]

People say the merc is so dominant granny can win the WDC then they say Max scalps Bottas easily signifying that the car is not dominant.

I think I would surmise that Max beats Ham if the 2 were given Mercs for a season.

I would bet Ham beats Vet and Lec if they were all given Mercs for a season.

Now, Ham and Ric...that is a mystery I would pay to see.

The rest of the field in Mercs, Ham destroys...that Rus is a wildcard though.