2018 United States Grand Prix - Austin, 19-21 October

[Shrieker]

To be honest, i think Mercedes had clearly worse tire deg, so in a straight fight, i think Hamilton would have struggled more than Kimi to make 34 laps work. Imagine the race with Verstappen coming behind with SS...

Wouldnt interpret too much on the performance of both teams, very limited FP running did give us a bit of a lottery.

I guess you're right about the lack of friday running making it a bit of a tire lottery. But still, it wasn't the best strategy having Hamilton spend more than half the race on one set of tires on a two stop - three stint race, especially tires which were pushed above and beyond the call of duty at the beginning of their life trying to overtake on opponent.

[Morteza]

Grosjean has been given a three-place grid penalty in Mexico for his collision with Leclerc.

[Cannonballer]

Vettel doesn't deserve to be a 4 time champ lol

Vettel deserves the four championships he won, there is no debate he finished each season with the most points. However, it is now clearly debatable whether those championships were because of, or despite, his skills as a driver given the advantage the Red Bull car he was driving had over the rest of the competition. (And before anyone leaps down my throat, I haven't forgotten about Weber. But I don't think he had equal support from within the team.)

Vettel's skills are not, and have never been fitting for a 4 time world champion. That was evident even during his dominant era, those trophies should have Newey's name on them.

I can't agree with you more that Newey is the reason why those 4 championships were won. But Newey is not the driver and Vettel was, so he does deserve the title in that sense. Again, I completely agree with you, Vettel's skill level is seriously lacking lately. I always felt like a bit of a Vettel hater (and Alonzo fanb0i) during his time at Redbull because I didn't think he was that great of a driver. However, every season since his last championship has made his deficiency in wheel to wheel racing, at least when compared to some of his current competitors, more obvious.

[nevill3]

I guess we will find out the results eventually. Keep track of developments here https://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula- ... rmation-25

[turbof1]

Grosjean has been given a three-place grid penalty in Mexico for his collision with Leclerc.

He is also on 9 penalty points now. 1 will be dropped after the Mexican GP. He has to be careful the next 2 GP's.

Nice little site that keeps track of penalty points and when they expire: https://f1statblog.co.uk/f1-penalty-points/

[Just_a_fan]

by staying behind and letting go.

that's exactly what he did.

They raced around several corners without crashing in to each other. Hamilton and Kimi had a good little give and take exchange. No one crashed in to the other. Seems like only Sebastian has a problem driving close to other cars. They either hit him or make him spin (it's never his fault, of course).

[santos]

For me, this was the best race in hybrid era. What a race... it was epic, full of events... the batle of Max and Lewis will be remembered for years.
Most probably Lewis will get the title in Mexico, and i think he deserves it... but damn i wish Ferrari had the pace they had today on the last races. It could have been tight fight till the end.

[notsofast]

Those low cameras on lap 20. Wow.

[Juzh]

that's exactly what he did.

They raced around several corners without crashing in to each other. Hamilton and Kimi had a good little give and take exchange. No one crashed in to the other. Seems like only Sebastian has a problem driving close to other cars. They either hit him or make him spin (it's never his fault, of course).

They didn't have any real race, hamilton was never going to put himself anywhere near verstappen without 100% guaranteeing easy overtake. When it got close hamilton backed out of it and even drove completely off the track lol, how is that not a bad racecraft in this particular case? He wasn't even trying. Same thing with kimi, had he been more agressive and got by sooner he'd have a much better chance of winning the race. Of course from the championship's perspective it all makes sense but maybe some day in the future he'll have to make some desperate moves and we'll see what happens then.

[GrandAxe]

Max actually burst his shoe racing so hard. Epic.

[Just_a_fan]

How is it blaming to tell that he maybe didn’t see him in his mirrors? He wasn’t even being sarcastic.

He is implying that Ricciardo did something that caused the incident because he didn't see Vettel was there. That's an attempt to blame the other driver.

[Sieper]

that's exactly what he did.

They raced around several corners without crashing in to each other. Hamilton and Kimi had a good little give and take exchange. No one crashed in to the other. Seems like only Sebastian has a problem driving close to other cars. They either hit him or make him spin (it's never his fault, of course).

They didn't have any real race, hamilton was never going to put himself anywhere near verstappen without 100% guaranteeing easy overtake. When it got close hamilton backed out of it and even drove completely off the track lol, how is that not a bad racecraft in this particular case? He wasn't even trying. Same thing with kimi, had he been more agressive and got by sooner he'd have a much better chance of winning the race. Of course from the championship's perspective it all makes sense but maybe some day in the future he'll have to make some desperate moves and we'll see what happens then.

That’s selling Hamilton short, his whole pitbox thought he made it. Offcourse he was carefull at the last moment of the battle. This is season end, not beginning. There we saw him wheel banging with Verstappen (Bahrein) and forcing Max of the track ( in China). Now it is just more sensible to not give Vettel Any hope (as If there still was Any).

[GrandAxe]

that's exactly what he did.

They raced around several corners without crashing in to each other. Hamilton and Kimi had a good little give and take exchange. No one crashed in to the other. Seems like only Sebastian has a problem driving close to other cars. They either hit him or make him spin (it's never his fault, of course).

They didn't have any real race, hamilton was never going to put himself anywhere near verstappen without 100% guaranteeing easy overtake. When it got close hamilton backed out of it and even drove completely off the track lol, how is that not a bad racecraft in this particular case? He wasn't even trying. Same thing with kimi, had he been more agressive and got by sooner he'd have a much better chance of winning the race. Of course from the championship's perspective it all makes sense but maybe some day in the future he'll have to make some desperate moves and we'll see what happens then.

Lewis didn't back out.
He got ahead, but in trying to leave enough room for Max, got on the marbles and was swept off track.

[turbof1]

that's exactly what he did.

They raced around several corners without crashing in to each other. Hamilton and Kimi had a good little give and take exchange. No one crashed in to the other. Seems like only Sebastian has a problem driving close to other cars. They either hit him or make him spin (it's never his fault, of course).

They didn't have any real race, hamilton was never going to put himself anywhere near verstappen without 100% guaranteeing easy overtake. When it got close hamilton backed out of it and even drove completely off the track lol, how is that not a bad racecraft in this particular case? He wasn't even trying. Same thing with kimi, had he been more agressive and got by sooner he'd have a much better chance of winning the race. Of course from the championship's perspective it all makes sense but maybe some day in the future he'll have to make some desperate moves and we'll see what happens then.

In my opinion, it's still good race craft. They drove next to eachother without touching; Hamilton backing out of it doesn't make it worse in my eyes. He was cautious, which is a good trait for racecraft.

But yeah, I wouldn't criticize Vettel too much either. He did make a mistake trying to overtake Ricciardo, but he did have to be agressive. He did try, let's be happy about that because it gave us a good show where he had to fight back.

Also, quick formula for WDC for the next 3 races: If Vettel's delta off the maximum points + Hamilton's scored points = 5, then Hamilton wins the WDC. Basically if Vettel does not win any of the 3 remaining races or if Hamilton scores 5 points (not 5 points more than Vettel, but just 5 points), Hamilton is WDC

[iotar__]

They raced around several corners without crashing in to each other. Hamilton and Kimi had a good little give and take exchange. No one crashed in to the other. Seems like only Sebastian has a problem driving close to other cars. They either hit him or make him spin (it's never his fault, of course).

They didn't have any real race, hamilton was never going to put himself anywhere near verstappen without 100% guaranteeing easy overtake. When it got close hamilton backed out of it and even drove completely off the track lol, how is that not a bad racecraft in this particular case? He wasn't even trying. Same thing with kimi, had he been more agressive and got by sooner he'd have a much better chance of winning the race. Of course from the championship's perspective it all makes sense but maybe some day in the future he'll have to make some desperate moves and we'll see what happens then.

Lewis didn't back out.
He got ahead, but in trying to leave enough room for Max, got on the marbles and was swept off track.

- Hamilton didn't even think about overtaking Verstappen (obvious reasons), was forced to half-heartedly try and quickly gave up, yet experts were selling it as some edge of the seat stuff. Sheeesh.

- F1 is too dangerous of a sport to watch these days, you can fall asleep, fall off a couch and hurt yourself.

- Any doubts Ferrari were the quickest here?

- Grosjean "...tried to get up the inside, and it was a reasonable move," As good a move as Vettel's. F1 refereeing is a scam, sham and a farce .