2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - Jeddah, Dec 03 - 05

[LM10]

Just watched qualifying. Can't believe what happened at the end. That was a monstrous lap and Max was going to get pole by a really comfortable margin. It's such a big shame.

[Restomaniac]

I’m not so sure, I think that the sheer amount of moments all of the way through the field suggests a ‘----or-bust’ mentality right across the grid!

Yes earlier on I get that but when faced with being on a last run when you know your pole sitter rivals have finished and your 5/10ths up on your previous best and the guy on pole only beat it by 1.5/10ths. I think those drivers mentioned would know that the job was already done.

I do agree, although sometimes it can be more distracting to try and consciously ease off a touch. You might lose too much time or make a mistake because your thought process isn’t clear any longer. I guess it’s easy to say after the fact! The line between hero and zero is very thin.

That’s where experience comes in. This is not in anyway a dig at Verstappen as he’ll learn from this. But I can’t see an older head making that mistake. Impetuousness of youth and all that.

[Gillian]

Yes earlier on I get that but when faced with being on a last run when you know your pole sitter rivals have finished and your 5/10ths up on your previous best and the guy on pole only beat it by 1.5/10ths. I think those drivers mentioned would know that the job was already done.

I do agree, although sometimes it can be more distracting to try and consciously ease off a touch. You might lose too much time or make a mistake because your thought process isn’t clear any longer. I guess it’s easy to say after the fact! The line between hero and zero is very thin.

That’s where experience comes in. This is not in anyway a dig at Verstappen as he’ll learn from this. But I can’t see an older head making that mistake. Impetuousness of youth and all that.

He may be young but he has plenty experience by now. Pretty tiresome to read the same thing over and over again. Hamilton with all his experience has made a lot more mistakes than Verstappen. Its a driver digging deep to beat another driver who is amazingly fast. Both make mistakes from time to time. No amount of experience will change that.

[El Scorchio]

Yes earlier on I get that but when faced with being on a last run when you know your pole sitter rivals have finished and your 5/10ths up on your previous best and the guy on pole only beat it by 1.5/10ths. I think those drivers mentioned would know that the job was already done.

I do agree, although sometimes it can be more distracting to try and consciously ease off a touch. You might lose too much time or make a mistake because your thought process isn’t clear any longer. I guess it’s easy to say after the fact! The line between hero and zero is very thin.

That’s where experience comes in. This is not in anyway a dig at Verstappen as he’ll learn from this. But I can’t see an older head making that mistake. Impetuousness of youth and all that.

Yeah, that’s very true. It’s that slightly bigger picture thinking that comes with a touch more experience. A lot can happen in a race and it looks like he’s been a very lucky boy not to have damaged anything major on the car.

[RADAMANTHYSEK]

The qualifications were very interesting. The real racing pace of both contenders for the world championship remains unknown. In my opinion, Mercedes looks stronger in the race. Was the racing pace tested during FP3? The data from the first day shows a big advantage for the Mercedes

[Restomaniac]

I do agree, although sometimes it can be more distracting to try and consciously ease off a touch. You might lose too much time or make a mistake because your thought process isn’t clear any longer. I guess it’s easy to say after the fact! The line between hero and zero is very thin.

That’s where experience comes in. This is not in anyway a dig at Verstappen as he’ll learn from this. But I can’t see an older head making that mistake. Impetuousness of youth and all that.

He may be young but he has plenty experience by now. Pretty tiresome to read the same thing over and over again. Hamilton with all his experience has made a lot more mistakes than Verstappen. Its a driver digging deep to beat another driver who is amazingly fast. Both make mistakes from time to time. No amount of experience will change that.

It’s also tiresome when some jump to a drivers defence due to their allegiance when unneeded due to an imagined slight.

[Restomaniac]

I do agree, although sometimes it can be more distracting to try and consciously ease off a touch. You might lose too much time or make a mistake because your thought process isn’t clear any longer. I guess it’s easy to say after the fact! The line between hero and zero is very thin.

That’s where experience comes in. This is not in anyway a dig at Verstappen as he’ll learn from this. But I can’t see an older head making that mistake. Impetuousness of youth and all that.

Yeah, that’s very true. It’s that slightly bigger picture thinking that comes with a touch more experience. A lot can happen in a race and it looks like he’s been a very lucky boy not to have damaged anything major on the car.

Yeah it’s why I used Hamilton and China in his early years Vs him and Turkey last year to make my point. It’s an age old issue Youth+inexperience vs age+experience with a fine line which is better.

[Magicsenna_41]

Does anyone have the S3 minisectors of Max crashlap? It's odd he says he heard his team say he had 1 tenth and we saw he had 2. The-race reports he had purple minisectors in S3. Seems to contradict. I'm sure Max had enough time in S3 to look at his steering wheel to see he had 2 tenths. Do drivers see minisectors on their steering wheel? Cause then he could have seen he didn't need to push 101% in final turn.

Horner himself said Verstappen had 4/10ths when taking to Sky.

For me I just think he got in the ‘I’ve gotta push and make this ultra amazing’ mindset. I imagine an older driver (Kimi, Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel, Ricciardo, etc) would have seen their delta and just finished what would have been a pole Lap.

I do think he will learn from this though. Drivers generally do. As a good example Hamilton in Turkey in 2020 said that one of the reasons he didn’t pit at the end for fresh Inters was because of a certain incident in China. He didn’t want to not be in a situation where he couldn’t stop on a slippy pit entry again.

The 0.4sec are in comparison to Verstappens previous fast lap and what we see on the dashboard.
So he was at that point maybe 0.2s clear to Hamilton.

[Restomaniac]

Does anyone have the S3 minisectors of Max crashlap? It's odd he says he heard his team say he had 1 tenth and we saw he had 2. The-race reports he had purple minisectors in S3. Seems to contradict. I'm sure Max had enough time in S3 to look at his steering wheel to see he had 2 tenths. Do drivers see minisectors on their steering wheel? Cause then he could have seen he didn't need to push 101% in final turn.

Horner himself said Verstappen had 4/10ths when taking to Sky.

For me I just think he got in the ‘I’ve gotta push and make this ultra amazing’ mindset. I imagine an older driver (Kimi, Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel, Ricciardo, etc) would have seen their delta and just finished what would have been a pole Lap.

I do think he will learn from this though. Drivers generally do. As a good example Hamilton in Turkey in 2020 said that one of the reasons he didn’t pit at the end for fresh Inters was because of a certain incident in China. He didn’t want to not be in a situation where he couldn’t stop on a slippy pit entry again.

The 0.4sec are in comparison to Verstappens previous fast lap and what we see on the dashboard.
So he was at that point maybe 0.2s clear to Hamilton.

That’s not what he said.

[Magicsenna_41]

Horner himself said Verstappen had 4/10ths when taking to Sky.

For me I just think he got in the ‘I’ve gotta push and make this ultra amazing’ mindset. I imagine an older driver (Kimi, Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel, Ricciardo, etc) would have seen their delta and just finished what would have been a pole Lap.

I do think he will learn from this though. Drivers generally do. As a good example Hamilton in Turkey in 2020 said that one of the reasons he didn’t pit at the end for fresh Inters was because of a certain incident in China. He didn’t want to not be in a situation where he couldn’t stop on a slippy pit entry again.

The 0.4sec are in comparison to Verstappens previous fast lap and what we see on the dashboard.
So he was at that point maybe 0.2s clear to Hamilton.

That’s not what he said.

So Horner said really Verstappen was 0.4s clear to Hamilton in last corner....
OK Verstappens dash must have been wrong

[Gillian]

That’s where experience comes in. This is not in anyway a dig at Verstappen as he’ll learn from this. But I can’t see an older head making that mistake. Impetuousness of youth and all that.

He may be young but he has plenty experience by now. Pretty tiresome to read the same thing over and over again. Hamilton with all his experience has made a lot more mistakes than Verstappen. Its a driver digging deep to beat another driver who is amazingly fast. Both make mistakes from time to time. No amount of experience will change that.

It’s also tiresome when some jump to a drivers defence due to their allegiance when unneeded due to an imagined slight.

I appreciate Hamilton as much as Verstappen so that's a mute point.

You claim it's about experience and I say it's not. This entire season shows its not about experience at all, but about having the best car and coping with pressure. Experience changes little in that.

[siskue2005]

Just watched qualifying. Can't believe what happened at the end. That was a monstrous lap and Max was going to get pole by a really comfortable margin. It's such a big shame.

That's what pressure does to you
It's a massive task.. I was listening to Nico rosberg and he was saying similar things

[Gillian]

Does anyone have the S3 minisectors of Max crashlap? It's odd he says he heard his team say he had 1 tenth and we saw he had 2. The-race reports he had purple minisectors in S3. Seems to contradict. I'm sure Max had enough time in S3 to look at his steering wheel to see he had 2 tenths. Do drivers see minisectors on their steering wheel? Cause then he could have seen he didn't need to push 101% in final turn.

Horner himself said Verstappen had 4/10ths when taking to Sky.

For me I just think he got in the ‘I’ve gotta push and make this ultra amazing’ mindset. I imagine an older driver (Kimi, Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel, Ricciardo, etc) would have seen their delta and just finished what would have been a pole Lap.

I do think he will learn from this though. Drivers generally do. As a good example Hamilton in Turkey in 2020 said that one of the reasons he didn’t pit at the end for fresh Inters was because of a certain incident in China. He didn’t want to not be in a situation where he couldn’t stop on a slippy pit entry again.

The 0.4sec are in comparison to Verstappens previous fast lap and what we see on the dashboard.
So he was at that point maybe 0.2s clear to Hamilton.

Exactly.

Verstappen did not have pole in the bag like that. He went all in because that was the only way to get pole position. When the front tire locked he had to choose between waiting a little longer to accelerate or try and make it. Imo he should have bailed out but in that split second he choose to try and make it.

If he had bailed out the result would have been the same but no damage.

There was no margin to take it easy and safely roll to pole position...

[Restomaniac]

He may be young but he has plenty experience by now. Pretty tiresome to read the same thing over and over again. Hamilton with all his experience has made a lot more mistakes than Verstappen. Its a driver digging deep to beat another driver who is amazingly fast. Both make mistakes from time to time. No amount of experience will change that.

It’s also tiresome when some jump to a drivers defence due to their allegiance when unneeded due to an imagined slight.

I appreciate Hamilton as much as Verstappen so that's a mute point.

You claim it's about experience and I say it's not. This entire season shows its not about experience at all, but about having the best car and coping with pressure. Experience changes little in that.

It’s actually ‘moot’ point.

But if you think drivers with years more on the clock won’t know when it’s time to just take pole instead of pushing that extra inch then you go for it.

[Juzh]

Horner himself said Verstappen had 4/10ths when taking to Sky.

For me I just think he got in the ‘I’ve gotta push and make this ultra amazing’ mindset. I imagine an older driver (Kimi, Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel, Ricciardo, etc) would have seen their delta and just finished what would have been a pole Lap.

I do think he will learn from this though. Drivers generally do. As a good example Hamilton in Turkey in 2020 said that one of the reasons he didn’t pit at the end for fresh Inters was because of a certain incident in China. He didn’t want to not be in a situation where he couldn’t stop on a slippy pit entry again.

The 0.4sec are in comparison to Verstappens previous fast lap and what we see on the dashboard.
So he was at that point maybe 0.2s clear to Hamilton.

That’s not what he said.

Doesn't really matter what he said. Dash showed he was 0.4s up on his previous lap, this means around 2 tenths ahead of hamilton at that point, but 0.4s is a bit misleading because he was braking too late into final corner. He was 0.35s ahead before braking zone which is a better reference.