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He will improve but what were Red Bull doing putting a rookie who hadn’t even established himself as benchmark at the junior team, in the second seat against a beast like Max?
It was too soon for Gasly, too soon for Albon- both of whom are arguably more established drivers at this level than LL now.
Lawson needed time, and you don’t get that in the big team.
Wow by Max, and this time we looked good in s3. He was saving tyres in s1 and then attacking, we will see the tyre wear tomorrow. But a good day on the one side of the garage.
Last edited by Vettel165 on 21 Mar 2025, 12:42, edited 2 times in total.
Ferrari has improved by huge amounts in medium speed and high speed. The only car that was faster than Hamilton in 1-2-3 and the middle sector high speed section 7-8-9-10, was Norris on his aborted final lap. Norris was 0.25+ up on Hamilton before T11 started. Norris got greedy with 11-12-13 and spoiled his exit to the back straight, and inorder to compensate went super greedy with late braking into 14 hairpin, slid out ; and then went into the pits. Without the mistakes, Norris would've qualified with 0.30+ advantage
Max was 0.20+ down on Hamilton before the final T14 hairpin. However, he gained all of it back in this single corner (early braking and turning in, thus shortening the corner to have a super-straight-ish exit). 0.018 near as makes no difference, it's the same laptime for all practical purposes. But the RB21 is nowhere deserving of front row. It's poorer than McLaren and Ferrari through the long corners 1-2-3 and 11-12-13, both of whom have a much sharper front end. These long corners are the USP of this track, where all the laptime sits. Especially in race trim.
Ferrari has improved by huge amounts in medium speed and high speed. The only car that was faster than Hamilton in 1-2-3 and the middle sector high speed section 7-8-9-10, was Norris on his aborted final lap. Norris was 0.25+ up on Hamilton before T11 started. Norris got greedy with 11-12-13 and spoiled his exit to the back straight, and inorder to compensate went super greedy with late braking into 14 hairpin, slid out ; and then went into the pits. Without the mistakes, Norris would've qualified with 0.30+ advantage
Max was 0.20+ down on Hamilton before the final T14 hairpin. However, he gained all of it back in this single corner (early braking and turning in, thus shortening the corner to have a super-straight-ish exit). 0.018 near as makes no difference, it's the same laptime for all practical purposes. But the RB21 is nowhere deserving of front row. It's poorer than McLaren and Ferrari through the long corners 1-2-3 and 11-12-13, both of whom have a much sharper front end. These long corners are the USP of this track, where all the laptime sits. Especially in race trim.
Hamilton also lost a couple of tenths in the last corner for sure
Maybe Max was protecting the tyres in S1 to not fall of the cliff in S3. Which happened back in Melbourne remember. I could even see some purple mini sectors by him at the end of the lap.
Saw the onboard. Car not turning in the first few corners while Ferrari have a much smoother ride it seems (Karun's analysis). Max really did everything he can to get a great result. Ferrari easily have a 2 tenth advantage over us imo, Lewis made a bad mistake in T14 as well as every one else in T4 gains time to him there. Insanely good quali from Max.
Wow by Max, and this time we looked good in s3. He was saving tyres in s1 and then attacking, we will see the tyre wear tomorrow. But a good day on the one side of the garage, was watching Max onboard lap, the car was quite stable.
Maybe also a bit more tyre saving in the setup compared to Melbourne. This track was very good for Red Bull last year so I'm not that surprised. Hopefully there's a bit more to come from dialling in the setup further in the coming race weekends. Otherwise it's waiting for the updates to bring something significant.
Wow by Max, and this time we looked good in s3. He was saving tyres in s1 and then attacking, we will see the tyre wear tomorrow. But a good day on the one side of the garage, was watching Max onboard lap, the car was quite stable.
Maybe also a bit more tyre saving in the setup compared to Melbourne. This track was very good for Red Bull last year so I'm not that surprised. Hopefully there's a bit more to come from dialling in the setup further in the coming race weekends. Otherwise it's waiting for the updates to bring something significant.
We're lacking in pure performance compared to Ferrari/McLaren. Max's insane consistency is what keeps us at the front. But with 2-3 tenths of performance & changes to improve tyre wear we could fight for wins most weekends
