2021 French Grand Prix - Le Castellet, June 18 - 20

[nzjrs]

Also, re bollards, I just file that under 'general first lap leniency' - which is the unwritten norm.

[El Scorchio]

I don't think this played any role in the decision making and it absolutely shouldn't have*, rather that they may have come to the conclusion that their bollard placement is suboptimal and losing the lead was punishment enough.

*If anything that Lewis did was against any regulations they should investigated that seperately since it's not just about them two but also other drivers, many would have profited from Max taking the detour, no idea what the penalty for not adhering to warmup lap / starting procedures is but that could have also played a role for others.

Found a video and Lewis isn't really that far away, unfortunately this doesn't show whether Lewis actually bunched up the field behind him or if Max was quick to get to his grid spot but none of it was a clear rule breach apparently (you would expect RBR to be all over it, i guess).

The formation lap today was just like they always are. It’s just clutching at straws to try and suggest it was anything other than Verstappen making a mistake.

[Rodak]

Great race. And yet again; Merc clearly had the faster racecar. Max not be able to threaten Lewis in the first stint. But Lewis able to be right in the Max's gearbox after the first stop. Hamilton lost it on strategy, not pace.

I'm not sure how you come to that conclusion. Max was able to hold off Hamilton lap after lap, even though Hamilton had DRS as the following car. Max then opened up a 3 second lead and made his second stop. Mercedes should have immediately reacted, as Bottas pretty loudly pointed out. The faster car won. Could Bottas have just told Mercedes he was coming in and done it? It would be great to have drivers dictating tactics for a change......

[ringo]

Wolf and Horner on interview on Sky: According to Wolf they maybe had a bit of a margin on RB. They were forced to pit Bottas early because of vibrations(flat spot). Both did not expect the undercut to be this powerful. RB were worried about a repeat Barcelona.

By the way, I do not know if English is your first lanauge. But when Wolff said they had a margin, it was not about the pace. It was about the gap to Max and protecting from the undercut. He was referring to the margin they needed to execute the pitstop and come out in front. He distinctly said that the lead was inherited. At no point did he say the mercedes was faster. We do hear Hamilton saying however that the Redbull is the faster car.

English is my first language and I understood it the same way TimW did. The conversation later pivoted to the undercut directly, but the snippet we are all talking about my interpretation was that he was speaking about general pace (margin).

Quantitatively we kind of saw that in the first stint when Hamilton got out of DRS range quite easily.

How can you have a pace margin? That makes no sense. But I guess we have to agree to disagree.
I don't see how you can have a pace margin and not use it and still be slower and be overtaken because of slower in lap. Think about it. There was no pace margin. The margin was the time; and it wasn't enough.

When you have pace, you don't stay in the danger zone to be overcut or undercut before your pitstop. You use up the tyres and make a large a gap as possible.
We will see again next race that Adrian Newey is still working for Redbull and making the most efficient chassis on the grid. The Honda engine is just giving him what he never had before, enough power to reduce the compromises he had to make in the past.

[zeph]

So maybe sometimes listen to your drivers...

Well done to RBR, they have been firing on all cylinders the last few races, and now you see cracks beginning to appear in the hitherto impenetrable Mercedes hegemony.

[zeph]

On a different note, now that Sainz is finding his footing, Leclerc is beginning to look rather normal...

[ringo]

On a different note, now that Sainz is finding his footing, Leclerc is beginning to look rather normal...

Yes his weakness, even when he had vettel as teammate, was race pace. People need to remember that he is fairly inexperienced and hasnt really had the opportunity to learn from an experienced driver willing to share. He went from Sauber to Ferrari in no time and disnt learn much from Vettel who he beat. So i think he has more to learn from Sainz now ironically. He definitely is fast over a lap though.

[koenigzig]

Agreed, also Sainz is underrated. A very good race driver imo. Hopefully they both learn from each other and improve in respective areas of weaknesses

[falonso81]

Why is everyone fighting over about who had the faster car? Ham fans trying to play down Max's win and Max fans trying to glorify it.

Just remember, the championship is a DNF away for either or them.

[BBoban2199]

Why is everyone fighting over about who had the faster car? Ham fans trying to play down Max's win and Max fans trying to glorify it.

Just remember, the championship is a DNF away for either or them.

This is something I don't understand ether. Whatever pace advantage there was, it was negligible in this race. Both Ham and Ver performed extremely well, RB just outsmarted Mercedes this time, and they could do it because this time that had their second driver relatively close to the top 3.

[BBoban2199]

What I couldn't understand was Bottas his logic. After his first pit stop, he drove right behind Hamilton, consecutive laps.
It made no sense as his team mate is obviously running for the championship, my understanding is that he wouldn't be allowed to pass him any way.
Why didn't he do the same thing as Sergio? Fall Little behind, preserve tires and drive until the end. Not only his logic, but also the thinking of his side of the garage. Something like this should have been communicated to him.

[Vasconia]

On a different note, now that Sainz is finding his footing, Leclerc is beginning to look rather normal...

Yes his weakness, even when he had vettel as teammate, was race pace. People need to remember that he is fairly inexperienced and hasnt really had the opportunity to learn from an experienced driver willing to share. He went from Sauber to Ferrari in no time and disnt learn much from Vettel who he beat. So i think he has more to learn from Sainz now ironically. He definitely is fast over a lap though.

If Carlos can equaly his qualy pace he will be in trouble as Saiz has a very solid race pace. Sadly for the Spaniard yesterday the pace was so awful that the couldn´t get points.

[Vasconia]

Great race. And yet again; Merc clearly had the faster racecar. Max not be able to threaten Lewis in the first stint. But Lewis able to be right in the Max's gearbox after the first stop. Hamilton lost it on strategy, not pace.

I'm not sure how you come to that conclusion. Max was able to hold off Hamilton lap after lap, even though Hamilton had DRS as the following car. Max then opened up a 3 second lead and made his second stop. Mercedes should have immediately reacted, as Bottas pretty loudly pointed out. The faster car won. Could Bottas have just told Mercedes he was coming in and done it? It would be great to have drivers dictating tactics for a change......

Lewis wasn't able to overtake Max because the Dutch was clearly faster on the straight but I think it would have been a matter of time that Lewis would have overtaken him, he was clearly faster.

In any case, it must be frustating for Mercedes to realize that even in France RB has been able to fight with them and even beat them. In 2018 and 2019 Mercedes smashed the competence so the change is clear.

[Bill]

all talk about flexy wing they are no flexy wings someone has made a better pu than merc.Rbr were allegedly supposed to lose anyway from 0.3 tenths to .06 tenth it didn't happen in facts Honda found more power with better reliability and new oil

[seense]

Great race. And yet again; Merc clearly had the faster racecar. Max not be able to threaten Lewis in the first stint. But Lewis able to be right in the Max's gearbox after the first stop. Hamilton lost it on strategy, not pace.

I'm not sure how you come to that conclusion. Max was able to hold off Hamilton lap after lap, even though Hamilton had DRS as the following car. Max then opened up a 3 second lead and made his second stop. Mercedes should have immediately reacted, as Bottas pretty loudly pointed out. The faster car won. Could Bottas have just told Mercedes he was coming in and done it? It would be great to have drivers dictating tactics for a change......

As I said before:
1. Toto saying it.
2. Ham/Merc for laps in the gearbox of Max; in clear air HAM/Merc would be pulling away and he wouldnt have destroyed his tyres in clear air. Max/RB couldn't do that when they still were on same strategies. After the 2nd stop of Max a direct comparison can't be made.