After Max Verstappen had initially gained the upper hand at the start, Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton fought back and executed a two-stop strategy to perfection towards the race win. Verstappen had to be content with second as Bottas finished a bleak third.
I don't know what's more entertaining, the race or the race thread!
The race. The race thread is now suggesting the Mercedes is a much much faster car than the RedBull
If it is, it only seems to be in that hands of Lewis. Bottas couldn't get past charles, and then even after he jumped him during the pit stops and had clear air, he didn't make much headway into Max.
It feels like you’re forgetting Perez?
Looking at the first four races and Barcelona in particular, I think it’s fair to conclude the Merc is still quicker than the RBR. Not by much, but it’s there. I mean, other than Bahrain they’ve been on pole every time, last week it was Bottas.
Today because of the Hamilton + Bottas attack it meant it was an attack Max couldn't do anything about. However, the Mercedes and really just Hamilton has proven he can stretch the tyres as good as anyone and he bides his time as to when he uses them.
I think he'd of got Max regardless of whether he stopped.
It's very hard to tell who has the best car. All we can tell is that it's pretty close. But you cannot underestimate the experience of Hamilton and his long-term relationship with Mercedes.
What a masterclass by Lewis...had it not been for Imola he would have passed Verstapen 4 times on track with similar machinery!!
Lewis's 2021 performances already show the haters how good he really is! Of course this is backed up by a brilliant team taking the right strategic calls...but I really can't see anyone else from the current or the past grid being able to execute this strategy time and time again, specially with today's difficult to overtake cars and at these kind of circuits (Spain, Hungary).
Today's race was epic and this year is just what every F1 fan had been waiting for, for a long time now! Two truly great drivers in similar cars going head to head at every single race! Let's enjoy this season!!
You are British, right?
No, definitely not British...from Greece with love!
"The only rule is there are no rules" - Aristotle Onassis
I think there’s almost too much mutual respect between them. It’s almost like they are killing each other with kindness. They are making sure to be very courteous with each other on the track so far. All it’ll take is one incident though, where one of them comes off badly.
However, I think real fireworks at the sharp end will only happen again when Hamilton has retired. Verstappen vs Leclerc will be really spicy when they are both in top quality machinery.
There’s definitely respect, like you said. But, I think some of it is also Lewis’ general strategy.
For example, in today’s presser, Lewis said he could’ve chopped across Max earlier heading into T1, but he said “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” and that he has gotten to where he is in his career by not taking unnecessary risks early in races/the season.
Hamilton knows he doesn't need to take risks. His car is faster and he will use that to his advantage. It's been the same for years now. Take second place here, take 3 wins there.. it's a numbers game that's rigged in your favour when you're in clearly the fastest car. Hamilton takes this to extreme by having the fastest car for the longest period ever. You can be relaxed when you let go of position because the car will carry you back to it's place pace wise. One other factor that makes this extra easy is mercedes PU making everyone else unable to overtake you in a normal race and making your job that much easier when situation is reversed. Honda can pound their chests all they want, in race trim they are still far behind and that's been made clear every race so far.
Verstappen, on the contrary to Hamilton, must use every chance he's got to put himself in contention, but it's inevitably a lost cause in the long term.
Certainly the case in certain previous years of the hybrid era, but Hamilton still out-dueled the Ferraris a fair bit even when they had their super-duper-mega PU.
I also think Hamilton makes the W12's race pace even better with how he places the car and manages the tires. Thankfully, Peter Windsor picked up on that very fact today:
I'm not going to sit here and argue that the W12 is inferior, or even dead-even, from a race pace perspective, but the margins this year are close enough to where the driver can make a difference (see: Bottas).
Because it takes an insane amount of laptime difference to pass here, Hamilton had probably half a second a lap in hand on the same strategy and it wasn't enough without a hard dive, hence the swap, so that he had 1-1.5s of pace difference to make a fast, clean pass.
Because it takes an insane amount of laptime difference to pass here, Hamilton had probably half a second a lap in hand on the same strategy and it wasn't enough without a hard dive, hence the swap, so that he had 1-1.5s of pace difference to make a fast, clean pass.
"I tried everything I could today and took the lead at Turn 1 but from there we were just lacking a bit of pace to Mercedes. Of course we wanted to win but I cannot feel too disappointed as I did everything I could out there and maximized the opportunities. Even if we had looked at another strategy and done a two stop and pitted before them, we wouldn't have made the time up as they were just faster than us. I know how fast I can go and where the limit of the car is and when they can do a free stop behind it is easy for them to do a different strategy. I pretty much knew that when he pitted for the second time that he would come back at me on the new tyres a bit like Hungary 2019 and although I did everything I could I was a bit of a sitting duck. The pace difference on the tyres made it an easy pass for Lewis and then I was able to at least keep second place and take Fastest Lap. It was just a day where we lacked a bit of pace and second was the best result possible so now we need to look at why they seem to have jumped ahead a bit in terms of race pace."
I think Max is at the point in his career where he's trying to focus on being a champion, and fast over the season, vs. being fast as blazes and reckless. Some of it is maturity, some of it is watching Lewis and trying to emulate him (Lewis is dialed in with this, as he should at this point in his career. Senna's term "complete racing driver" comes to mind), and some of it might be media pressure.
It's a balancing act, and Max will get there, he just doesn't have that last percent or two that Lewis has, in terms of managing this. Peter Windor's take on how Lewis handles the car vs. Max in today's race was interesting.
That said, if it weren't for Lewis (and same goes for Max), these would be very boring races. They are both far and above clear of anyone else.
These barge cars with their strong reliability don't seem to reward the swashbuckling style that Hamilton and the drivers before him (Alonso, Kubica, Schumacher, Raikkonen ) weilded to make title challenges. It is Unfortunate for Max that he cannot use this strength of his to really overwhelm Hamilton as Ham used to do to others. It's all save the tyres and controlling the pace. Skill that Hamilton has been using since 2012. (2011 never happened OK?)..
Huh? He's saying the exact same thing, Lewis had half a second on him even on the same strategy.
If max hadn't pitted when he did (to start his second stint), Lewis would have gotten him down the front strait. If Lewis had stayed out and not pitted a second time he would have Passed Max down the front strait. Both times was between 0.5-0.6 behind max. That's why Lewis specifically mentioned he considered second getting the strategy call. I think you will also find that's what max is referring to.
Perez is so useless... It's so hard for RBR to find equal flunkey for Ver as Mercedes found for Ham...
Duh, that´s obvious. Finding someone that can match Hamilton is not very difficult, while finding a driver to keep up with Verstappen, you would need to go with Leclerc and, probably, nobody else
I don't know what's more entertaining, the race or the race thread!
The race. The race thread is now suggesting the Mercedes is a much much faster car than the RedBull
If it is, it only seems to be in that hands of Lewis. Bottas couldn't get past charles, and then even after he jumped him during the pit stops and had clear air, he didn't make much headway into Max.
please stop using bottas as a reference. he is as sloppy as mazepin. he doesn't even show desire to fight on track and is content for a walk in the park. lewis repeated what he did in hungary 2019, which clearly suggest w12 is as fast as it's predecessors. no need to make it a point as if one driver is driving beyond what a car can do. same applies to red bull. both teams have below par second drivers. i always maintained that mercedes is the better car and winter testing was as misleading as it it can get due to mercedes not having found the sweet spot of set up. now thry and w12 shows it's every bit reincarnation of w11.
Last edited by MKlaus on 10 May 2021, 01:50, edited 1 time in total.
Huh? He's saying the exact same thing, Lewis had half a second on him even on the same strategy.
If max hadn't pitted when he did (to start his second stint), Lewis would have gotten him down the front strait. If Lewis had stayed out and not pitted a second time he would have Passed Max down the front strait. Both times was between 0.5-0.6 behind max. That's why Lewis specifically mentioned he considered second getting the strategy call. I think you will also find that's what max is referring to.
You're misunderstanding me, lewis had half a second, per lap, in pace on the Red Bull, even on the same tyres. So yes, if he'd stayed out on the same strat, it would have been a dive to overtake, if he'd pitted, Lewis would have banged a fast lap in and then either overtook or been right on Max's ass on the mediums (and Merc seem to be setting their cars up for race pace on the mediums, Max knows that). He just didn't have an answer either way for the Merc today.
I think Max is at the point in his career where he's trying to focus on being a champion, and fast over the season, vs. being fast as blazes and reckless. Some of it is maturity, some of it is watching Lewis and trying to emulate him (Lewis is dialed in with this, as he should at this point in his career. Senna's term "complete racing driver" comes to mind), and some of it might be media pressure.
It's a balancing act, and Max will get there, he just doesn't have that last percent or two that Lewis has, in terms of managing this. Peter Windor's take on how Lewis handles the car vs. Max in today's race was interesting.
That said, if it weren't for Lewis (and same goes for Max), these would be very boring races. They are both far and above clear of anyone else.
These barge cars with their strong reliability don't seem to reward the swashbuckling style that Hamilton and the drivers before him (Alonso, Kubica, Schumacher, Raikkonen ) weilded to make title challenges. It is Unfortunate for Max that he cannot use this strength of his to really overwhelm the older Hamilton as Ham used to do to others when he was young. It's all save the tyres and controlling the pace. Skill that Hamilton has been using since 2012. (2011 never happened OK?).. So the game is very strategic and cerebral Max pretty much is at a disadvantage because of experience.
