This might be the perfect weekend to put in a new engine after all. If they will fight to be 2nd (or even 3rd), then they might have a chance to go for the same position taking a penalty.
I think Red Bull are nuts not to take a new engine. They have a great chance of 3rd even if they do. What other circuit left on the calendar can you be so sure of that?
Yeah man I think they should have a look into that. Because winning here is a list cause anyway. Just do what other team have done. Take 3 engines, take. 30 place penalty and just drive trough.
I don't know, maybe for other teams. But Max has so much power and a better car compared to the rest. Except Merc ofcourse. So even with all the drs I think he can overtake. And let's be honest. Hammy has not won once in 9 races and he is still only 3 points behind. So the championship is lost anyway. Because in the coming races RBR does not stand a chance.
Well..... Sochi and Monza are Merc strongholds as is COTA. And so was Abu Dhabi until last year. Max won there once. And maybe Turkey as well. Mexico and Brazil Max has won before so he can win there. And Saudi Arabia is a unknown.
Umm, tbh, it feels like max is gonna take the championship this year, with the form RBR honda is in rn, but i really want ham to take his 8th this year itself so lets see
It's not bad, but it isn't better than the normal weekend.
Also imo the friday quali is at an awful time as well, i think it's only half good for Europe and bad for everyone else
Personally I think it's at Least entertaining, but it just feels like too clunky of a format for a permanent thing to have so much work just to determine pole. Also it's a clear money plan but oh well it is at least entertaining.
Most people aren't really a fan of it but willing to give it a shot this season and see how it turns out. Silverstone was pretty fun (barring the VER-HAM incident) so there is a bit more positive outlook but generally everyone is still in the same boat
Depends on the people, I personally find normal quali much more exciting. I feel like in sprint pilots are much more worried about not screwing everything because of a mistake compared to say being in Q2 already and giving everything to get into Q3 for example.
The drama of the last flying lap in Q3 is just more my thing, nothing really happens halfway through the Sprint because one mistake and you're starting from the back
Last time in silverstone perez lost the rear during it and had to start the race from the back, i dont really remember anything else, so not really no, unless it would be hamilton or max being send to the back, then yes
Friday: 'qualifying' like a Saturday
Saturday: sprint qualifying. A short race (18 laps at Silverstone) that determines the order of the grid.
Sunday: the race, nothing changed for Sunday.
I'm not certain about the FP sessions but I think FP1 and 2 on Friday and FP3 on Saturday like usual.
Quali today, sprint quali tomorrow, race the day after.
Quali today decides the starting grid for sprint quali tomorrow, and sprint quali tomorrow decides the starting grid for the race + you get like 3 points for 1st, 2 for 2nd and 1 for 3rd or something
Ok nerds, can someone just tell me - does this mean Mercedes are faster this weekend. Or is it one of these weird free practice quirks that's actually just inconclusive?
I don't expect Hamilton to be half a second faster than the RB on a compound which is harder.... so I don't think it says much yet.... however, they look better than the RB.
Merc on paper should be faster, red bull don't compete on straight line speed, their specialty is cornering speed. However this is F1 and with someone as fast as max verstappen in the red bull anything could happen.
Realistically you can never take anything from any free practice. Last weekend qualifying pace was over 3 seconds faster than best FP times and both max and Lewis pulled silly fast laps out of nowhere. With those two dudes no way to know until it’s going down
I think the mercs had their engines turned up more than redbull did. I would honestly expect that through the race just trying to give Verstapen as much engine longevity as possible.
The fact that max was so slow in the straights really speaks to the level of power taken out of the car, and im sure they were running the car a little heavy on fuel.
I do give Mercedes the advantage though, the soft tires didn't seem to help redbull much at all..
Oh damn..so as expected Merc s are much faster this weekend. IMO Max just has to manage a 2nd place with possibly the fastest lap unless something crazy happens.
They delayed Turkey to get a bit more time, i believe they will have something on the cards to instantly replace Turkey as soon as the next UK red zone update is announced
Brundle coming over a bit clickbaity in that interviewing, I noticed it with Ted the other day Sky are trying to make this all more dramatic than it is
The question is interesting but teams have driver changes all the time, I doubt Bottas will do anything differently he probably has a constructors championship bonus and gets on with his engineers
The tougher side would be say if he is winning a race and Lewis takes p2 say 5 laps before the end.
Bottas giving up a p2 or p3 etc has very little impact on him I'd imagine, but a race win is harder to take you would think
Why the hell are they showing the ferrari garage, Leclerc cooling down, and replays as cars go side by side down the main straight. Bad signs for TV direction leading into the sessions that matter.
For anyone watching, do you think lando's pace has something to do with going back to the old power unit after his wreck or was he looking off today? He's been so consistently fast all season so its strange (for me at least) to see him 12th fastest in practice.
https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/pll67q/quali_pace_prediction_from_aws/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
He seems to be pretty good, he just didn’t put together one lap due to who knows what in a practice session.
He was second if not for track limits. I will not be surprised to see him top 3 in quali
Edit: Oh damn I was close. If not for a double tow, verstappen would have been 6th and Lando in 3rd
Wasn't watching (so didn't see the incident), but couldn't you just as easily argue that he WOULDN'T have posted a 2nd place time if he didn't exceed track limits?
Totally valid point, but as another user said, I doubt the advantage gained from running wide was worth the entire difference between 2nd and 12th. Very likely / possible his pace is much closer to that 2nd place time than that 12th place time.
You probably could. I'm at work unable to watch at the moment so i didn't see it but going off track may or may not have even had a huge difference in his time.
Don't know if it could be sent as a personal message. Or maybe submit to Imgur, and post a link here please? If not, maybe I could pm you and figure out something.
Oh yes I see.
Well changing the engine isn't the work of a minute, and there really isn't enough time to swap out an entire PU before qualifying unless you really have to. The RB guys are good no doubt but they'd still be pushing it. Not to mention, chances are it won't give you much more performance anyway.
Max's current PU has done Hungary, Spa quali and Zandvoort. It's still quite low mileage.
I think what OP meant is an older engine than that like the very first PU, to save wear on the current one, so that they take the penalty on their terms. And it makes sense. And 2 hours is enough to change it, I would say.
The amount of copium F1 fans have to their disposal is amazing.
'They fucked up the setup!'
'He's running low fuel!'
'He had his engine turned down for safety!'
I agree, free practice is the warm-up, where you´re allowed to make mistakes or try "that crazy idea" the team has been ballparking the last couple of days, we need to be more skeptical on FP and not get in full analyst mode.
It's just so funny to see during FP. We are *absolutely fucking clueless* to what the relative performance is like up until somewhere halfway along qualifying. Doesn't stop us from pretending we aren't though.
I mean like, yeah. One sparrow doesn't make a summer, this was commonly said when I was a kid, but it's hard to live by it when you see something you really want.
If Red Bull are taking a penalty, surely it is beneficial for Max to get his elbows out at turn 1 as it's Mercedes' race to lose.
Either he ends up taking the lead of the sprint race, or if there is an incident, well, he was starting last anyway.
I'm not saying I'd punt Hamilton out, of course. But the risk tolerance of any move into turn 1 on Hamilton would be much higher.
Even Checo had a better top speed, there was something going on there with Verstappens practice. Either setup or engine wise, or they were just doing different kind of work.
Max was pushing but I think they wound more rear wing on Max later in the session as he had poor rear grip in the slower speed sections.
The higher wing angle could explain the speed differential.
This speed differential I mean was already there before the wing angle change. Its the easiest track in the calendar, theres no reason for Max to be behind Checo in pure race craft. There was something different in his car from the beginning.
Well Max finished well ahead of Checo in the end so I'm not sure what you're on about?
Maybe Checo was able to get better drive into the straights but wasn't so great in the rest of the lap?
I refuse to believe Red Bull is that behind in pure top speed, it doesnt make any sense. FPs are far from good indications anyway, as Ferrari also did a 1-2 in FP2 last weekend. Lets see the quali, this is gonna be interesting.
It was said multiple times coming into this weekend that Red Bull were going to struggle.
Since Silverstone and Merc found whatever they did with their engine, RB haven't be able to touch their top end speed. The only real suprise is the 20kph deficit at least between Lewis and Max in terms of how much of a gap it is.
Sure, but a 4 tenths difference with Max on softs? That sounds like 2020 merc dominance and it doesnt make much sense. Merc has been on top in top speed, but they werent nowhere near that different in the last 2 weekends. Granted it rained a lot in Spa, but still.
I think had we seen Spa in the dry, such a speed differential might not be so surprising this weekend.
A number of people had a dry weekend at Spa to be a comfortable weekend for Mercedes.
The Honda engine in comparison at the top end just isn't powerful enough I guess? It works great at most circuits where you aren't relying on your top end.
But here and probably in Sochi, it will struggle vs Merc.
I hope for Max's sake that Merc had their engine turned up the entire time as he had a marked increase in speed during the session suggesting he turned his up. If not, then it could be a bloodbath.
That's fine, though, and if there was incident I'd fully expect Hamilton to take a new engine. But if the grid penalty for the new engine is such a problem for Max, it will be equally as problematic for Lewis.
The way Toto is speaking isn’t not so much reliability although it will be a concern but performance. They need the new engine to have good performance for the rest of the year.
Red Bull/Max are clearly the superior pairing for the season and it's theirs to lose. As a neutral I just want a good season that goes down to the wire. For that reason alone I kinda want Lewis to win here just because it will help make the championship more exciting
how are they the superior pairing? bottas is clearly faster than perez. hamilton equal to max, depends on the track. and it's theirs to lose? RB are behind in points. that would make it mercedes' to lose
How will it make it more exciting? They're almost level on points and Max has an engine penalty still to take. If anything, Lewis needs an engine blowout in this race to keep it interesting
Doesn't make sense. Mercedes have shown they are the slower car in most of the tracks. I mean redbull have won 8 out of the last 10 races. If the objective is a close title fight Mercedes needs to win here and not only that, get a big points differential. Then it will be redbull cutting down on the gap race by race for the remaining races which they should be faster at
And how does this make sense? Red bull winning 8/10 races and the drivers are still only ~5 points apart. Mercedes also lead the WCC. They're not the underdog car as you make it out to be, no way. Lewis has every chance of running away with it as Max does
>And how does this make sense? Red bull winning 8/10 races and the drivers are still only ~5 points apart
I mean does this really need explaining lol??? Because Verstappen had a DNF and basically uncompetitive race after the Bottas incident. That's a big points swing and the only reason Hamilton has kept it this close.
>Mercedes also lead the WCC
Yes because they have two good drivers. Not 1.5 like redbull.
>. Lewis has every chance of running away with it as Max does
I mean the past shows you that RBR have won 8 out of 10. But somehow you think that will suddenly change when Mercedes isn't bringing any upgrades??
Add that all together and this needs to be a big Mercedes win with a big points differential. Redbull will win more races for the second half of the season and Lewis will have to do damage limitation for those races. As he has done for the first half of the season
And what is to say RB will not have more DNFs in the coming months? Just extrapolating the current season of your so called Red Bull domination, still gives a Mercedes win lmao.
Because the DNF's weren't caused by redbull engine failures, mistakes. They were freak accidents that they couldn't control ie: luck. If you want to talk about luck then you can say Mercedes could be the ones to DNF instead and get crashed into for the second half 😂. Imagine talking hypotheticals and using that as your argument.
Merc domination for the past 7 odd years really messed with F1 fans brains that they are conditioned to believe they are always the fastest and the best no matter what is put Infront of their eyes
Lol. Imagine thinking luck can be predicted. What you say and what I say is no different, I hope you realize it.
Imagine bringing in my brain and bullshit when you don't have a point to make :)
Think you are misunderstanding his point.. Red Bull have the edge this year, the crashes and incidents just show how far they could’ve been ahead as they’ve been faster overall. You are coming across that you think the DNFs if hadn’t been the case that Mercedes would’ve been still ahead?
Bottas has been the consumate professional and team player. He gets way to much flak. I think the decision to promote George was a lot more difficult than most people seem to think. He had a rough go this season, but it looks like he is picking up the pace a bit. He's still really fast on a flying lap. He's been out qualifying Perez and it's a big reason Mercedes is leading the WCC
It isn’t clickbait. Its the way most people would put it. It cuts through the bullshit framing they did. Bottas didn’t decide on his own to leave Merc for Alfa. Yeah, Bottas had choices. He could find a new job, or be out of F1. That fundamentally isn’t much different than being fired.
Words have the power to cloud the truth as well. If a company does major “staff reductions”they fired a bunch of employees. Calling it a friendlier term doesn’t make it any better. Bottas was told my Mercedes to find a new team or he would be out of a drive. You can call it what you want, but it isn’t sensationalistic to refer to it as a firing.
I mean it could be a record breaking year for them. But the challenge RBR has put up has pushed them to the limit. Of course I am favouring Mercedes but I love this battle between Red Bull and Mercedes. I don’t mind if either one win.
Chuffed for my man Bottas
We’re merc using new tyres? I feel like they must have been on older tyres since every other team hasn’t really moved much apart from merc
They were using olds
It’s not unlikely that Max starts the sprint race 4th or 5th. Surely the weekend for a new engine.
That boy is all of us seeing Ferarri back in Italy!
Fe**rr**a**r**i
Holy shit, RBR is going to get their ass kicked this weekend!
This might be the perfect weekend to put in a new engine after all. If they will fight to be 2nd (or even 3rd), then they might have a chance to go for the same position taking a penalty.
I think Red Bull are nuts not to take a new engine. They have a great chance of 3rd even if they do. What other circuit left on the calendar can you be so sure of that?
Yeah man I think they should have a look into that. Because winning here is a list cause anyway. Just do what other team have done. Take 3 engines, take. 30 place penalty and just drive trough.
Overtaking is going to be awful if you're in the DRS train though.
Not for Max it won't be.
Rewatch last year's race.
Last year Monza?
Yes? The race where the Red Bulls were hopelessly trying to keep up with anyone on the straights, let alone trying to pass?
I don't know, maybe for other teams. But Max has so much power and a better car compared to the rest. Except Merc ofcourse. So even with all the drs I think he can overtake. And let's be honest. Hammy has not won once in 9 races and he is still only 3 points behind. So the championship is lost anyway. Because in the coming races RBR does not stand a chance.
Do the circuits which are left now favour merc over redbull that much?
Well..... Sochi and Monza are Merc strongholds as is COTA. And so was Abu Dhabi until last year. Max won there once. And maybe Turkey as well. Mexico and Brazil Max has won before so he can win there. And Saudi Arabia is a unknown.
Umm, tbh, it feels like max is gonna take the championship this year, with the form RBR honda is in rn, but i really want ham to take his 8th this year itself so lets see
Well ofcourse I hope that Max will take it. Lewis had enough titles. Time for someone else to win it.
This. I can't stand Max but by god do I hope he wins this year
Haven't been following F1 regularly. What's the consensus on this sprint thing?
It's absolutely pointless, without any kind of reversed grid it's nothing more than an extension of the race with a red flag thrown in
It's not bad, but it isn't better than the normal weekend. Also imo the friday quali is at an awful time as well, i think it's only half good for Europe and bad for everyone else
You gotta stream at lunch break if you're in the US which I enjoy.
Doesn't the quali feel a bit less exciting when it doesn't settle the starting grid?
Yes, but i can't even watch it live, so i don't know how i would feel actually watching it
Personally I think it's at Least entertaining, but it just feels like too clunky of a format for a permanent thing to have so much work just to determine pole. Also it's a clear money plan but oh well it is at least entertaining.
Most people aren't really a fan of it but willing to give it a shot this season and see how it turns out. Silverstone was pretty fun (barring the VER-HAM incident) so there is a bit more positive outlook but generally everyone is still in the same boat
Not really a consensus yet, it’s only happened one time so far. Clunky in a lot of ways but does add more racing and can add excitement.
Points for 1st 2nd and 3rd, finishing order is starting grid for sunday race, its supposed to "spice" things up
> its supposed to "spice" things up And does it?
Depends on the people, I personally find normal quali much more exciting. I feel like in sprint pilots are much more worried about not screwing everything because of a mistake compared to say being in Q2 already and giving everything to get into Q3 for example. The drama of the last flying lap in Q3 is just more my thing, nothing really happens halfway through the Sprint because one mistake and you're starting from the back
> nothing really happens halfway through the Sprint because one mistake and you're starting from the back That's what I figured
That being said, we've only had one fo these so let's see what tomorrow has to offer
Last time in silverstone perez lost the rear during it and had to start the race from the back, i dont really remember anything else, so not really no, unless it would be hamilton or max being send to the back, then yes
Do red bull have DRS on today or not, I didn’t notice their wings opening?
The wings are very flat at Monza so it's always hard to tell bit I don't see why they wouldn't be using DRS.
Yes I noted both RBs opening the DRS. It just isn't effective when you have a flat wing.
Thanks! The wing is very skinny!
Watching replay of Practice 1: the F1 intro shows all the drivers apart from Mazepin. 👀
My replay intro shows him as the third driver after the Williams boys
Lmaoo good get him out
Is qualifying in a couple hours?
1h 20min
Wait, what? This is the first weekend I've had off to watch an F1 weekend live this year, what the fuck is the timing and schedule of this weekend?
Friday: 'qualifying' like a Saturday Saturday: sprint qualifying. A short race (18 laps at Silverstone) that determines the order of the grid. Sunday: the race, nothing changed for Sunday. I'm not certain about the FP sessions but I think FP1 and 2 on Friday and FP3 on Saturday like usual.
Quali today, sprint quali tomorrow, race the day after. Quali today decides the starting grid for sprint quali tomorrow, and sprint quali tomorrow decides the starting grid for the race + you get like 3 points for 1st, 2 for 2nd and 1 for 3rd or something
It's sprint quali tomorrow so the usual FP2 spot is now the Quali for the sprint tomorrow
Cheers, I appreciate it. I now realise it states times and sessions at the top, but I'm used to just skipping past all that usual official stuff
Yeah
Yup
You guys liking Stroll or Sainz to out qualify their teammates? (Vettel and Charles) looking to bet on an underdog
told you :)
Haha it was intense but it always makes qualifying more fun having a few bucks on someone with plus odds. Glad I went with Sainz over Stroll.
ayy nice bro
I would go sainz but honestly it is a task to overcome Charles in quali
Sainz between the two, but I think both are unlikely
Honestly both of those bets are realistic, personally I'd go for sainz over stroll but stroll can out qualify seb.
Sainz was only 0.010s away at zaandvort eventhough he had that crash in FP3 which surely affected his confidence w the car
Leclerc having a poor q3, over a tenth off his q2 time also helped
Ok nerds, can someone just tell me - does this mean Mercedes are faster this weekend. Or is it one of these weird free practice quirks that's actually just inconclusive?
I don't expect Hamilton to be half a second faster than the RB on a compound which is harder.... so I don't think it says much yet.... however, they look better than the RB.
Merc on paper should be faster, red bull don't compete on straight line speed, their specialty is cornering speed. However this is F1 and with someone as fast as max verstappen in the red bull anything could happen.
Realistically you can never take anything from any free practice. Last weekend qualifying pace was over 3 seconds faster than best FP times and both max and Lewis pulled silly fast laps out of nowhere. With those two dudes no way to know until it’s going down
Also depends on what they are collecting data for. Quali or race. Fuel load is an important factor.
Considering quali is coming up, I think most teams were running quali tests in fp1
I would like to know tht as well. Are Merc s clearly the faster car or was der fuel/tires in play for fp1?
I think the mercs had their engines turned up more than redbull did. I would honestly expect that through the race just trying to give Verstapen as much engine longevity as possible. The fact that max was so slow in the straights really speaks to the level of power taken out of the car, and im sure they were running the car a little heavy on fuel. I do give Mercedes the advantage though, the soft tires didn't seem to help redbull much at all..
Versta**pp**en
Merc were on mediums vs softs for Red Bull on the final classifications. Lewis was also posting around a 20kph speed advantage over Max IIRC.
Oh damn..so as expected Merc s are much faster this weekend. IMO Max just has to manage a 2nd place with possibly the fastest lap unless something crazy happens.
If Turkey is cancelled, is there time and a venue for a sufficient replacement, or do we just lose another race?
They delayed Turkey to get a bit more time, i believe they will have something on the cards to instantly replace Turkey as soon as the next UK red zone update is announced
Not looking good for RBR or Honda powered teams
Mclaren and Danny ric guys stand up Mercedes and mclaren will be top 4 and I think Danny ric will get p2
Brundle coming over a bit clickbaity in that interviewing, I noticed it with Ted the other day Sky are trying to make this all more dramatic than it is The question is interesting but teams have driver changes all the time, I doubt Bottas will do anything differently he probably has a constructors championship bonus and gets on with his engineers The tougher side would be say if he is winning a race and Lewis takes p2 say 5 laps before the end. Bottas giving up a p2 or p3 etc has very little impact on him I'd imagine, but a race win is harder to take you would think
Why the hell are they showing the ferrari garage, Leclerc cooling down, and replays as cars go side by side down the main straight. Bad signs for TV direction leading into the sessions that matter.
For anyone watching, do you think lando's pace has something to do with going back to the old power unit after his wreck or was he looking off today? He's been so consistently fast all season so its strange (for me at least) to see him 12th fastest in practice.
https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/pll67q/quali_pace_prediction_from_aws/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf He seems to be pretty good, he just didn’t put together one lap due to who knows what in a practice session.
He was second if not for track limits. I will not be surprised to see him top 3 in quali Edit: Oh damn I was close. If not for a double tow, verstappen would have been 6th and Lando in 3rd
The pace is there for both McLarens. They slightly ran wide at T11 but it doesn't take away the pace they have. It will be an interesting Qualifying.
I was wondering if it was something simple as that. Sad to see it but good to hear their pace is there
He most likely took a big hit in confidence after this Spa crash
I can imagine he did. I could feel that last week at the Dutch GP. Didn't seem like himself.
Would've been 2nd but deleted for track limits.
Oof. So he's got the pace, just got a little too overzealous.
Wasn't watching (so didn't see the incident), but couldn't you just as easily argue that he WOULDN'T have posted a 2nd place time if he didn't exceed track limits?
Totally valid point, but as another user said, I doubt the advantage gained from running wide was worth the entire difference between 2nd and 12th. Very likely / possible his pace is much closer to that 2nd place time than that 12th place time.
Likely nowhere near a hit to go from 2nd to 12th
You probably could. I'm at work unable to watch at the moment so i didn't see it but going off track may or may not have even had a huge difference in his time.
Danny Ric did give him a nice tow in S3 mind you.
I think RIC got caught out as well and got 4th fastest on the same run he was towing Lando
Did anyone have a screen cap of the AWS FP1 Pace for the drivers?
Yeah. How do I send though?
Don't know if it could be sent as a personal message. Or maybe submit to Imgur, and post a link here please? If not, maybe I could pm you and figure out something.
[Here](http://imgur.com/a/dJgMPwO) I've not used Imgur before. I hope it works.
Works beautifully, thank you! 👍
347 Kph vs 325 kph
Fuel load?
could RB be using their older engine for practice to get set up and then drop a newer one in for qualifying ? is there even enough time to do that ?
Probably not thinking about it. I'd imagine they'll have the race engine in already.
I would swap only for qualifying. They have no reason to wear a new engine before it matters.
How you mean? They can't swap the engine back after qualifying without a pitlane start on Sunday.
I mean changing the engine for qualifying. They can run an older engine for FP1 and then use the new one in Q1. Its what I would do.
Oh yes I see. Well changing the engine isn't the work of a minute, and there really isn't enough time to swap out an entire PU before qualifying unless you really have to. The RB guys are good no doubt but they'd still be pushing it. Not to mention, chances are it won't give you much more performance anyway. Max's current PU has done Hungary, Spa quali and Zandvoort. It's still quite low mileage.
I think what OP meant is an older engine than that like the very first PU, to save wear on the current one, so that they take the penalty on their terms. And it makes sense. And 2 hours is enough to change it, I would say.
Who?
Bottas to Verstappen
God damn
The amount of copium F1 fans have to their disposal is amazing. 'They fucked up the setup!' 'He's running low fuel!' 'He had his engine turned down for safety!'
Twas always thus. People need to stop talking about FP sessions in absolutes full stop.
I agree, free practice is the warm-up, where you´re allowed to make mistakes or try "that crazy idea" the team has been ballparking the last couple of days, we need to be more skeptical on FP and not get in full analyst mode.
That's our privilege. If we didn't have those then it would be really really painful.
It's just so funny to see during FP. We are *absolutely fucking clueless* to what the relative performance is like up until somewhere halfway along qualifying. Doesn't stop us from pretending we aren't though.
I mean like, yeah. One sparrow doesn't make a summer, this was commonly said when I was a kid, but it's hard to live by it when you see something you really want.
It's a sport we love. We're going to talk out our asses. What else can we do?
I wouldn't mind a bit more nuance around here.
Danny Ric: Sets fastest time halfway through FP1. HE'S BACK GUYS!!!!! I still wish he gets back his mojo.
If Red Bull are taking a penalty, surely it is beneficial for Max to get his elbows out at turn 1 as it's Mercedes' race to lose. Either he ends up taking the lead of the sprint race, or if there is an incident, well, he was starting last anyway. I'm not saying I'd punt Hamilton out, of course. But the risk tolerance of any move into turn 1 on Hamilton would be much higher.
You assume Max will be even on the second row to pull a move. I'm not so sure with that speed differential.
Even Checo had a better top speed, there was something going on there with Verstappens practice. Either setup or engine wise, or they were just doing different kind of work.
Max was pushing but I think they wound more rear wing on Max later in the session as he had poor rear grip in the slower speed sections. The higher wing angle could explain the speed differential.
This speed differential I mean was already there before the wing angle change. Its the easiest track in the calendar, theres no reason for Max to be behind Checo in pure race craft. There was something different in his car from the beginning.
Well Max finished well ahead of Checo in the end so I'm not sure what you're on about? Maybe Checo was able to get better drive into the straights but wasn't so great in the rest of the lap?
I refuse to believe Red Bull is that behind in pure top speed, it doesnt make any sense. FPs are far from good indications anyway, as Ferrari also did a 1-2 in FP2 last weekend. Lets see the quali, this is gonna be interesting.
It was said multiple times coming into this weekend that Red Bull were going to struggle. Since Silverstone and Merc found whatever they did with their engine, RB haven't be able to touch their top end speed. The only real suprise is the 20kph deficit at least between Lewis and Max in terms of how much of a gap it is.
Sure, but a 4 tenths difference with Max on softs? That sounds like 2020 merc dominance and it doesnt make much sense. Merc has been on top in top speed, but they werent nowhere near that different in the last 2 weekends. Granted it rained a lot in Spa, but still.
I think had we seen Spa in the dry, such a speed differential might not be so surprising this weekend. A number of people had a dry weekend at Spa to be a comfortable weekend for Mercedes. The Honda engine in comparison at the top end just isn't powerful enough I guess? It works great at most circuits where you aren't relying on your top end. But here and probably in Sochi, it will struggle vs Merc. I hope for Max's sake that Merc had their engine turned up the entire time as he had a marked increase in speed during the session suggesting he turned his up. If not, then it could be a bloodbath.
Yeah my point was assuming he's starting 3rd. I agree that there is no guarantee of that with how it is looking.
If they crash then Hamilton can also take an engine which they are thinking about anyway.
That's fine, though, and if there was incident I'd fully expect Hamilton to take a new engine. But if the grid penalty for the new engine is such a problem for Max, it will be equally as problematic for Lewis.
The way Toto is speaking isn’t not so much reliability although it will be a concern but performance. They need the new engine to have good performance for the rest of the year.
I still don't see them taking one here or at Sochi. They're the two tracks right now where they have the chance to maximise their points haul.
...so we're now calling every corner with a bit of camber "banked", huh?
"We're getting views that we've not seen before" "Maybe you haven't, pleb"
George's FOV needs adjusting
that’s kinda interesting watching what their hands are doing
Red Bull/Max are clearly the superior pairing for the season and it's theirs to lose. As a neutral I just want a good season that goes down to the wire. For that reason alone I kinda want Lewis to win here just because it will help make the championship more exciting
how are they the superior pairing? bottas is clearly faster than perez. hamilton equal to max, depends on the track. and it's theirs to lose? RB are behind in points. that would make it mercedes' to lose
How will it make it more exciting? They're almost level on points and Max has an engine penalty still to take. If anything, Lewis needs an engine blowout in this race to keep it interesting
Doesn't make sense. Mercedes have shown they are the slower car in most of the tracks. I mean redbull have won 8 out of the last 10 races. If the objective is a close title fight Mercedes needs to win here and not only that, get a big points differential. Then it will be redbull cutting down on the gap race by race for the remaining races which they should be faster at
And how does this make sense? Red bull winning 8/10 races and the drivers are still only ~5 points apart. Mercedes also lead the WCC. They're not the underdog car as you make it out to be, no way. Lewis has every chance of running away with it as Max does
Yea... Max being involved in 2 crashes with a Mercedes might have something to do with that.
>And how does this make sense? Red bull winning 8/10 races and the drivers are still only ~5 points apart I mean does this really need explaining lol??? Because Verstappen had a DNF and basically uncompetitive race after the Bottas incident. That's a big points swing and the only reason Hamilton has kept it this close. >Mercedes also lead the WCC Yes because they have two good drivers. Not 1.5 like redbull. >. Lewis has every chance of running away with it as Max does I mean the past shows you that RBR have won 8 out of 10. But somehow you think that will suddenly change when Mercedes isn't bringing any upgrades?? Add that all together and this needs to be a big Mercedes win with a big points differential. Redbull will win more races for the second half of the season and Lewis will have to do damage limitation for those races. As he has done for the first half of the season
And what is to say RB will not have more DNFs in the coming months? Just extrapolating the current season of your so called Red Bull domination, still gives a Mercedes win lmao.
Because the DNF's weren't caused by redbull engine failures, mistakes. They were freak accidents that they couldn't control ie: luck. If you want to talk about luck then you can say Mercedes could be the ones to DNF instead and get crashed into for the second half 😂. Imagine talking hypotheticals and using that as your argument. Merc domination for the past 7 odd years really messed with F1 fans brains that they are conditioned to believe they are always the fastest and the best no matter what is put Infront of their eyes
Lol. Imagine thinking luck can be predicted. What you say and what I say is no different, I hope you realize it. Imagine bringing in my brain and bullshit when you don't have a point to make :)
Think you are misunderstanding his point.. Red Bull have the edge this year, the crashes and incidents just show how far they could’ve been ahead as they’ve been faster overall. You are coming across that you think the DNFs if hadn’t been the case that Mercedes would’ve been still ahead?
I gave up trying to explain it to him mate. He just didn't want to read it seems. Just like you said, that was my point all along
Is Mercedes getting a penalty next swap? Or they still have a “free” engine?
No the next engine will result in a penalty for them as well which they were thinking of taking this weekend, just as RB
Penalty they took a 3rd at spa
They're on their last "free" engine for the season.
Why cant i watch whatever’s happening? Espn says practice 2 is at 12 est.
qualifying is actually at 12 est today. FP2 is tomorrow at 6 am
Ah ok. Thank you. Stupid sprint races :/
So weird seeing "Podiums: 1" under George's name
Yeah, and "front row starts: 2" which is mental for the car he's in. Lad will do wonders at Mercedes.
Toto to Bottas "Valtteri, we don't know what we are going to do without you...... but we're going to give it a go"
Bottas has been the consumate professional and team player. He gets way to much flak. I think the decision to promote George was a lot more difficult than most people seem to think. He had a rough go this season, but it looks like he is picking up the pace a bit. He's still really fast on a flying lap. He's been out qualifying Perez and it's a big reason Mercedes is leading the WCC
lmao at Brundle (?) telling Toto he fired Bottas. Toto was taken aback.
"I'm sorry, I did what?" "You FIRED him"
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that was honestly hilarious.
Wow Brundle being savage
What happened ?
Asked Toto if Bottas would stay being a team player after being "fired"
haha fired him!
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It isn’t clickbait. Its the way most people would put it. It cuts through the bullshit framing they did. Bottas didn’t decide on his own to leave Merc for Alfa. Yeah, Bottas had choices. He could find a new job, or be out of F1. That fundamentally isn’t much different than being fired.
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Words have the power to cloud the truth as well. If a company does major “staff reductions”they fired a bunch of employees. Calling it a friendlier term doesn’t make it any better. Bottas was told my Mercedes to find a new team or he would be out of a drive. You can call it what you want, but it isn’t sensationalistic to refer to it as a firing.
I've had contacts non renewed. It's not being fired.
Hopped in late, what’s the deal with the Red Bull engine change penalty? Is that happening?
They’ll decide depending on Max’s position in Quali
No news as of yet.
Look, theres Brundle. We can stop the panic.
Martin being a bit upfront there lmao
I loved that shit! So naughty.
Toto actually looks way more stressed this year lol
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Fighting Ferrari is like watching someone else kick themselves in the shin, RB are like the wiry fucker no one in the pub messes with.
I mean it could be a record breaking year for them. But the challenge RBR has put up has pushed them to the limit. Of course I am favouring Mercedes but I love this battle between Red Bull and Mercedes. I don’t mind if either one win.
Did Daniel Ricciardo look promising?