So he doesn't go winless at Ferrari! Nice, Lewis!
Limited evidence, but it appears Ferrari has retained its long run pace. Combine that with Lewis's highly tuned ability to manage tires and pace, and that may make a dangerous combination for the rest of the field.
Lando sure didn't have much of a day, but passing...ooh, passing. Not an easy task.
Vittoria!!!
Luigi Hamiltoni
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
The fact that the McLaren and Red Bull fell off so far in the second half is very promising for Ferrari. Lewis may not dominate in quali this year but there's going to be some great racing late in the race if this keeps up.
So McLaren shows their more nominal pace for full race qualifying. And the star performer is Russell- that was a smoking lap.
It will be interesting to see the race highlights to see if the longer run tire advantage shows for the Ferrari in the main race- if it does, Ferrari has a good chance of moving up. But McLaren's drop off wasn't that much- so I kinda doubt they will get passed by the Ferraris.
How long before Red Bull gives Lawson the boot? It looks like Racing Bulls and Mercedes made better choices for rookie drivers.
DrMikeCSI said:How long before Red Bull gives Lawson the boot? It looks like Racing Bulls and Mercedes made better choices for rookie drivers.
It's only been 1.5 races, I think they'll give him more of a chance than that. But if they do, they have to finally give Yuki his shot, IMO.
I thought the sprint race was rather boring.
Good to see Lewis just run away out front.
Tough weekend for LN so far.
1st pole for Piasti! Awesome!
It was awesome seeing almost all the rookies in a line fighting for positions! Good action there.
It's hard not to root for Lewis in red! So amazing to see the legend win in the Ferrari. Great season so far.
If Ferrari can put together a decent strategy they've got a good chance in the race, things aren't looking good lol
In reply to adam525i :
Ferrari decent in race but not on top then both disqualified.
Mclaren make it 1-2 pretty much controlled the race.
George and Max mixing it up.
Ocon gets 5th for Hass who get double points even without Gasley also excluded
Gasly, Hamilton, and Leclerc disqualified is rough. Charles did all that with a broken front wing to get nothing.
Some other observations -
1: The tension on the radio between engineers and drivers so far this year seems to be at a new level. Everybody seems so annoyed and combative with each other. Lol
2: Why did F1 get rid of the bonus point for the fastest lap? I guess I missed that.
Brutal mistakes by Ferrari, that's for sure. Both were super close to the limit, but it's a hard limit that every team knows about. Just ask Mercedes and George most recently.
Always interesting how the pace ebbs and flows- Haas were nowhere last week, and got two in the points on pace this week- with a great points haul moving up two spots.
Albon has got the Williams under reasonable control, Sainz still has work to do.
Of the swapped drivers, Hamilton has done quite well, Ocon looked great this weekend, Sainz finished- but well back of Albon. And the rookies still are lead by Antonelli. Hajar looks to be a fun spectacle.
And McLaren won, but I would put their advantage at what they thought after testing as opposed to the clock. Which is enough to win the race.
It seems like Ferrari had to raise the car (obviously not enough) combined with a mandated tire pressure rise due to too much degradation in the sprint race. Both cost them performance in the race.
Apparently Hamilton was the one who brought up letting Leclerc by but was then frustrated as the team was asking him to do it in places that would cost more time. Of course the broadcast only showed part of that and made it seem like Hamilton was against it.
Anyways, a bit of a snooze of a race, I think some more tire degradation would have made it better as it would have mixed up the strategy more.
I think this weekend proved that when Hamilton has the car under him the way he likes he's still got it.
crankwalk
2: Why did F1 get rid of the bonus point for the fastest lap? I guess I missed that.
Ricciardo went out last year and took fastest lap from Norris, on behalf of Max. Then finished 18th or so. Seemed like a policy abuse.
More passes in post race scrutineerng than on track. I was a bit scared that might happen, but hoped Ferrari would go to a one stop and gain an advantage. I kinda fell asleep at the end, so I guess I need to rewatch and see whether Lance made that work. And Albon? He was as well, wasn't he?
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
It just occurred to me, they were all talking about one stopping... gotta go rewatch while awake.😁
Edit: Yeah, I missed a bit, here and there. So darn unusual for me to comment on E36 M3 I know nothing about...
So, last week Ferrari completely blew the tire strategy, and this week both cars got DQ'd. It really doesn't seem to matter who's running that team, they continue to step on their own feet, despite having a quick car and two really good drivers.
The drama between Lewis and his engineer was mostly the FOM hyping up the drama. I was listening to Lewis' radio the entire race and he was the first to suggest the swap and later balked at the timing of the swap because Charles had dropped back or because Lewis was about to pass Stroll. He was perfectly willing to swap but he wasn't going to just slam on the brakes and lose 3-5 seconds to do it. My kid predicted that Ferrari strategy would be the downfall of Ferrari this year and I hate that he's right about it
Yeah, terrible result for Ferrari.....can't understand how the Hamster can run away from the field on one day and not be able to make any impression on the front 4 the next.
It's clear that Hammy and his engineer aren't quite on the same pages yet as he keeps asking for help on certain aspects of the race and getting info on stuff he already knows. In fact, LeClerc made a few comments that seem to indicate he and his race engineer aren't on good speaking terms either. Race strategy seems to STILL be a problem at Ferrari.......hard to fathom that......
I know it's only the second race, but McLaren and Mercedes both have solid leads on the field, and both teams seem able to put both drivers in the points every race.
The interesting part will be seeing who will get the driver's championship, with Oscar and Norris splitting wins and taking points off each other, same with the two Ferrari drivers and maybe even Mercedes in the same boat as Kimi continues to improve.
The top 4 driver's within just a very few points of each other now......Norris ahead by 12, but Verstappen, Russell and Piastri only 2 pts apart.
The next race at Japan may well tell the story for Lawson's career, he's raced there many times and knows the track well, if he can't pull a decent result Horner and Marko will be looking to replace him......maybe do like they have before and swap him with a Red Bull Vcarb driver? If so, Tsunoda may finally get the call up he deserves.
FOM not playing the 1st message where Hamilton suggested the position swap, then makes it sound like Lewis is being difficult when,he just wants it to happen at a time/place most beneficial. Again, FOM, has a bias in just can't stand.
In reply to MiniDave :
2 races, 2 times Ferrari screwed it's drivers. They just need to clean house somehow.
They did say that Lewis suggested the swap before it happened and before the cars didn't swap on the initial lap. I don't recall if they actually played the message or not, but I was aware it was his idea right from the start.
The result of Charles' broken wing was really interesting. He should not have been competitive with Lewis, and yet he was faster when they were on equivalent rubber. Was it decreased drag? Dit it even out the loading on the front axle on those punishing right turns? There's something to be learned from that for sure.
In reply to loosecannon :
That would be great. I think there will a documentary releasing at some point and I hope we will be able to watch it soon.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I think the wing improved overall balance. Both drivers had complained about the balance. Another reason why Lewis' sprint racexwin was special. He really outdrove that car.
We've seen before that a lack of end plate hasn't had a large effect on performance of the car with this generation of car. You could see the left side of the wing flexing down on the straight, it seems like he ended up with the banned flexi wing and it worked.
You'll need to log in to post.
