Let's say Russell qualifies on the pole. That tells me he's a good/great driver, maybe. What does it say about the car, or even about Lewis if Russell is in front of Valtteri just like Lewis would be? I can't quantify how much better Lewis is compared to the rest of the field vs how much better is the Mercedes. .......I think we need to line all the cars up on the grid in order of their current points and assign cars by pulling drivers' names out of a hat......
Apparently on German TV, Toto said he was not happy with Russell's performance over the long run. IF that's the case, I wonder if because GR is enjoying that car so much, he can't help but drive it flat out every chance he gets instead of trying to be easier on it for longer stints. Wonder if he'll pull a Stroll and put it on pole, but then just wear his tires out over the course of the race.
If so, I can't blame him. Going from the Williams the the MB I'm sure I'd be giggling about how fast and just go flat out every chance I could too!
-Rob
In reply to rob_lewis :
One thing I've seen on reports about GR is that he is significantly larger than Lewis. So the cockpit is really tight on him. One of the key things is he has size 11 feet/shoes, and had to shoehorn into size 10, which is still too large. Which is to say, it's quite possible pain is part of the long run issue.
George is used to going like hell just to keep up to the back of the pack. Its going to take a significant amount of awareness to slow down enough to keep the tires on that thing.
I wear a size 8 and the foot boxes in one of my single seat cars necessitated my buying the most narrow shoes I could find. I once sat in a Mclaren F1 car and the foot box was really small as well and from the sounds of it F1 cars haven't gotten any roomier. Make me wonder if Russel's feet are rubbing together when he works the pedals.
George has said in earlier interviews that Lewis gave him advice on tire management years ago, so maybe won't just burn them off. He does have a pretty good single seater career in his past. His interviews seem to indicate he's not getting too carried away and he says he's 0.15s behind Bottas on a full fuel load, but he's sure gotta feel good.
Bottas was no slouch at Williams, there's a reason Mercedes signed him. Russell is no slouch, which is the reason Mercedes has been grooming him for years. Being in the best hardware on the grid is helping them both, but they're also in that hardware because they have the ability. And they have the best race engineers and team structure behind them - this is a team that knows exactly how to dominate. So it's hard to simply say "it's the car". It's also the team and the setup. But yeah, that car helps a lot.
I think the only people who aren't rooting for a GR win are Verstappen and Bottas.
Bottas had a hot lap 0.2 seconds faster than Russel in FP2 but the time was deleted for running slightly wide, call it the 0.15 sec that Russel quoted. After that they were both doing long runs on the hards.
Tomorrow should be fun, the GP2 30 minute qualy session was a bit of a gong show with it ending when Mick Shumacher and another car got together with 30 seconds to go.
Reading this morning that they were working on adapting the shift paddles to better suit Russell's fingers. They really do build these cars around the size of the driver.
Man, this qualifying is nuts- having a sub one min lap just makes this crazy.
Soooo close...36-1
Well, that was really entertaining and now we wait for Russell's race performance.
Nice first Mercedes qualifying, George, beaten by Valteri by just 0.017 sec. And just as important, got 2nd over Verstappen.
Will be an interesting start tomorrow, with both Mercs on the mediums, and the rest of the top 10 on softs. I kind of expect Max will jump George at the start.
Good effort by Russel for sure
Whee, that's some close speed. Russell kept Bottas honest.
Max may very well get ahead in early laps. Russell will be aware that he has to bring the car home and Max has nothing to lose, so Max will probably elbow his way past. The soft tires may make enough difference to make the move less sketchy. Then Russell will have the Mercedes strategy team at his back and we learn how good he is at tire management.
Bottas: "Mickey Mouse track" ;)
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I disagree about Max- even though he plays down second, he still can finish second in the championship. He needs to beat Valteri tomorrow for any chance of that. It's more likely that he'll tap Bottas than Russel, since it would mean more.
That was an exciting Qualifying session. Russell is performing impressively, imagine if the car fit him properly and he had some seat time in it! LeClerc had one of those magical laps where everything comes together, I've had very few of those in my racing career. Tomorrow should be very interesting, anything could happen (and probably will)
Kind of a walk off for Charl...
Streetwiseguy said:Kind of a walk off for Charl...
Loved Charl putting that lap together. Happy to see George and Danny do so well.
loosecannon said:That was an exciting Qualifying session. Russell is performing impressively, imagine if the car fit him properly and he had some seat time in it! LeClerc had one of those magical laps where everything comes together, I've had very few of those in my racing career. Tomorrow should be very interesting, anything could happen (and probably will)
Given lap times are more comperable to autocrosses, you can really empathise with his jubulant exahustion after the lap. Remember to breathe.
F2 season is over.
Great and exciting weekend of racing!
Mick wins it all in a crappy race for him and illot.
Next year is gonna be epic. I'm guessing there will be 3 rookies in f1. Tsunoda has got to have a seat at alpha bull next year.
Is anyone else wondering why you'd pay Lewis Hamilton salary when Russell is so close to the same pace for so much less?
stroker said:Is anyone else wondering why you'd pay Lewis Hamilton salary when Russel is so close to the same pace for so much less?
No, you're the only one
stroker said:Is anyone else wondering why you'd pay Lewis Hamilton salary when Russel is so close to the same pace for so much less?
There's more to it than pace. There's strategy, tire management, racecraft, knowing when to go for a gap and when not to. Nobody in the field has Lewis' combination of talent, experience, and results. Besides that, he's a 7-time champion and the biggest name in the sport by a large margin. He's good with the media and has a huge following around the world. He's an internationally known superstar. That kind of thing matters to sponsors.
stroker said:Is anyone else wondering why you'd pay Lewis Hamilton salary when Russell is so close to the same pace for so much less?
Not even for a second.
It'll be Max, George, and Perez with the williams cars finishing 4 laps down.
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