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VER having a fantastic start and dominated the race from then on. PER managing another recovery drive in a decent way. Why he got DotD baffles me but it is what it is. VER is going to wrap up the championship so quickly they are going to have to come up with side quests for him so that he shows up for the remaining races. We can start by making him drive on 3 tyres for the first post championship race. More ideas welcome.
McLaren doing very well and cementing themselves as the 2nd best car on the grid. What a turnaround! NOR getting a favored pitstop call might have compromised PIA’s race. There will be questions asked and let’s hope we get good answers. (They did it to protect both drivers after HAM tried to undercut them not give NOR an advantage. Just happened to work out that way. Maybe they should have swapped places in the middle stint but that would have been tricky to negotiate.)
Mercedes having a mixed bag. HAM sliding back in the beginning and doing a decent job of recovery. Another 4-5 laps and he might have snatched the podium away from PER. RUS was all forward momentum throughout the race. Might have even pulled off a 1 stopper given that RIC did 40 laps on the mediums. RUS/RIC/PIA were definitely better DotD choices for me.
Ferrari and AM brought up the bottom of the top ten today and that’s where they will probably stay without changes to team+car for the former and to the car for the latter. Ferrari need to stop sabotaging themselves and AM got unlucky with the tyre compound change. But McLaren have shown other teams that positive change is possible and will yield results. Can the classic colours emulate modern papaya?
ALB easily the best of the rest today, albeit with a bit of help from other people’s failures, but there is no denying he’s found his groove. Unfortunately for the team SAR has not and it does not look likely that he will. At this point it’s clear SAR is only there in F1 because he is an American driver and F1 wants to penetrate that market. Frankly, he’s not good enough and needs to be let go. There are other drivers who deserve a shot.
Alfa were so exciting in quali and it turned to shit so quickly for them in the race. Threw away their best opportunity this season so far and ruined other drivers races to boot. More bad luck than bad judgement but then you make your own luck in this sport. Fix the idiotic clutch issue with the car. The team will be bitterly ruing not making hay while they could.
Alpha had incidents too: shunt for RIC and bad pitstop for TSU. Not a perfect race for either driver but not a bad recovery either. The car has potential and so do the drivers. RIC finished ahead of TSU but I don’t think this race should be seen as a final indication of their relative talents. Will be interesting to see a real fight between them. The comeback kid vs the intrepid agonist.
Haas are nowhere. I doubt the team has a clear plan for going forward currently. Hopefully they can figure something out over the summer break. HUL really has the best bad luck of any F1 driver ever doesn’t he?
And what can I say about Alpine? A double DNF. This team is easily the most mercurial one on the grid. Goes from huge highs to crazy lows, some of it their fault and some of it not. If they can find some consistency in the future they can be real contenders for a top team slot. The ultimate dark horse.
Race seemed to have a lot of potential based on the grid. The start was exciting at the front and the back for different reasons. But then it turned into a snooze fest as the cars stratified into expected layers. At one point of the race the top 10 was all pairs of teammates. We might even see that with all 20 one day. Can the FIA act to make things closer? Time will tell. 5/10
PS: When did they scrap the rule about pitstops being a 2s minimum? Was surprised with a sub 2s pitstop today.
I thought the 2s minimum was only talked about, not actually implemented?
They did have it last year but it seems to have been scrapped without much fanfare. God the rule changes mid season are a pain to keep up with.
NOR getting a favored pitstop call might have compromised PIA’s race. There will be questions asked and let’s hope we get good answers.
I was angry when it happened, but seeing PIA's pace afterwards, it was an okay decision. If they weren't teammates NOR would have got past him eventually with the powerful DRS, and if they didn't do the undercut they would have had to do an on-track swap to avoid both drivers losing time.
I believe it was said that PIA suffered from floor/underbody damage, causing his pace to drop considerably compared to NOR. I don't even think the pit crew expected NOR to overtake PIA while he's still exiting the pit lane. And the laps after showed that PIA simply couldn't keep up and would've slowed NOR down if it hadn't worked out the way it did.
It worked out well for the team, they have communicated about it openly and that’s what’s important. PIA damage was confirmed post race but no idea how it happened. He was not involved in any incidents. Probably hit a kerb too hard or at the wrong angle.
That late race resurgence of Mercedes made me think that the car is just too heavy. Has that been talked about anywhere?
All of the cars are the same weight
Great writeup but I thought it was a very exciting race. I was on the edge of my seat to see if Lando could keep P2 in the last few rounds, it was certainly not a given.
Thanks! Yup, the backmarkers, especially Yuki, impeding Lando made it possible for Perez to catch up. I have read on Reddit that Yuki ignored like 17 blue flags and 3 requests from his engineer before letting Lando through. He let Perez through after 5 blue flags and 1 request. The standard is supposed to be 3 flags and maybe one request. Drivers have been penalised in the past for ignoring the standard.
Some are seeing a conspiracy here (it’s Reddit after all) but I think it was just Yuki’s inexperience. He’s very obstinate and difficult to manage. Don’t know if McLaren will file an official complaint and ask for a penalty or if drivers/team principals will just have a quiet word with each other about the issue. But something will happen.
Also while blue flags were being shown, Lando was still pretty far away from yuki. He did not even have drs on yuki when the blue flags were out. For large parts of the lap, it seemed that Lando was not getting any closer to yuki and I can understand yuki not wanting to slow down and move aside for a car that is more than a second behind him