Poll: Brazilian Grand Prix 2019, São Paulo - Race 20/21

[englishpremier]

I don't understand the Hamilton penalty, they are saying that because Albon was just using the racing line it was entirely Hamilton's fault. It's pretty clear that he was decently alongside and that Albon should really have left space and he opened up a huge space for Hamilton to move into initially. I think it was two pieces of bad driving from Albon, zero defensively thinking with the line he took then zero awareness of Hamilton as he turned into the apex. He both could have easily taken a line that kept Ham behind to begin with and then he could have taken an easy 4th with a good chance to get back at him and instead he imo took himself out of the race.

At best I'd say this was more Albon's fault but racing incident would have been fine, Ham penalty seems absurd to me but there you go.

Really? Albon taking the normal racing line, Lewis going for a gap that he knows won't be there at the apex. The stewards will have telemetry, and all the camera angles, and Lewis saying the collision was 100% his fault, and you don't understand it?

Lewis caused an avoidable incident and damaged someone else's race. Albon didn't help himself, but it was clearly Lewis that caused an incident as he admitted.

I'm not sure why others here think they know better than the driver and the stewards on this one.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Drivers sometimes apologise to be, you know, nice, and Hamilton also said sorry for it having not seen a single replay. He's literally not the best person to know if it's fair or not because he has one split shot and a bunch of time to react to what happened after but without actually seeing video. Memory sucks, video doesn't. People often think themselves in the right or wrong until they see a video of something that happened and their view changes completely.

BEing on the normal racing line isn't a random catch all excuse, he was on the racing line so it's the other guys fault, since when. If you have a car alongside and turn into them just because the part of the track you're on currently is the racing line that doesn't mean much of anything. Hamilton didn't lock up (until trying to avoid being cut in on), he wasn't alongside only because he was out of control and going to miss the apex completely like Ricciardo was. There Magnussen left room but Ricciardo came in fast, hard, late and couldn't actually make the corner without hitting Magnussen. Hamilton was there because he was faster, Albon opened the door and left the room then there was Hamilton in the way and Albon just turns into him. Being on the racing line really doesn't mean anything at all unless a car is miles behind or on actual corner exit. THe way you're describing it anyone who is defending can simply always stay on the racing line side of the track and immediately turn into anyone making a pass and it will always be the other guys fault, does that honestly make sense to you?

He only hit Albon as far back on his car as he did because he saw Albon coming and slammed on the brakes, meaning if he kept taking the corner as he intended to without the late brake to avoid him Albon was going to be closer to hitting Hamilton's front wheel or maybe the bargeboard area. Hamilton was plenty alongside, Albon left the door wide open then turned into the apex despite a car being there. Hamilton's reaction without seeing video and various angles of the incident is not worthless but not the ultimate say either.

 

[pastymuncher]

Gave it 6/10. Vettel once again showing that he's a arrogant ****** and a liability to the team. He should be forced to stop trying to force people off the track. He did it to Hamilton at the start but to do it to his own team mate when he already had the overtake is unforgiveable. He is going to injure kill someone one day.

Damn that Honda engine has some grunt and I never thought I would see a car powered by one outdrag a Merc. Didn't Honda opt for a larger turbo which make it more efficient at higher altitudes? Merc and Ferrari have smaller turbos due to packaging constraints.

I think they had little choice in giving Hamilton a penalty as the incident was similar to Ricciardo's. They need to arrive at these decisions much quicker as they have yet again prevented a driver from going through the podium celebrations.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Crofty seemed more shouty than normal. Watching the race, I wanted to stab myself in the ears

 

[Kol]

When Hamilton overtook Albon earlier in the race after be, while Verstappen was still on screen he almost blew his top with excitement before Martin reminded him Verstappen was further up the road and in was in fact Albon he'd just overtaken into turn one.

Which reminds me, I don't get Crofty and his argument about drivers not changing their helmets as it makes them hard to identify. Who honestly identifies drivers by their helmet and not the T cam? With the t cam you know who it is within a blink of an eye.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

I get the feeling they couldn't roll it back for some reason, hence the lift the car needed. And the won't put any recovery vehicles on track without a full safety car anymore.

Vettel is coming back up so the only thing that will prevent him seeing out the last year of his contract is Vettel himself IMO. He might call it a day after that though. 4 WDC's will give him Legend status for life. Ferrari have no one else. Giovanazzi has improved but is nowhere near ready.

It looked like the gap in the armco was uphill from the car and the three marshals couldn’t shift it on their own. Race directors are rightly hesitant to have a recovery vehicle at the edge of the circuit with the cars are at race or even VSC speed.

 

[smr]

I almost nodded off during the first half of the race. Wow did it burst into life after VB's car broke. Amazing from there on so definitely a cracker of a GP.

Ferrari colliding, VB's car, Gasly P2 - Sainz P3! McLaren's first podium since 2014

Gasly and Sainz first ever F1 Podiums. Very cool. Happy for Gasly, grown to be a fan of his over this season. Very happy for Mclaren and Sainz.

Next year should be superb.

 

[Flaevius]

But again. Crofty and the race producer sucked big time.

I could have written a chapter of Lord of the Rings in the time it took him to realise that Hamilton was ghosting past Albon and hadn't suddenly teleported to pass Verstappen.

Ferrari need to bin Vettel if they ever want a shot at titles. Hand the reins over to the young racer who will make mistakes, but has the talent and chutzpah to pull out results.

 

[MissChief]

I could have written a chapter of Lord of the Rings in the time it took him to realise that Hamilton was ghosting past Albon and hadn't suddenly teleported to pass Verstappen.

Ferrari need to bin Vettel if they ever want a shot at titles. Hand the reins over to the young racer who will make mistakes, but has the talent and chutzpah to pull out results.

The only thing that will stop Seb being at Ferrari next year will be Seb himself IMO. 2021 however is a different story. I can see Seb retiring at the end of his contract.

 

[PinkFloyd]

Just caught up with the highlights on 4OD. Good race to watch, it sounds like the highlights skipped over the boring bits nicely but had enough good bits to fill up an hour up nicely! Over the top safety car for Bottas' issue, but like someone else said, maybe he could have gone around the corner and stopped on the inside out of the way. Pretty sure even the Ferrari and Haas drivers wouldn't have been able to hit Bottas' car there!
Stupid driving by Vettel again, baffling how he gets away with doing things like that again and again without punishment. Shame that Hamilton cocked up like he did, he'd have had second easily on the straight if he'd leant on the side of caution - not sure he'd have ever got past Max anyway without DRS. Especially with the straight-line pace the Honda engined cars looked to have!

 

[MrKnifey]

While I dont agree with Vettel driving into Leclerc, Leclercs swipe at Lando was WAAAY worse, luckily Lando moved!

 

[mmj_uk]

I think Hamilton just realises he made an opportunist late dive which for him is out of character these days because he is usually a lot more controlled and assumes the driver he's overtaking is going to be a blind idiot and run into him.

The problem with F1 atm is Hamilton gets a penalty for that and yet LecLerc ran another driver off the tarmac earlier in the race and it went ignored, so it's okay to drive dangerously as long as no contact or crash occurs but a coming together at a slow corner gets a penalty. I hope they will start taking squeezing other drivers off the track seriously when it eventually kills or seriously injures someone. Drivers basically playing chicken by encroaching on other drivers space a la Vettel on LecLerc is stupid and dangerous and not racing, it was obvious that Vettel's goal was to squeeze LecLerc to a tight inside line and compromise him at the next turn. That's not fair racing.

 

[mushtafa]

Good race in my opinion. Was nice to see other drivers & teams finishing higher up.
Sainz had an awesome result, shame he missed out on the podium.

 

[this_is_gav]

While I dont agree with Vettel driving into Leclerc, Leclercs swipe at Lando was WAAAY worse, luckily Lando moved!

I was thinking the same, but that wasn't between team-mates. Still not necessary though.

While a lot have, rightly, criticised Vettel it should also be noted that Leclerc could have easily avoided contact. Vettel expected Leclerc to move, and Leclerc wanted to hold his line. As the investigation pointed out either could have avoided contact but they were both as stubborn as the other and both lost out on a possible podium as a result.

Vettel's swipe on Webber in Istanbul was far worse than the gradual lean he did on Sunday.

 

[Greboth]

Where I have a problem though is saying they were both to blame means Vettel shouldn't have moved across and/or Leclerc should have moved which opens the door for more of the same in the future. Leclerc was driving straight on a straight - he had no obligation to move and shouldn't have to. I understand squeezing a driver to a tighter line and have no problem with that - that's racing. However it was only Vettel moving across to try and squeeze Leclerc so them touching is 100% Vettel's fault IMO.

Taking a pragmatic approach then yes Leclerc could have avoided contact and it would have been better for his race had he done so but that doesn't change that he shouldn't have to.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

Drivers sometimes apologise to be, you know, nice, and Hamilton also said sorry for it having not seen a single replay.

Its easier to be magnaminous when both champs are in the bag.

If he was fighting for points with Albon would he have been so apologetic? I think not. Its literally a penalty that has next to no consequences for him or his team.

 

[MissChief]

Generally Hamilton has been pretty sporting and fair throughout his career and has often held his hand up and admitted fault. However that's an easy thing to do when you've been in the best car for four years and only really been consistently challenged in the latter half of this season.

 

[deuse]

Generally Hamilton has been pretty sporting and fair throughout his career and has often held his hand up and admitted fault. However that's an easy thing to do when you've been in the best car for four years and only really been consistently challenged in the latter half of this season.

He hasn't had the best car all season. Ferrari has, but they made a mess of things.

 

[MissChief]

He hasn't had the best car all season. Ferrari has, but they made a mess of things.

Hence my use of 'consistently challenged' Mercedes had the best car for the first few races but were strangely off the boil at Bahrain.

 

[The_Abyss]

He hasn't had the best car all season. Ferrari has, but they made a mess of things.

Ferrari have gone full Ferrari this season, more than in previous seasons. Terrible decisions, now warring drivers. But they haven’t had the best car all season, to be fair, just for parts of it. Mercedes completely took their opportunities when they had the faster car, and then outperformed when they didn’t.

Ferrari, as ever, continue to find new ways in which to deliver underperformance.