Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Mr Jack said:
I mean, it's one race, and one race is only one race and he just passed Bottas off the line and driven to victory it'd be impressive but I wouldn't read much into it. It was Russell's ability to carve back through the field and keep his head after his golden chance got binned with a huge Mercedes mistake and a dose of bad luck that really impressed me. And he did that in a car he was unfamiliar with (remember him getting on the radio asking how to do stuff?) and that didn't even fit him. Sure, the Mercedes was utterly mighty last year but how often did we see Bottas fail to get through traffic in that car?
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Indeed, Bottas is the other element that makes it difficult to evaluate since he has absolutely zero racecraft.
 
I don't understand why they're dragging this announcement out, the writing is on the wall for everyone, unless they have contracts with the media to drag it out for needless articles saying nothing.
 
Dup said:
I don't understand why they're dragging this announcement out, the writing is on the wall for everyone, unless they have contracts with the media to drag it out for needless articles saying nothing.
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Usually it's a combination of brands wanting to control the timing of announcements, and teams/drivers thrashing out the smaller details of the contract: will Russell attend 4 or 5 media days? Is he required to wear Adidas pants all the time or only when racing? Is he paid £10000 or £9850 per point scored? What are the exact exit clauses? And so on. The smaller ticket details.
 
Mr Jack said:
I don't know where this myth comes from. Russell is consistently faster than Latifi on a Sunday, as much as anyone else on the grid except perhaps Max over Pérez or Mick over Mazepin, and has beaten him in almost every race. It's not the dramatic difference seen on a Saturday but with the constant need for tyre management and fuel management it's surely unreasonable to expect otherwise.
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The top drivers excel when all factors are taken into consideration. Hamilton's advantage over Bottas and Rosberg in race trim, same with Vettel over Webber, Alonso over Massa, Button over Barrichello. It's a part of being a top F1 driver, and Russell will need to show he can do it as well as one of the best in the same machinery if he's to beat him.

I'm not for a minute suggesting Russell is worse than Latifi in race trim - that would be ridiculous, but Latifi isn't far off at all, and has been quicker in some races.

Like I said, I don't know who that's on more - is Russell that good at qualifying, is Latifi that poor? Is Russell just not as good in the race or is Latifi genuinely closer? In reality it's probably somewhere in the middle.

My point being, it's not a foregone conclusion that he's a driver complete enough to compete with the likes of Hamilton over a full season. It's probably going to be bloody good fun finding out though!



Mr Jack said:
Bottas was not catching quickly at any point. The only point he was even a little faster was when he was on tyres 4 laps younger.
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He halved the gap from 8 seconds to 4 in 10 laps. On a track with effectively 6 corners. I doubt he would have had the pace to pass him when he got there (this is Bottas), but he would have caught him well before the end were it not for those safety cars.
 
this_is_gav said:
He halved the gap from 8 seconds to 4 in 10 laps. On a track with effectively 6 corners. I doubt he would have had the pace to pass him when he got there (this is Bottas), but he would have caught him well before the end were it not for those safety cars.
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The reason he was able to catch up by that much was because Russell lost much more time to the double yellows and VSC brought out by Latifi's retirement, not because Bottas had much faster pace.
 
He was closing throughout the stint, before and after the VSC until Aitkin's crash and the ensuing Mercedes meltdown. Russell lost around a second under the VSC somewhere, but the rest was without yellows.

He still would have caught him before the end (though as said probably not enough pace differential to get past without errors from Russell).
 
I'd just like to say my favourite thing this see has been seeing alonso get up to speed. I thought it'd be a bad move him coming back. But he's showing excellent tactical driving and maturity.

So far that's my season take home.

Always had been my favourite driver.
 
The more I think about it, the more I think this is a good move for Bottas. He came to Merc with a great reputation, off the back of good performances at Williams and a glowing Junior career, and has struggled to impress in Lewis' shadow. Away from Merc he has the chance to lead the Alfa team and start building it around him. I doubt he will get a chance at the championship, but if he can perform at Alfa he can build himself a solid reputation before leaving F1.
 
Welp, that's Russell's career reduced to 'rear gunner for The Messiah™' then. Unless Lewis plans to sod off and become a rapper/fashion magnate/whatever in another year.
 
JRS said:
Welp, that's Russell's career reduced to 'rear gunner for The Messiah™' then. Unless Lewis plans to sod off and become a rapper/fashion magnate/whatever in another year.
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It really isn't though - assuming Mercedes are as successful next year and he's able to put it on pole on a regular basis, then why would he be forced to be "rear gunner"?
 
JRS said:
You think Hamilton won't have a clause/have the pull to get a clause into Russell's contract that forces the issue?
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I doubt there would specifically be a clause that specifies he has to let Hamilton by if he outqualifies him, in the same way there hasn't been for Bottas, and wasn't for Rosberg.

The main difference has been that Bottas hasn't been able to outqualify Hamilton with any degree of consistency. If Russell is the real deal, then potentially he will be able to.
 
Armageus said:
The main difference has been that Bottas hasn't been able to outqualify Hamilton with any degree of consistency. If Russell is the real deal, then potentially he will be able to.
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Given Russell's jaw dropping qualifying performances so far, I'll be surprised if he doesn't outqualify Lewis over a season. His ability to transform that into beating Lewis on race day is the bigger question; languishing at Williams won't exactly have been teaching Russell the racecraft needed to tussle with the best at the pointy end of the grid.
 
Jack Russell needs some time to mature in a high pressure environment. I think it's foolish to expect him to jump in the Merc and be sticking it P1/P2 consistently without errors.

He's got the raw pace to do that (as Bahrain 2020 showed) but doing it consistently when a championship rival is breathing down your neck or when the tyres aren't working how you expect will be the test of his true character.

I hope he does hit the ground running but the worst thing the press and/or the public can do it hype him up to the point that it puts insane pressure on the guy and he cracks.
 
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