Soldato
McLaren have posted a picture of the soft tyres looking absolutely ragged after doing just 1 recon lap on them.
Poll: Official 2023 Qatar Grand Prix Thread - Losail International Circuit - Round 18
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Seems like Mercedes got it all kinds of wrong today. Hamilton's radio about being a sitting duck on the formation lap was telling.
It's like a cascade/domino effect of errors. Put Lewis on softs forcing him to go hell for leather/take risks in taking the lead at the start, don't control George enough to allow Lewis to do this, then they still showed they didn't understand the soft tyre at the end when George was getting reeled in by Leclerc.
Big ball dropped really. In hindsight they should have stuck them both on mediums like almost everyone else.
Caporegime
I think the softs strategy would have worked out really well. Run for around 6-8 laps, pit just as they start going off, then run in clear air on fresh mediums and net the gains. We saw how the teams that pitted early mostly did better than those than pitted later. Of course, the early safety car did change things so perhaps it would have panned out differently, but I think the mixed strategy was Mercedes best chance of a win yesterday - until they hit each other.
But that's the thing. If you are going to try that strategy, the only way for it to work is for Lewis to be clear of George. If George is going to fight him for the place, it's pointless.
It's not the first time I've seen this happen in F1 and it always perplexed me. Why have differing tyre strategies, if your teammate is going to **** it up and make it awkward, thus nullifying any gain from the strategy.
The only way for Lewis' strategy to work was for him to be in front of George (and ideally Max too). So why was Russell fighting him and not slotting in behind Max?
From a team point of view, it just doesn't make sense.
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Soldato
Who’s getting Perez’s seat next year then? Lawson?
Caporegime
Yes, I agree. They should have told George to let Lewis go straight past.
Caporegime
Pérez. I'm pretty sure they're going to keep him until the end of his contract.
Soldato
Reduced grip levels + tyre life that forces drivers to push as hard as they can every stint = what F1 should be all about.
It's just a shame it had to happen here, where the drivers were almost physically incapacitated after the race.
It's just a shame it had to happen here, where the drivers were almost physically incapacitated after the race.
Or just put George on that strategy and tell Lewis not to overtake him. Judging from the pre start radio, Lewis didn't seem keen on it anyway.
Soldato
Having a race where cars could push throughout may have shown Ferrari lacking in a bit of overall pace, when tyre management isn't such a factor.
Caporegime
That seemed really weird to me. Surely they talk about and agree strategy?
Risky though potentially. What if a McLaren (or another team) stay as close as they are now and get 2nd and 3rd every race whilst Max wins.
Red Bull lose the constructors.
There is probably a very real fear that they lose the constructors in spite of having the fastest car if Perez stays in the seat.
It doesn't really look like they did. I imagine Lewis was told to do everything he could to get in front of Max on the 1st lap. You'd have thought that George would have been told to not fight and hold station in third.
Any other direction to the driver's doesn't make sense if they were going for this split strategy.
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Soldato
F1 has never been about that though. Tyres are only part of the picture but from the inception of motorsport there's been reasons (safety, reliability, fuel) that driver's don't push as hard as they can all the time. It doesn't matter if you gave them some imaginary tyres that gave fantastic grip and never went off and unlimited amounts of fuel - would they go faster than they do currently probably so. But would they go as hard as they can every stint? No. It all comes back to, as Lauda put it, to win going as slowly as possible.
Soldato
I think you're getting it mixed up, perhaps it was Lewis should have been told not to fight George at the start and as for comparing it with team orders for the McLarens, that was when Norris was catching Oscar up towards the end of the race so not the same senario at all.
Clearly teams leave their drivers to race at the start but be sensible, however it was purely down to Lewis being dumb, in fact as dumb as Perez is. You cannot place Lewis's stupidly on the team as he is the one driving the car and it could have been worse for the team if George had been taken out of the race as well?
Golden rule that you don't collide with your teammate ignored by someone who should know better.
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Caporegime
When you have drivers on different strategies it makes no sense for them to fight each other. Hamilton on softs only works if he uses those softs to pass Max near the start. The better comparison to Oscar/Norris is Stroll being ordered to leap out of Alonso's way as they were on different strategies.
Soldato
This.
There was no point fighting Russell in turn 1 ffs.....
just stick behind Russell after teh first couple of corners and Russell lets hamilton through.
Even if ham overtook Russell on turn 1, he wasnt going to catch and beat max.
His race is not with max but with mclaren
Soldato
I think George is a team player and he'd have moved out of way but after Japan he probably hasn't got much time for helping Lewis and will have even less so now. Great recovery race for him though.
Overall I think the race was pretty poor, personally I'd have preferred if they halved the race distance due to tyres/ worries about drivers safety rather than mandating pit stops.
Great weekend for McLaren, they probably have the fastest car on the grid at the moment.
Overall I think the race was pretty poor, personally I'd have preferred if they halved the race distance due to tyres/ worries about drivers safety rather than mandating pit stops.
Great weekend for McLaren, they probably have the fastest car on the grid at the moment.
What? Why was Russell fighting Lewis and Max in turn 1 then? There is no point fighting Lewis in the first couple of corners as he is on a different strategy which only works if Lewis is ahead of him....
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No, that makes zero sense. Lewis had to get ahead of George, otherwise what were Mercedes thinking?
Lewis wasn't the only one with elbows out and a disregard for checking mirrors. George moved loads to his right towards Lewis to try and not get boxed in behind Max, causing Lewis to have to move way over, and causing the three into the corner.
The ultimate error falls on Lewis, but his strategy relied on what he was doing so likely wasn't expecting his own teammate to not back down. George does have a brake peddle, as was proven by the rest of his race.Mercedes should be giving them very clear rules of engagement if splitting the strategy like this.
What Mercedes did as a team today,made zero sense.
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