Poll: Saudi Arabia Grand Prix 2022, Jeddah - Race 2

Rate the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix out of ten


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If I remember correctly the party line was that it was to improve the morale of the other side of the garage, after a couple of years of constantly being on the losing side of the garage. I think the realistic logic of it (and general consensus at the time) being a psychological booster for Nico Rosberg, to show that they were being given equal opportunities to win and not just stacking the A-team on Lewis's side.
Yes spot on, thanks, I remember it happening, just not the whole reasoning behind it.
 
And let's not forgot that Russell wasn't too far off despite failing to set a time on his final run when the track was quickest.

The Merc has issues but it's still the 3rd fastest car.
 
Mick has posted on his Twitter that he's okay. Good news.

Yes very good news, horror crash.

Looking forward to the race, although I still think it’s an unsafe track and a region of the world we shouldn’t be supporting.

Hamilton was out-qualified by Haas, his current team mate and his former team mate. Brutal.
 
Far too early give up on Merc fixing the car! With the new regs there's likely to be a lot more in season development possible than we're used too.

That is true when it is the chassis but this has gotten engine written all over it. All Mercedes supplied teams are all at the back of the grid and Ferrari powered teams are all fighting to get into Q3.

I find it really difficult to believe that Hass for example has leap frogged McLaren by some quite considerable margin simply because of the reg changes.
 
The thing is, third-fastest means four cars ahead of them. That’s a lot of points to drop each race they’re not competitive.

A comment I saw on Reddit suggested that they expect to make progress at Imola, but that’s three races down. Ok, it’s a long season but that’s quite a deficit to make up.

In that time, Ferrari and RBR will also be making improvements, so they have to get on top of their current issues and leapfrog the other two in order to be in with a chance.

Last season there was a stat going around that Hamilton had never won the WDC after going 30 points behind the eventual winner. You could argue that stat is moot after last season but technically it still stands. By Imola, Hamilton could be 50+ points behind.

I’m not saying it’s impossible, just unlikely.
 
A comment I saw on Reddit suggested that they expect to make progress at Imola, but that’s three races down. Ok, it’s a long season but that’s quite a deficit to make up.

In that time, Ferrari and RBR will also be making improvements, so they have to get on top of their current issues and leapfrog the other two in order to be in with a chance.

Yeah, this is all true. I think the WDC this season will be between Leclerc and Verstappen. I'm just cautioning against exaggerating the extent of Mercedes problems: their car isn't up there with RB/Ferrari but it's not a backmarker either. Their biggest problem right now is still controlling porpoising: but that seems to be a solvable problem (given other teams) so I think we will see a big step forward when they get on top of it.
 
Yeah, this is all true. I think the WDC this season will be between Leclerc and Verstappen. I'm just cautioning against exaggerating the extent of Mercedes problems: their car isn't up there with RB/Ferrari but it's not a backmarker either. Their biggest problem right now is still controlling porpoising: but that seems to be a solvable problem (given other teams) so I think we will see a big step forward when they get on top of it.

I'll be interested to see if Sainz and Perez can stay close to Max and Charles (my money would be on Carlos doing it rather than Sergio) it was some lap from Perez yesterday to beat not just the Ferrari's but leave Max in his dust too.
But agree it'll likely be Max v Charles - if Red Bull have fixed their fuel issues this weekend then they can start to focus on further development of the car instead of fixes.
The Merc car is clearly a dog but I expect it fixed; it seems pretty unclear though the performance of that Merc engine - like others I don't honestly believe that Alfa and Haas have suddenly surged to the front of the midfield on chassis changes alone
 
Yeah, this is all true. I think the WDC this season will be between Leclerc and Verstappen. I'm just cautioning against exaggerating the extent of Mercedes problems: their car isn't up there with RB/Ferrari but it's not a backmarker either. Their biggest problem right now is still controlling porpoising: but that seems to be a solvable problem (given other teams) so I think we will see a big step forward when they get on top of it.
Their main issue now though is going to be that both Ferrari and RBR will also be developing, and they have a solid baseline to work from where as it stands Merc dont. If Merc dont find a stable baseline very soon they are going to be behind the curve the whole season, that is unless their fundamental design of the car is actually something special but they just havnt been able to harness it yet. However as it stands there is, as yet, no evidence of that.
 
With the exception of Kovalainen & Bottas (sort of) all of his teammates have been very strong. I know people like to **** on Rosberg but the guy had a very successful junior career which clearly shows he can drive, and he was always fast in the Williams when he started in F1. He also beat MSC convincingly, albeit a slightly over the hill version. I don't think many drivers on the current grid could beat him over a season. Then there's Button and especially Alonso who don't need any qualifying statements as to their skills.

What other recent driver has had such consistently strong teammates as Lewis and beaten them all over their time together?

Also you keep claiming it's 'all the car' but now you're saying he was a worthy winner in 2008, so which is it? His skills haven't suddenly degraded from worthy WDC winner to fraud. I think most rational people have the opposite opinion which is that he's improved a lot over the years.

The fact is that the best drivers tend to find their way into the best cars, and F1 is 90% car 10% driver.

Yes , he was a worthy winner in 2008. If you look at the other teams and drivers it was clear to see Felipe and Kimi at Ferrari had a competitive car and he out raced them , if I remember he only beat Felipe by 1 point though so a great WC . Heikke was clearly brought in a a number 2 driver that season after the battle Lewis and Alonso had in 2007 , I think they tied on points for second place so was he better than Alonso in the same car ?

Nico to me was the most underrated driver in F1 and was unlucky not to win in 2014 with reliability issues , Lewis definitely had the better hand in 2015 and Nico winning in 2016 to me sort of justifies what I have said , a decent driver as a team mate and all those WC titles with total Mercedes dominance come into question ? Bottas was either an inferior driver or was under total team orders for all 5 years , I actually believe he was and inferior driver and Lewis was gifted 4 x WC titles just look at the points difference between 1st and 2nd place for 2018 , 2019 and 2020 - it was a joke .

Not saying Lewis isn’t a talented driver but the GOAT , no way . And yes 90% the car , maybe more at that level.

Anyhow , F1 is looking so so exciting this year I’m like a kid at Christmas on race day. Le Clerc and a Verstappen all the way this year but I’m routing for George .
 
Watching the qualifying yesterday, Checo was hitting 208mph through the speed trap, Hamilton barely scraped 200mph. That’s a decent chunk of speed to be down on.
 
Yes , he was a worthy winner in 2008. If you look at the other teams and drivers it was clear to see Felipe and Kimi at Ferrari had a competitive car and he out raced them , if I remember he only beat Felipe by 1 point though so a great WC . Heikke was clearly brought in a a number 2 driver that season after the battle Lewis and Alonso had in 2007 , I think they tied on points for second place so was he better than Alonso in the same car ?

Nico to me was the most underrated driver in F1 and was unlucky not to win in 2014 with reliability issues , Lewis definitely had the better hand in 2015 and Nico winning in 2016 to me sort of justifies what I have said , a decent driver as a team mate and all those WC titles with total Mercedes dominance come into question ? Bottas was either an inferior driver or was under total team orders for all 5 years , I actually believe he was and inferior driver and Lewis was gifted 4 x WC titles just look at the points difference between 1st and 2nd place for 2018 , 2019 and 2020 - it was a joke .

Not saying Lewis isn’t a talented driver but the GOAT , no way . And yes 90% the car , maybe more at that level.

Anyhow , F1 is looking so so exciting this year I’m like a kid at Christmas on race day. Le Clerc and a Verstappen all the way this year but I’m routing for George .

I'd say he was better than Alonso that year simply because he came in as a rookie against the reigning 2x WDC and finished ahead in the standings.

Rosberg being the unlucky one in 2014 is a bit of a hot take :cry:, if I remember correctly Hamilton had horrendous reliability issues at the start of the season and had to climb back from multiple large points deficits.

So what if Bottas is inferior, who's to say that Rosberg if he'd stayed would have been able to take one or more of those WDCs (more likely Vet as Ros/Ham would've taken lots of points from each other)? It took a healthy rub of the green for him to win one at all, and if a driver of his talent couldn't handle the pressure competing with LH put on him why do you think it matters that Bottas is a step down?

You haven't actually put forward any reason that LH shouldn't be in the conversation for goat, you just seem annoyed that he had an easy ride against a worse teammate for a few years. Even in those years he twice had a serious challenge from Ferrari before they imploded towards the end of the year. I dread to think what your opinion of certain other multiple WCDs must be if having a worse teammate and good car automatically DQs them from greatness.
 
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I'd say he was better than Alonso that year simply because he came in as a rookie against the reigning 2x WDC and finished ahead in the standings.

Rosberg being the unlucky one in 2014 is a bit of a hot take :cry:, if I remember correctly Hamilton had horrendous reliability issues at the start of the season and had to climb back from multiple large points deficits.

So what if Bottas is inferior, who's to say that Rosberg if he'd stayed would have been able to take one or more of those WDCs (more likely Vet as Ros/Ham would've taken lots of points from each other)? It took a healthy rub of the green for him to win one at all, and if a driver of his talent couldn't handle the pressure competing with LH put on him why do you think it matters that Bottas is a step down?

You haven't actually put forward any reason that LH shouldn't be in the conversation for goat, you just seem annoyed that he had an easy ride against a worse teammate for a few years. Even in those years he twice had a serious challenge from Ferrari before they imploded towards the end of the year. I dread to think what your opinion of certain other multiple WCDs must be if having a worse teammate and good car automatically DQs them from greatness.

GOAT - Apart from the fact i stated he’s been gifted 4 of his 7 WC titles ! Other motor sports - Rossi 89 wins from 55 poles 9 WC over three different classes epic legend . Now you might say what’s the difference , similar amount of champions ect under different classes . The difference is a larger part of Rossi’s competitors all had GP winning bikes , for 7 years Mercedes’ have had it all there own way and had no one come close , barring Ferrari for a few races.

If you look at my previous posts you will see my logic, It killed the sport from a fans point of view for 4 years yet the larger part of UK motor sport fans think he’s god. I can’t see the logic in it at all. A lot of races I literally turned over the channel.

Like I said it finally changed last year and this year for the better of the fans and to be blunt I can’t see Lewis winning another WC for the rest of his career.

Now if he took the red car in 2025 and won a race I’d then put him into Epic territory. Not going to happen .

Anyhow Popcorn ready for later, go on the Checo! Go on the George .
 
If you want to discuss goats can you do it in a separate thread. It has nothing to do with this one.

Hoping we have a new race winner for this one.

Has the red flag tyre change rule been changed or is it the same as last year?
 
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