Its the consecutive points finishes that blow my mind too. 48 or 49? Plus he has another entry on that list of nearly 20 earlier on in his career.
Poll: Spanish Grand Prix 2021, Catalunya - Race 4/23
- Thread starter Shimmy
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Its the consecutive points finishes that blow my mind too. 48 or 49? Plus he has another entry on that list of nearly 20 earlier on in his career.
Soldato
Only partly. The bigger part was that Perez wasn't there challenging Bottas.
I like the Bottas didn't immediately jump out of the way. After-all there is everything to play for, though now he'll have to expect Lewis to return the favour in the future.
The second stop for Merc was good, but they should have just pitted Lewis when Max pitted in the fist instance, and they still could have used the same strategy. Living Lewis out long had zero benefit.
My guess is that they had a "safety car window" which would have brought him out into 1st place if it had been deployed. They knew that Max would be back in 1st place after the pit stops so left Hamilton out for a chance of a safety car that gives the opportunity to snag 1st place. There was never a risk of losing 2nd place, and it was clear Hamilton could close the gap again.
Soldato
I am still surprised that RB didn't react when Lewis pitted the second time, they even said over the radio that it was Hungary 2019 all over again, so they knew the strategy, and knew how it would play out, but did nothing.
If rbr had Pitted next lap after Hamilton they'd have been behind. Hamilton was on his gearbox and was about 1.5s quicker on that lap out the pits after a good stop. If merc didn't have a good stop it would have been a different story though.
It's probably hindsight to say rbr should have pitted.
They were pushed into that strategy.
Screwed which ever way they were gonna go.
I think in the moment I'd have done the same as rbr.
Got to say I'm dissapointed for perez. He's (dare I say it) just looking like another of max's team mates.
At this stage, I'm wonder how good max really is? Is the car literally just for him? Or is he that good?
I'd absolutely love to see max and Lewis in the same car. But doubt it will ever happen
They were pushed into that strategy.
Screwed which ever way they were gonna go.
I think in the moment I'd have done the same as rbr.
Got to say I'm dissapointed for perez. He's (dare I say it) just looking like another of max's team mates.
At this stage, I'm wonder how good max really is? Is the car literally just for him? Or is he that good?
I'd absolutely love to see max and Lewis in the same car. But doubt it will ever happen
I suppose there's a few takes on that - in theory, it gave them opportunity to see just how quickly he could close the gap on Max in free air, so they knew how many laps they needed to achieve the third stint chase. It'd have backfired if they'd tried this and only been 0.9s a lap quicker with 20 laps to chase down - leaving Lewis to pit late the first time meant they got to see he could achieve well over 1s per lap and confidently pick their moment.
There may also be a psychological element - as can be seen from the posts on here, it took a good few of us by surprise, we'd all assumed pitting so late that he was absolutely going for a 1 stop and relying on superior tyre life at the end. They were probably hoping RBR strategists had similar expectations in mind and so caught them out when they pitted again, forcing them into making a quick decision that they hadn't necessarily been preparing to deal with (they no doubt have a few theoretical plans on the go but if you're making them pick one at short notice, you can take advantage).
Think the other thing Mercedes have on their side is that even if RBR called a late stop on the lap Hamilton was due to come in, they would have stayed out and were confident they could hold off Max due to the straight line advantage they currently hold. It would have been a do or die move anywhere else but firing past at turn 1.
I think Hamilton meant he's gained knowledge about how Verstappen drives, where he (and the car) is weak and where it is strong, how to get the Mercedes behaving well behind the RB, etc. That's Hamilton, he's not just trying to win the race, he's gathering knowledge about how to exploit the weaknesses of Verstappen and the RB in future races.
The biggest thing that will dent Verstappen's arrogance is the way that Hamilton keeps beating him, especially when he thought he had a winning car in this year's RB.
I wonder if that was a pre-determined bluff... it seems they had planned to go 2-stop so by leaving Hamilton out it's kinda saying "We're one-stopping but want to have better tyres at the end", especially after Hamilton kept the softs alive better than Verstappen and was closing before Verstappen pitted... Then when Hamilton did pit and was lapping quickly Verstappen tried to match his pace taking yet more life out of the tyres only for Hamilton to dive into the pits, by which point it was game over... Pit and they'd be behind, stay out and, well, that happens
Caporegime
I wonder if that was a pre-determined bluff... it seems they had planned to go 2-stop so by leaving Hamilton out it's kinda saying "We're one-stopping but want to have better tyres at the end", especially after Hamilton kept the softs alive better than Verstappen and was closing before Verstappen pitted... Then when Hamilton did pit and was lapping quickly Verstappen tried to match his pace taking yet more life out of the tyres only for Hamilton to dive into the pits, by which point it was game over... Pit and they'd be behind, stay out and, well, that happens
It's hard to know without an inside view on the Mercedes strategy team but I get the impression they wanted to push Max into going hard on his fresh tyres so they could gain an advantage later on when Lewis was at his fastest. Max was lucky, I guess, that the seconds he lost by coming in on the wrong lap didn't cost him by Lewis ducking in for the stop but strategy did lose him the race in the end.
I thought it was interesting that Max in the press conference simply said "the car was not quick enough" rather than talking about strategy or tyre wear. Looking at the lap times I don't really think Lewis was much faster than Max, after the first stop Lewis caught Max quickly but that seems to have been because Max was slow rather than Lewis was fast. Rather than setting fast times after his pitstop Max set one fast lap and then slowed by as much as 1.2s before finding his pace again. Later Lewis was much faster, but he was on much fresher tyres. At most the real pace differential was a few tenths. Max's problem was that he didn't keep his tyres well, and his strategy put Lewis on much faster tyres at the end and left Max unable to defend rather than that the Mercedes was simply so much quicker.
I wonder if that was a pre-determined bluff... it seems they had planned to go 2-stop so by leaving Hamilton out it's kinda saying "We're one-stopping but want to have better tyres at the end", especially after Hamilton kept the softs alive better than Verstappen and was closing before Verstappen pitted... Then when Hamilton did pit and was lapping quickly Verstappen tried to match his pace taking yet more life out of the tyres only for Hamilton to dive into the pits, by which point it was game over... Pit and they'd be behind, stay out and, well, that happens
I actually wondered this too. Only when they did it. Did they want Hamilton behind after the first stop.. Because they had this planned all along.
If they actively did. That's genius
Yeah, hard to know for sure without being inside Mercedes, they obviously made sure they had the tyres so at some point 'early' in the weekend they knew they were at least considering it...
I agree with the latter bit, there's not a gulf in pace between the two cars, Red Bull were basically outsmarted by Mercedes. The Red Bull does appear to use its tyres harder over the course of a stint, but outright pace there's not much in it. Either Verstappen doesn't want to admit that or wants to try and move the pressure away from him/the team.
Thinking about it it'll be interesting to see the Mercedes post-race debrief video in the next few days, see if they answer that question...
Caporegime
I don't think that's really true. He did outqualify Max in Imola even if he then completely fluffed it in the race. He recovered well from his pit lane start in Bahrain, and in Portimao was about as close to the leaders as you'd expect a second driver to be. In this race he was on Max's pace in Quali until he spun it and then he seemed to lose confidence and fell back a long way in Q3. Even so his average gap to Max in quali is still at 0.339s, way better than Albon's average of 0.633s behind last season.
He's not there yet but he doesn't seem as adrift as Gasly or Albon.
I think he looks the best RB team mate since Riciardo. By all accounts the RB also isn't the easiest car to drive so maybe he needs some more races to get used to it? Whereas Max is already used to it by virtue of his time at the team now and dare i say he's probably one of those drivers that doesn't require a particular car style and can make the best of what's under him?
I think Riciardo also needs time to get used to the Mclaren but also think he should stay there long term and not do the leave after 2 years thing... (Unless its to Mercedes or Red Bull of course.
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Man of Honour
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Mercedes are well and truly in RB and Max’s heads now. Suddenly RB and Max are making more mistakes, stressing a bit more over the radio. Very different ‘body language’ vs pre season testing and Bahrain. I don’t think we’ve seen Hamilton this fired up, he’s relentless when facing a real challenge. It’s great for us, that’s for sure.
I think he has the measure of max now. Looks after his tyres better, knows that max will just lunge and knows full well he can catch and pass later on - and this was on a track where overtaking and even drs can be less effective.
Monaco should be interesting.
I think he has the measure of max now. Looks after his tyres better, knows that max will just lunge and knows full well he can catch and pass later on - and this was on a track where overtaking and even drs can be less effective.
Monaco should be interesting.
Soldato
I think you're reading too much into something that isn't there. I doubt Max gives a toss or even thinks about psychology. He's just wasn't to drive as fast as he can all the time, with minimal chatter from the team. If he gets beaten by Lewis, his assumption will be that the Mercedes is a faster car, that's about it.
Caporegime
You're probably right. I think that's his biggest weakness.
Possibly. Happy to (and want to) be proved wrong with perez. I like the guy and hate what his old team did.
Riccardo, yes he seems to have had a good one this time out.
As for alonso. Probably the one I'm least optimistic about getting back to his former glory. I really hope I'm wrong on that one. He was my favourite driver in the Renault days.
A long time ago!
Riccardo, yes he seems to have had a good one this time out.
As for alonso. Probably the one I'm least optimistic about getting back to his former glory. I really hope I'm wrong on that one. He was my favourite driver in the Renault days.
A long time ago!
Associate
Sounds about right to me, Verstappen frankly outperformed his car in Spain anyway, strategy aside, it was Lewis's race to lose.
Given how the Merc hunted him down on the medium tyre Max's analysis seemed correct. He's also a very open man, if something crosses Max's mind, it comes out.