F1 fans?

[lefthack]

Wow, Lewis Hamilton first to win past 300 GP's, first to win 9 races at one venue. If George hadn't DNF'ed it wouldn't have happened. 

 

Max damn near caught him. I enjoyed that race, so great action and Hass running strong.

[jpdx]

Max fans are insufferable. Give LH his due. Wouldve loved to see more of a fight for second the pass was too easy for Max. Amazing race to watch. 

[grm24]

1 hour ago, jpdx said:

Max fans are insufferable.

x100.

[mshills]

2 hours ago, grm24 said:

x100.

x1,000

 

Love Lewis 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
 

I’m not into the GOAT rankings, but what a privilege to have seen Lewis, Vettel, Prost, Kimi, Alonso, Berger, Schumacher, and Senna all in my lifetime. 

[rukahs]

How Max got so close on hard tyres is crazy.

 

So happy for LH44. I was there for his first win, and what hopefully isn't his last - it was great to watch and on home soil to. Love it.

[dcmidnight]

What an absolute banger of a race - it just had *everything*. Weather changing every ten laps. Bad pit calls. Everything in the top 6 having a run, More weather - more bad pit calls. Just an out of hand race.

 

I dont know if Silverstone is that good a track or it just got lucky. But we could - and probably will - go the rest of the season without a race as entertaining as that one.

Edited July 8, 2024 by dcmidnight

[mshills]

Silverstone and Spa almost always deliver the best races IMO, with Montreal in the discussion too. 

[jpdx]

8 hours ago, rukahs said:

How Max got so close on hard tyres is crazy.

 

So happy for LH44. I was there for his first win, and what hopefully isn't his last - it was great to watch and on home soil to. Love it.

No denying that Max has skills. Great driver. Hope to see more action in the coming races. 

[lefthack]

1 minute ago, jpdx said:

No denying that Max has skills. Great driver. Hope to see more action in the coming races. 

 

If Ferrari can pull their heads out, it will be a legit 4 way fight and that's why Red Bull is looking to dump Checo. Max is all by himself. 🫣

[MB19]

8 hours ago, rukahs said:

How Max got so close on hard tyres is crazy.

 

So happy for LH44. I was there for his first win, and what hopefully isn't his last - it was great to watch and on home soil to. Love it.

When they put on hard, my son and I couldn’t believe it.  What were they thi… oh.  Ohhhhh….  RBR kept an ace up its sleeve, as those hard tires were a great call.

Edited July 8, 2024 by MB19

[lefthack]

5 minutes ago, MB19 said:

When they put on hard, my son and I couldn’t believe it.  What were they thi… oh.  Ohhhhh….  RBR kept an ace up its sleeve, as those hard tires were a great call.

 

RB still has the best strategy team. Homegirl knows what she's doing. Max jacked up his floor, so he lost some performance with his detour, too. 

 

6 different winners in 6 races, that's awesome. 

[MB19]

41 minutes ago, lefthack said:

 

If Ferrari can pull their heads out, it will be a legit 4 way fight and that's why Red Bull is looking to dump Checo. Max is all by himself. 🫣

It looks like Checo will trigger the performance clauses in his contract that will give RBR the option to sack him and nullify his extension.   Will Horner exercise that clause?  Who gets the RBR seat, and who gets the ‘25 junior team seat?

 

Lots of speculation RIC gets his RBR return, and Lawson goes into RIC’s vacated seat.  TSU no considered in major part because of Honda’s switch to Aston Martin in ‘26.  
 

I don’t necessarily care who gets Checo’s seat, but is it possible that Sainz is waiting so long to sign with a team because he wanted to see what happens with Checo’s performance clause?  Without question, he’s the best available driver on the grid and is arguably a top 5 driver right now.  Is Sainz Sr. the X-factor making this happen?  He seems to be one of the few people in the planet Marko respects.

[lefthack]

I would LOVE to see Carlos Jr in the Red Bull. He would give Max a legit fight and all his teammates love him because he's just a good guy. Max would have to fight clean because nobody wants to look bad against him. 

 

I don't see Danny Ricc moving up, he's barely good enough to be in the VCarb. 

[MB19]

3 minutes ago, lefthack said:

 

RB still has the best strategy team. Homegirl knows what she's doing. Max jacked up his floor, so he lost some performance with his detour, too. 

 

6 different winners in 6 races, that's awesome. 

No doubt—Ferrari needs to poach her 😂.

 

Max getting a podium this race didn’t seem likely after he started losing big chunks of time, but they found a way.

 

RUS has to still be furious about having to retire from 2nd.  It was Lando’s turn to be sabotaged his team on Suday, as keeping him out an extra lap seemed like an obvious strategy error in real time.

 

This British GP had shades of the ‘18 USGP for me, as a RAI fan.  HAM getting one last win was a nice send off to Ferrari, and I’m sure was something all his fans will cherish.

[lefthack]

1 minute ago, MB19 said:

No doubt—Ferrari needs to poach her 😂.

 

Max getting a podium this race didn’t seem likely after he started losing big chunks of time, but they found a way.

 

RUS has to still be furious about having to retire from 2nd.  It was Lando’s turn to be sabotaged his team on Suday, as keeping him out an extra lap seemed like an obvious strategy error in real time.

 

This British GP had shades of the ‘18 USGP for me, as a RAI fan.  HAM getting one last win was a nice send off to Ferrari, and I’m sure was something all his fans will cherish.

 

I think the biggest blunder was McLaren putting on softs when they had new mediums for Lando. There were too many laps for the softs. 

[dcmidnight]

8 minutes ago, lefthack said:

 

I think the biggest blunder was McLaren putting on softs when they had new mediums for Lando. There were too many laps for the softs. 

 

I dont know, I dont think the tires were necessarily the problem, I mean LH pitted a lap earlier and took the softs?

 

Their real issues were 1 - a bad stop and 2 - not really having a decisive strategy. They were literally talking to Lando almost until he pitted about what he wanted to do.

[MB19]

2 minutes ago, lefthack said:

I would LOVE to see Carlos Jr in the Red Bull. He would give Max a legit fight and all his teammates love him because he's just a good guy. Max would have to fight clean because nobody wants to look bad against him. 

 

I don't see Danny Ricc moving up, he's barely good enough to be in the VCarb. 

Carlos and Max have both grown up a lot since they were fighting as teammates, so it seems like a great opportunity for Horner to put the two together again in what would be the strongest pair on the grid.  That said, it seems too good to be true—we’ll see if racing politics get in the way.

 

RIC hasn’t done much to deserve Checo’s seat, but I don’t think they want to put LAW into that seat straightaway… Gasly and Albion may have ruined that opportunity for him.  Had HUL not signed with Audi, I would say watch out for him as a contender for the seat—he and Max are tight, and Nico is in very good form right now.

 

Back to RIC, he’s been inconsistent this year—but he’s not making dumb mistakes and causing millions in damage, either.  With his driving style being somewhat similar to Max in that he prefers his car set up for oversteer so he make his late-braking passes, it may be fair to say he could hop in that car and do as well as anyone not named Sainz who is out of contract.  The X-factor is his friendship with Max and Horner.

 

Aside from all that, if Vettel calls up Marko and tells him he’s ready to commit two years to RBR, who says no?

[MB19]

11 minutes ago, lefthack said:

 

I think the biggest blunder was McLaren putting on softs when they had new mediums for Lando. There were too many laps for the softs. 

Both blunders were definitely too much to overcome.

[lefthack]

8 minutes ago, dcmidnight said:

 

I dont know, I dont think the tires were necessarily the problem, I mean LH pitted a lap earlier and took the softs?

 

Their real issues were 1 - a bad stop and 2 - not really having a decisive strategy. They were literally talking to Lando almost until he pitted about what he wanted to do.

 

I think Hamilton was on new softs and Lando had used, but I could be wrong. I know the mediums they had were new. 

[lefthack]

Let this sink in for a minute.

 

 

[LBB]

4 hours ago, lefthack said:

 

I think Hamilton was on new softs and Lando had used, but I could be wrong. I know the mediums they had were new. 

I heard the broadcasters say that he had new softs and mediums, but when the tires went on, it was clear there was no shine on them and appeared to be used.  

 

I'm not a F1 technical expert, but I think the other difference was Hamilton's ability and experience to manage the soft tires into their proper working window so they would last till the end.  Not sure if Norris over reacted emotionally to losing P1 due to his poor pit stop, then burned up his soft tires as a result.  Hamilton has a bit more cushion to be gentle on his tires given he already has track position and clean air in front of him.

 

Agree overall though that at a certain point, the pit wall strategist has to make a call given all the information they have the direct competition.  You can't expect Norris to make a call when he doesn't have all the information on Max's tires all while he's trying to drive on a tire that is already one lap past it's optimal usage range.  Some of that has to come down to Norris too, to let his pit wall know he has full trust in their decision before the race starts and to go over as many of these scenarios as possible.  There's a certain point where the driver needs to provide input, and there's also a certain point where the pit wall makes a decision based on information the driver does not have.

[LBB]

On 6/24/2024 at 10:35 AM, lefthack said:

 

Yeah, when they told Max to step on it, he kept the gap pretty consistent, but his tires were falling off towards the end. 

 

McLaren knows it's down to details now. Tires, strategy, and lap times. 

 

Details definitely fumbled at Silverstone

[LBB]

5 hours ago, MB19 said:

When they put on hard, my son and I couldn’t believe it.  What were they thi… oh.  Ohhhhh….  RBR kept an ace up its sleeve, as those hard tires were a great call.

I couldn't believe it either.  But I think the good thing for Max was he came out without anyone right behind him (if I remember correctly)...allowing him to get his hard tires up to temperature...then bang out aggressive lap times.  Would have been interesting if Max comes out with Piastri on his gear box on Mediums, and he has to spend time/effort defending while his tires come into the working window.

 

Lots of things went in Max's favor yesterday.  Kudos for his team to be on top of things to take advantage of the breaks that presented themselves.

[LBB]

The more I think about it, the more I can give McLaren the benefit of the doubt on the call to softs.  Norris was losing time on the in lap, but there was no way to tell how much time he was going to lose with worn inters on a quickly drying track.  He also botched stopping the car, which lead to a 4.5 second stop time in the pit, and thus came out 2 seconds behind Hamilton. 

 

If McLaren and Lando are jointly making the decision to go to softs because they think they will come out of the pits just ahead of Hamilton and will have to defend on cold tires...the softs might be the right call to give him the best chance to defend when he is most vulnerable.  Then you're almost on equal playing field with 1 lap old softs for Hamilton vs what I presume are softs only used for 1 hot lap for Norris.  Then they both have to manage their tires to the end with Hamilton having to manage more while driving in Lando's dirty air.

 

If McLaren absolutely knows Norris is going to leave the pits behind Hamilton, I think the call for used softs over new mediums becomes a bit harder to justify.  I think it's also too much Monday morning quarterback to know exactly how quick Max would have been on new hard tires for a 14 lap stint.  The sun came out shining out of nowhere...if the rain stops but the sun stays behind the clouds keeping the track a bit cooler...the hard tires don't work nearly as well.

[MB19]

50 minutes ago, LBB said:

The more I think about it, the more I can give McLaren the benefit of the doubt on the call to softs.  Norris was losing time on the in lap, but there was no way to tell how much time he was going to lose with worn inters on a quickly drying track.  He also botched stopping the car, which lead to a 4.5 second stop time in the pit, and thus came out 2 seconds behind Hamilton. 

 

If McLaren and Lando are jointly making the decision to go to softs because they think they will come out of the pits just ahead of Hamilton and will have to defend on cold tires...the softs might be the right call to give him the best chance to defend when he is most vulnerable.  Then you're almost on equal playing field with 1 lap old softs for Hamilton vs what I presume are softs only used for 1 hot lap for Norris.  Then they both have to manage their tires to the end with Hamilton having to manage more while driving in Lando's dirty air.

 

If McLaren absolutely knows Norris is going to leave the pits behind Hamilton, I think the call for used softs over new mediums becomes a bit harder to justify.  I think it's also too much Monday morning quarterback to know exactly how quick Max would have been on new hard tires for a 14 lap stint.  The sun came out shining out of nowhere...if the rain stops but the sun stays behind the clouds keeping the track a bit cooler...the hard tires don't work nearly as well.

Didn't the female analyst (name escapes me, she's new this year) say they would lose x-amount of time on inters vs slicks once the track had a dry line?  I swear she said up to 10 seconds, though I wouldn't swear to it.

 

Ham noted the sun was out before his team said anything (or the announcing team), so as good as he is at judging compounds/grip in mixed conditions I got the feeling he felt pretty good about it.

[jpdx]

1 hour ago, LBB said:

The more I think about it, the more I can give McLaren the benefit of the doubt on the call to softs.  Norris was losing time on the in lap, but there was no way to tell how much time he was going to lose with worn inters on a quickly drying track.  He also botched stopping the car, which lead to a 4.5 second stop time in the pit, and thus came out 2 seconds behind Hamilton. 

 

If McLaren and Lando are jointly making the decision to go to softs because they think they will come out of the pits just ahead of Hamilton and will have to defend on cold tires...the softs might be the right call to give him the best chance to defend when he is most vulnerable.  Then you're almost on equal playing field with 1 lap old softs for Hamilton vs what I presume are softs only used for 1 hot lap for Norris.  Then they both have to manage their tires to the end with Hamilton having to manage more while driving in Lando's dirty air.

 

If McLaren absolutely knows Norris is going to leave the pits behind Hamilton, I think the call for used softs over new mediums becomes a bit harder to justify.  I think it's also too much Monday morning quarterback to know exactly how quick Max would have been on new hard tires for a 14 lap stint.  The sun came out shining out of nowhere...if the rain stops but the sun stays behind the clouds keeping the track a bit cooler...the hard tires don't work nearly as well.

I think the call on the softs versus medium came down to the radio message: soft to cover people like Hamilton, medium to cover people like Verstappen. 
 

I think you’re absolutely spot on.

[LBB]

54 minutes ago, MB19 said:

Didn't the female analyst (name escapes me, she's new this year) say they would lose x-amount of time on inters vs slicks once the track had a dry line?  I swear she said up to 10 seconds, though I wouldn't swear to it.

 

Ham noted the sun was out before his team said anything (or the announcing team), so as good as he is at judging compounds/grip in mixed conditions I got the feeling he felt pretty good about it.

Yeah...given the inters were already ~20 laps old, they mentioned the gap to slicks would be significant once the crossover period occurred.  But I think the context of 10 seconds would be once the entire track had a dry line.  Obviously there are portions of the track that dry faster than others depending on where the sun peaks out from the clouds first, so it becomes even harder to guestimate the true delta on any given lap.

 

I heard the Hamilton radio call on the sun, but it I do wonder if the Mercedes pit wall were going to gamble either way and do the opposite of Lando on that decisive lap where everyone else ended up boxing (but Mercedes could not have known everyone else would box).  If Lando stays out, box...if Lando comes in, stay out.  Mercedes will probably never admit it if it were true...rather just take the glory of saying your strategist absolutely knew it was the right time to pit.  I can see a situation where the pit wall and Hamilton didn't feel they had enough pace to pass Lando on track and needed to create a pit stop and tire difference between the two cars.  If it's the wrong call and they end up finishing 3rd...what's really the difference for Hamilton's last race at Silverstone in a Merc?  Just throw the softs on and hammer time the out lap for the undercut.  If Lando boxes, stay out and hope he came in a lap too early.

 

Again, I don't know if that's true or not...but essentially it's the same gamble Sainz took by also staying out the same lap Lando did.  He was 11 seconds behind Max for a podium spot when Hamilton and Max boxed.  He wasn't going to catch them by taking the same strategy, so he stayed out hoping they went to slicks too early.  Sainz ended up losing a place to Piastri by boxing one lap too late, but the risk of finishing 5th for the chance to potentially finish 3rd on the podium is worth it if you ask me.

 

 

 

[rukahs]

Wow.....

 

 

 

 

[LeftDot]

So they replaced everything at FP1, and still had to retire him prior to the GP because of a mechanical issue??

[iBanesto]

17 hours ago, lefthack said:

Let this sink in for a minute.

 

 

 

It is interesting how close in points Perez and Hulkenberg (232 v 218) were at Force India.

 

But Perez was able to get 4 podiums.

 

Edited July 9, 2024 by iBanesto