lol at merc winning 3 races and McLaren only managing to win 2 up to now.
Season OVER
lol at merc winning 3 races and McLaren only managing to win 2 up to now.
Season OVER
Trust Ferrari to make the wrong call.
Based on that, Piastri would have won if he stayed out. He was miles clear of Russell when he pitted
I'm not sure Piastri has it in him to manage tyres in the same way just yet to be honest.
Many would have won if they stayed out, but only he/Mercedes made the call. Legend.
He did put the fastest lap of the race in just before pitting. He definitely had life in his tyres.Originally Posted by Adramelch
Can’t ever trust two things in life - McLaren to make the correct call and Norris to go forwards in a race start
Not sure we can blame McLaren for choosing the wrong strategy for Piastri here. Obviously everyone thought 2-stops where the way to go.
Not the same thing as managing pace on 30-lap old tires though. We'll never know of course.
Hamilton dont sound happy at all
He is seething. He thought he had the win in the bag and his teammate stole it from him. Understandable.
He should have had the race in the bag to be fair. Couldn’t have panned out better for him
Can’t believe even Spa is now difficult to take over on.
Oh dear. That will be gutting for George, was a great drive otherwise.
Oh shit.
Hamilton's mood is about to get a lot better.
That sucks.
Well, would make sense why he managed it. Mercedes back at it again cheating after Hamilton got DQd last year.
Hammer time.
Officially disqualified now, poor bastard.
Get in there Lewis.
The riot if Verstappen doesn't win in Zandvoort.
Just caught up on the race.
That is harsh on Russell.
Was out taking the kids to a birthday party today so missed the race and managed to avoid spoilers all day. Not long got done and was midway through typing how good of a race that was for Mercedes in general. Then I went to Sky to check how England had done today(Mark Wood masterclass) and saw the news.
It'll be weird at Mercedes. No one will be overly happy. Lewis may point to the extra fuel he was carrying being about the difference keeping Russell ahead, but he'll have wanted that done on-track. Jo Bauer taking no prisoners. I'll have to watch Teds Notebook to see, but it sounded like Merc tried to leave some fuel in the car to get it to pass. Naughty of them if true.
It's all gone a bit Brawn 2009 for Red Bull this year. The car was that good, but now seemingly just isn't. Not even with Max. A look at it compared to Bahrain seems to see they've got an almost B-spec car in comparison. Maybe this is the lack of Newey effect coming into play? Norris and McLaren are probably kicking themselves they're not right in a title fight here, with some of their recent failings.
Norris especially should be fitted to a start simulator and kept on it all day but for sleep breaks.
The race itself was just okay. This one for Jims theory that the threat of the overtake is what people want. Just seemed to be that once you got into the dirty air of the car in front you could not pass. Those pesky engineers huh.
I suspect it's curtains for Perez now. To start 9 places ahead of your team mate, be on the same strategy, suffer no issues in-race and have him finish 3 places ahead of you is quite telling. That's not even taking into account all of his other shortcomings for well over a year now.
For me, Red Bull are the victim of their own success. They (Newey) developed a particular concept for these new regulations and they pretty much maximised it. Other teams have managed to find other gains in the regulations because of their extra development time and desperation to get somewhere near Red Bull. For Red Bull to kick on further, they'll have to delve into these other concepts that other teams already have but they can't, because as Constructor champions they've got the least wind tunnel time and, more importantly, Perez seemingly took up all their extra budget from crashing all the time.
It's more top to bottom than that, I reckon. Their previously daft pitstops are now being trumped by Mercedes and McLaren. The management squabbling hasn't gone away, either. If anything, a loss in the constructors would be an ideal reason to get rid of Horner.
Merc have never done a fast pitstop in their life (relative to others)
Sainz to Williams. Done.
Perez staying, as I told you he would. These guys just don't take risks ever.
They chopped out Kvyat, Albon and Gasly when required. Given how bad Perez form is, i thought they would have swapped him and Ricci
They just don't have good alternatives to be honest. Ricciardo and Tsunoda won't really improve the situation much and Lawson is still an unknown for the most part. I reckon if they had access to an Albon they might have gone for it.
I reckon they'd go for Lawson if the constructors wasn't in the balance.
This is it. Lawson will take a little bit of time to get up to speed to a front running car. Perez can drag pace out of the car but his morale seems to have been utterly crushed by Max.
Danny Ric just isn't getting in that Red Bull seat and I expect the announcement of Lawson to VCARB to replace him in 2025 will be done shortly. The penny has yet to drop for Tsunoda that he isn't getting in there either.
That leaves the only real options outside the team. Sainz would have done well there, but Carlos Sr and Jos hate each other for a start and supposedly there is a little bit of needle between the two kids.
Albon is obviously now otherwise engaged and there isn't really another available driver on the grid who is good enough to warrant paying Perez out of his contract for.
Williams getting Vowles in to fix everything and then getting a lineup of Albon and Sainz is a big win for them. Red Bull are a little mudded if Lawson isn't it.
If Williams take another step forward over the winter and can become regular Q3 contenders, Sainz and Albon will rinse everything that car has. Going to be an exciting season for them next year.
Clearly a decision entirely with the Constructors in mind. Even just back at Austria, Red Bull's lead was basically unassailable and now it's really looking like McLaren will gub them if current form continues. None of the available replacements (Tsunoda, Lawson, Ricciardo) are top level so asking them to jump in an unknown car to them and immediately start getting big chunks of points is a steep ask; hoping Perez pulls himself around in the summer break is still their best option.
If Verstappen was still winning every week in the dominant car then I've no doubt Perez would be out on his arse this morning.
I'd probably take Tsunoda for a season and see how badly he did.
I'm here for it.
Wheatley leaving Red Bull for the new Audi team. Horner going nowhere after surviving the Verstappen coup. Maybe Max will actually leave in 2026 if the brain drain at Red Bull continues.
Full time sim racer so I don't have to see the cunt again please.
Red Bull, Max's brilliance notwithstanding, seem to be the third quickest car here, and probably in general. Surely Newey wasn't THAT influential?
If you look at the car compared to the Bahrain version, it is almost a completely different package. He's effectively been gardening since a race or two in, so I'd say he probably is.
I'd love for him to turn up at an Aston to really see if he can drag them up there.
Merc about to go on a mid 2010s run of wins to end the season.
If he makes Aston into a race winning car then he's basically completed the sport. The longevity is ludicrous. He was chucking Mauricio Gugelmin up the grid fully 35 years ago.
I could see this happening. They've really caught up.
Supposedly it’s all about this brake bias contraption they had on the car and they’ve been made to remove. Means it’s not as good on its tyres or in the corners and that’s why they are nowhere near where they were.
Fernando Alonso 2025 world champion is as good as it could get, except for Lance Stroll 2025 world champion. Make it happen Newey.
A title challenging Aston would be problematic, those who remember Lances only title win so far know why.
A Stroll world championship would be the mother load. All the strulovich cunts here would have the pearls ground to dust.
A fine thing that there's a 0.0000000000000000001% chance of it happening then.
The window licking twat's only hope is if Daddy breaks out his cheque book to bribe the right people.
Yeah, been looking good. Especially in the races at times they look rapid. Interesting to see how this weekend plays out
Some consideration for getting Logi Bear out of that car before he racks up even more costs should be made here.
Love the obsession with trying to cover the wreck as it's returned to the garage.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote