Well, Spa 1998 had Michael drive back into pits on 3 wheels for almost two thirds of a lap. Not only a lost tyre, but the whole wheel, including suspension, and front wing were gone.
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2020 Formula 1 Season Thread
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pfft
none of that blather above matters a single iota he won on 3 tires.
none of that blather above matters a single iota he won on 3 tires.
Lewis did indeed manage to lead every lap. So that’s yet another record on the list where he leads alone. He should overtake for total wins and podiums this season too. Hopefully equal the number of championships. Assuming he does stick around for another 2-3 years his records will be very hard to beat
I really was simply going by Max's post race interview. He stated "He was a little concerned about tires, but was managing them, then they brought me in to try for the bonus point for fastest lap." Max didn't request the stop. However, he was a good team player in the interview, and anytime you finish in front of the Mercedes it's a good day. I got the impression he would have been fine staying out. One Drivers Point isn't going to help anyone with Lewis in 2020.
I totally understand the replies that " any teem would do it." "it's standard strategy." Etc.......
I just didn't feel that in his voice in post interview. I heard a Lead Driver being supportive of his team.
I agree as it will be the same circuit with forecast temperatures even higher. However, after that I think Toto will let them push.
I'm very interested to see if Pirelli can step up by next week with a better tire. A big challenge for them as well.
They are supposed to be bringing softer tyres next week. I think everyone will be going 2 stops.
There is online chatter about that being revised to either not switch to softer tyres or to provide more tyres to every team (otherwise they won’t run much in practice to conserve the tyres for qualifying and race sessions). Either is hard to achieve: the tyres are hand made and have quite a lead time. If the tyres for a race later in the season are already manufactured they could, perhaps, provide some extra sets and manufacture replacements in time
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It’s got to be dull having such a dominant car and I’ve always said this. Even as a Hamilton fan I would much rather be excited watching him race hard for wins rather than breezing to the finish and trying to make it sound like it was harder than it was.
These drivers all want world championships and to leave the sport with an amazing legacy. However they are racers who are hungry to race and no driver wants to be effectively racing in something like a Tourist Trophy when the aim is to battle wheel to wheel.
Agreed and it isn't his fault. Ferrari and the others need to step up their games.
That said, maybe the FIA will make him finish the rest of the races on 3 tires ... ?
We don't expect him to be forwarding or liking conspiracy theories particularly when its medical related. That is a step too far.
The real problem was that they went onto the hard tyres much earlier than planned because of the red flag incident. Everyone pitted and probably would not have done so for another ten laps or so in which case the tyres would never have been a problem.
I am pretty sure that the time chosen to pit Verstppen did not allow Lewis an opportunity to pit. The only option Mercedes had was to pit both of their drivers on lap 48 or 49. Verstappen was far enough behind that it would not have mattered. They could not pit one without the other as that would have been contentious.
Verstappen came out of the pits on lap 51, 34.5 seconds behind Lewis. More than enough time for a stop on the last lap.
How are they supposed to step up their games? You know about the token system, right? Development is so limited in F1 these days, Mercedes would be coasting to titles on their PU advantage for another century if it wasn't for the rule changes in 2022.
Whose fault is that? Well, Toto Wolff is one heck of a slimy politician, and he's been great at protecting Mercedes technical advantages. A masterclass in politics that completely destroyed any kind of competition in this dying series. Oh, and he has and probably always will settle for a mediocre B driver behind Ham in the future, it's not like he'd promote some internal competition after the heated rivalry with Rosberg cost them a couple of wins.
Anyone else think it’s time Haas sack Grosjean and Gunther? Romain got shown the black and white flag during the British GP for his dangerous weaving and I agree with Webber, he’s just not good enough for formula one. So many good drivers lose their seats and this guy astonishingly manages to keep his for a decade plus! Hulkenburg for one is much more deserving of that seat. Gunther on the other hand is just a PR disaster.
It’s one thing being a good politician but Mercedes do have the expertise in engineering to create the advantages. Ferrari spent decades having the most political power in F1 and have massively underachieved in the last 40 years apart from 6 or 7 seasons. Ferrari had privileges no other team had and a close relationship with the FIA that pre dates Bernies involvement with FOCA. Their poor reshuffling in recent years have put them where they are now, not Toto Wolf.
No. I think it was a mistake to ever give Grosjean a drive. He must have a lot of sponsors.
Can we blame Piquet Jr for this one too? If he hadn’t crashed at Singapore 2008, Romain wouldn’t have gotten that first drive with Renault. He’s continued to unimpress ever since!
I know right? But when other better drivers have found themselves without a seat, you’d think Hass could do better.
Grosjean had two decent years with Lotus '12 & '13 winning several podiums in that two year span.
So he showed a little promise early on. Of course in that time span Kimi won 2 races with them and had a total of 15 podium finishes.
But I'd be glad to see him move to rally cars.
So he showed a little promise early on. Of course in that time span Kimi won 2 races with them and had a total of 15 podium finishes.
But I'd be glad to see him move to rally cars.
You'd think they would play on being the on US team and get a couple of promising young US drivers to drive for them.
I didn't compare them to Ferrari and which team achieved more when they had the political power, but you're certainly not wrong. And sure their Engineering is outstanding, but being one lap faster than everyone else is embarrassing for the sport, it makes all other teams look like idiots even though they also have incredible engineers. Fact is there's no way to catch up to Mercedes under these rules, and that's for political reasons, not a lack of expertise in engineering.
It’s a difficult one though as how do you stop one team developing a better car than everybody else within the rules? As someone else said it’s really the other teams problem that they went the wrong direction during development. I know in the past teams have been allowed to develop to catch up but then that introduces huge spending and penalises the smaller teams anyway. We’d end up with a Williams/McLaren era of the early 90’s again where massive budgets end up giving dominance in a different way.