The Monaco Grand Prix was missing a key ingredient in the form of Fernando Alonso but there’s every chance that his McLaren Honda may not have flattered his efforts here anyway so he set about participating in the Indy 500 and with just 21 laps left, his Honda-powered Indycar let him down there as well.
Not to worry, Fernando’s McLaren in Monaco was in good hands as Jenson Button returned to drive for the team but it was always going to be a difficult proposition as Jenson hasn’t driven the new cars yet and Monaco isn’t the type of track to try and learn the limits of a new car.
Ferrari were looking to capitalize on a mysteriously ill Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton who was out in Q2 during qualifying.
Sebastian Vettel took the win in Monaco leading a Ferrari 1, 2 and extending their lead in Driver’s Championship and taking the lead in the Constructor’s Championship.
Win
A win for Ferrari who finished 1, 2 at Monaco which hasn’t happened since 2001. It was a dominating performance in Monaco capitalizing on a struggling Mercedes maximizing the points through good driving and good strategy.
A win for Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who mirrored Vettel’s race as both, in clean air, put in astounding laps prior to first stop while Verstappen and Raikkonen mirrored each other and fell suceptable to the overcut.
Mercedes were a fail this weekend for me due to car issues but the two teammates, Bottas and Hamilton, put in good drives in challenging cars. Especially Bottas for hodling on to 4th and to Hamilton for a spirited drive to 7th minimizing the points damage.
A big win for Haas F1 with a doubl-points finish for the team which is the first time that’s ever happened for the sophomores in F1.
A win for Jolyon Palmer who managed to finish the race in 11th for a young man who needed it.
Fail
A fail for Mercedes who seemed befuddled with Monaco’s demands on their car. Lewis Hamilton could not get on top of his car’s inability to provide grip while his teammate fared better but was over 5s adrift of the two Ferrari’s after just 17 laps. It’s difficult to know why Hamilton’s direction on car setup on Thursday, couldn’t be reversed or couldn’t be mirrored to his teammate’s, Valtterin Bottas, by Saturday. Lewis drove hard and did the best he could to minimize the points damage to finish 7th.
A fail for Renault as Nico Hulkenberg suffered a major gearbox problem and parked his car at Portier with whisps of smoke coming from the engine space.
Sauber’s un-safe release is a mistake that perhaps set up the clash between Pascal Werhlein and McLaren’s Jenson Button. Sauber’s brake issues (if that’s what it was) for Ericsson combine to make a fail weekend for the team.
A fail for the tire compound performances in Monaco as the UltraSoft tire was just 0.5s faster than the SuperSoft compound but it lasted as long with a lack of degradation. Now, this could be viewed as a bad thing if you love the high-degradation tire concept but if not, this story is meh. These are the tires, deal with it…it’s the same for everyone.
A fail for McLaren who entered the weekend looking to score points and all was well with Vandoorne in 10th until an issue with Perez in turn 1 left him out of the race. Jenson Button also retired having punted Wehrlein at Portier.
A fail for Force India as Perez was bashing his way to the front hitting Sainz, Vandoorne and Kvyat and also struggled with a heating issue. Ocon and Perez both had punctures and it left both drivers out of the point breaking their streak of points-paying finishes.
WTH
Admittedly, I was busy doing the Double at the Indy 500 and Coca Cola 600 on Sunday so I didn’t see the full race until Monday. I did, however, see all of the accusations and tweets of a stone-faced Kimi Raikkonen and even read several race reports suggesting Ferrari screwed Raikkonen’s win and even Lewis Hamilton engage in some gamesmanship by accusing Ferrari of team orders by choosing Sebastian Vettel as the clear number one driver. I would expect Lewis to say that because Sebastian is beating him in the Driver’s Championship but while the overcut may have been the preferred strategy given the tire compound performances, It hink there is more to the story that involves covering Bottas, Verstappen and Ricciardo as well as positioning Seb for a win. Regardless of what the reality is, if I am Maurizio Arrivebene, I’d make the same call. You can’t cede a win for 25 points when Hamilton is bleeding points in the driver’s championship. Ferrari know that and Vettel’s fast laps prior to first stop prove he knew it too.
It takes a veteran pro like Jenson Button to show Felipe Massa how to get out of th way without hampering a leading car’s pace. Come on Felipe, take notes.
WTH is going on with Pascal Werhlein and tipping over on walls like RoC and now Monaco. In defense of Pascal, Portier isn’t known for its prolific passing opportunity so perhaps Button’s move was a little too opportunistic?
I’m the worst at having a particular phrase and using it so often as to grind it into the ground so I’m very sensitive to it when a broadcaster does the same thing. I counted an amazing number of uses of the term “come to grief”.
Uh…the moment of silence weirdness?
Monaco GP Result
| POS | DRIVER | CAR | LAPS | GAP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 78 | 1h44m44.340s |
| 2 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 78 | 3.145s |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 78 | 3.745s |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 78 | 5.517s |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull/Renault | 78 | 6.199s |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Renault | 78 | 12.038s |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 78 | 15.801s |
| 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas/Ferrari | 78 | 18.150s |
| 9 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 78 | 19.445s |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas/Ferrari | 78 | 21.443s |
| 11 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 78 | 22.737s |
| 12 | Esteban Ocon | Force India/Mercedes | 78 | 23.725s |
| 13 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 78 | 49.089s |
| 14 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso/Renault | 71 | Collision |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Williams/Mercedes | 71 | Brakes |
| – | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren/Honda | 66 | Spun off |
| – | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 63 | Spun off |
| – | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda | 57 | Collision |
| – | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber/Ferrari | 57 | Collision |
| – | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 15 | Gearbox |
Drivers’ Championship Points
| POS | DRIVER | POINTS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | 129 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | 104 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | 75 |
| 4 | Kimi Raikkonen | 67 |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | 52 |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | 45 |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | 34 |
| 8 | Carlos Sainz | 25 |
| 9 | Felipe Massa | 20 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon | 19 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | 14 |
| 12 | Romain Grosjean | 9 |
| 13 | Kevin Magnussen | 5 |
| 14 | Pascal Wehrlein | 4 |
| 15 | Daniil Kvyat | 4 |
| 16 | Jolyon Palmer | 0 |
| 17 | Marcus Ericsson | 0 |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | 0 |
| 19 | Fernando Alonso | 0 |
| 20 | Antonio Giovinazzi | 0 |
| 21 | Stoffel Vandoorne | 0 |
Constructors’ Championship Points
| POS | CONSTRUCTOR | POINTS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ferrari | 196 |
| 2 | Mercedes | 179 |
| 3 | Red Bull/Renault | 97 |
| 4 | Force India/Mercedes | 53 |
| 5 | Toro Rosso/Renault | 29 |
| 6 | Williams/Mercedes | 20 |
| 7 | Renault | 14 |
| 8 | Haas/Ferrari | 14 |
| 9 | Sauber/Ferrari | 4 |
| 10 | McLaren/Honda | 0 |
The VET/RAI conspiracy is very weak…RBR did the same strategy with their behind car and it worked out. There is a 0% chance RBR did that to favor RIC as VES is the golden boy there.
VET is always better on his tires, and has tried the overcut strategy in many races this year. It worked out this time for him, and he put in the fast laps to earn it.
I thought RIC was behind VER, then after the round of pits was in front of him? My wife and I are RAI fans and in our heart of hearts we knew they were going to give the win to VET. Vettel is a better driver, but I think on this track RAI had his number. In my opinion they waited to do the “right strategy” at the wrong time to put VET in front. Kimi hit massive traffic after the stop and there is no way in the world they didn’t know he’d hit that traffic.
Yep, that’s what I meant. Sorry if that wasn’t clear. RIC was behind VER, RBR put RIC on the same strategy as VET, and RIC jumped VER. There is no chance RBR did that to favor RIC (as people are suggesting Ferrari did with VET) as RBR has shown no favoritism to RIC with VER at the team.
RAI had VET’s number in qualifying (although by a very slim margin) but VET was clearly faster on the soft tires as he had a 10+ second gap at one point once he got ahead of RAI.
The Vettel.Raikkonen conspiracy was pushed by those at the well known number one LULU fan club because mostly they had no answer to the number 5 and 7 cars speed around the tight streets of Monaco. Vettel was not going to try a move on Kimi on the tight streets of Monaco. instead he opted to bide his time, conserving his tyres. when Kimi pitted (Kimi having asked his pit wall if it was time to come in, and his pit wall having then told him to come in) Vettel upped the ante and showed his true hand. the flurry… Read more »
Not really. If VET was flying, then so was RAI. VET barely came out ahead of RAI, and RAI hit a lot of traffic that VET didn’t hit. In my opinion this is, what 4 years in a row (?) that the fastest driver on the weekend hasn’t won the race. Not a big deal, it happens, but lets not pretend like VET wasn’t gifted this win a la Hamilton last year.
“but lets not pretend like Vettel wasn’t gifted this win”.
Apart from faux outrage and melodrama, re your line of “Vettel being gifted this win” what if? what exactly do you find wrong in FERRARI the team gifting Vettel the win?.
What do I find wrong with it? Really? Team orders are appalling, a scar on the sport. Think back to Schumacher days.
I get it if there are 3 races or so left in the season, this early though?
“i get it if there are 3 races or so left in the season, this early though?” AH, I see read and hear a nice colored “pappagal” parroting from the famous speculator of them all, the front man of Lulu’s number one fan club, from were the original faux outrage and melodrama originated during the race commemtary.
Me: Your house is on fire! You: Oh, you’re a fan of Lulu fan club. Me: What? Anyway, you’re house is on fire, seriously. You: Oh, you’re repeating something Lulu told you! Me: Look dude, I don’t know if someone else said the same thing, but it doesn’t really matter. YOU’RE HOUSE IS ON FIRE! I hope this makes you feel silly. You’re welcome. If not, you should study logical fallacies. Statement A is true or not true, irregardless of who I am a fan of, or what other human beings have the same opinion as me, or if I… Read more »
Apart from your theorized opinion which of course is a right of yours, according to autosports race commentary it was Kimi who asked his pit wall if it was time to come in, and it was after him asking that his pit wall brought him in, now Clayton don’t you think that when autosports race commentary said that Kimi asked his pit wall if it was time to come in they were commentating according to radio messages?. Now having said all that, or better still repeated all that, re your opinion as expressed on here (once again of which is… Read more »
What does it matter if Kimi asked if it was time to come in? The team should respond, “If we pit now we feel we’ll hit traffic”. They are the ones with the information, Kimi is asking a question. Using the F1 Access app, listening to all the radio calls, I can tell you when a driver asks to pit the answer is usually “No”. So I don’t really find it meaningful that he asked if it was time to come in. Put it this way, if Vettel weren’t in a red car they’d have made damn sure RAI came… Read more »
“regarding maximizing points, it doesn’t matter what order they finish in. 1 and 2 is the same as 2 and 1”.
Really great formula one matters wisdom.
I don’t think your allowed to say “no duh” when someone points something out, correcting your error. It’s just tacky.
OK, so you think I am not allowed to say “no duh”, which I didn’t, and you believe that you “corrected my error”, which you neither did, because according to you “it’s just tacky”.
So according to you I will now have to try and understand your formula one wisdom which says that regarding a F1 team maximizing points “1 and 2” (1st and 2nd) is the same as “2 and 1” (2nd and 1st).
Sunny, I see you’re still using crash dot net tactics you learned from Taipan.
“I can’t prove anything so I’ll just call you a fanboy or accuse you of being someone else who happens to be a fanboy. ”
Lulu?!?! Still!?! Only schoolkids call people names. It’s time for you to grow up now and stop being prime minister of Lululand.
You would have been much more appreciated, done much better contributing your learned opinion on the subject at hand on these here pages.
As opposed to accusing posters of being a member of or subscribing to the Lulu fanclub. Oh, the irony.
Are you a “LULU” fan boy? if you are I for one will appreciate discussing/trashing out subjects matter on hand on these here discussion forum with you, Some “LULU” fan boys does at least contribute to the subject being discussed and I for one not only appreciates their input but also openly assures them that openly or not being a fan boy of a team and or driver is a right of theirs, but then there are those that drop-in without contributing anything at all to the subject at hand, on the other hand not responding to such peoples “useless… Read more »
“Some “LULU” fan boys…” There you go again. Pretending to be Mr. Objective but already denigrating not only Hamilton but also his fans. But we all know you’re the biggest “Lulu” fanboy around here because all you think about is Lewis Hamilton and anything to do with said driver. For example, this is a Vettel/Kimi/Ferrari article yet you can’t help bringing up your obsession, Mr. Lewis Hamilton. Your useless babblings aside, I find this site very informative. My need not to comment means that the information is satisfactory and don’t need your “source” aka “totalsportek” to verify the validity of… Read more »
Hi Clayton, I’m not sure why people find team orders so objectionable. The cars are entered by a team, the team consists of many hundreds of people, the drivers are employees of the team, the team earns its money from the Constructors championship. How do people reach the view that the driver is entitled to anything other than the privilege of getting paid a big sack of cash for driving these phenomenal machines to the best advantage of the team? I’m not trying to pick a fight on this, I’m aware my view is the minority opinion, so I’d genuinely… Read more »
JAKO, “People who see it differently” The majority of people that reasons like this (see it differently) are those that do so because it doesn’t suites the team and or driver they support.
You are probably right Salvu, the ‘acceptability’ of team orders does vary depending on the circumstances.
Enforcing team orders too early in a season puts all the team’s hopes in the driver’s title behind just one of their drivers. Should that driver then injure himself before winning the title (think Schumacher breaking his leg in 1999), the other driver is then in a more difficult position to try and mount a championship challenge. Another aspect is the impact of imposing team orders has on the driver asked to give up the lead for his team-mate (Fernandon is faster than you) which then results in the second driver performing below par. If the drivers are on different… Read more »
Regardless of opinions expressed by us followers of the sports as well as those expressed by the teams themselves, every team on the grid will do what they believe to be the best for the team and not for individual driver. This year just inside 6 races Mercedes was the team to have kick started team orders, not once but three times. The FERRARI pit wall at Monaco didn’t need to use team orders/issue team orders to their drivers, Kimi’s pit stop was as pre planed from before the race. In fact according to radio transcripts he was the one… Read more »
Sticking to a pre planned lap for Raikkonen’s pit stop rather than taking the position of lapped traffic, is why I called Ferrari incompetent. Raikkonen wouldn’t have been overtaken had he stayed out for a few laps longer, and Vettel could have still come in after that and maintained the team 1-2. Which driver was in front would still have been in doubt, as the old ultra softs still looked better than the new super softs. Ferrari were responding to Verstappen’s stop on lap 32 and Bottas’ stop on lap 33. They should have seen that Verstappen was a second… Read more »
Calling FERRARI “incompetent?”, in my opinion FERRARI couldn’t have been more brilliant in managing to achieve the maximum points for the team (both championships) then they did, and that without having to resort to what their nearest competitor had to resort too. Now that you have dived into this (Kimi/FERRARI Monaco/pit stop) kicked-up outrage and melodrama to the extent of expressing your opinion that “FERRARI was incompetent for calling Kimi in when they did”. In my opinion, and that is only my opinion. Kimi himself presented Ferrari with or better say forced FERRARI into a God send opportunity, Kimi started… Read more »
Thanks for the response Dave. Those points are quite driver-centric. I agree that a team favouring one driver for the wdc could backfire if that driver has an injury, but the teams make lots of decisions that favour one side of the garage over the other. I.e. who gets the new parts first, who gets bumped out of FP1 for the reserve driver, who gets the ‘best’ strategist, mechanics, engineers, etc. We (fans) don’t see those decisions so don’t get excited about those team decisions. As far as demotivating a driver, surely that’s about the teams being clear about the… Read more »
I agree. We’ve heard a lot about how easy the cars are to drive. Maybe it’s just me, but honestly I could care less about the constructors championship.
I respect Mercedes a lot for how they handled their drivers the last couple years. Willing to give the second driver an alternate strategy to challenge the other driver, with one rule – don’t jeopardize the teams position.
Cheers Clayton, your view is probably the majority one. Most fans care less about the constructors than the drivers.
F1 has done a terrible job of getting fans engaged in the technology, and instead we get a narrative about the drivers. That was relevant in previous eras when the driver was the computer that extracted the performance out of the car, but since the 90’s that relationship has changed, and since then its all about the technology.
The harm comes when one driver doesn’t obey the team order, think Villeneuve/Pironi or the Multi21 fall out with Vettel and Webber. In one case it resulted in a driver’s death, in the other a weakened team as the drivers stopped working together. If the drivers are running 1 & 2, it makes no difference to the constructors championship which order they finish in, so why impose team orders? Toward the end of the year, if one driver requires the help of his team-mate to win the title, that is a different matter, but I don’t think that it is… Read more »
“the harm comes when one driver doesn’t obey the team order”.
Another one of the much recent examples:>
When Mercedes was victim of number 44 (one of its drivers) ego-show.
“British superstar hits back at suggestions he was wrong to ignore (not obey) his team orders during the Hungarian GP”.
“I AM HIRED TO RACE, NOT TO OBEY TEAM ORDERS”.
Or when Redbull was a victim of Vettel’s ego show. “Ricciardo caught Vettel in the middle of the race, after which Red Bull gave at least two messages to the world champion telling him to move over. At one point Vettel asked “which tyre is he on?” and was informed Ricciardo was on the same medium compound as him. “TOUGH LUCK,” Vettel replied.” Or when Toro Rosso was a victim of Verstappen’s ego show. “Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen — perhaps following in Red Bull teams’ alumni Sebastian Vettel’s footsteps — decided that he wasn’t going to take it, and… Read more »
At long last, that’s a marked improvement, in contributing, a good contribution to the subject at hand, well done.
Here’s another one, #SunnyLoves44.
As I said, at long last you contributed something by adding some facts (names and their doings)
That penthouse must be close to being built. Soon you will have Hamilton all for yourself.
Since you’re the president of said fan club, you should know what you are pushing. Why don’t you enlighten us since you seem to know so much about Lewis Hamilton? C’mon Sunny, don’t let your obsession go to waste. At least make your existence worthwhile.
#SunnyLoves44
OK, HERE IS SOMELIGHT TO YOU, The latest (amongst others) being pushed-out about “LULU’S diva” letting him down is no surprise and nothing new amongst the things that originates by those of his number one fan club. When his team mate/s could not get the tyres to perform, it’s his team mate/s who is/are under performing, but when it is him not managing to get his tyres to perform, it is his diva that is letting him down. Ditto, When his team orders him to let his team mate through, his team is wrong, but when his team orders his… Read more »
Aren’t you glad you got that off your chest? We know that talking about Lewis Hamilton all the time must make your life so worthwhile. Your Lewis Hamilton fan club seems to be thriving these days. Your posts about the Hamilton excuses remind me of posts by a certain one eyed Vettel fanboy named nakagoli. He pushed the same excuses when Vettel was struggling to beat Ricciardo in 2014. When Vettel struggled it was always the car and never his teammate driving better. When Vettel drove well it was all because of him while the car and his teammate were… Read more »
These same self-appointed formula one experts which are in a position to influence others/their followers are in a race between themselves to outdo each other. Two/three days ago one of them headlined his site “Pirelli favoring FERRARI”, another responded “Pirelli tailoring their tyres solely for FERRARI needs”. On the other hand someone else very gently starts tickling back into action and feeding others to push forward something from on his archives shelves about F1 fans/followers wanting/preferring a tyre war/there need be tyre competition. What these people fails to tell their followers or better say hides from their followers is/are the… Read more »
After having the most laps testing the Pirellis in a blind test, Ferrari seems like they have not learned anything with two tire failures today, while Mercedes keeps on getting faster and getting much gentler on their tires and extracting the most performance from it when it matters. Tyre usage characteristics of a car is quite easy to change, after all. So your long experience following F1 meant diddly when it comes to commenting on the technical side of the sport. It must be nice being a professional guesser and habitual prognosticator. Meanwhile, the guy who only had 50 laps… Read more »
“nakagoli?” Richard is one of the most experienced and Knowledgeable F1 follower I have had the pleasure to trash-out FI matters with, the likes of you just doesn’t even start to do undo his shoe laces when it comes to F1 matters knowledge. last time I crossed his path I literary begged him to come join and contribute on here this site.
You forgot to add …and the biggest one eyed Vettel fanboy.
You can both do my shoelaces while I explain the complexities and intricacies of the sport to you. Alas, this will never happen because all you guys talk about and are knowledgable of are the activities of a certain LULU.
“Lulu this, Lulu that”. Not very credible especially when your main source of information, word for word, comes from totalsportek dot com.
Just help Lewis build that penthouse in your head. You are much more useful that way.
As useless a contribution to this site/discussion as a oneeyedLULUfanboy can produce.
And you did it one post. Bravo!
So the driver’s ego’s are the problem with team orders. Surely that’s something that teams in sport or work manage all the time. In F1 some teams seem to manage it incredibly badly – RBR – Vettel/Webber, Mercedes – Hamilton/Rosberg, Mclaren – Hamilton/Alonso, Williams – Senna/Prost, in fact Senna/any of his team mates. The reason teams impose team orders early in the season? I think thats down to the WDC. I might not particularly care who wins it, but there is a lot of prestige to it and the teams want both WCC and WDC, so will try to make… Read more »
“If the drivers are running 1-2 it makes no difference to the CWC. correct there, but you sounds like only the CWC belongs and is important to the team and not the DWC.
What sort of reasoning is that, is it because number 44 would have had seven (7) less points to recover after Monaco?.
Great race review… thought to be honest, I think you make it sound more exciting than in actually was. Monaco is never going to raise the pulse on the racing alone… but this year, im not sure it even sure it managed to keep me awake.
To be honest… I think i would have preferred to see the whole grid go round in souped-up go carts. When the biggest Adrenalin pump or the race is “Has BJ just KO’ed Wehrlein”… I think we have a problem the no amount of fancy yachts and designer labels can fix.
100%. Well said.
I really enjoy watching those cars shoot through the narrow, historic streets of Monaco. I could watch that all day. We know there will be very few genuine passes, if any. But that heightens the pit tactics chess match. It also means the drivers have no room for error, as there is no chance to make up for a mistake – like Perez, who put in fastest laps after his late pit, but to no avail. Great stuff. There was more passing in the F2 race, as some of those young drivers left open opportunities in some corners. That was… Read more »
If Hamilton thinks Ferrari are favouring Vettel because he stopped later than Raikkonen, what does it say about Mercedes? Hamilton stopped much later than Bottas, Bottas stopped on lap 33, Raikkonen on lap 34, Vettel on lap 39 and Hamilton on lap 46.
Raikkonen lost some time before his stop lapping Button and Wehrlein, and after his stop had to pass them again. Vettel only needed to pass them once, before his stop. The extra time Raikkonen spent lapping traffic while Vettel was in clear air was enough to make the difference.
On three occasions this year Bottas has been asked/ordered to move aside for 44, and still he came out saying he doesn’t consider himself as number 1 and that FERRARI are favoring Vettel?. Apart from him and the usual lot pushing their FERRARI caused acute diarrhoea forward there is no evidence that FERRARI deliberately hampered Kimi progress, Kimi was just not fast enough when it mattered, punto-a-basta. Number 44 problem is his long standing foot in mouth infection which his ex-Godfather gave-up trying to cure him off when number 44 back then told him to “go swivel”. This particular infection… Read more »
Salvu, for once we can agree. Vettel was the faster driver on the day and he was being held up by Kimi. As much as I am a Kimi fan (I am also a Vettel fan) Vettel put the fast laps in at the right time and won the race fair and square. Hell I will even say that this year Ferrari have to pick a number one to make sure they win the title. If that is the case sorry Kimi you are just not consistent enough….. Vettel is the best bet. I also agree Hamilton is being favoured… Read more »
I have and never had a problem with any team favoring one driver over the other, as I said elsewhere, a team will always do what they believe is best for the team. As to Vettel having been faster than Kimi, (faster laps at the right time), when Kimi stopped, Vettel cleared Ericsson and over the next five laps pushed hard, the first three laps were faster then Kimi had been doing/managing, lap 34 = 76.5s, lap 35 = 76.4s, lap 36 = 76.2s, and then the astonishing lap 37 = 75.5s and lap 38 = 75.2s. these were 2… Read more »
Good thoughts and, with respect, I disagree with a lot of it. 1) I’m sorry to the whole ‘we need more historic races and fewer tilke tracks in car parks’ set but I’ll watch a real race on the moon before I watch this dumb dumb race ever again. a few of us took our 750cc road race bikes to where a buddy worked at an indoor kiddy go cart track one winter, and tried to race them around inside and once we ran trials bikes inside the house up the stairs and stuff. That’s what this ‘race’ is like.… Read more »
That was a major fail from Mercedes this weekend. The fact they couldn’t set their car up for the circuit is quite bizarre, they’ve got more technical resources than anyone else. It seems that the idea that this years Merc has a very narrow ‘window of performance’ may have some truth. They also lost out in the strategy calls, with Bottas losing third to Ricciardo’s RBR, in trying to defend against Verstappen – oops! And it is just phenomenal for the two Haas cars to score points, in FP and Quali the car looked to be a snappy scary beast.… Read more »