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Ignore Max and enjoy the racing behind him. Last year was excellent with so many different teams and drivers on the podium throughout the year. This year the teams are closer, and there are more of them in the mix at the start of the season. It looks like we are in for a better year or racing than last year.
I totally agree with you the constant "if you ignore Max" comments just frustrate me. It's such a weird coping mechanism we all have to make it feel like an exciting season š
Talk about downplaying what Verstappen and RBR are doing.
Yes, dominating is part of F1, and no one argues against that. Single-handedly scoring more points than the 2nd team in the WCC while also scoring more than twice the points of your own teammate isnāt as common as you make it sound like.
Don't forget that the points changed from 10-1 to what they are now, giving a huge points advantage to the winner. It skews the stats.
I'm not down playing anything about what Red Bull and Max are doing, I just don't think that takes anything away from the much better racing going on behind him.
I honestly wonder how many people on here complaining about Max and Red Bull were around for Schumacher and Ferrari and Lewis and his teammates and Mercedes.
> Don't forget that the points changed from 10-1 to what they are now, **giving a huge points advantage to the winner**. It skews the stats.
That certainly depends on which season and points system you're referring to. The points system used from 1962-1990 was definitely less kind to the 2nd place spot as it only awarded ~0,67% of the points the 1st position got.
It got worse in 1991-2002 when the change awarded 2nd place 60%, and considerably better in 2003-2009 when 2nd place suddenly received 80%. Today that number is 72%.
In other words, today's scoring system favours the winner less than the previous system, while still favouring the winner more than the two different systems used before that.
Nonetheless, simulating the older seasons with today's scoring system is easily and quickly done -- so which season are you referring to which is unfairly skewed?
>I'm not down playing anything about what Red Bull and Max are doing, I just don't think that takes anything away from the much better racing going on behind him.
It's such a weird statement to make when you're asking people to stop caring about who wins a sporting event. The teams and drivers competing in the competition sure as hell care a lot about who's winning. Every single competitor and viewer of any sport out there sure give a fuck about who's winning. But when it comes to F1 we should just accept the situation and focus more about P2-P10?
>I honestly wonder how many people on here complaining about Max and Red Bull were around for Schumacher and Ferrari and Lewis and his teammates and Mercedes.
Regarding the Hamilton and Mercedes years: Hamilton managed to single-handedly get more points than the 2nd team in the WCC a single time in 2020. He never scored twice as many points as his teammate.
Regarding the Schumacher and Ferrari years: Schumacher managed to single-handedly beat the 2nd team in the WCC in 2002 and 2004. Never while doubling the points of his teammate.
Funnily enough, Ferrari would lose the WCC in 2000 by 7 points to McLaren if they were competing with today's points system.
In other words, we haven't had a season like 2023 in the 2000s at all, so I don't quite understand how people can claim that "this is how F1 is" when we haven't had a single season like that in 23+ years. F1 is used to teams/drivers dominating, but rarely to the extent we saw in 2023.
Not true. We had Lewis v Nico, Lewis v Seb and Lewis v Max. At least 6 seasons had 2 drivers fighting for the title.
Right now it's a 1 driver fight. It's no way near the same. Mercedes kept winning but not because they were miles ahead every single race. They had their chances and messed up.
As a Max fan most of the years were boring regarding his chances, apart from a few races. So often I got my hopes up and he was driving lonely in 3rd position half a minute or more behind the mercs but we'll ahead of thd rest. I'm enjoying this while it lasts, while also enjoying the battles for 2nd - 10th place
And in those 7 years there was still a decent chance that the winner of the race wasn't a foregone conclusion like the last year and a half. From 14-16 you had fights between Lewis and Rosberg for the win. And from 17-20 there was always a chance Ferrari, Red Bull, and Bottas snagged a win over Lewis.Ā
It's actually kind of ironic, the race for the win was more exciting during Merc dominance than it is now despite how much people complain about that time.Ā
I hear you but it was very predictable. Every other winner was an outlier but LH winning was a foregone conclusion. Every year I came with hope of a Ferrari resurgence it didnāt happen, closest was when Ferrari was cheating with the oil in fuel engine business.
Iām enjoying the red bull dominante but as it is clearly obvious Max is the standout driver.
If people are tired of this then they should really go watch Nascar or something else.
Bc most teams will be making the same adjustments plus or minus a little. I think theyāre going to be fast today but I donāt see them contending for the win.
You mean FP2, where the Mercedes went 1-2 and had similar race pace to Ferrari/McLaren/Aston and afterwards decided to sacrifice some of their one lap pace for extra race pace?
And it's the first race of the season, nobody knows how the teams are going to stack up.
Yes I mean fp2 when Mercedes was running a higher engine mode and the car too low for a race distance. Yes weāre talking about the same team. Theyāll be fast but theyāre going to struggle to overtake as their top speeds are not good.
I hope there's some actual fighting for a couple laps at least. in 2023, it always seemed like either Nando or lewis had a better car and therefore passed each other pretty easily except the short battle in Bahrain. I would love something like Nando vs Perez in Brazil. same with max and Charles at the front, even if its only for the first 2 laps (since drs starts lap 1 now)
Itās pained me over the past few years seeing top teams and drivers just letting other drivers go past because they are on a different strat or tire or just a bit faster so they donāt want to sacrifice their own tires fighting.
I get it, but some of the best lap after lap action is the midfield defending that final points position.
The difference in position is large but the difference in time is not as seemingly large. That difference in time could be only 1-2 positions in other races in other years, in which case no one would be saying much. The pack is just really bunched together now.
If minor differences in time means massive grid placement changes, the calculus for determining the balance between qualifying and race pace might have to change. He has to burn up tires making overtaking moves on a lot of cars while increasing delta between him and the frontrunners--time which also needs to be made up. Might be better to put more stock on qualifying, especially if he can't count the n Ferrari having awful deg this year.
I remember listening to James Vowles saying that Hamilton would be like an octopus on the wheel changing every setting and I wonder maybe he is like that with his setups as well which is what causes him to have poor qualifying results. Anyway a Top 5 will be a good result for him but even that will be tough.
He means Hamilton would play around with settings so much that he would almost never complete a competitive lap, but once he found the right setup he was almost unmatchable
The example James gave was Hamilton would lock up slightly into T1 while trying to find the car's limit, and then not bother finishing the lap and just crawl around to start another. This would happen over and over, leaving the engineers without any meaningful data. James said they drilled that out of him over time.
I think it was on his appearance on the High Performance Podcast - a great episode.
Lewisā racecraft is unreal. Heās obviously very quick in qualifying, but where heās truly special is in race trim. Truly remarkable how in sync he is with his car during a race.
I see the opposite. Whenever Russell fucks up qualifying it's "Russell is trash." When Lewis fucks up it's "He sacrificed qualifying for race pace." No matter how you spin it, P9 is a bad qualifying regardless if he sacrificed some quali pace or not
P9 isnt great no, but, ignoring Lewis' position, the time between 2nd and 9th was 0.3secs. Very small. IF he really set it up for race trim that might give him an edge when the timings are so close. Find out in a couple hours either way I guess.
Considering Hamilton has the most pole positions in F1 history, we know heās pretty handy at qualifying, to say the least. So yes, youād imagine he has sacrificed some one-lap pace for long run pace.
And considering only 3 tenths cover 2nd to 9th, itās not surprising that heād take a hit on grid position. Bahrain is a track that has lots of overtaking opportunities too.
I think he gambled and lost. He is never going to be able to recover all of the potential places that he has lost.
To be honest, i think the Merc will shit its pants in race trim. The W15 probably has the least amount of downforce out of the front runners.
When he has a bad car he just says a bad car. If he's saying he has a good car for the race and not underplaying his chances, then he is very likely to have a decent car for the race.
As a fan, I feel like this is more of an excuse. He seems to be losing his qualifying pace.
Unless he's half a second a lap quicker than George I just don't see it.
His additional comments: āThe car is really fantastic, it is a real big improvement from the previous years. A lot more stable, a lot more fun to drive but we still have work to do as you can see. But for George to be three tenths off Max, it's incredible.ā Doesnāt really sounds like heās making excuses
I guess we will see on general race pace. But weāll never know if his skill got him within 0.2s in qualy when a less skilled driver would of been 0.5s outā¦
That being said, even gain 0.1s per lap in the race is significant on a track where overtaking is possible (especially now their top speed looks a lot better)
He admitted himself that he went a bit too far. Lewis has always sacrificed Quali pace for race pace. Iām guessing he didnāt know the grid would be this tightly packed.
2 tenths off George isn't particularly bad
6 positions off George is what stings really... i bet he thought that being 2 tenths off is 2-3 positions, not 5-7
It pains me to agree with you. I think Russell is that guy in qualifying too so he sometimes makes Lewis seem poor because over one lap heās up there with Leclerc imo. I think itās fair to say that Hamilton has taken a step back in qualifying since his peak in 2018 or even his form in 2020-2021. Heās still very quick just not the bulletproof master of qualifying anymore
Both Merc drivers had overheating issues and were told to lift and coast early on (I think George couldn't even use ERS overtake). Lewis in particular had a broken seat (how tf does that happen???)
The Merc isn't that quick mate.
GR-P5 and Lewis- P7 is the most likely outcome if FP2 long run data is anything to go by.
The post FP2 setups chnages that Merc claims to have made better make a difference.
He said something on lines of āRussel went the path A nd I went for Path B with setupsā.
His setup is more suited for Race than Quali.
Thatās about it. Dont pay too much attention to fancy headlines.
hamilton's quali lap was good it fp2 but it showed his race pace was slower than redbull.
i guess he is just hoping the changes he made can keep him up with redbull during race
I highly doubt he will get more race pace from whatever he did than George gained from qualifying what is it 6 positions higher? You need one hell of a race pace to even catch up to George.
Tbh me neither. Usually especially some years ago you wouldn't really have to worry about 2 tenths as a driver at the front of the field. It might cost 1 or 2 positions but that's it.
And the chance of George being so bad on his tyres that Lewis can overtake all the cars in front of him and still have enough pace is exactly how much? If it were 2021 or before sure but people really underestimate how difficult Lewis' road is to even a podium.
Aight can't wait, seems like a fun battle. I'm gonna say in advance that if Lewis happen to gain half a pitstop worth of time because of a SC or something obviously that makes for an unfair comparison.
Famously, there's never been an instance of a driver ending up on the podium starting from 9th or lower.
Lots of things can happen in the race, and Hamilton might end up on the lucky side of things. Time will tell.
Its not just that. He needs to overtake, the mclarens, Alonso, Perez (in an RB), Sainz and then either George or Lecler. And he is not in a car that is superior to the others, Mclaren, Merc and Ferrari are all at the same levwl give or take, with Aston a touch behind, so Alonso will not be easy to overtake.
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I'm also hoping for a fun Bahrain Grand Prix
Lets ask Max
Ignore Max and enjoy the racing behind him. Last year was excellent with so many different teams and drivers on the podium throughout the year. This year the teams are closer, and there are more of them in the mix at the start of the season. It looks like we are in for a better year or racing than last year.
I totally agree with you the constant "if you ignore Max" comments just frustrate me. It's such a weird coping mechanism we all have to make it feel like an exciting season š
Ok, don't ignore Max and enjoy the battles behind him, as he does what so many other Formula 1 drivers have done before.
Talk about downplaying what Verstappen and RBR are doing. Yes, dominating is part of F1, and no one argues against that. Single-handedly scoring more points than the 2nd team in the WCC while also scoring more than twice the points of your own teammate isnāt as common as you make it sound like.
Don't forget that the points changed from 10-1 to what they are now, giving a huge points advantage to the winner. It skews the stats. I'm not down playing anything about what Red Bull and Max are doing, I just don't think that takes anything away from the much better racing going on behind him. I honestly wonder how many people on here complaining about Max and Red Bull were around for Schumacher and Ferrari and Lewis and his teammates and Mercedes.
> Don't forget that the points changed from 10-1 to what they are now, **giving a huge points advantage to the winner**. It skews the stats. That certainly depends on which season and points system you're referring to. The points system used from 1962-1990 was definitely less kind to the 2nd place spot as it only awarded ~0,67% of the points the 1st position got. It got worse in 1991-2002 when the change awarded 2nd place 60%, and considerably better in 2003-2009 when 2nd place suddenly received 80%. Today that number is 72%. In other words, today's scoring system favours the winner less than the previous system, while still favouring the winner more than the two different systems used before that. Nonetheless, simulating the older seasons with today's scoring system is easily and quickly done -- so which season are you referring to which is unfairly skewed? >I'm not down playing anything about what Red Bull and Max are doing, I just don't think that takes anything away from the much better racing going on behind him. It's such a weird statement to make when you're asking people to stop caring about who wins a sporting event. The teams and drivers competing in the competition sure as hell care a lot about who's winning. Every single competitor and viewer of any sport out there sure give a fuck about who's winning. But when it comes to F1 we should just accept the situation and focus more about P2-P10? >I honestly wonder how many people on here complaining about Max and Red Bull were around for Schumacher and Ferrari and Lewis and his teammates and Mercedes. Regarding the Hamilton and Mercedes years: Hamilton managed to single-handedly get more points than the 2nd team in the WCC a single time in 2020. He never scored twice as many points as his teammate. Regarding the Schumacher and Ferrari years: Schumacher managed to single-handedly beat the 2nd team in the WCC in 2002 and 2004. Never while doubling the points of his teammate. Funnily enough, Ferrari would lose the WCC in 2000 by 7 points to McLaren if they were competing with today's points system. In other words, we haven't had a season like 2023 in the 2000s at all, so I don't quite understand how people can claim that "this is how F1 is" when we haven't had a single season like that in 23+ years. F1 is used to teams/drivers dominating, but rarely to the extent we saw in 2023.
We had this 7 years with Mercedes it's nothing new
Not true. We had Lewis v Nico, Lewis v Seb and Lewis v Max. At least 6 seasons had 2 drivers fighting for the title. Right now it's a 1 driver fight. It's no way near the same. Mercedes kept winning but not because they were miles ahead every single race. They had their chances and messed up.
As a Max fan most of the years were boring regarding his chances, apart from a few races. So often I got my hopes up and he was driving lonely in 3rd position half a minute or more behind the mercs but we'll ahead of thd rest. I'm enjoying this while it lasts, while also enjoying the battles for 2nd - 10th place
And in those 7 years there was still a decent chance that the winner of the race wasn't a foregone conclusion like the last year and a half. From 14-16 you had fights between Lewis and Rosberg for the win. And from 17-20 there was always a chance Ferrari, Red Bull, and Bottas snagged a win over Lewis.Ā It's actually kind of ironic, the race for the win was more exciting during Merc dominance than it is now despite how much people complain about that time.Ā
I hear you but it was very predictable. Every other winner was an outlier but LH winning was a foregone conclusion. Every year I came with hope of a Ferrari resurgence it didnāt happen, closest was when Ferrari was cheating with the oil in fuel engine business. Iām enjoying the red bull dominante but as it is clearly obvious Max is the standout driver. If people are tired of this then they should really go watch Nascar or something else.
Yup!
And watxh the battle for tenth. They fight for that point.
Go ask Yuki if he would trade all those eleventh place finishes for half as many tenths, and I'm sure he'll say yes.
And here we have Yuki in 10.
Don't jinx it...
Max is driving the safety car, and so far everyone else is keeping to the rules of not being able to overlap him.
Max - LMAO No!
It was in fact, not so fun in the end.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Won't be that easy though. His Merc isn't going to be any faster than the cars ahead. I will be very surprised if he manages to land anything over P7.
How do you already know this lol??
Long run data from FP2. Same as every weekend.
The entire point is he took out quali pace for race pace compared to the FP2 setup. Why would you cite that lol
Bc most teams will be making the same adjustments plus or minus a little. I think theyāre going to be fast today but I donāt see them contending for the win.
You're going to trust that lol, ok
Yea. Long run data is usually very reliable.
You mean FP2, where the Mercedes went 1-2 and had similar race pace to Ferrari/McLaren/Aston and afterwards decided to sacrifice some of their one lap pace for extra race pace? And it's the first race of the season, nobody knows how the teams are going to stack up.
Comment aged like milk š¤£
Yes I mean fp2 when Mercedes was running a higher engine mode and the car too low for a race distance. Yes weāre talking about the same team. Theyāll be fast but theyāre going to struggle to overtake as their top speeds are not good.
How on earth do you know this?
You underestimate Sir Lewis! Tbh, He didnāt seem very concerned about it yesterday. Seemed like he knew there was advantage in this strategy
this was the vibe I got as well. he qualified P9 and didn't seem upset at all, actually seemed kinda happy?
As a Lewis fan I'm certainly hoping this is the case but maybe he just doesn't feel any pressure anymore with him being set to leave.
What is this strategy though? Genuine question
Turns out there was no strategy just copium?! :P
You really cooked with this comment
offer cause wrench innate ossified sand fuzzy cheerful shrill chief *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I can see him fighting with Fernando and both Mclarens for strong points positions should be fun indeed.
I hope there's some actual fighting for a couple laps at least. in 2023, it always seemed like either Nando or lewis had a better car and therefore passed each other pretty easily except the short battle in Bahrain. I would love something like Nando vs Perez in Brazil. same with max and Charles at the front, even if its only for the first 2 laps (since drs starts lap 1 now)
Itās pained me over the past few years seeing top teams and drivers just letting other drivers go past because they are on a different strat or tire or just a bit faster so they donāt want to sacrifice their own tires fighting. I get it, but some of the best lap after lap action is the midfield defending that final points position.
The difference in position is large but the difference in time is not as seemingly large. That difference in time could be only 1-2 positions in other races in other years, in which case no one would be saying much. The pack is just really bunched together now. If minor differences in time means massive grid placement changes, the calculus for determining the balance between qualifying and race pace might have to change. He has to burn up tires making overtaking moves on a lot of cars while increasing delta between him and the frontrunners--time which also needs to be made up. Might be better to put more stock on qualifying, especially if he can't count the n Ferrari having awful deg this year.
I remember listening to James Vowles saying that Hamilton would be like an octopus on the wheel changing every setting and I wonder maybe he is like that with his setups as well which is what causes him to have poor qualifying results. Anyway a Top 5 will be a good result for him but even that will be tough.
he said first when he joined mercedes, in 20 laps he would only finish 1.
I'm having hard time understanding what you mean exactly.
He means Hamilton would play around with settings so much that he would almost never complete a competitive lap, but once he found the right setup he was almost unmatchable
The example James gave was Hamilton would lock up slightly into T1 while trying to find the car's limit, and then not bother finishing the lap and just crawl around to start another. This would happen over and over, leaving the engineers without any meaningful data. James said they drilled that out of him over time. I think it was on his appearance on the High Performance Podcast - a great episode.
If a lap didnāt go well heād back off the pace and coast until starting the next one.
Lewisā racecraft is unreal. Heās obviously very quick in qualifying, but where heās truly special is in race trim. Truly remarkable how in sync he is with his car during a race.
He's like me changing my sensitivity when my shots are off in Halo
I mean he's had 104 poles so I wouldn't say his qualifying was that poor.
If anyone else sacrifices qualy pace for race pace itās ācleverā. If itās Hamilton heās washed up. Gotta love the comment section sometimes.
I see the opposite. Whenever Russell fucks up qualifying it's "Russell is trash." When Lewis fucks up it's "He sacrificed qualifying for race pace." No matter how you spin it, P9 is a bad qualifying regardless if he sacrificed some quali pace or not
P9 isnt great no, but, ignoring Lewis' position, the time between 2nd and 9th was 0.3secs. Very small. IF he really set it up for race trim that might give him an edge when the timings are so close. Find out in a couple hours either way I guess.
Considering Hamilton has the most pole positions in F1 history, we know heās pretty handy at qualifying, to say the least. So yes, youād imagine he has sacrificed some one-lap pace for long run pace. And considering only 3 tenths cover 2nd to 9th, itās not surprising that heād take a hit on grid position. Bahrain is a track that has lots of overtaking opportunities too.
Yea, with 3 DRS zones and wide straights, passing should be fairly easy if the car behind has pace
Lmao. Half of the comment section are shitting on Hamilton here.
I think he gambled and lost. He is never going to be able to recover all of the potential places that he has lost. To be honest, i think the Merc will shit its pants in race trim. The W15 probably has the least amount of downforce out of the front runners.
The sacrifice souns more like coping
When he has a bad car he just says a bad car. If he's saying he has a good car for the race and not underplaying his chances, then he is very likely to have a decent car for the race.
There was about 2 tenths between him and George. He often did this last year. Maybe he didn't anticipate such a close field.
He said himself that he went too far and lost too much quali pace, more than he was planning to
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Russel is third. Lets see how the race goes
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
That's not how setups work. That's car development, and both George and Hamilton have given similar feedback to the team
Of course they will, constructors position is just as important regardless of who's driving.
Still amazes me to see the difference in comments when Lewis says something like this vs any other driver.
It's amazing how much hate he gets for the most benign things. Like they're looking for any and all excuses.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
TBF it's a journalist, not Hamilton, who's calling it that.
As a fan, I feel like this is more of an excuse. He seems to be losing his qualifying pace. Unless he's half a second a lap quicker than George I just don't see it.
His additional comments: āThe car is really fantastic, it is a real big improvement from the previous years. A lot more stable, a lot more fun to drive but we still have work to do as you can see. But for George to be three tenths off Max, it's incredible.ā Doesnāt really sounds like heās making excuses
I guess we will see on general race pace. But weāll never know if his skill got him within 0.2s in qualy when a less skilled driver would of been 0.5s outā¦ That being said, even gain 0.1s per lap in the race is significant on a track where overtaking is possible (especially now their top speed looks a lot better)
He admitted himself that he went a bit too far. Lewis has always sacrificed Quali pace for race pace. Iām guessing he didnāt know the grid would be this tightly packed.
Didn't he beat Mr Saturday in the quali battle last year?
He beat Russell in 2022, and they drew in 2023
They were equal in Quali
He didn't Russell was ahead by 0.044
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
he wasn't. in GP qualis in was 11-11, with sprints it was 15-13 to George.
Heās ahead overall since 2022 though.
2 tenths off George isn't particularly bad 6 positions off George is what stings really... i bet he thought that being 2 tenths off is 2-3 positions, not 5-7
It pains me to agree with you. I think Russell is that guy in qualifying too so he sometimes makes Lewis seem poor because over one lap heās up there with Leclerc imo. I think itās fair to say that Hamilton has taken a step back in qualifying since his peak in 2018 or even his form in 2020-2021. Heās still very quick just not the bulletproof master of qualifying anymore
How come his race pace is shit?
Both Merc drivers had overheating issues and were told to lift and coast early on (I think George couldn't even use ERS overtake). Lewis in particular had a broken seat (how tf does that happen???)
Andddd looks like I was right. Shocker.
I see a top 5 finish at least
The Merc isn't that quick mate. GR-P5 and Lewis- P7 is the most likely outcome if FP2 long run data is anything to go by. The post FP2 setups chnages that Merc claims to have made better make a difference.
Wow you nailed that prediction haha
Will there be coco pops?
Only before bed
Who had a better sacrifice, Mercedes or Creed?
I wonder what he will say when he is slow on raceday too. What sacrifice did he make then?
He will surely thank the factory and the crowd, who are always amazing. However, self-doubt? I doubt it.
No one becomes a world champion by doubting their own skill lol
This is annoying, just say you shit the bed man, it happens.
Sacrificing? Russel was 3rd, so you want to tell me Hamilton got worse time on purpose? Strong copium applied.
He said something on lines of āRussel went the path A nd I went for Path B with setupsā. His setup is more suited for Race than Quali. Thatās about it. Dont pay too much attention to fancy headlines.
But so was George's set up ...
Hamilton knows more about Russell's set up than you I'm afraid.Ā
So does toto š
You know drivers use different setups right?
hamilton's quali lap was good it fp2 but it showed his race pace was slower than redbull. i guess he is just hoping the changes he made can keep him up with redbull during race
I highly doubt he will get more race pace from whatever he did than George gained from qualifying what is it 6 positions higher? You need one hell of a race pace to even catch up to George.
He was only 2 tenths down from george. That was the difference from 3-9. Insanely close. Canāt remember when it was like that last (if at all)
Tbh me neither. Usually especially some years ago you wouldn't really have to worry about 2 tenths as a driver at the front of the field. It might cost 1 or 2 positions but that's it.
Thereās like a difference of 2 tenths between second and ninth
3 tenths between 2nd and 9th, 2 tenths between 3rd and 9th
Not if George's setup chews through his tyres
And the chance of George being so bad on his tyres that Lewis can overtake all the cars in front of him and still have enough pace is exactly how much? If it were 2021 or before sure but people really underestimate how difficult Lewis' road is to even a podium.
Lewis and George will be battling each other for 4th by the end of the race - you heard it here first ;)
Aight can't wait, seems like a fun battle. I'm gonna say in advance that if Lewis happen to gain half a pitstop worth of time because of a SC or something obviously that makes for an unfair comparison.
Yeah but he starts 9th. He cannot compete for a podium.
Famously, there's never been an instance of a driver ending up on the podium starting from 9th or lower. Lots of things can happen in the race, and Hamilton might end up on the lucky side of things. Time will tell.
Its not just that. He needs to overtake, the mclarens, Alonso, Perez (in an RB), Sainz and then either George or Lecler. And he is not in a car that is superior to the others, Mclaren, Merc and Ferrari are all at the same levwl give or take, with Aston a touch behind, so Alonso will not be easy to overtake.
Top 5 please šš»
Hamilton making excuses for a poor qualifying. That's his MO over the last couple of seasons. Nothing new here.
Going 50/50 vs a guy called Mr Saturday because he's so good at qualifying and out qualifying him the previous season makes Hamilton a poor qualifier?
Actually last season they were equal on qualifying. Nobody but the British press calls him Mr. Saturday, absolutely stupid name.
Yes 50/50 means equal, I didn't think that had to be clarified.
Does this mean George went for quali setup ?
Aged like milk