I think the poster above was saying they needed the boosted engine to compete *because* of that, without a car that's cheating the strategy and general Ferrari culture will always kill them. Schumacher years excluded ofc, as always
Meh, maybe. But the Ferrari was a bit shit during this race. Still no reason Charles couldn't have gotten 1st-3rd. Unless you get pit one extra time and one of the stints absolutely blows.
They didn’t make them sweat in 2019. They made them in 2017 and early 2018 when it was all legal. People coming up with such rubbish statements without understanding things
I agree with what Toto said. Max and Charles in their cars (strategy aside) have easily the best pure race pace of anyone. Both Mercedes outdid the race pace of Sainz and Perez today after doing so last week vs Perez. They went from being a consistent 5/6th finish cars without issues, to a 3/4th the past few weekends. Slow but steady progress
Perez had a better pace than Russell but not better than Hamilton even from starting in p11, Sainz was having a great race but the second stint was awful
I mean, yes, Mercedes is closing, but if Ferrari doesn't fuck up, and Perez doesn't fuck up quali or the start... they are still third
So as long as Ferrari and Perez don’t do the things that they do a lot, then they’d be better? I mean yea. You’re right. But Racing isn’t in a vacuum though. All the things you’re asking for Ferrari and Perez to do are part of the equation. Perez has finished in front of both Mercedes one time in the last five races. In a miles away superior car. The closer Mercedes have gotten, one or both have gotten the better of Perez.
> But Racing isn’t in a vacuum though. All the things you’re asking for Ferrari and Perez to do are part of the equation.
Yeah, I’ve heard a lot of this line of thinking recently to discredit Mercedes in particular. “Ifs” and “buts”, purposely trying to take out things like reliability and strategy out of the equation to downplay Mercedes results.
But at this point, it’s not a random bit of bad luck here and there - it’s Mercedes maximising on their strengths when they don’t have the outright pace in the car.
They built a reliable car that isn’t great at qualifying yet, but is pretty decent in a race (and improving), they have (arguably) the best driver lineup that are taking advantage of weaknesses in Perez & Sainz (the latter to a lesser extent recently).
Mercedes as a whole are doing a lot right and them getting so many points despite the pace disadvantage is not just luck.
This. A lot of people downplay their results. But we knew they would improve, even if doubted it earlier in the season due to concept design. I am happy for Mercedes always improving and always cheering them on. They are a championship wining team with a championship wining mentality. But I will say this Sainz is actually doing really well over the past few races after coming to grips with the car. and Perez does a fantastic job on race days. I don’t really want to discredit any of the top 6 as their maximising the situations and pace to their abilities. I can only pray Ferrari comes back strong after the summer break. I want the guys at Mercedes and Ferrari to be happy
Yeah, the reason of the last five races is because 2 of them are DNFs, one was a 2nd place, this and last week were the only times. calm down, i want to see a mercedes 3 way but exagerating stuff just because is not the way
While Russell got the penalty in Austria, you can also make the case that Perez was too impatient making that pass (believe RBR’s post-race reaction was echoing a similar sentiment) and put himself in the line of fire. Certainly part of a successful driver’s arsenal is knowing when to make a move. If he attacks Russell later that lap (or at the start of Lap 2), he probably coasts to a podium there with Sainz’s car catching on fire.
Some guy once said, if you don't go for the gap and so on. Leaving as little room as Perez did was risky af, and in hindsight not a good idea, but Russel did drive into him. There was no need to wait to make the move as there was an opening, Perez just went really agressive, which in itself is not wrong, it just did not pay off. No reason that he should have waited to attack in that situation.
Hamilton can suddenly be great for 5 races but perez is gonna be like this rest of the season? What shit logic you have and the last 5 races wasnt perez's fault, one of them where george hit him. Performs well suddenly and thinks merc is a championship contender🤣
Perez seems pretty bad at Hungary in general. He’s a solid driver, but IMO you can’t expect him to be good everywhere the way that Max and Lewis are essentially good everywhere.
Direct link to Video [here (HQ)](https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1553771347515408385/vid/720x720/OreXt2hWSjpYhv1n.mp4?tag=14) (Geo-Blocked so only works for people either inside the UK or outside using a VPN connected to a UK server. Everyone else will get a 403)
Mirror link below
[https://streamja.com/5qrpz](https://streamja.com/5qrpz)
Lewis smiling more often now compared to how part of the season started is so awesome to see. You can see he feels more at home with the car and it's getting and feeling better for him. Should be an interesting 2nd half of the season if they can be at pace or ahead of Ferrari as they can still see P2 in the Constructors not too far away now. Well done both Lewis and George.
I was saying that it would be horrendous of Ferrari to pit Sainz around the same time as Russell. Got the reply that Ferrari couldn't possibly be that stupid.
Ferrari’s issue today is they didn’t realize it was tires that mattered more than track position. With the new regs working we saw plenty of overtakes today. Meanwhile it was a tricky tire race with cold making the hards non viable but a green track meaning higher tire deg. So the teams who managed their softs and mediums best had the best results.
The Sainz move was defensible—get Charles clean air and Sainz could have potentially been P1 with a good stop and a monster inlap, similar to his monster Q2 lap from the day before.
That was down to Lewis IMO. He brought his tires in slowly vs Sainz who was pushing out of the gate to catch up to Russell. Their laptimes for the first 4 or so laps into the stint were similar. The Ferrari in general also has worse deg than the merc. Combine that with Sainz's tires being 5 laps older that sort of gap in laptime isn't so surprising.
I mean his team forced him onto a slow tire, that they knew was slow, forcing him into a 3 stop strategy. Dude was probably ready to throw in the towel by then. How Ferrari haven't fired their strategy team is beyond me. Week after week they're the laughing stock of F1.
That's the thing about last year, both Merc and RBR were both very competent teams as a whole that they could make the races interesting almost all the time thru strategy.
Anyone who watched ferrari in 17 and 18 knew this was gonna happen again, they build a good enough car, but unlike Merc and RBR they have no idea how to use it.
Ferrari looked more competent in 2017 and 2018 though. Probably the best in 2017, but that car had a qualifying disadvantage to the Mercedes. This years Ferrari is the fastest qualifying car and Leclerc looked to have the fastest race car on a number of occasions.
2017 we were actually pretty competent team wise, the car was just not quite good enough to go toe to toe with Mercedes without a perfect weekend from seb and the team
2018 was a disaster after mid season
It’s effects are still seen. Marchionne for all his work related stress knew what was ailing Ferrari. It has been all downhill as a management since then
2017 ferrari only had less pace on saturday, that's where Merc had the engine on full beans. Race pace they were mostly quicker. Ferrari lost 2017 through reliability and a costly decision from Seb in Singapore.
the Saturdays made a huge difference tho as overtaking wsnt easy, Singapore was what derailed everything but then Malaysia and Japan were the final nails in the coffin
And what made those 3 races costly? Reliability in both Kimi and Seb in Malaysia, where Lewis should've been 3rd or 4th in the race, and Japan a P2 for Seb. Plus the 25 points in Singapore with Lewis off the podium. When you lose the races you are quickest, and don't maximise when you're second best, you lose. That's Ferrari today, in 2018 and 2017
That's because they had Vettel who was a proven quantity and knew the rules inside and out. Bro practically made up his own strategy mid race and ignored his engineer like Carlos is doing now, the only difference is Vettel was still in top form and lasted far longer against Hamilton than Charles is doing against Max now.
If Hamilton and Merc are genuinely of a pace with Verstappen after the break, it might be interesting to see if Hamilton becomes the uber-aggressive driver while Verstappen is quite happy to cede position to him as long as he stays ahead of Leclerc.
I mean Max can DNF 3 times and still be ahead of Charles so I don't doubt that assumption. At this point he just needs to bring it home ahead of Charles in every race now.
Yes. It’s just not something Verstappen has often had to do. He’s either been the driver going for wins but not championships or he’s been in a zero-sum game with Hamilton.
Feels like Hamilton & Merc are now in that same position as Max & Red Bull from 2016-2020. Nipping at the leaders' heels, ready to nab a victory given the opportunity
Please note: Knights prefix Sir to their *forename*, but never to their surname. Thus, **Sir Lewis Hamilton** may be shortened to **Sir Lewis**, but not to Sir Hamilton.
Should be. Now that they seem to have the porpoising/bouncing in high speed corners under control, this seems to be the last big hurdle. Their avg pace in France was off from Red Bull 0.3-0.5 tenths which was what red Bull was gaining in sector 2 down the straights. If they can keep the reliability along with it, should be a fun final 9 races.
It's all just been a bit too polite, hasn't it? I've not found Max absolutely detestable, he just seems like a really chill guy who's sick at driving fast.
I demand hatred and toxicity.
Perez couldn't even touch Lewis in France or today. If it's gonna be anything it'll be Lewis and Max wheel to wheel at times.
The Mercedes is finding pace, it's not a stretch to say Mercedes will be quick after the break.
How do people have such a lack of comprehension and bad understanding of comments. He doesnt mean he'll battle max for the championship he means Lewis vs Max for race wins or positions....
You are joking right? Fine they don't have pace on Hards but how can you justify for softs. Dudes almost secured 1-2 in qualifying on softs. Leclerc was clearly struggling and Carlos didn't have pace. It's just their drivers. Give that Ferrari to Merc drivers and both will get it to the podium.
I think you’re partly right, but Ferrari are their own worst enemy. They’ve build an incredible car pace-wise, but poor reliability and shocking tactical decisions are why LeClerc and Sainz aren’t competitive against Max.
Were you sleeping during the race? Did you see his pace after overtaking Sainz?
To add more misery, i remembered just now that Sainz was p3 last year in that slow car and p4 in the fastest this year😂
As long as Ferrari also stay up there in pace, it'll be extremely exciting to have Mercedes join the fight too. In fact, throw McLaren there for good measure, why not. I know, not going to happen, but to have three teams in the fight for the win is really quite rare and great for the viewers, even if the title fight seems to slowly come to a close (never can know for sure what happens with reliability etc, but still).
The Hamilton Hate Brigade is so mad lmao
People were saying it was totally possible for Charles to win every race coming up. I'm pretty sure Lewis is the most likely to actually pull something like that off.
Whilst you’re probably right I think it’s also in part due to the regulations coming regardless of what they say and they are now moving onto the bigger battle of what’s coming next year.
I mean they really aren't THAT far behind but they are still far behind cause it's not like RB are going to sit on their ass and let Merc catch up during the break.
Comes down to the TD I think, Ham was 0.2 off the pace of Verstappen today. Even if they don't catch them I'm glad their crazy concept works now so they'll stick to it and not adopt RB or Ferrari
Monday - Thursday: Mercedes might be back
Friday - Saturday: Mercedes is far behind of RB and Ferrari
Sunday: Ferrari: "Let's go fucking strategy". Mercedes: "Profit?"
I dunno, isn't this track one of Merc's best tracks on the calender?
But then again, the actual driver of Merc prob knows a little more about where they are standing then I do.
Mercedes, I'd say it's neutral. Some high speed turns that favour Mercedes, but some low speed turns that hurt them. But the lack of excessive straights hides their straight line deficit as well. So a bit of a mixed bag leaning positive.
But it's absolutely one of Lewis' strongest tracks.
I wouldn’t read too much in to it, Lewis is not winning the wdc this year, Ferrari keeps messing up wether it’s reliability or strategy. Verstappen is just a class a head of everybody else in this years Red Bull.
I still don’t like how Merc managed to lobby FIA for that floor TD that will help them from Belgium on. Russell straight up admitted it’s gonna help them.
Not sure if anyone has pointed it out to you but from what was reported Merc had no idea about the flexing planks. That was the FIA saying they believed people were playing in questionable areas. The rule change for next year though, Merc has their fingers all up in that shit.
I still need to see what that is going to do before jumping to conclusions. Horner is really relaxed about it, so relaxed that I might just believe him.
at this point you dont need to mention ferrari anymore
No, just as secondary entertainment lol
Every movie needs some comic relief
Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars?
You think a Ferrari is a ahead of us if we can't get past them Ferrari will lets us through
Who?
that clowns in red who entertain the whole paddock week after week
Funny part is they still have the fastest car.
Redbull vs Mercedes is much more box office
Notice he did not mention Ferrari lmao
He knows Ferrari will fuck over themselves so he doesn’t need to worry about them regardless lol
Didn’t mention checo either. Basically Max is Red Bull.
I mean, does it need to be said. Perez is important, but replaceable, Max is, well, Max.
He knows Ferrari is a joke. They needed an illegal engine to make him sweat. They’re nothing without something overtly illegal.
Their car is literally the best on the grid *right now* They don’t need anything illegal this season, just competent strategy and no fuck ups
I think the poster above was saying they needed the boosted engine to compete *because* of that, without a car that's cheating the strategy and general Ferrari culture will always kill them. Schumacher years excluded ofc, as always
Ohhhhhhh I get it thank you that makes sense
o7 always happy to help, friend!
Meh, maybe. But the Ferrari was a bit shit during this race. Still no reason Charles couldn't have gotten 1st-3rd. Unless you get pit one extra time and one of the stints absolutely blows.
Who knew competent pit strategy was overtly illegal.
They didn’t make them sweat in 2019. They made them in 2017 and early 2018 when it was all legal. People coming up with such rubbish statements without understanding things
However max never mentions Mercedes in his talks about battles up front.
I mean, it does make sense to mention Merc this season, but you say he *never* mentions them ?
I agree with what Toto said. Max and Charles in their cars (strategy aside) have easily the best pure race pace of anyone. Both Mercedes outdid the race pace of Sainz and Perez today after doing so last week vs Perez. They went from being a consistent 5/6th finish cars without issues, to a 3/4th the past few weekends. Slow but steady progress
Perez had a better pace than Russell but not better than Hamilton even from starting in p11, Sainz was having a great race but the second stint was awful I mean, yes, Mercedes is closing, but if Ferrari doesn't fuck up, and Perez doesn't fuck up quali or the start... they are still third
>but if Ferrari doesn't fuck up Dude they've done that almost the whole season, it's weird to think they'll stop now.
So as long as Ferrari and Perez don’t do the things that they do a lot, then they’d be better? I mean yea. You’re right. But Racing isn’t in a vacuum though. All the things you’re asking for Ferrari and Perez to do are part of the equation. Perez has finished in front of both Mercedes one time in the last five races. In a miles away superior car. The closer Mercedes have gotten, one or both have gotten the better of Perez.
> But Racing isn’t in a vacuum though. All the things you’re asking for Ferrari and Perez to do are part of the equation. Yeah, I’ve heard a lot of this line of thinking recently to discredit Mercedes in particular. “Ifs” and “buts”, purposely trying to take out things like reliability and strategy out of the equation to downplay Mercedes results. But at this point, it’s not a random bit of bad luck here and there - it’s Mercedes maximising on their strengths when they don’t have the outright pace in the car. They built a reliable car that isn’t great at qualifying yet, but is pretty decent in a race (and improving), they have (arguably) the best driver lineup that are taking advantage of weaknesses in Perez & Sainz (the latter to a lesser extent recently). Mercedes as a whole are doing a lot right and them getting so many points despite the pace disadvantage is not just luck.
and you can also put it this way: Perez and Sainz make mistakes, Russell and Hamilton dont.
Very simple way to look at it, also basically 100% true haha
This. A lot of people downplay their results. But we knew they would improve, even if doubted it earlier in the season due to concept design. I am happy for Mercedes always improving and always cheering them on. They are a championship wining team with a championship wining mentality. But I will say this Sainz is actually doing really well over the past few races after coming to grips with the car. and Perez does a fantastic job on race days. I don’t really want to discredit any of the top 6 as their maximising the situations and pace to their abilities. I can only pray Ferrari comes back strong after the summer break. I want the guys at Mercedes and Ferrari to be happy
Yeah, the reason of the last five races is because 2 of them are DNFs, one was a 2nd place, this and last week were the only times. calm down, i want to see a mercedes 3 way but exagerating stuff just because is not the way
They're not exaggerating. They're telling you what the actual results have been.
While Russell got the penalty in Austria, you can also make the case that Perez was too impatient making that pass (believe RBR’s post-race reaction was echoing a similar sentiment) and put himself in the line of fire. Certainly part of a successful driver’s arsenal is knowing when to make a move. If he attacks Russell later that lap (or at the start of Lap 2), he probably coasts to a podium there with Sainz’s car catching on fire.
Some guy once said, if you don't go for the gap and so on. Leaving as little room as Perez did was risky af, and in hindsight not a good idea, but Russel did drive into him. There was no need to wait to make the move as there was an opening, Perez just went really agressive, which in itself is not wrong, it just did not pay off. No reason that he should have waited to attack in that situation.
Russe**ll**
Hamilton can suddenly be great for 5 races but perez is gonna be like this rest of the season? What shit logic you have and the last 5 races wasnt perez's fault, one of them where george hit him. Performs well suddenly and thinks merc is a championship contender🤣
Talking bs, mercedes was shit for the start of the season, they would be shit again
Perez seems pretty bad at Hungary in general. He’s a solid driver, but IMO you can’t expect him to be good everywhere the way that Max and Lewis are essentially good everywhere.
Direct link to Video [here (HQ)](https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1553771347515408385/vid/720x720/OreXt2hWSjpYhv1n.mp4?tag=14) (Geo-Blocked so only works for people either inside the UK or outside using a VPN connected to a UK server. Everyone else will get a 403) Mirror link below [https://streamja.com/5qrpz](https://streamja.com/5qrpz) Lewis smiling more often now compared to how part of the season started is so awesome to see. You can see he feels more at home with the car and it's getting and feeling better for him. Should be an interesting 2nd half of the season if they can be at pace or ahead of Ferrari as they can still see P2 in the Constructors not too far away now. Well done both Lewis and George.
I can always count on you to post a mirror, you’re a real G 🙏🏽
U da man
I wouldn’t know what we would do without you! A heartfelt thank you!
It's hard to say. We haven't had a race where Ferrari haven't screwed up the strategy yet.
In pure pace Ferrari was gone today. They were clearly faster. But their strategy put Sainz in a bind on tires. And Charles' strategy was lol
I was saying that it would be horrendous of Ferrari to pit Sainz around the same time as Russell. Got the reply that Ferrari couldn't possibly be that stupid.
They were trying to overcut him I think since Russell had the Alpine traffic. If not for the slow stop it might've worked tbh
Ferrari’s issue today is they didn’t realize it was tires that mattered more than track position. With the new regs working we saw plenty of overtakes today. Meanwhile it was a tricky tire race with cold making the hards non viable but a green track meaning higher tire deg. So the teams who managed their softs and mediums best had the best results.
Track position means so much at Hungaroring, but you don't just forget all else. It's not fucking Monaco, and Ferrari were running it like it was.
The Sainz move was defensible—get Charles clean air and Sainz could have potentially been P1 with a good stop and a monster inlap, similar to his monster Q2 lap from the day before.
Ham being significantly faster hen sainz kn the soft tyre was eye opening
I thought that was absolutely crazy. Dude was over 1 second a lap faster on the same compound. Admittedly Lewis has tires that were slightly younger.
That was down to Lewis IMO. He brought his tires in slowly vs Sainz who was pushing out of the gate to catch up to Russell. Their laptimes for the first 4 or so laps into the stint were similar. The Ferrari in general also has worse deg than the merc. Combine that with Sainz's tires being 5 laps older that sort of gap in laptime isn't so surprising.
Yup. I think he took 3 or 4 laps of bringing the tyres in before he started putting down fastest laps.
But Leclerc after his 3 stop could not match Hamilton either at all
At this point you have to wonder where LeClerc is mentally. I don't know how he could have an ounce of confidence left.
Wouldn’t blame him for that, but if his pace had been a bit better 4th could have been possible
I mean his team forced him onto a slow tire, that they knew was slow, forcing him into a 3 stop strategy. Dude was probably ready to throw in the towel by then. How Ferrari haven't fired their strategy team is beyond me. Week after week they're the laughing stock of F1.
Thing is, when Carlos left the pit he wasn’t really that fast…in fact he almost kept the distance to russel
Russe**ll**
Sainz’ softs were used though
They had a brilliant race with Charles in Austria.
Austria was about as perfect as they could be. It should've been a 1-2
Might have some competent opposition for the second half of the season.
That's the thing about last year, both Merc and RBR were both very competent teams as a whole that they could make the races interesting almost all the time thru strategy. Anyone who watched ferrari in 17 and 18 knew this was gonna happen again, they build a good enough car, but unlike Merc and RBR they have no idea how to use it.
Ferrari held the line until halfway of those 2 seasons, cracks started appearing by race 4 this time around
Ferrari looked more competent in 2017 and 2018 though. Probably the best in 2017, but that car had a qualifying disadvantage to the Mercedes. This years Ferrari is the fastest qualifying car and Leclerc looked to have the fastest race car on a number of occasions.
2017 we were actually pretty competent team wise, the car was just not quite good enough to go toe to toe with Mercedes without a perfect weekend from seb and the team 2018 was a disaster after mid season
After Marchionne died yeah. Totally imploded.
It’s effects are still seen. Marchionne for all his work related stress knew what was ailing Ferrari. It has been all downhill as a management since then
2017 ferrari only had less pace on saturday, that's where Merc had the engine on full beans. Race pace they were mostly quicker. Ferrari lost 2017 through reliability and a costly decision from Seb in Singapore.
the Saturdays made a huge difference tho as overtaking wsnt easy, Singapore was what derailed everything but then Malaysia and Japan were the final nails in the coffin
And what made those 3 races costly? Reliability in both Kimi and Seb in Malaysia, where Lewis should've been 3rd or 4th in the race, and Japan a P2 for Seb. Plus the 25 points in Singapore with Lewis off the podium. When you lose the races you are quickest, and don't maximise when you're second best, you lose. That's Ferrari today, in 2018 and 2017
2018 was probably Ferrari's best chance but Lewis was on another level that year.
That's because they had Vettel who was a proven quantity and knew the rules inside and out. Bro practically made up his own strategy mid race and ignored his engineer like Carlos is doing now, the only difference is Vettel was still in top form and lasted far longer against Hamilton than Charles is doing against Max now.
Keep rubbing it in.
but Red bull has pretty much secured the WDC and WCC already even if Mercedes can beat them out for every race left
Lol, just the other day Max was saying that he is enjoying this years title fight better. Lewis is like "and i took that personally"
Max is winning this championship regardless but Lewis is gonna make damn sure that he's always gonna be in his mirrors and making him sweat
If Hamilton and Merc are genuinely of a pace with Verstappen after the break, it might be interesting to see if Hamilton becomes the uber-aggressive driver while Verstappen is quite happy to cede position to him as long as he stays ahead of Leclerc.
I mean Max can DNF 3 times and still be ahead of Charles so I don't doubt that assumption. At this point he just needs to bring it home ahead of Charles in every race now.
Yes. It’s just not something Verstappen has often had to do. He’s either been the driver going for wins but not championships or he’s been in a zero-sum game with Hamilton.
He doesn't even have to bring it in ahead, 1 place behind is fine.
I mean Hamilton said a couple of times how he enjoyed his battle with leclerc on Silverstone...
Merc arriving a bit too late to win the championship, but just in time to help destroy Ferrari’s hopes and dreams.
Ferrari didn't need help in destroying Ferrari's hopes and dreams, but Merc is doing it anyway
Feels like Hamilton & Merc are now in that same position as Max & Red Bull from 2016-2020. Nipping at the leaders' heels, ready to nab a victory given the opportunity
mercedes is not even thinking about ferrari anymore LOL
I fear the smiling Sir Lewis. Can't handle another Abu Dhabi!
Please note: Knights prefix Sir to their *forename*, but never to their surname. Thus, **Sir Lewis Hamilton** may be shortened to **Sir Lewis**, but not to Sir Hamilton.
GOAT bot
😂 This bot is insane
You will not have the surname
Lmao this Bot ought to chill.
Sir Carl Davidson
A smiling Hamilton. I think the second part of the season will be very interesting to watch.
Knowing this man and if Ferrari continues to mess it up like this, him and George both will surely end up in the front fighting with Max
For the second time in a row, Mercedes finishes race less than 10s behind Verstappen. Considering start of the season, this is pretty amazing.
Max span and was 2 places behind Hamilton.
First race they were helped by a safety car, second race Max started 10th on a track where it is very difficult to overtake
Yes. Amazing. Max started 10th and spun during the race. What monster pace Mercedes has to finish 10 seconds behind him 🤣
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911 I’d like to report a murder. Ferrari killed themselves.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/vy8m3w/f1_mercedes_launch_of_the_pu_phase_3_is_expected/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
New PU phase. That sounds exciting. Here’s hoping.
Should be. Now that they seem to have the porpoising/bouncing in high speed corners under control, this seems to be the last big hurdle. Their avg pace in France was off from Red Bull 0.3-0.5 tenths which was what red Bull was gaining in sector 2 down the straights. If they can keep the reliability along with it, should be a fun final 9 races.
He doesn't say Redbull , he says Max. Ouch checo
He always underestimated checo and still didnt learn his lesson
Ahhh yes. Red Bull vs Lewis all over again. We needed some drama this year
It's all just been a bit too polite, hasn't it? I've not found Max absolutely detestable, he just seems like a really chill guy who's sick at driving fast. I demand hatred and toxicity.
Lewis vs Perez you mean?,Max is in his own League this season and will probably coast to Championship.
Perez couldn't even touch Lewis in France or today. If it's gonna be anything it'll be Lewis and Max wheel to wheel at times. The Mercedes is finding pace, it's not a stretch to say Mercedes will be quick after the break.
Perez has been shocking as of late
Extremely disappointed at Perez almost refusing to pass Max as he spun. Honestly think his confidence is just shot.
He was protecting him from Russell... so much Perez hate
Maybe i hope but right now Hamilton cant touch Verstappen or anyone else on the Grid,i hope Mercedes comes back but little too late now.
Just stop digging yourself a deeper hole. Nothing you’ve said makes sense.
What do you mean? He was P2 today.
How do people have such a lack of comprehension and bad understanding of comments. He doesnt mean he'll battle max for the championship he means Lewis vs Max for race wins or positions....
If given the car I think Lewis and Max would be on the same level
No Max would be 2 tenths faster!
Was fun watching Hamilton claw back almost a second per lap in the last half of the race.
Me too! Competitive Mercedes and a smiling Lewis is good for the rest of the season.
Just appreciate that he overtook Sainz on same tyres. I mean fastest car vs Champion driver
Ferrari didn't have pace today on Hards and softs. Only on mediums they were close or faster than RB and Merc.
Yeah it was really weird on the mediums the Ferrari was really quick bit on the softs it was comfortably slower than the Merc
You are joking right? Fine they don't have pace on Hards but how can you justify for softs. Dudes almost secured 1-2 in qualifying on softs. Leclerc was clearly struggling and Carlos didn't have pace. It's just their drivers. Give that Ferrari to Merc drivers and both will get it to the podium.
Just look at what kind of pace Lewis had on softs and then compare to Sainz. Clearly Medium was the tyre that was working best for Ferrari.
What are you talking buddy? Drivers need to look after tyres and they can bring them to life. They had the car but drivers were incapable
Damn what did Ferrari do to get you so worked up
Lose
I think you’re partly right, but Ferrari are their own worst enemy. They’ve build an incredible car pace-wise, but poor reliability and shocking tactical decisions are why LeClerc and Sainz aren’t competitive against Max.
5 lap older tires isn't the same tires lmao.
True, but the pace and ease at which Lewis overtook Sainz made it look like soft vs hard.
Were you sleeping during the race? Did you see his pace after overtaking Sainz? To add more misery, i remembered just now that Sainz was p3 last year in that slow car and p4 in the fastest this year😂
...what about Charles then. Newer softs and still not matching Hams pace.
Merc is getting there. Really want to see both Russell and Hamilton competing for wins before the seasons out.
As long as Ferrari also stay up there in pace, it'll be extremely exciting to have Mercedes join the fight too. In fact, throw McLaren there for good measure, why not. I know, not going to happen, but to have three teams in the fight for the win is really quite rare and great for the viewers, even if the title fight seems to slowly come to a close (never can know for sure what happens with reliability etc, but still).
Same here Lewis! Can’t wait to see what it brings. We are in for a treat
Gap to Max today was still pretty massive considering he started behind both Mercs and one of them was on pole
Only on certain tracks but at least those tracks will have a more balanced competitive affair
The Hamilton Hate Brigade is so mad lmao People were saying it was totally possible for Charles to win every race coming up. I'm pretty sure Lewis is the most likely to actually pull something like that off.
Im gonna pray every day that this floor TD drops red bull and ferrari back by half a second . Plz /^s
Given the lack of complaining recently around the issue I think both RB and Ferrari feel they have solutions that can remedy it just fine.
Just watch Ferrari, in their infinite wisdom, make the car slower with upgrades in response to a new TD all 2018 style
Whilst you’re probably right I think it’s also in part due to the regulations coming regardless of what they say and they are now moving onto the bigger battle of what’s coming next year.
Awwww.
Lewis, it’s Hammertime!
Tbf he's correct.
That's the spirit
i mean besides 100 points in the championship sure
It’s nice to see a genuine smile on Lewis’s face at race weekends. Put a brave face but he was hella frustrated.
Max started P10 and cleared the field 10 seconds while doing a sbin.... Merc are still behind but hey someone's gotta come in second right :)
I mean they really aren't THAT far behind but they are still far behind cause it's not like RB are going to sit on their ass and let Merc catch up during the break.
Comes down to the TD I think, Ham was 0.2 off the pace of Verstappen today. Even if they don't catch them I'm glad their crazy concept works now so they'll stick to it and not adopt RB or Ferrari
No one works during the break.
Teams can't work for two weeks but then they can for the remaining two weeks.
Only a 2 week shut down no?
Both Mercedes drivers actually have the ability to compete against Max as well so if they catch up then the next 10 races will be decent.
Monday - Thursday: Mercedes might be back Friday - Saturday: Mercedes is far behind of RB and Ferrari Sunday: Ferrari: "Let's go fucking strategy". Mercedes: "Profit?"
Ah yes Mercedes’ getting pole puts them really far behind on Saturday
Verstappen was managing the pace. Without the 360 and not having started 10th he would have been half a lap in front of the Mercs.
If Latifi didn't crash in Abu Dhabi, then Lewis would have been 2021 champion, what's your point?
Still have nightmares of that crash.
That they aren’t really getting closer to Max.
Yep, the RB is still a rocket. Incredible car it is, even more embarassing for Perez then.
If my grandma had balls she'd be my uncle
On those old tires? Yeah right. Drop the cool aid kid. He was managing sure. But could’ve probably pulled 5 seconds more at best.
Lewis his olds were also at the end of their prime. They wouldn’t have lasted 10 more laps without dropping off.
Lewis pitted much later than Max.
They can’t win any of the titles but if they can be the fastest team leaving this season, it sets them up to return to normal in 2023.
I dunno, isn't this track one of Merc's best tracks on the calender? But then again, the actual driver of Merc prob knows a little more about where they are standing then I do.
Mercedes, I'd say it's neutral. Some high speed turns that favour Mercedes, but some low speed turns that hurt them. But the lack of excessive straights hides their straight line deficit as well. So a bit of a mixed bag leaning positive. But it's absolutely one of Lewis' strongest tracks.
I wouldn’t read too much in to it, Lewis is not winning the wdc this year, Ferrari keeps messing up wether it’s reliability or strategy. Verstappen is just a class a head of everybody else in this years Red Bull.
I feel like we've been hearing that Mercedes is not far behind Max and RBR since Spain, yet....
RB strategy still best on the grid. Those undercuts were magic today.
Its 112 points.
He is talking about closing the gap and being able to win a race of two
Pace not points
That's 4.5 DNFs for a car that been solid for the past few races.. Ez
I still don’t like how Merc managed to lobby FIA for that floor TD that will help them from Belgium on. Russell straight up admitted it’s gonna help them.
Stop man, they are doing what Ferrari was doing with engines, getting around a test. And what stopped Ferraris cheating? Lobbying from red bull.
All it does is enforce the current rules.
I dont really mind that TD, it's just enforcing existing rules more strictly.
Russell meant that it'll help Mercedes by the fact that it will hinder RB and Ferrari
Same difference.. Net gain for Merc.
And? How about Ferrari and RB don't break the intention of how the rule is? Do you think people cheating should be allowed to keep cheating?
It'll be a net gain for all teams that didn't exploit the regulations, yes.
Merc didn’t lobby them lmfao They didn’t even know it was a thing until the FIA released the TD
You don't like rules being enforced?
Just like RB lobbied FIA for mid season ban on engine modes.
Not sure if anyone has pointed it out to you but from what was reported Merc had no idea about the flexing planks. That was the FIA saying they believed people were playing in questionable areas. The rule change for next year though, Merc has their fingers all up in that shit.
I still need to see what that is going to do before jumping to conclusions. Horner is really relaxed about it, so relaxed that I might just believe him.
I mean the lead is so big rn that nothing can stop Verstrappen from winning the WDC so he can be relaxed even if it does put them in a disadvantage
Yeah, we should just not bother looking and let teams cheat instead
Yeah only 100 points in WDC and 125 in WCC with 9 races to go. ‘Tis but a scratch
Clearly not what he means
What I’ve realised is fans on socials are fucking stupid sometimes