They must have had a reason to pit him. Cant imagine they just thought feck it, lets do it for banter.
I remember just before he pitted the commentators did say there was a black cloud coming over the start / finish line. Maybe that swayed them
F1 2021 Season
- Thread starter pauldyson1uk
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They must have had a reason to pit him. Cant imagine they just thought feck it, lets do it for banter.
I remember just before he pitted the commentators did say there was a black cloud coming over the start / finish line. Maybe that swayed them
The sky was black and looked like rain, they made the call based on that I think.
Yeah, maybe that would be the best move. It was too late by the time he pitted.
Except they didn’t tell him that. They instead accidentally gave him the impression that he wasn’t going to lose any places by making the stop (seemingly from his very relaxed initial reaction and then his fury after seeing where he came out).
Get in there Max! With 3 races which are favorable to Red Bull to go he should seal the championship this season. Just hope for no tricks from Hamilton or Merc to try run Max out of one of the races.
Also he was losing time on Perez behind him who had just come in (and everyone else with new tires). I'm thinking the mistake was using his talent to drive old tires in the first place instead of pitting with everyone else and using it to be faster. He really should have come in around the time Max did but it's always easier with hindsight. If rain had come the last 10 laps and all were forced to wets it would have been a different story.
Yes. That is very fair. The standard of driving, Mazapin apart was excellent.
Honestly.... this isn't dodgems.
Was yellow flag central when Vettel came out on those mediums!
what a mad decisionHow much was Hamilton losing per lap when they brought him in? Seemed 1 sec at most? Weird decisions today.
AH OK I did not see the yellow flags, my excuse was I was having to do a bit of work.
But was daft to put mediums on
Need to see the lap by lap but he was 14 seconds clear of Perez and wasn’t losing time when he came in.
These last 2 races have worked out beautifully for Max. Perfect timing for him and bad decision making by everyone else last race to grab 2nd from nowhere. Today, Lewis then Merc making poor decisions. Plenty of surprises yet but Max favorite.
Really bad decision to bring Lewis is. At worst he would’ve been taken by Perez if he’d stayed out and even that’s not a foregone conclusion. Very few we’re getting past late in the race.
Max big favourite for the title now.
This thread has some horrendous posts in it.
Max big favourite for the title now.
This thread has some horrendous posts in it.
I thought the gap was down to about 10s by the time he came in. Chances are Perez would’ve closed in on him. But it’s not a given. Lewis would’ve got at least 4th had he not pitted. Bad call
They don’t just look out the window, they have radars to predict the rain and there was no suggestion that was in their thinking.
Others seem to think not, but I think he’d have been overtaken by Perez regardless at the pace he was going before the pit, let alone after another 10 laps of deg. I thought he was 11 seconds ahead and losing a second a lap. I genuinely don’t think they thought the graining period would hurt him like it did.
I guess the next is race is going to be a huge indication of whether Mercedes have jumped forward in pace. If not, you’ve got to question taking the penalty this week and not on one of the RB favoured tracks.
Listening to Toto sounds like he would have ended behind Gasly if he didn't pit. If that's the case, Hamilton making the original call to stay out was the only error.
Maybe his tyres would've completely gone. Enormous risk of not finishing vs taking 10+ points.
Yeah Toto mentioned the fast drop off.
That’s true. No way of really knowing what would’ve happened but Lewis gave the impression that he felt ok and didn’t want to come in
should have pitted him earlier, or not bothered at all.
Ocon managed to finish on the same set of tyres, I think Ham would have been fine also.
Clearly Merc played the over cautious hand and better to be safer than sorry. Yet again hindsight is a wonderful thing.
It seems Mercedes completely ignored the graining phase which seemed odd, everybody who pitted suffered the same thing.
Ocon managed to finish on the same set of tyres, I think Ham would have been fine also.
Clearly Merc played the over cautious hand and better to be safer than sorry. Yet again hindsight is a wonderful thing.
It seems Mercedes completely ignored the graining phase which seemed odd, everybody who pitted suffered the same thing.
An error which the team didn't contest that much.
Anyway. It is over now and he lives to fight another day/race.
Ocon lost 25s to Stroll and 15s to Giovanazzi in 9 laps. So i seriously doubt it.
Yeah. They seemed ok with it. Very tight decisions.
We'll never know but I think it was the wrong call by Mercedes. Then again he might have got a puncture and a DNF.
It's all going Max's way, lewis needs Max's luck.to change.
It's all going Max's way, lewis needs Max's luck.to change.
Are we allowing children on this forum?
I think with 6 points (and lets be honest the majority of that came from the spa farce) anything is still possible
With the upgraded pu I certainly think Hamilton is going to be capable of taking the fight to max
It does seem with ocon making through on one set that it must have been an option for Lewis but one the team felt sub optimal
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Though we had gone past silly posts like that, but apparently not
It wasn't luck that he wasted so much time behind Tsunoda and that he couldn't get past Perez. Merc had by far the fastest car, as evidenced by easy victory from Bottas. Lewis can blame himself.
Hamilton would have finished 5th anyway if he hadnt pitted when he did and there was greater risk for tire failure. The mistake was to not pit him earlier, it wasn't to pit him later on. Ocon was losing 7 seconds per lap by the end on those worn out tires
Ocon fell off an absolute cliff at the end and hadn't put nearly as much stress on his tyres as Lewis had done via overtaking. The mistake was Lewis overruling his team on the earlier call to pit. If he'd stayed on the same tyres he's probably still P5 but the risk of a puncture and DNF is astronomically higher. Can't blame the team for living to fight another day.
Luck?
Has anyone got a link to a lap by lap breakdown of splits etc?
To be fair the last couple of races have gone perfectly for Max - the rain appears in Sochi saving him from P7/P8 and getting him P2, and it hangs around enough to stop Hamilton's gambit to wait for the track to dry out today. You can be lucky and good.
I thought that was a pretty decent race I enjoyed it. Really good & quiet drive by Bottas. Controlled things nicely all race. Almost looking a new man since confirmation of his last Mercedes season. Sainz very impressive too with the overtakes and to finish where he did considering his starting position in a difficult race.
On the Hamilton (and LeClerc) debate about whether they should have stayed out or come in. I've yet to see anything to convince me that both should have stayed out and took their chances. Unless there were some severe safety concerns with the tyres, it was worth a go as coming on guaranteed a worse result than staying out. I actually felt bad for Hamilton which is very rare!
My biggest disappointment was seeing Alonso spinning off so early in the race. Vettel and his team choosing to slicks as well was a colossal failure.
On the Hamilton (and LeClerc) debate about whether they should have stayed out or come in. I've yet to see anything to convince me that both should have stayed out and took their chances. Unless there were some severe safety concerns with the tyres, it was worth a go as coming on guaranteed a worse result than staying out. I actually felt bad for Hamilton which is very rare!
My biggest disappointment was seeing Alonso spinning off so early in the race. Vettel and his team choosing to slicks as well was a colossal failure.
Yes.
Hard to judge, I don't think Ham was losing a significant amount of time though at that point?
We've seen before that Hamilton is able to keep his tyres together better than anybody. The only risk was the tyres popping but they didn't seem that bad at the end of the race when they showed them either.
He lost 1.5 seconds to both Perez and Leclerc on lap 50, with a ~10 second advantage. With 8 laps to go, you'd have to say the latter two would be favoured to get past him, especially as tyre degradation got worse.
Hamilton is of course unbelievable at looking out for his tyres but much of that advantage will have been negated by his overtaking early on. And with all due respect I think you're overlooking the exponential rate of tyre decline - here's what Ocon's tyres looked like at the end of the race, and he also said that he thought with one more lap he'd have had a puncture: