F1 2022 Season

BusbyMalone said:
Russell had a good race though
Click to expand...
He did very well, I like him. But as another poster pointed out, track position is key on this track and Russell benefited at the start. He also wasn't impeded on pit exit.

Mercedes expected to go into this season fighting for the title. They are nowhere near as a team. That will be humiliating.
 
Fluctuation0161 said:
He did very well, I like him. But as another poster pointed out, track position is key on this track and Russell benefited at the start. He also wasn't impeded on pit exit.

Mercedes expected to go into this season fighting for the title. They are nowhere near as a team. That will be humiliating.
Click to expand...

Oh, big time. But it's humiliating for Lewis, too. There's no way around it. Being lapped by the guy who you pushed all the way last season and were expected to do this season (before it became apparent their car wasn't up to it) is utterly humiliating for that driver.

Also, not sure if you can merely put it down to track position to explain the huge disparity between Russell and Hamilton today. Ok, he had that pit incident - fair enough. But still doesn't explain the huge difference. Hamilton must take a big part of the blame.
 
Lightbringer said:
Lewis was lucky to get title 7 before Russel came into the team and showed the world whos the most talented driver! Hamilton nothing special when he has to fight the other drivers and not just breeze past them thanks to a monster engine!
Click to expand...
Really!! Lucky to win all the races he has, do me a favour. Lewis clearly driving a dog of a car, struggling to get his set up right, ok Russel has got to grips with his car better than Lewis, but come on lucky, the most talented driver after just 4 races in a Mercedes, utter rubbish.
 
Lightbringer said:
Lewis was lucky to get title 7 before Russel came into the team and showed the world whos the most talented driver! Hamilton nothing special when he has to fight the other drivers and not just breeze past them thanks to a monster engine!
Click to expand...
Rosberg and Alonso are two very very good drivers. Bottas today showed he's a very good driver. Even if Russel were to finish this season ahead, it may just be that Hamilton's age is finally catching up to him. You watch football, therefore you should be aware that even the best decline.
 
Not sure if anything came of it but on the install lap Lewis was complaining that the engine wasn't running right. He was told on the radio that the team thought it was an issue related just to the install lap engine mode but if it wasn't it might explain in part how poor he was in the race. I think Rosberg said in comms he must have had 20 attempts to pass Gasly.
 
BusbyMalone said:
Oh, big time. But it's humiliating for Lewis, too. There's no way around it. Being lapped by the guy who you pushed all the way last season and were expected to do this season (before it became apparent their car wasn't up to it) is utterly humiliating for that driver.

Also, not sure if you can merely put it down to track position to explain the huge disparity between Russell and Hamilton today. Ok, he had that pit incident - fair enough. But still doesn't explain the huge difference. Hamilton must take a big part of the blame.
Click to expand...
Definitely a wtf moment, I'm sure. Considering the injustice of last season and also Max's antics last season it will have been incredibly frustrating for Hamilton. But reality is the team haven't made a car that's good enough to compete yet.

I think for this race, George had a great start, lucked out with the crash in front of him and Valtteri's 10 second pitstop, Hamilton isn't doing great, but he was stuck in a bad spot and a drs train with very few overtaking areas.
 
antsmithmk said:
Not sure if anything came of it but on the install lap Lewis was complaining that the engine wasn't running right. He was told on the radio that the team thought it was an issue related just to the install lap engine mode but if it wasn't it might explain in part how poor he was in the race. I think Rosberg said in comms he must have had 20 attempts to pass Gasly.
Click to expand...
Interesting, I must've missed that.
 
Well-driven race by Verstappen and the lead is now what 25 points? That's like one DNF. Not sure about Charles pushing and crashing. On one hand, you don't win by being safe, but he could have got a podium driving safe and only got sixth in the end. Red Bull warming up well now.
 
fishfingers15 said:
Well-driven race by Verstappen and the lead is now what 25 points? That's like one DNF. Not sure about Charles pushing and crashing. On one hand, you don't win by being safe, but he could have got a podium driving safe and only got sixth in the end. Red Bull warming up well now.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Red Bull looking really strong. Max seems dialed in at the moment. He's been incredibly unlucky this season so far, but to only be 26 points behind after already having two DNFs is impressive. Hopefully, him and Charles can keep it up.
 
I wonder if RB have sorted their issues now, they never had any porpoising to begin with. The biggest problem was reliability which probably wasn't tested that much in the quite cold conditions today. So something to keep an eye on in sunny Miami.
 
It’s strange though, that Ferrari bounces around like crazy too but it doesn’t seem to impact performance as it does to Mercedes. The reality is, this Mercedes car isn’t going to be competitive this season and, if they’ve made a mistake in their unfeeling car ethos, they may not be catching up next season either.

It’s amazing how Newey consistently makes brilliant cars aerodynamically. Have they ever been off the pace from that perspective ever since they began winning with Vettel? I know obviously at times they were a long way back from Mercedes but to me that stemmed from engine deficit which they had to compensate for with an unoptimal aero setup.
 
rpitroda said:
It’s strange though, that Ferrari bounces around like crazy too but it doesn’t seem to impact performance as it does to Mercedes. The reality is, this Mercedes car isn’t going to be competitive this season and, if they’ve made a mistake in their unfeeling car ethos, they may not be catching up next season either.

It’s amazing how Newey consistently makes brilliant cars aerodynamically. Have they ever been off the pace from that perspective ever since they began winning with Vettel? I know obviously at times they were a long way back from Mercedes but to me that stemmed from engine deficit which they had to compensate for with an unoptimal aero setup.
Click to expand...
I think the Ferrari bounces as bad, if not worse than the Merc. I think the bouncing might be masking other issues for Mercedes.
 
mitChley said:
Which his teammate came 4th in, awkward.
Click to expand...

Yes it is awkward. But Russell got the breaks and Lewis didn't. Of course Toto wants to keep Lewis motivated. He is their star driver. But Lewis is highly experienced and understands the situation.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
Really!! Lucky to win all the races he has, do me a favour. Lewis clearly driving a dog of a car, struggling to get his set up right, ok Russel has got to grips with his car better than Lewis, but come on lucky, the most talented driver after just 4 races in a Mercedes, utter rubbish.
Click to expand...

People have very short memories. They forget he had a team mate who became world champion.
They forget the number of races he has won.
If that was lucky, we would all wish for that type of luck.
 
I thought this may have been the case. Obviously, the sprint race is relatively new, so no surprise.

Max Verstappen is first driver to win qualifying, sprint race, main race and get fastest lap in one event.
Click to expand...
 
antsmithmk said:
I think the Ferrari bounces as bad, if not worse than the Merc. I think the bouncing might be masking other issues for Mercedes.
Click to expand...
The rari bounces brifefly on the straights , the problem for Merc is that they bounce on entry into the corners as well.
 
Rado_N said:
What happened to Leclerc and Ferrari today?
Click to expand...
Sainz had a small collision with Ricciardo and had to retire. LeClerc had a small slipup and almost crashed which cost him the 3rd place. Bad luck basically. But RB was faster anyway
 
Rado_N said:
What happened to Leclerc and Ferrari today?
Click to expand...

They were slower than Red Bull, Leclerc was third and opted for new set of soft tires since they had nothing to lose, Norris was far behind in fourth. As he was pushing with new set he made a mistake(similar to one where he made a save in qualifying) and almost crashed, but manage to save it but had to enter pit and change his front wing.

Risked going for second but end up in sixth.
 
RoyH1 said:
Sainz had a small collision with Ricciardo and had to retire. LeClerc had a small slipup and almost crashed which cost him the 3rd place. Bad luck basically. But RB was faster anyway
Click to expand...
Amar__ said:
They were slower than Red Bull, Leclerc was third and opted for new set of soft tires since they had nothing to lose, Norris was far behind in fourth. As he was pushing with new set he made a mistake(similar to one where he made a save in qualifying) and almost crashed, but manage to save it but had to enter pit and change his front wing.

Risked going for second but end up in sixth.
Click to expand...

Thanks both!
 
Rado_N said:
What happened to Leclerc and Ferrari today?
Click to expand...
The simple answer is he had a poor start off the line, then when he caught Perez DRS wasn't turned on because of the wet track.

They clearly had the car setup for more downforce/less top speed relying on the DRS to overtake, but the red bull is too fast in a straight line.

He eventually settled for 3rd but then pitted for soft tyres to do the fastest lap, but then so did both red bulls. He then pushed too hard and span.

They weren't exactly slow today he just never got the chance to chase Max.
 
There were times last season Leclerc got lapped by Verstappen/Hamilton too. Sometimes it happens.

If you get stuck in a DRS train like that it's very difficult to overtake. People are just using this quite normal situation to take a stab at Hamilton which is a bit silly.
 
rpitroda said:
It’s strange though, that Ferrari bounces around like crazy too but it doesn’t seem to impact performance as it does to Mercedes. The reality is, this Mercedes car isn’t going to be competitive this season and, if they’ve made a mistake in their unfeeling car ethos, they may not be catching up next season either.

It’s amazing how Newey consistently makes brilliant cars aerodynamically. Have they ever been off the pace from that perspective ever since they began winning with Vettel? I know obviously at times they were a long way back from Mercedes but to me that stemmed from engine deficit which they had to compensate for with an unoptimal aero setup.
Click to expand...
Ferrari seems to stop bouncing when it arrives at a corner or under breaking whereas Mercedes can't control it. I can't see anyone solving it this year either due to the restrictions on R&D so it might just be case of sitting out of the title fight for a year.
 
rpitroda said:
It’s strange though, that Ferrari bounces around like crazy too but it doesn’t seem to impact performance as it does to Mercedes. The reality is, this Mercedes car isn’t going to be competitive this season and, if they’ve made a mistake in their unfeeling car ethos, they may not be catching up next season either.

It’s amazing how Newey consistently makes brilliant cars aerodynamically. Have they ever been off the pace from that perspective ever since they began winning with Vettel? I know obviously at times they were a long way back from Mercedes but to me that stemmed from engine deficit which they had to compensate for with an unoptimal aero setup.
Click to expand...

Could have sworn I read some analysis somewhere showing that the Ferrari is mostly bouncing only at the highest speed on the ends of straights, but as soon as any braking is applied it locks back down to the track. For Mercedes, they are still having porpoising issues on corner entries, which is making things extremely difficult for the drivers (and could perhaps explain why Russell has adapted better - obviously he's far more used to a shitbox car than Lewis).

Dunno the extent to which this might be down to the sidepod design? If McClaren's improvement is genuine, then with the same Merc engine it would suggest that the benefits in downforce and cooling from the wider sidepod likely outweigh the aero benefits - which might be negated by the porpoising issue anyhow.
 
Dan said:


Click to expand...

Adam-Utd said:
The simple answer is he had a poor start off the line, then when he caught Perez DRS wasn't turned on because of the wet track.

They clearly had the car setup for more downforce/less top speed relying on the DRS to overtake, but the red bull is too fast in a straight line.

He eventually settled for 3rd but then pitted for soft tyres to do the fastest lap, but then so did both red bulls. He then pushed too hard and span.

They weren't exactly slow today he just never got the chance to chase Max.
Click to expand...

Thanks :)
 
God imola is a crap track. Probably most boring race of season so far, which is saying alot with Spain and Monaco to come.

Not good that russell is getting back and chest pains from the porposing. Definitely out performing the car at present.

Hopefully we can get the leclerc/max track battle back for miami
 
Not a good race to watch, at all. Which is saying something when it was wet. Great weekend for Max. Didn't think we'd see this maturity from him so soon. If he keeps grinding I see Ferrari doing their thing and being the bridesmaid again with max getting his 2nd WDC. Sainz is firmly support driver now. Russell and Hamilton is interesting. Hamilton slightly underperforming Russell but then getting caught up like you do in the middle of the pack. I just don't see how Mercedes and Hamilton get close anytime soon. His records are about done.
 
Max has DNF'd half the races in the season. Let's not call the race as over in his favour just yet, LeClerc will still be in the lead even if he DNF's and Max wins. The Ferrari is incredibly strong and today was just a bland race. The rain giving everyone on the left side a boost off the start and no DRS for 30 laps so no overtaking and Max with an hour of complete clean air. On any other day there'd have been a fight at the front again like yesterday where on equal conditions he jumped Max off the start line and held him off for 20 laps. Sainz unlucky with Daniel hitting him, nothing he could have done about that.

The title race is likely over for Hamilton unless they fix their issues quick, but the fact that they're so stubbornly sticking with their design means they must have an absolute beast under there that they believe in otherwise they'd have changed out their radical design already. Whether they fix it in time or not is another matter but doesn't seem likely, Toto's message to Hamilton today had no positivity, just apologies so the situation looking grim for the foreseeable. I think it's a bit knee jerky to say his records are done, you don't go from being the best constructor of all of them to completely done with just because of a poor season. Ferrari had years of poor seasons and look at them now.
 
The older you get and the more you've already fought, the less interest you have of fighting to get back to the top if things go wrong.

Hamilton will retire soon, because he's already been through the fight and he won't be arsed with a crap car. Doesn't make him a bad driver, doesn't make Russell (a man who's achieved nothing) a better driver. It's just life. If Mercedes sort the car out this season he'll probably stick around, if they don't he'll doubtless go try something else.
 
Camilo said:
The older you get and the more you've already fought, the less interest you have of fighting to get back to the top if things go wrong.

Hamilton will retire soon, because he's already been through the fight and he won't be arsed with a crap car. Doesn't make him a bad driver, doesn't make Russell (a man who's achieved nothing) a better driver. It's just life. If Mercedes sort the car out this season he'll probably stick around, if they don't he'll doubtless go try something else.
Click to expand...
This is a fair comment.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.