2021 motor racing thread

[NickNick]

Getting interesting with some tire wear.

Maybe, but its basically guaranteed if Lewis is complaining about his tires, they are fine.

 

[ralphc1]

That was harsh for gasly.
Alonso rightly so got 5 for his collision.

Then they let Sainz just slap Vettel.

 

[rearnakedchoke]

Then they let Sainz just slap Vettel.

Yeah. I guess you have to not knock the person off the track to avoid a penalty.
Pit window open

 

[NickNick]

Hopefully Perez can find his form from Boku when Hamilton catches him.

 

[NickNick]

So if their inters have basically turned to slicks, what tire is everyone going to switch to? Basically on Ricciardo's pace, new inters are slow for a few laps but OK after that.

 

[NickNick]

Oh man Vettel on slicks, if those work I wonder if Mercedes will do the same with Bottas or Hamilton.

Never mind, it was a very bad choice lol

 

[ralphc1]

If it rains, it was a good move to pit but if it doesn't and Hamilton could have stayed ahead of Leclerc and Perez, it's a big loss in points for Mercedes in the constructors championship.

 

[ralphc1]

Mercedes screwed the pooch once again! Lewis could have had third or at least 4th.

 

[NickNick]

Pretty much the only type of race Bottas is capable of winning, props none the less. I didn't expect him to get a win at all this year.

 

[rearnakedchoke]

Mercedes screwed the pooch once again! Lewis could have had third or at least 4th.

Yeah. That was a dumb move imo. Unless they had forecast that rain was coming. But it didn’t.

 

[legatoblues]

Dumb move to stop at the end, but also Dumb moment for lewis not stopping when they first called him in 10 laps earlier - he probably would have held 3rd if he made that earlier stop.

The championship fight continues, what a year

 

[Deffid]

Dumb move to stop at the end, but also Dumb moment for lewis not stopping when they first called him in 10 laps earlier - he probably would have held 3rd if he made that earlier stop.

The championship fight continues, what a year

Yeah either he should have went to the box early or not at all, what they ended up doing was the worst decision...I think Lewis held out hope that he could use the softs at the end, but when that wasn't possible they should have let him finish (especially with his history of doing great things with run down tyres).

 

[NickNick]

Dumb move to stop at the end, but also Dumb moment for lewis not stopping when they first called him in 10 laps earlier - he probably would have held 3rd if he made that earlier stop.

The championship fight continues, what a year

Yeah, IMO this is on Lewis more than Mercedes. Had he pitted when they originally wanted, he probably would have finished higher and had a chance to fight at the end. He put himself in no mans land by delaying it. Ocon was the only one to keep his tires for the whole race and according to the commentary he lost 4 seconds alone to Gio on the last lap alone so Lewis would have gotten passed had he stayed out.

 

[rearnakedchoke]

Lewis took the gamble and his team didn’t follow through. He was made to box and even he was like, are you sure? I think the track dried out enough that the tires would have last and allowed him to keep track position. But it’s all moot now, another title lead change makes this more exciting.

 

[supnmunm]

Lewis should have come in earlier, at least then he would have gone past the training phase and fought with Leclerc and Perez. Too risky to stay out on those tyres.

Ocon stuck it out and his tyres looked terrible after the race, front right you could see the carcass was exposed from so much wear. Looked very dangerous.

 

[ralphc1]

Dumb move to stop at the end, but also Dumb moment for lewis not stopping when they first called him in 10 laps earlier - he probably would have held 3rd if he made that earlier stop.

The championship fight continues, what a year

If Lewis had stopped when they first wanted him to he would still have been behind Leclerc and Perez and finished 5th. No way to get to third as they would all have been on equal tires. The smart move was to try to finish on the original tires. If he stops. the best he could do was fifth. If he didn't stop, the best he could have finished was third and the worst was fifth unless it started raining heavily. Lewis was right not to trust the team.

 

[the big marmot]

someone should make a gif out of toto wolf reaction to bottas win

 

[legatoblues]

If Lewis had stopped when they first wanted him to he would still have been behind Leclerc and Perez and finished 5th. No way to get to third as they would all have been on equal tires. The smart move was to try to finish on the original tires. If he stops. the best he could do was fifth. If he didn't stop, the best he could have finished was third and the worst was fifth unless it started raining heavily. Lewis was right not to trust the team.

It was stop with Perez or not at all. I think he had a very real chance to pass Perez (as he had much better pace up to that point of the race) and Leclerc's gamble would have put him behind Lewis at that point as well, but Lewis making the call to stay out allowed Perez to get up to speed and close the pitstop gap down. It was a call that should have been either/or, not "ok we'll pit later".

 

[rearnakedchoke]

someone should make a gif out of toto wolf reaction to bottas win

 

[NickNick]

Red Bull is making some noise about Mercedes newfound top speed. Some people are speculating Mercedes is just running their engines harder, even using Bottas and his multiple engine penalties to test out what they could get away with.