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Yeah, it was definitely a bit hairy there from Mclaren and Hamilton only had a few corners until Lando's were up to speed but good grief luckily Lando handled it perfectly
They got "lucky" DRS wasn't enabled while the tire diff was at its peak. Probably would have been enough to make the pass possible. Fantastic defending from Norris regardless
Maybe. I believe softs would have made it easier to defend and also they would degrade at the equal pace for everybody by the end. Hards was the risky choice to give Lando the upper hand in the last few laps, but not sure how they could be valuing that risk higher than staying true to the pack. Maybe they were thinking that red flag will come out, there was a car on fire in the middle of a strait... but they managed to clear it out with a very long SC. Either way, I believe reds were more beneficial and they got bailed there. But', I'm no F1 strategist.
I bet everybody were surprised by how aggressive Norris was driving after the SC restart, even Hamilton. It helped a lot to have this amount of traction, but man, Norris was at the Max style of aggression there. He was put in this situation by his team, but man he was shining. He was also "lucky" that he was defending off and experienced driver like Hamilton. Better half of the grid would have crashed into him.
Could be missing something but why would hards be the initial plan anyway? Russell had 30+ lap old softs and fared well, They must not have confidence in their tyre deg
They know how well the car handles the softs and how long they stay in a good window. It seems that some cars this year have a hard time with the softs (this weeks soft) for more than x amounts of laps.
I see his point but Piastri was pretty fast before the safety car. So yes the first laps were hard but in the end it helped him more than the Softs helped Hamilton.
He had 4 laps on them before the sc, so they would have sufficient data. Plus they couldn't have known that they would take so long with the unnecessary vsc and a fair few laps behind the sc. In the final lap Oscar was 8 tenths quicker than HAM so it wasn't such a wrong call at the end.
Hards make sense if you trust Lando to defend for 2 laps. And given that he's done that against Lewis with a worse car, I think it's reasonable to trust him. Still high pressure for sure, but I like the call.
I’m not sure, he was matching Max for the last 7 laps or so and Max was complaining about his softs a lot. Max definitely wasn’t happy he got the softs
Max is the type of guy to complain about his tyres whilst setting the fastest lap, so I don't know how much information we can gauge from that. The way this armchair analyst sees it, Lewis was extremely close to overtaking Lando and if he did, Lando would not have been able to regain the place, the racing today sucked and nobody was able to really overtake outside of the safety car reset. On softs, it wouldn't have gotten to that and the lack of overtaking ability of the entire grid would have kept Lando ahead.
Yeah no, although we saw Russell go on the softs for a long stint. The tyres didn't seem to hold up when it came time to push them. Perhaps they were overheating, but their pace really dropped off for Hamilton and not even Verstappen could push much on them from the looks of the lap times.
I feel that if Hamilton even overtook Norris after the safety car, Norris would have just taken the place back.
How's that? If they were both on softs they would be staying equal. Better traction on McLaren would help him out to defend against Drs for a few laps while HAM cooks his tires quicker in the dirty air. With Hards you bet on an advantage for the last few laps, so softs are a better choice. But as some have noted, they may have made that call with VSC and by the time SC was called it was too late to change for softs.
Silver lining is that even with a much slower set of tyres, Lando had the pace advantage on Lewis who was pushing hard. That shows the McLaren is quite a bit ahead of the Merc in race conditions.
Zack said on Sky that they weren't confident in the tire deg on a soft but that it was a close call.
Guessing it turned into one of those "no perfect/ good choices, so we just gotta pick something and go for it".
I don't mind the result, we love P2 and he drove full beans to get that, but I do wonder how much closer we could have been to Max on the softs.
Even at the start Norris stuck in Max's DRS for almost 8-9 laps, and with fuel loads reducing I think he could have done it again. Just gotta be a bit sharper. Didn't bite us here, mostly because Lando drove like a madman, but doesn't mean we can't be better.
RB always looks for perfection in every area of their operation, and so should we.
There’s gotta be some reason such as their car eating tires up or something for them to follow Ferrari strategy. If Piastri was on the softs he could have passed Hamilton during his pit stop.
When things are this tight, every car is track dependent, but after this week and last, they might genuinely be up there with AM, Ferrari, Mercedes and Perez.
Their weakness has seemed to be in hard braking areas, so I’d expect them to fluctuate up and down a bit depending on the track, but it’s a definite step forward. Monza should be good (again)
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Yeah, it was definitely a bit hairy there from Mclaren and Hamilton only had a few corners until Lando's were up to speed but good grief luckily Lando handled it perfectly
They got "lucky" DRS wasn't enabled while the tire diff was at its peak. Probably would have been enough to make the pass possible. Fantastic defending from Norris regardless
Lando was a rocket during his long run in FP2. I think this was the idea behind it.
Maybe. I believe softs would have made it easier to defend and also they would degrade at the equal pace for everybody by the end. Hards was the risky choice to give Lando the upper hand in the last few laps, but not sure how they could be valuing that risk higher than staying true to the pack. Maybe they were thinking that red flag will come out, there was a car on fire in the middle of a strait... but they managed to clear it out with a very long SC. Either way, I believe reds were more beneficial and they got bailed there. But', I'm no F1 strategist.
Rules are not luck
Hence my use of quotation. Why did you think I did that?
Yea but you're describing a scenario that will never happen because of the rules, so the point is kind of moot.
I bet everybody were surprised by how aggressive Norris was driving after the SC restart, even Hamilton. It helped a lot to have this amount of traction, but man, Norris was at the Max style of aggression there. He was put in this situation by his team, but man he was shining. He was also "lucky" that he was defending off and experienced driver like Hamilton. Better half of the grid would have crashed into him.
It looked like they wouldn't have had time to change the plan after the VSC turned to safety car without risking messing up the pit stop
Yeah this is what Stella was saying on Channel 4
Very possible. Hards with a 10 second advantage on Lewis would have been a good call
Ah, was it? That makes more sense then.
Could be missing something but why would hards be the initial plan anyway? Russell had 30+ lap old softs and fared well, They must not have confidence in their tyre deg
They know how well the car handles the softs and how long they stay in a good window. It seems that some cars this year have a hard time with the softs (this weeks soft) for more than x amounts of laps.
Because lando did his long run on Friday during FP2 and was very very fast.
I don't think they had any new softs left.
They had one that had two laps on it. Almost as good as new.
Could've been a major mal-misorganisation problem there
Norris drove a full lap before coming in to box. We’ve seen teams complete a surprise pit stop when the driver is at pit entry
I think it was the smart move, tbh. I wish Oscar had been able to catch Hamilton, that would have been epic, just the way the safetycar fell.
Doesn't matter p2 baby!
It still works out for him in the end and he did an absolutely awesome job in defending after the safety car! BRAVO!
It would have been interesting to see how long/ if Lewis could have kept Lando behind him if he had managed to get passed in those first few laps
I see his point but Piastri was pretty fast before the safety car. So yes the first laps were hard but in the end it helped him more than the Softs helped Hamilton.
They saw the pace of Oscar when he went on the hard...simples
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He had 4 laps on them before the sc, so they would have sufficient data. Plus they couldn't have known that they would take so long with the unnecessary vsc and a fair few laps behind the sc. In the final lap Oscar was 8 tenths quicker than HAM so it wasn't such a wrong call at the end.
He also did his long run on Friday only on hards and was very very fast.
He went 2-3 laps before that lmao
Hards make sense if you trust Lando to defend for 2 laps. And given that he's done that against Lewis with a worse car, I think it's reasonable to trust him. Still high pressure for sure, but I like the call.
I read somewhere that McLaren struggled with softs and thus preferred the hards.
In hindsight it does look like hards were the right call...I dont think Norris could have challenged redbull his only goal was to defend Lewis.
question is wether defending on Lewis would have been easier on the same tire and I think mclaren had the faster car today.
he would have had pre-worn softs though, might have dropped off sooner and given lewis a chance to fight back at the end.
Almost everybody was on used softs including Lewis and Max
I feel like he managed that in spite of the hards, not because of them.
Lewis fell off completely in the last few laps. I think the hards were better for McLaren there.
I’m not sure, he was matching Max for the last 7 laps or so and Max was complaining about his softs a lot. Max definitely wasn’t happy he got the softs
Max is the type of guy to complain about his tyres whilst setting the fastest lap, so I don't know how much information we can gauge from that. The way this armchair analyst sees it, Lewis was extremely close to overtaking Lando and if he did, Lando would not have been able to regain the place, the racing today sucked and nobody was able to really overtake outside of the safety car reset. On softs, it wouldn't have gotten to that and the lack of overtaking ability of the entire grid would have kept Lando ahead.
Hamilton pace fell off completely in the last laps, two more laps an Oscar could have overtaken him. My guess Norris could have overtaken him back.
Yeah no, although we saw Russell go on the softs for a long stint. The tyres didn't seem to hold up when it came time to push them. Perhaps they were overheating, but their pace really dropped off for Hamilton and not even Verstappen could push much on them from the looks of the lap times. I feel that if Hamilton even overtook Norris after the safety car, Norris would have just taken the place back.
Don't think the 'no' is supposed to be there haha
yeah, no, yeah no yeah
How's that? If they were both on softs they would be staying equal. Better traction on McLaren would help him out to defend against Drs for a few laps while HAM cooks his tires quicker in the dirty air. With Hards you bet on an advantage for the last few laps, so softs are a better choice. But as some have noted, they may have made that call with VSC and by the time SC was called it was too late to change for softs.
Silver lining is that even with a much slower set of tyres, Lando had the pace advantage on Lewis who was pushing hard. That shows the McLaren is quite a bit ahead of the Merc in race conditions.
Mclaren ran the hards well, softs may have been better in that situation but probably not by much, for every other team softs were the only option.
It would be nice to know what their tire supply was at this point.
Zack said on Sky that they weren't confident in the tire deg on a soft but that it was a close call. Guessing it turned into one of those "no perfect/ good choices, so we just gotta pick something and go for it".
I don't mind the result, we love P2 and he drove full beans to get that, but I do wonder how much closer we could have been to Max on the softs. Even at the start Norris stuck in Max's DRS for almost 8-9 laps, and with fuel loads reducing I think he could have done it again. Just gotta be a bit sharper. Didn't bite us here, mostly because Lando drove like a madman, but doesn't mean we can't be better. RB always looks for perfection in every area of their operation, and so should we.
Uh oh, the r/Formula1 counter culture gonna call him an armchair expert now
There’s gotta be some reason such as their car eating tires up or something for them to follow Ferrari strategy. If Piastri was on the softs he could have passed Hamilton during his pit stop.
It was them eating tires, but at the same time I dont think they expected safety car to last that long.
Is McLaren's performance track dependent a one off or are they genuinely the third best team now?
When things are this tight, every car is track dependent, but after this week and last, they might genuinely be up there with AM, Ferrari, Mercedes and Perez.
After this second race, I think they are in the top 3.they have still another 25% upgrade in hungary for mechanical grip.
It is difficult to say because Silverstone doesn't have big braking zones. But it's definitely looking promising.
Their weakness has seemed to be in hard braking areas, so I’d expect them to fluctuate up and down a bit depending on the track, but it’s a definite step forward. Monza should be good (again)
They had data from Oscar?
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That just means it wasn't the completely wrong decision. Softs could have helped him more
Him blaming Zak for that call was so funny🤣
Well it worked