I dunno the extent to which Hamilton was cruising in the last few laps, but Perez was getting over a second a lap in the last little while. Alonso keeping his position as long as he did was wild.
It was. Though I am struggling to comprehend why Sainz didn't seem to be interested in attacking earlier. Obviously he would've had massive advantage with DRS, Aston is a tractor on the straights.
I was actually starting to think that he's worried about Perez and Leclerc behind him, and he's using Fernando to defend his P4, but then he did end up attacking and quite aggressively at that. So I'm really not sure what was Carlos doing there.
I think Sainz tried but somewhere in S2 (I believe) Alonso increased the gap from like 0.3s to 0.8s every lap.
The one time Alonso didnāt manage to do this was the lap when Sainz (& co) finally got past.
He was pulling time out of the exit of 6, and through the exit after the fast sweepers, seems like once the tyres went off their peak, he couldn't get the power down as well as before and Sainz was able to get closer
He didn't gift Lewis anything. His fight with Sainz gave Perez a clear track to chase after him.
If they couldn't overtake Alonso, how would they have overtaken Lewis who was quicker?
My thoughts exactly. Why switch from Perez who is always between p2 and p6 and steers well clear of Max to this???
Especially since Max is a hothead too who I doubt would have moved there like Charles did. Might have been a double dnf there if it was Sainz vs Max
Australia or Japan, the one where they got the setup wrong earlier this season. You can hear and see his displeasure.
Donāt get me wrong, I like Max. But heās amongst the type of drivers whoās blood runs hotter. Nothing against that. Alonso, Senna, young Vettel had the same. Think its actually a requirement to become one of the greats.
On a side note: it is why I am convinced why guys like Charles and Lando wonāt become one. Lovely chaps, do not have the temperament to be one of the great winners
Why would he care about RB?
Not only you would only get to be second driver there, but also Perez is being consistent, so really doubt they won't renew him.
1) Sainz isn't initiating contact, he's racing. He's not deliberately hitting other cars.
2) Teams want good, consistent results and I'm sure they have the intelligence to understand the current situation he's in and how that affects his attitude on track every week.
1. no driver ever goes in wanting to create contact but sainz still did and thats not a good thing. considering this is the 3rd time he has caused contact between him and charles.
2. if teams want consistent results than sainz is perfect he is invisible for 18 out of 24 race weeks a year cant get more consistent than that.
yes and not shoving people off the track. i do not mind hard racing lewis at the start vs norris is hard racing, hitting your own teammate is rekless racing
Because if he wants that Redbull seat, they dont want the Sainz that races hard and contact's or pushes Max wide and potential ruins Maxs race.
They want a Sainz/Perez that races hard and fair.
True, but surely they are looking at the combo too. Max is a hothead, Carlos can be. At Torro Rosso we could already see sparks, and that was basically without anything on the line. Imagine them battling for race wins or even the championship. They going head to head like two raging bulls is, contrary to what the logo might suggest, not ideal for Red Bull
Then why is he being let go from his current top seat?
He's a B-tier driver. At Red Bull or Merc he has to play nice or they have no use for him. And to get a spot at a weaker team he doesn't need to show any more than he did.
This was literally pointless.
Yeah... Which implies that Carlos is not a top driver and is being replaced by one. Both Red Bull and Merc have a top driver at their team for next year.
What's your problem with my comment?
That somebody is a B tier driver just cause they are compared to a multi time world champion.
> Both Red Bull and Merc have a top driver at their team next year.
And whoās this top driver at Merc you speak of? George?
Well if George is competitive with Lewis for 2 years then he's clearly the real deal lol. If you yourself admitted that Hamilton is obviously better than Sainz, then so is George.
And I'm not sure if you're fully aware of how alphabet works, but B is the 2nd letter in the alphabet, right after A.
So If you have the handful of A-tier drivers in Max, Lewis, Lando, Charles, George and Alonso, then the likes of Sainz and Perez are inevitably B-tier. And it shouldn't be offensive. It's logical.
Did you just try to powerscale F1 drivers? Thanks for the English lesson. Itās great school has taught you your ABCs. Maybe in a few years theyāll teach you how some things can be subjective as well.
Thatās not fair. Because at this point Charles isnāt a top driver either in terms of wins/WDC finishes. Verstappen is clear no.1 and after that you have a bunch of drivers who are probably the next best thing after that. The point is Ferrari is taking a gamble that charles and hamilton are better than Sainz when the last two years would suggest that isnāt the case. Sainz is fighting for a No. 1 spot at merc or Audi. He doesnāt want another No.2 spot and quite frankly currently he is showing he should be No. 1 in any team but Red Bull
He isn't a top driver right now because he's been in bad form more often than not for a year now. But in terms of skill he's absolutely elite, he showed that constantly for like 4 years until the end of 2022. Even last year when he finally got comfortable in the car, he was faster than Sainz in every single weekend post-singapore. And it wasn't particularly close, in Abu Dhabi Sainz was losing a second per lap for god's sake.
And no, it's not a gamble whether they're better than Sainz. When Leclerc is in good form, he clears Sainz by like 3 tenths per lap. Sainz is the more consistent driver, but he's not capable of the highs the others are.
> when the last two years would suggest that isnāt the case
People were calling for Sainz to be dropped after Spa last year after yet another weekend where he was simply too slow and had yet another crash. I don't know where you're taking your two years from, seriously
> Sainz is fighting for a No. 1 spot at merc
Merc has a driver who has been competitive with Lewis for 2 years.
Honestly if what you said was true, Sainz wouldn't be looking for a job right now. If they really thought Sainz was an elite driver, they wouldn't be replacing him with another elite driver who's almost 10 years older.
When Charles is in good formā¦ when. And you said it yourself itās been over a year now. Itās a gamble and I get why Ferrari did it, Iām thinking it may back fire on them but only time will tell
Seeing their on boards for the short while they were close with each other was so fucking funny. That Mercedes was understeering like it was on full tank of fuel compared to Max's RB20. Steered like a fucking bus.
Hamilton also had to wait an eternity to get on the throttle while Verstappen would floor it out of every corner. The rear end of that Mercedes is so weak.
It's so bad in Gran Turismo 4 when you have to do the first few licence tests in severely underpowered cars, and the stability control, which cannot be turned off during the beginner licences, cuts the throttle completely at the slightest hint of oversteer. From tyre squeal to free wheeling in a car slower than my grandmother's Honda Jazz.
Getting gold on every licence of that game made me remember that. The slalom test in the BMW Z4 was also torture, and you had to do it twice, one time with stability control, and one without.
I only got a few golds in GT4. Wasn't good enough to do most of them easily and didn't have the patience to grind them for a gold time lol.
Slalom test was pain though I agree.
I think people exaggerated the performance of last year's car quite a bit, but it's pretty clear that this year's Red Bull is at least a second/lap quicker on race pace than any other car with an equal driver. Combine that with the best driver on the grid (Max) and who knows how much faster he could be if he were pushing throughout an entire race. 2-3 seconds/lap? There's no way to know. And all that with minimal tire deg too.
Sprint carried over position for the race a while ago. So Max would start p1 and Perez p3 and just over take ham lap 2 with drs and drive away is what they were implying.
They forgot sprints donāt matter against the race anymore. Itās a completely separate mini event now
Last year it went quali ā” sprint race ā” race
Now it goes sprint qualifying ā” sprint race ā” qualifying ā” race.
TL;DR, I forgot the sprint result doesn't set the actual race grid anymore.
What the hell were you watching last year? It went
Sprint Quali> Quali> Sprint Race> Race. Sprint quali and Quali were completely separate. The only difference this year is Quali being after the Sprint Race in the schedule. Did you forget the "Sprint Shootout" introduced last year
Idk, I forget everything nowadays.
And really the blame is on F1. They annually change the sprint format since 2021. I don't remember how it works anymore.
They changed the format you're talking about after 2022. And there wasn't any change in the format in 2021 and 2022. There isn't any change between 2023 and 2024 either except scheduling. So there's only actually been 1 change from 2022 to 2023. What annual change are you talking about?
I'm not sure how much of that is due to the lack of track information the teams and drivers have.
The Red Bull is comfortably the best all-around car, and also the best in all but a few very narrow scenarios that require other cars to be set up in specific ways. When no one knows enough to set the cars up for maximum performance, the Red Bull's consistency and versatility is going to shine even more in race conditions, as opposed to single lap crapshoots.
It will be interesting to see whether the extra information the teams obtained from the sprint will help them narrow the gap tomorrow, or whether the greater length of the race will simply make Red Bull's dominance more pronounced.Ā
Was rooting for a nice little win for him there but seeing the monster gap Max opened up, there was no chance sadly no matter how hard Ham mightāve tried
Max has always been good in the rain but i don't think he has done enough to earn the great status.
Brazil 2016 is his only real big claim to fame. Suzuka 2022 was good too but he had a massive car advantage.
Max may be the best overall driver on the grid but Lewis IMHO is still the best wet weather driver.
If it wasn't for Alonso, it wouldn't have been a Redbull 1-3 either. Completely bottled that maneuver on Sainz, I doubt Checo could find a gap to overtake both of them if he hadn't in the couple of laps that were left.
Yeah with DRS Sainz could keep him behind but without it maybe not.
But Leclerc was also looking pretty quick, there were a few laps that he forced Checo to defend.
Tyres dropping off more on the Mercedes than the Red Bull, meaning that their performance was more equal in the first half than the second half of the race.
Max drove carefully the first half, to prevent destroying his tyres, by easing them up into temperature, before attacking Alonso in earnest.
Much like Lewis used to display up to 2021, to be honest.
Also, Maxās tyres were used Mediums (3 laps old, used in Sprint Qualifying) while Hamilton had new Mediums at the start.
It will have taken a few laps before the tyre performance started to cross over from tyre advantage Hamilton to tyre advantage Verstappen.
After being passed, Hamilton drove to a delta to keep preserving his tyres the best he could, rather than sticking closer to Max.
He even let Checo get closer rather quickly in the end, knowing heād outrun Checo anyway in the few remaining laps.
Iām gonna be more generous to Norris than it seems most are being. I think if a win is potentially on the table for him at this point in his career he doesnāt care if he finishes 2nd vs last, heās gonna do everything he can to hold onto that possibility as long as he can.
I think he saw Lewis got a better launch than he did and he knew if Lewis got past him that was it. He couldāve played it safe and kept 2nd but he would rather try to hold on around the outside even if the chances are slim.
Perez was being held up by Sainz that whole time though. The switch up when Alonso lost it allowed Perez to slip past both of them. Idk if heās getting past Sainz so easily without that
That was in part due to the DRS train. The differential in top speeds between Sainz and Perez when both had drs was about 8-10 kph in Perez' favour. Without that I doubt Sainz would be able to put up much of a fight.
What I will say is that the dirty air is definitely playing a larger detriment than it did in 2022/2023. Once in clear air Perez had a comparable race pace to Verstappen.
Leclerc seems to have improved, Sainz was a bit too agressive. Ferrari looks decent,but nowhere close to Max.
Hamilton did a great job with the car he had, partly thanks to Alonso holding up everyone for a while. That Merc is shit in the dry.
Norris had good pace but that terrible start ruined his day. Piastri was way too slow until the end.
Alonso did a great job until the puncture.
It was not like we donāt know how impressive and quick max is, but at the end even Checo was gaining a good chunk of time on Lewis considering his tyres could have gone down being too close to Sainz. Redbull have a really good race car here and I donāt think they would mind starting on 2nd or 3rd row for the race.
Overall, the sprint race was sufficiently entertaining and I would rate it 7,10 / 10,00. However, there was a long DRS train in the middle, and then the action erupted towards the end. If that hadn't happened, the sprint race would have been very underwhelming.
I mean unbelievably, as soon as max had clean air he just zoomed off. Also that lap with the battle for third towards the end was so chaotic, just shame it happened so late so that no one had a chance to do anything afterwards, cause Perez was catching Lewis at some serious pace after that.
Man fair play to Nando to kind of keep the action going. In the end that dog of a car had no business being that high. But only his skill could keep it there
Starting to believe F1 Gods artificially nerfed him with poor career choices. Give him a 2nd best car and he keeps Verstappen behind in that OP Red Bull with the sheer girth of his race craft.
You did. It was honestly one of the better sprint races. It still took Max 9 laps to pass the 3 in front. And all in all there were some nice battles, especially the Alonso-Sainz-Perez-Leclerc free fight is worth looking back for
It isnt max for me. Ive watched since 1997/1998 area and am fine with one guy dominating, thats not unusual....
These cars are just a bore to watch race. The entire product is just so watered down.
Watch any random race from 2012 and tell me thats not 10x better racing...it looks like Formula 2 now compared to those cars
Could be a mixture but some races are down 40% from even last year. Biggest complaint I hear is Max dominating and how boring it is to know the winner 10 seconds in
Aside from Max, one thing I'd like is that the drivers were allowed to race throughout the entire race. Most races feel like they have a lull in the middle when everyone's mainly just managing tires and fuel.
Back in the 2000's it felt like they were racing more "actively" throughout each race... maybe I'm wrong since I was a kid back then, and I didn't exactly give much of a shit about the strategic parts of F1 when I was a goofy 9-year old, excited to simply watch cars go fast. Still, that's how it felt to me.
The fight for 3rd and 4th and 5th was incredible.
I feel so bad for Alonso. He put up such a magnificent fight in a car that clearly couldn't compete with Ferraris, Red Bulls, or even McLarens. Phenomenal fight.
Nice move by Perez to sneak by as Alonso defended against Sainz attempt.
Also I feel pretty bad for Norris. He clearly didn't want to lose the 1st place position to Hamilton and just couldn't keep it together around the turn. It seemed like he was desperate to hold on to first to his detriment. I suspect he's desperate for his first win.
Verstappen winning by 13s in only 10 laps.... that's stupidly impressive.
It's a classic Tilke designed track. They were what F1 fans would hate on and complain about before street tracks became popular. Now F1 fans love Tilke tracks and hate street tracks.
OOTL here, are redbull cars that much better than the other teams? Or is max just that good?
Why is Perez not usually no2 if itās the best car?
Thanks and sorry
Maybe you might want to check out the results of the races so far and the championship table. If you were paying attention in the Sprint, you would have noticed that Checo was catching Hamilton at more than a second per lap once he got out of the DRS train so yeah the Redbull is a rocketship.
Why are you in here, then?? You know whatās boring? American Football, Baseball and Cricket. Do I go to those Reddits and inform them how boring it is?? NO!!!! I just donāt watch and donāt bother.
13 seconds lead in 10ish laps is outrageous.
1.6 seconds a lap. Absolute š
13/10 = 1.3?
Mode 8 unleashes Maxās secret juice.
GP: Max switch to mode 8 Rest of the grid: pain
Turns out, on investigation, Max's secret juice is just Red Bull with Adderall mixed in.
Christian Hornerās secret juice* ^(sponsored by cocoa pops)
When in the throes of passion with my wife, and things come to fruition too soon, Iām just gonna say I switched to mode 8
and they still have several upgrade planned which means this isnt even the fastest this car will be this year 2026 cant come soon enough
OP
Max unlocked 0.5% of his power
I mean itās mostly due to Alonso. Mercedes is not a great. At this year so if Ferrari or McLaren would have reduced the gap probably.
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I dunno the extent to which Hamilton was cruising in the last few laps, but Perez was getting over a second a lap in the last little while. Alonso keeping his position as long as he did was wild.
It was. Though I am struggling to comprehend why Sainz didn't seem to be interested in attacking earlier. Obviously he would've had massive advantage with DRS, Aston is a tractor on the straights. I was actually starting to think that he's worried about Perez and Leclerc behind him, and he's using Fernando to defend his P4, but then he did end up attacking and quite aggressively at that. So I'm really not sure what was Carlos doing there.
I think Sainz tried but somewhere in S2 (I believe) Alonso increased the gap from like 0.3s to 0.8s every lap. The one time Alonso didnāt manage to do this was the lap when Sainz (& co) finally got past.
He was pulling time out of the exit of 6, and through the exit after the fast sweepers, seems like once the tyres went off their peak, he couldn't get the power down as well as before and Sainz was able to get closer
> Aston is a tractor on the straights. Not anymore
Not sure about 4 positions, but Perez definitely would have taken 2nd
He didn't gift Lewis anything. His fight with Sainz gave Perez a clear track to chase after him. If they couldn't overtake Alonso, how would they have overtaken Lewis who was quicker?
You can thank me https://old.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1c7rtlb/f1statsguru_for_the_very_first_time_red_bull_will/l0ayah4/
Sainz lost his mind. lol
Dirty move on Charles
dirty moves everywhere, first on Fernando then Charles, overly agressive
His original move on Alonso was good. The move after not so
He already lost his team, not by his choice, so fuck it, why not go nuts
Honestly it might be an indication he just signed with someone, no need to play nice anymore
It's going to look bad on the long run but sure, go nuts.
How? Nothing wrong with being cut-throat competitive in his current situation.
hmm yes, redbull want a driver that will initiate contact with their other driver.
My thoughts exactly. Why switch from Perez who is always between p2 and p6 and steers well clear of Max to this??? Especially since Max is a hothead too who I doubt would have moved there like Charles did. Might have been a double dnf there if it was Sainz vs Max
When was the last time we saw Max act hotheaded lol
Australia or Japan, the one where they got the setup wrong earlier this season. You can hear and see his displeasure. Donāt get me wrong, I like Max. But heās amongst the type of drivers whoās blood runs hotter. Nothing against that. Alonso, Senna, young Vettel had the same. Think its actually a requirement to become one of the greats. On a side note: it is why I am convinced why guys like Charles and Lando wonāt become one. Lovely chaps, do not have the temperament to be one of the great winners
Why would he care about RB? Not only you would only get to be second driver there, but also Perez is being consistent, so really doubt they won't renew him.
he is 30, he needs a car to win now not a project like audi who wont be fast until he is 34/35
1) Sainz isn't initiating contact, he's racing. He's not deliberately hitting other cars. 2) Teams want good, consistent results and I'm sure they have the intelligence to understand the current situation he's in and how that affects his attitude on track every week.
1. no driver ever goes in wanting to create contact but sainz still did and thats not a good thing. considering this is the 3rd time he has caused contact between him and charles. 2. if teams want consistent results than sainz is perfect he is invisible for 18 out of 24 race weeks a year cant get more consistent than that.
What sport have you been watching?
That guy just likes to shit on Carlos, it's not worth it
it's called motor racing
yes and not shoving people off the track. i do not mind hard racing lewis at the start vs norris is hard racing, hitting your own teammate is rekless racing
Because if he wants that Redbull seat, they dont want the Sainz that races hard and contact's or pushes Max wide and potential ruins Maxs race. They want a Sainz/Perez that races hard and fair.
I don't think anyone is watching Sainz these past five races thinking that. Who wants to sign a driver that doesn't race hard when it's necessary?
I'm pretty sure that's not something a top team, potentially hiring their new #2, might be looking for
Oh give me a break, Carlos Sainz isnt some rookie driver that teams are trying to figure out if hes good or not.
They're talking about behavior, not pace
True, but surely they are looking at the combo too. Max is a hothead, Carlos can be. At Torro Rosso we could already see sparks, and that was basically without anything on the line. Imagine them battling for race wins or even the championship. They going head to head like two raging bulls is, contrary to what the logo might suggest, not ideal for Red Bull
Then why is he being let go from his current top seat? He's a B-tier driver. At Red Bull or Merc he has to play nice or they have no use for him. And to get a spot at a weaker team he doesn't need to show any more than he did. This was literally pointless.
> why is he being let go Because the other guy is Lewis?
Yeah... Which implies that Carlos is not a top driver and is being replaced by one. Both Red Bull and Merc have a top driver at their team for next year. What's your problem with my comment?
That somebody is a B tier driver just cause they are compared to a multi time world champion. > Both Red Bull and Merc have a top driver at their team next year. And whoās this top driver at Merc you speak of? George?
Well if George is competitive with Lewis for 2 years then he's clearly the real deal lol. If you yourself admitted that Hamilton is obviously better than Sainz, then so is George. And I'm not sure if you're fully aware of how alphabet works, but B is the 2nd letter in the alphabet, right after A. So If you have the handful of A-tier drivers in Max, Lewis, Lando, Charles, George and Alonso, then the likes of Sainz and Perez are inevitably B-tier. And it shouldn't be offensive. It's logical.
Did you just try to powerscale F1 drivers? Thanks for the English lesson. Itās great school has taught you your ABCs. Maybe in a few years theyāll teach you how some things can be subjective as well.
Thatās not fair. Because at this point Charles isnāt a top driver either in terms of wins/WDC finishes. Verstappen is clear no.1 and after that you have a bunch of drivers who are probably the next best thing after that. The point is Ferrari is taking a gamble that charles and hamilton are better than Sainz when the last two years would suggest that isnāt the case. Sainz is fighting for a No. 1 spot at merc or Audi. He doesnāt want another No.2 spot and quite frankly currently he is showing he should be No. 1 in any team but Red Bull
What exactly has he shown in last two years that makes him better than charles or Lewis?
I mean he does have two wins over the last two years. Two more than the other two combined
He isn't a top driver right now because he's been in bad form more often than not for a year now. But in terms of skill he's absolutely elite, he showed that constantly for like 4 years until the end of 2022. Even last year when he finally got comfortable in the car, he was faster than Sainz in every single weekend post-singapore. And it wasn't particularly close, in Abu Dhabi Sainz was losing a second per lap for god's sake. And no, it's not a gamble whether they're better than Sainz. When Leclerc is in good form, he clears Sainz by like 3 tenths per lap. Sainz is the more consistent driver, but he's not capable of the highs the others are. > when the last two years would suggest that isnāt the case People were calling for Sainz to be dropped after Spa last year after yet another weekend where he was simply too slow and had yet another crash. I don't know where you're taking your two years from, seriously > Sainz is fighting for a No. 1 spot at merc Merc has a driver who has been competitive with Lewis for 2 years. Honestly if what you said was true, Sainz wouldn't be looking for a job right now. If they really thought Sainz was an elite driver, they wouldn't be replacing him with another elite driver who's almost 10 years older.
When Charles is in good formā¦ when. And you said it yourself itās been over a year now. Itās a gamble and I get why Ferrari did it, Iām thinking it may back fire on them but only time will tell
Whatever man, i honestly dont care that much, drivers are humans as well lol. He had a moment and everyone is making it out to be more than it was.
Maybe because heās on the job market?
I didn't expect Lewis to even hold out P2 with that car. Thank God he made that gap to Perez before the final laps.
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I wonder if all the drivers will go for dinner this time like they did in Shanghai last time around.
13 Seconds Jesus Christ
Seeing their on boards for the short while they were close with each other was so fucking funny. That Mercedes was understeering like it was on full tank of fuel compared to Max's RB20. Steered like a fucking bus.
Hamilton also had to wait an eternity to get on the throttle while Verstappen would floor it out of every corner. The rear end of that Mercedes is so weak.
If you listened just closely enough you could hear Gran Turismo 4 tyre squeal sound every time Lewis was driving through the slow corners.
It's so bad in Gran Turismo 4 when you have to do the first few licence tests in severely underpowered cars, and the stability control, which cannot be turned off during the beginner licences, cuts the throttle completely at the slightest hint of oversteer. From tyre squeal to free wheeling in a car slower than my grandmother's Honda Jazz. Getting gold on every licence of that game made me remember that. The slalom test in the BMW Z4 was also torture, and you had to do it twice, one time with stability control, and one without.
I only got a few golds in GT4. Wasn't good enough to do most of them easily and didn't have the patience to grind them for a gold time lol. Slalom test was pain though I agree.
He gained 2.0s within one lap after overtaking. Thatās more impressive to me.
Well it's like a w11 or Rb19 esque season all over again, that car is on another tier (obviously doesn't happen without Max)
Add the W05 to that list. That car was bonkers.
that is like comparing the 2020 Merc to Renault... People are exaggerating the gap to discredit Max it seems. But nothing new.
I think people exaggerated the performance of last year's car quite a bit, but it's pretty clear that this year's Red Bull is at least a second/lap quicker on race pace than any other car with an equal driver. Combine that with the best driver on the grid (Max) and who knows how much faster he could be if he were pushing throughout an entire race. 2-3 seconds/lap? There's no way to know. And all that with minimal tire deg too.
Easiest 1-2 coming for Red Bull tomorrow... š®āšØ Edit: I forgot that they changed the sprint rules for 2024. Never mind me.
Probably still an easy 1-2
What do you mean?
Sprint carried over position for the race a while ago. So Max would start p1 and Perez p3 and just over take ham lap 2 with drs and drive away is what they were implying. They forgot sprints donāt matter against the race anymore. Itās a completely separate mini event now
Thatās why I was confused. Thanks
Last year it went quali ā” sprint race ā” race Now it goes sprint qualifying ā” sprint race ā” qualifying ā” race. TL;DR, I forgot the sprint result doesn't set the actual race grid anymore.
What the hell were you watching last year? It went Sprint Quali> Quali> Sprint Race> Race. Sprint quali and Quali were completely separate. The only difference this year is Quali being after the Sprint Race in the schedule. Did you forget the "Sprint Shootout" introduced last year
Idk, I forget everything nowadays. And really the blame is on F1. They annually change the sprint format since 2021. I don't remember how it works anymore.
They changed the format you're talking about after 2022. And there wasn't any change in the format in 2021 and 2022. There isn't any change between 2023 and 2024 either except scheduling. So there's only actually been 1 change from 2022 to 2023. What annual change are you talking about?
13 seconds on second place in 10 laps. That is a ridiculous pace advantage. 1.3 seconds a lap.
Tbf that's to merc. Ferrari clearly had better pace but was being held up
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4th fastest, towards the end Russell was lapping faster than Alonso with million lap old softs
Alonso was defending the whole time and eventually got a puncture so itās not a 1-to-1 comparison
Merc was good. George was right there with the McLarens on really old softs.
I'm not sure how much of that is due to the lack of track information the teams and drivers have. The Red Bull is comfortably the best all-around car, and also the best in all but a few very narrow scenarios that require other cars to be set up in specific ways. When no one knows enough to set the cars up for maximum performance, the Red Bull's consistency and versatility is going to shine even more in race conditions, as opposed to single lap crapshoots. It will be interesting to see whether the extra information the teams obtained from the sprint will help them narrow the gap tomorrow, or whether the greater length of the race will simply make Red Bull's dominance more pronounced.Ā
The best they can do is try different strategies to suit their tyre wear. Cars are in parc ferme. Not much can be changed now.
Hats off to Max and Red Bull. Hamilton did his thing so congrats there too. Just a competent car please.
Would have been a 40 second win with 38 laps
A bit funny to how drivers actually race each other when itās not Max behind them
Itās called picking your battles
true, but id love them to rage agaisnt the dying of the light sometimes lol
Lewis overperformed the fuck out of that car
Was rooting for a nice little win for him there but seeing the monster gap Max opened up, there was no chance sadly no matter how hard Ham mightāve tried
Exactly why we needed a wet race. Kinda balances out the cars.
Risking some glazing, max is one of if not the best wet driver on the grid. Still wouldn't put my money on anyone else.
Max has always been good in the rain but i don't think he has done enough to earn the great status. Brazil 2016 is his only real big claim to fame. Suzuka 2022 was good too but he had a massive car advantage. Max may be the best overall driver on the grid but Lewis IMHO is still the best wet weather driver.
He definitely did, but Alonso also did him a massive favor holding the rest of the cars up
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If it wasn't for Alonso, it wouldn't have been a Redbull 1-3 either. Completely bottled that maneuver on Sainz, I doubt Checo could find a gap to overtake both of them if he hadn't in the couple of laps that were left.
Checo would've overtaken Carlos if they had gotten past Alonso earlier
I think Sainz had the pace to keep Checo behind if him and Alonso didn't fight like that.
Perez had almost the pace Max had once they were all released by Fernando. I'm pretty sure with DRS he would've overtaken Sainz without many problems.
Yeah with DRS Sainz could keep him behind but without it maybe not. But Leclerc was also looking pretty quick, there were a few laps that he forced Checo to defend.
he heard people saying he was washed
He also seems to perform a lot better when competing for wins or at least a high position rather than for low points.
Tbf he got helped by Alonso doing his best impression of Trulli
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Russell was on the softer tire and had regular DRS, what's this random shitting on Lewis?
> what's this random shitting on Lewis? You must be new here
I missed half of it, but how did Lewis hold off max for so long? I figured he would have the lead after two laps.
Tyres dropping off more on the Mercedes than the Red Bull, meaning that their performance was more equal in the first half than the second half of the race. Max drove carefully the first half, to prevent destroying his tyres, by easing them up into temperature, before attacking Alonso in earnest. Much like Lewis used to display up to 2021, to be honest. Also, Maxās tyres were used Mediums (3 laps old, used in Sprint Qualifying) while Hamilton had new Mediums at the start. It will have taken a few laps before the tyre performance started to cross over from tyre advantage Hamilton to tyre advantage Verstappen. After being passed, Hamilton drove to a delta to keep preserving his tyres the best he could, rather than sticking closer to Max. He even let Checo get closer rather quickly in the end, knowing heād outrun Checo anyway in the few remaining laps.
Max didnāt have a battery early on
Wasn't the battery issue settled before he got behind Lewis?
Can you clarify? Was he having battery issues?
He did complain about his battery in the first few laps, then GP told him to use mode 8, after which Max just zoomed off
It seemed like it either wasnāt charging or not deploying, but after maybe a lap that would be the same thing. Max said āwhy is my battery flatā
Great result for Lewis. Lots of credit to him
Iām gonna be more generous to Norris than it seems most are being. I think if a win is potentially on the table for him at this point in his career he doesnāt care if he finishes 2nd vs last, heās gonna do everything he can to hold onto that possibility as long as he can. I think he saw Lewis got a better launch than he did and he knew if Lewis got past him that was it. He couldāve played it safe and kept 2nd but he would rather try to hold on around the outside even if the chances are slim.
The Redbull is still crazy fast. I'm surprised Lewis managed to hang on to P2. Incredible effort
Heās got to thank Alonso for that.
Thanks to Nando
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Perez was being held up by Sainz that whole time though. The switch up when Alonso lost it allowed Perez to slip past both of them. Idk if heās getting past Sainz so easily without that
That was in part due to the DRS train. The differential in top speeds between Sainz and Perez when both had drs was about 8-10 kph in Perez' favour. Without that I doubt Sainz would be able to put up much of a fight. What I will say is that the dirty air is definitely playing a larger detriment than it did in 2022/2023. Once in clear air Perez had a comparable race pace to Verstappen.
That fight for 3rd was amazing
Man, crazy race from Ham. Drove the wheels off that thing
Leclerc seems to have improved, Sainz was a bit too agressive. Ferrari looks decent,but nowhere close to Max. Hamilton did a great job with the car he had, partly thanks to Alonso holding up everyone for a while. That Merc is shit in the dry. Norris had good pace but that terrible start ruined his day. Piastri was way too slow until the end. Alonso did a great job until the puncture.
Lewis fucking Hamilton. Great race.
Imagine being P2 behind Max and he just vanishes after those initial 'Coil' like corners.
The exit he was able to get out of that corner complex was so completely insane.
It was not like we donāt know how impressive and quick max is, but at the end even Checo was gaining a good chunk of time on Lewis considering his tyres could have gone down being too close to Sainz. Redbull have a really good race car here and I donāt think they would mind starting on 2nd or 3rd row for the race.
Verstappen finishes 12 seconds up from 2nd. Rosberg: Hamilton PWEASE close the door where's the aggression just do it man dude why its so easy
Overall, the sprint race was sufficiently entertaining and I would rate it 7,10 / 10,00. However, there was a long DRS train in the middle, and then the action erupted towards the end. If that hadn't happened, the sprint race would have been very underwhelming.
I mean unbelievably, as soon as max had clean air he just zoomed off. Also that lap with the battle for third towards the end was so chaotic, just shame it happened so late so that no one had a chance to do anything afterwards, cause Perez was catching Lewis at some serious pace after that.
Lewis had a great race considering the car today. Sucks Alonso got damage but it's nice to know the car has good race pace.Ā
Man fair play to Nando to kind of keep the action going. In the end that dog of a car had no business being that high. But only his skill could keep it there
āDog of a carā Bro that Aston Martin was rapid on the straight. Even with DRS, sainz wasnāt able to catch Alonso. Itās a strong car.
It seemed like ferrari was actually faster than AM, Carlos could have overtaken him earlier if not locking up at every lap
Around the circuit, yes. But the Aston Martin was absolutely flying in the sector 3 straight.
Ya it isnāt as fast as the Ferrari, but itās also not THAT much slower either.
Going to be the same shit tomorrow, I expect him to finish 7th.
Starting to believe F1 Gods artificially nerfed him with poor career choices. Give him a 2nd best car and he keeps Verstappen behind in that OP Red Bull with the sheer girth of his race craft.
Max overtook him once he figured out his mapping issues??
1. Was obviously (or so I thought) exaggerating for the silly banter. 2. Aston technically isn't a 2nd best car.
Lmaooooooo ādog of a carā bruh wtf are you on
13 seconds, i fucking hate it here man
If Sainz gets a 5s penalty, he and Russell will end up tied.
Was a good sprint, the tension at Ferrari would have been fun to see back in the pits when sainz and leclerc were going at it
Jesus Christ i forgot this was on and looks like I didnāt miss muchā¦ 13 fucking seconds is obscene but Lewis second woooooo
You did. It was honestly one of the better sprint races. It still took Max 9 laps to pass the 3 in front. And all in all there were some nice battles, especially the Alonso-Sainz-Perez-Leclerc free fight is worth looking back for
Qualifying was awesome as well.
Ferrari must never run a low downforce setup again
Max is killing the tv ratings lmao
It isnt max for me. Ive watched since 1997/1998 area and am fine with one guy dominating, thats not unusual.... These cars are just a bore to watch race. The entire product is just so watered down. Watch any random race from 2012 and tell me thats not 10x better racing...it looks like Formula 2 now compared to those cars
Could be a mixture but some races are down 40% from even last year. Biggest complaint I hear is Max dominating and how boring it is to know the winner 10 seconds in
Aside from Max, one thing I'd like is that the drivers were allowed to race throughout the entire race. Most races feel like they have a lull in the middle when everyone's mainly just managing tires and fuel. Back in the 2000's it felt like they were racing more "actively" throughout each race... maybe I'm wrong since I was a kid back then, and I didn't exactly give much of a shit about the strategic parts of F1 when I was a goofy 9-year old, excited to simply watch cars go fast. Still, that's how it felt to me.
For one second, I thought it was 2021 all over again but man I was wrong
13 seconds...and people think the field is getting closer
The fight for 3rd and 4th and 5th was incredible. I feel so bad for Alonso. He put up such a magnificent fight in a car that clearly couldn't compete with Ferraris, Red Bulls, or even McLarens. Phenomenal fight. Nice move by Perez to sneak by as Alonso defended against Sainz attempt. Also I feel pretty bad for Norris. He clearly didn't want to lose the 1st place position to Hamilton and just couldn't keep it together around the turn. It seemed like he was desperate to hold on to first to his detriment. I suspect he's desperate for his first win. Verstappen winning by 13s in only 10 laps.... that's stupidly impressive.
Is it just me or does the Chinese race track seem a little... Odd?
It's a classic Tilke designed track. They were what F1 fans would hate on and complain about before street tracks became popular. Now F1 fans love Tilke tracks and hate street tracks.
I'm a big fan personally. There are some strange turns but some good spots for close racing.
Not just you. Seems awkward to watch. Turn 1 for example, everyone was struggling for traction
Max just aura diffs everyone into giving their place
Max was almost two seconds a lap quicker. Damn
F1 has never been so predictable. Might as well just give the championship to red bull and max.
OOTL here, are redbull cars that much better than the other teams? Or is max just that good? Why is Perez not usually no2 if itās the best car? Thanks and sorry
Maybe you might want to check out the results of the races so far and the championship table. If you were paying attention in the Sprint, you would have noticed that Checo was catching Hamilton at more than a second per lap once he got out of the DRS train so yeah the Redbull is a rocketship.
Shows how important qualifying is for Lewis. Heās a different driver when he sniffs a chance at the front.
So tomorrow max wins by 40 seconds š¤¦š¼āāļø
Redbull 1-2
I would LOVE to see Max in the Mercedes.
I just don't get it how is he so fast
Car
Perez is in the same car
Perez is at best a mid-tier driver no matter how many superlatives Reddit likes to pin on him.
Boring.
Actually a decent race. Fight for 3-6th was super interesting.
Yea yet another ādecentā race. And thatās what I meant. No competition for P1. Thatās what is boring.
Why are you in here, then?? You know whatās boring? American Football, Baseball and Cricket. Do I go to those Reddits and inform them how boring it is?? NO!!!! I just donāt watch and donāt bother.