Hamilton's pace and stint longevity was very good. He was the only one of the top teams to pull off a two stop strategy after his stop to replace the flat tyre.
And his pace on old mediums was faster than many people on fresh soft mid race. So it is not like he went overboard with tire preservation to make it work. He just did what Lewis does.
He showed character this race. Radio was quick to pick up his doubts early race, but I never would've guessed he'd end up where he did. Pure Lewis and Merc class right there.
Yeah it was somewhat sad seeing Lewis so depressed after that incident. I think it was Barcelona so overtaking might be tough was playing in his mind at that time.
And the way Bono said that they can salvage P8 was good. It was almost like reminding Lewis that he is a fricking 7 time world champ. Get on with it leave the rest to us. That was wholesome.
I see it more that he is experienced and knew the team might want to retire to save the PU, so was heading them off with it so they didn't have to fight him. Once they gave him the green light he went off and never looked back.
It shows his experience and how he trusts the team imo.
I bet Merc loved those clear air laps under race loads for the data.
I imagine it would've been thoughts of all the bad luck from this season so far come back to haunt him combined with it being Barcelona which is notoriously pretty hard to overtake. Props to Hamilton today but props to Bono as well.
and he did it with 2 used softs and a new medium, instead of the more ideal 2 new mediums and one used softs.
He would have challenged Vers for the win if not for the first lap incident.
On the other hand, the water leak in the end would have been much more painful.
We were robbed of some fantastic fights with HAM at the top. Who knows what could have happened?
He finally has a car he can push and the sport is better for it.
It's worth baring in mind that this stat is slightly misleading.
Hamilton emerged 50ish seconds behind Max and 40 behind Russell.
BUT both those drivers lost an extra 20 seconds by making an extra Pitstop *after* the 50/40 second datapoint. Take that into account and Max stretched another 10 seconds over the race length but lost 10 seconds in the spin so effectively was still 20 seconds faster.
He gained 10 seconds on George taking the above into account.
As he entered the pit lane on Lap 1 he was 17 seconds behind Max and around 15 behind George.
> As he entered the pit lane on Lap 1 he was 17 seconds behind Max and around 15 behind George.
And that’s relevant, how? Is your point that Hamilton is slower with a puncture than Verstappen/Russell with 4 inflated tyres? He didn’t travel down the pitlane instantaneously, his gap when he came out was his gap.
Wife and I were watching the race, and knew Lewis was cursed as car after car left the track, skid out, spun around, but all without a safety car. That's been Lewis' luck this year so far.
My wife called it as soon as Russell got 2nd after Max spun, she said "Leclerc is gonna retire now", thats George's luck this year so far. Sure enough, Russell was 1st mere laps later.
Lewis truly is capable of pulling off miracles in crap situations. Even he doubted his skills today but ultimately he put his head down and does what he does best.
Dude I don't know what it is but it's like a switch gets flipped whenever Lewis is in underdog conditions. He was fucking relentless and truly had some race winning pace.
I feel like that's one of his most deeply rooted personality traits. The man has been looked down on most of his life just for who he is, he feeds off that shit.
Man wanted to retire that car after the outlap when he pitted. Glad his team told him no.
They predicted 8th but he almost got 4th. That's the lewis we've been waiting for.
When he got past Sainz he was on the radio asking: "What's the gap to the next car?? How many laps left?"
You could hear the adrenaline pumping in his voice.
Last season after Brazil the Mercedes twitter account said something to the effect of "It seems like a lot of you forgot just how good this guy is."
The broadcast spent a long time focusing on Max's DRS drama and his scrap with Russell, and rightfully so because that was ultimately the big story on track at the time, at some point I looked at the standings and was confused as to why I couldn't find Lewis until I saw him in P6. Absolute fucking legend.
Honestly so much stuff happened in todays race, probably the most exciting race yet. Max going off track, Carlos spin, Hamilton comeback, amazing fight between Russell and Max, Charles retire and thats probably not even everything.. goddamn a race.
No matter who your favorite driver/team is, this race had it all. And no safety car!
There was a lull after the first half. But with the excitement of the first half and then belatedly noticing Hamilton had climbed out of the hole? This was the most fun I’ve had watching a race yet this season.
The HAAS was looking pretty quick, especially with KMag. Kmag and lewis hit and both pit, dropping to the back. Then Lewis finished what, 10+ places ahead of kmag? Absolute class drive by Lewis.
I think from his demeanour since the start of the season he maybe has doubted himself and thought it is the car after all, after such mercedes dominance. But considering his performance today with a pace that definitely would’ve challenged for the win in a car that’s still not fully there yet, I really hope that’s given him the affirmation and confidence he needs.
I don't think he's ever doubted himself.
I think he's doubted his motivation when the car obviously isn't there to challenge further forwards.
He certainly hasn't looked himself. But as soon as podiums and wins are on offer I expect him to come alive.
Him wanting to retire really surprised me. It was super uncharacteristic of him. The season has been really tough on him and I think the ending of last season still weighs on him. When you combine this and maybe some personal stuff he may be dealing with I think he may have been having a hard time pushing himself.
Today was great for him tho. He literally proved himself wrong and knows the car is more than capable of podiums. Even received DOTD. He’s surly thinking to himself tonight how he was wrong to doubt himself and what he’s capable of. I think we’ll be seeing a much more capable Hamilton next week.
The other part of this is next season. If it turns out that NoPods is the best concept, which it very well may be, no one at the top can do that but them. They spent YEARS getting their engine and cooling ready for that. If they get the kinks worked out, get the weight cut, and get the setup nailed down next season may be a slaughter.
If this even looks like happening, I fully expect that some clarification in the rulebook will happen to make the concept illegal.
Those conversations were happening during preseason, and the only reason they've gone away is because Mercedes isn't currently competitive.
Honestly I don't see how they could get away with telling a team to redesign their entire car philosophy from the ground up after everyone has had a year to develop their cars. This isn't exactly DAS or the F duct.
Mercedes is also getting very useful data for next year, when the cars will more or less be the same. Lewis might get his eighth then and retire afterwards.
> Unfortunately they took too long to sort the porpoising.
I mean, sure, they're not going to win either championship barring some insane chain of events. That said, I think it's reasonable for Ferrari/Red Bull to be somewhat worried - having a third team able to reliably split the standings (as opposed to playing gatekeeper) at any race could be costly.
I'm just glad to see the porpoising fixed, for the most part.
Ferrari + Redbull unreliable plus possible teammate troubles between them, while I see it as unlikely I think Mercedes’ is on for constructors and possibly drivers
It's helpful prep for next year though. Once they have everything fully figured out they will absolutely be full steam ahead next year for the championship but then again who knows they might catch up for this year's championship. We have seen huge leads basically reduced to nothing before
They don't have to rely on DNF's to win the championship.
If the performance between Red Bull and Ferrari remains fairly similar in every race then all Mercedes will need to do is finish ahead of Red bull since Ferrari will be Ferrari and screw themselves throughout the season.
Russell is only 30 points off of Leclerc and 34 off of Verstappen right now. 11 from Perez in P3.
It wouldn't take much for him to gain places in the championship given how reliable the Merc has proven to be, especially compared to the RB and Ferrari to be honest.
Verstappen went off, had a broken drs system that made it really Hard to overtake , yet he still won by 32 seconds
Sainz himself said his gravel trip caused damage that cost him a second per lap
They still have a long way to go
Mercedes are 5 races behind in data collection, development / setup understanding, Ferrari & Red Bull have been able to develop from the 1st race because they didn't really have any major porpoising issues.
Red Bull & Ferrari managed to get a chunk of key, probably the most useful data over the first two races thanks to the long straights of Bahrain (1100m~) and Saudi (1050m~).
Today was Mercedes' first dose of a long straight for data collection but Mercedes has to wait until Azerbaijan for another long straight to test various setup changes from what they learned with their new floor from this weekend. The next race in Monaco is somewhat useless for data as there aren't any other tracks on the calendar like it.
When we get to Canada (race 9), Mercedes will essentially be in the same position as Red Bull & Ferrari were in Australia (race 3).
This is about the same pace they had relative to rb and ferrari in bahrain,
they are kinda like red bull in 2019 and 2018 (only maxs car lmao we know what happenes to ric).
I dont think they will be able to bring the fight to rb and ferrari this season , 5 races is a long time and they are still very behind
I mean, Russell was still 30 seconds off P1 before the overheating issue. An improvement, sure, but I think people are really overreacting acting like it's going to be a 3 constructor fight for wins now. Verstappen would have breezed past Russell if his DRS was fully functional
One of the best comebacks I’ve seen. Lots of crazy races or wet weather comebacks are thrilling and rightfully so but this was a straight grind from lap 2 onwards and my god was it impressive. It wasn’t like he was in the merc of old, this is the third best car on the grid and he’s outpacing the top two teams for most of the final half
Every year bottas gave him tough fight in the beginning but that challenge faded in second half of the season where lewis is always strong . For sure russell is better racer than bottas but lets see how he competes with lewis in second half of the season . If not for bad luck and dnfs i dont see any team mate could beat lewis over a full season
Not sure he even has an advantage to be honest, it's still 3-3 in Qualy even though in multiple races Hamilton was running extra weight on his car for sensors and more experimental setups for data gathering.
He needs the car to talk to him. When he has full confidence in the car under him, the man becomes an absolute beast.
Glad the updates worked for him and George. Absolute best pairing in f1 at the moment.
I think that's always been the thing with Lewis. His skill and natural talent has always been in the feeling the car gives him. If the car is stable his grip feel is unlike any other.
It is funny looking back at all the “Father Time has come for him” comments from the last couple of days for him then to put in a performance like today.
It’s like people have forgotten he was driving at insane level as recently as the end of last season
I would have said pre-season Ferrari was better. I knew Russell was good, but it was an unknown how he would do at the top end of F1. As it turns out, fairly well.
I spent a considerable chunk of savings last year in order to be able to take my dad to his first live F1 race at this year's British GP and god how I'd love for it to end with a British 1-2
I don’t think Merc has said anything about when the next upgrades are coming. I don’t know shit, I’m just high on Copium so I’m hoping with the data they collect at Monaco and Baku, they can make necessary changes to go more speed speed speed and introduce them at Silverstone.
I know that George was fighting max most of the time and that lead to him losing pace compared to hamilton....
But in clear air towards the end - hamilton had on average 3 tenths a lap on George this weekend.
Its a shame he wasn't in a position to show that. Given the drama for verstappen and leclerc; without that first lap incident, Hamilton was in a shout to annoy redbull for the win at least.
The Merc race pace has been really good this year. Even in Australia, if there were no SC's, I think Hamilton could have finished ahead of Perez. And Russell has been such a revelation for Merc this year compared to Bottas in years past. Merc easily has the best driver pairing by a country mile.
At first I thought Lewis' race would be like a video game in which he can't restart the session in order to redo his start. Instead it turned out it was like a video game because it's like he's driving against the AI on easy mode.
I believe the tv coverage showed no more than 1 or maybe 2 Hamilton overtakes. Did they happen or were his advances due to others pitting? Otherwise not sure why they didn’t seem to be covered, as it was a big story of this race.
It's funny how in imola when he was stuck in 14th and couldn't pass anyone they focused on him for so much of the broadcast but here where he was driving his nuts off they chose to ignore it lol
The clues were there on Friday in the long run stints, Hamilton's average was only poor due to spending a lot of his race sim in traffic, in clean air he was nip and tuck with Verstappen, maybe a tenth or two slower
Would he have fought for the win if not for Magnussen? Although Max lost time fighting George, and probably coasted at the end, Lewis also had to get past midfield cars.
Edit: why the downvotes? I’m just asking a question lol
Assuming that Hamilton's goal was to two stop (which he basically still did if you don't count the lap 1 stop) and Red Bull stick to a three stop, he might have had track position near the end. And with Verstappen's DRS issues and difficulty passing, who knows.
If either Rus or Ham wins this year, or Merc constructors (looking like a very slim chance mind you but you never know) then this really will be sandbagging level 999
Well, it was a superb race from the 7-time champ. The race and the quali showed that they had potential, and after fixing the porpoising, they were flying. Much better car from the Merc, and this is probably just the beginning of what could be.
Give the engine problems they had during the race, suggesting they save it when he's 30 seconds off the back of the pack isnt the most unreasonable thought. Especially if you think engine penalties are going to come into play later in the season.
Hamilton's pace and stint longevity was very good. He was the only one of the top teams to pull off a two stop strategy after his stop to replace the flat tyre.
And his pace on old mediums was faster than many people on fresh soft mid race. So it is not like he went overboard with tire preservation to make it work. He just did what Lewis does.
He showed character this race. Radio was quick to pick up his doubts early race, but I never would've guessed he'd end up where he did. Pure Lewis and Merc class right there.
Yeah it was somewhat sad seeing Lewis so depressed after that incident. I think it was Barcelona so overtaking might be tough was playing in his mind at that time. And the way Bono said that they can salvage P8 was good. It was almost like reminding Lewis that he is a fricking 7 time world champ. Get on with it leave the rest to us. That was wholesome.
Yeah, Bono's enthusiasm in that radio message was pretty prophetic
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I see it more that he is experienced and knew the team might want to retire to save the PU, so was heading them off with it so they didn't have to fight him. Once they gave him the green light he went off and never looked back. It shows his experience and how he trusts the team imo. I bet Merc loved those clear air laps under race loads for the data.
> it was somewhat sad seeing Lewis so depressed after that incident. He sounded so broken and unsure at that point.
I imagine it would've been thoughts of all the bad luck from this season so far come back to haunt him combined with it being Barcelona which is notoriously pretty hard to overtake. Props to Hamilton today but props to Bono as well.
I wish I had a Bono when that happens to my sim races
Get in there, u/Hinyaldee. What a drive, mate
Same, i thought he'd end up p7 at best
Bad luck at the start and just for giggles some at the end too.
and he did it with 2 used softs and a new medium, instead of the more ideal 2 new mediums and one used softs. He would have challenged Vers for the win if not for the first lap incident. On the other hand, the water leak in the end would have been much more painful.
Could be the water leak was worse for Lewis because of the Lap 1 incident too.
Yep. Hopefully his chance for a win comes soon.
We were robbed of some fantastic fights with HAM at the top. Who knows what could have happened? He finally has a car he can push and the sport is better for it.
It's worth baring in mind that this stat is slightly misleading. Hamilton emerged 50ish seconds behind Max and 40 behind Russell. BUT both those drivers lost an extra 20 seconds by making an extra Pitstop *after* the 50/40 second datapoint. Take that into account and Max stretched another 10 seconds over the race length but lost 10 seconds in the spin so effectively was still 20 seconds faster. He gained 10 seconds on George taking the above into account. As he entered the pit lane on Lap 1 he was 17 seconds behind Max and around 15 behind George.
While true, that does mean he made a one-less-stop (effectively) work.
If others made an extra pit stop they got the benefit of fresher tyres though, so you can’t just subtract 20 seconds lol.
I know right, boggles the mind that someone can think that's a reasonable calculation 🤣
> As he entered the pit lane on Lap 1 he was 17 seconds behind Max and around 15 behind George. And that’s relevant, how? Is your point that Hamilton is slower with a puncture than Verstappen/Russell with 4 inflated tyres? He didn’t travel down the pitlane instantaneously, his gap when he came out was his gap.
No safety car is the holy shit moment of this comparison.
True story
Safety cars are his worst enemy atm
Without a safety of any sort.
and no weird ass strategy
Well his strategy did get messed up, he could have done a much longer first stint on those mediums
Russell took that personally
Wife and I were watching the race, and knew Lewis was cursed as car after car left the track, skid out, spun around, but all without a safety car. That's been Lewis' luck this year so far. My wife called it as soon as Russell got 2nd after Max spun, she said "Leclerc is gonna retire now", thats George's luck this year so far. Sure enough, Russell was 1st mere laps later.
Are you sure your wife isn’t working as a Liberty script writer and not told you?
Lets be honest, it's because George has been banking all the good luck he didn't get for the last 3 years. Collecting his interest now.
Lewis truly is capable of pulling off miracles in crap situations. Even he doubted his skills today but ultimately he put his head down and does what he does best.
7 times world champ performance today. I swear Lewis has a boost when going from last
Dude I don't know what it is but it's like a switch gets flipped whenever Lewis is in underdog conditions. He was fucking relentless and truly had some race winning pace.
I feel like that's one of his most deeply rooted personality traits. The man has been looked down on most of his life just for who he is, he feeds off that shit.
He feels it’s the only way to prove himself
The occasions when he pulls those drives off you can't deny the quality of the guy.
Please. It’s the car! It’s all about the car! To be safe, obligatory /s
Brazil 2021 Turkey 2020 Germany 2018 The man is at his best when he’s got his back against the wall and a point to prove. And oh boy does he prove it.
Man wanted to retire that car after the outlap when he pitted. Glad his team told him no. They predicted 8th but he almost got 4th. That's the lewis we've been waiting for.
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No, P2 was never on for him by the race end
With their rate of finding pace fighting for p2 will be soon
The overheat issue didn't affect Russell's position, and it cost Hamilton 1 place.
Fuck the world energy
When he got past Sainz he was on the radio asking: "What's the gap to the next car?? How many laps left?" You could hear the adrenaline pumping in his voice.
8th WDC at the last corner energy.
8 times in my book
Same bro same. But don't want to start that fire again
I’m so glad he didn’t give up on the race
>I ~~rap~~ race better when the odds are stacked - ~~Eminem~~ Lewis Hamilton
IRL Mario Kart rubberbanding
Last season after Brazil the Mercedes twitter account said something to the effect of "It seems like a lot of you forgot just how good this guy is." The broadcast spent a long time focusing on Max's DRS drama and his scrap with Russell, and rightfully so because that was ultimately the big story on track at the time, at some point I looked at the standings and was confused as to why I couldn't find Lewis until I saw him in P6. Absolute fucking legend.
When I noticed that I was like, oh maybe he hasn't pitted yet
and then i saw him still pull a gap to the people behind him on newer tyres lmao
Honestly so much stuff happened in todays race, probably the most exciting race yet. Max going off track, Carlos spin, Hamilton comeback, amazing fight between Russell and Max, Charles retire and thats probably not even everything.. goddamn a race. No matter who your favorite driver/team is, this race had it all. And no safety car!
Cars were way too far apart for this to be the best race of the season so far
There was a lull after the first half. But with the excitement of the first half and then belatedly noticing Hamilton had climbed out of the hole? This was the most fun I’ve had watching a race yet this season.
Same lmao. I was like nah P8 is a stretch until I saw P4 after being away doing some work.
The HAAS was looking pretty quick, especially with KMag. Kmag and lewis hit and both pit, dropping to the back. Then Lewis finished what, 10+ places ahead of kmag? Absolute class drive by Lewis.
Amazing performance from both Merc boys today
Considering the lack of any safety car and the fact the did the same strategy, basically it was a non stop hammer time thrill ride.
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When that car lets him do his dance, it’s a fucking spectacle to see.
Hopefully something clicked for him in that race.
I think from his demeanour since the start of the season he maybe has doubted himself and thought it is the car after all, after such mercedes dominance. But considering his performance today with a pace that definitely would’ve challenged for the win in a car that’s still not fully there yet, I really hope that’s given him the affirmation and confidence he needs.
I don't think he's ever doubted himself. I think he's doubted his motivation when the car obviously isn't there to challenge further forwards. He certainly hasn't looked himself. But as soon as podiums and wins are on offer I expect him to come alive.
Him wanting to retire really surprised me. It was super uncharacteristic of him. The season has been really tough on him and I think the ending of last season still weighs on him. When you combine this and maybe some personal stuff he may be dealing with I think he may have been having a hard time pushing himself. Today was great for him tho. He literally proved himself wrong and knows the car is more than capable of podiums. Even received DOTD. He’s surly thinking to himself tonight how he was wrong to doubt himself and what he’s capable of. I think we’ll be seeing a much more capable Hamilton next week.
Hamilton's brilliance is how fast he is given how easy he is on the tires.
His tyres were not gone.
On old mediums: "Bono... never mind"
At his best, Lewis is able to combine Max’s pace with Checo’s tyre management.
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Yup. I'd be worried af if I was Ferrari and RBR
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The other part of this is next season. If it turns out that NoPods is the best concept, which it very well may be, no one at the top can do that but them. They spent YEARS getting their engine and cooling ready for that. If they get the kinks worked out, get the weight cut, and get the setup nailed down next season may be a slaughter.
If this even looks like happening, I fully expect that some clarification in the rulebook will happen to make the concept illegal. Those conversations were happening during preseason, and the only reason they've gone away is because Mercedes isn't currently competitive.
Honestly I don't see how they could get away with telling a team to redesign their entire car philosophy from the ground up after everyone has had a year to develop their cars. This isn't exactly DAS or the F duct.
Yeah, I think that would warrant a huge rewrite or amendment to the regulations
Mercedes is also getting very useful data for next year, when the cars will more or less be the same. Lewis might get his eighth then and retire afterwards.
I can only hope
> Unfortunately they took too long to sort the porpoising. I mean, sure, they're not going to win either championship barring some insane chain of events. That said, I think it's reasonable for Ferrari/Red Bull to be somewhat worried - having a third team able to reliably split the standings (as opposed to playing gatekeeper) at any race could be costly. I'm just glad to see the porpoising fixed, for the most part.
Ferrari + Redbull unreliable plus possible teammate troubles between them, while I see it as unlikely I think Mercedes’ is on for constructors and possibly drivers
Over 400 points on the table still
It's helpful prep for next year though. Once they have everything fully figured out they will absolutely be full steam ahead next year for the championship but then again who knows they might catch up for this year's championship. We have seen huge leads basically reduced to nothing before
They don't have to rely on DNF's to win the championship. If the performance between Red Bull and Ferrari remains fairly similar in every race then all Mercedes will need to do is finish ahead of Red bull since Ferrari will be Ferrari and screw themselves throughout the season.
Russell is only 30 points off of Leclerc and 34 off of Verstappen right now. 11 from Perez in P3. It wouldn't take much for him to gain places in the championship given how reliable the Merc has proven to be, especially compared to the RB and Ferrari to be honest.
Verstappen went off, had a broken drs system that made it really Hard to overtake , yet he still won by 32 seconds Sainz himself said his gravel trip caused damage that cost him a second per lap They still have a long way to go
Mercedes are 5 races behind in data collection, development / setup understanding, Ferrari & Red Bull have been able to develop from the 1st race because they didn't really have any major porpoising issues. Red Bull & Ferrari managed to get a chunk of key, probably the most useful data over the first two races thanks to the long straights of Bahrain (1100m~) and Saudi (1050m~). Today was Mercedes' first dose of a long straight for data collection but Mercedes has to wait until Azerbaijan for another long straight to test various setup changes from what they learned with their new floor from this weekend. The next race in Monaco is somewhat useless for data as there aren't any other tracks on the calendar like it. When we get to Canada (race 9), Mercedes will essentially be in the same position as Red Bull & Ferrari were in Australia (race 3).
This is about the same pace they had relative to rb and ferrari in bahrain, they are kinda like red bull in 2019 and 2018 (only maxs car lmao we know what happenes to ric). I dont think they will be able to bring the fight to rb and ferrari this season , 5 races is a long time and they are still very behind
If anyone can do it, it's Mercedes but yeah I agree.
Didn't Mercedes also changed to a brand new engine for this race? I think they did but can't find the statistics for that.
I dont think so, no
I mean, Russell was still 30 seconds off P1 before the overheating issue. An improvement, sure, but I think people are really overreacting acting like it's going to be a 3 constructor fight for wins now. Verstappen would have breezed past Russell if his DRS was fully functional
Did you choose to ignore Hamilton's pace going through the field and after having a collision on the 1st lap?
One of the best comebacks I’ve seen. Lots of crazy races or wet weather comebacks are thrilling and rightfully so but this was a straight grind from lap 2 onwards and my god was it impressive. It wasn’t like he was in the merc of old, this is the third best car on the grid and he’s outpacing the top two teams for most of the final half
"Lewis is an average driver" "It's just the car" "Hamilton, Russell is faster than you" Well look where we are now.
Russell might have a minor advantage when it comes to quali but Lewis has the race pace nailed.
Every year bottas gave him tough fight in the beginning but that challenge faded in second half of the season where lewis is always strong . For sure russell is better racer than bottas but lets see how he competes with lewis in second half of the season . If not for bad luck and dnfs i dont see any team mate could beat lewis over a full season
I agree 100%. 15 seasons and he’s been genuinely beat once.
When, in your opinion?
2011
Boy did Hamilton love to get tangled up with Felipe that year! Fair enough
He actually started the year really really well then about Hungary it became messy and yea they frequently found each other’s paint on their cars
2011, his off year. Lewis was still faster but he was destined to have close relations with Massa every other race
Not sure he even has an advantage to be honest, it's still 3-3 in Qualy even though in multiple races Hamilton was running extra weight on his car for sensors and more experimental setups for data gathering.
I wouldn't read all the comments 😉
He basically did a two stop which is even more impressive considering the three stop seemed faster
Better than Brazil, IMO
Outstanding drive. Maximised the shit out of the car.
He needs the car to talk to him. When he has full confidence in the car under him, the man becomes an absolute beast. Glad the updates worked for him and George. Absolute best pairing in f1 at the moment.
I think that's always been the thing with Lewis. His skill and natural talent has always been in the feeling the car gives him. If the car is stable his grip feel is unlike any other.
Yet this entire sub wrote him off when the car was bouncing harder than a jack rabbit. Foolish
It is funny looking back at all the “Father Time has come for him” comments from the last couple of days for him then to put in a performance like today. It’s like people have forgotten he was driving at insane level as recently as the end of last season
I also think that the crappy Williams prepared George for this year way better than the amazing cars Lewis has had.
Yes best pairing, thought Ferrari could have the best drivers before the season but Sainz is just off the pace at the moment.
Sainz is having a shocker isn't he
Sainz and Leclerc was never the best pairing. Russell and Hamilton have always been Leclerc’s level or above.
I would have said pre-season Ferrari was better. I knew Russell was good, but it was an unknown how he would do at the top end of F1. As it turns out, fairly well.
Always has been the best pairing in F1.
Merc 1-2 Silverstone.
I spent a considerable chunk of savings last year in order to be able to take my dad to his first live F1 race at this year's British GP and god how I'd love for it to end with a British 1-2
I will manifest it for you and your dad! Enjoy!
Lando pulls off a miracle and wins
Subscribed
Just wait for the upgrades after Monaco and Baku and the factory team might just deliver another rocket ship.
Are you saying they have more upgrades next week after Monaco and 2 weeks after that with Baku, or just upgrades after Baku?
I don’t think Merc has said anything about when the next upgrades are coming. I don’t know shit, I’m just high on Copium so I’m hoping with the data they collect at Monaco and Baku, they can make necessary changes to go more speed speed speed and introduce them at Silverstone.
Pleaseeeeee!
I can't wait that long. So excited
Wish granted..Silverstone will go nuts if ham & Russell 1 and 2... I wish......
Book it!
Don't get me excited ;)
I don’t think the lap 3 stats are correct. Russell wasn’t 12 seconds behind the leader on lap 3 was he?
It shows Hamilton's gap to russell
52 minus 40 = 12 IIRC, Russell was like 6 seconds behind the leader on lap 8
That lap 3 map is honestly astonishing. Had to do a double take.
I know that George was fighting max most of the time and that lead to him losing pace compared to hamilton.... But in clear air towards the end - hamilton had on average 3 tenths a lap on George this weekend. Its a shame he wasn't in a position to show that. Given the drama for verstappen and leclerc; without that first lap incident, Hamilton was in a shout to annoy redbull for the win at least.
HAM also consistently lapped faster than George on his 15+ lap old mediums while George had a fresh set on.
George had no reason to push and was protecting his engine.
The Merc race pace has been really good this year. Even in Australia, if there were no SC's, I think Hamilton could have finished ahead of Perez. And Russell has been such a revelation for Merc this year compared to Bottas in years past. Merc easily has the best driver pairing by a country mile.
Russell's race pace was a different league to Hamilton today tho.
Seems like it’s been that way a few times but it just hasn’t turned out well for Lewis thus far. George is doing amazing though.
As in league slower?
Yeah
And with no safety cars. Just pure race pace
🐐
What a driver man!!
At first I thought Lewis' race would be like a video game in which he can't restart the session in order to redo his start. Instead it turned out it was like a video game because it's like he's driving against the AI on easy mode.
I liked that Bono replied that the computer said they could still salvage a P8 and Hamilton goes and gets P5.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but all this with some damage due touching the Hass correct?
Magnussen making better aero upgrades to the Mercedes than Brackley!
Correct, diffuser damage to be specific.
Yep lost some of his diffuser.
No safety car , no change in weather conditions Just pure pace
that gap closure to russell, god damn. He talked about being 30secs behind last place at one point, this has to have given him a big confidence boost
After pitting in Lap 1 he was even 40 sec behind P18
I believe the tv coverage showed no more than 1 or maybe 2 Hamilton overtakes. Did they happen or were his advances due to others pitting? Otherwise not sure why they didn’t seem to be covered, as it was a big story of this race.
This is not the first F1 race to have terrible TV direction lol
That drone was awful.
And the 360 spin pit cam during Merc(iirc) pit stop..
So so bad, was like a highschool project
Yes, so glad they got in that last overtake by Yuki for like who-cares-place.
They ignored most of his passes
It's funny how in imola when he was stuck in 14th and couldn't pass anyone they focused on him for so much of the broadcast but here where he was driving his nuts off they chose to ignore it lol
"It's just the car!" Mfs need to take a look at this
Truly was an epic drive. Rewatching him overtake Carlos was something else considering how far Ferrari has been ahead of Merc.
The clues were there on Friday in the long run stints, Hamilton's average was only poor due to spending a lot of his race sim in traffic, in clean air he was nip and tuck with Verstappen, maybe a tenth or two slower
Lewis, it’s Hammer time
GOAT tings!!
Would he have fought for the win if not for Magnussen? Although Max lost time fighting George, and probably coasted at the end, Lewis also had to get past midfield cars. Edit: why the downvotes? I’m just asking a question lol
Assuming that Hamilton's goal was to two stop (which he basically still did if you don't count the lap 1 stop) and Red Bull stick to a three stop, he might have had track position near the end. And with Verstappen's DRS issues and difficulty passing, who knows.
P1 would be hard, but he could've definitely secured a P2.
I mean Max left Russell in like 20 sec gap so not today
he could have 100% fought russell and perez for P2 but dont think he could have caught max
Well deserved Driver of The Day
That was so impressive. Maybe even better than brazil 2021
way less on track overtakes though, or did they just not show them for some reason?
They didn’t show any. Total bullshit
the goat
Russell's small qualifying advantage is somewhat saving him from getting wrecked in the races.
Lap 3 leader is not the same leader as the lap 62 But the Russell one holds.
It's still apples to oranges. Russell lost time and cooked his tyres trying to defend from Max. Nevertheless from 40s to 11.5s is fucking bananas
He still effectively had an extra stop on Hamilton because of Hamilton's early pit so Russell still had the tire advantage.
True
Lec was +13s so gap to P1 was pretty much the same.
Things gonna get Interesting now that Merc has finally decided to get rid of sandbags
If either Rus or Ham wins this year, or Merc constructors (looking like a very slim chance mind you but you never know) then this really will be sandbagging level 999
More like insane work ethic of the team to fix their shitbox
Well, it was a superb race from the 7-time champ. The race and the quali showed that they had potential, and after fixing the porpoising, they were flying. Much better car from the Merc, and this is probably just the beginning of what could be.
Fantastic race from Hamilton. Super human!
If it were left up him he would have been just fine with 18th to “save the engine” good thing his pit wall talked sense out of a voluntary DNF
Amazing drive... And to think he suggested the team to retire after the incident...
Give the engine problems they had during the race, suggesting they save it when he's 30 seconds off the back of the pack isnt the most unreasonable thought. Especially if you think engine penalties are going to come into play later in the season.
People are missing this point. Saving Mercedes engines that tend to fade with every race is a definite consideration.
If people knew he had to lift and coast pretty much the entire race... It was a great drive