Interestingly enough, Russel just came out indicating Mercedes are in talks with Max about switching over
Saw the movie at imax. Very well shot, won’t spoil the rest but I enjoyed the big screen and big sound experience at imax
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McLaren’s British bias is running wild tonight. Why they hold Piastri out for 2-3 laps after Norris’s first pit stop AND THEN ask do you want to extend for delta. They were seriously worried Piastri would overcut him after the slow stop it seems. Obvious as they pit Piastri the lap after Norris on the 2nd stop that time. Delta, yeah good one hahaha
Anyway, Oscar the must faster driver overall. He will need to qualify better next time to avoid the bias
It would’ve been even closer if lapped traffic hadn’t held him up in the closing stages.
Good to see Red Bull’s streak of points finish end, which just happened to be on their home turf, too.
There were rumours swirling around that the Max contract indicates top 2 positioning by halfway before he can walk. Which is essentially the point where we’re at. With Russel still being open ended, wonder if Max is happy to just go somewhere else, especially with RB having to now make their own engines. Also suggestions that Stroll is looking at Russel for Aston Martin. Whether that comes about though…
Mercedes are heavily tipped to do really well with the new regulations coming next year. I think it would be really tough on Russell to get turfed for Verstappen. For me, their current driver line-up is perfectly fine. Russell can be the point man while Antonelli continues to learn his craft. He will prove to be more and more a consistent performer. Verstappen would upset that apple cart and I think even Toto Wolff would have his hands full trying to control Verstappen the way he was sort of able to do with Hamilton.
I’d actually see Toto being fine with Max, it’d be more about Max adapting to Toto rather than the other way around. If Max is moving to one of the top teams, he’ll have to understand he’s not going to be the kiss arse golden boy that Red Bull has made him out to be. If we wants to be a king, then I daresay he’s better off going to one of the mid table teams with money.
Antonelli is fine, but if you have a dominant Mercedes team next year, you’re going to need a decent secondary driver as well. Antonelli is a bit on the inconsistent side, he’s had 3 DNFs this year hasn’t he? The question will be whether Mercedes keep him on and work on developing him, or whether they go for a more dominant pairing. Obviously positives and negatives to both.
A driver in his rookie year is going to have issues with consistency. He’s been thrown in the deep end and at times has matched Russell for pace. Piastri was the same in his first season. I think he will be okay. Meanwhile, Verstappen has also showed a willingness to walk away from the sport in the next few years. I don’t think I’d be chucking all my resources at him unless there was an ironclad commitment to him sticking around, or at least recouping a lot of money from him if he did walk during his contract.
Mercedes are heavily tipped to do really well with the new regulations coming next year.
They were heavily tipped to do really well when the regs changed last time too. But they went with a sidepodless car that “worked well in the sim” but was utter dogshit.
I would go with, minus McLaren having a bomb go off at their facility, they will be the ones to beat again.
Miffed given Russel got off completely for the same thing 2 races back.
They’re saying Piastri used double the force on the break which would be the deciding factor
Not to mention it was in pretty wet conditions at the time.
I hope Piastri uses it as a learning experience. He didn’t really need to do that, and he was otherwise fast enough to win the race.
Let’s not allow that to overshadow that Nico Hulkenberg finally got on the podium!
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But the other context here is how late the call came for safety car in this lap, if he wanted to create a gap he needed to do it there really.
Still, been a few signs he hasn’t handled the pressure as well last little while. The whinge about alpine last race, frustration in qualy here. Bad decision about the safety car now. These are things he didn’t seem to be doing earlier in the year. Seems he’s feeling the pressure now. One of his strengths has been to learn from his mistakes, unlike Lando. Hopefully he can pull back to where he was earlier this year from a mindset perspective, and I think Webber will help with that.
So good to see! Especially after throwing one away in the rain years ago, then some time out. Seems like a top guy too.
It’s amazing to think there’s only 1 year difference between Piastri and Norris
It was funny that Max kind of defended Oscar after the race saying the penalty was a bit harsh. It is always Max in these situations though. Tailgates the lead car even before the safety car lights have gone off. Lead car needs to keep their brakes warm so is pretty standard for them to do this. Hopefully Oscar has learnt just to tone it down a bit in future.
On the bright side, despite coming 2nd in both of the last 2 races, he has been the faster driver. Had a 13 second gap before the SC yesterday. Hopefully uses that fire in his belly in a constructive way
Though penalty was harsh, but not sure stewards had any alternative other than no penalty under guidelines.
60psi is about half the max braking of an F1 car and twice the 30psi where Russell got no penalty.
Oscars braking on lap 21 also wasnt much different to lap 17, Max’s behaviour was very different.
But if feel more sorry for Lando.
Pretty hollow victory, and Hulk got all the accolades.
I doubt Lando really cares, to be honest. He certainly didn’t care in the moment. Nor would I expect him to.
I think the penalty is important also to deter other drivers from thinking its okay to do the same thing. I’m okay with the penalty as long as they maintain consistency.
So either Max has gone to Mercedes or the Verstappens issued a “he goes or Max goes” ultimatum. They wanted him gone after that sad little texting scandal.