2021 São Paulo Grand Prix - Interlagos, Nov 12-14

[proteus]

https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/a ... 0svav1.mp4

[Mr.S]

The car was illegal & whatever performance gain they got (whether half a tenth or 1 is irrelevant) - The DRS opened more than it should in an illegal car. No excuse to justify the same - No1 can in their right mind say a DSQ was not right with an illegal car with DRS opening more (giving whatever minor gains etc) !

Anyways, very hard to predict tyre strategy - It depends on the temperatures & so many other factors. Verstappen, Bottas & Hamilton were evenly matched on pace in the sprint with Mercedes having a top speed advantage. Perez has to get past Sainz & pull a gap otherwise he will be stuck behind a car 5-6 tenths slower & will be sitting duck for Hamilton's charge. He needs to pull up a gap before Lap 8-10 & give RB strategic options. From Mercedes point of view, Hamilton needs to make up 4-5 slots in the 1st 4-5 laps & get in the game - The longer he gets stuck the more he loses - The cars ahead of him will lap close to 1s slower than Bottas & Verstappen !

And if Bottas wins, that is 7 less points for Verstappen & also a big boost for the constructor championship as well !

[search]

https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/a ... 0svav1.mp4

Marko said that Verstappen needs to pay it from his own pocket, by the way.

[Mchamilton]

Exactly, Max needs to give Bottas extra room, if he doesn't then thats on Max.

Same with Lewis, better show Perez some respect. Lewis might be overzealous and may compromise his race like he did to Albon.

Nah, making that move on albon was well after any championship threat had gone. Look at yesterday's race. Lewis was as close to cars in that very corner but didn't make an attempt as he didn't risk it.
Lewis already knows he needs to be careful around all 4 redbull cars.

He knows hes ok when racing Gasly, those 2 are pretty close in F1 driver friend terms

[djones]

I have a feeling Lewis will start on hards. Didn’t they do that at Monza?

That would easily get him a podium, but I suspect it would be too safe of a strategy for the win as a huge amount of time would be lost not being able to get past slower cars quite as fast.

[AeroDynamic]

I’m pretty sure the ‘legal’ illegally gaining RB wing helped RB gain a lot more advantage over the season in terms of pts than 0.2mm advantage MCS had in qualifying on Friday

[ispano6]

I’m pretty sure the ‘legal’ illegally gaining RB wing helped RB gain a lot more advantage over the season in terms of pts than 0.2mm advantage MCS had in qualifying on Friday

Not really, Pirelli prevented that in Baku.

[Tvetovnato]

I have a feeling Lewis will start on hards. Didn’t they do that at Monza?

That would easily get him a podium, but I suspect it would be too safe of a strategy for the win as a huge amount of time would be lost not being able to get past slower cars quite as fast.

I’m not so sure it would make a big difference if he’s on hards or medium when it comes to overtaking the slower cars. I think it would be a very wise strategy actually. The penalty of losing a position at the start when starting in the middle is far less than it would be in a head to head fight with Max at the front, since he will make up for that loss in a lap or so. I hope they go with hards, just to try something different to those in front.

[BlueCheetah66]

If Bottas starts on softs that would probably mean that Mercedes plan for Hamilton to have a shot at the win. It will be interesting to see what RB do if Bottas starts on softs and is leading the first lap

[Stu]

Semi-OT, but RB had to tape up their rear wings in Mexico to be compliant/safe.

Was the only thing that screwed Merc the fact that the breakage wasn’t noticed until after the session?

If so, you can see how ridiculous the application of the rules are sometimes. If the wing was intentionally non-compliant? DSQ all day.

Passes the test on 2/3 portions of the wing, indicating a clear malfunction? Should be a chance to fix it, just like they would have been given if noticed earlier.

If Mercedes are not doing legality checks on these each session I would be amazed. They would need to know how much something will change due to wear after a measurable usage to determine life-span of parts.
If they are not doing this routinely, they need to look at their systems!!

1995 Spa - Schumacher disqualified for excess wear on the plank, proved to be caused by a sideways moment over a kerb. Result? - disqualification due to a part of the car being outside of the tolerance of the rules.

I'm guessing they check these things as regularly as other teams. If the 0.2 mm is correct, then clearly this is something that could have happened during that very session. 0.2mm is nothing!! the average human hair is 0.075mm so this 0.2mm is LESS than 3 hairs!

And it was 94 not 95.

Thanks for the correction on the year for the Schumacher DQ. My point with the checking of the part for wear, is that there would be a known amount of wear that will take place with activation, this is how you would life a part such as this (especially with the regulation having a ‘hard maximum’ for the allowed dimension); don’t forget, due to parc ferme applying from the start of qualifying, this rear wing would then go on to complete qualifying, FP2, sprint race & GP and still must remain within the ‘hard maximum’. Plainly, in this instance, their internal processes have failed!

OR…

The FIA/scrutineers infrequently check this dimension and Mercedes have now had their own grey-area discovered.

TBF, this could have been going on for ages (years?), and the ‘flexi-wing saga’ from earlier this year was just a political game.

Who knows??

If, as it seems, Red Bull highlighted this to scrutineers once qualifying had commenced(???), they are being reasonably fair-minded toward their championship rival (in that Mercedes have now had the opportunity to replace an out of regulation part). I would have waited until the GP started & going for the full race DQ for maximum competitive advantage!!

[DChemTech]

I’m pretty sure the ‘legal’ illegally gaining RB wing helped RB gain a lot more advantage over the season in terms of pts than 0.2mm advantage MCS had in qualifying on Friday

Why do you put legal between punctuation marks? It was legal until the FIA changed the rules.
The situation was similar to when you would go driving after drinking one beer, legally, then get held up by the police, and get fined because the government decided to suddenly change the drinking limit to half a beer in the time between you leaving the pub and being held up.

[Starkblood80]

If Mercedes are not doing legality checks on these each session I would be amazed. They would need to know how much something will change due to wear after a measurable usage to determine life-span of parts.
If they are not doing this routinely, they need to look at their systems!!

1995 Spa - Schumacher disqualified for excess wear on the plank, proved to be caused by a sideways moment over a kerb. Result? - disqualification due to a part of the car being outside of the tolerance of the rules.

I'm guessing they check these things as regularly as other teams. If the 0.2 mm is correct, then clearly this is something that could have happened during that very session. 0.2mm is nothing!! the average human hair is 0.075mm so this 0.2mm is LESS than 3 hairs!

And it was 94 not 95.

Thanks for the correction on the year for the Schumacher DQ. My point with the checking of the part for wear, is that there would be a known amount of wear that will take place with activation, this is how you would life a part such as this (especially with the regulation having a ‘hard maximum’ for the allowed dimension); don’t forget, due to parc ferme applying from the start of qualifying, this rear wing would then go on to complete qualifying, FP2, sprint race & GP and still must remain within the ‘hard maximum’. Plainly, in this instance, their internal processes have failed!

OR…

The FIA/scrutineers infrequently check this dimension and Mercedes have now had their own grey-area discovered.

TBF, this could have been going on for ages (years?), and the ‘flexi-wing saga’ from earlier this year was just a political game.

Who knows??

If, as it seems, Red Bull highlighted this to scrutineers once qualifying had commenced(???), they are being reasonably fair-minded toward their championship rival (in that Mercedes have now had the opportunity to replace an out of regulation part). I would have waited until the GP started & going for the full race DQ for maximum competitive advantage!!

I doubt Redbull would have noticed a 0.2mm difference on only one side of the DRS from tv footage but Mercedes didn’t. Not only that but I think RB went to the FIA about wing flex rather than the DRS slot gap.

[Laserguru]

I’m pretty sure the ‘legal’ illegally gaining RB wing helped RB gain a lot more advantage over the season in terms of pts than 0.2mm advantage MCS had in qualifying on Friday

Why do you put legal between punctuation marks? It was legal until the FIA changed the rules.
The situation was similar to when you would go driving after drinking one beer, legally, then get held up by the police, and get fined because the government decided to suddenly change the drinking limit to half a beer in the time between you leaving the pub and being held up.

On top of that we should not forget that since last Friday Mercedes rear wing is being investigated for flexing above 260 kmh…

[JordanMugen]

If Bottas starts on softs that would probably mean that Mercedes plan for Hamilton to have a shot at the win. It will be interesting to see what RB do if Bottas starts on softs and is leading the first lap

Why not start Perez on softs too to cover Bottas?

[kenshi_blind]

On top of that we should not forget that since last Friday Mercedes rear wing is being investigated for flexing above 260 kmh…

SO we just make things up now ? where the FIA document about the rear wing being investigated ?