2020 Sakhir Grand Prix - Sakhir, Dec 04 - 06

[Sieper]

Such a good answer by max!

This question was such a dirty lure. And then the interviewer trying to put Max on the spot. Fracking guys. Good Max thinks just the same as me about Lewis. Real talent recognizes real talent. Talking about max and Lewis here, not me. Just to be clear

[ringo]

It’s nice to see everyone jumping around the small difference between Bottas and Russel, but are forgetting that they are ultimately comparing Russels second and improved run with Bottas’s first. Apart from that one run, Bottas was consistently quicker than George during the entire session when it mattered, beating him in every single run.

Meanwhile, George’s replacement (who had zero f1 time up to that point) at Williams pretty much beat Latifi until the rather substantial mistake on the very last corner. Tells us how good Latifi is.

Russel is good. But again, this track was never going to say much. A more technical track would be more telling.

good post. i think its good to remember that Bottas first run was being compared. Again i still see Bottas on average 2 tenths quicker than Russel based on the q1 to q3 performances overall. And this is nothing to be ashamed off for Russel.
I don't think Russel is a prodigy, however he may be just as good as leclerc and max in qualifying. But as for his racing... that is yet to be seen. tomorrow will be interesting!

[mzso]

Hmm... The circuit has some interesting new businesses and other locations:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bahra ... 2948?hl=hu

[i70q7m7ghw]

Such a good answer by max!

What kind of BS question is that? Just pisses over all of the development work the drivers do to build a dominant car It's no accident the best drivers end up driving the best cars.

Who is the guy asking the question? I just want to make sure I completely disregard anything he writes or reports going forwards.

[foxmulder_ms]

Oh boy, the PR machinery is on now. The guy isn't even racing this weekend.

He's probably designing new space shuttle, while saving hungry children in Africa...

You failed to mention curing both cancer and coronavirus

JEalus much.? Compared to us, writing in this forum, yes.. probably he is doing all those and more.

[foxmulder_ms]

Max has 2 undeniable attributes - he’s undoubtedly the fiercest competitor on the grid (tied with Lewis), and he’s also undoubtedly the most honest.

https://twitter.com/sophwebsterxx/statu ... 12674?s=21

Respect.

[grubschumi13]

One thing people forget is, how driveable W11 is and how difficult RB16 is. When W08 was a diva, Bottas struggled on days it misbehaved. Similar trend continued with W09, to lesser extent. So if Bottas was put in that RB16, he would struggle as much or maybe more. Gasly who is doing so well in AT now after a similar time in RB15 tells the story.
Who knows, if Albon drives W11, he might do better than Bottas. We would never know.

No way Albon is quicker in the W11. The Red Bull has been much improved in terms of stability the second half of the season. It's not like Albon is a few hundredths off. He's an eternity away.

Russell may end being the most talented out of the Verstappen and LEC trio. And that's saying something.

And Bottas still covered him off.

Today has confirmed a few things: 1) Lewis is the fastest on the grid; 2) Bottas' pure quali pace is outstanding; 3) Russell is the future at Mercedes.

Red Bull/Ferrari better end up building monster cars in 2022.

I see Russell being 0.02s behind Bottas has somehow been spun to "GR might be better then Leclerc and Max. Given that Bottas is so close to him, yet he covered him off, Bottas must be magnificant. Lewis really is greatest."

Sorry to say, not many hold that POV after todays quali. People are wtfing how is Russel anywhere close to Bottas, a guy who has spent hundreds of hours in this years car and simulator, as well as last 4 seasons in Merc team, just to be matched by guy that sat in seat that is way to tight for him for first time yesterday.

Bottas pure quali pace is not THAT outstanding. His quali pace vs Massa was on average half of that of Alonso, which means he is no where near Max and Leclerc in all probability. Just look where Albon (12th) and Vettel (13th) are.

I see that too. All the Russell praise is actually indirect praise for Lewis. Suddenly Russell is great and if Russell is great and Hamilton > Bottas > Russell.

[Manoah2u]

As for Russell vs Bottas, too bad Russell didn't actually beat him, i would have loved that.
Nevertheless, pretty embarassing to see Russell, in his first weekend in that car, vs a guy that's at that team for years on end, knows it inside and out,
to ONLY be ahead in just 2 hundreds of a second.

KingGeorge doesn't even fully know how all the buttons on the steering wheel work, is in a shoe size smaller than he is used to (and arguably comfortable in),
and is due to his height much higher up in the seat (you can see how much higher his helmet pops up in the car), arguably in far less ideal circumstances.
And again, overnight, suddenly in the 'mother of all mothers' car, with all the cameras, lights, and media aimed at his face.

To then put in a result that is 2 hundreds down, is absolutely bonkers.

I'd argue that with a bit more experience, he would have wiped the floor with Valterri.

The big game is tomorrow, but fact is too, that in the past couple of races, Valterri has lost it at the start too, making remarkably bad starts compared to the rest,
and getting overtaken like a chump.

Last race started P2, finished P8.
Turkey started P9, finished P14. Lewis started P6, won the GP. BOT should have finished P3.
Britain started P2, finished P11.

Bottas better be performing his very best race in life ever, even if it doesn't change not being a WDC (ever for that matter),
as anything less could easily result in getting beaten by Russell.

His threat is not Verstappen, as everybody knows Max is able to beat him and there is no shame in that regard, nor would it have much impact on his future.
Even if Lewis would get beaten by Max nobody would really 'bat an eye'.

Bottas tomorrow has 1 enemy, and that is Russell, and he has to pull out everything he has to make sure he beats him. If not, that's what the media will destroy him with.
And it's not unlikely he'll get another race to deal with that again in AbuDhabi.

10 days of Quarantine and then 48 hours of isolation in AbuDhabi means Lewis very very likely will pass on AbuDhabi, regardless whether he's even fit enough to even want to do the race.

That means that Bottas is not only in the situation where he could find his *ss being handed to him by KingGeorge tomorrow, but he'll get served another dish in AbuDhabi, where inevitably George will have greatly grown with the car and team.

The only thing that could 'save' Bottas career is : beat KingGeorge tomorrow, then pull another best race of his life (taking 5 years of his lifespan) in AbuDhabi, OR, get punted out and have a DNF, OR see Russell get a DNF. TWICE.

I really wouldn't want to be in Bottas shoes right now.

And sorry for the bloke, I really hope we'll see Russell win tomorrow.

[grubschumi13]

It’s nice to see everyone jumping around the small difference between Bottas and Russel, but are forgetting that they are ultimately comparing Russels second and improved run with Bottas’s first. Apart from that one run, Bottas was consistently quicker than George during the entire session when it mattered, beating him in every single run.

Meanwhile, George’s replacement (who had zero f1 time up to that point) at Williams pretty much beat Latifi until the rather substantial mistake on the very last corner. Tells us how good Latifi is.

Russel is good. But again, this track was never going to say much. A more technical track would be more telling.

I think you don't like the fact that Russell did ran Bottas so close. I think you hoped Russell would do poorly so you could say It's Lewis not the car.

[ferkan]

Obviously it's the car, this is F1. It doesn't take anything from greatness that is Lewis though, but many people wrongly assume Lewis would beat Max and Leclerc because he is 7xWDC and is spanking Bottas, this is where assumption IMO fails. We don't know. IMO Max is best driver currently in F1, closely followed by Ham and Leclerc. Leclerc is probably fastest over one lap, but Max in Merc vs Ham? Would be fireworks. Rosberg managed to beat him, albeit with lady luck helping, but Max is much bigger talent then Rosberg.

There was a guy in 2007 that came to a team and matched 2xWDC, so why wouldn't it happen again?

[LM10]

What I want to know is why everyone focuses on Bottas as a #2 . . .

. . . when Albon is getting wiped off the face of the earth by Verstappen every weekend.

Put Lewis in the #2 RB and maybe Verstappen is getting his teeth kicked in every weekend.

We simply don’t know because Albon is the worst driver on the grid.

Merc has to be sending a bottle of champagne to RBR thanking them for keeping Albon next year.

One thing people forget is, how driveable W11 is and how difficult RB16 is. When W08 was a diva, Bottas struggled on days it misbehaved. Similar trend continued with W09, to lesser extent. So if Bottas was put in that RB16, he would struggle as much or maybe more. Gasly who is doing so well in AT now after a similar time in RB15 tells the story.
Who knows, if Albon drives W11, he might do better than Bottas. We would never know.

No way Albon is quicker in the W11. The Red Bull has been much improved in terms of stability the second half of the season. It's not like Albon is a few hundredths off. He's an eternity away.

Russell may end being the most talented out of the Verstappen and LEC trio. And that's saying something.

And Bottas still covered him off.

Today has confirmed a few things: 1) Lewis is the fastest on the grid; 2) Bottas' pure quali pace is outstanding; 3) Russell is the future at Mercedes.

Red Bull/Ferrari better end up building monster cars in 2022.

How did the fact that an uncomfortable Russell in a car he drove for the first time ever, yet ending up being equally fast as Bottas, turned into Bottas being an outstanding qualifier? That’s a bit of an odd statement.

Though, for the record, I too think that Bottas is a really good qualifier, but that’s already all he’s good at. However, the thing is that the job is not done with qualifying alone. He either doesn’t care or simply can’t do better because there really is nothing worth mentioning about his performances on race days.

As for the first point, I agree with that as well, but have absolutely no clue how you came up with that particularly after today’s qualifying.

[Hammerfist]

George did a great job, he put Bottas under a lot of pressure and it almost worked. Bottas drove nervously all weekend. You can tell he really wanted this pole, he would not take losing to George well. That last lap Bottas did is when Lewis would probably have taken advantage of him and make him pay for not doing a good lap. He really didn't send that last lap at all. That is why George got so close.
Tomorrow I'm fully expecting Verstappen to win this race if he has a trouble free day. Bottas is just not convincing at all this weekend. He normally drives so much cleaner. Race prediction: Max first, Bottas 2nd. A midfielder in third. I think George will be vulnerable to the Ricciardos and Perez of the world, he'll probably finish P4 or P5. His race performances are usually way down on his qualifying performances.

[Scorpaguy]

Russell -1 (day 1)

Bottas - 1 (day 2)

Tomorrow is the tie breaker.

Seems a big PR machine trying to save Ham's rep here...and not sure it needs saving. Bot beat Ham fair and square a few times this season. He also beat Rus today in a car he has no experience in and does not fit him. IMHO, Rus's accomplishments seem quite significant.

...elsewhere, it will be criminal if Albon is racing next year and Perez is not.

[PlatinumZealot]

Such a good answer by max!

What kind of BS question is that? Just pisses over all of the development work the drivers do to build a dominant car It's no accident the best drivers end up driving the best cars.

Who is the guy asking the question? I just want to make sure I completely disregard anything he writes or reports going forwards.

Highly respected journalist Dieter Reneken.
Such a rank question from him.

He posts very good peices on racefans.com nowadays. He has inside connections. But he seems to be trying to squeeze a response from Max to write some story to catch views.

[zibby43]

One thing people forget is, how driveable W11 is and how difficult RB16 is. When W08 was a diva, Bottas struggled on days it misbehaved. Similar trend continued with W09, to lesser extent. So if Bottas was put in that RB16, he would struggle as much or maybe more. Gasly who is doing so well in AT now after a similar time in RB15 tells the story.
Who knows, if Albon drives W11, he might do better than Bottas. We would never know.

No way Albon is quicker in the W11. The Red Bull has been much improved in terms of stability the second half of the season. It's not like Albon is a few hundredths off. He's an eternity away.

Russell may end being the most talented out of the Verstappen and LEC trio. And that's saying something.

And Bottas still covered him off.

Today has confirmed a few things: 1) Lewis is the fastest on the grid; 2) Bottas' pure quali pace is outstanding; 3) Russell is the future at Mercedes.

Red Bull/Ferrari better end up building monster cars in 2022.

How did the fact that an uncomfortable Russell in a car he drove for the first time ever, yet ending up being equally fast as Bottas, turned into Bottas being an outstanding qualifier? That’s a bit of an odd statement.

Though, for the record, I too think that Bottas is a really good qualifier, but that’s already all he’s good at. However, the thing is that the job is not done with qualifying alone. He either doesn’t care or simply can’t do better because there really is nothing worth mentioning about his performances on race days.

As for the first point, I agree with that as well, but have absolutely no clue how you came up with that particularly after today’s qualifying.

Re: Bottas, because of the way he drove the car. Under pressure. It’s not just the time deltas I evaluate. And I’m not the only one that feels Bottas was fantastic today.

This is Windsor’s take, and he ended up reaching the same conclusion I did.

As someone that spends time on the track (an actual track, not a sim) behind the wheel of some pretty fast road cars, I really enjoy watching the onboards and seeing how the car is being driven. Bottas was consistent and smooth today, even if he didn’t improve on that final run.

Watch the first 2 minutes. You’ll see what I mean. Hope that helps explain.