2021 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, May 07 - 09

[McMika98]

Uh oh, better delete your post. MV fans are going to be triggered.

There’s no way max can ever lose in an equal car.

Thanks for the concern, he is starting to become the young Hamilton, fast but error prone and blame deflecting, spurred on by hometown media and fans. This new matured Lewis is hard not to like.
Further substance on Leclerc vs Max. To me Leclerc is now proving to be a much accomplished driver.
https://youtu.be/L5w2Sv2WI3Q

[MKlaus]

If it is, it only seems to be in that hands of Lewis. Bottas couldn't get past charles, and then even after he jumped him during the pit stops and had clear air, he didn't make much headway into Max.

please stop using bottas as a reference. he is as sloppy as mazepin. he doesn't even show desire to fight on track and is content for a walk in the park. lewis repeated what he did in hungary 2019, which clearly suggest w12 is as fast as it's predecessors. no need to make it a point as if one driver is driving beyond what a car can do. same applies to red bull. both teams have below par second drivers. i always maintained that mercedes is the better car and winter testing was as misleading as it it can get due to mercedes not having found the sweet spot of set up. now thry and w12 shows it's every bit reincarnation of w11.

Lol. I think Bottas may go to redbull in 2022. He seems fed-up with Mercedes.

what value red bull is going to get from him? even with a faster and supremely well balanced cars, he has been unable to get anywhere close to max. if he goes to red bull and if they have another less than perfect car, what impact he would have against mercedes cars of 2022? he would be even worse than what he is now. it would be good for him to retire.

[e30ernest]

Lewis Hamilton on Max Verstappen:

“I learnt a lot about Max today, perhaps more than all the other races put together,” he said. “This has been a good race in that sense.”

Asked if he wished to elaborate, Hamilton said: “No, not particularly. When you are with people on track you get to see different things up close. I learnt a lot about his car and how he uses it.”

I wonder what he meant there. He was following Max for a while so maybe he spotted something about Max's driving compared to his own. Maybe braking points, lines or where the Bull was stronger/weaker?

Source article:

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport ... e368edab34

[ringo]

Well windsors says max is actually an early braker. It could be his driving style.
Also Hamilton may be building his confidence in knowing Max is good, but no driving god. In the same way he studied vettel over the years.

[DChemTech]

I didn’t see you make that distinction in your first line.

Only saw you say you hoped RB would find more race pace.

Not to mention the Perez/Bottas line seemed to be about qualifying yesterday.

Reading back, you are right - I thought I'd wrote it down in the first paragraph, but perhaps that was only in my head and didn't make it to the screen. My bad. Anyhow, I was reflecting on race pace - for Perez/Bottas, I didn't have a specific session in mind, probably a mix of all sessions, but certainly including the race.

[Schuttelberg]

Today's race again showed what we all know...

1. Merc has the better car
2. Merc makes the better strategy calls
3. Bot continues to prove he is NO WHERE near Ham or Max
4. Checo will do good just to outpace Bot

What this world needs is for Ham and Max to be on the same Team and for Bot and Checo to be on the same team...that would make for loads of great racing.

Red Bull couldn't have made any strategy call that would win them this race. Had they opted to two stop, Mercedes would have gone the other way and made it stick. If Verstappen can close in over 20 laps and have the top speed to pass on a circuit like Barcelona then good luck. Verstappen was probably running less wing, so that may have helped but crucially I think Hamilton didn't have enough degradation for Verstappen to eat into the gap like Hamilton did to Verstappen.

Bahrain was very simply an anomaly and it wasn't like Mercedes was nowhere in that GP. I feel this will be a season where Mercedes and Hamilton will be under pressure to not botch anything up but they will more or less go to every track in contention to win the race. I think Max will win more races on such tracks that are anomalies because unlike 2020 the Red Bull is not in another category but all things being equal, Max has no chance to win the championship.

[erudite450]

Uh oh, better delete your post. MV fans are going to be triggered.

There’s no way max can ever lose in an equal car.

Thanks for the concern, he is starting to become the young Hamilton, fast but error prone and blame deflecting, spurred on by hometown media and fans. This new matured Lewis is hard not to like.
Further substance on Leclerc vs Max. To me Leclerc is now proving to be a much accomplished driver.
https://youtu.be/L5w2Sv2WI3Q

It might be a case of talking highly of your teammate to make yourself look good but I'm beginning to agree with Vettel that Leclerc is a better talent than Verstappen. Probably because he doesn't have a whole vocal national fan base behind him, his stunning performances are going under the radar. It's a long season and a lot can still happen but I believe he would have been a more formidable rival for Hamilton because of his single lap speed. He's a better qualifier than Verstappen.

[DChemTech]

If anything the second stint showed how mature Max drove because he let Lewis close up to around 1,5s and then up his pace just enough that lewis could not overtake on the straight with similar aged tires.
Merc going for the successful opposite strategy in my opinion shows they didn’t think Lewis would have passed on equal strategies.

But wait.. So Max was controlling the race, you say? So the RedBull gas had stronger race pace after all!

...
Eh, no, you can control the race while being the slower car, as long as you are still sufficiently fast to prevent the other party from passing. Which was the case if they were on equal tires, but clearly failed to be the case when Lewis pitted again.

[Vasconia]

Today's race again showed what we all know...

1. Merc has the better car
2. Merc makes the better strategy calls
3. Bot continues to prove he is NO WHERE near Ham or Max
4. Checo will do good just to outpace Bot

What this world needs is for Ham and Max to be on the same Team and for Bot and Checo to be on the same team...that would make for loads of great racing.

Red Bull couldn't have made any strategy call that would win them this race. Had they opted to two stop, Mercedes would have gone the other way and made it stick. If Verstappen can close in over 20 laps and have the top speed to pass on a circuit like Barcelona then good luck. Verstappen was probably running less wing, so that may have helped but crucially I think Hamilton didn't have enough degradation for Verstappen to eat into the gap like Hamilton did to Verstappen.

Bahrain was very simply an anomaly and it wasn't like Mercedes was nowhere in that GP. I feel this will be a season where Mercedes and Hamilton will be under pressure to not botch anything up but they will more or less go to every track in contention to win the race. I think Max will win more races on such tracks that are anomalies because unlike 2020 the Red Bull is not in another category but all things being equal, Max has no chance to win the championship.

RB needs to improve its race pace because on Saturdays they can compete, but its worthless if Mercedes can always have a better pace and therefore, better strategy, to win the race.

[epo]

I don't know what's more entertaining, the race or the race thread!

The race. The race thread is now suggesting the Mercedes is a much much faster car than the RedBull

I wish the Mercedes was faster. I want it to dominate again. Today i thought it would be a good step on the way, but I was disappointed. I couldnt really tell if it was truly faster. Max was too close. He was in front in fact and we couldn't overtake him after many attempts. Valterri was also too far back, so far there wasnt even a one-two finish. You know how long its been before Mercedes had a one-two?! Man i miss those days! I was glad that the strategy and the ability of HAM to make it work brought the win though. Max could have won if he didn't burn out his tyres in the opening laps.

Funny, your quoting your Hamilton fanboy group and talking trash again, because oooh don't touch mr Hamilton. Can you guys grow up, and not ALWAYS defend Hamilton, you know the guy can do that himself, he doesn't need nobodies like you guys for that.

[DChemTech]

The race. The race thread is now suggesting the Mercedes is a much much faster car than the RedBull

I wish the Mercedes was faster. I want it to dominate again. Today i thought it would be a good step on the way, but I was disappointed.
Max could have won if he didn't burn out his tyres in the opening laps.

The Redbull us equally as quick as Merc. Compare the second drivers and we get an idea of the true pace.
Max lost it again. Leclerc would have won the race in the same car.

Well, Perez was about 40s behind Bottas - and remember, some claim Bottas is of "Mazepin level". So if we compare the second drivers, the Mercedes clearly has the pace advantage (or Perez is performing worse than a 1-star Uber driver)

Uh oh, better delete your post. MV fans are going to be triggered.
There’s no way max can ever lose in an equal car.

Not at all, of course he can lose in an equal car. But why try and keep up the myth that Merc and RB are equal, while they (in race pace) are clearly not? We can all see Hamilton is driving extremely well this year, there really is no need to excessively try and downplay Verstappen and try and emphasize Hamiltons godliness with that. And somehow it gives the impression that LH fans are equally triggered from the insinuation that the cars are not equal...

[NathanOlder]

Perez is so useless... It's so hard for RBR to find equal flunkey for Ver as Mercedes found for Ham...

Duh, that´s obvious. Finding someone that can match Hamilton is not very difficult, while finding a driver to keep up with Verstappen, you would need to go with Leclerc and, probably, nobody else

Full troll mode enabled ? So far only Alonso was able to 'match' Lewis, and that was a rookie Lewis. So.... finding someone to match Lewis hasn't actually been done. Maybe you know better


75.

[El Scorchio]

Today's race again showed what we all know...

1. Merc has the better car
2. Merc makes the better strategy calls
3. Bot continues to prove he is NO WHERE near Ham or Max
4. Checo will do good just to outpace Bot

What this world needs is for Ham and Max to be on the same Team and for Bot and Checo to be on the same team...that would make for loads of great racing.

Red Bull couldn't have made any strategy call that would win them this race. Had they opted to two stop, Mercedes would have gone the other way and made it stick. If Verstappen can close in over 20 laps and have the top speed to pass on a circuit like Barcelona then good luck. Verstappen was probably running less wing, so that may have helped but crucially I think Hamilton didn't have enough degradation for Verstappen to eat into the gap like Hamilton did to Verstappen.

Bahrain was very simply an anomaly and it wasn't like Mercedes was nowhere in that GP. I feel this will be a season where Mercedes and Hamilton will be under pressure to not botch anything up but they will more or less go to every track in contention to win the race. I think Max will win more races on such tracks that are anomalies because unlike 2020 the Red Bull is not in another category but all things being equal, Max has no chance to win the championship.

RB needs to improve its race pace because on Saturdays they can compete, but its worthless if Mercedes can always have a better pace and therefore, better strategy, to win the race.

It's all in the tyres. (more specifically the medium/hard tyres) I don't think the Mercedes is a faster car over one lap, but I think it uses/preserves the tyres better than the Red Bull. Double pain when it's Hamilton in the Mercedes because he has this extraordinary ability to drive the car super fast while somehow being ultra kind to the tyres. And this is every bit as much a vital talent as being able to rag it over one lap.

This has been manifesting itself in the pattern of every race so far. The Red Bull is quicker over the first few laps and Verstappen can pull away because the tyres are in the window quicker. Then the Mercedes gets there, but slower and is able to hold onto them for longer. While the performance on the Red Bull drops away, the Mercedes is able to keep consistent pace and close up.

I think it's much closer on softs, and that Mercedes doesn't have any advantage on those, but it's better on mediums and hards, which is why we are seeing what we are seeing from qualifying to race.

[NathanOlder]

I wish the Mercedes was faster. I want it to dominate again. Today i thought it would be a good step on the way, but I was disappointed.
Max could have won if he didn't burn out his tyres in the opening laps.

The Redbull us equally as quick as Merc. Compare the second drivers and we get an idea of the true pace.
Max lost it again. Leclerc would have won the race in the same car.

Well, Perez was about 40s behind Bottas - and remember, some claim Bottas is of "Mazepin level". So if we compare the second drivers, the Mercedes clearly has the pace advantage (or Perez is performing worse than a 1-star Uber driver)

Well Perez messed his qualy up and only started 8th. Plus he's new to the team (most new drivers are being beat easily by their team mates at the moment) So there's no way Perez vs Bottas can be compared yet. We still haven't had a race where the top 2 team lock out the front 2 rows and get away 1-4 at the start. That will be interesting to see.

[El Scorchio]

Lewis Hamilton on Max Verstappen:

“I learnt a lot about Max today, perhaps more than all the other races put together,” he said. “This has been a good race in that sense.”

Asked if he wished to elaborate, Hamilton said: “No, not particularly. When you are with people on track you get to see different things up close. I learnt a lot about his car and how he uses it.”

I wonder what he meant there. He was following Max for a while so maybe he spotted something about Max's driving compared to his own. Maybe braking points, lines or where the Bull was stronger/weaker?

Source article:

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport ... e368edab34

This is extremely interesting. It's the first time he's really ever followed him closely for several laps. He's clearly seen something that maybe he thinks he can take advantage of. Maybe a trait or a weakness.

Or it's a bluff and a very clever bit of psychology.