This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
The stewards state at one point "However, if you consider the driver only had a very short time to react due to his position on the track, a drop of three grid positions is sufficient as an exception.” If they admit such a thing how Norris was supposed to react? Hit brakes really hard and maybe put someone at danger? Was he able to enter the pits safely?
Anyway Baku is a strange race. Being at front doesnt mean that much. I hope that Ricciardo was right about his time in sim.
Between Alonso and Bottas is a reasonably safe place to start when you look at the fight that is likely to break out around where he would have started.
I know hw will have to pass some quick cars, but completing the first lap intact is important if you want to finish with good points.
When arguing with a fool, be sure the other person is not doing the same thing.
I doubt Charles will hold onto his lead. Both RedBull and Mercedes had superior race pace in friday. Either way, Ferrari getting 5th and 6th would be very damaging in terms of constructors standings. If there's carnage and safety cars, then that can help McLaren get back in the fight with them. Will be difficult to fight Ferrari otherwise as it will probably take McLaren some time to overtake cars.
Today’s qualifying is one that hurts... Perfect storm of bad luck in a track where the expectation was to be further up for the start of the race and one where our direct competitors are starting in great positions.
But, the race is tomorrow and not only can a lot happen in Baku (like it usually does), but the team has a car that will allow them to fight and it’s a track where overtaking isn’t that hard, so the opportunities to move up will be there.
Let’s hope for a clean start for both cars and a strong showing to minimize the impact on the WCC... There is a lot of season left this year to recover if things don’t go our way at Baku!
The stewards state at one point "However, if you consider the driver only had a very short time to react due to his position on the track, a drop of three grid positions is sufficient as an exception.” If they admit such a thing how Norris was supposed to react? Hit brakes really hard and maybe put someone at danger? Was he able to enter the pits safely?
Anyway Baku is a strange race. Being at front doesnt mean that much. I hope that Ricciardo was right about his time in sim.
Qualy barely matters if we have so many red flags.
Just to repeat....
The starting position is less important. Tomorrows race is going to be the culinary equivalent of when you take a bowl of trifle into the air, and then turn it upside down. The resulting pattern on the floor will be the events of Baku racetrack.
The front is better, clear air and all, but at the end of the day there will be a ton of opportunities to gain places, undercut, take advantage of safety cars etc.
It's not a forgone conclusion that we can take advantage, but I feel very confident that we will get opportunities.
Give a man a fire, and he will be warm for a night.
Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
I'll eat my hat if McLaren doesn't have a car in the top 5 tomorrow.
Can I see a picture of this hat?
I'm going to one up you. I'll eat my cat if they get into the top 5!
lol
Joking of course, not about eating the cat, that's fine, but everything could turn around before tomorrow and we may sneak towards the pointy end of the grid.
No.
Anyway, there's no sneaking. Everyone knows McLaren isn't showing anything. Outside of Monza and Spa this should be their best track IMO.
Looks like my cat was safe after all, at least until the fridge empties. Ferrari faster again and we got p6!
Where is the evidence of the hat munching?
Give a man a fire, and he will be warm for a night.
Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
I'm going to one up you. I'll eat my cat if they get into the top 5!
lol
Joking of course, not about eating the cat, that's fine, but everything could turn around before tomorrow and we may sneak towards the pointy end of the grid.
No.
Anyway, there's no sneaking. Everyone knows McLaren isn't showing anything. Outside of Monza and Spa this should be their best track IMO.
Looks like my cat was safe after all, at least until the fridge empties. Ferrari faster again and we got p6!
I'm going to one up you. I'll eat my cat if they get into the top 5!
lol
Joking of course, not about eating the cat, that's fine, but everything could turn around before tomorrow and we may sneak towards the pointy end of the grid.
No.
Anyway, there's no sneaking. Everyone knows McLaren isn't showing anything. Outside of Monza and Spa this should be their best track IMO.
Looks like my cat was safe after all, at least until the fridge empties. Ferrari faster again and we got p6!
Where is the evidence of the hat munching?
The session was a mess. They had pace for more, but it all went to ---. Don't force the guy to eat his hat on this one.
I agree, Ferrari seems to have a well-rounded car, but I still think McLaren can fight for P3. But Ricciardo is desperately needed to step up at this point.
Last year, RP was the faster car (often by a bigger margin than Ferrari is right now), but McLaren still beat them with pure consistency. The problem this year is that only Lando is consistent. Daniel is all over the place in terms of pace, but even when he has a good day (Spain), he still isn't showing any "spectacular" pace like Lando has often done this year.
In terms of statistics, if you define Daniel's pace as a random variable, it is both kind of low in terms of mean, and it also has a big standard deviation. Just not good, no matter how you look at it.
If you told me last year Daniel was going to struggle this much, I honestly would have had a hard time believing you. It's just bizarre to me. This can't be the extent of Daniel's capabilities, it just can't. We are talking about the only driver who has taken the fight to Max in the RedBull. The driver who outperformed both of his teammates at Renault. The driver who made a a 4-time world champion look bad at only his first season with a competitive team.
I just refuse to believe this is all that Daniel has got. The driver who accomplished all of the aforementioned feats cannot be >0.5s off the pace from Lando. It would be understandable if Lando was some sort of a god, generational talent. But the thing is we have a reference in him with Carlos. And we also have a reference between Carlos and Charles. So, yeah, we can conclusively say that Lando is more than a decent driver. It's just that Daniel has previously shown that he is at least that himself.
Just puzzling and disappointing at the moment. I really, really hope he picks up the pace soon. A couple more weekends like this, and it will be extremely difficult to keep the fight to Ferrari when they have two drivers delivering their top game every race.
From the chaos of all the sessions it does look like McLaren went out of their way to not show pace, posting just “push sectors”. Correct me if I’m wrong. Is there some sort of gamesmanship going on with this? Then come qualifying both drivers failed to post truly representative pace for a full lap and left themselves vulnerable by being weak on their first runs. Leclerk nailed an excellent banker lap and took that weight off himself to nail a better final run. Dan demonstrated how pressure building is a recipe for disaster.
