2021 French Grand Prix - Le Castellet, June 18 - 20

[nevill3]

Lewis said over team radio that he thought before the race that it should be two stops but was ignored

[PlatinumZealot]

I was surprised that Red Bulls strategy worked out. Given that Max could not stay in Hamilton's drs window in the first stint, and Hamilton did stay in Max' drs in the second, I thought Mercedes had the edge in speed.

Nah. Thats just hammertime. It worn off quite quickly after that. Tyres were knackered.

[PlatinumZealot]

Mess up the strategy of the pit stops, i am guessing you refer to. Because both pit stops from Mercedes were faster than redbull at least Hamilton which was o.200 faster than verstapen but still Verstapen undercut Hamilton with his great outlap on the first pit stop

Hamilton's faster pit-stop time was irrelevant at that point.
1) Mercedes are crap on tyre warm-up. Valterri could barely undercut Max, and to make things worse,
2) Max had the power of undercut on Lewis.

So basically a double-whammy. They screwed up.

And, if you were them, what would you do?

It was a rock and a hard place.

To pit Lewis first would have been better. But they would have cout their stint short and Max would then switch over to the one stop. But in the end that would have still given Mercedes a better chance to win.

RedBull had control of this race. Even the 2.2 second pitstop and Hammer time wasnt enough. And if HAM tried the undercut Max would have just stayed out. Tough race.

Merc just need a faster car.

[RZS10]

Bottas was just unable to keep his tyres alive, the first pit stops were triggered by him having flatspotted and ruined his first set, otherwise, with later stops, the one stopper would have been closer to the strat Checo had and probably just fine.
What were the gaps when Max pitted?
Had he pitted roughly at the same time, or even earlier he would have most likely killed his third set of tyres given how poorly he did on both the medium and hards, he was probably like 7-8s (?) behind Max?
Assuming that he could have done the same pace he would have been closer to Checo at the end of the race, yes, but could he have overtaken him? It probably didn't make much of a difference for him and with the one stopper he at least could have been helpful for Lewis in winning the race, but he even failed at that, although it probably would have just moved the race winning overtake to the last lap had he managed to hold Max up for a few more corners or even one lap.

And about a potential two stopper by Lewis, with Max being three seconds ahead and any undercuts simply not working for Mercedes this season Red Bull could have just come in the next lap and might have covered him off, and even if not then Lewis would have caught up to Checo on relatively fresh hards at some point and he would have made it significtanly harder for him than he did for Max (obviously) or than Bottas did for Max.

Red Bull finally have a number two that can be a tool strategy wise and Mercedes was probably caught in a tight spot strategy wise either way.

It's a bit harder to guess how the race would have unfolded had Lewis kept his lead without the massive cockup by his pit wall (not stopping him right after Bottas) - but it's a bit of a theme for this season, isn't it "What happened here why did we lose position" - "Uuuh we don't know Lewis"

[seense]

Great race. And yet again; Merc clearly had the faster racecar. Max not be able to threaten Lewis in the first stint. But Lewis able to be right in the Max's gearbox after the first stop. Hamilton lost it on strategy, not pace.

[Jolle]

Feels a bit that Verstappen won the race because of the little mistake at the start. This gave Redbull the opportunity to pull the undercut on the first pitstops

[RZS10]

Merc clearly had the faster racecar.

I called Jeff Bezos and asked him to put the race into his AWS machine and it said 96.23569% so yea ... definitely.

[TimW]

Mercedes had the edge in speed but Max won due to several circumstances:
- Perez was in a position where it only made sense to do a long first stint and be easy on the tires. This limited Mercedes strategic options and making a second stop risky for them.
- Bottas was forced into an early stop, making the second stints long.
- Bottas stayed close to Hamilton early in the second stint for no reason, eating his tires, putting him at a tire disadvantage
- Mercedes were slow in tire warm-up, limiting their undercut
- RB unexpected strong undercut.
- and of course Max is a far superior driver.....

[PlatinumZealot]

People have to see Mercedes finish a lap down before they say the car is notbthe fastest. Haha.

[sosic2121]

Hamilton's faster pit-stop time was irrelevant at that point.
1) Mercedes are crap on tyre warm-up. Valterri could barely undercut Max, and to make things worse,
2) Max had the power of undercut on Lewis.

So basically a double-whammy. They screwed up.

And, if you were them, what would you do?

It was a rock and a hard place.

To pit Lewis first would have been better. But they would have cout their stint short and Max would then switch over to the one stop. But in the end that would have still given Mercedes a better chance to win.

RedBull had control of this race. Even the 2.2 second pitstop and Hammer time wasnt enough. And if HAM tried the undercut Max would have just stayed out. Tough race.

Merc just need a faster car.

So you realise that mercedes did as they should. they tried to undercut max, but max managed to stay in front, Lewis failed to do the same.

I'm not going to say that max drove those crucial laps better than Merc drivers, maybe he did, maybe mercs tire warm up played key role.

If Mercedes pitted Lewis after Bottas Max would probably extend and have better tires later(maybe this was best strategy for Lewis).

Also, it seems Valtteri's box was forced by vibration??

It's similar to Spain. RB did nothing wrong, but in the end Lewis won.

I would add that on hard tires, Mercedes looked quicker than RB, but Max was saved in T5 where he was able to extend the gap to almost 1s.
The fact that Lewis was able to follow him so closely, is indicating that Merc is faster on H. On M Max was able to follow Lewis for some time.

I don't understand how Valtteri ran out of tires, and Lewis was able to nurse his dispite pushing super hard while being in dirty air.

Interesting race.

[Just_a_fan]

I don't understand how Valtteri ran out of tires, and Lewis was able to nurse his dispite pushing super hard while being in dirty air.

One word: skill.

[Sieper]

I don't understand how Valtteri ran out of tires, and Lewis was able to nurse his dispite pushing super hard while being in dirty air.

One word: skill.

Exactly. This happens every stint on every tire with every set-up. Bottas runs out, Lewis still has them. Bottas is a good qualifier but a mediocre racer. I expect Russell to be much closer to Hamilton.

[zibby43]

Merc had the faster race car and they just threw it away on strategy.

Simple as that.

Faster? Not sure about that. They had a bunch of drag on the car so Hamilton seemed closee in the twisty parts but otherwise I think the cars were about even, but giving the edge to redbull for one lap pace / outlap pace. It was Red bull's race to lose at the end of the day.

Well, Shovlin and I both respectfully disagree.

RB may have had the top speed advantage, but I think Merc had a bit of margin plus good degradation.

Not as much margin as in Barcelona. But still, margin.

[Sieper]

Merc had the faster race car and they just threw it away on strategy.

Simple as that.

Faster? Not sure about that. They had a bunch of drag on the car so Hamilton seemed closee in the twisty parts but otherwise I think the cars were about even, but giving the edge to redbull for one lap pace / outlap pace. It was Red bull's race to lose at the end of the day.

Well, Shovlin and I both respectfully disagree.

RB may have had the top speed advantage, but I think Merc had a bit of margin plus good degradation.

Not as much margin as in Barcelona. But still, margin.

Fully agree. I think RBR will be searching for ways to carry just that bit more rearwing (and thus also front wing) for the next races.

[Datco]

Strategy won for RBR. Pitting Bottas so early kind of back fired as RBR only reacted. Lewis was easily able to keep behind Max in the second stint. When I saw Lewis drop back I thought he was just going to wait for Max to run out of tyers and attack. It was a no brainer for RBR to go to 2 stop because they cannot fight mercs on tyer wear. Lewis was still doing very good lap time at the end despite being on Max dirty air for such a long time. Just shows how good they are on tyers.
Mercs were the faster car over the race. It was strategy that won it for RBR