2020 Sakhir Grand Prix - Sakhir, Dec 04 - 06

[SiLo]

So, do we think George will be told to 'assist' Botas with his fight for 2nd in the table?
As strange as it sounds, it may well ease the pressure on George if he know he was playing second to Botas not fighting for the seat.

Potentially, I think Bottas will beat him anyway so this won't be an issue.

[NathanOlder]

So, do we think George will be told to 'assist' Botas with his fight for 2nd in the table?
As strange as it sounds, it may well ease the pressure on George if he know he was playing second to Botas not fighting for the seat.

Definitely, it makes sense. Takes pressure off both drivers and takes away the chance of a double DNF like Spain 2016.

[Big Tea]

So, do we think George will be told to 'assist' Botas with his fight for 2nd in the table?
As strange as it sounds, it may well ease the pressure on George if he know he was playing second to Botas not fighting for the seat.

Potentially, I think Bottas will beat him anyway so this won't be an issue.

Bottas will obviously be trying his best, so George will really need to stretch if he wants to 'put on a show'.
If he is told Botas will be favoured he may not have to be so frantic, and settling for a lesser place could give him some 'settling in' room

[Moore77]

So, do we think George will be told to 'assist' Botas with his fight for 2nd in the table?
As strange as it sounds, it may well ease the pressure on George if he know he was playing second to Botas not fighting for the seat.

There are no Prizes for finishing second in a season. Neither is there sort of record or momentum that Mercedes wants to maintain with regards to 1-2 finishes for their drivers over seasons. They probably are bringing George to provide a platform to measure him and for that, they would most likely give a free hand to race. At least I would hope so.

[El Scorchio]

They just need to clearly set expectations for him taking into account his lack of time in the car.

Try to qualify 5th minimum. Third is great and anything higher is a bonus.
Just get the car round the first few laps and play it safe, see where you are and go from there. Absolutely don't put yourself out of the race, Aim for third/fourth as a target and anything better is a bonus.

Keep them modest so as not to put undue pressure on him.

I don't think they need to lay out instructions regarding the title. If Bottas has no problems, he should probably win the race in fairly straightforward fashion. Only interesting possibility could be if Russell is second and Bottas in first holding him up, with Verstappen breathing down their necks.

[Gerhardsa]

They just need to clearly set expectations for him taking into account his lack of time in the car.

Try to qualify 5th minimum. Third is great and anything higher is a bonus.
Just get the car round the first few laps and play it safe, see where you are and go from there. Absolutely don't put yourself out of the race, Aim for third/fourth as a target and anything better is a bonus.

Keep them modest so as not to put undue pressure on him

Agreed!, although all of us secretly hope he blows them all out of the water.

[Mogster]

They just need to clearly set expectations for him taking into account his lack of time in the car.

Try to qualify 5th minimum. Third is great and anything higher is a bonus.
Just get the car round the first few laps and play it safe, see where you are and go from there. Absolutely don't put yourself out of the race, Aim for third/fourth as a target and anything better is a bonus.

Keep them modest so as not to put undue pressure on him.

I don't think they need to lay out instructions regarding the title. If Bottas has no problems, he should probably win the race in fairly straightforward fashion. Only interesting possibility could be if Russell is second and Bottas in first holding him up, with Verstappen breathing down their necks.

Top 5 qualy and race finish would be a very creditable result this weekend. Abu Dhabi, if Lewis cant’t race, then I think it’d be reasonable to expect a bit more.

[i70q7m7ghw]

I don't understand the drama over Vandoorne, he's never driven a Mercedes Formula 1 car, Russell was always going to be the first option, why else would they put him in the car during the pre-season tests?

[Manoah2u]

Official now; Russell to drive for Mercedes and Jack Aitken for Williams.

Poor Van-doorne! Whats thevpoint of being a reserve these days?!

poor vandoorne? the guy was a waste of space, and has the talent of a leaf of bread.
Somehow people got all excited and overhyped this, i guess some people really love bread.
He never showed anything even remotely conciderable, i even dare to say Albon showed more talent and worth than Stoffel.

You could reason from miles away Stoffel never would have gotten into Hamilton's seat, the claim he'd even get on a flight today thinking he even remotely would have a chance was just as empty, he'd not even have a chance for the Williams seat for crying out loud.

To be fair, i would even concider the chance that Vandoorne would race in a Merc seat to replace Bottas should he also be diagnosed with Covid, as absolutely minimal, and believe that it's far more likely Hulkenberg would be getting the drive instead.

Hulk drove last year's mercedes this year to replace Perez and as such has experience and did 'pretty well' all things concidered. He'd do way better anyway than VanDoorne, so to be fair, no chance, no chance at all.
Less for Guiterez, even if he'd have a SL.

The only reason they're contracted is to do sim work and be reference numbers.

[maxxer]

Official now; Russell to drive for Mercedes and Jack Aitken for Williams.

Poor Van-doorne! Whats thevpoint of being a reserve these days?!

As i remember it happened before , when they know it so long in advance of the race , they still need to have a reserve driver there during the weekend. Although i dont know if they can change a driver now if something happens during qualifying or after but when there was still the warm up on sunday they could.

[search]

Top 5 qualy and race finish would be a very creditable result this weekend. Abu Dhabi, if Lewis cant’t race, then I think it’d be reasonable to expect a bit more.

yeah, I agree, it's better not to expect too much for the moment. It may work out perfectly, but it doesn't need to. Fisico in the Ferrari a couple of years ago was a complete disaster, for example, doing way worse that in the Force India the races before.

[Wouter]

[Manoah2u]

I'm still shocked (positively) that Romain is sitting there, right there, alive, and with only some burn marks. Happy af for that, let that be clear.

somehow, we can have the happy ending that the driver walked away. It makes me feel like that artistic painting of Senna's wreckage where he actually gets out,
and is alive. This time, this didn't take place in some theoretical alternate/parallel universe, but we got lucky and Grosjean is among us.

I really hope he gets to have the GP finale available to him and gets a warm happy parting goodbye, ala Massa style and co.
Say what you want about him, but he's been in F1 quite a long time and was somehow able to keep up quite well with Kimi back in the Genii Lotus days.

One day complaining about gravel hitting his gloves, to 'casually' stepping out of a burning deathwreck that should simply not be possible by any means whatsoever.

You're a mighty weird confusing guy, Romain. I hope he never gets into Formula E though, it always has felt like the participants are some sort of washed-up end-of-line 'dumps'.

Prefer to see him in WEC, 24H LeMans, Nascar, Indy.

[Morteza]

You cannot dislike Lando

[SiLo]

My prediction is 2nd and 2nd.