F1 Spanish Grand Prix - May 9, 2021

Neale4brownlow

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the pitting late for an extra point still isnt a good look.

dont think red bull are really as close consistently as people want them to be. other than the first stint hamilton was way faster.

Yeah not a fan of the pitting to take an extra point. Probably not what it was intended for either.

But if the midfield can close up in years to come it'll take that option away.
 
Aug 4, 2016
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Watching the race this morning then reading through this thread after was interesting. Most thinking Mercedes had blown it and Max would hold on after the first and even second stop suddenly becomes strategy was the only reason Lewis won and RBR blew it for Max.

Mercedes strategy was great but Lewis still did the job. Max approached a sitting duck Lewis in race 1 and made a mistake then couldn’t get the job done. Lewis approached a sitting duck Max today, on a track where it’s near impossible to overtake, and got the job done. That’s the difference between 2-2 and 3-1 between them through 4 rounds.
 

Skull Face

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Watching the race this morning then reading through this thread after was interesting. Most thinking Mercedes had blown it and Max would hold on after the first and even second stop suddenly becomes strategy was the only reason Lewis won and RBR blew it for Max.

Mercedes strategy was great but Lewis still did the job. Max approached a sitting duck Lewis in race 1 and made a mistake then couldn’t get the job done. Lewis approached a sitting duck Max today, on a track where it’s near impossible to overtake, and got the job done. That’s the difference between 2-2 and 3-1 between them through 4 rounds.
The difference is the merc is half a second clear on race pace at most tracks, this will be another boring year they are simply trying to pretend red bull can contest to drum up interest in the season.
 
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The difference is the merc is half a second clear on race pace at most tracks, this will be another boring year they are simply trying to pretend red bull can contest to drum up interest in the season.
Well it hasn’t been anywhere near half a second clear the first 4 rounds, and Max making a mistake is the reason he hasn’t won 2 of the 4 races.
 

Skull Face

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Well it hasn’t been anywhere near half a second clear the first 4 rounds, and Max making a mistake is the reason he hasn’t won 2 of the 4 races.
It has, Max is just the fastest driver on the grid so it is masking it. Perez vs Bottas is your more equal drivers and its been there all year
 
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It has, Max is just the fastest driver on the grid so it is masking it. Perez vs Bottas is your more equal drivers and its been there all year
You could make an argument Max could be the fastest on the grid, but it’s fantasy land stuff to argue he’s more than half a second a lap quicker than Lewis to have been in a position to win 3 of the first 4 races.

Perez is getting adjusted to a new car still. Even then we know he’s not as good as Max or even Bottas. He wasn’t signed as a long term solution for RBR, they thought he was the best driver without a drive at the end of a season when they couldn’t persevere with Albon anymore as a number 2.
 

Skull Face

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You could make an argument Max could be the fastest on the grid, but it’s fantasy land stuff to argue he’s more than half a second a lap quicker than Lewis to have been in a position to win 3 of the first 4 races.

Perez is getting adjusted to a new car still. Even then we know he’s not as good as Max or even Bottas. He wasn’t signed as a long term solution for RBR, they thought he was the best driver without a drive at the end of a season when they couldn’t persevere with Albon anymore as a number 2.
It's fantasy land to suggest he was in a position to do that, Bahrain sure they had the speed there but since then he won his only race by breaking lewis's car into turn 1 and having a good enough car to not get overtaken, in both portimao and Catalunya they were never in the hunt despite again overtaking into turn 1 and being able to hold off a faster car, it was an inevitable loss once lewis pitted for the 2nd time he would either get the undercut or have enough of a pace advantage to overtake.

Perez is a better race driver then Bottas with Bottas pipping him in qualifying just.
 
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It's fantasy land to suggest he was in a position to do that, Bahrain sure they had the speed there but since then he won his only race by breaking lewis's car into turn 1 and having a good enough car to not get overtaken, in both portimao and Catalunya they were never in the hunt despite again overtaking into turn 1 and being able to hold off a faster car, it was an inevitable loss once lewis pitted for the 2nd time he would either get the undercut or have enough of a pace advantage to overtake.

Perez is a better race driver then Bottas with Bottas pipping him in qualifying just.
So there’s been 4 races. A Max mistake gifted Mercedes the first. Max won the next. In the most recent he led for the majority of the race but got outdone on strategy. That’s not his fault, but on all evidence through 4 rounds he’s in a seriously competitive car.

His challenge is to put together an entire season with minimal mistakes and RBR challenge is to not lose ground on Mercedes and keep him in a competitive car that can challenge.
 

Skull Face

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So there’s been 4 races. A Max mistake gifted Mercedes the first. Max won the next. In the most recent he led for the majority of the race but got outdone on strategy. That’s not his fault, but on all evidence through 4 rounds he’s in a seriously competitive car.

His challenge is to put together an entire season with minimal mistakes and RBR challenge is to not lose ground on Mercedes and keep him in a competitive car that can challenge.
This is plainly incorrect, if red bull boxed Max instead of Merc Boxing Lewis the pace advantage of the Merc would have meant Max would not only have been unable to catch Lewis he would have struggled to clear Bottas as well. Either way they lost, the car wasn't quick enough to do any better then p3 it was simply good driving by Max and Charles that slowed the Mercs for as long as they did allowing them to get a higher finish then they deserved.

Lewis put it into a wall which should have handed Max the championship lead even now, he also made a poor get away from 3/4 race starts + 1 early SC Restart which if max was in a comparable car would have seen him lose all 4 races, lets try not pretend like the cars are even because its pretty clear they are not.
 
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