Despite cars that can follow much closer than recent years, and a track with two very long straights, this race was a bore! Red Bull Racing are riding the wave of success. Most people tipped them as favorites due to the long straights and their extreme top speed advantage. The team stated the cars were set up more for the race, I think particularly with Verstappen as Perez uncharacteristic tire deg struggles suggests his setup was more focused towards quali. A bit of a shame the team didn't let them race harder, but it was the right call in the end and Verstappen was significantly faster. The WDC is still up in the air, but the WCC might be theirs to lose at this point. Mercedes may not be the fastest car anymore, but they certainly have a handle on reliability which again proves to be beneficial as they capitalized on other's problems. George Russell again outperforming his teammate, and again scoring another podium. Lewis got himself back in the pack due to his qualifying result but really fought hard to get back to 4th place. A very strong performance by the team. Unfortunately it sounds like Mercedes are lobbying for regulation changes to fix their proposing issues. We have seen this tactic from them before and the FIA usually complies which is unfair to teams like Red Bull, who have figured it out. There is no question the drivers take a beating, but Mercedes could change the setup to be more comfortable. It's a choice. We heard Toto again apologizing to Lewis after the race which is pathetic. Russell wasn't a drama queen about it. If Lewis can't handle it, then raise his car's ride height and let Russell make a bigger gap to the 7x champ. AlphaTauri finally got a good result. Perhaps the tracks with the long straights suit their car better. Gasly had his best performance all year and got a deserving 5th place. Tsunoda was having a very good race as well until a very strange rear wing issue forced a pitstop. The tape did hold, but it did seem risky to allow him back on track going 200 mph especially since he was out of the points anyways. Aston Martin had a very split weekend. Vettel was on it and delivered in the race. He did have a silly off while trying to overtake, but an awesome rally style recovery to keep the time loss to a minimum. Stroll on the other hand.... lets just he is lucky his dad owns the team. Alpine came into the season with the strategy of choosing power over reliability and on the power hungry Baku track, the car held up and gave Alonso some good points. Their tiny rear wing could not have been ideal for overall lap time, but it made it exceptionally difficult for anyone to pass them in the race. Ocon was even able to get into the points so it worked out well for them. McLaren were the slowest on the straight but the car was pretty good. I think their strategy only hurt their drivers races, but at least a double points finish with Ricciardo pretty much matching Lando for once. Ricciardo's race was absolutely compromised by keeping him behind Lando in the first half of the race, and then Lando wasn't able to fully use his fresher tires at the end of the race while being behind Ricciardo. Daniel did deserve to finish ahead though, and the team calling asking to hold position was correct. Alpha Romeo just outside the points. Bottas really didn't look very good this weekend, or maybe Zhou was just that impressive. His best race by far in his F1 career, unfortunately cut short by a mechanical issue. Williams really wasn't as good as their result shows. Albon quietly gets 12th place, but was still 4th from the bottom finishers. Latifi getting a 10 second stop and go penalty for a crew member touching a car within 15 seconds of the race start is a joke and it again shows how broken F1's penalty system is. 10 second stop and go that had absolutely no influence on their race vs say a 10 second time penalty for crashing out a direct competitor while you go on to win the race. Fair? To make things worse he got another penalty for ignoring blue flags, yet neither William's drivers got penalties in Monaco. Where's the consistency? Haas had a dreadful weekend and it might be the case where their window of good result is pretty much closed, unless they come out with a big update. That may not be possible with all the repair costs inflicted by Schumacher this year. Mick was horrible this weekend. His performance was well below Latifi's which is embarrassing. Ferrari gave huge hope to all the Tifosi to start the season, but reality may be setting in that their fight is to just stay ahead of Mercedes and hopefully get some wins here and there. The car is still fast, but their development is well short of Red Bull, Mercedes, and even Alpine. The bigger concern is reliability. PU issues are extremely costly over the course of the season. If Ferrari have any hopes at a championship, they cannot afford DNF's. A tough day for the red team. Driver of the Day: Lewis Hamilton. He was really the only guy to work for positions again and again. 4th place while being in obvious pain and discomfort. Good job.
Agreed as a whole. And Vettel's mistake, whilst a bit silly...the spin turn was nothing short of epic! He had a great comeback.
With a resounding 1-2 at Baku Red Bull started to romp away from Ferrari in the championship. At this stage, both Verstappen and Perez are in contention for the title. Ferrari experienced at Baku what Red Bull endured at Bahrain a few months ago: double retirement. The engine failure on Leclerc's car will mean a grid penalty in Montreal if I am right, to add insult to injury. The euphoria of early season has since evaporated. Out of 6, 4 Ferrari-powered cars failed to finish ! In spite of all their porpoise woes, Mercedes did well to end 3rd and 4th, Russell seemingly less affected by the battering than Hamilton. Surprise to find Gasly and Vettel (!) so high up. The Alpines did well this time, and even the McLaren, all in the points. Not scoring any point: Alfa Romeo, Williams, Haas, and crucially Ferrari.
I don't think Leclerc gets a penalty in Canada as I think they still have 1 PU replacement (depending which part failed) available before taking a penalty.
It is no surprise that the aero god, Adrian Newey, is creaming this years championship. All hail the genius who still uses pencil and paper to design his masterpieces. What ever he is paid, it isn’t enough. He should earn more than any driver. Max totally dominated today. A complete masterclass. Still, nice to see Perez maintaining his own momentum, and is still in the wdc hunt. Ferrari, Ferrari, why do you do this to us? Car is actually very good, but why is that grenade of an engine anywhere near a car if it’s so unbelievably unreliable? Poor engineering. Mercedes are also a shambles. Trying to get a rule change to compensate for garbage design is weak sauce of the highest order. And finally - Russell just quietly goes about over achieving race after race. What he’s doing with that POS Mercedes is very impressive. He deserves all the credit but won’t get it because of his complete lack of personality. Man he’s fast.
I'm no fan of Russell but you're absolutely right, he gets no credit from anyone. Press barely acknowledges him for beating the chosen one. Just about every race Toto comes on Lewis' radio and gives yet another eulogy as a means of support. Russell who handily keeps beating him? Dead silence it seems. British commentary seems to only talk about Russell to shift to Lewis and find excuses..."oh it's all just bad luck". Whilst yesterdays race was pretty uneventful for him (2 ferrari's retired and once a Red Bull emerged from him out of the pit), his Spanish GP was fantastic IMO. Been on it all season but Spanish GP and his defense stood out.
You perfectly know why. He is the chosen one by the new ideology. And he can’t be beaten by a driver without a single win yet.
Call Lauda. He chose LH lol. L H takes a car and wins and it’s all ridiculous conspiracy here. Pathetic lol!! I give Russell full credit. He is simply faster!
This is not conspiracy. This is a new mainstream agenda. Better for you to be in if you want to be favoured.
I think there is that. Whatever good drives Russell can demonstrate, he still hasn't a GP win to show. The day he "breaks his duck", as we say in England, the attitude towards him will change, and the pundits will pay attention to him.
That's why I love when Nico Rosberg is on the broadcast. He makes a point of letting everyone know Lewis is getting thumped by Russell.
great comments over all. I'm turning over a new leaf, so instead of not liking HAM, I'm just going to be a RUS fan! My blood type is B+ after all! So, full credit to RUS for a podium, and HAM for a 4th, but come on, they both moved up the two spots of Ferrari's DNFs, HAM passed OCO on old tires, so not that big a deal. As a Ferrari/Haas fan, man this is going badly. Charles has plenty of poles, but is not finishing there or on the podium lately. Sainz has the talent to take a win, but still, reliability and gravel are getting in his way. I think the pre-season thread on who will get their first win this year is still a good debate: Sainz, Russell, Norris.
Agree. It might need a crazy race, or just Max/Charles taking each other out, but I think it'll happen.
