Zandvoort isn't exactly the best track for racing, but the 2022 Dutch GP was incredible as a strategy race. Red Bull wasn't the dominant force they were in Spa, but still had to be considered the team to beat. Max Verstappen is on another level to everyone else. The pass on Hamilton didn't have anything to do with tires, instead it came down to positioning and timing from Max, as well as using the straightline strength of the Red Bull vs the straightline weakness of the Mercedes. Perez has fallen off the pace to Max for whatever reason, now consistently half a second. Nobody cares because Red Bull are so far ahead and there is no real championship pressure, and Perez clearly can still race, but he needs to try to close that gap before it becomes a problem. Mercedes have be pretty dang happy where they sit compared to the season. Still need to improve in Quali, but their race pace has been strong all year and with a competitive car they can be in there for wins. Hamilton claiming he was 7 tenths up on Max's lap is false, he was at most .360 ahead and had already lost that advantage before he lifted. George Russell influencing his race with the soft tire call can be considered a strength. He made the right call for his race. Mercedes allowing the tire change is somewhat odd and much different to the Bottas days when they would never allow a different tire strat to Lewis. Most will agree that Mercedes probably should have left both cars out, using George as a buffer if they genuinely wanted a shot at winning. It likely would not have worked out, but it was never going to work by pitting George and leaving Lewis out on used Mediums. Lewis Hamilton has ever right to be frustrated, but once again he immediately slams his team when it doesn't go right for him. It's pretty sad when even his teammate has to apologize and console him, despite not getting any kudos from the team for coming in 2nd. Also it does appear the technical directive may have helped Mercedes. Ferrari are at a point when everyone is just waiting for what mistake they will make at any given point. It's hard not to assume the technical directive didn't perhaps hurt their performance, even though Binotto refuses to admit that. But he also says the team doesn't make mistakes. Leclerc was oh so close in quali, but the car wasn't very good in the race. Barely good enough to fight with Mercedes. 3rd place was the best he could do. Carlos looked even slower, but he was holding his position ahead of Russell. It's easy to say Ferrari made a late pit call, which is a mistake by itself, but the fact that 3 tires were ready and nobody even noticed they forgot the 4th one. That is beyond embarrassing. I understand Sainz's excuse for the unsafe release, but it still nearly caused an accident and a penalty was deserved. The team probably deserves a fine for the impact gun being left in Perez's path. Nico Rosberg's harsh comments are pretty accurate if you ask me. Alpine either didn't have great pace in quali, or just missed their window. A much better car in the race and Alonso was on it for the start. His race IQ was incredibly high and he was rewarded with a deserving 6th place. Ocon had a good race as well and was just 2 tenths off of being jumped ahead of Sainz from his penalty. All in all, a good race for the team. McLaren had a much better car in the high downforce setup, at least with Norris. He was making the 1 stop strategy work as well, and was battling strong with Alonso into the closing laps of the race. Ricciardo probably should have called in sick. P17, last car on the lead lap. Lets be honest, what team is going to pay what he will ask for at this point? Aston Martin might finally be coming to grips with the green Red Bull. Lance Stroll looked in the best form he has been all season. For a car that has often struggled to get off the bottom of the grid, to earn points on merit. That's a good day on that side of the garage. Vettel unfortunately struggled, which likely stemmed from his poor grid position. His blocking of Hamilton after his pitstop was poor judgement. AlphaTauri almost looked like they could fight for points, but didn't have enough against Aston Martin. Gasly realistically had one of his better races, which doesn't say much for the season he's having. Of course there was the very unusual situation with Tsunoda that it is not unreasonable to assume some fishy business took place. Regardless what Red Bull said, the race looked to be going in favor of Mercedes and for the car to stop on track twice with no evidence of something wrong. Both times the car had the ability to drive to a safe place, or even back to the pits, yet stopped in a position that would likely bring out at least a VSC. Then Yuki's post race comments sounded practiced and scripted. It certainly warrants an in depth investigation. Williams actually might have made some improvements over the summer break. Albon finishing 12th is a strong result for the team. Unfortunately they can never expect anything from Latifi who once again finished dead last of the running cars. Haas' window of good results appear to be all but closed. Even with a pretty significant upgrade, the car hasn't developed during the season and now the team is really struggling to get the car to perform both on Saturday and on Sunday. Schumacher gave hope with his good qualifying performance, but dropped like a stone and couldn't even keep up with a Williams in the end. Magnussen never looked comfortable in the car all weekend and got beat pretty soundly by his teammate. Alfa Romeo is another team going backwards. What isn't helping is they invested into Bottas and he just isn't performing. Give credit to Zhou who is often out qualifying Bottas, especially since he is a rookie that is still learning. His races are getting much better too. Still, most expect Bottas to be the better driver in that team. Driver of the Day: Max Verstappen. With all the changes in strategy and tires, there was a lot of challenges for Max, but he never got phased, drove every lap as he needed to, and was always going to put himself in a position to win. Honorable mention to Fernando Alonso.
Good post, as always. Ferrari pit strategy is absolutely the laughingstock of F1. It's unquestionably become some of the best comedy on TV! The pit crew, literally, needs to be taught that F1 cars have 4 tires ... you can't make this stuff up Mercedes duplicates their blunder from Abu Dhabi 2021, and Hamilton once again shows his true colors on the radio. Makes perfect sense why Mercedes allowed Russell to put on fresh softs ... he's their #1 driver now.
Perhaps strategy was the wrong word? Engineers failing to tell the mechanics that a driver is about to pit, mechanics unable to count all the way to 4, nobody keeping an eye out for an unsafe release ... perhaps there's a better word? Let's call them "antics" ... since there's no evidence of "strategy" at all (agreed ... today was more of an "execution" problem than "strategy" problem).
The Lewis hater reaction to Alsono radio, Spa: "We really shouldn't be critical or what drivers say on the radio - this is heat of the moment stuff... It doesn't mean anything!" The Lewis hater reaction to Hamilton radio, Zandvoort: "OmG hAmILton whInNing - rEalLy ShOwiNg hIS truE CoLors!!!"
Cars have 4 tyres, not 3. Someone at Sainz' pit forgot that.... Though, saying that, that's technically not a strategy fail, just a guy making a mistake.
Unlike many here, I neither love nor hate Lewis Hamilton. However...... Compare Russell's handling of a) strategy b) race and c) post race vs. Hamilton during the last ~12 laps Which would you say was the team rookie and which was the 7-time WDC and so-called GOAT ? Amazing to me that Hamilton has no presence of mind re: the 3 subjects noted above. I have no problem with "emotion" on the radio during heat of the race; that's expected. But to not make the same call as Russell, then throw the team under the bus ? Just drive the car, do the best with the situation at hand then go kick the dog later on. Get your **** together and just drive the car
Great post as usual. Pre-directive this track would've been an easy win for Ferrari and probably RBR would've had a tight fight with Mercedes. Mercedes played their strategy very well today, going long suited their car and this track perfectly. Double podium was certainly an easy target. I've listened to the full radio of Max and Lewis' both, and the difference is amazing. When the full SC arrives, the very first question from Max is "can I get a free stop" Answer: "no but we are pitting anyways". No arguments. He knows the job at hand. Lewis is the polar opposite. "why did you guys pit George" (fair question, but it was George's engineer call not Bono). As soon as he got passed by Max and george, he went off on his team again. The tteam that won him 6 titles and gave him a title capable car for 8. "Why are you guys trying to screw me man, I'm so pissed I can't even talk". Not the first time he's done this, won't be the last. But I find it amazing for someone that won so much with this team he's still believing they're out there to screw him. His very sarcastic radio at the very end, very clearly aimed that the Mechanics did a good job but refused to say anything about anyone higher than a man with a hammer said it all... Great if a bit quiet drive from Charles. Nothing he could've done better, sadly. The Ferrari and Mercedes are very matched now, with Ferrari at least warming the tyres on saturday but Sunday the Mercedes' play their part better. Thanks TD. Sainz deeply unlucky all race, though he was very lucky not to get a further penalty for overtaking under double yellow. Alonso had another exciting race. Agree very much that he deserves some recognition! Mick was deeply unlucky as well, could've been a points finish stilll but pit stop and strategy was beyond horrible.
Some people here don't seem to grasp that in these situations, the leader is always the most disadvantaged/vulnerable strategy wise Anyway - the only shot Merc had of winning this race was via track position. Supposed "big brain" Russell talked the team right into a 2-4 finish. No his fault for being selfish, but the ultimately team screwed up, and they know it.
In one case, Hamilton caused a very dangerous collision, at high-speed, on track. In the other case, Hamilton was denied a pit stop.
Mercedes has lost control of its drivers if one waits for strategy decisions, whilst the other makes his own plans.
I'm all for drivers getting fired up at other drivers and teams, makes it more exciting as a viewer. But for Lewis to continuously throw his team under the bus the moment it doesn't go right for him is a huge slap in the face to all the guys and gals that are the most responsible for the majority of his success.
The part that stood out for me was that Russell quickly realized that he could not keep heat in his tires and was adamant they needed the softs. Not sure why Mercedes didn't recognize this, not sure why Hamilton didn't recognize this either.
Was there any discussion on the HAM radio in making the decision to put or not? Or did the team just make the call without any consult with the driver?
I honestly don't know. Mercedes is awesome at making tire strat calls but as of late, they've blundered Lewis's tire strat calls on a number of occasions. They have all the data over the drivers. Russell had made 2 tire strat calls on his own and both times they have worked for him in at the Mercedes camp....and they don't question his calls either. Mercedes fully complies.
I think the Mercedes team has got used to Hamilton's radio manners and takes his outbursts with a pinch of salt. They probably don't feel he is "throwing them under the bus" (quite an exagerated expression that), because outside the car, he often praises his team, and I have never heard about him having problems with the staff. Of course it doesn't sound good when it's broadcasted for all to hear: it sounds whiny, childish and rude.The radio captures everything a driver says, including his emotions. I think Hamilton is a highly stressed person at the best of time, and this is only amplified during a race.
I think you are exactly right about it only being a perception. Truthfully we don't exactly how drivers are behind closed doors with their team, and that could vary what members of the team. A driver might be great with the team principle, but lousy with his mechanics, or whatever. Or a team could be great or standoffish with a driver even. For Lewis, he gives thanks and praises to his team when in front of the cameras, but has plenty of complaints about his team on the radio. It might come across as fake, but like you said I don't see anyone at Mercedes trying to kick him out the door, so it can't be that bad. Then Alonso has what appears to be a somewhat brutal honesty both in the car and in front of cameras, but it sure seems to have ruffled feathers behind closed doors. Honda has pretty much put a stop on him ever driving one of their engines ever again. Vettel comes across as a supremely likeable guy that appears to really get involved with his team. But we all remember multi-21.
Before we forget our history, that "wise man" was (is?- can one really change) a cheat and race-fixer with a long and turbulent history of biting the hands that fed him. At the very least he was "just" an innocent beneficiary of Crashgate, but it's quite likely he at least knew something nefarious was afoot with the strategy and played along "blithely". He's a brilliant liar, at the least. I'm old enough to remember when "Alonshole" was the running joke here. Amazing how fickle this place is, now that they have a new poster boy to hate on.
