FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN DUTCH GRAND PRIX 2023 - Zandvoort....Race.... ▄▀▄▀▄▀ SPOILERS ▄▀▄▀▄▀

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Great races from Sainz and Gasly! Kudos to them. Yeesh, Leclerc and Hamilton looked lost today.

Seems Aston found some of their pace back this weekend, at least on Alonso's side of the garage.

Both Ferrari and Mercedes weren't in form this weekend. They seemed to have been off on their setups, and it cost them a little bit of pace. McLaren don't seem to be able to consistently bring race pace that correlates to their qualifying showings.

Zandvoort is a compromise medium downforce track, and it seems to me the team that managed to get it right (outside of Red Bull) were ... Alpine and Aston?! Who'd a' thunk it?

 

Fun race, they should have continued through the wet with a safety car… you have full wet for a reason.

 

Trouble was they had a car smashed into the barriers at a part of the track where other cars were aquaplaning straight on. I'm not a big fan of all these red flags and safety cars, but I think they got this one right.

 

Todays grand prix drivers simply don't have discipline and restraint to avoid needless accidents, especially in the rain. They don't have the grace of Senna or Schumacher, or even a Jenson Button. Nope. They'll try to make 7 spots in one lap when it rains, trying to prove they're the next Senna.

I think the only drivers who know how to race in the rain today are Verstappen, Hamilton, and Russel. Everybody else can be a total train wreck in full wet.

 

I think it's another case of the SF-23 being a total diva. Leclerc's crash yesterday clearly threw the whole balance of the car off, and it drove like a toy wagon even after the repairs. We've seen this happen a few times this year with the car.

And yes, Sainz was in great form today.

 

Albon did okay on slicks all the way to lap 18 while it was raining and everyone else switched to inters. Yes, it was nail-biting watching him slip and slide on the track to keep the car pointed going forward WHILE he was being passed up.

Maybe it was a one-off for him.

 

Vasseur admitted post race that after the incident with Leclerc-Piastri, the end plate from Leclerc's front wing fell underneath the car causing floor damage to Leclerc thereby Leclerc losing downforce and pace in the race.

 

I think something like that happened to Max last year.

 

Happy Honda day again with P1, 4 13 (wow, thanks for no Riccardo today) and 16.

Powered by Ferrari P5, DNF (where are my tires dear team?), 15 and 18.

 

Someone needs to tell Ferrari that "summer break" doesn't mean they should break the cars.
The handling was off all weekend, if you watched the practice sessions.

I suspect Chuck gambled on a wet setup, based on the forecast.
But it did no good, as the pit crew couldn't associate "rain" with "rain tires".
Then it seems Chuck trashed the car running over the gravel to try to make up the time lost in the pits.

Seemed like a bit of dithering from the officials.
Perez moved back up to third in the red flag, despite having dropped from pitting before the red flag.
Then they hit him with a five second penalty to drop him back again.

I'm a little surprised they kept everyone hanging around for that length of time just to run the last few laps.
I can remember when a late red flag would result in "will not be resumed".

I guess they just wanted to give some cars a chance to pass Sainz.

 

The trophy survives.

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first orange smoke bombs of the weekend that I saw, too. I guess the ban worked

 

And Joe and Bas

 

Interesting

Max, after winning, gets out of his car and pays tribute to Vettel by holding up his hands in front of him to make the number 9 with both hands as Vettel did when he won 9 in a row.

 

And IMSA is the only series that I know of that allows a driver to receive outside assistance, like having his car towed to the pits, to resume racing after repairs. A very weak sauce for an endurance series, IMO

Horses for courses, as we say in Britain.

 

It did, it was Silverstone

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/114514/this-is-how-much-downforce-verstappen-lost-due-to-the-damage-to-his-rb18.html

 

all the USA based series do that (NASCAR, Indy, IMSA (owned by NASCAR), etc)

I think ADAC/VLN/N24 allows that too.

 

The problem is, neither Ricciardo, nor Tsunoda may do better than Perez.
If you guys believe that Perez should be 2nd everytime Max wins, you are not living in the real world.
There are other drivers who are faster than Checo (Alonso, Hamilton, Norris), on cars only slightly slower than the Red Bull.
Lawson is an unknown quantity at this stage.

 

I agree about Ricciardo, Tsunoda and Lawson.
But hiring Albon after taking back Ricciardo would be bringing back another RB "reject".
Maybe they should ask Kvyat if he is interested !

 

The only driver I would like to see in a powered by Honda car would be Russell, but I don't perceive him to be a nice guy so he can stay where he is.
Having Max take the Driver's championship and the Powered by Honda group winning the Constructor's is good enough for me.

 

https://www.planetf1.com/news/fred-vasseur-explains-charles-leclerc-error-floor-damage/

Fred Vasseur explains where Charles Leclerc damaged his Ferrari
Leclerc picked up some front wing damage early on in the race, caused when he made contact with the McLaren of Lando Norris as the pair squabbled. But the damage ended up triggering further damage underneath the car, due to the floor being struck by carbon fibre.

With Leclerc getting a new front wing when he pitted on Lap 11, his fortunes failed to improve, with his pace falling away throughout the race until Ferrari retired him on Lap 40.

“He damaged the right endplate and the endplate went into the floor and damaged the bottom of the floor,” Fred Vasseur told media, including PlanetF1.com, following the Grand Prix.

Leclerc himself had earlier revealed that the damage had cost him some 60 points of downforce – equivalent to several seconds per lap.

“Obviously, already the first lap when I had the damage,” he said, “I could feel much more than the guys were telling me on the radio. Initially, it was five to 10 points as what I’ve been told.

 

Albon is doing some impressive stuffs at Williams right now.
And he has been already humiliated by Max which is a huge advantage for his mental health as a Verstappen teammate !

 

Max pushed Gasly out the track and got no penalty.




#FormulaRedBull

 

RB fan at Zandvoort:

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