I don’t even care anymore. I’m just waiting for next year. The result will probably be the same, but the driver changes will fun to watch. It’s proved beyond the shadow that the driver matters more than we thought. So it’ll be interesting to see Ric in a Renault and Kimi in a Sauber and Gas in the RB with a Honda. Lewis had a great season. His team rarely lets him down and he rewards them by making few mistakes. Criticize his off track lifestyle all you want but it certainly doesn’t seem to have any negative impact. Maybe Seb needs hit nightlife a bit.
Nice drive by Kimi, exceptional drive by Max and Lewis choked in the end so the foregone Hamilton championship goes to Mexico to be finalized. Forza Ferrari, Forza Kimi!
Contrast how? My opinion was that he lost the battles he needed to win the race and he's over rated, nothing changed in that post. Is it because I said he has skill and race craft? Those things aren't mutually exclusive, clearly he has skill, he's about to win his 5th championship. He's also been in a fortunate position to capitalize with a great team, like Vettel was at RBR, and it seems like he and Vettel can thank those teams respectively for the championships. That's how it goes though. No wager for me, I'd rather put a couple bucks on the mega millions, seems my odds are better there
The professional Hamilton haters have had so little to celebrate lately, that even when he has 'just an OK day' it's twisted into some sort of major meltdown It the end it was a good sporting race with some nice fights. The top 3 all drove well. Superb drive by Kimi - I'm happy for him he was able to get on the top step at minimum 1 more time for Ferrari.
Best race of the season, if not for the past several. Max starts in 18th and finishes 2nd, holding off Hamilton at the end. Vettel makes up for his contact with Ricciardo and passes Bottas near the end to finish 4th. AND KIMI WINS!
concur on all counts. So glad I sat in Turn 1 vs joining some friends in MG. Terrific WX, race, result, tifosi, etc. I was so pleased I gave a romeo y julieta to a gentleman in Mercedes hat for giving credit where it was due. Had to rewatch the race in its entirety upon returning home. Disappointed for Seb, but I am hopeful about next year.
Mission WinNow = 1st WINNER WINNER WINNER Fantastic Birthday Present for Kimi. As Maurizio said, "Thank You USA" FORZA FERRARI
FORZA FERRARI Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login My first trip to COTA for the GP. Have lots of opinions on the facility compared to the other GPs I have attended but that’s for another day. Had great box seats in front of Turn 13/14 where there was plenty of action. Saw Seb lose it on 13. To me his move was illogical. No way was he in position to make any pass. Instead he “followed” the car in front and was way too hot to make the turn. Without room to run wide a spin was inevitable. IMHO the victory was thanks to the team strategy to put Kimi in position to win. Every lap I was timing the gap between him and Lewis. After Kimi’s pit at first he began to close in on Hammy. But that abruptly changed. Kimi suddenly backed off and maintained an 18 second differential behind Hamilton. The team engineer had him hold until they knew Hammy’s tires were cooked. When they gave him the green light to push Kimi seemingly shaved 2 seconds a lap off of the lead just before Merc called Lewis in for the change. It worked. Fortunately this time it wasn’t Bottas behind Kimi but Verstappen. No way was Max giving any quarter to Lewis. As much as I am not a Hamilton fan not only does he not make mistakes he also knew enough to not go “rubbing” with Max. Especially with him being in front of Vettel. Regardless I have to respect Lewis for still trying to pass Verstappen when there was no logical reason to do so. But being the ultimate competitor he still gave it a shot. But when he knew getting by was not a sure thing and tangling with Max is a huge risk he smartly ran wide. No reason to lose points. Kimi expressed this as a bittersweet victory. He said the fans were probably happier than he was with the win. I can tell you firsthand the crowd went wild when the Iceman brought it home. As a further bit of irony and sadness when we came back to the hotel tonight we ran into Carlo Santi, Kimi’s chief engineer. I thanked him for his brilliant strategy and how happy we were for the team and Kimi. Santi seemed a little bit quiet and not as happy as I would have thought. Guess with Kimi kicked downstairs Santi will be gone too. Bittersweet seems to the sad way of expressing the feelings for Kimi and his team. I feel very lucky and blessed to witness Kimi’s first win in over 5 years on my only trip to the USGP at COTA. Great people here in TX. Made new friends too. What a weekend!!!!
More than likely that was due to loss of downforce/off the racing line. Certainly not as bad as Vettel lately lol
Ferrari's Vettel: I had the speed to win 2018 F1 US GP in Austin - just not the sense to stay out of trouble .....again - stop making mistakes and take advantage of the car and its capabilities - next year......maybe he will get it right in Mexico. Maybe. https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/139556/vettel-i-had-the-speed-to-win-us-gp Sebastian Vettel reckons he had the speed to win the 2018 United States Grand Prix, had he not lost ground on the opening lap after a collision with Daniel Ricciardo. The Ferrari driver went into the Austin race with a three-place penalty for failing to slow sufficiently for a red flag during Friday's opening practice session, which left him fifth on the grid. His hopes of a good result evaporated early-on when he tangled with Ricciardo, dropping him to 15th, but the nature of his recovery drive to fourth - and because team-mate Kimi Raikkonen went on to win - showed Vettel what had been possible without the issues. Image Unavailable, Please Login
US GP: Lewis Hamilton puzzled as Mercedes strategy backfires "We made it so hard for ourselves," Hamilton says. "I'm not really quite sure how the strategy ended up like that." I think its easy to understand - pit early and tire wear issues = difficult race + Ferrari speed. https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/11527358/us-gp-lewis-hamilton-puzzled-as-mercedes-strategy-backfires
Basically. Merc pulled a Ferrari-like pit strategy while the Scuderia stayed away from the high-risk, low-reward gamble.
Elton is a fantastic driver, but he never stands by his team whenever loses. He blames his own team. That's what makes him despicable.
Im not seeing blame with the word We as reported. He is correct that Mercedes made it hard for itself. They made assumptions with data and lost. Its F1. This is not sounding like LH blaming the team at all.
Well what a race that was! Kimi - well done old man! Superb and nostalgic win. Enjoy the champagne. Sweet. Vettel - blew it again. Ferrari strategy - terrible, only it wasn’t, and mysteriously proved to be exceptional. There will be an inquest into why it went so well. Merc - mystified by performance. Shame. Max - utterly magnificent and surely driver is the day. 18th to 2nd with an underpowered car but surely the best chassis on the grid. Gro - I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, what is he doing in F1??? Stroll - see comments above re Gro. The only driver to be so bad, he got lapped twice
So it is "the dirty race line", the "marbles" and a "loss of downforce"... ok, you explained what led to failing the overtake attempts but all those things are only parameters equal for every driver. They do not just occur unexpected. As you said it was Lewis "trying to put down more power then there was grip" so I do not see how this is anything other than a "mistake". It is like you guys eat a can of beans and have all the great explanations about zymosis and why you emit your odor.. but at the end it is still only a fart And as you both bring up Seb: Just watch the start....Lewis pushes Kimi further to the left than Seb did in Singapore last year defending his race line. Difference: there was no Max turning the Finn around. So Seb was called idiot for covering his line "not seeing the bigger picture" and here at Austin not a single word about Lewis???
Lewis said it is the strategy that lost the race but what would have been the alternative? Obviously the Mercedes was unable to deliver a decent one-stop strategy as shown by Bottas loosing against Seb at the end despite Seb saving fuel and coming from much further back. Does Lewis think he would have won the race if he did a one-stop like Kimi where he would have needed to keep the softs together for 35 laps when he cooked them within 20 laps in the middle stint? Maybe Mercedes should look into the datas whether it was not Lewis being a little bit too aggressive in the early phase of his second stint overstressing the tires... he needed about 2-3 tenth per lap to make up for the additional stop over the remaining 44 laps (as he was only 9 sec behind Kimi coming out of the pits) and he drove much faster closing the gap much faster until his tires went as he was in the gearboy of Kimi just 10 laps later. And when they come to the conclusion that a two-stop was the faster choice it certainly makes sense to stop at the VSC, so I do not see what the strategists made wrong. Just compare with Bottas and it is pretty obvious
The physics at work worked against Vettel and he feels he was in Ricci blind spot as well. Badly timed attempt at passing in a less than optimal area. Impatient Vettel. LH did what most do to prevent a pass and it failed hence Kimi taking the lead. There was nothing done that was out of the ordinary. No contact either. You dont appear to make much of a point. LH left room unlike others and Kimi had the perfect start and race to win. Is he complaining about it with reference to LH at the start. No.
