As I posted this week - Ferrari must focus on winning, not Vettel. Either driver is ultimately expendable in the process. Winning is all that matters for the organization. Fix that then worry about the WDC.
If Leclerc had been brought in for softs at the same time the Mercedes went in for mediums, Leclerc could have come out in front and been fast enough to build a lead to come in for a second set of softs, while everyone else would be on tired mediums. Leclerc's speed in FP3 and Q1 showed that he could comfortably beat the Mercedes. A two stop race would have given him the tires to do it. Vettel isn't dead meat...yet...but he sure isn't smelling fresh. Its up to him to turn it around. And it is up to the Team to rise to Leclerc's level and give him priority over Vettel in all matters. There is no magic bullet out there that can be brought into the team and instantly fix the team. It is up to the people already on the team to do the job better. If they don't, Ferrari could be fighting for fourth next year...and without Leclerc. I think Mercedes and Red Bull would be happy to put him in their cars and if their own drivers didn't like it they could pound sand.
I didn't watch the race, but let me make a wild prediction here... An easy Mercedes 1-2. Ferrari botched Leclerc's strategy so Seb could get ahead and in the end that backfired on both of them and Verstappen took the last spot on the podium? Going to see how close I am right now...
Oh wow, Leclerc stuck it in the wall for qualy and started P9. Did that spice up the race enough to make it worth watching?
You are correct. They had a 13 second lead, near 14. After 3 laps Bottas started to hone in on Leclerc at a rate of a second a lap. They let this go on for so long, Leclerc was eventually 7 seconds behind Bottas (and the rest....). A pitstop! They threw away the time of a pitstop! They should've boxed him (had a 3 lap window), thrown on supers, get Vettel to move over, pass Lewis (long straight on this track and DRS being mega effective), pass Bottas, and when the tyres show the first sign of getting near their limit, box for fresh set of mediums....he wouldn't be more than 8 seconds behind the pack after that stop.
https://www.planetf1.com/news/vettel-lacked-confidence-and-consistency-in-baku/ Sebastian Vettel gave an honest assessment of his performance at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, saying he lacked confidence and consistency in his Ferrari car. Vettel finished on the last step of the podium for the second consecutive race but has lost more ground in the World Championship battle with Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton combining for yet another 1-2 finish. The German was unable to make any real impression on the Silver Arrows throughout the race in Baku and settled for a rather low-key P3 finish. Vettel admitted afterwards that he is not having the best of times in the SF90 and has already labelled Mercedes the favourites to win the next round in Spain. “The first stint was really poor,” Vettel conceded in the on-track interviews after the race. “I really struggled to initially get the tyres to work. I think they were too cold and I damaged them and by the time they were hot they were damaged. “I was really uncomfortable, inconsistent and couldn’t get a feel or confidence in the car. After that I was already looking forward to a difficult stint on the medium tyres but had no problem switching them on. Once again where we didn't want to be. Great team effort in a hard race, also our guys did a super job. #Seb5 #Charles16 #SF90 #essereFerrari #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/M2rvuS62hd — Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 28, 2019 “I think we had some pace to at least go with Mercedes and sometimes put some pressure on. It was crucial to keep third, crucial for Charles to get the fastest lap and snatch it away from the Mercedes boys. “Still plenty of work for us to do but we need to maximise what we can. “The last four races we were quite there so we’re not the favourites going into Barcelona we have some upgrades coming and we need to chase them down.”
+1 Yes they did. To be fair given the incidents in practice and qualifying it was reasonable to assume that there would be at least one safety car period. Everyone kept it off the walls today.
Bottas has Lewis' measure on Saturday and Sunday. However, let's not get too carried away. Bottas pipped him to pole by a whopping 0.059 secs (mainly because he benefitted from being in the slipstream on that final Q3 flier). And then on Sunday when he got the off the line slightly better, Lewis could've easily been far more aggressive and assertive (i.e. done Valtteri dirty by leaning on him far harder exiting Turn 1). In this case, maturity and self-restraint prevailed - - Lewis saw the bigger team picture and didn't want to bin one (or both) of them, etc. Perhaps Lewis and Valtteri had a gentlemen's agreement in advance regarding just how far to take it during that very early phase of the race?
The supers didn't work, when leclerc put them on he actually fell further behind the leaders, so if he'd done it sooner he would have been right where he ended up, if not further back without a gap to bolt on a fresh set and go for fastest lap. That strategy might have worked with another set of mediums, but not softs. Leclerc's mistake in q2 is exactly why they put their eggs in Vettel's basket. Further, neither of the ferraris could make the softs work in the race. Leclerc could only manage a lap a second faster on fresh softs vs the leaders on 30 lap old mediums. Fresh mediums would have been worth more than that, the ferraris just couldn't make the softs work at all.
Good job by Bottas, shows how superior the Mercedes really has been all year other than Bahrain. Does anyone else want to see some other drivers in Mercedes so that we can see how much of it has been the car since 2014. I know Max would excel having such a plum opportunity, must be nice knowing you really only need to beat your teammate for all of these years.
This reminds me of my post after Ric was bragging about “revolutionizing for f1” with his passing capabilities. Once again he shows it just doesn’t pay to put yourself over at every chance you get.
I believe your words with the following pic were something to the effect of: "Ah yes, I see that now" Still chuckling. Which is good, because after Baku I need a few laughs. Image Unavailable, Please Login In fact, if any Tifosi are going to be in Costa Rica (Tamarindo area) this week, speak up. I'll be trying to bake and soak the memory of this race out of my head on the beach.
This season so far is very easy to explain. Mercedes does not do everything right but they do nothing wrong. Ferrari does nothing right and everything wrong
Yet another Annus horribilis ...Vettel looking like 45 already, time to bow out please don't make us suffer yet another year.
Summary of Ferrari this season after this race by Damon- "They are very good at proving they've got the pace when it doesn't count - that's the problem," suggested 1996 world champion Damon Hill.
Unless Bottas crumbles later this year ,which i think is unlikely.Renault should already have happened so yes he could replace the Hulk.The wheels are probably already turning behind closed doors.
