FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE MÉXICO 2019: RACE ▄▀▄▀ SPOILERS ▀▄▀▄

Once again Ferrari is able to snatch defeat from the hands of victory.

Here's one thing I'd like to never hear again... I'm so sick of the BS that somehow Hamilton will fall off due to tires and somehow lose the race. What a bunch of crap. How many times have we heard him complaining on the radio that he has no tires left with 20 laps to go yet somehow manages to "bring it home" with "an incredible drive." Unless it's 5 laps to go and someones coming hard on new supersofts... you're still not gonna be able to pass the guy in front of you.

 

"Everybody races to win." LOL
I would like to believe all that, I really would.
In my 58 years of watching the sport, I have seen enough teams coming to F1 to achieve absolutely nothing, to know that not everybody want or can win.
For many, just reaching that step is success enough, and there is a long, long list of them !
Beside, F1 is a business, and if a team is carefully managed, it can even survive for a long time, and provide a good source of income for its owner.
It depend how you manage the shop, like by carefully balancing the budget, not spending too much, attracting several small sponsors, looking for pay drivers, etc ...
Many teams don't aim at winning because it would cost them too much to get there. They are just playing in the second division.
It may come as a shock to some, but Sauber (Alfa now), Haas, Toro Rosso and Racing Point have practically no chance of winning anything ever.
All they want is a steady middle income, and all they aim for is scoring points to get it, by playing on reliability, conservative tactics, etc ... and hoping for the top teams to make mistakes and tear each other apart!
.

 

from Binotto https://www.planetf1.com/news/mercedes-not-faster-than-ferrari-but-made-right-call/
“I don’t think Mercedes were faster than us today but they made the right call and deserve to win. I think the fact that we are not happy today proves how much we have improved. I think now we are at the same level of Mercedes which is huge for us.”

 

Luigi Perna of Gazzetta dello Sport wrote: “Yesterday, the five-time world champion made another masterpiece, beating Ferrari and Red Bull on a track where his Mercedes wasn’t the fastest car, resisting for half the race to the pressure of Sebastian Vettel who could count on fresher tyres.

“In theory Lewis at that point was without a chance of winning and the overtaking from Ferrari seemed inevitable. But no. Hamilton, like many other times, has gone beyond numbers and logic. He managed to handle the worn-out tires like and kept his lead over Seb to around two seconds to the finish. He is a giant.”

 

That should allow others to see he is a talent. Team etc do not matter. He continues to provide results.

Thats what you do when you have a competitive car Seb Vettel lol

 

And there are those here that would not welcome him at Ferrari. I won't make specific insinuations, but I'll leave it up to those who have such wishes to openly and honestly look at themselves in the mirror and ask why not?

 

When I said everybody I meant "everybody with a chance": Ferrari, McLaren, Williams in other life...

But even the small ones want to win at their level and many greats begun being small. Racing Point was at some point Jordan, a small team that got factory support and that managed to finish 3rd in the WDC; finally it couldn't happen but they were at the brink of becoming a top team.

I respect them more than those you mentioned, who come, bury everybody with their money and quit when they please, quite often leaving a carcass of a championship behind.

 

Hey, I think there was some good racing, and some bad racing. Overall the sport seems to be more on tire management than anything else. I don't blame Pirelli as much as some people, since the way I understand it is that the FIA/F1 tells them what they're looking for in the tires, so it's not all up to Pirelli. Was watching on TV but missed whatever Grosjean did on the first lap, either way it's a 9th place year for Haas, only because Williams is worse.

Hats off to Ricciardo for the way too late move on Perez, at least he was going for it!

I'm not a HAM fan, but he won the race. Seems like he and Mercedes are WAY overdue for some DNFs and David Hobbs KERBLAMMOS, maybe next year.

Would love to see LeClerc continue to gain experience and turn into a world champion. Max could still do it, as long as he's been around now he's only like 22 years old?

Small regulation changes next year, still waiting for whatever comes after the "Mercedes Era" in 2021.

 

I have no problem with tire management. I use the 1990 Mexican Grand Prix as an example. Senna took off at a blistering pace in his Honda-Mac. In doing so, he trashed his tires to the point of de-lamination. In the meantime, Prost was driving his Ferrari at what seemed like a leisurely pace, but "The Professor" was saving his tires like he was known to do. He brought it home in what was a glorious Ferrari 1-2 with Mansell second.

Maybe Hamilton has these "professor like" qualities? The recent evidence points to it.

 

Different eras. Now the tyres are built not to last.
That you know how to save your tyres or not, you still have to do a MANDATORY pit stop and put a different compound.
So that reduces your choice really.

 

Oh William . . . . Yes William. Everyone knows that, William. Does that change the point that Hamilton did a masterful job of managing his "tyres"?? In fact, using your point about the "Pirelli gomme" not being built to last, it makes Ham's accomplishment of yesterday all the more genius-like.

 

Must be because I'm a racist.

Wait a minute. Am I allowed to insult myself without getting banned?

Kevin

 

No, you are right, Hamilton did in fact a terrific job to stay ahead with tyres that were beyond their life.
I think, and he thought too at the time, that his team called him too early for his second set.
Probably they gambled on his ability to stay ahead and still save his tyres enough to reach the end of the race.
I presume he whined because it's hard work to do that, and it did put extra pressure on him.
But he did it beautifully, and that 2019 Mexican GP was one of his best races.
It wasn't about car superiority (the Ferrari was faster), but superior driving, IMO.

 

I think that Pirelli ****ed it up again yesterday. Verstappen did almost the entire race with the same tyres while those who had to start on softs were demolished already in the first stint by Perez, who started on mediums because he didn't get into Q3.

I get that hard tyres should last more, but not forever. Also there should be an advantage in using the softs. This kind of Pirelli cock ups makes the rule of mandatory pit stops more annoying.

 

Nice victory by Hamilton. Can't fault him for doubting Mercedes' decision to pit him on lap 24 earlier than other drivers including Vettel and Bottas. Managed his tires to the very end. Hoped that Vettel and Bottas would pose more of a challenge on fresher tires towards the end of the race.

 

Same message he told Nicole when she was tossing his luggage out the window.

 

Ham would not provide the same results at Ferrari.

Ham has had a lot of team support, over his career.
Would he get good results with the Ferrari pit wall bumbling around behind him?
Ham is not the type to keep the laundry internal, like most Ferrari drivers.
He'd bail after the first bad race.

 

Leclerc has been a bit "vociferous" on the team radio this season . . .

 

Just caught up on the race highlights.

MV - oh dear another cockup, he will end up as another Grosjean, tried hard but didn't deliver. Needs to do better.

The Mercedes are sand bagging, the SF car may be the fastest but it isn't the nimblest around the whole track. Lighting up the back tyres in power slides isn't the correct strategy, it may get you pole back sweet FA results.

IMO - this is all designed to improve the show, let the others win a few times otherwise there will be a mass exodus of punters.

I was impressed with Binotto after the race, at least he has the nuts to get interviewed unlike that other tool.

Tony

 

Well, no point arguing with the result. Well done Merc for making the right strategy call and we’ll done ham for making the tyres last when under a lot of pressure. Top marks.

As for Ferrari - oh for goodness sake how embarrassing. Best car. Two of the best drivers but still can’t win because the clowns in the strategy department are frankly useless. My 4 year old boy could do a better job than those jokers. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - until we sack the strategists and get some competent people we will never win a championship. An embarrassment to all tifosi.

Re Max - no idea how he got driver of the day after his mediocre performance. He needs a slap. I’m sure daddy V gave him a proper dressing down and confiscated his play station. No milk and cookies at bed time...

As for the rest - who cares. They just make up the numbers and pay the bills.

 

Surprised no one is dumping on Mercedes bad strategy call, pulling Ham in too early. 24 laps in? Really? Mercedes pit wall acted even dumber than Ferrari's this race

 

No. Mercedes did fairly extensive testing on the hards and knew they would last well enough. Once they knew the tires would last; combined with the Ferrari's lack of pace advantage in race trim (as even admitted by Hamilton's fan club i.e. Sky Sports announcers), combined with the Ferrari's typical lack of tire preservation; it was simply a case of getting track position.

I still believe if Seb had pitted the very next lap, he had a better than average chance of coming out ahead of Ham, and would have won the race. Bizarre strategy to leave him out driving around.

Kevin

 

IMO the mercedes has never really shown its full potential and put to the extremes of its capabilities. The tyre management of these two cars is severely underestimated and is the likely key to their dominance.

This is identical to the Bridgestone days with SF and Schumacher - they were able to switch on the tyre when nobody else could, until Stepney divulged the secret gas in the tyre, everyone assumed it was something else, better suspension geometry, MS kinder on his tyres etc etc, all gamesmanship to throw people off the scent. Likewise today, I am not saying they use a secret formulation, but the compounds etc certainly just suit only two cars on the grid.

I remember Colin chapman was keen to hide a novel design from the car and he told his mechanics to throw a blanket over the gearbox, this got the tongues wagging but the novel design was plain to see but didn't attract the attention. Good old British deception!

It's pretty obvious that they are just playing games and have been for the whole season, they are either a small dot in the distance and thereabouts to take advantage of a wrong strategy call by other teams.

Another issue that got me was the way LH & MV re-joined the track - unsafe, I thought they were supposed to wait until all the cars had passed?

Just my POV

Tony

 

I must confess I doubted that their strategy would pay off in the end.
But they were right to take the gamble, and I was wrong.

 

I'm not sure it was a bad call on Mercedes' part. We've seen this before this season: Merc (and Hamilton) manage their tires well and hold on to finish despite an earlier-than-planned pit stop. While they are certainly helped by the difficulty the current generation of F1 cars have passing, I also believe that this generation Merc --unlike last year's car-- is generally easy on its tires. I think Mercedes knows very well how to manage the tires - and these gambles aren't quite as wild as they would be with other teams.