Leclerc's mistake was rather minor. The Ferrari was clearly not set up for the wet very well, and the porpoising did effect the cars performance in wet conditions, because Leclerc was equal to Max in pace during the sprint. Hopefully the new floor will help Ferrari. The team seem to have confidence this will unlock even more downforce, but want to gather more data. I wouldn't be shocked if the team decide not to bring the new floor to Miami either, given how the street tracks can easily damage it. They'll want their first weekend to be on a proper track in dry conditions, like Barcelona.
The season is long and will ebb and flow between Max and Charles. If Merc finds some speed George will also be in the mix.
Yes, I agree about the decline, and mentioned it sometimes ago. I predicted Verstappen winning the title early last year, for that reason. But if Mercedes is still willing to offer him a new contract and pay Hamilton lots of money, why not? Didn't Ferrari keep Vettel and Raikkonen on its payroll when they were both past their "sell-by date" ? I think we have different points of view regarding the Silverstone and Monza incidents, but well ...
Raikkonen was one of my favorites. Loved his driving in the 2000's. But my god, what were Ferrari thinking resigning him? Alonso scored twice as many points as him, and it's Alonso who's gone? And they replace him with Vettel, the guy who just gotten badly beaten by his teammate at Red Bull? I truly wonder what drugs Ferrari leadership were using back then. If they weren't using drugs, they should lie and say they were, because at least then they'd have an excuse for such idiocy. Hamilton can continue to race if he wants. It's a free world. But he'll do damage to his image. I don't care what he says, he did care about that 8th WDC, and beating Schumacher's record. That's why he's so distraught. He does care about his image. Staying and getting beaten by Russel, and maybe struggling to ever win a single grand prix again like Vettel did after 19', will not be a good thing for him. It will go a long way to supporting criticism that his 7 titles are as flawed as Vettel's 4.
Any successful sportman does damage to his reputation by staying too long when decline comes. The same could be said for Schumacher, and many others before (Villeneuve? Graham Hill? Alonso? Vettel? Raikkonen? Valentino Rossi?). I don't think they are so obsessed by their "image" as we are, and for them racing is a way of life, and a good source of income too. Hamilton MUST know he is getting on, that Russell will beat him, and that the success will tail off. Yet, he continues ... Also, it's not because a driver get beaten in later years that all previous achievement is erased. Witness Schumacher ... I remember watching Graham Hill, twice WDC, failing to qualify at the Monaco GP, a race he had won 5 times! That was shocking. And what about Valentino Rossi being backmarker for years in MotoGP, after winning 8 titles; but he loved it to the end.
You can’t put this on the team: LEC was literally less than a second behind Perez in the “improved” RB with Max only a few seconds up the road. Considering the bad start and wasting time behind Norris and then (with no DRS behind Perez), that’s not bad. As for Sainz, he made a great recovery on Saturday and not his or the team’s fault that RIC punted him off.
Normally you’d expect a fightback from them but seeing just how bad their bouncing was at Imola—especially on the bumps, off-line—with the thing bucking and sparking away, you’d have to think the car needs a major overhaul. Other teams have managed to at least moderate the bouncing and make some useful changes to help performance with Alfa, for example, going from destroying their floor during shakedown test to scoring a good result at Imola after introducing a quite substantial change in the Coke-bottle area this weekend. The fact that the Merc appeared to be at its worst on the bumps of Imola indicates they went for a design that, although good in the wind tunnel, is too extreme and sensitive to ride height and pitch so any changes to the aero to make it more adaptable to actual racing will probably need to trade peak performance for usability. So I don’t expect the car to suddenly rocket to the front.
While I would like to think that season will ebb and flow between Max and Charles for the sake of Ferrari, I am thinking that RB was slow to getting its car right, and has now it figured out. Ferrari may respond, but maybe Ferrari has nothing more to offer? Wouldn't Max be considered the early favorite to win Miami? Isn't the RB car simply faster now than Ferrari? I'm thinking that there is a good possibility for Max to be on a glide path to second championship. Of course if Charles wins Ferrari that changes everything, but today I don't see Charles winning at Miami.
RB managed to perfect their window in Italy. There is no guarantee they can repeat in Miami. New circuit / new weather / new tarmac etc.
I’ve been advocating this ever since the ridiculously, transparently, contrived tire regulations came in.
Exactly. No reason to jump out of the windows just yet. It can be a bit worrying considering RB put new parts on and instantly went well, the fact is that conditions also played a big factor this race. Did Ferrari go for a wet setup for the race as it was predicted it would be wet? If so, they where remarkably close if Red Bull had a dry setup. RB's reliability is still a HUGE question mark as well, RB themselves admitted they where a nervous wreck the entire race. That tells me they don't quite know the full extend of their failures yet or have a proven way to fix it yet. Ferrari still enjoys a a generous lead in the WDC, so huge in fact that if Max finishes 2nd behind Leclerc the next 4 races they'll be on equal points...IF the Red Bull finishes those races! With Ferrari not having updated the car at all and a big package coming in Spain, we need to calm down a little.
I agree. There have been races where Red Bull had tire wear issues and Ferrari did not. At Imola, Ferrari had tire wear issues, and Red Bull did not. I tend to think that after Red Bull's updates, they likely are the faster car in outright pace. They still hold a top speed advantage and the car has more underbody downforce after the updates. But it doesn't mean they have will have better race pace.
You are right but Newey is a wizard. Like him or not. Ferrari has to prove his ability to develop a car during a whole season for now. We will see.
so like innings...or segments...maybe each segment could pay out points for the win...maybe with a checkered green flag for each segment ending... sjd
This is the year either ferrari did it or start of domination of max and RB the way i see it RB look scary good at imola, it's a perfect weekend to sum it up. Even with that mistake leclerc drove well hanging on with perez. This could be a figh to the end which i hope so and this the season got me excited again looking at ferrari build a good car. But As always cautious with my expectations to not end up with a big disappointment.
Despite Imola, my expectations are still high, considering the Scuderia hasn't introduced an upgrade yet but still managed to beat or compete against RBR.
May be a wasted effort in a street (or parking lot) circuit where the inherent bumpiness of the course will never allow the floor to properly seal for any length of time.
