FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE AIRLINES SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX 2019: RACE ▄▀▄▀ SPOILERS ▀▄▀▄

Were it not for the yellows and SC's Leclerc would have made a run on Seb and likely passed him with DRS.

At the beginning of the season Charles said he wanted to get 2 wins. Little did he know the course of events and how he would improve over the course of the season. His pre-season projection turned out to be very conservative. He is faster than Seb. He knows it. Seb knows it. Ferrari knows it. The rest of the world knows it. He is now hungry, and rightly so. His frustration on the radio or anywhere else is borne of that. To me it demonstrates he has what it will take to become WDC, multiple times. Lets hope it is in a red car.

 

and F, though we can't really blame them. Had they ordered a switch or allowed them to race it would have ended in tears one way or another.

'Magnanimous' -

 

Even Lewis knows it.



...and Toto, as well.

 

I've been on here now for a few years and there's one universal truth in the 20+ pages posted about each particular race.

1) Everybody "knows" what's in the mind of the drivers and team
2) Everybody "knows" who the best driver is and who should have, could have, and would have won
3) Every decision is made to screw over one driver over another
4) 2 & 3 are solely dependent on who you like as a driver.

 

Totally agree, the dark side of me just hopes the FIA haven't hamstrung Mercedes to lose some races in order to take the heat off them & spice up the show. They are so far in front it wouldn't hurt to lose a few races in the run up to them winning the WDC & WCC. SF and RB would pick up the scraps as they are relatively close in performance, at certain tracks. The good side of me beleives SF have made a good leap in sorting out their car and won on merit. I'll go with that one

I am beginning to warm to Binotto over previous team managers (excluding Domecali) as he wants to actively engage with the media and tifosi and is technically very skilled, that's a good thing. Lets hope he is as good & can organise the team internally to maximise the undoubted potential within the team.

CL should take it on the chin and just realise he is young, inexperienced and needs to learn. His time will come, just keep on SV gearbox and hoover up the points. You can make a rather bold statement by just shadowing the No1 driver. He is in the most charismatic team on the planet, the world is his oyster and he will rich beyond his wildest dreams - stop bitching and enjoy the moment and future

Tony

 

Considering all the eco-fundamentalism swirling about, I think we can expect more management style 'racing' to trickle down.
Let's hope the Grid girls don't return as menacing Thunberg avatars admonishing us our profligate ways. LOL indeed.

 

Yeah, that what F1 is now.

 

Wasn't Lewis on Med? Even with benefit of SC's and faster tires he never made a credible threat to Max. Did Toto tell him to hang back?

 

Thank you for that! 100% Correct!

 

If there is a case for giving up on mandatory pit stops, the 2019 Singapore GP was one example how a "race" can get distorted by the introduction of artificial parameters.
Leclerc wasn't robbed of a win by the Ferrari pit, but by an anachronic set of rules, IMO.

 

Mandatory pit stops + refuelling, welcome to the Mechanics World Championship !. hahaha

There will be even less passes on the track as drivers will expect their pits to do the fight for them.

 

But......... that would mean that LH44 would definitely lose every race! That's not what the FIA/Mercedes wants.........

 

Unbridled sportsmanship:

https://www.facebook.com/568665409957112/posts/1462975567192754?sfns=mo

 

According to Leo Turrini , usually well informed, Corrado Lotti , V8TT father and since 4 years GES motorists leader is back to road division in order to work on a road car engine project.
He is one of the main leaders for our fantastic power unit .
Bad news ?

 

Was it true that the Ferrari pit wall did not inform Leclerc that Seb had pitted? Don't you think drivers respond to such events.

 

It looks like you didn't read the first sentence of my post.

 

You need to look more closely then, and even read your 2nd sentence

Everyone was playing by the same set of rules. Ferrari, by not keeping Leclerc informed, was at fault for not playing to the best of their ability under the rules.

 

Which was :

"Leclerc wasn't robbed of a win by the Ferrari pit, but by an anachronic set of rules, IMO.

You amputated the most important part of that sentence.

If we get rid of these stupid mandatory pit stops, maybe we will go back to proper racing instead of strategy gambles that backfire.

 

In this instance what was the strategy gamble that backfired?

Ferrari did not give Leclerc the opportunity to check Seb's initial out laps on new tires. It is not as though nobody thought that Seb would not try to make up the deficit.

 

Leclerc was already told to push.

Ferrari couldn't pit Leclerc first as he'd likely lose position to Elton.

But Ferrari HAD to cover for Verstappen, and whilst going for an attempted undercut on Lewis, in turn would force Mercedes' hand also (who ironically didn't decide to pit. The moment Ferrari realized how quick the undercut was, they boxed Leclerc also (the very next lap). After a slow stop for Vettel (and a much quicker one for Leclerc), and a nearly 4 sec deficit...it was very unlikely for Vettel to even come close to an overtake.

Leclerc was unlucky, in the same way he was very lucky that Vettel's race was sacrificed in Spa to help Leclerc win his race.

He can sulk all he likes but it's not doing him any favours.

 

I guess servicing both cars and keeping them in the same order was the plan?
After all, Leclerc was 13 points ahead in the WDC, so it would have made sense to let him keep his lead and pocket an extra 25 points instead of 18, no ?
7 points can make all the difference at the end; or maybe Ferrari has lost sight of their goal ?
I think that's what Leclerc was questionning.
I think there is so much frustration you can take when you are talented like Leclerc is.
The guy is undeniably the moral Number One at the Scuderia, and they keep messing him up !!!

 

I don't think the Scuderia is doing itself any favour either, by not putting all its weight behind Leclerc.

At this point in the season, it makes sense for a team to give preferential treatment to the driver who has the most points.

Toto Wolff understands that, why can't Binotto ?

 

I love reading race threads after watching the race, great dialogue!

I'm not a fan of refueling, so I'd say come up with a different tire to allow more racing.
As far as Singapore and street races, aren't they all pretty boring processions? Sure, the top 5 didn't pass on track, but I can't blame them all for managing tires. At the same time, very happy to see Ferrari get it right for a 1-2 and Mercedes to do nothing. Kudos to Max, holding off Mercedes. No Kudos to HAM, who complained on the radio about how slow the race was going, but obviously was totally unable to pass anyone on track or on a pit stop until the embarrassing call for BOT to slow by 3 seconds, what a joke.
As far as the Ferrari pit stop, the SKY announcers were talking about the only possible pit window opening was to get back on track around GRO, and wasn't that what happened with VET? Binotto stated after the race that when they made the call for VET to pit it was to hit this open spot of track, but that it would NOT have worked for LEC.

 

Ferrari isn't even in the fight. So just take the wins as they come.

Also, when it mattered, Vettell was fantastically quick.

Do we want drivers to actually race for their win or get it ''because they deserve it more''? What a ridiculous concept

 

What events would have to occur, based on Ferrari dominating the rest of the season, for one of the F drivers to win the WDC? I am assuming that Mercedes struggles to earn a 3rd now and then and that Max and the Ferraris fight for 1,2,3, with Ferrari winning all the rest of the races. A dream? Sure. But could it happen and if so, how?