Before the race Hamilton stated that he was far from happy with mistakes by his team that affected his qualifacation time. Said he wouldn't mention any more in public but there'd be some hard words behind the scenes.
F1 Grand Prix Season
- Thread starter Yankee_Jack
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I think we may have witnessed a change in F1 dominance yesterday.
Ferrari lost valuable points yesterday being undecided on the condition of Leclerks gearbox. the golden rule, 'If in doubt change it '
Botas, unlucky for him ,but possibly once again a team fault, Possibly what happened is when the wheel was put on the torque setting on the gun was a little OTT. so slightly over tightening and pulled the thread in a clockwise direction. the when the hub nut (Which is only alloy) went into an anti clockwise direction stripped the thread and the nut would just go around and around.
Hamilton blaming the car, "it didn't feel right" he and he alone is responsible for the cars setup. If he can't relate back to the team why the car isn't doing what it should be, then he needs to take a page out of Michael Schumacher's book, rather than living the high life. Schumacher would spend days in the workshop watching and learning, Ferrari said his car feedback was impeccable.
Since that time when Russell drove Hamiltons' car there have been raised eyebrows about Hamiltons' success with Mercedes.
Ferrari lost valuable points yesterday being undecided on the condition of Leclerks gearbox. the golden rule, 'If in doubt change it '
Botas, unlucky for him ,but possibly once again a team fault, Possibly what happened is when the wheel was put on the torque setting on the gun was a little OTT. so slightly over tightening and pulled the thread in a clockwise direction. the when the hub nut (Which is only alloy) went into an anti clockwise direction stripped the thread and the nut would just go around and around.
Hamilton blaming the car, "it didn't feel right" he and he alone is responsible for the cars setup. If he can't relate back to the team why the car isn't doing what it should be, then he needs to take a page out of Michael Schumacher's book, rather than living the high life. Schumacher would spend days in the workshop watching and learning, Ferrari said his car feedback was impeccable.
Since that time when Russell drove Hamiltons' car there have been raised eyebrows about Hamiltons' success with Mercedes.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
The race on Sunday is a potential shit show. More red flags in qualifying than ever before and that’s with just one driver, more or less, doing his thing with no other driver rubbing shoulders and tires. One corner in particular has caused drivers to brake too late, lock their wheels and slam into the wall instead of being able to steer into the escape area.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Not a total shit show .... but two probably hard tire failures crashed out Max and another. Cost Max a victory. Then, Hamilton buggered his brakes on the restart and they locked up after going ahead costing him the race.
Perez, Vettel, Gasly .... couldn’t have predicted that. It’s going to be a crazy season
Perez, Vettel, Gasly .... couldn’t have predicted that. It’s going to be a crazy season
Abysmal from Hamilton to say the least. If he had tucked in behind Perez instead of being greedy, he'd have been 18 points better off. Maybe MV and Red Bull are getting to him and he feels he needs every point he can get.
Bottas getting pelters from his peers in the media and the consensus is that he's on his way. One comment, among many other critical ones, was that, whilst he performs in qualifying, he's nothing better than an average driver in the actual race. It is said that he avoids wheel to wheel racing and that he rarely tries to overtake another car with decent performance. This means that whenever he finds himself in the middle of the pack, that's where he usually stays, unlike the likes of LH, MV and some others who would go balls out to improve their points position. Seems that Mercedes have noted all this and it looks like Bottas will be casting about for a seat next season. George Russell being touted.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Red Bull won it going away. Max smoked Hamilton, and Perez smoked Bottas. RB cars and strategy definitely coming out on top yet again and it doesn’t look like Mercedes have an answer.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Nico Rosburg giving Hamilton pelters in post race analysis over the final overtake by Max
Hamilton had no tyres left to defend and I thought that Bottas failed to hold Max up in his capacity as a wingman. He was petulant about Mercedes' tyre strategy and let them know over the radio as he is well aware that Russell will be replacing him next season. As it happens he was right and Mercedes lost the race in the pit lane. Not the first time they've cocked up their tactics to Hamilton's detriment.
As for Rosburg, he was always inferior to Hamilton and resented him because of it. It is strongly believed that he was allowed to win his world title on team orders, Hamilton having received instructions to let him win certain races. But it appears that Red Bull have the better car right now and Mercedes will have to work hard to gain parity. Gonna be a really interesting season!!
As for Rosburg, he was always inferior to Hamilton and resented him because of it. It is strongly believed that he was allowed to win his world title on team orders, Hamilton having received instructions to let him win certain races. But it appears that Red Bull have the better car right now and Mercedes will have to work hard to gain parity. Gonna be a really interesting season!!
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Max is going from strength to strength, now dominating every race and pre-race practices and qualifying. Mercedes and Hamilton are now struggling so badly in multiple ways that the likes of McLaren are not only starting higher on the grid but finishing in the top three.
Can't believe that Merc will allow this to go unchallenged and their boffins will be working 24/7 to get it sorted. Will be an interesting season.
Great banter between Brit drivers and friends Lando Norris and George Russell when the latter congratulated Norris with a grin referring to him as sweaty.
"It's champagne," replied Lando with a laugh.
"It's champagne," replied Lando with a laugh.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
there are 3 elements to consider: degradation in car performance or improvement at a slower rate compared to peers; poor race management and strategy; Hamilton.
I am wondering whether Hamilton is suffering any residual neuro insults following his COVID illness. F1 demands perfection, and you only need to be off a fraction of a fraction mentally to incur sub-second drops in performance to fall behind relative to peers. The insult carried by Hamilton could be unmeasurable under routine med/psych inventories and test of mental performance, but sufficient at the performance levels of F1 to impact.
Not sure that Mercedes is the fly in the ointment rather than Hamilton. Is this what they call racing, where Bottas had to be given permission to pass Hamilton. He then goes on to beat him by almost half a minute, probably about a mile and a half.
Manufactures all come up against a brick wall to some extent with regulations such as the engine is allowed 15000 RPM , an output of 700 BHP.
I think Mercedes reached that wall before their competitors, but now they're up with them. From now on there will be the ECU cheating as was a few years back, where almost all manufacturers were instructed to either destroy or reprogram their ECU's.
As for Hamilton, seems the thorn in his side is the performance put in by Russell in his car and setup. He's not been the same since.
How can he blame the car when the second car out performed him, of late he seems to be constantly looking for excuses.
But is this down to Hamilton? Surely Mercedes wouldn't have given him a bumper new contract said to be worth £80 million if they felt his performances were on the wane. They have all the info and the latest technology to know what's going on and they're obviously keeping faith with Hamilton.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Hamilton started to degrade after his Covid infection. This was when Russell stepped into Hamilton's car and ran the race of is life only to be denied a win on dubious grounds.
Then who is it down to when he gets beaten by half a minute by the second car, even then Bottas had to wait for permission to pass him.
Mercedes interests are in constructors points, driver points are secondary. Hence the permission to pass.
Life at the top is quite short as a top F1 driver, Vettal for instance is now way down the back of the field, maybe Hamiltons interests in his other business ventures, music and fashion are beginning to take long term priority. Can't see him wanting to be in the Vettal placings.
Incidentally Mercedes turned down point blank his requests for certain upgrades to the car.
Might have been tyres, setup or for other reasons Mercedes want to keep to themselves right now. What is absolutely indisputable is that Bottas isn't on the same planet as a driver, so I'm looking for answers elsewhere. But no way would Mercedes commit to an £80 million contract if they felt Hamilton was on his way out. They have fallen astern of Red Bull behind the scenes and know that they haven't given Hamilton the tools he needs to deal with Max, who is a hell of a driver anyway and gives Hamilton a real battle on even terms.
Startling news. Seems definite that George Russell eventually will be offered the Bottas seat at Mercedes but there is strong rumour that it might happen before Silverstone. Seems unlikely to me but can't wait to see how this plays out!