So, apparently Russell was up until like 4 AM on Friday night working on his car, just tinkering with everything he could, while the mechanics were pulling an all-nighter until 7 AM just to shift those pedals around and get things perfect. He was saying how much help he got from Bon and the four other engineers, claiming the "incredible level of detail" they put in is just on another level—definitely a massive step up from what he dealt with at Williams.
ruggedhawk20 said:Between ages 5 and 15, everyone changes their mind about what they want to be in life a hundred times a day.
Nobody ever gave Stroll, Norris, Latifi, Russell, Sainz, etc., a chance to change their minds. They were basically born into an assembly line for professional athletes.
It's the same in every sport. People start too early—that's why they all end up acting like idiots in the end.
Seriously, people should actually listen to Beyond the Grid.
So you’re actually claiming a five-year-old knows exactly what they want to do with their life
Like, they have this perfectly set goal to be a driver
And that desire just stays rock solid without ever shifting while they grow up
Is that really your stance?!
Look, I'm telling you—and I’ve already given you the list you just quoted, so maybe pay attention—half the grid didn't grow up with some psycho-ambitious parents forcing them into a cockpit at age five. The other half just had older brothers or sisters racing, making them heroes to a six-year-old kid who basically got hooked on the sport because of them, kind of like how Gasly or Norris ended up. Then those older siblings quit to go do literally anything else, while Gasly and Norris kept going. You'd probably know all this if you actually listened to the drivers on the Beyond the Grid podcast instead of trying these cheap psychological projections that aren't even based on reality. Go-karting is just damn fun. When you're a single-digit kid, let alone a teenager, nobody needs to hold a gun to your head to make you do it. Even Ricciardo didn't have it all figured out by fifteen, and he still turned out to be a top-tier driver.
- Expect some absolute chaos with blue flags. Kimi and the guys sitting at the back of the pack could end up getting held up for two laps or even more if things go south. Just being able to navigate through the lapped traffic might be the whole game. - Red Bull Racing looked like they had better race pace than Mercedes during practice, but since Mercedes is starting on better rubber, that advantage might just evaporate. - Even with the shorter lap, most drivers are still looking at a two-stop strategy. - Half the grid absolutely trashed their floors on the curbs, so I wouldn't be surprised if we see total mayhem out there or even a Safety Car.
By the fact that guys like Lance Stroll, Nicholas Latifi, Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, and the rest were probably never even asked if they actually wanted to be drivers. This whole "dream" is forced on them before they can even tie their own shoes. We're talking kids starting go-karts at 5 or 6 years old—no way a toddler is making career decisions, right? It’s just their dads' ambitions being shoved down their throats.
Now, the older generation—think Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet, etc.—who didn't start until they were 14 or 15? You can bet that was their choice.
But these modern drivers? They're basically just there to fix their fathers' ego issues.
Even the successful ones, like Carlos Sainz for example.
Alex Barnes93 said:Look, if we actually talk about this, it’s just gonna make things way more awkward for everyone, so let’s all just collectively pretend it didn't happen. Like, can we please just ignore the fact that they pulled Sebastian Vettel into the pits with basically 15 minutes left in Free Practice 3, only to swap in that second engine—you know, the absolute dud they've been lugging around all season—just an hour before qualifying starts?
Sebastian Vettel claims he just botched the middle sector and insists his exit had nothing to do with the engine.
Alexander Albon and Sebastian Vettel were just messing around on the team radio the whole time after getting knocked out in Qualifying 2, while Lando Norris actually stepped up and admitted it was his own fault.
copperdrifter26 said:Mecca has at least a 0.3 to 0.5-second advantage in car pace over RB, and they’re sitting a full second ahead of Ferrari. But you have to look closer—if you compare Mecca's second driver (whether it's Valtteri Bottas or George Russell today) against the other drivers at RB and Ferrari, like Alexander Albon and Sebastian Vettel, you start to see the real story of where those secondary drivers actually land compared to their lead teammates.
George Russell finally sat in the car yesterday, and get this—he went from having the absolute worst car on the grid straight into the best one. It took him exactly three hours of practice to end up just 0.026 behind Valtteri Bottas, who’s been tearing it up at Mecca for four seasons now. Honestly, it makes you wonder how good George would be if he could just spend three or four race weekends in a row at Mecca, or maybe even an entire season? I really think he’d blow past Bottas. If you followed the junior formulas, you know the kid was incredible; he was absolutely dominating Alexander Albon and Lando Norris back then. Sure, Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen are the top tier right now, but they've had time to mature. I bet if George got a seat at Mecca, he’d be giving Bottas a much harder time than Lewis Hamilton does these days.
I honestly think having Valtteri Bottas around gives Lewis Hamilton such a massive boost. If you look back at how Lewis was driving during that 2015-2016 era, he was on a completely different level—just lightyears faster than the driver we’re seeing today.
Yeah, > has that kind of advantage on a standard track length. In qualifying when there's no traffic. Everything was the exact opposite of that today.
Kenneth Cruz67 said:Without Lewis and Mercedes being able to keep pace with Red Bull Racing and Ferrari, they aren't even looking at a front-row start right now.
It seems like Lewis is performing more like an old-school Fernando Alonso lately, dropping about 0.6 seconds per lap, and I suppose if some sort of magic happens, he might even pull Valtteri Bottas up by at least half a second. 😁
Which driver, and just how big of a gap are we talking about? 🙏🙏🙏
Esteban Ocon looks faster than Daniel Ricciardo during practice, but when it actually counts? He’s always lagging behind. A 15-1 gap in qualifying... what a joke.
Raymond Anderson4 said:We really just have to hold out for the final round of Q3. This track is a disaster. Cramming 20 cars onto a 53-second circuit is just plain ridiculous. I was watching Free Practice 3, but I had to turn it off once I realized there was no point in watching a session where you can't even pull two clean laps in a row without getting stuck behind someone else. This whole trend toward Americanization is going to ruin F1. It’s exactly like those rating scales they use, grading everything from 1 to 10. It feels like they're just pandering to American viewers who only consume sports through stats and rankings. Your average fan doesn't care about the tactical nuances of the game; they just see that one quarterback threw three touchdowns while the other threw two, and decide the first guy is automatically better.
What does Americanization have to do with any of this? You guessed it. Absolutely nothing.
Dana Murphy4 said:I guess Valtteri Bottas seems pretty frustrated, so maybe we'll see anything can happen during qualifying 😁
This season, Lewis Hamilton is the only one who actually grabbed pole after crushing Free Practice 2. Every other driver who topped the times in Free Practice 2 failed to pull it off. But here we are, already acting like George Russell has this race in the bag...
graniteharbor502 said:I suppose I could have been a Formula 1 driver myself... What remains undeniably apparent is that any driver placed in a Mercedes-Benz would likely find themselves at the very top of the standings. If there was ever a moment of ambiguity regarding that fact, I believe it has now become perfectly clear to everyone.
And if George Russell doesn't snag pole tomorrow, what's your excuse then?
If you look at the other two guys who are way less prepared for Formula 1 than George Russell, you'll see Emerson Fittipaldi is only 0.4 seconds off the Sauber pace, and the Aton driver is just 0.5 seconds behind Nicholas Latifi's time, assuming we're talking about Free Practice 2. If you factor in Bottas's deleted best lap, George Russell is only ahead of Valtteri Bottas by 0.2 seconds. From that angle, it's obvious we can't get a real sense of the actual story from such a short run.
Plus, if you check out the mini sectors:
It wasn't exactly Bottas's cleanest outing; the Finn kept running wide and had a bunch of laps tossed out for clipping the track limits, which cost him the lead. He ended up stuck way down in 11th, even though his teammate Russell looked great. But looking at the data, if he'd actually managed one clean lap with all those peak mini sectors, he could have been a massive 1.123s faster, which would've put him comfortably at the top.
Amy Castillo4 said:Yeah, but it’s pretty telling when a guy jumps into a car for the first time—no prep, tight cockpit and all—and somehow strolls through practice sitting in P1.
If he had stayed in that Williams Racing car, which he knows inside and out, he’d be sitting somewhere around 15th or 20th. This isn't about the car at all. Honestly, I feel bad for Bottas.
Look, if you’re pulling a tenth of a second on someone, you aren't just "strolling," but whatever. Ocon is usually faster than Ricciardo during practice, yet when it actually matters in qualifying, Ricciardo beats him 14 times out of 15. An experienced driver knows points aren't won in practice sessions, so there's no point chasing a personal best just for the hell of it. Let's just wait for qualifying and the race before we start acting like experts. Besides, Bottas actually had a faster lap, but they deleted it.
James Collins said:Look, I’m definitely no F1 expert or anything, so I was just wondering what you guys think... is it actually possible that Lujin's car is just straight-up faster than Bottas's? Post 1. Because if it isn't, then man, Bottas is just incredibly slow. Post 2. And if he really is outrunning the competition like that, it definitely makes Hamilton's results look pretty bad.
First off, this track is so short it's basically impossible to run a clean lap. Whoever actually pulls it off is gonna end up a few tenths faster than everyone else just by luck of the draw. Second, right now the gap between first and last is 1.5 seconds, but on a standard circuit, 1.5 seconds is where the guy starting sixth usually sits. So, on a track like this, everyone looks fast because there's zero room for Mercedes-Benz to pull away—the lap isn't long enough to make a gap meaningful. It’s just a weird, atypical track and a weird situation. We'll see what happens tomorrow, and even more so the day after.
graniteharbor502 said:So, I find myself wondering, just how much of an edge does this Mercedes-Benz actually hold over its rivals... And then, I have someone attempting to convince me that they aren't 🙄
Russell can barely even fit into Hamilton's car, honestly. He’ll probably have to race in shoes two sizes too small just to make it work. Claims it hurts, but he says he'll tough it out.