890 posts shown.
crimsonhawk23 said:That’s basically just a description of Hulk 😃 except he seems to have some kind of allergy to the podium, unlike Bottas. Bottas is pretty much everything Hulk is, just... better.
Everything you say about Hulk somehow ends up being dead wrong 🙂
crimsonhawk23 said:Tell Mercedes they have no clue what they're doing because they snatched up a much worse driver back in 2016 when Hulkenberg was basically handed to them on a silver platter.
They didn't have him sitting there waiting, though. Hulkenberg actually locked in a multi-year deal with Renault back in August 2016. Rosberg didn't pull the plug on his career until much later. Honestly, besides Bottas, they weren't left with many choices. And they only grabbed Bottas from Williams because of those close ties, which wasn't even public knowledge until January 16, 2017.
That’s how Ben Anderson broke it down over at autosport.com—specifically in that deep dive titled "Why Mercedes picked Bottas";
Hulkenberg would arguably have been The perfect fit for mercedes in Thes circumstances. An experienced driver, German, and considered among the best on the grid yet to earn a shot with a top team. Had Hulkenberg decided to reject Renault and see out the final year of his Force India contract, a move to Mercedes would have been relatively straightforward, since Force India always claimed they wouldn't block him if a top-tier team came knocking.https://www.autosport.com/f1/feature...-picked-bottasAnd then he goes on about Bottas;
The more you narrow down the realistic options for Mercedes, the more Bottas looks like the best fit given the circumstances. He is already part of the Mercedes family, through its customer engine deal with Williams, as well as being managed in part by Wolff. All this must have played a part in Mercedes' thinking. The Finn looks like someone to slot in at short notice who will do a good job without rocking Hamilton's boat, trying too hard to make an impression, or occasionally going missing through inexperience. He also possesses an even temperament, which should help Mercedes avoid the sort of internal conflicts that became a regular feature of the recent Hamilton/Rosberg rivalry.Also, let's not forget that before all this, Hulkenberg was actually in the mix for a seat at Ferrari for the 2014 season. But Marrone ended up grabbing Kimi instead just to make sure things stayed smooth for Vettel.
Richard Walker38 said:People just see what they want to see.
Are you talking about yourself or what? This is the only race besides the one in Spain where both of them finished without any crazy drama, breakdowns, safety cars, or whatever else. Back in Spain, Hulk was trailing Ricciardo by 3 seconds at the end... just like here. They're clearly on the same level. There was one lap where Ricciardo was actually faster.
Richard Walker38 said:Hulk is basically the ceiling for Renault right now. Honestly, Ricciardo’s talent is way beyond what this crew can actually pull off; he's squeezing way more out of that car than it deserves.
With Sainz and Norris paired up at a McLaren that's clearly on the rise, they're probably gonna blow past Renault by the end of this, especially since Renault is just one man short of a full squad.
If Ricciardo had someone young backing him up—like, say, George Russell—things would look a lot different.
That explains why Hulkenberg finished right behind Ricciardo in the race. They even threw out a team order telling him not to attack, even though Hulk was clearly faster during the second stint. Guess they just know he's a tier below Ricciardo...
crimsonhawk23 said:Renault is already sitting 96 points behind Red Bull (and Max has basically grabbed 71% of their total haul) 😁 All I can really do is just stare at Red Bull, yeah.
Right now they’re looking at the points gap with McLaren, then they can worry about Red Bull. If they pull off something even remotely close to what happened at the Grand Prix of Canada, they'll probably leapfrog McLaren. We'll see.
Richard Walker38 said:What happened to Alfa Romeo? It’s like they just hit a permanent downward spiral right after a decent start.
Resource shortage. Everyone except Mercedes is struggling with tire wear this season, and honestly, unless you have the massive bankroll and the engineering muscle to actually develop things, you aren't getting out of this mess in any meaningful way. If those rumors about Renault at Paul Ricard turn out to be true... the fight for the midfield is basically over, and Renault can start looking toward Red Bull.
stormyviper2 said:Yeah, I'm well aware. Renault and Romain Grosjean are just straight-up idiots on track. Look, I get they've got decent pace, but they're also pretty damn reckless. Having two drivers like that on one team... it’s even worse than having Grosjean and Maldonado together at Lotus.....
Same thing here. When you see someone like Esteban Ocon getting passed over because of those two jokers, it just feels wrong.
Grosjean is more of a loose cannon for his own sake than anyone else's, unless you count that spin in Spain last year..
stormyviper2 said:Renault and Grosjean are total idiots. xD
Kevin Magnussen and Max Verstappen are two of my absolute least favorite drivers, honestly. But look, nobody can deny the speed or how consistent KMAG is—he only had one self-inflicted DNF last year, that collision with Leclerc in Japan. What really bugs me about him is that complete lack of regard for other drivers... he ends up looking like a total moron during practice, qualifying, or just battling on track, where you're basically relying on everyone else's quick reflexes to keep a disaster from happening. As for Grosjean, when he’s actually on his game, the guy is insanely fast, but after all those stupid mistakes he made in the first half of last season, he just hasn't had any luck this year. Still, when you see that Ocon has zero seat options left in Formula 1, you really have to wonder...
Dropping some snippets from a column by the legend himself, Gary Anderson. Usually, you'd have to cough up for an Autosport subscription just to read this, so figured I'd toss it here to get the conversation moving..
After what I would call One of The Best races of the 2019 formula 1 season , The Fio stewards managed to turn The whole Canadian Grand Prix into a Farac. Seriously, how does a top-tier racer like Emanuel Pirro—someone I’ve known forever—look his non-driving peers in the eye and back a call like that? This is supposed to be racing. We’re all here to watch drivers redline it, but the second they actually do, some moralizing official jumps in and kills the vibe. Sebastian Vettel had a killer race. He was stuck behind some slower cars when he messed up, and if you ask any NASCAR driver, being tucked in right behind someone means you lose downforce. That's likely what tripped him up. Yeah, he slipped. He hit the grass. And let's be real, there's zero grip on the lawn. While he was busy wrestling the car to avoid a massive pileup involving two cars, he slid back onto the asphalt and accidentally shut the door on Lewis Hamilton.
The other thing to remember here is that Hamilton's Car Has brakes. If he were acting with the level of maturity you'd expect from a five-time champ, he would've just used them. Instead, he tried to force his way into a gap that could've sent both of them straight into the retaining wall at Turn 4. The stewards' excuse was that even after Vettel regained control, he let the car drift right. Please. Any driver would've done the exact same thing, and Hamilton even admitted it. Both guys walked away fine, and the fight should've kept going. This is the kind of action we actually pay to see. If the winner is just going to be picked by some suit in an office, then I—and honestly, probably a huge chunk of the fans—might as well just switch over to watching MotoGP or World Superbikes. That’s actual racing, where you might swap paint in the corners but there's still a shred of respect left. NASCAR is turning into something too heavily micromanaged by the refs. All that sweat the teams and drivers put in shouldn't be wiped out by bureaucracy. Pretty sure I'm not alone on this one. I caught the broadcast on ESPN F1. They've got a massive panel of experts, plenty of former pro racers and seasoned commentators, and not a single one of them thought this call was right.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/feature...1-into-a-farce
Honestly, it would've been pretty wild if Vettel had actually managed to slow Leclerc down enough for him to catch up and overtake, just to see if it would’ve ended up being a win for either Vettel or Leclerc..
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/14...-a-rule-change
Definitely worth checking out the video.
Vettel nailed his post-race comments. He grabbed those points, sure, but he also dropped that classic line about how this isn't even the sport he fell in love with as a kid anymore. Basically, modern Formula 1 is just a massive pile of rules—everything is over-regulated now. He hit the nail on the head regarding how all this corporate "official language" is killing the soul of the sport; drivers are starting to sound more like lawyers than athletes. Honestly, seeing how people reacted to him getting screwed over actually impressed me. It kind of earned back some of the respect I lost for him after all the nonsense over the last few years. Watching them swap out the position markers was a nice touch, and the way they shut down the boos aimed at Lewis was huge. Hamilton didn't do anything wrong when he was handed an undeserved win, so he shouldn't have been catching heat for it. Seb made it clear he wasn't happy with how he was forced back onto the track, which is fair, but even then, he didn't act disrespectful afterward. Just kept it cool.
DMJ’s writing is top-tier as usual;
Toto said he wasn't even sure if Lewis would be able to start the race after how badly he wrecked the car during free practice. Just some clever PR move, or what?
crimsonhawk23 said:For me, Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly are the two biggest enigmas of this race. Bottas because he basically did absolutely nothing, and Gasly because he spent what felt like a third of the race stuck behind Lance Stroll and couldn't find a way past. Honestly, Stroll was even pulling away from him at points (Lance drove a hell of a race!) 🤷
Bottas started out on slower tires than everyone else around him, which pretty much killed his start—plus, Renault actually stepped up their engine game and they were looking seriously fast on the straights. They were good enough that neither Mercedes nor Red Bull Racing could catch them easily until Max Verstappen showed up with fresher, faster rubber than Hulkenberg and Ricciardo. Renault has been promising big things for ages, but they finally delivered. Also, overtaking in this era of Formula 1 is damn near impossible, especially if your brakes start overheating (just look at what happened to Norris), so Bottas' entire first stint was a wash... he basically lost the race during qualifying. Everything after that was just damage control; there was no point in pushing hard since the top three had already checked out. After that mess in Monaco and this disaster in qualifying, I wonder if he can even get his head back in the game... I’m not holding my breath. He needed a string of solid results to build momentum, but that wave is starting to dry up... maybe I'm wrong.
As for Gasly, he basically landed in the Red Bull Racing seat a year too early. He claims he’s got the car down, but let’s be real, Red Bull Racing isn't exactly a healthy environment unless you're the golden boy. And he isn't. Max is everything to them.
Jerry Moore61 said:Looks like not everyone cleared out of town yet. I’m sitting here having breakfast, and then suddenly there’s Daniel Ricciardo also grabbing breakfast.
Just walk up to him and tell him he’s the best driver of the new era after Fernando Alonso. If I’d actually said that to him myself... ☕
gentlemoose57 said:Sebastian Vettel mentioned seeing him right after he stabilized the car, saying Lewis Hamilton was right behind him.
What he didn't mention, though, is that he drifted even further right after that just to shut him out.
Jenson Button, Nigel Mansell, and Martin Brundle were all watching the broadcast. The stewards have a bit more info to work with.
He goes, "I don't know how close Lewis was, sort of there." And again, like I said, it’s all just steward interpretation—deciding if Sebastian Vettel actually had enough control or the intent to send Luigi Fagioli into the wall at that moment.
But whatever. I've been following this sport for maybe 30 years. Maybe I'm just old school, back from the days when Gerhard Berger talked Ayrton Senna into taking out Eddie Irvine because the guy came back onto the same lap as Senna. I'm just not used to this kind of nonsense. This is a classic racing incident. It's totally normal for Luigi Fagioli to lift when he sees Sebastian Vettel is off track; he would've slowed down even if Sebastian hadn't swerved back onto the racing line. The stewards decided he intentionally allowed another slide to the right to block him, which is just insane... etc.
gentlemoose57 said:Nah, that’s just not how this goes down. It's not working out the way you think it is.
Vettel said he saw him when he was already getting too close to the wall. And he was checking his mirrors even before that move to the right.
The footage clearly shows the sequence—first stabilization, then checking the mirrors, then cutting right right where Hamilton was coming up on him.
😉
Stop playing games. First you claim Vettel says he didn't see him, then you turn around and act like he did. You know damn well he only specified *when* he saw him, but the guy never actually said *when* he spotted him—just that he saw him. So yeah, you're twisting it.
And again, here's the thing you can't answer while you're busy calling Vettel a liar: if the stewards for this race had been Jenson Button, Nigel Mansell, and Martin Brundle, Vettel wouldn't have even gotten a penalty because they wouldn't have interpreted it that way.
If the stewards at this race were Jenson Button, Nigel Mansell, and Martin Brundle, Vettel wouldn't have even been handed a penalty because they wouldn't have interpreted things that way.
gentlemoose57 said:Alright, you little fanboys, stop acting like he’s some kind of shady con artist.
Look, Sebastian Vettel literally said on the team radio that he saw him right there—basically confirming he caught him in the rearview mirror. So how is he "spinning" anything? He isn't. Your first quote uses the word "suggests," which implies they had control and were intentionally shoving him into the wall. But since you’re such an absolute pillar of intellectual honesty, I know you’ll agree with me 100%: this is just how they chose to INTERPRET Sebastian Vettel closing the gap, not definitive proof that he was intentionally forcing Lewis Hamilton off the track. You’ll agree, obviously, because if you don't, you're just being a total fraud.