Posts by stormybadger8

Drew Bennett68 said:It’s honestly pretty sobering to see just how devastatingly fast this Mercedes is right now.

Max absolutely has to pull this off tomorrow. If you ask me, if he doesn't grab the win here, I think we're going to see Mercedes carrying all that momentum through the final three races of the season. This is still a winnable fight, isn't it?

If we’re just realizing that now, then we’re screwed.🤣

What we’re actually seeing is Lujo in full beast mode...
This might be the first time all season we've seen the real Lewis Hamilton.☕
The angry, driven, aggressive, and lightning-fast version.
Everything else this year has been unrecognizable, but this? This is finally the best version of him.☕

Raymond Anderson4 said:He drove that thing flawlessly. You need a driver—or maybe two—who can actually tap into a car's full potential the way he did today. It makes you wonder why Sergio Perez isn't matching Max Verstappen's pace when they're sitting in the exact same machine. At some point, you have to admit it comes down to the person behind the wheel.

Obviously. Lujo is elite, whereas Perez and Bottas just aren't in that league...

Kyle Lopez2 said:It's more like pushing the engine straight to the redline.

Let's wait for the rear wing measurements. 😬

It’s insane how fast the Bear is. Alpine F1 Team and McLaren Racing are easily the fastest on the straights, yet this thing just breezes past them even with both cars running DRS. 😲

With a beast like this, I wouldn't be shocked if Luxury grabs the win tomorrow by a massive margin...
The podium is basically a lock. I don't see any way a struggling Sergio Perez defends against him, and the rest of the field isn't even in the conversation—they're clearly playing in a completely different league.

🤣

Kyle Lopez2 said:Look at it this way. Who would actually cheat in a way that they’d fail a standard physical test conducted every few races at high-speed tracks? 🤔

It’s like building a car that’s 10cm too wide and then acting surprised when you get a DQ the second a steward pulls out a measuring tape. 🤣

If you’re going to cheat, you do it where it’s hard to see—the stuff that requires specialized testing to uncover. Not like this. This is why Red Bull needs to insist on a full inspection of the wing mechanism to see if this happened at other tracks too. Because if they find a genuine irregularity there, Mercedes could end up facing a DQ for multiple past races due to an illegal wing.

Someone who designs a rear flexi-wing that expands way past the legal limit under load, giving them an unfair edge.
Then, once the car pulls into the pits, the material snaps back to its original shape and—surprise!—it passes the measurement perfectly.

But then, oops, things go south. The part doesn't snap back quite right and stays bent, failing the test. And wouldn't you know it, that wonderful guy Jo just happens to be the one sent to inspect our car...

Kyle Lopez2 said:The thing is, you can't really prove someone intended to cheat. They simply didn't meet the technical requirements, so his qualifying was invalidated via DQ, which is why he's starting at the back.

The one part I don't quite agree with is him just starting from the back. Usually, when there's a DQ or significant car changes between qualifying and the race, the penalty is a pit lane start, if I recall correctly.

As it stands, they've basically handed him a 5-10 second advantage compared to if he had to come out of the pits behind the very last car during a sprint.

Anyway, the part stayed with the FIA, so they'll probably tear it apart under a microscope...
If this turns out to be a design flaw, Mercedes is absolutely screwed.

It feels to me like Wolff and his crew were more obsessed with getting that part back for inspection than actually trying to save Lewis's result.
They already knew there was zero chance of fighting the measurement or the results—the penalty is pretty much a done deal at this point.
The massive problem kicks in if the FIA decides later on that the wing was intentionally designed to flex more than allowed...

And Horner and his team have been yapping about Mercedes's straight-line speed and rear wing for a while now...
So anything could happen here, maybe even a potential DQ for Mercedes for the entire 2021 season...

Drew Bennett68 said:Official Update:

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2021%20Brazilian%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Offence%20-%20Car%2044%20-%20DRS.pdf

It looks like some of our resident armchair experts might have gotten their facts a little mixed up here.

If I actually had the expertise, the drive, and the spare time, I’d post a GIF of that one famous soccer manager from Portugal giving a rather smug little smirk—but since I don't, I'll just leave that to your imagination, shall I?

Interesting...
So the FIA is basically saying they accept Mercedes-Benz's explanation—that there was zero bad intent and things just went sideways...
Yet at the same time, they aren't giving the part back to Mercedes-Benz; they're keeping it as evidence...

Reading between the lines, you can tell they suspect this wasn't just a design fluke, they just don't have the proof yet. 🤔

What a massive ass 🤣
Middle finger in the rear, yet we’re looking at a number like this 😬
Damn, this is basically just a standard handshake 🤣

coastalwolf6 said:Performing like the glory days with that Q avatar. 🤣

They have those things called gloves. VER has fingernails that can double as tools. 🤣

The FIA gave them every opportunity to extract that liter from the car—even suggesting they flip the car upside down or on its side if necessary—yet they still failed. Was it even possible?

Nope...
You can't just tear the car apart or swap out a pump. They have to drain the fuel exactly as it sits, no part swaps, no dismantling, and absolutely no flipping the thing over.

James Harris34 said:Over the last eight years, Mercedes drivers have suffered three engine failures. That works out to about a 1.85% chance that Lewis Hamilton’s engine will give out during the final five races—a risk definitely not worth losing 50 points over in a tight championship battle...
Even the folks over at Honda seem totally blindsided by this, just like the rest of us. But hey, you wouldn't know anything about that, right? You're clearly the smartest person in the room, you absolute Worst F1 driver...
Honda is left scratching their heads over why things aren't clicking, and honestly, you can't blame them. After everything they’ve put into this, seeing the results fall short is a tough pill to swallow. You have to wonder if there's a fundamental disconnect somewhere in the strategy or the technical execution...

Whatever the reason, the Mercedes leadership and the pit wall are making so many uncharacteristic mistakes this year that it honestly feels like they’re actively trying to throw this championship away...

What does what happened 5, 6, 8, or 45 years ago have to do with this season? 🙂
It’s your own fault if you don't actually understand the rules of the sport you claim to follow...

Let's take it step by step...
Changing an engine after hitting the seasonal limit is a grid penalty, whether it's due to a DNF during a race or a preventive gearbox swap...

Second, Mercedes doesn't have the luxury of using "party mode" anymore, where they crank the engine to the max for Q3 and then the start, only for Valtteri Bottas to block the whole pack like a brick while the greatest ever whines on the radio about dead tires and drives in "survival mode."🙂
That strategy hasn't worked since they restricted it to just one engine map for both qualifying and the race...
And oh look, what a shocker—ever since that change, Mercedes has been struggling with engines. Makes you wonder why. 🙂

Lawrence Garcia5 said:And you're clearly an anti-Hamilton guy. It’s honestly hilarious how much resentment he and Mercedes-Benz have stirred up over the last few years.

But looking at this objectively, both drivers messed up. They should have started in the last and second-to-last positions. That’s the fairest call you could make.

And what about the mechanics who had to push the car back into the garage?🙂
Stop talking nonsense.

Hamilton's penalty is crystal clear. I don't care how much people try to talk their way out of it, there's no saving him.
It’s a blatant violation. It doesn't even matter if Max was leaning on Lujo's side during qualifying, or kicked him after qualifying, or whatever...

Sebastian Vettel got penalized after Canada even though there was fuel in the car, but the pump failed and they couldn't drain it...
But hey, everything went strictly by the book. If you can't pump the fuel and secure that famous extra liter, you're guilty and that's that.
It's the same story with the DRS. If it's over 85 mm, you get penalized. Why? Doesn't matter.

As for Max's penalty, I don't see it being anything other than a fine or maybe a warning...
There's zero chance he gets a grid penalty, a disqualification, or anything else. It has nothing to do with his driving or his car.
At the end of the day, how would they punish a journalist, Adrian Newey, Christian Horner, or anyone else who isn't a driver for the same thing?

James Harris34 said:In the worst case, a DNF costs 25 points, right? In Turkey, Hamilton would have definitely won instead of finishing 5th—that’s already a 15-point difference. Or in Brazil, he probably would've won there too, but with this penalty, he'll be lucky to even make the podium.
So, go ahead, grab your "genius" calculator, crunch the numbers on how many points Max gained versus how many he would have if Hamilton had just taken a DNF, and let me know.

What kind of person are you? 👍
Honestly, it’s probably better to just take the DNF and eat those 25 points. Then they can just swap out the engine for the next race and blow the grid penalty anyway. 🙂
So, in that little math equation of yours, do they just hand out free engines after every DNF? 😁

And let's not even get started on how much power these engines lose as they age. It’s glaringly obvious with the German team—way more noticeable than with anyone else on the grid.
Look, it’s honestly ridiculous. When brave Lujo is out there struggling with an ancient engine, and then you have Max in that dominant RB—it’s wild that he manages to edge out Hamilton by a measly 0.1 seconds in qualifying on those long stretches where it basically means nothing.
Look, if brave Lujo actually gets a new engine and manages to pull a 0.5-second gap on Max—especially on a track where everyone is fighting within a tight 0.75-second window—then we’re talking. That’s when it’s officially Hamertime. 🙏

What sports do you actually follow?
It’s not like they’re running a motorcycle gearbox here. You don't just get handed a penalty because you caught a DNF due to a mechanical failure. 🙄
That Račnica move was a pretty massive fail on your part...

Raymond Anderson4 said:I just wanted to say that it's absolute madness to let a championship reach a point where it's decided by technicalities like this—especially when I don't think the driver has any say in the matter. As far as I can tell, I don't believe Lewis Hamilton had any idea about the improper DRS usage.

Nobody at Mercedes-Benz had a clue. 🙂

That’s not just a tiny gap; it’s huge. You can clearly see there's way too much play in there...
If 85mm is the limit, this thing is definitely hitting 100. 🙂

Then again, oh right, apparently this little touch is the issue. 🙏
https://streamable.com/g0yst7

Seriously? That definitely moved the DRS. 🙂
When mechanics grab the car by the rear wing to push it into the pits, who cares. When turbulence hits at 200 mph, whatever. But the second Max touches the wing, suddenly the Bear is illegal because of it. 🤣

graniteharbor502 said:Max is inspecting the rear wing on the Mercedes-Benz:
https://twitter.com/frd182/status/14...224311814?s=19

It almost seems as though Red Bull Racing caught them with their hands right in the cookie jar, doesn't it?

NASCAR is going to penalize Max Verstappen for that. 🤣
That’s exactly why they brought him in. And of course, Mercedes isn't to blame at all—it's all Max's fault for messing up the evidence. 🙂
I can’t believe we actually made it this far without someone losing their mind. It looks like the decision is finally in, and honestly, I’m just relieved there isn't more chaos. After everything that went down, seeing the official word come through feels like a massive weight off my shoulders. It was a wild ride, but we're finally at the finish line.

Legends. 👍
You seriously have to make this stuff up. Absolute peak fiction. 🙏
Mercedes is cheating, and now NASCAR is going to go out and investigate just so they can slap Red Bull Racing with a penalty too. 🤣

Jacob Castillo70 said:In a world where NASCAR actually applied its own rules consistently, this would have been an outright disqualification, much like what happened to Sebastian Vettel.

What’s your take?
NASCAR seems to have one set of rules for Germans, Italians, and Spaniards, and then a completely different playbook for the Brits. 🙂
British Alonso summed it up perfectly the other day. 😁

James Harris34 said:I don't get why Mercedes-Benz keeps swapping in these new engines, especially on tracks where they already have the edge. If they actually sat down and crunched the numbers on what they gain versus what they lose, it would probably be cheaper to just part ways with Lewis Hamilton than to deal with these massive penalties and the points they're bleeding out there.

So, according to you, Lujo, does Bottas lose points every time he swaps an engine? Or is it just some kid who 😵
Which version of F1 are you even watching? 🤦

Seriously though, what kind of insane logic makes a 5-place grid penalty worse than a DNF? 😵🤦

From now on, I'm calling you Marica, since you clearly know everything better than everyone else... 🙂

Roger Wright94 said:Mercedes in Mexico isn't exactly playing passive.

Oh, they are. Calling it "passive" is an understatement when it comes to helping Hamilton. 🙂
The second they announce Bottas is back in the mix, he’s basically sabotaging Lewis, not helping him...
Having Bottas qualify ahead of him doesn't help Lewis's image or his championship points...

And it definitely doesn't help when he starts trashing Lewis and Wolff later because Bottas wouldn't just let poor Lewis fly on those bald tires. Instead, he plays the slow moving obstacle, keeping Max and Perez safely tucked away behind him...
On top of that, during Max's races, he's practically letting him breeze right past without even trying to defend. Lately, Max is passing him easier than he passes Perez...

Drew Bennett68 said:I think I saw somewhere on Autosport that they actually had a start strategy in place...

Maybe they had a plan, but it went straight out the window the second Lawrence Stroll and the crew started messing around. That’s why Toto was practically screaming at Michael Masi over the radio. 🙂
Mercedes always struggles with tire warm-up, and even though they were in Mexico, they dragged things out so much that Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas spent an eternity on the grid just trying to get those tires up to temp...

Sure, it bugs Red Bull Racing, but it looks like they don't deal with this stuff nearly as much as Mercedes does.
So, it's hardly a shock that the Mercedes cars had a rough start and zero confidence in their brakes.

graniteharbor502 said:If he’d missed Perez, he would have lost even more points 😉
Because if Max had sliced past Lewis, Perez would’ve let Max through. Red Bull would’ve secured a 1-2, and Lewis would be stuck in an even deeper hole.

It’s easy for us armchair experts to sit back and lecture about what Mercedes should have done. If they’d played it differently, maybe the point gap wouldn't be this massive. Team orders and "cooperation" between teammates often fall apart anyway (just look at those messy Ferrari attempts at Monza Massa-Alonso). There's too much speed and way too many variables involved.

Say, by some miracle, Bottas had outstarted Lewis and we ended up in a 2019 situation where they were blocking each other like Vettel Hamilton back then—well, Lewis would have had to push Max. And if Max refuses to budge? You get a collision. That doesn't help Lewis, especially since he's already fighting an uphill battle in the standings.

The saddest part is that Max Verstappen’s absolute masterclass of winning a three-way scrap gets pushed to the background. That start was easily the most electric one of the season.

Remember Ferrari...
When Ferrari screwed over Kimi in public, they basically killed their own title chances, even though Kimi and Seb actually got along privately...
After that, it turned into shoving and contact on track. Any talk of helping each other became impossible; instead, it just turned into bitter resentment.
Apply that logic to Mercedes, where it’s obvious as day that Bottas and Luxury don't exactly share a bond, and everything makes sense.

Ever since Bottas got a taste of Lewis's aggression, he hasn't received any help—in fact, there have been some massive screw-ups that specifically hurt Luxury...
On the flip side, Bottas has been letting Max past in races way easier than Perez, Yuki Tsunoda, or Pierre Gasly ever would.

shadowmarlin22 said:Sergio Perez is a solid driver, but let’s be real—his talent isn't exactly about that blistering single-lap pace you'd see from someone like Jarno Trulli. That tire management was absolutely top-tier.Consistent laps during the race actually give the strategy team something to work with. It didn't work out that way here.

Whatever happened, happened. 😵
What is wrong with you Lujo fans? Seriously, can you not see anything else besides him? 🤔
Sergio Perez was hounding Lujo simply because he had much younger, better tires. 🙂

shadowmarlin22 said:Save your tears for the people who actually thought that race was good. Let’s be real: a decent result doesn't mean the quality of the racing was any good. If anyone actually enjoyed watching that, just quit the sport already. ☕

I’m shedding a tear for myself here. Just give up on Formula 1 already...
That race was solid. It had everything you want to see in a Formula 1 race. ☕
A fantastic, high-octane start, some brilliant tactical maneuvering, and a frantic hunt for position right until the checkered flag... that’s all it would've taken.

Who cares if there weren't any overtakes at the end? Honestly, screw overtakes—especially those pathetic ones where people just dive down a single lane. That’s absolute garbage, and it makes for a boring-as-hell race.
Races only get interesting when there's money on the line. If there’s no prize to chase, why even bother?
Oh great, let’s just bring in some ultra mega super duper DRS that allows for 762 overtakes per race just to put on a show for the casual fans. I'm sure they'll be thrilled. 🙂