Posts by stormybadger8

Roger Wright94 said:Max overtook absolutely everyone in his way.
He dominated the whole race despite those messy, damp track conditions.
He earned that win himself; it didn't just fall into his lap.

It wasn't easy for Lewis either...
Honestly, after a crash like that, 99% of drivers would’ve just sat at the back of the pack, slamming their steering wheels and cursing their lives away, or jumping out of the car to kick a tire... that's the standard reaction.
Hardly anyone would actually think to ease off the throttle and pop it into reverse...
Anything else people argue about in the end isn't worth mentioning—it all boils down to the car, the DRS, the red flag situation, the rolling starts, blah blah blah...

But pulling that car out after spinning like that? You actually need a cool head to pull that off. 😉
The Lujo from the 2007-2013 era definitely would've been stuck at the back of the pack. But the Lujo from 2021? He didn't stay stuck; he fought his way to second.
That's exactly why Lujo didn't rack up a mountain of titles between 2007 and 2013, even though he usually had the best car.
And it's the same reason he'll take the 2021 title—he's got the best car again, but unlike back then, he's actually got a much calmer head on his shoulders.

So you found two instances involving Charlie spanning twenty years...
Mass makes these kinds of mistakes multiple times in a single race, and this season alone? We're already drowning in them...

Now, this is actually a pretty solid explanation 🙂
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ex...rack/6344972/?
He claims he was watching Hamilton rejoin the track in reverse, everything went perfectly fine without any traffic, and he didn't pull out right into anyone's path...

I just have zero clue what this was then:

Honestly, I was fully expecting a penalty for Vettel, since he almost got leveled...
But since it wasn't a total certainty, Vettel walked away without a penalty.

ruggedhawk20 said:So you'd rather believe Bottas is just slower on the brain than admit the Mercedes is an absolute beast of a car.

Look what being a hater does to a guy.

Why would he be slow on the brain?
Because if he isn't even remotely close to Hamilton's level, he's basically clueless. I don't get your logic at all...

ruggedhawk20 said:Charlie Whiting is gone. You all spent his whole career hating on him.

Now you just have to learn how to live in a world without Charlie Whiting.

Damn, you never realize what you had until it's gone...
The old guy had his moments, but this Mass guy was five times worse. 🤦

Jacob Castillo70 said:I’d say George was just playing mind games. He probably wouldn't have been that aggressive on that corner if he wasn't trying to take a shot at Bottas. He saw him and thought, "If I overtake him in this Williams, it's a slam dunk proof that I'm taking Bottas's seat next season." If it had actually worked, everyone would be shouting about how it's finally Russell's time at Mercedes today. Instead, everything that could go wrong went exactly wrong.

Look, I’m saying this without any bias toward Bottas or Russell, but both of them are spot on.
Russell hit the colorful doors like a total amateur, while Bottas just yelled, "Not today, you bandit!"

Jacob Castillo70 said:Bottas is just there to play the Webber or Rubens role—keep things steady and make sure the constructors' points stay safe without making waves. That’s why Toto isn't obsessing over Russell nearly as much as people claim, and he basically confirmed it yesterday. Wolff has zero interest in repeating the absolute chaos that defined the Hamilton and Rosberg rivalry.

Look, everything changes if Perez actually starts driving at the front—I know he wasn't there for the first two races, but still. If Mercedes starts sniffing around that Constructors' Championship title and threatening Red Bull, then Valtteri is gone. Period.

Bottas and Webber aren't even in the same universe when it comes to that, let alone the same sentence. 🤦
Even Rubens knew how to kick up some dust once in a while...
Bottas is the ultimate No. 2, no question about it. But man, he is hands down the greatest wingman to ever do this.

Webber, on the other hand, just wasn't there. Not once. Even when he absolutely had to be.
Maybe those were the big dreams for Vettel, Marko, and God knows who else, but Webber was never exactly a puppet. He didn't just blindly follow their orders—if anything, he barely listened at all.

ruggedhawk20 said:If the Mercedes-Benz was actually the best car on the grid, Bottas would be hitting podiums regularly. But let's be real, it's just not happening.

For Bottas to even sniff a podium, Mercedes needs to be faster than everyone else by more than a second—maybe even two if things get messy or the weather turns sideways...

With a car that's only half a second quicker than the field, he doesn't stand a chance at a podium. Not even close...
I mean, Lewis is Lewis. He can pull a full second on him if he feels like it, though he probably holds back just enough to avoid the headache of people complaining about how to fix the Mercedes...
We've all seen those laps where Lewis just disappears the moment Bottas tries to close the gap to Louie. Suddenly, Lewis has this inexplicable one-second lead and Bottas is just left there looking confused...

Right now, even in a total chaotic mess, the Bear might have a half-second edge over the pack, or they might be way ahead with Red Bull. But with McLaren and Ferrari breathing down their necks, Bottas's ceiling is basically 5th or 8th place...

Jason Campbell70 said:Everyone who got penalized earned it.
Every penalty was proportional to the mistake.
The way they handed them out was nothing new compared to what we usually see.

What do you mean "nothing new"???
Hello? We just watched a race where the stewards took roughly six hours to decide if someone went off track during an overtake. That’s like, 55 laps plus three and a half hours after the actual incident happened. Give me a break.🤔

And then there was that decision about the penalty for Vettelov's crew that didn't even drop until a third of the race was over...

Back under Charlie, those calls were made almost instantly—like, within 5 to 10 laps tops.
Instead of having to wait for the Sky Sports crew to grill the officials post-race just to find out someone barely clipped the grass during a pass.🤦

wiredseal7 said:Stroll gets a 5s penalty for overtaking Pierre Gasly off-track, which bumps him down to 7th.
Dad’s already miserable about everything regardless...

This penalty just perfectly illustrates how incredibly incompetent the stewards and Massia are.🤦
An absolute joke.😵

Look, the penalty itself is crystal clear—no argument there...
It’s obvious as day that Stroll didn't just overtake Gasly off-track, he literally cut the corner.
We aren't talking about clipping a curb here; Stroll was literally several feet outside the track limits.🤦

The tragicomic part is getting a penalty after the race for something that happened way back in lap 7!
And this happens just hours after Will Buxton and the crew on F1 TV pointed it out loud and clear during the post-race coverage, only for everyone to act shocked at how blind and useless the officials are...
Seriously, where are these stewards? What kind of kids are running this show if they can't spot something that obvious and make a call on such a simple, blatant violation during the actual race?

Then there's the Vettel situation, which is even stupider. The rule is black and white—if the tires aren't on the car in time, you get penalized. No guesswork, no excuses.
So why does it take these guys nearly half a race to make the call? And then they drop it right after he pits, just when he could have served the penalty.
They basically wrecked his pit sequence and turned what should have been a 10-second penalty into a 30-second disaster because of their own delay...
Sure, Vettel's race was already a mess anyway, so it might not seem like a huge deal, but if this happened to Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton, the media would be having a field day and people would already be debating who's getting fired after Massia's inevitable exit...

The guy is a total catastrophe. Race after race, he shows just how profoundly incompetent he is. Same goes for the stewards—a bunch of late calls, weird decisions, and nonsense...
And all Massia knows how to do is ramble like some inept politician, acting like 6, 12, or 24 hours isn't too long to make a dead-simple decision on a penalty.🤦

Richard Walker38 said:Maybe that red flag was worth debating? Personally, I thought they overreacted a bit. 🤷

On what grounds?
There was a massive pile of debris right on the fastest part of the track. If everyone had just kept driving through it, they would've shredded their tires...
If any officiating decision this weekend actually made sense, it was that red flag...

Everything else was questionable, but that one definitely wasn't.

Jacob Castillo70 said:I don't get this. It's saying if it had been anyone else besides Bottas, they wouldn't have pulled that off. What? 🤦

They’re probably right about this...
Bottas probably wouldn't bother defending his position like that against Red Bull, McLaren, or Ferrari. But against Williams? Especially against Russell hunting him down? Yeah, he’d definitely fight for it.

I wouldn't go blaming Bottas for this one...
He fell for that rookie move. This guy completely choked and flew straight into the grass.

cosmicridge5 said:hahha, you're clearly head over heels, buddy 🤣😍😁

That's basically how I was stalking Alonso during the last one 😳😁😁

Damn, just testing out Race Control 😁
Couldn't do it last race, my internet was acting up 😳

And I gotta admit, watching the race on multiple screens is actually pretty awesome 🙏

Interesting post-race thoughts😁
I’ve got a feeling Will Buxton and his crew won't be calling the shots for much longer...

They did a great job explaining why the officials are incompetent and how their decisions make zero sense...
But they failed to explain why they intentionally screwed over Vettel's race, basically punishing him twice just because of those tire issues on the grid...

Like Will says, the penalty itself is clear enough, but it’s absolutely insane that it took them 45 minutes to actually hand it over.
And why on earth was it issued right after Vettel pitted? It was effectively a double penalty since they would've served it during the pit stop anyway...

Also, it's totally ridiculous that Stroll didn't get penalized for overtaking Gasly off-track. That is a textbook example of why penalties exist...
Instead of being strictly penalizing when someone goes 6.5 mm over the white line in qualifying🤦

Richard Walker38 said:Vettel was basically just cruising today. He only moved up because everyone else was crashing or spinning out right in front of him. Without that chaos, he’d still be stuck behind Haas Vettel 🤣

Honestly, Vettel managed to overtake Alonso three times on track today, which is pretty wild 😁
He absolutely played iznazazebavati Perez for fools 🙏
And let's be real—he wouldn't have stood a chance against him if his gearbox hadn't died...

Watching his race from the onboard cam was actually pretty great...

James Harris34 said:Shouldn't Hamilton have been penalized for driving backward on the track?

Honestly, I was expecting Vettel to pick up another stop-and-go penalty plus 5 points since he got in the way during the reentry...
It’s actually kind of shocking he didn't, considering how fast he came flying in...

Alex Barnes93 said:Vettel is cursed.

I gotta admit, it’s definitely...
I've watched all kinds of his races, but this much silverware, stupid strategic calls (like that idiot crew calling him in for more tires in lap 5 just to put him behind Gasly, for crying out loud 🤦), penalties because of the team, endless breakdowns—it's just one massive 😲

Hopefully he's used up all his bad luck for the season...
On the bright side, the car finally seems to fit him. You can see on the onboard that he's handling it way better than last year's Ferrari, and noticeably easier...
Small consolation, I guess...

dammit...
Why the hell is Vettel in the pits????

George White52 said:They’re swapping out Charles Leclerc's tires, regardless of which ones he was actually running before.

If LT believes anything, everyone's going to be starting from the pit lane...

Edit:
Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Michael Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin on full wets...

Roger Castillo9 said:I don't get why everyone is acting like Perez's soft tires are this huge advantage. Even if he pulls ahead at the start, he’ll just lose it all during an early pit stop. That's assuming it doesn't rain, obviously.

Look, Perez's whole thing is being able to pull off insanely long stints on basically any tire...
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he pits right after Max...

Starting on softs will definitely be an edge, but it only matters if Perez actually manages to lead the race...
Otherwise, those softs aren't worth much.

But hey, if he jumps Hamilton, then it's pretty obvious Hamilton is going to pit before Perez—either trying to undercut him or just reacting to Max's undercut...

copperdrifter26 said:So... what's the verdict from the armchair experts regarding Sebastian Vettel? Is Ferrari remotely sabotaging the Aston Martin car number 5? Is Carlos Sainz just hunting down Charles? (Currently a large gap in pace between Charles Leclerc / Carlos Sainz)👍

They're saying Mass and his crew absolutely butchered qualifying by playing games with track limits...
They screwed over a huge chunk of the drivers by canceling lap times. It totally kills their rhythm because once that happens, the driver has to go out and pull an ultra-conservative second lap just to have any kind of decent time at all.

It’s pure stupidity squared—letting Luja and the gang clearly use the run-off areas for over 50% of the race in Bahrain to gain an advantage, and then suddenly enforcing strict rules at the next race where anyone who goes off loses time anyway or ends up in the gravel or a wall. They're just enforcing "strictness" now to justify their existence and hide the fact they looked like total idiots last race. 🙄

No matter how you look at it, we're finally seeing just how much Charles is lacking...
He never used to pull this kind of amateurish stuff. He had his moments of being questionable, sure, but nothing even close to this level...

bluepuma9 said:Stroll slapping Sebastian Vettel 😬

Today everyone just decided to slap the refs and that useless Mass, who’s probably out there practicing his discipline by clearing laps with a machine gun right now...

As for Aston Martin and Sebastian Vettel, I'm happy enough. Qualifying wasn't exactly stellar...
but they look noticeably better and closer to the pack than they did in Bahrain.
If Vettel actually gets a decent start like last race, we might be looking at a really solid beginning.
😁