Posts by stormybadger8

crimsonhawk23 said:You're just talking in circles here.

What circle? 🙂

I honestly don't get why some people tie their entire sense of success or failure to whether their driver wins a championship or not. 🤔
To me, it makes zero sense. 🤷
In my life, I literally don't care if Sebastian Vettel wins 15 titles or none at all...

I didn't start rooting for him just because he wins trophies, and I'm certainly not going to stop just because he doesn't...
So, I really have no clue what your problem is. 🤔

crimsonhawk23 said:Whether you meant to or not, you just went ahead and confirmed that Hamilton is a better driver than Vettel. 🙂 Alright, fine. We all know he's better. 👍

Honestly, I have no clue if you actually know what you're talking about or not...

I'm pretty sure you'll be sitting there at the end of the season crying about how poor Lewis Hamilton had to drive a total junker, all while fighting for the title until the very last second against that absolute disaster of a car.

mellowtiger83 said:Enough with the constant Sebastian Vettel jokes already! Seriously, listen to me.🙂.

Man, do you guys realize if Lewis Hamilton ever crashes out, we won't be able to survive the onslaught from Vettel's fanboys?

Don't sweat it...
They aren't even remotely close to being like Lujin's little fan club. 🙂
Sure, we have one guy like that, but you just hit ignore and call it a day...

Anyway, pretty solid race analysis here...
https://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2018/...lose-in-monza/
Look at that—even the British press managed to stay calm without the usual hysteria or over-the-top praise...

LDM decided to take a little jab at Ariverbene, though...
https://www.pitpass.com/62837/Montez...cedes-strategy

All in all, we'll see how Ferrari's strategy evolves, assuming Ariverbene hasn't missed the mark entirely by now...☕

Though, thinking about it, I'm starting to suspect Charles Leclerc is already locked in for 2019, and maybe Ariverbene wanted to gift Kimi one last pole and a win at Monza as a thank you...
Sebastian Vettel clearly wasn't feeling the vibe, though, which explains why he was absolutely losing his mind...

crimsonhawk23 said:

Oh, really?
Even wondering where anyone would have finished if Vettel hadn't spun out is a massive stretch...

Who knows how the race would have played out? Would Vettel's tires even have lasted? Probably not, since they were 32 laps old with 16 to go...
Would Ferrari have pulled off a perfect pit stop? Would they have actually picked the right tires? Maybe, maybe not...
Could he have even held onto first place after pitting? Who knows...

It's just a pile of unknowns that nobody can answer...
And then you look at Baku, which is an even bigger question mark...
I mean, Bottas hit debris on track there and ended up with a DNF...
Who's to say if Hamilton was leading or Vettel was leading, would they have hit that same debris and traded a win for a DNF in those last 4 or 5 laps? 🙂

If Vettel had messed up in more scenarios, sure, we could talk, but trying to calculate the exact points lost? Not happening...
You simply can't know where people would have placed or how things would have unfolded. Most of this is just mindless chatter and nothing more...

James Walker57 said:For the crowd up there arguing about how many points he wasted—the Brits actually went through the trouble of crunching the numbers for the last two seasons:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/for...two-years.html

Lucky they didn't count Hamilton's mistakes 😍

Great math here. Especially when you're just pulling "estimates" out of thin air about who would've finished where... Sure, half of this stuff is pure fiction, but who cares? As long as people click...
Then again, you can't really blame them. It's the Daily Mail; they have about as much connection to Formula 1 as a local tabloid does to a Story 🙂

Thomas Davis98 said:Where did you get 44? That number is way too low. You can't just count how many points Sebastian Vettel threw away with his stupid mistakes; you have to factor in how many extra points Lewis Hamilton gained because of them.

Let’s be real, Sebastian Vettel definitely left a ton of points on the table because of his own boneheaded mistakes.
He completely blew it. He was totally locked in, but thanks to Ferrari's sheer stupidity...

Even Lewis Hamilton basically just lucked his way through that. He managed to slide through every single collision on the track without a scratch, and then he gets handed a massive win on a silver platter thanks to the competition completely screwing up.
First, his teammate punctures a tire, then he gets gifts from Toto Wolff while watching an agitated Valtteri Bottas crack a smile... and then, just for the icing on the cake, Kimi and Ferrari swoop in to finish the job. 😵

It’s pretty interesting to see what the standings actually look like when you strip away all the nonsense—no math required to figure out who got handed a gift, who got shoved off track, or who was gifted a position through some other ridiculous bullshit. When you just look at the raw results, this is where we stand:
Bottas is running neck-and-neck on track—that’s an 8-point gap between him and Sebastian Vettel.
Bottas finishes on the same level—that's 8 points shaved off Lewis Hamilton's lead.

Kimi is right on his heels—only 13 points behind Sebastian Vettel.
Kimi is right on his heels—only 3 points behind Lewis Hamilton.

If you just look at the points, Bottas is basically a non-factor. But Kimi? He’s doing an incredible job for Mercedes. Honestly, a third of Hamilton's lead came from his side of the garage. 🎉

That "genius" Ariverbene is out here dropping these brilliant takes, claiming Sebastian Vettel should have been playing wingman to Kimi. Apparently, if they’d just nailed the strategy, Kimi would've taken the win. He’s even going on about how those team orders against Kimi were total garbage. 🙏
It’s no surprise Vettel is losing his mind... honestly, the smartest move he could make is to ditch Ferrari. Staying with a boss who's clearly struggling to make sense of things just isn't a winning strategy.

Fact is, if Vettel had just kept his cool and played it smarter this season, he’d be sitting on way more points. If he hadn't wasted energy on those stupid battles, that gap between him and Kimi wouldn't look nearly as massive as it does now.
Look, it doesn't matter. It's not like the team is tasked with fighting for the championship on his behalf—their actual job is supposed to be helping him get there. 🤦

Screw Ferrari. After that performance, they deserve to be kicked right out of the garage—fast.
It doesn't even matter if he picked Kimi or Sebastian at the start of the season. When you're in a title fight like this, with Lewis Hamilton on one side and a totally subservient Valtteri Bottas backing him up all year, you have to be the No. 1 driver. There shouldn't be any doubt about that.
If you didn't back Kimi Räikkönen at the start of the season, then looking at these points right now, you clearly have no idea what you're talking about. 🤦
You really shouldn't be making a call like that when it’s crystal clear from Germany that they're using Bottas as the No. 2 driver. They aren't even hiding it—they're practically shouting it all over the media that he's officially the second driver.
They even handed you an alibi on a silver platter, yet you still don't have the guts to make the call—even though it’s completely obvious and exactly what everyone on the planet expects. 🤦

Allowing this kind of stupidity while you're fighting for a championship is insane. Letting your drivers tear points away from each other and basically giving them a green light to mess around at the start? From a team management standpoint, that's just pure, unadulterated idiocy. 😵

The real tragedy is that if Toto Wolff had been in his shoes at Indianapolis Motor Speedway starting Friday, Vettel would have cruised to a win easy as pie...
If he’d been at Indy in his spot from two laps in onwards, Vettel would’ve finished second or at least third...
Because after Kimi got screwed by Lewis Hamilton, he would've just received the most casual order from Wolff to hold up Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas, letting Vettel on those faster tires catch up and blow past them way earlier...
And then, once that was done, the mission would be to pull over on the final lap—regardless of whether he actually overtakes Vettel, Bottas, or Max... Wolff would make it happen, even if it only meant grabbing those three extra points...
I'm terrified that Ariverbene is too spineless to actually pull this off, even if it were the final race of the season or if the move secured them the championship 🤦

steelmaker83 said:It makes sense, really. He’s slowly morphing into one of those driver fanboys who’ll end up—if he’s lucky—just like the guy everyone here hates most. Except Alonso is a legitimate champion and a driver with actual guts, regardless of his recent disasters. Sebastian will never be that. Honestly, he'd be better off heading back to Toro Rosso. Right now, he's just embarrassing himself, acting like those four titles aren't already enough of a talking point on their own...

As if 🙂
🤣🤣 🤣

Even if Vettel-like actually got a shot at Ferrari tomorrow like Alonso did, and then went straight to Toro Rosso to rot there for the next 5 or 6 years begging for a single point while singing songs about the GP2 engine over the radio, he'd still have twice the career success of Alonso...
Keep dreaming, 😁

mellowtiger83 said:Toby, I totally agree that Mercedes-Benz is actually faster than Ferrari🙂.
Better?

Personally, I think they’re pretty much on par speed-wise... just shifting based on who nails the setup or which track suits them better from one race to the next...

But for some insane reason at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it wasn't even that weird that Ferrari was noticeably quicker during the FP-like sessions, and even faster in qualifying by quite a margin,
only for Mercedes-Benz to suddenly become way faster overnight during the actual race—and we're talking a massive gap, like they suddenly reclaimed last year's advantage...

It's super weird for this season; I haven't seen anything like this before, and I'm always glued to the times in every FP-like session, qualifying, and the race itself...

It's seriously confusing, and I can't find an explanation for it...
The only thing that makes sense to me is that the soft tires at Germany behaved like ultra-durable ultrasofts or hypersofts, while that same soft tire on the Ferrari felt like a Hard tire for speed but disintegrated like bubblegum...
I have no clue why... maybe it was the setup causing them to shred the tires, but still, it's bizarre how they lost all that pace they had just a day earlier.🤔

I mean, you can only imagine how much this threw off the folks at Mercedes-Benz too; just go read Toto Wolff's comments on the matter...

electriccanyon6 said:I've been pulling for Ferrari since '96. I first caught Michael Schumacher racing for Benetton, and honestly, his move over is what made me a Ferrari fan. I was barely ten years old back then.

I've been a die-hard Ferrari fan for over twenty years now, but let's be real—Vettel isn't even in the same league as Lewis Hamilton.

Why do I get the feeling we should be typing McLaren instead of Ferrari here...🤔
Anyway, do I know you from somewhere? 😁

mellowtiger83 said:Oh really? What does F1 have to do with anything? Historically, weirdos have pulled off an overtake during a race all the time! For example, if I remember correctly, Alonso managed an overtake at Indianapolis with a total junk Honda engine a few years back!
Cars that aren't even close have pulled off overtakes before.

Ricciardo has had plenty of overtakes this year, so Red Bull basically can't touch anyone unless it's on very specific tracks.

What does an overtake actually mean to you? To me, it’s just a useless, irrelevant stat that doesn't prove a damn thing.

Ferrari was fast in FP1, FP2, FP3, Q1, Q2, and Q3, and now you're trying to convince me that Mercedes is actually the fast one.
Seriously.

Sure, because when Alonso switches to fresh US tires on the last lap and barely manages an overtake, it's exactly the same as when Kimi and Lewis pull off an overtake on the same tires in practically the same lap while fighting directly for the lead...
Yeah, those two laps don't mean a thing.🙂

If that comparison of their two overtakes means nothing to you, then go watch snail racing instead of Formula 1.🤦
Screw FP1, FP2, FP3, Q1, Q2, and Q3; I honestly don't see how any of that relates to actual race pace🙂 especially FP1.🙏
Because if we judge car speed based on that, then the damn FIA is faster than Ferrari and Mercedes.😍 Look, Ferrari wasn't even the fastest in FP1 like you think—it was Perez.🙂
Besides, both Haas cars were faster than the Bear by more than a second and a half in FP1. That Mercedes must be a real heavy piece of junk if it's over a second slower than Haas in FP1.🙂

Plus, in qualifying in Belgium, both Haas cars were ahead of both Red Bulls, plus one Ferrari and one Mercedes...
There goes your "logic." Who knows, maybe the FIA is actually the fastest car, or at least the second fastest, followed by the Bear.🙂

mellowtiger83 said:Hamilton should've lost the title already! Vettel personally made sure he didn't!
It would be pretty weird if Hamilton won the championship in a slower car, but given how things are going, who knows?

So, what kind of excuses are they supposed to dig up for Hamilton?
Hamilton justifies himself by, say, squeezing two faster cars out on the outside of a chicane!
Or Hamilton justifies himself when a slower car somehow grabs pole in the rain!

Which part of this are you struggling with?

The part about the slower car🙂
Talk all you want, but even you can't wrap your head around this tiny gap...
https://www.formula1.com/en/results....test-laps.html

For God's sake, a full second faster in FL than Kimi? Even if a reincarnated Ayrton Senna was walking on water, there's zero chance he'd pull off an FL that much faster than the car you think is quicker...
And that's against cars at the same weight, on the same tires, with Kimi behind the wheel—who, if he's a specialist in anything, is pulling off an FL...
Sure, Kimi might mess up qualifying or the race about 50% of the time. He might blow a start or a restart. But he’ll nail an FL every single time if the car has any decent pace at all.☕
If you still don't get why I'm saying this, go educate yourself...http://www.statsf1.com/en/statistiqu...ur/nombre.aspx

That Ferrari at Indianapolis wasn't even close; miraculously, the Mercedes was exactly one second faster than it.☕

But hey, don't forget to mention that Mercedes is drastically slower than Ferrari and that Bottas is some ultimate alien who somehow stole a mysterious 0.6 seconds from Alonso on track.🙂

electriccanyon6 said:I try to stay objective, and honestly, there isn't much left to debate after these last couple of seasons. Hamilton is just in a league of his own.

Exactly. Just pure objectivity and nothing else... plus, it's pretty obvious you aren't some die-hard Hamilton fan😍
I'm actually curious, though—what kind of excuses are being cooked up for when Hamilton manages to pull it off against the Blockers and Woody Woodpecker, only to lose out on a title that was basically already won against nobody more than Vettel and that ultra-slow old man Kimi...

Anthony Baker84 said:Well, soccer has rules, it has referees who are actually licensed, and now they even have VAR.

F1 has its own version of VAR, sure, but there aren't any actual rules—just things they enforce whenever the Team Principal feels like it. No licensed officials in sight.

Bottom line: if they’re going to keep banning stuff, F1 needs actual licensed officials. If they just want to "judge" things based on whims like they always have, they might as well scrap the officials entirely and let them race how they want. But then there'd be no crying after every crash.

I’m honestly afraid having licensed officials would make things even worse.🤦
God forbid, the first guy to get a license would probably be some ultra-biased dude like Mark Webber.🤦
That would be an absolute embarrassment for the sport. At least the way it is now, they don't ruin every single race...

Honestly, the smartest move would be to stop handing out driver penalties altogether.
The only thing they should keep is the race ban or a black flag for those truly massive screw-ups that deserve the harshest punishment.
Most of these tiny little penalties are just a complete joke anyway...

crimsonhawk23 said:

Perez slammed right into Kevin Magnussen, who was actually moving faster. He didn't just clip him, either—he plowed straight into him and shoved him clean off the track. 🤷

If I remember correctly, Kevin Magnussen earned that penalty fair and square. He probably didn't get punished for any other reason—it’s not like he walked away unscathed anyway.

If I remember correctly, Kevin Magnussen just stormed back onto the track through the grass like a total maniac—right after spinning off himself. Then came the contact. Honestly, I have zero clue when they decided that kind of reentry was actually legal...

Gary Palmer8 said:I still don't get why some of those cars that Vettel was catching right before the corner didn't even try to defend—they just let him through. I get it if he caught them halfway through, but those Force India guys didn't even attempt a defense... take that moment when he overtook; if Sergio Perez had actually tried to block (or whoever it was), he would've slammed straight into him. That would've been great news for the Mercedes fans and Kimi fans 😁 plus maybe a penalty for Vettel...

For the exact same reason Esteban Ocon pulled that masterclass move on Lewis Hamilton in Monaco...
It was clearly the smartest move for the FIA and Ocon. What does it matter what happened to Lewis, Vettel, Ferrari, or Mercedes? None of that affects him. 🙄

Besides, it would have been incredibly "smart" for Perez to crash into Vettel. It would’ve been great for his team, and even better for his future contract since the media is currently tearing him to shreds.🙂

Walter Anderson43 said:This is a textbook penalty... but they should be punishing the crew. It’s ridiculous for a driver—whoever is stuck in this mess—to take a penalty just because some idiots on the pit wall flashed the green light too early.

It doesn't matter which specific crew members deserve the heat; the penalty lands on the driver. It’s a joke that Sebastian Vettel didn't get hit with one...
More absolute incompetence from the stewards. Honestly, they're an embarrassment to the sport. 🤦

I guess this is just more "compensation" for that first-lap incident. 🙂
Because based on how things have gone lately, Lewis Hamilton is usually the one getting slapped with a 5-second penalty. Not necessarily because he caused the contact, or even if he was at fault, or even if he had anything to do with it at all...
It's just because the stewards seem to operate on a system where they decide who the victim is in a fight between Mercedes and Ferrari, and then punish whoever didn't come out on top.
In reality, none of those collisions should have been penalized anyway. Every single one of them should have been treated as a standard first-lap racing incident with zero penalties, which is exactly what happened...

But hey, there's nothing new to say about this kind of inconsistency. It's just business as usual.

Jack Kelly5 said:There was a three to three-and-a-half second gap between Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel in that Q3 lap. Question for you and the rest of the "experts": what kind of fluid dynamics formula did you use to decide that a negative drag effect was created, somehow giving Kimi better aero?

Whether they actually created an effect or not doesn't matter...
What matters is that they went out in a formation that’s honestly just idiotic, especially with Vettel fighting for the title. 🤦

The fact remains that Kimi absolutely could have used Vettel’s slipstream—and not once, but twice in Q3—because they were out in that exact formation both times...
Whether he actually used it or not is up to him... but it's equally true that Vettel couldn't use his.

Everything else is just down to the Ferrari boss, who clearly has no clue what he's doing. 🤦

Unfortunately, no matter how much I dislike Toto Wolff, he’s still a genius compared to Alberto Rivollino when it comes to team management...
The tragic part? Even Jean Todt is a genius compared to Alberto Rivollino. Honestly, looking at the lineup, the only boss worse than Alberto Rivollino is Eric, and he’s already feeling the heat...

It’s just weird. Seriously weird how much faster Mercedes was than Ferrari during the race. 🤔
https://www.formula1.com/en/results....test-laps.html

I put Vettel on the FL list because honestly, looking at his race, the strategy, the tires, and how he was chasing down Max at the end, there was no way he wouldn't have one...
But nope, nothing. So I went to see which kid 😵
Damn it, Vettel has no FL, even though his fastest lap was two laps before the end—meaning he had a totally empty tank and was basically on life support...😲

Meanwhile, Hamilton's was set in lap 30 on softs. That's 21 laps before Vettel and on slower tires too!
To make matters worse, comparing Kimi's lap on softs—done with roughly the same car weight and the same tires—it's over a second slower than Hamilton's...😲
So, while fighting for the win and trying to hold onto the lead after the pits, Hamilton pulls an FL that's a full second faster than Kimi's😵

Now, either Ferrari completely botched their setup on the softs, or Mercedes still has a massive raw pace advantage in race trim. It's just that Ferrari seems to have a much better qualifying mode, which is why they can actually beat them in qualifying.🤔

Just strange. Really strange...
Mercedes looked like the faster car in the race to me. I wasn't even sure if Vettel could have caught Hamilton even if he'd managed to stay ahead of him in the first lap, but he definitely didn't look like a car that was a whole second faster than Ferrari...
Yet Kimi's and Hamilton's FLs prove exactly that, because at the end of the day, it's a direct comparison of two cars at nearly the same weight, on the same tires, at the same time, all while flat out fighting for positions...

crimsonhawk23 said:

Right at the start of the video, Vettel's already complaining that he got squeezed! 🤣 Someone nearly shoved Lewis Hamilton off the track, but honestly, he was just getting squeezed. 😬

Let’s be real: if Hamilton had acted like a total jerk in this situation too—though, God help Vettel, he probably would've gotten lucky doing it—well, you know what they say about fortune favoring the bold.
Let's be real: contact was inevitable the second Lujo decided to dive in like a total maniac from the outside. It was obvious. We all knew Vettel would act like the stubborn prick he is and wouldn't budge an inch.
At the end of the day, when you get contact like that, about 70% of the time the guy on the outside gets screwed. He’s the one who ends up spinning off the track.
Look, Hamilton's move was obvious. He jumped into that duel knowing full well it was only a matter of time before they collided.

Honestly, there's a massive difference here: Hamilton could actually afford a DNF given his points lead, but Vettel? He definitely couldn't.
Lewis Hamilton knew exactly what he was doing. Even if he spins out and ends up sliding down the order, he knows he can claw his way back to third before the checkered flag without breaking much of a sweat. He’s counting on everyone else—including Red Bull Racing—to just mess it up, and if things get messy, he knows Valtteri Bottas will just pull over and make it easy.
Honestly, Vettel’s little stunt was even stupider than Hamilton’s. At least what Lujo did actually made some sense. What Vettel pulled? That was just pure, unadulterated idiocy. 🤦
Lujo wasn't exactly playing chess there. He got lucky, because that move could have easily ended just like his DNF and Vettel's win.
Honestly, the only thing is he got lucky, so everything ended up working out better than expected for him.
Honestly, this could’ve ended in an absolute disaster for him. We're lucky he just got a DNF. It could've easily gone south where someone behind him picks him up after a spin, totally wrecking his chassis and blowing out the engine for good.
And then all hell would break loose... naturally, he and Toto Wolff would start whining about how Ferrari is cheating and intentionally ramming their car.

The title fight isn't officially over, but it's damn close. Realistically, if everything goes according to plan and nobody hits a wall or suffers a DNF, Vettel only has 49 points left on the table—that's 7 races times 7 points. Meanwhile, Lujo's holding a 30-point lead. It's looking tight.
Forty-nine points? Please. In any actual racing conditions, Bottas wouldn't even be in the same zip code as Vettel, and Kimi wouldn't even be able to annoy Hamilton, let alone keep him busy for a lap or two. 🤦
So, in any actual decent race, the finish is basically going to be a toss-up between Vettel and Hamilton taking the top two spots. It’ll either be Vettel in first and Hamilton second, or vice versa. That's just how it plays out.
Anything else would just be a total anomaly—and a massive one at that. Honestly, expecting a DNF from a Mercedes-AMG this reliable is just plain naive.
Look, the math is pretty brutal. If Vettel wants that championship, he basically needs to win six out of the next seven races. And even in that seventh one, he’s got to finish at least third. If Hamilton grabs just two more wins and cruises to second place for the rest, the title is his. Simple as that.
With the gap between Mercedes-AMG and the rest of the grid this massive—especially since they’ve got Valtteri Bottas as the Number 2 driver and Kimi Räikkönen struggling—it's basically a cakewalk for Lewis Hamilton.

There’s also that massive gap in dynamic: Hamilton has Bottas, a loyal Number 2 who’ll happily wreck his own qualifying or race just to play backup for Lujo. Meanwhile, Vettel gets zero benefit from Kimi; the only "advantage" is the occasional mess where Kimi ends up starting ahead or getting in the way during the race. But hey, it's Ferrari—they never have a clue how to handle these situations, so they just let Vettel spiral into a total nervous breakdown. 🤦 And look at that pile of mistakes on his part...
It’s obvious that it’s a loss for Vettel because he didn't stay calmer in those moments, but honestly, it’s an even bigger failure for Ferrari. They clearly have zero pre-planned strategy or hierarchy for these situations; they just look completely lost every single time things get messy...
That stuff should be decided beforehand, instead of having Kimi and Vettel messing around at the start and then dealing with the fallout later. Seriously, all those starting mishaps where they bled points came from their own duels, which shouldn't have even happened in the first place...

All this talk about "equality" and whatever is great, but what were those kids doing in qualifying? That ridiculous idea of Vettel pulling a slipstream for Kimi—even they probably didn't get why they did it...
It doesn't matter now if it worked or why Kimi started ahead; the point is they lined up like that, and the only logic was trying to slot Kimi in front of Vettel...
And that would actually make sense if there was some master plan for the start, like, "Let's put Kimi ahead of Hamilton so he can hold him up while Vettel breaks away"...
But since there obviously wasn't a plan for the start, the whole weekend—starting from Q3—was just pure strategic insanity...

Worst of all, Kimi proved that even in much better form than before, he’s still clearly the Number 2 driver. And right from the first race of the season, too. He’s being the Number 2 driver in the exact same way Bottas played this race—just blocking Hamilton on track by not pitting on time, because unfortunately, nothing else works when it comes to him...

Seriously, if he can't keep Hamilton behind him during a direct fight for a win at Indianapolis, how can anyone expect him to hold him off in 3rd, 4th, or 5th place when it's about stealing points from Hamilton for Vettel?🤔

And then they’re supposed to be equals, supposedly giving Kimi a shot at the WDC 🙄
I have no clue how he’d ever win a title if he can't even keep Hamilton behind him 🤔
I mean, anything is possible, miracles happen and blah blah, but seriously, with a reliable Mercedes like that, you aren't winning a championship if you can't beat their driver and keep him behind you in a head-to-head fight. You won't win it that way even if you're crazy...

Roger Wright94 said:Kimi's pit stop was handled perfectly, IMHO. Keeping him ahead of Lewis was the whole point. Sure, Bottas was waiting for him there, but he would've been waiting regardless if they had swapped them.

The only real issue is that Vettel's tires completely fell apart in the first 10-15 laps—they were totally shot... by the end, they were absolute garbage.
Pretty weird race where the SS lasted way longer than the softs.🤔

Waiting on the data from the official site, but I'm pretty sure Perez, Ocon, and Sainz managed over 40 laps on the SS, while nobody even came close to that on the softs...

And specifically for Ferrari, Vettel only got about 30 laps out of the softs before he had to dive back in for the SS roughly 25 laps before the finish,
which was tactical insanity considering he was effectively third behind Hamilton at the time... Max was about 4 seconds behind him, and Bottas was up ahead by 15-16 seconds + he still had to pit + he was told to slow down for Kimi...

I'm actually convinced Ferrari's logic for that Vettel pit stop was to give him clear air. It makes zero sense that Ocon, Perez, and Sainz would stay out on SS long enough for him to have to overtake them,
so they clearly expected them to pit alongside him. Instead, those guys stayed out for another ten laps or so, leaving him stuck in traffic again...

What's even stupider is my feeling that he might have actually caught Bottas and Max if he'd gone on mediums during the first stint. Even if he'd gone for the SS earlier, he'd have stood a chance...
With the softs, which Ferrari notoriously struggles with, there was just no way. If he'd stayed on them until the end, he probably wouldn't have even scored points.

Which is exactly why it's anyone's guess what idiot decided to call Kimi in so early...
At the end of the day, Kimi wasn't even setting faster times on the softs than Lujo was on his old SS, and he wasn't significantly faster than his own SS times from before the pit stop...
And you could see that from Vettel's times when he was in clean air... he was consistently slower on the softs than he was on the SS, even though his softs were fresh compared to Kimi's used SS...