Posts by Thomas Davis98

All of Ferrari's headaches stem from one fundamental fact: their number one driver isn't consistently faster than his teammate. Once Vettel fails to outqualify Raikkonen, the dominoes start falling. Then you get into the whole mess of how to swap them, how to nail a start, and so on. When Hamilton leaves Bottas sitting half a second in the dust, it’s only natural that Bottas, acting as the number two, ends up just being an obstacle on track. At Ferrari, the number two is far too often quicker than the number one, which makes executing any coherent plan nearly impossible...
I mentioned before this race that Kimi has generally been the better driver compared to Vettel this year, and after today, that gap feels even more obvious. He might struggle in qualifying—Italy was one of those rare exceptions where he actually stood a chance—but in terms of race pace, he’s frequently superior. More importantly, he avoids the kind of boneheaded mistakes Vettel tends to make. Right now, Kimi is trailing Vettel by about 60 points, but we also know that unlike Vettel, Kimi has suffered three DNFs that were entirely out of his control. If it weren't for those, he'd likely be the natural number one by now...
The current dynamic is just unnatural. It's probably too late for Kimi to claim the top spot because the points deficit is simply too massive to close. So, Vettel has to be the lead driver. But since Kimi is often the faster one, they have to constantly pivot and fix things, creating a mountain of complications. It seems like what they did in Belgium—basically sabotaging Kimi's qualifying chances—was the perfect recipe for disaster...

Richard Walker38 said:Listen, you Vettel fanboys, has that guy ever actually been at fault for anything?

Isn't it a little embarrassing to blame everything else—the pit wall, the crew, the tires, the weather, luck, the setup, the strategy, other drivers, or even his own teammates?

Are we ever going to see anyone admit that their golden boy actually messed something up on his own?

I only see one fanboy here who always finds an excuse for Vettel. And that person just happens to be a Ferrari hater, so blaming the team is the perfect way to vent...
Most of the actual Ferrari fans here (and elsewhere, really) have pretty much conceded that Vettel is a major part of the problem right now...

James Walker57 said:For those folks up there arguing about how many points were essentially wasted—the British have actually gone through the trouble of crunching the numbers for the last two seasons:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/for...two-years.html

I had completely slipped my mind regarding what happened in Azerbaijan earlier this year 👍
The analysis for this season holds some water, but looking at last year is just absurd... 😁There’s no way Lewis Hamilton would have finished second in Singapore; he would have ended up behind all three of those guys who crashed out. Honestly, Sebastian Vettel probably would have walked away with the championship last year if it weren't for those two massive blunders in Baku and Singapore

Jason Campbell70 said:The master just pins the throttle, and suddenly, "the Mercedes-Benz is the faster car."...

One second... ☕

crimsonhawk23 said:Sebastian Vettel has dropped about 44 points so far this season. If things had gone differently, he’d probably be sitting on a 26-point lead over Lewis Hamilton right now—or something like that, anyway. I’m feeling a bit too lazy to actually run the math, so I'm just throwing numbers out there... It’s hard to say if those seven remaining Grand Prix-like races would have been enough to cost Lewis Hamilton a lost championship...

Where on earth did you get 44 from? That number is way too low. You can't just look at how many points Sebastian Vettel bled out through his own boneheaded mistakes... you also have to factor in exactly how many extra points Lewis Hamilton gained because of them.

Lewis Hamilton put on an absolute masterclass today. Truly a stellar drive... 👍 Both Ferraris crossed the line, and honestly, the whole weekend was just flawless. Absolutely clinical. Now *that* is how you write a headline...
This season is giving me some serious 2012 vibes... if I’m remembering my history correctly. It feels like we’re seeing a bit of a role reversal from back then. You had Vettel sitting pretty in the best car on the grid, while Lewis Hamilton has stepped into that Alonso role—just fighting tooth and nail with whatever the car allows, pouncing on every tiny mistake his rivals make... If my memory serves, Alonso had a massive lead right after the Italian Grand Prix, maybe something like 50 points or thereabouts. We all know how that story ended... 😁
Since we’re on the subject, I really don't get the people claiming the championship is already decided just because someone has a 30-point lead. We aren't looking at one race left; there are still seven races on the calendar. That's an entire third of the season left to play out... 30 points is practically nothing in the grand scheme of things. Just look back at what happened in 2012. In my book, Vettel is still the favorite—I'd put the odds at about 60-40 right now, whereas before this race, I would have easily said 80-20. Once we hit Singapore, where we expect the usual struggles from Mercedes-Benz, it isn't even a stretch to think that lead could be cut in half...

Regarding the race itself, I have to agree that Vettel's decision to dive into that battle was just plain foolish. It’s like he hasn't learned a single thing from making practically the exact same mistakes last year... He's stuck in a loop. On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton knows that if he just cruises to the finish line, he'll likely lose the championship. He has to take risks because, at this point, he has absolutely nothing left to lose. Vettel really needs to keep that in mind before he does something else reckless...
If we’re looking at what actually went wrong, the worst-case scenario would have been if the top three had ended up being Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, and Sebastian Vettel. Honestly, it would have been a cakewalk for Vettel to take that win. If the Mercedes-Benz drivers were too busy fighting with Kimi Raikkonen, they would have basically handed Vettel a clear track... which would have let him stay out on those Soft tires much longer. And as we saw, that was clearly the superior strategy...

Henry Asks:
Looking at the historical data for Singapore, things seem to lean slightly toward Vettel, even though Mercedes has absolutely dominated that circuit over the last two seasons. It’s going to be a tight one...

Did you forget the race happened, or did you just not bother watching it?... 😁
Singapore is a nightmare for Mercedes, much like how MC struggles there... It’s one of those tracks that just doesn't suit them. Last year, they ended up stuck in fifth and sixth during qualifying, which was a massive shock considering how they absolutely dominated the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Ferrari and Red Bull were clearly ahead of them back then. Honestly, Lewis Hamilton only managed to snag that win because of the rain and Sebastian Vettel's chaotic start... he basically got handed the victory through no fault of his own. Looking at this season, I wouldn't be surprised if Mercedes finds themselves firmly in third place again. My bet is on Ferrari being significantly ahead of Red Bull, though, since they seem to be the ones making the most progress lately...

mellowtiger83 said:I won't even go there... but the pressure on Sebastian Vettel right now is just unreal. One more mistake and his championship hopes are pretty much dead in the water. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton can basically do whatever he wants and still stay right in the thick of the fight...

I’m saying it again: everyone is overreacting. That performance gap could easily be cut in half by the time we hit Singapore... If Sebastian Vettel can just settle down, stop taking unnecessary risks, and focus on consistently finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton—even after today's little blunder—he's in the game. Hamilton doesn't have much breathing room here. One DNF from him, for whatever reason, and it's basically over. At that point, Vettel would just need to finish ahead of Hamilton a few more times than the other way around, and honestly, given how the cars are performing right now, that doesn't seem like an impossible task...

Jack Kelly5 said:Toto explained that Valtteri Bottas's strategy was about as good as it gets. At least, from his perspective...
😬

The worst part is, 🤣 Bottas didn't really put up much of a fight against Max Verstappen during the first half of the race. Because they left him out there just to act as a buffer for Kimi Raikkonen, he ended up staying on track much longer and eventually had those fresh tires. He went after Max and ended up forcing a penalty... He probably couldn't have done better than third, though. If he had pitted when everyone else did, he likely would've just finished fourth.

Tyler Ross56 said:Let’s get real for a second. We’ve got four-time, two-time, and single-time world champions sitting on this grid. Now, if you start dissecting a career from day one—looking at pure luck, the car you happen to be driving, raw motivation, or just the struggle of getting an F1 seat in the first place—it’s all very subjective... but there is one undeniable fact. Even though he’s the veteran of the group, Kimi Räikkönen is hands down the most naturally talented driver out of everyone listed. If he had possessed Alonso's grit, combined with the kind of luck Seb and Lucien had to be behind dominant cars during their prime, he would have walked away with a much larger collection of titles and wins, provided anyone actually gave him the chance... He’s older now, and yeah, he can be a bit lazy, but he’s still the most gifted talent on the grid.

Sure, people can say what they want about his talent... and honestly, I’m inclined to agree that he’s probably one of the most naturally gifted drivers out there. But the problem is that, too often throughout his career, he just seems to vanish when it matters most. Look, he’s driving pretty well this year, though you have to admit that impression is partly due to the fact that Sebastian Vettel is struggling quite a bit lately. Still, if you look at last year, he produced absolutely nothing, and the year before that wasn't much better either...
I still remember when he joined Ferrari to go up against Alonso. Back then, everyone was buzzing about this massive driver showdown in the making. Kimi had just come off an incredible season with Lotus, so most people were bracing for a legendary battle... instead, we got a level of humiliation that hadn't been seen in a long time...

Richard Ross11 said:Let's hear it from the esteemed forum members... what's everyone's take on how Kimi Räikkönen is going to lose that lead tomorrow...
Right out of the gate... what a disaster of a start.
2. Pit stop "strategy"...
Pushing Vettel at the start in Singapore...
"Kimi, Sebastian is right on your tail, and he’s absolutely shredding his tires..." — that radio call from the pit wall...
Felipe Massa having to swap out his gearbox right before the start... just one more thing, I guess.

Or maybe something actually new... something we haven't seen a thousand times before... 🙂

I’ve been scrolling through some other forums lately, and honestly... it looks like Kimi Räikkönen really just threw them under the bus. They're in a massive hole now... 🙂

We've seen this movie before in recent history... I honestly think it’s finally time for a classic "Kimi, Sebastian is faster than you" moment... 😁

Roger Wright94 said:So, if we're looking at the current 145 points... that means there's roughly another 105 to 110 left on the table, right...? 🤔
Pure exaggeration...
Sure, let's just pin it all on Ferrari because they're apparently the reason he hasn't managed to finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton once...

First off, it’s just not true that Kimi never finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton in a race... I’m not going to tell you which one it was, though. You can go ahead and Google it if you're so sure... 😁).
Secondly, looking at the numbers, Kimi has had three DNFs this season, whereas Sebastian Vettel hasn't had any—well, technically one, but that was entirely his own fault. Out of those three times Kimi dropped out, one was a mechanical failure and the other two were straight-up mistakes by the pit wall. Under normal circumstances, Kimi would have walked away from those races with massive points, likely sitting on a podium, or maybe even taking the win in Belgium... If you factor those points back in, he’d be right up there with Vettel in the standings. Basically, if those major mishaps had happened to Vettel instead of Kimi, the championship gap would look completely reversed. And if they’d both just had equal luck, they’d be neck and neck. You could even shave a few points off Lewis Hamilton’s total because, in some of those scenarios, Kimi probably would've finished ahead of him (looking at you, Belgium)...
Then, when you layer those big disasters on top of all the little things—the preferential treatment given to Vettel, the missed opportunities, the way they scrapped Kimi's strategy just to bail out Sebastian (like what happened in China)—and you start adding up all those tiny point losses...
I honestly believe that if Kimi had been treated as Ferrari's number one driver from the start, he’d be leading the championship right now. I don't mean he'd be 110 points ahead, but he'd likely be sitting where Hamilton is, though Hamilton and Vettel would both have slightly less than they do now. Of course, that assumes the errors made against Kimi were a result of neglect or perhaps even intentional sabotage to favor Vettel; if we assume Kimi was the lead driver but all those car failures were just pure, random bad luck that would've hit whoever was driving regardless, then the whole theory falls apart...

It turns out that despite all of Hamilton's hard work, Ferrari is still about a tenth ahead here. That pretty much feels like the final nail in the coffin for Mercedes' long-standing dominance... Given how things have looked practically since the start of the season, I honestly don't see how Mercedes can hold their own on any track from here on out. Sebastian Vettel could easily take a +7 or +10 margin tomorrow, which means he’ll likely be sitting in the lead by the time we hit Singapore. In my opinion, the only way this championship stays interesting until the last two or three races is if Vettel suffers a DNF in at least one session...

As for tomorrow's race, everything hinges on whether Ferrari can pull off a driver swap at the start without making a mess of it. I’m guessing they'll go for the classic move of sacrificing Kimi's position at all costs. If they pull that off, I expect a pretty dull race with Vettel pulling far ahead while Kimi just holds up the Mercedes drivers...
If they fail at that, though, things could get messy later on, because once you factor in both Mercedes cars using strategic plays and attacks, the race might actually get interesting...

crimsonhawk23 said:Good grief, please think about it for a second. Use some professional judgment here... ☕I wrote that DRS should be allowed whenever and wherever, without restrictions. Let the decision lie with the drivers and their own assessment of the situation.

You're just fixating on attacking and defending.

And even regarding defense, unlike your logic, I don't see how the driver in front would be able to open DRS for the exact same millisecond as the attacker who used it to move up...

He's got a point in this instance. Drivers and teams would very quickly figure out exactly which sections of the track offer the most benefit from DRS. Everyone would just trigger it precisely where they know it helps most, which would essentially nullify any significant impact...

Last year, Ferrari had a slight edge over in Belgium, but then Mercedes-Benz absolutely crushed them at the US Grand Prix. Looking at that power gap, after seeing how much Ferrari dominated in Belgium this time around, we can probably expect a much tighter fight when they hit the track in Italy...
As someone who doesn't really pick sides, I don't actually care who takes the win, but I really hope Ferrari doesn't pull another runaway performance like they did in Belgium. If they do, this whole championship might be decided in just two or three races. But if Mercedes-Benz can stay competitive on at least one or two tracks—and if they can't hold their own in Italy, they won't stand a chance anywhere else—then we might actually get an interesting season that keeps us guessing until the very last race.

I think you might be missing my point. He isn't talking about using clones to spam the exact same thread or subforum.
The current setup allows someone to use different profiles across various subforums. In theory, a user could spin up 10 different accounts for 10 different sections. If they rack up two strikes on each individual account, they’ve effectively accumulated 20 strikes in reality, yet not a single profile gets banned, leaving them free to keep posting with all ten...
On the flip side, if a single person uses just one profile to post across 10 subforums, they hit a total of three strikes and get slapped with a three-day site-wide cooling-off period.
Now, obviously, nobody is running around with 10 separate identities, but plenty of people juggle two, three, or five, picking up strikes on each without ever triggering a ban because the penalties aren't being aggregated properly.
I'm not sure if you see how this creates a pretty discriminatory policy against users with fewer accounts. In practice, this approach incentivizes Forum Users—especially the troublemakers—to spread their presence across multiple subforums using different profiles. And I highly doubt that's the intention here. The users who consistently run into trouble are quite skilled at exploiting this loophole...
As far as I can tell, there are really only two ways to fix this gap in the rules:
either by tracking all profiles belonging to the same person and aggregating their total strikes
or by simply banning multiple accounts per person, requiring everyone to stick to just one profile for the entire site.