Posts by hiddensailor7

Current engine component status, separated by manufacturer using some pretty rough graphic editing:



It looks like all the drivers running Mercedes engines are still on PU2, though Lando Norris had to switch over to PU3 right in the middle of the GP weekend in Austria.

As for those using the Ferrari Power Unit, they are mostly on PU3, except for Charles Leclerc, who has already moved up to PU4. I suspect Sainz will definitely be moving to PU4 at the next race, and it's quite possible Renault will follow suit soon.

Red Bull Racing and Mercedes are probably planning to introduce PU3 only after the summer break.
Alpine seems to be burning through engines too; maybe they’re following a similar development strategy to Ferrari from earlier this season—choosing raw power over reliability. Since reliability fixes are allowed, but performance upgrades aren't permitted after September 1st (ES, CE, MKG-K), they might be taking that risk.

Ferrari definitely seems to be struggling with turbo issues and the implementation of the TC/MGU-H, which appears way too sensitive to high temperatures and prone to overheating failures. Luckily, there isn't a heatwave hitting the US right now, so temperatures in France shouldn't climb much past 30 degrees this weekend.😁
The chances that none of the Ferrari Power Units hold up through the weekend don't look particularly encouraging, I guess.😂

Roger Wright94 said:The Haas cars have received an ERS update. As a result, the hybrid powertrain seems more efficient, which I guess might be why they performed so well at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

There have been rumors flying around about this, but I think several "Ferrari insiders" have already denied it. It seems the upgrade for all those components (MGU-K, ES, CE) isn't actually ready yet, and they'll likely wait until their final deadline to roll it out.
Since the deadline for the upgrade is 1.9, that would probably mean we won't see it until the race at Spa-Francorchamps after the summer break.

I suppose I expect something similar to happen with Red Bull.

Brian Perez79 said:I wonder why they don't just have the VSC use even lower speeds than the Safety Car when there's a major accident.

I suppose it’s because when a serious incident occurs, the goal is to bunch all the cars up in a single line. That way, the crews clearing the track get a guaranteed window where they can work without any interruptions.

With a VSC, the debris or the incident might be spread out across different parts of the track, so you don't really get that continuous gap. It feels like someone is constantly passing through that section, regardless of how slow they are going.

Brian Perez79 said:I guess you could wonder why they don't just cap the speed during a Safety Car period to something reasonable, so that the gaps between drivers stay exactly where they were. Maybe it would make things more predictable, but I suppose there's a reason they don't.

Well, that’s exactly what just happened. 😁
That’s called a Virtual Safety Car, and I guess it works exactly the way you described. 🙂

Maybe Max goes for a two-stop strategy and just pushes hard until the checkered flag.
I guess Carlos Sainz is sticking to the Eco-friendly plan 😁

Richard Walker38 said:Did you forget about Imola? He had fresher tires, but he lost his advantage over Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen because he spun off like an amateur. He definitely would have overtaken Sergio Perez since his pace was better, and he probably could have caught Max too by the end since he was on much better rubber.

By the way, seeing how the internet has turned into this place and how sensitive people have become is honestly just depressing. You can't offer even legitimate criticism anymore without being labeled a hater or accused of having some kind of issue.

Man, if I don't just pull the plug on my router and shut down the internet forever. We really are living in the era of snowflakes.

It seems like you’re the one who forgot Imola and doesn't quite remember how things actually played out.
Leclerc didn't actually have fresher tires than the Red Bull duo because he was the first to pit, while they covered him immediately—one lap later for Sergio Perez and two laps later for Max. So, in reality, the Red Bull drivers actually had the fresher soft tires and the faster car on that track.

There is no way Leclerc could have won at Imola, even in theory... even if he had passed Sergio Perez, Max had a 15-second lead on the freshest tires with 11 laps left in the race. 🍿

Jerry Williams10 said:Wait, didn't Charles himself say he wanted to stay on the hard tires?

Actually, no—they told him over the radio, "Safety Car window closed, stay out, stay out!"
And then they just immediately put Carlos Sainz right behind him on the inside. 🙏

ruggedcyclist56 said:Haha, I mean, Charles Leclerc went off track, which allowed Carlos Sainz to take the lead. What speed was he supposed to drop down to at 31 miles/h just to keep Charles in first place?

Wait, when exactly did Charles Leclerc go off track?

Zhou was definitely the winner of the day; they portrayed him as being completely unstoppable after that crash 🙏

Ferrari got lucky because Max Verstappen hit something and damaged his car, otherwise he probably would have cruised to victory... the pit wall crew honestly looked like they just didn't care at all.

The master plan was to have Carlos Sainz Jr. hold up the line behind him, since Charles Leclerc mentioned they thought the soft tires would only have an advantage for the first two laps 🤣🤣

Whoever is handling their calculations and running those simulations really needs to be fired immediately 🙏 I mean, Charles is driving a damaged car, 15 laps deep on tires that are already old, plus two sets of hard compounds, and they actually calculate that the cars behind will only have an advantage for the first two laps? 😂

Max is on softs, George is starting on hards, and most of the field is on mediums. I guess we might see a pretty interesting first lap 🍿

graniteharbor502 said:Does this support the idea:


He finished behind Max because of his own slower lap times. The Pitwall cost him first and second place, but he effectively threw away third place himself.

As the saying goes, it's not about what happened, but how it looks after the fact.🙄
Why don't you go watch the onboard footage of Leclerc's lap following Alex Albon?
But that isn't the only factor either; Leclerc's in-laps and out-laps were actually slower than Max's. He really needed to find more pace there.

He had managed to get his tires up to the ideal temperature, which is precisely why he exited the pits when he did. It is highly probable that he would have shaved more time off his lap and secured either second or third place. Honestly, if he had taken second, I suspect he still would have fought his way to victory, given the sheer pace he displayed during those decisive laps of the race. Sergio Perez mentioned that he couldn't get his tires up to temp on that final lap, so it would have been a struggle for him to improve his standing.

Isn't this just a perfect illustration of everything that feels broken within F1? We constantly see penalties being handed out for these trivialities that have absolutely nothing to do with actual racing on the track. Does anyone actually care if Leclerc missed the scale? If he did, then fine, let them slap him with a fine, but why on earth should they be handing out grid penalties for something like that?

I watched it, and honestly, what do you expect him to do in that situation? Should he have attacked a driver in Monaco who clearly wasn't going to let him through, even though they are technically supposed to? Even if he had tried, he probably wouldn't have cleared him immediately, and being that stubborn and selfish ended up costing Leclerc about 2 to 3 seconds—which was just enough to lose the gap he needed to get ahead of Max Verstappen after the two stops.

Max Verstappen came out behind decent Mick Schumacher, who, as soon as the radio informed him about the blue flags for Max Verstappen behind him, practically came to a halt at the penultimate corner, moved all the way to the left, and let Max Verstappen through.
That is exactly what Alex Albon should have done, instead of worrying about his own race and what might happen if he got stuck behind Leclerc on intermediates while on fast slicks and ruined his entire weekend.

And regarding his pace, the team gave him the gaps and times over the radio and told him, "you're doing a good job." That suggests they were actually satisfied with his pace—the same crew that warned him things would be tight with Sergio Perez on the exit from the pits, even though Perez was already 5 seconds ahead. 🤣

graniteharbor502 said:Does this support the idea:


He finished behind Max because of his own slower lap times. The Pitwall cost him first and second place, but he effectively threw away third place himself.

As the saying goes, it's not about what happened, but how it looks after the fact.🙄
Why don't you go watch the onboard footage of Leclerc's lap following Alex Albon?
But that isn't the only factor either; Leclerc's in-laps and out-laps were actually slower than Max's. He really needed to find more pace there.

He had managed to get his tires up to the ideal temperature, which is precisely why he exited the pits when he did. It is highly probable that he would have shaved more time off his lap and secured either second or third place. Honestly, if he had taken second, I suspect he still would have fought his way to victory, given the sheer pace he displayed during those decisive laps of the race. Sergio Perez mentioned that he couldn't get his tires up to temp on that final lap, so it would have been a struggle for him to improve his standing.

Isn't this just a perfect illustration of everything that feels broken within F1? We constantly see penalties being handed out for these trivialities that have absolutely nothing to do with actual racing on the track. Does anyone actually care if Leclerc missed the scale? If he did, then fine, let them slap him with a fine, but why on earth should they be handing out grid penalties for something like that?

I agree with this; in perfect conditions, the grid probably would have looked like:
1. Leclerc, 2. Max Verstappen, 3. Checo Perez, 4. Carlos Sainz.

But in Monaco, things often go sideways, so it's vital to set a fast lap in Q3 as early as possible. If it weren't for Perez crashing, then Fernando Alonso crashed. Without Alonso, we have no way of knowing if someone else might have triggered a yellow or red flag in the meantime.
Everyone knows this and talks about it before qualifying; you need to get those fast laps in early rather than waiting until the end when the track is at its fastest—Checo Perez and Leclerc were doing that throughout qualifying, but Max Verstappen wasn't.

Lisa Thomas3 said:The situation was pretty messy. As much as I hate making excuses for Ferrari and their incompetence, it’s just not true to say they single-handedly cost Leclerc three spots and leave it at that.
For starters, I listened to the team radio. Unlike Sainz, Leclerc didn't make his tire preferences clear. When asked about switching straight to hards, he just mumbled, "maybe, but not now," and then went silent. I wouldn't completely rule out his own responsibility here.
Leclerc is leading on track, but behind him, Sainz is dead set on jumping straight to hards, Perez blinked first and pitted for inters, and Verstappen is his main threat whose strategy is still anyone's guess. So what is Ferrari supposed to do? If they cover Perez immediately, they likely lose out to both Sainz and Verstappen (since he'll probably go straight to hards too). If they wait for Verstappen, they lose to Perez and probably Sainz as well. No matter who they try to cover, they’re likely a lap behind the action...
It isn't that simple. Even with Leclerc in the lead, everyone behind him is playing their own game, so he was likely losing two positions regardless. Sure, they lost everything in the end because of indecision, but that's beside the point.

The only way Leclerc could have held onto first place was if he had his own plan and dictated the pace.
He should have just said, "I want this and that, I'm making the move first," and called it a day. That’s the only way to take that kind of risk. But he didn't show that level of decisiveness.
If Ferrari had put him straight on hards without him confirming the track conditions were ready, the media would have absolutely torn them apart.

The best way to defend a position is to think ahead and build a gap before the pit stops. Why wasn't there better communication from the team? Why didn't they tell him to push harder? Or maybe he just didn't have the pace—that might be the real root of the problem.

👍
I thought it would take a few weeks for the "geniuses" to come out with the theory that "Perez was faster than Verstappen in Monaco qualifying," but apparently, one day was enough. 🙏
Perez is the reason RB finished 3rd and 4th in qualifying. Based on his pace during that fast lap, Verstappen would have been P2. They likely would have taken 2nd and 3rd. Instead, Perez crashed and ruined the lap for both himself and Max, right when Ferrari were sitting pretty in 1st and 2nd.
Then you get the idiots counting qualifying gaps and claiming Perez was faster in Monaco just because he crashed. It's just people who don't even watch the races talking nonsense...

Well, as usual, you're the only one talking nonsense here. ☕
Just like how you missed the detail in Miami where Perez was driving most of the race with a 30 bhp deficit, it seems you clearly didn't watch the qualifying session either.

If Perez hadn't crashed, it still would have been a Ferrari 1-2 because Alonso hit the wall almost at the exact same time as Perez on the other side of the track. There would have been a red flag regardless. I guess you missed that little detail too, despite how closely you supposedly follow the "races."

Perez was faster than Max all Saturday, through FP3 and almost all the qualifying laps.
In the first part of Q3, Perez was faster. Max decided to go for a two-lap attempt during his final run in Q3. Fast lap, cool down, then another fast lap. In that first flying lap, he was still slower than Perez, and by the final lap, they were within half a tenth of a second when Perez crashed.

So yes, Perez was fast in qualifying, especially considering it's Monaco where you always expect someone to kiss the wall eventually. You can't pin everything on a third flying lap when a whole pack of cars is chasing that final time—there's always such a high chance something goes wrong (even a yellow flag in a sector is enough to ruin a qualifying lap).

It's true that he potentially messed things up for himself and several other drivers (Max, Ocon...) by hitting the wall, but we saw later that it didn't matter much since Alonso hit the wall at the same time or immediately after him.

graniteharbor502 said:The session began behind the safety car at 16:05—there was an announcement during the broadcast—and, as we know, the decision regarding when the SC clears the track rests entirely with the race directors.

That occurred on lap 20. The reason that Williams didn't move is simply because Charles Leclerc was being remarkably sluggish in his attack. He was driving that lap like a complete amateur, if I may say so. Anyone with access to F1TV can verify that for themselves.

Both Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen switched to intermediates on the exact same lap. Max was faster during that initial entry lap by 1.7 seconds. We all know now that they really ought to have been on the hard tires. Even Carlos Sainz knew it. Honestly, who is to blame—the pit wall or Charles Leclerc—for the fact that they were left in the dark?

Not quite, though. Sergio Perez clocked a 1:32.1 during his first full lap on the intermediates on lap 17.

By the 21st lap, Max found himself stuck behind two backmarkers, whereas if one looks at the cumulative data, Charles Leclerc actually dealt with fewer backmarkers during that specific window. It seems to me that he simply drove worse, both when the track was clear and when he was navigating traffic.

Nine seconds? Where on earth did that number come from? When Charles Leclerc entered the pits, his lead over Max was only 7.6 seconds, and just one lap prior, when Sergio Perez pitted, the gap ahead of him was merely 8.2 seconds.
When racing under such chaotic circumstances, isn't it true that the smallest details become paramount? One must consider how effectively a driver manages their in-laps and out-laps; had Charles Leclerc executed those more precisely, he likely would have finished ahead of Max. Instead, Max secured the position once again, and quite frankly, he earned it through his own merit.

To clarify, Max wasn't actually slower in qualifying; rather, he was forced to abandon his fastest lap because Sergio Perez went off into the barrier.
As I have already demonstrated, Charles Leclerc was the one who lacked pace during those critical moments.

Ha, so now he’s leading because of your fault?🙄

I disagree. He didn't pass him because Alex Albon intentionally held his ground, probably thinking he couldn't hold him off long-term due to the tire offset. This is his actual quote:

Alex Albon tried to stay ahead of Charles Leclerc after Coming out of The pits this Sunday in Monaco. The Williams F1 driver thought he could break away from the Ferrari, as he had just fitted slicks, while the Ferrari was shod on intermediate tyres.

The Thai confirms that he thought he could get ahead, but he eventually blocked the Ferrari from the Fairmont Hotel hairpin to Sainte Devote on the next lap, when he shot straight into the loophole, which angered Leclerc.

"Come on Alex", he first said on the radio, before getting angry: "What the fuck?" After The EXIT of The Williams, the Monegasque just yelled "Oh! Damn!" in the radio, but his friend denies having acted badly.

"It's tricky because we started on slicks and we had a big pace advantage," explained Alex Albon. "It would have taken me three corners to let him pass and then I would have been quick enough to pass him again."

I guess Max would have likely beaten Carlos Sainz in qualifying if those red flags hadn't popped up, especially since Sainz had such a rough first sector in that final attempt. He was within half a second of Perez, but he wasn't even close to Leclerc.🍿

I guess Sergio Perez really messed up with that Safety Car situation in Saudi Arabia, and now it seems like Ferrari's pit wall—and maybe even a little bit of Nicholas Latifi—has handed him a gift just to make up for that unfairness.

Then there’s the amateurish part, phase two:

Carlos Sainz was more than two seconds ahead of Sergio Perez when he pitted for dry tires, and Charles Leclerc was about four and a half seconds ahead of Max Verstappen.
After the double stack, where I suppose Charles Leclerc might have lost a second waiting, Carlos Sainz comes out onto the track right alongside the slowest driver in the race—Nicholas Latifi. He’s getting flooded with blue flags, and they're even telling him over the radio to watch out for Carlos Sainz because of all those blue flags.

The guy just ignores the radio and the flags, cutting in front of Carlos Sainz and refusing to budge until the tunnel, despite being hit with blue flags at every turn and hearing "blue flag for Sainz" constantly on the radio. What's even sadder is that a lap earlier, Mick Schumacher, who was actually fighting for position at that moment, overtook him after Mirabeau, yet Carlos Sainz couldn't get past him despite the blue flags until they reached the tunnel. 🙏

Red Bull executes their double stack pit stop, and suddenly Sergio Perez comes out a second and a half ahead of Carlos Sainz, while Max Verstappen is right in front of Charles Leclerc.
They pitted a lap too early, though it seems they called Charles Leclerc in first, only to tell him not to come in after he had already entered the box. 🤣

Charles Leclerc had nearly a 9-second cushion over Sergio Perez before the latter decided to pit for strategy reasons.
Just two laps later, after that strategic pit stop, he emerged trailing by 5 seconds.
I guess the team was so focused on trying to cover Perez with Carlos Sainz that when he brushed them off by refusing to pit, they simply didn't have the capacity or the timing to bring Charles in immediately—it had to wait until the next lap.

The funniest part, though, was hearing Charles on the radio as he exited the pits: "It will be tight with Perez"—but Perez had already cleared him long ago, sitting 5 seconds ahead.

Honestly, the strategists, their simulations, all those calculations... it just felt like a complete mess of amateurs.🙏🙏

I think Fernando Alonso managed to clock a lap that was about 2 seconds faster than Sergio Perez 🙏

I think Fernando Alonso made a driving error; he lost control and had to correct his line, which just sent him straight into the wall... It happened almost exactly when they were telling him over the radio that Sergio Perez had crashed—meaning a yellow flag was coming followed by a red flag—and then he’s reporting that he’s wrecked too 🕺

I don't think Sainz is going to get any penalty for ignoring the yellow flags—I just watched his onboard, and they started signaling the yellow right when he was already looking toward the apex, which felt way too late for him to see it. 🍿

As for that incident with Stroll during Free Practice 3, Ferrari just got hit with a fine, so there won't be a grid penalty.

I guess Sergio Perez really let himself and Max down there; judging by those first sector times, they both had a genuine shot at catching Carlos Sainz.
Charles Leclerc is just operating on a completely different level—I suspect he would have been hitting a 1:10:XX on that final lap right before the red flag came out. 🙏

I guess Leclerc was actually quite lucky to finish the race at all; he only lost "just 7 points" due to his mistake instead of 15.

From a constructors' championship perspective, things look even more dire for Ferrari. Their drivers have essentially thrown away over 30 points across the last two races, mostly through their own errors. I find it hard to put the blame entirely on Sainz for that incident with Ricky—though, if he hadn't crashed during qualifying, he might not have been in the position where that collision happened in the first place.

They seem to be the only team that hasn't brought any significant upgrades since testing in Los Angeles. I suspect Red Bull's pace here—given they've brought parts of an upgrade package for two races straight now—will force them to realize it's time to roll up their sleeves even further, rather than just insisting that the F1-75 is perfectly designed.
It should be incredibly interesting to see how things shake out in the US. Almost every team will likely be bringing a major aero upgrade package, and Ferrari is expected to bring an engine upgrade too—one of those components that can still be upgraded once before the 1.9 cutoff.