São Paulo Grand Prix (Indianapolis Motor Speedway) | November 12-14, 2021

I mean, what can you even say? They just blew everyone else out of the water. That combination of the Mercedes chassis with the new engine paired with Lewis was just absolutely lethal for the rest of the field.

#F1: Taking a look at what @redbullf1france is saying—just an hour before qualifying kicks off, Paul Monaghan and Adrian Newey headed over to the headquarters. Their claim? The Mercedes-Benz rear wing flap is flexing way too much at 162 miles/h (via AMuS).

So, basically, they were snooping.

Jason Campbell70 said:Mercedes was "insanely fast," yet Red Bull took the fastest lap?
OK.

Wasn't it Bottas who snagged the fastest lap in Mexico? Or Pierre Gasly back in Canada? 🙄
Does one really believe the fastest lap is a definitive metric of overall dominance? Even if we were to grant it some level of significance, one could argue that Mercedes remains incredibly quick, given that they have secured that distinction nine times already this season.

mellowtiger83 said:Just read this, man 🙂, I didn't make any of this up

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/992193...lton-wing-saga

Regardless, whether it was 0.1 or 1cm, they earned the penalty and served it.

Ha. 🤣
Here we go again with these "journalists." Toto claims it’s 2mm, then they report it as 0.2mm because apparently, that's basically the same thing to them. Typical.
The Brits can't catch a break lately. Now the Sky Sports crowd has cooked up some nonsense penalty for Ocon, just so they can shove him behind Vettel at the start. Typical.
I have no clue how or why, but nope—they still haven't fixed it. 🙂

Check out the starting grid here: https://www.formula1.com/en/results....ting-grid.html

That Crash net is basically a massive surveillance hub. Sky isn't exactly known for being trustworthy, so I definitely don't trust these guys. 🤦

mellowtiger83 said:0.2mm? Honestly, how is anyone supposed to measure something that fine using that little spatula they use to scrape everything along? Ha ha.

Of course it isn't...
Just a bunch of chatter. Journalists making stuff up as they go along, and suddenly we've got "stories." Give me a break.

Drew Bennett68 said:

#F1: Taking a look at what @redbullf1france is saying—just an hour before qualifying kicks off, Paul Monaghan and Adrian Newey headed over to the headquarters. Their claim? The Mercedes-Benz rear wing flap is flexing way too much at 162 miles/h (via AMuS).

So, basically, they were snooping.

Haha, I knew Christian Horner/Red Bull Racing would sue. 😂 Jeez, even that’s getting predictable at this point.

Jason Campbell70 said:Mercedes was "insanely fast," yet Red Bull took the fastest lap?
OK.

That just plain hurts.

gentlecobra23 said:The whole weekend felt like one giant mockery of Mercedes-Benz.
First, they rolled out with an illegal car—basically a "if we get caught, we get caught" gamble. Luckily for the rest of the civilized world, they didn't get away with it, though they still managed to dodge a bullet. Instead of the standard disqualification or starting from the pits, which is what should have happened, they got to start on the grid for the sprint race. That basically gave them an easy 25 laps to fix the mess they made the day before, leaving them with much less to deal with during the actual race. If it weren't for the fact that they exploited every single loophole imaginable to manipulate the weekend, Max Verstappen wouldn't have been overtaken for first place.
They pushed that engine to its absolute limit, and there's a good chance it won't survive all three remaining races. But then again, they don't need it to; they only need two. If they manage to win the next two with that machine, they can just bring back the engine from Mexico—which I doubt is actually broken, they're probably just saving it for the finale, assuming Max Verstappen's Honda even makes it to the checkered flag.
Lewis Hamilton’s whole "f...k them all" attitude, the constant calls to degrade him because of his race, and the way they're mocking the Brazilian flag by comparing him to little Ayrton Senna... it was disgusting to watch. It’s just bad for the sport.
Max made a mistake today when he was forced off the track, but honestly, it would be a joke if they penalized him for it, especially considering everything Lewis Hamilton has done to him all season while walking away with nothing more than ridiculous, meaningless penalties...

Lewis will never be in the same league as Senna.
He simply capitalized on the hybrid era with Mercedes. That’s the whole story. Any driver with his talent from that generation would have done the exact same thing in his shoes. We're talking about guys like Alonso, Vettel, and Raikkonen. The man is talented and lucky, certainly, but that's where it ends.

He can apply for a Brazilian passport, wave the flag, or rack up five more titles, but he will never *be* Senna. There was only one Ayrton Senna—irreplaceable, untouchable, and beyond comparison.

So, sir (or whoever), Lewis should head back to the UK and keep up the act there. Or better yet, go to Hollywood and film a biopic about himself as the greatest F1 driver to ever live.

Legends like Jim Clark, Juan Manuel Fangio, and Jackie Stewart are in a class of their own for him... he only caught Michael Schumacher on paper.

And honestly, I'm still wondering how he didn't beat Rosberg in 2016. He must have taken a nap during one part of the season, if I recall correctly...

So, how does one actually determine if a DRS opening is technically legal?

Lando says Hamilton's car is actually so incredibly fast that he’d probably need to drop a wheel just to give everyone else a fighting chance!

I’m just hoping that at the next race, Lewis gives Max some payback for that shove. Then we can finally sit back and listen to Horner claim everything was totally fine or just another "racing incident"... you know, like how he was acting after the race today? 🙂

Absolute madness, folks! Pure insanity!

There’s actually footage out there showing that Max’s DRS was opening way too far.

And then you’ve got that clip where Max, right after qualifying, takes a little jab at his own setup before turning the heat on Lewis Hamilton’s rear wing.

Sadly, I’ve gotta head out and handle some chores—I'll leave the heavy lifting to the younger crowd.

Tomorrow is going to be total chaos in here.

graniteharbor502 said:Wasn't it Bottas who snagged the fastest lap in Mexico? Or Pierre Gasly back in Canada? 🙄
Does one really believe the fastest lap is a definitive metric of overall dominance? Even if we were to grant it some level of significance, one could argue that Mercedes remains incredibly quick, given that they have secured that distinction nine times already this season.

To add to what Jason Campbell70 was saying, Red Bull took the fastest lap without any strategic pit stops for fresh rubber or anything similar; they did it just like everyone else, running on their initial set of tires over 24 laps, specifically on the hard compound.
Not even the driver who climbed from 20th to 5th could manage a faster pace.

So, Red Bull secured the fastest lap, and no, it wasn't done in clean air or through some lucky circumstances or repeated aerodynamic distortions.

Lewis was basically playing bumper cars with the other 19 drivers out there.

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?

Is pitting for fresh soft tires in the closing laps of a race essentially just a sprint, where everyone starts on identical rubber and covers the exact same number of laps?
OK.

While I wouldn’t call myself a massive Lewis Hamilton fan—not really my type—I feel compelled to step in against the constant negativity from some of you folks here.

The man has openly stated since he was just a kid that Senna was his hero; honestly, I see nothing wrong with him honoring Ayrton by including a tribute on his helmet every single time he races in the States.

People can criticize almost anything else about him—really, they can—but one thing is certain: he respects the absolute legends of this sport.

Hats off to him for today's race performance—fingers crossed he manages to take down Verstappen by the end of the season.

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.

The duo over at ESPN was losing their minds during Hamilton’s drive today. 😵
I’d actually been enjoying a few races lately without their nonsense, but watching this made me realize how much I missed the peace and quiet. It’s like they’ve been broadcasting figure skating until now.

The start-finish straight isn't particularly long, but it features a long, very gentle—basically incredibly fast—approach. That makes overtaking with DRS (when you have a significantly faster car) pretty straightforward.
Mercedes is about a second per lap faster than Ferrari and Toro Rosso, and probably 1.3 to 1.5 seconds ahead of Aston Martin and Alpine.
So, conditions were perfect for overtaking. Fine, let people scream about the passing; it's a race, after all. But not once did they mention the car advantage, the track conditions, the new engine, or the fact that he had a 4.4-tenth edge over Max from qualifying... Amateurs. Pathetic.

Lewis was definitely feeling inspired today, but we should probably give credit to Bottas and Carlos Sainz for holding off those Red Bull attacks.

fadedwalker18 said:Lewis will never be in the same league as Senna.
He simply capitalized on the hybrid era with Mercedes. That’s the whole story. Any driver with his talent from that generation would have done the exact same thing in his shoes. We're talking about guys like Alonso, Vettel, and Raikkonen. The man is talented and lucky, certainly, but that's where it ends.

He can apply for a Brazilian passport, wave the flag, or rack up five more titles, but he will never *be* Senna. There was only one Ayrton Senna—irreplaceable, untouchable, and beyond comparison.

So, sir (or whoever), Lewis should head back to the UK and keep up the act there. Or better yet, go to Hollywood and film a biopic about himself as the greatest F1 driver to ever live.

Legends like Jim Clark, Juan Manuel Fangio, and Jackie Stewart are in a class of their own for him... he only caught Michael Schumacher on paper.

And honestly, I'm still wondering how he didn't beat Rosberg in 2016. He must have taken a nap during one part of the season, if I recall correctly...

I don't recall Hamilton saying he *is* Senna, just that Senna was his inspiration. Even his helmet design early on was a nod to him. Americans love him, and that's that. Everything else is just a product of your obsession with hating Hamilton, which is frankly unhealthy. It creates unnecessary tension and isn't particularly kind, goodness knows.

I know how it goes. I used to be exactly like you.🤦

I have put together a little collage of photos featuring drivers with their DRS wide open, taken directly from the broadcast, and I must say, I am struggling to see how Lewis's rear wing gap appears any wider than anyone else's (the top left image shows Lewis during the Final Round, while the top right depicts him during the earlier sessions):