F1 Italian GP - Monza (Sept 2, 2018)

Henry Wilson34 said:All this talk about Ferrari being faster than Mercedes-Benz right now is nothing but pure propaganda. Honestly, Ferrari is just good enough to show up and be seen, but they aren't even close to being better. It doesn't matter if Ferrari has a stronger engine if they’re still stuck with these kinds of strategists, bosses, and pit crews.

And look, when you bring up Vettel and 2012, how old was Vettel back then compared to an established, seasoned champion like Alonso?
I mean, Vettel 2010 and 2011 basically tore the field apart; if I recall correctly, he only missed out on maybe ten pole positions over those two seasons.
Plus, unlike Lewis Hamilton who has a legitimate wingman in Valtteri Bottas—who clearly doesn't mind playing second fiddle to Lewis Hamilton—Vettel had to fight not just the other teams, but also Mark Webber and all those annoying team orders. And you're seriously trying to tell me he wasn't dominating?

At the end of the day, the geniuses over at Red Bull brought in Ricciardo and gave him everything he needed in 2014 instead of continuing to back the four-time champ who had been driving for them all along.

After the final race in 2010, Vettel was leading the championship for the first time in his life.😉

I completely missed this earlier—Force Stroll has already overtaken Sauber and sits nine points ahead now. 👍 At this rate, they'll probably cruise into 6th place in the standings without much trouble.

Drew Bennett68 said:The guy basically handed over points because of some groundwater issue.

Sergey Sirotkin 👋

electriccanyon6 said:Unfortunately, it’s the truth. I’ve been a Ferrari fan forever—at least 20 years now. I've loved Formula 1 since I was a kid.

Even though I've always found Lewis Hamilton a bit difficult to like, he really is the best F1 driver in the world.

No worries, man. Respect. If only there were more objective people here so we could have actual discussions instead of just constant fighting. You have my support.🙏

edit; It won't be long before they start coming after you even harder. Hang in there.🙂

I’m really not one to go around labeling someone the greatest driver on the planet 😉, but let’s be real: right now, he’s outperforming Vettel, Raikkonen, and Bottas, all while driving essentially identical machinery—or rather, a car that’s just a hair behind the best one on the grid...

darkmarlin16 said:Sergey Sirotkin 👋

Every single one of the 20 drivers walked away with points, which actually isn't a bad outcome at all, is it?

Sergey Sirotkin is honestly such a cool guy, way more likable than Vitaly Petrov or Daniil Kvyat

Henry Wilson34 said:.
Plus—unlike Lewis Hamilton, who actually has a solid wingman in Valtteri Bottas (who clearly doesn't mind playing second fiddle to him)—Sebastian Vettel had to fight his own battles not just against other teams, but against Mark Webber and those annoying team orders too.

totally brutal

So basically, Ricciardo totally outclassed Vettel when they were on equal footing—and the only reason Kimi Raikkonen isn't helping Vettel out is because he’s just as fast, and Ferrari can't figure out how to manage that since Kimi obviously couldn't care less about their drama.

Gary Palmer8 said:absolutely savage

So basically, Ricciardo just wiped the floor with Vettel when they were on level footing. And the only reason Kimi can't help Vettel out is because he’s either just as fast or actually faster, and Ferrari simply hasn't figured out how to manage that dynamic since Kimi clearly doesn't give a damn about their internal politics.

Seriously, what makes you think Kimi is better or even equal to Vettel?
Look, nobody is disputing that Kimi is a great driver—he really is. But he isn't better than Vettel. If we look back from today, like I mentioned before, Vettel was absolutely tearing through Lewis Hamilton in Belgium, lap after lap. Today, Kimi wasn't even capable of staying within a second, let alone challenging him. It wasn't a car issue for Ferrari, either; they weren't struggling with pace, and aside from the tire situation, I didn't see him making any moves on Hamilton even when the tires were fine.

electriccanyon6 said:Sebastian Vettel has thrown away so many points with his own mistakes this year that he’s basically handed the championship over. Even if you think Ferrari has a slightly better car, Mercedes-Benz definitely has the edge when it comes to drivers, especially with Lewis Hamilton leading the way.

I'm going to look at this realistically here.
Assuming most people can agree that the Reds might have even a tiny, microscopic advantage with their car, here's how it actually breaks down:
1. Ferrari is feeling massive pressure from both sides—internally and externally. They haven't had a decent season in ages, and now that they've finally caught a scent of success, they're straight-up shaking in their boots.
2. The Reds have to nail every single race perfectly, otherwise they just fall apart the second things get messy. That's been the pattern all season long—just look at the last four races, excluding Spa, and even then they completely screwed over Kimi.
3. The Silver Arrows make everything look effortless across the board; they operate with this chill, smooth rhythm. Their risk management is solid, whereas the Reds have zero sense of it and just constantly find new ways to screw things up.
4. Every time the Reds mess up, both Silver cars end up stealing points from Sebastian Vettel. And on the flip side, when things are even or favor the other side, how many times has Kimi actually finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton this year?
5. Luck is a fickle thing and you have to be in sync with it, but this year Sebastian Vettel is constantly fighting against it. He keeps hitting the wrong note, tries to force it back, and luck just keeps swinging the other way.

Thomas Davis98 said:Lewis Hamilton absolutely crushed that race. Truly impressive stuff. 👍 Both Ferraris crossed the finish line, and honestly, they had a flawless weekend. Absolutely clinical. But hey, that’s how you write a clickbait headline, right?
This season is giving me major 2012 vibes—or at least, if my memory serves me right, that was the year. It feels like we're seeing a total role reversal. You've got Sebastian Vettel sitting in the fastest car on the grid, while Lewis Hamilton has stepped into that Fernando Alonso role, basically wrestling a difficult car every single lap and capitalizing on every tiny mistake his rivals make just to stay in the hunt. If I recall correctly, Alonso had a massive lead after the race at Indianapolis, maybe around 50 points or something like that. We all know exactly how that story ended. 😁
While we're on the subject, I honestly don't get the people already declaring the championship over just because someone has a 30-point lead. Are we seriously ignoring the fact that there aren't just two or three races left? There are seven. That’s a full third of the season still out there. A 30-point gap is practically nothing in this context. Just look back at 2012—it’s a perfect example of how quickly things can flip. Personally, I still think Sebastian Vettel is the favorite here; if I had to put money on it, I’d say he’s sitting at about a 60-40 advantage. Before this last race, I would have gone as high as 80-20, but things are shifting. Once we hit Singapore and see the usual struggle from Mercedes-Benz, it won't be a stretch at all to see that lead cut in half.

When it comes to the race itself, I’ve gotta say, I completely agree that Vettel's decision to dive into that fight was just plain stupid. It’s like he learned absolutely nothing from making the exact same mistakes last year. Look, Hamilton knows that if he just cruises to the finish line, he's probably handing over the championship, so he has to take risks—he's got nothing left to lose. Vettel really needs to keep that in mind before he goes off the rails again.
Honestly, what’s the worst part about this? If we were looking at a podium finish consisting of Kimi Räikkönen, Lewis Hamilton, and Sebastian Vettel, things could have gone a completely different way. It would've been incredibly easy for Vettel to snatch that win. If the Mercedes-Benz guys had been too busy bickering or fighting with Kimi Räikkönen, they would've left the door wide open. Vettel would've had a clear track to stay out on those Soft tires much longer, which—let's be real—turned out to be the far superior strategy anyway.

Did you completely forget about the race, or did you just skip watching it entirely? 😁
Singapore is a nightmare for Mercedes, much like the MC. Last year, they ended up stuck in 5th and 6th during qualifying—which was a massive reality check considering how much they dominated the race back at the US Grand Prix. Ferrari and Red Bull Racing were clearly out in front of them. Honestly, Lewis Hamilton only managed to snatch that win because of the rain and some absolute chaos from Sebastian Vettel at the start; he basically inherited it. Looking at things this season, I’m expecting Mercedes to fall convincingly into third place again. My money is on Ferrari being significantly ahead of Red Bull Racing, though, simply because they've made the most progress.

I’m telling you again, everyone is blowing this way out of proportion. By the time we hit Singapore, that advantage could already be cut in half. Even though Sebastian Vettel had a bit of a mishap today, his best bet is still to play it smart—drive without taking insane risks and just focus on consistently finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton really doesn't have any margin for error here. If he suffers even one DNF, regardless of why it happens, his championship hopes are basically toast. At that point, Vettel would just need to finish ahead of him a few more times than the other way around to close the gap, and honestly, given the current power struggle between the cars, I think we can all agree that won't be an impossible task.

What’s the absolute worst part about this? Honestly, it's just... it is. 🤣 Valtteri Bottas didn't exactly put up much of a fight against Max Verstappen during the first stint. Because the team kept him out on track just to act as a buffer for Kimi Räikkönen, he ended up staying out much longer than expected. That actually worked in his favor since he finished with a set of fresh rubber, allowing him to take a real run at Verstappen—which, predictably, resulted in a penalty. Honestly, he couldn't have done any better than third place; if he had pulled the trigger on that pit stop when everyone else did, he probably would have just fallen back to fourth.

It all sounds great on paper, truly. In theory, everything works out perfectly. But honestly? I don’t see a single shred of evidence suggesting that Mercedes is actually capable of such a massive blunder. Especially when you consider the stakes—if a DNF is what Sebastian Vettel needs to stay in the hunt, then the idea of Mercedes handing him one is just laughable. You can't even put "DNF" and "Mercedes" in the same sentence without it sounding like a bad joke.

Honestly, it’s just another embarrassing chapter for Ferrari. It’s pretty pathetic when you think about it—they clearly have the faster engine under the hood, but Mercedes-Benz just eats them alive because their reliability is on a completely different level. They basically outclass them through sheer consistency.

But hey, no use complaining. When you’re a die-hard fan and you actually give a damn about a team, you stick by them through the absolute chaos until the very end. No matter how much they mess up.

#ForzaFerrari #ForzaVettel 🎉

Henry Wilson34 said:At the end of the day, those idiots over at Red Bull brought in Ricardo and gave him everything he needed back in 2014, instead of just sticking by the four-time champion they already had driving for them...

It seems like Red Bull loves building up stars, keeping them for a couple of seasons, and then hitting the reset button. I have a feeling Max Verstappen might be facing a similar fate...

Max Verstappen is going to absolutely wreck them all.

Let’s be realistic—today's penalty on Max Verstappen feels totally unjustified. I mean, back at the Silverstone Circuit, Kevin Magnussen didn't get flagged even though he shoved Fernando Alonso off the track by about a car and a half (check the image and link below), and he was halfway off himself.





So, the Alpine driver escapes punishment for that—I guess the stewards didn't even bother looking at it—yet today, Valtteri Bottas kept all four wheels on the tarmac. We all know how track limits work around here; he was clearly within them, which means Max Verstappen was definitely in the right—he gave him plenty of room, maybe even too much:



Besides, Bottas basically just slammed into Max and forced his way off ☕ If he had actually respected the track limits the way he does during qualifying—where the guy practically drifts toward the grandstands at every single turn 🙄—they both probably could have cleared those corners without issue. But honestly, Bottas has been getting on everyone's nerves for a while now, and it seems like Mercedes gets a bit of preferential treatment from the officials. Double standards, I suppose.

(I'm just passing along what I caught live from Sky Sports) Max got hit with a penalty for cutting the braking zone, and he’d already been given a warning during that first little "encounter" when he popped out and clipped the corner too aggressively.

And honestly, Magnussen is just useless. He basically sabotaged himself during that mess with Perez today. 🤦 Plus, Alonso dominated him again—pretty much the same thing we saw during qualifying yesterday. 🤣 I'd bet my life that Lance Stroll will become WDC before Alpine actually wins a single Grand Prix. I'm certain of it.

Timothy Castillo6 said:(quoting what I heard live on Sky Sports) Max got a penalty for leaving the braking zone.

What braking zone violation? 🤔 When did that even happen today—aside from being imagined by the stewards?

He turned into Bottas.

Not really. To hit a sharp right-hander properly, you have to drift slightly left first—it's just physics. The faster you go, the more you need that wider arc to prevent the rear end from sliding out and losing control. As for the penalty, it basically means Max had to brake and let Valtteri Bottas through without fighting for it. That’s what the penalty actually implies.

Actually, Kimi did the exact same thing during his qualifying lap at that specific corner—he swung wide to the left to set up the entry for the tight right turn. It is physically impossible to take a corner like that at speeds over 60-40 miles mph without doing it—well, any sharp turn requires moving to the opposite side beforehand to widen the radius: https://streamable.com/3ztyy



If you look at how far Kimi drifted left at the exact spot where today's "incident" happened, imagine Bottas being to the left of Kimi. Bottas would have been off the track entirely. Max was a full car width further to the right than Kimi was in that video before entering the turn. Bottas had plenty of room against Max, and Max certainly wasn't diving into him. In today's situation, Bottas was exactly where Kimi was. On that screenshot above, Max was to the right of Kimi. Here is the image again for comparison:



Max getting penalized is nonsense.

I mean, if this imaginary maneuvering in the braking zone is going to be penalized, then everyone from P1 to P19 should get flagged—since every single driver does this at almost every corner on every track during a race. Only Position 20 doesn't have anyone to maneuver against, obviously.

So you're posting a clip of Kimi's flying lap from qualifying and then trying to compare it to the actual battle for position during the race? It’s apples and oranges... There is absolutely no connection between a car being alongside you and the racing line. If you want an ideal entry into that corner, you have to move as far left as possible, and if someone happens to be sitting right there, well, that's on them, I guess...

Honestly, he’s only at fault because he’s trying to defend his position in a scenario where everyone—including a wild driver like Kevin Magnussen against Alonso—has always been allowed to do the same (plus, Kimi's flying lap was just the standard racing line everyone takes) 👍 He probably should have swung even wider to pull a Romain Grosjean in Spain and slam into Valtteri Bottas while being calmly overtaken, since Max isn't defending 👍

Another one for the books: https://streamable.com/dw4co

Perfectly clean. The rules state you have to leave enough room for a full car width in situations like this. Max did exactly that—actually, he gave even more space than required. If Valtteri Bottas can't time his braking, that's on him, yet Max still gets penalized. At least now we know how to drive from here on out—just play kamikaze and ram everyone, because the guy in front will always be the one penalized 🙄 Though, I suppose that only applies if you're driving for Mercedes, since the rules don't seem to apply equally to everyone 🙂

And just as a quick reminder, Sergio Perez wasn't penalized today for doing the exact same thing Magnussen did; he actually smashed a good chunk off the car 😁 Alpine messed up just like Bottas did, but the issue is they aren't in a Mercedes, so the stewards see no reason to review the situation or hand Perez a penalty 😬

And why wasn't Lewis Hamilton penalized in China when he did the same thing to Max? Oh wait, I think we all know why 🕺