F1 Italian GP - Monza (Sept 2, 2018)

stormybadger8 said:He knew they weren't going to order Kimi to move out of the way. I mean, obviously. Even a rookie could see that coming from a mile away.
arrivaben absolutely worships Kimi, while he's definitely not exactly the biggest fan of Vettel...
It’s pretty obvious Vettel was asking to be pushed out, and he finally got exactly what he deserved.
I don't see why anyone would be that aggressive right out of the gate, especially toward Kimi Räikkönen. At the end of the day, Lewis Hamilton is just the fallout from all that.

If he hadn't gone full throttle right after the start, Lewis Hamilton would have eaten him alive. That's how he managed to clear that first chicane. If he’d just kept that same pace and stayed tucked in behind Kimi Räikkönen until the next turn, things might have actually played out differently.

When it comes to team orders, someone needs to go. It’s clearly not working at Ferrari.

stormybadger8 said:At one point, he was trailing the leader—I think it was Kimi Räikkönen—by about 42 seconds. That’s a massive gap.
If that race had gone five laps longer, I honestly don't think Kimi Räikkönen would have even cracked the top 10. It’s just ridiculous. How do you lead comfortably for more than half the race only to get overtaken on track by a kid like Sergey Sirotkin? Absolute joke. 😵

I think Kimi Räikkönen’s pit stop was handled perfectly, honestly. The whole point was to keep him ahead of Lewis Hamilton, and that's exactly what happened. Sure, Valtteri Bottas was waiting there, but he would have been waiting regardless if they had gone with a different strategy.

stormybadger8 said:It was obvious he wasn't going to order Kimi to move out of the way—anyone with half a brain could see that...
arrivaben clearly adores Kimi, and they aren't exactly huge fans of Vettel either...
It’s pretty clear Vettel asked to have him moved, and he just got shut down...

If things are really playing out the way you say, I honestly hope they send Vettel off to some other team soon and bring in someone else instead.

I don't think he could've held off Lujo for those last two laps on the super softs—he probably would've gotten passed on them too. Proof? As soon as Kimi broke away, Lujo clocked a lap that was at least a second faster (maybe even more). I guess Ferrari is just eating through tires way faster than the new Mercedes-Benz setup, or maybe Kimi didn't get them up to temp quite right... maybe he overheated them, and after that, they just fell off compared to Lujo's pace

Jack Kelly5 said:Anyone expecting smart, composed moves from Vettel clearly just started watching F1 yesterday.
#DontCrackUnderPressure

#DontCrackUnderPressure Back then u RB, he was driving a car that had great launches and enough pace to break away from the pack after just two or three laps.
That’s why he looked so phenomenal; he wasn't even being put in positions where he'd make rookie mistakes.

Richard Walker38 said:Looking at the stats for Singapore, we should probably set Sebastian Vettel aside for a moment, especially since Mercedes has been absolutely dominating there over the last two seasons. It’s going to be a nail-biter.

It’s going to be intense regardless, but he really needs to close that gap to within about 10 points.
Right now, there's a 30-point cushion. If Vetel takes the win in Singapore and Lewis Hamilton comes in second, the gap drops to 23. If third place gets 20 and fourth gets 18... well, realistically speaking, we're looking at needing four or five more races just to get back in striking distance, leaving maybe one or two left to actually fight for the championship title.

Honestly, Vettel’s only prayer at this point is that Hamilton pulls a DNF—which, let's be real, almost never happens. I think he already had one DNF earlier this season in Austria, but before that, I can't say I recall another one.

fadedpanther51 said:Honestly, Vettel's best bet is praying for a DNF from Hamilton—which is pretty rare. I think he already had one this season back in Austria, but I can't quite recall the one before that.

Right—that one in Austria was actually his first DNF after a streak of about 33 or 34 races.

What a driver🙏

What a strategy🙏

I honestly still can't wrap my head around how they managed to screw over both of them from third place—and right in the middle of the US Grand Prix in front of all those Ferrari fans, too. The entire pit wall (Arivaben, Vettel, Kimi...) should probably just hand in their badges tomorrow...

And let's not even get started on Vettel spinning out at Turn 2—absolutely priceless 🙂

Bottas was definitely the driver of the race in my book. Solid performance all around. It’s a shame Vettel reacted like that after the contact—it would have been great to see Lewis Hamilton fighting between two Ferraris. We always seem to miss out on seeing those two go head-to-head.

Poor Sirotkin... absolutely nothing.
Great job. Kevin was terrible.
Let's go to Singapore!

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...

crimsonhawk23 said:Yeah, that win in Austria was his first one after a 33 or 34 race streak.

In those 30-plus races, he had a million close calls and nothing ever happened to him. There's an old saying—once something is built solid, nothing can break it.😁

Lewis stayed glued to Kimi, but he just couldn't find a way past him. Throughout the first 23 laps of the opening stint, he didn't make a single move to attack. It all felt a bit lackluster, mostly just closing the gap until they hit the final stretch toward the finish line.

swifttiger75 said:Bottas was definitely the driver of the race for me—just nailed everything. It’s a shame how Vettel reacted after that contact, though... It would've been pretty sweet to see Lujo sitting between two Ferraris. We always seem to miss out on seeing those two go head-to-head...

???

So, was there a duel? And did Vettel lose his cool? At Spa, Hamilton lost... So how could there not have been a duel?

I think after this race, it’s pretty obvious who the top driver of this generation is—not that there was much of a debate until now. Sebastian Vettel simply can't hold his own against Hamilton when the stakes are actually high.

Strategy is total garbage—I said it then, and I’m saying it now. It feels like the Ferrari strategists only just figured out how a "free pitstop" works during a VSC or an SC this year. Honestly, there's no point in dissecting their decisions when they couldn't grasp the basics until now.

Kimi Raikkonen is a driver I genuinely like, both on and off the track; I love his driving style, and it honestly breaks my heart that he can't quite find that old Kimi magic again. But let’s be real: it’s time to part ways. Putting everything else aside, Vettel was absolutely shredding Hamilton last race, gaining ground every single lap. Today, Kimi couldn't even manage to stay within a second of him, let alone fight for anything meaningful. That’s just not the standard expected of a Ferrari driver.

I have to thank him, though, because he proved I made the right call back when I signed Vettel to Ferrari and insisted that Kimi should be openly labeled as the second driver.

That hesitation cost us both the driver's title and the constructors' championship. Today, we (Ferrari) lost it all. There is zero chance that Mercedes and Hamilton are going to slip up from here on out, especially since we desperately need them to suffer a DNF to have any hope left...

Man, today's race absolutely blew me away; I was fully geared up for a total snooze-fest, but it turned out to be incredibly gripping. It’s honestly such a shame we didn't get some rain to fall, because then maybe Ferrari would have faced an even more pathetic embarrassment than they already did.

Does anyone happen to know what went down with Alonso's car?

Jason Campbell70 said:Don't let a win go to your head, and don't let a loss crush your spirit. 👍

I saw someone post that exact same sentiment during the discussion about Belgium—back when people were practically handing out red cards and calling everything a total scam just because Vettel managed to pull off a win.

To be brutally honest, I have no clue what Arivabene is even pretending to do anymore. For goodness' sake, give someone else a shot; you can clearly see things aren't working this way.

As much as he gets under my skin, you have to admit that alongside Toda during the Schumacher era, Toto Wolff is hands down the best team principal I've seen in all my years following F1.

Robert Cox46 said:Someone actually posted this same thing on the Belgium thread back when people were losing their minds over Vettel's win—throwing out red cards and calling it a total scam.

Honestly, where's the drama now? 🤣 I don't see anyone here going overboard about how Hamilton drove. If anything, Massa and Rosberg talked up that drive way more than any Hamilton fans ever did!