100% on the money wakka with the summary. Just another dig at the Halo as I still havent grown to accept it. Applying the absurdly stupid logic of It was brought in to prevent injury yet could do nothing to prevent this one.
I really don't see the fuss about the halo, I don't really 'notice' them anymore and we're only 2 races in. So much has been done for driver safety, why do people hate it so much when it could save drivers lives?
..and Maldonardo, Palmer, Badoer, Yoong, Stevens, Mehri and a lot of other fluff from the Virgin/HRT/Caterham era. A few drivers have been slow at getting up to speed but got there in the end eg Vandoorne, Grosjean, Perez (McLaren era) I'm not against driver safety, I'm against how stupid it looks when the aero screen not only looks better but would also be better at stopping flying debris like the kind that hit Massa. Even if it protects the drivers head, shattering carbon fiber shards will still do damage
Some observations: The race was Ferrari's to lose. After Merc knew that Lewis was going to incur a penalty, they set up his car for race pace, rather than front-running. A recovery drive to third was as good as that would become. I am a bit miffed that Merc told their drivers to push so late only. It was clear that Ferrari was going to try to keep Seb out from the second Kimi retired. The correct response to that would have been to push Vettel as hard as possible. Of course, there's probably more that went into that decision, though.. That all said - the 4-wide overtake by Lewis was stellar. I am happy that STR and Haas (at least one of each) outdid McLaren. I've harboured the suspicion that McLaren's unwillingness to compromise hampered Honda, and therefore the last two terrible seasons for McLaren were at least partially self inflicted. KMag b*tching at Grosjean was appropriate, IMHO... different strategies, and it seemed like Grosjean was staying in front "to prove something".. .this can't be doing his career any favours. I DO like the SKy footage these days. They have good info on screen. I also liked what Haas did to the Halo from the on board camera's perspective. Seeing a driver name and number there makes sense.
The teams have no one to blame but themselves. The FIA asked them to come up with solutions to the problem and they all dragged their heals and sulked, hoping it would go away. The only viable solution they could reliably install by this season was the Halo, so thats what we got. I don't think it looks too bad, i especially like what Haas did putting the driver names on theirs. I agree that the aero screen looks and would work better on the car. Lets hope it ends up in the 2021 regs.
Well that brought back memories of the 2014 season when Ricciardo was the one who picked up all the pieces when the competition messed up.
He did say last week when you've got the opportunity Bottas had he would have sent it, most though yeah right, easy to say but I think he showed that he probably would have and it was great Ferrari screwed up a bit today.
Hamilton needs to eat a burger and get his mojo back... he [and his side of the garage] seems all over the place... Hamilton seems to have spent the last 3 races asking on team radio 'what the hell just happened?'
So Max has had three unforced errors in a row now. Kvyatt was fired for less than that and Kvyatt beat Ricciardo in 2015, an achievement Max has yet to unlock. Amazing what having your dad be friends with the team owner can protect you from. On a related note, all hail the smiling assassin!
I was utterly awestruck with Max at the beginning, thought he was the best thing since sliced bread. He's just trying too hard now and is going to hurt someone soon unless he reels it in. If there is a god he will let Daniel Ricardo win the WC, absolute best guy in F1 without a shadow of a doubt.
Lewis and Vettel etc have had their crashy moments on the way to becoming champs hopefully Vestapten goes on to a corrective path and not full Maldonado.
This season is getting spicy already. I think jos needs to have a word with max about patience. They were miles faster after the safety car tyre change and he had loads of time to take the win. He just needed to wait and pick them off when the time was right, as Ricciardo showed. I do like how he just owned up to it after the race though. More tactical errors from both Merc and Ferrari, although Hamilton should take some blame for not pitting. He could have made the call himself and come in, he had the opportunity too. I think he relies too much on info from the pit wall rather than feeling the drive. Maybe that could be something to implement to improve the racing, really restricting the radio communication to gaps and pit instructions, like when there was only pit boards. Non of this target lap time malarky, let the drivers feel the tyre deg and judge that against the gap.
It does sometimes feel like F1 races are micromanaged to death... Manage tyres, manage fuel, manage ERS usage, manage the gap to the car in front, to the car behind, to the cars several places behind in case you need to pit, manage blance, manage other balance, manage the engine...
TBH, I'd rather he did win it. All the talk is about who is going to get to five WDCs first, Lewis or Seb? - dismissing all others' chances of winning a title. Pisses me off. Alonso would be even better - just to stick it to the pair of them.
