I think think at this point Hamilton will be hoping for a longer season, and Bottas will be hoping it stays quite short. The longer the season is, more chance Hamilton has to claw back that gap.
Latifi snr has money in Williams and a 10% stake in Mclaren. Not nearly enough for him to get his son a drive at McRenault when the Bahrainis want to win things and they're getting interest from actual top tier drivers.
Leclerc and Verstappen have what it takes to become champions given the right cars. Norris and Russell too however I feel the former have just that little more talent.
Plenty happened, tho it looked difficult to overtake and not as much action as there could have been. Better opener than Australia has ever been. Bottas: Didn't put a wheel wrong Albon: Very unlucky, kinda agree it was slightly more Hamiltons fault as he had no reason to squeeze him further as he was clearly past. Verstappen: Unlucky. reckon he could have won it Hamilton: His alternate tire strategy might have worked with the number of safety cars, otherwise it made no sense at the time to risk it Leclerc: Created his own luck by not putting a wheel wrong Perez: Excellent race. Racing point looks strong but hard to gauge as Perez can get a lot from a car Stroll: *shrug* still overshadowed by his team mate. Hard to know he performed to the cars ability or underperforming compared to everyone else Vettel: Grosjean: "Hamilton earning $40 million a year unacceptable" everyone else: "you still in F1 is unacceptable" Norris and Sainz: Fantastic from the pair Gasly and Kyvatt: They where racing....didn't notice them Riccardo and Ocon: Thanks for making up the numbers Russell: He looks very good Latifi: disappointing Seems Ferrari engine users were the biggest losers without their engine shenanigans. Ferrari look off the pace, Alfa Romeo and Haas nowhere. Williams have closed to the back of the back maybe Russell can get in the mix Rough power ranking guide (whats everyone else think?) 1. Merc 2. Red Bull 3. McLaren / 4. Tracing Point 5. Ferrari / 6. Renault 7. Alpha Tauri 8. Haas 9. Alfa Romeo / 10. Williams
a Great race, with lots of drama and chaos up and down the field, those kerbs seemed utterly Brutal to the cars Utterly gutted for Albon though and watching Vettel pointing the wrong way when he makes a mistake always fills me with happiness seen a couple of people ponder if kvyat's failure was down to being run off the track by Vettel Thoughts ?
I don't think Verstappen will ever be champion. He couldn't get ahead of Ricciardo until Red Bull all but sabotaged Ricciardo's car, he's very fast but relies far too much on bumper cars tactics to get his way and doesn't seem to be able to think what he's doing through. Put him in a title fight and he'll lose his temper and end up smashing into the barriers over something stupid. Given the right car I think it's going to be Leclerc, Russell and Ricciardo (if the stars align for him) once Hamilton is gone. Watching Russell doing E-sports has been enlightening, the way he went from noob to dominating was so focused and un-dramatic, he's got the ability to think about what he's doing. Of course Lewis has to retire first, or someone needs to build a car with Mass Damper 2.0.
i did feel lewis was in a pretty no win situation, he was hard over on the steering so he couldnt turn more to avoid the accident, his ONLY avoiding action would be to hit the breaks, on the racing line, in the middle of a fairly slow corner, with the entire pack of cars about 6 feet behind him
So, what do people reckon, next week is a repeat of this week, or it'll be a micromanaged to death borefest as the teams try to avoid a repeat of this week.
Given what they might have learnt, it could be interesting. Ferrari seems to go well on the harder compound, but haven't run it with a high fuel load. As much as I loved the result, today's race was a fluke - unless reliability is suddenly a real problem, even for RBR. Racing point looks fast but brittle, as does Renault and a number of others. Will Merc be able to race as hard? They are limited on powertrains and it sounds like the gearbox stress sensors were lighting up like a christmas tree. I'm hoping for more of the same.
I think every team will be hammering home the message of 'stay away from the ****ing kerbs'. Whether the drivers take any notice is another matter.
Good race. Gutted mostly for Russel. He looked good in that Williams, and I am convinced he's better than Norris and Albon, given the right equipment. The way it's going now, though - I don't think he's going to be in F1 for long enough to prove that, mainly because he's driving for the wrong team. The mechanical gremlins aside, I think the Lewis/Albon incident is worth a second look. I honestly think that, while it's bad for Albon, Lewis was within his rights there. On braking, Albon was alongside, something which Lewis anticipated, but by the time Albon pulled in, Lewis would have been looking solidly left. After that, Lewis didn't open the steering and stuck solidly to his line. He was still on full lock by the time the collision happened. Put another way, besides backing out earlier (i.e. before turn-in), there was very little Lewis could have done to avoid the collision. A racing incident, if you ask me. On the upshot, this allowed Norris a podium with a fantastic lap at the end. Ironically, the second podium that McLaren inherits by virtue of Lewis colliding with Albon. Vettel was having a brainfart, that's why he spun. That was never gonna work. Alfa Romeo - a deserved fine for the tyre.
It'll be that or the teams protest to have the profile changed on them, I'd Venture Kvyat's puncture was a result of one of them being donked a bit too firmly too many times.
Another question ive seen floating around, did Bottas push Lewis into the pack rather than letting him through to try and get a few seconds down the road? Ultimately the right thing to do unless you play the ultimate team game. Especially if Ocon and Russel are being eyed as your replacements
Perhaps more importantly, due to having raced on the track already very recently they'll have no excuses for getting the setup wrong... could end up being very close due to that.