Taking the podium from Hamilton seems fair, but he should be placed at least one position behind Albon in a fair world. As it is Hamilton takes himself and Albon off the podium and Gasly and Sainz get the most benefit.
I also think the stewards should’ve been faster or the podium ceremony delayed so Sainz could’ve stood up there.
T.J. said:Taking the podium from Hamilton seems fair, but he should be placed at least one position behind Albon in a fair world. As it is Hamilton takes himself and Albon off the podium and Gasly and Sainz get the most benefit.
I also think the stewards should’ve been faster or the podium ceremony delayed so Sainz could’ve stood up there.
They have never done that kind of penalty before, and I don't see them starting anytime soon- cars get hit out of the race only to have the driver who caused it to go on and finish- happens all the time.
But I do agree 100% that they should have been a lot faster to decide. It's not as if it was that short between the accident and the podium- plenty of time to make that decision. And the commentators thought that's what Hamilton would get before he even stopped his car.
Hamilton was very classy in post race interviews taking responsibility and apologizing.
In reply to alfadriver :
Oh, I know they would never do that and that’s just not how things work. It’s like Kubica’s unsafe release. 5 sec penalty doesn’t hurt Kubica, but there is nothing they can do to give Max back what he lost.
I was frustrated that the commentators didn't really focus any time on Sainz. Not sure why he doesn't get much love in the sport. Maybe he is viewed as a Coulthard. A great teammate but not a championship winning guy. I think he is worth building a team around rather than building around Norris.
I hope Williams can do a similar comeback as McLaren.
Honda must finally be happy, almost a full podium of hondas.
So, if I go through some profiles, I won’t see the Senna quote about going for a gap?
Hamilton chooses not to defend himself Do you think your favorite driver would do this?
About that last stop for Hamilton Mercedes: Offering late stop to Hamilton was "plain dumb"
Didn't make sense to me for him to give up track position with so few laps left to go.
In reply to 06HHR :
Well.... other than forgetting that Gasley would pass him as well, and forgetting that there was debris all over the track and he'd have either none, one or maybe two laps left to take his advantage, it was a great idea to try to catch Max on fresh tires.
Oh, wait a minute... Yeah, it was dumb.
Now, knowing all that stuff, Lewis doesn't need points. He wants wins. It was kind of a "What the hell" moment, maybe he can get Max. The guy who really wishes Lewis hadn't stopped is probably Albon, because none of the rest of the spinny stuff would have happened to him.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
Definitely agree it was a WTH moment, but Hamilton just didn't have the pace to pass Verstappen. He could catch him, but if he got close enough to pass he wasn't going to stay ahead. That was demonstrated with the first stop for softs, granted he was on a used set where Verstappen had fresh ones, he just couldn't keep pace. Even his radio transmissions were how he just couldn't catch Verstappen, he needed more power. Unless Mercedes finds a new edge with aero or mechanical grip, or "party mode 2.0", it's going to be a long year for the silver arrows in 2020.
I think they stopped developing the 2019 car some time ago. When you clearly are going to wrap up the constructors championship with a few months left in the season, you can start work on the 2020 car.
In other words, I wouldn't worry too much about Mercedes pace in 2020.
DeadSkunk (Warren) said:LeClerc just looked like the more mature team player in the post race interviews.
This is not new. LeClerc has demonstrated all season long that he is surprisingly mature. I don't know how much of it translates to in-car composure, but he does seem to engage his brain earlier than his temmate when talking to people.
It'll be really interesting to see what the team dynamic looks like next year. It's quite likely that LeClerc will finish above Vettel in the driver's championship and if it were my team, I'd be a lot more confident in his ability to deliver. Will Ferrari adjust their team orders on a season-long basis, or just take it one race at a time?
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I don't know if it is more maturity or if Vettel just doesn't give a damn. Le Clerc always sounds like the type of guy a team would want as their driver and one who sponsors would fight over for endorsement deals. Not sure if that is just how he is or if he is just savvy when it comes to media relations/PR. Either way, he always impresses me in his interviews.
In reply to 06HHR :
No question Max was the class of the field all weekend. Lewis might have had a chance on the restart after Bottas blew up, but apparently everyone forgot to get the Merc batteries charged up, and thats a big part of why Max killed him so easily. I think it would have been highway robbery for Lewis to somehow win that race.
T.J. said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
I don't know if it is more maturity or if Vettel just doesn't give a damn. Le Clerc always sounds like the type of guy a team would want as their driver and one who sponsors would fight over for endorsement deals. Not sure if that is just how he is or if he is just savvy when it comes to media relations/PR. Either way, he always impresses me in his interviews.
From what I have read about him he comes from a somewhat well off family that put him in a place where he needed to relate professionally and formally with buisiness partners of his family. He also had education and training on how to handle himself with anyone he would bump into in Monaco just in case they were related to his family businesses. So as he entered racing and F1 specifically he already had the skill set to talk to anyone with political tact. I do think he is just as expressive as Vettel, just behind doors and off radio. Last year one of the commentators made mention of his preexisting connections with F1 just due to growing up in Monaco amongst F1 drivers/team members/sponsors execs etc.
He may or may not be as nice as he projects his image during the F1 interviews. I give him the benefit of the doubt.
In reply to Advan046 :
He is like Russel Wilson when it comes to projecting the correct image during interviews. Hard to tell if it is just how they are wired or if they are just really calculating.Either way, he seems like the type of person a team and sponsors would love to have based on his media interactions.
It is fun to have a Toro Rosso and a McLaren on the podium, but when there were no Ferraris left, one Mercedes with a time penalty and one Red Bull that got punted to the back of the field, they really just finished in their normal spots in terms of racing.
It was just their luck that the race where they were the best of the rest happened to be the race that meant they ended up with podium spots instead of 7th and 8th.
I have to concede a bit on this because Gasly out drag raced Lewis to the line which was unexpected and awesome at the same time. Gasly wouldn't have been ahead of Lewis (or anywhere close to him) though if Bottas wouldn't have blown up. I'm not trying to take away from their achievement, just pointing out that without all the bad things happening to 5 of the 6 top cars, they would've been 7th and 8th.
T.J. said:It was just their luck that the race where they were the best of the rest happened to be the race that meant they ended up with podium spots instead of 7th and 8th.
This is pretty much par for the course in F1, all that's really changed is that cars have become much more reliable, meaning that the number of races in which a lot of the front runners would DNF and open up space for the midfield to score podiums has gone way down.
codrus said:T.J. said:It was just their luck that the race where they were the best of the rest happened to be the race that meant they ended up with podium spots instead of 7th and 8th.
This is pretty much par for the course in F1, all that's really changed is that cars have become much more reliable, meaning that the number of races in which a lot of the front runners would DNF and open up space for the midfield to score podiums has gone way down.
This.
It's the old adage. To finish first (or 2nd or 3rd), first you must finish.
So the FIA has seized Ferrari's fuel system. https://formulaspy.com/f1/reports-ferrari-fuel-system-seized-by-fia-66367
I'm sure it will be returned by next week.
Just watched the Red Bull zero-g pitstop on the racer.com site. Way cool!
Jim Pettengill said:Just watched the Red Bull zero-g pitstop on the racer.com site. Way cool!
Outstanding.
What an entertaining season. Lewis appears, after the years points are added up, to have dominated, but that really wasn't the feeling I got through the season. I guess with Seb, Charles, Max and Valteri sharing the "second best", it didn't allow anyone to really mount a challenge after Val calmed down.
And reliability! For everyone, really. Merc blew up two, in my memory, and one of those was brand new in Kubicas car. I'm going to go check engine penalties for the season, but I don't think anyone had more than one grid penalty-even Honda.
Hard to imagine today's podium isn't next year's battle.
I was enjoying the DRS-free racing. Passes in corners instead of just in the straights!
I wish they would’ve shown Perez/Lando overtake on the last lap.
Hopefully next year either RBR or Ferrari brings a car that can compete with the Mercs.
You'll need to log in to post.
