Formula One

On the contrary, that race was an excellent example of a recovery drive there by Hamilton.

Absolute stonker of a race from start to finish - particularly loved to see Alonso defending so beautifully over so many laps. Every point that team got this weekend was well deserved.

I really hope Alpine build a car that puts that pair at the front more often going forward.

With regards to Vettel's disqualification, did the team take their eye off the meter towards the end? I noted Vettel wasn't told to park the car until the end of the cool down - when other teams have been short they've advised the driver to park just over the finish line. Also the line in that report about there apparently being another litre in there is rather mysterious... or disingenuous which is probably more in line with what I'd expect tbh.

Not for a moment suggesting Vettel shouldn't have been disqualified, but it does make Bottas' 5 grid penalty seem rather piffling. Either way, if his fate wasn't already certain it's got to be now.

What a brilliant race. Again, not the result I wanted at the start of the race, but as an F1 fan, it was brilliant and almost the podium I wanted when the race finished (Ocon/Vettel/Sainz).



Brilliant drive from Ocon, did not make a mistake all race, and kept a four time world champion behind, who was in arguably a faster car. He would be my driver of the day, had it now been for some brilliant driving by Alonso, who won the race for Ocon by keep Lewis behind as long as he did. If Lewis had got past two laps quicker, he would of won the race. Both drivers were brilliant, and it just mixes it all up.

Verstappen Vs Schumacher
Hamilton Vs Alonso
Ocon Vs Vettel

Great battles throughout the field, and drivers having to work to get past. No easy DRS passes this week, and it makes the passes feel so much more significant and earned.

Lewis had the benefit of being on pole for the race start and avoiding the mess behind him, but on the restart, being on pole put him at a big disadvantage. It was only when listening to George and the fact that the train of cars entering the pits would of caused him to lose several places anyway, you know what a tough call it was. That recovery drive took it out of him, and he deserved to be where he finished. I was also worried for Lewis on the podium, he did not look very well at all. I am not sure RedBull have the pace in the car, or Max has the experience to beat Lewis this year. I feel that Lewis is going to win this year now, but these experience for Max is what is going to help him win the Championship in years to come. Not wanting to wish time away, but next season, with new cars is going to be so interesting to see how things turn out.

Gutted for Vettel to lose his second place, I know he needed to push that last lap to keep Lewis behind but it felt like there was plenty of opportunity to save the additional fuel they needed to avoid being DQ. Penalty feels really harsh when Bottas and Stroll only get five place grid penalties for taking out several cars.

What can you say about the start, apart from that's racing. Bottas took three cars out of the race, almost a fourth, and Stroll took one car out, and spun a few others. Both were mistakes, mistakes you would not expect Bottas to make. Taking out both Red Bulls is something I doubt he could repeat, but I was gutted for Lando who had made an excellent start. Nice of Bottas to say Sorry, and take ownership of his mistake but this mistake could be what hands Lewis and Mercedes the championships. Both Max and Perez are probably going to have to take a fourth engine now, so that will be a ten place grid penalty when that happens. I wonder if they will take that at Monza when the DRS zones will make it easiest for them to make up places?

Instead of bashing Perez this week (Which I don't enjoy doing, I just like the RedBulls because they have the junior program, and invest in developing talent, and with Perez they have gone a different route, and I dont think it has worked out), what has happened to Ricardo this year? He just seems so lost. Is Ricardo driving at his usual level, and its just that Lando is hitting new highs? I feel its a little bit of both, Ricardo being off it, and Lando being on it. Ricardo gave Max his biggest challenge at RedBull so he has the talent, he just needs to re-discover that spark over the summer.

RedBull mechanics did wonders getting Max's car back in the race, and who knows, at the end of the season, those two points could make all the difference. I did enjoy seeing Gasly pit and get the fastest lap at the end as well, is that the second time he has done that now. How important could Lewis losing those points be? The second pit stop by RedBull at 1.88 seconds was also really impressive. Max still managed to set the fourth fastest lap time of the race when he came in and put the mediums on for the final run, but 2.2 seconds slower than Lewis should how much time Max was losing with the damage he had suffered.

And double points finish for Williams, great drives by Latifi and Russell. I thought it was a great move by Russell at the start in the pit lane to jump all the other cars. Does anyone know what rule he actually broke by doing that? Great to see how much emotion came out of him at the end, after three years with the team, he finally helped them get their first points, and hopefully more will be coming after the Summer break. Curious how both Williams drivers set their fastest lap on the same lap, with George 0.7 seconds quicker.

What a race yesterday! Despite is being difficult to overtake in Hungary it often throws up some epic races and yesterday was one of them. Big mistake from Bottas at the start which caused all of the mayhem; conditions were tricky but you would expect Bottas to handle them better than he did. I suspect he was thrown somewhat by his poor get away off the line. Mercedes probably weren't too disappointed that he managed to effectively wipe out the two Red Bulls though!

Then the restart was just bizzare. It was incredible just how quickly the track dried out, and obvious that the slicks were the right tyre to be on. But if you are the pole sitter and your pit box is the first in the pit lane, you have a dilemma. Do you risk being the first in to the pits, potentially giving up your lead, especially as you will porbably have to be held in your box as others come in to the pits? Or do you just go to the grid and hope others do the same? It's one of those situations where you would much rather be the second place car as it just makes that decision easier. Seeing Lewis restart the race on his own was very strange!

Great recovery drive from Lewis though with a very good aggressive strategy from Mercedes. If he had got past Alonso earlier then he would have won, as he had such a pace advantage over the two leaders at the end of the race. Great defending from Alsonso though, what a battle that was! Lewis really did not look well on the podium at the end, I was concerned that he was going to collapse. Looks like he is suffering from long Covid. Hopefully it won't impact on any race performances, I'd imagine he is very relieved that there is no Singapore this year.

Huge credit to Ocon though for taking the win. He made it look easy and did not make a single mistake. It would have been so easy to lock up in to turn one and give Vettel a chance to get past at some point in the race but he did not. Fully deserved win. I really feel for Vettel and his disqualification.

Great to see both Williams in the points. As for Perez in the second Red Bull, it really is not working out. He is always so far of Verstappen in qualifying and he is not featuring as Red Bull would hope in the races. I don't know what it is with that second Red Bull seat. You start to wonder if the car is designed in such a way that it suits Verstappen's style of driving but other drivers just cannot adapt to it.

EDIT:

Just saw this and couldn't help but laugh:

It was a great watch. When something goes on to mix up the grid like that the races are usually so much more exciting, I'm sure this gives Liberty a real headache; they are clearly interested primarily in improving 'the show' and would like every race have to have this but any attempt to create it artificially like reverse grids, penalising being the best, goes against the ethos of F1 and would rightly be hugely resisted by fans and drivers I'm sure.

Rob said:

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I heard Aston Martin are getting Hulkenberg to recreate Vettels race to demonstrate he had the fuel left behind

This meme made me smile




Watching Max's start, I did not realise Lewis had a small moment at the start in turn one. I was initial thinking Max could of been a bit more aggressive and run deep in to turn one and might of got away with it but he would of need to brake a lot later and gone a lot deeper to have avoided Landos car. Maybe gone for the inside? I actually think Max had a very mature start, did not do anything silly or to aggressive and looked like he was happy to take his time.

Why cant we have Spa next week

Max missing half a car:


Wow, no wonder he was two seconds a lap slower.

Am I missing something here? Perez was 4th immediately behind his teammate in qualifying and then was taken out after a decent start due to an accident he was blameless for.

I don't really understand how his performance this race has been disappointing.

OK he is not quite on Max Verstappen's level, but I don't think they want him to be, and unless they decide to poach Alonso there are probably no drivers of that calibre available either. They missed a trick not doing more to retain Ricciardo but I think at this point Verstappen would be outperforming him significantly (this emerging threat must surely have been a factor in Ricciardo choosing to move on). Their biggest mistake was not offering Sainz the gig when Renault gave him the boot, but as much as I rate Sainz I think it's inevitable he too would have been considerably behind Verstappen in performance.

Tsunoda is the RBR driver I think looks most out of place having been promoted too soon from F2.

I am not saying Perez is a bad driver, I just think Albon would be doing the same job, and Gasly might be doing better. I dont think putting Perez in the car has given RedBull any benefit. On the actual race results you could argue Perez is doing a better job compared to Albon, but this year, RedBull have a car which on its day is better than the Mercedes, and a step ahead of other teams, so always going to make Perez look better when you compare him to previous team mates.

Its easy to be critical, and you don't know what is going on behind the scenes. I would just like to see Perez get a bit closer to Max, get that gap down to 0.3 seconds.

RedBull have a great junior program, but not enough seats to put all the drivers in, and they don't get given enough time to adapt. Not helped by the fact that Max jumped in to the car and just performed on his first day, I suspect there is some within the RedBull camp who feel if the other drivers can do that, they don't deserve to keep their seats.

I would love for someone to do a deep dive in to the difference in pace between the two, but I don't have time to do it.

Comparing Team Mates in last qual session

Perez was 1 second slower in Q1,
Perez was 0.9 seconds slower in Q2.
Perez was 0.6 seconds slower in Q3. Only 0.1 away from starting 7th. And only 0.06 in front of Gasly. Who was only 0.006 ahead of Lando.

Bottas was 0.1 seconds slower in Q1
Bottas was 0.2 seconds slower in Q2
Bottas was 0.3 seconds slower in Q3

Yuki is looking a little out of his depth in F1, but is in a great team to learn and grow. He was good last season in F2. I suspect he only got the seat because he is backed by Honda and there was some deal done with regards to the engines that required him to have the seat. Another season in F2 may of benefits him, I am not sure how much this years experience will help him next year with the cars changing so much, but experience is experience. I think this is the first time I was a little disappointed with his performance but lets give him time and see how he gets on.

Interesting race, it shows as well the dominance of Mercedes still, the fact he was passing people with no problems at times, It also shows how good of a driver Alonso still is, he was not giving up that place without a fight and all credit to him for it.

I think Perez is a good driver as is Bottas but I think the cars are clearly designed with Verstappen / Hamilton in mind and its hard to get the changes as a second driver

It will be interesting going into next year, Teams are already finding loopholes and circumventing rules, so it will be interesting to see how FIA clamp down on them

Nobody seems to have mentioned the fact Latifi finished ahead of Russell that shocked me

It always happens to George that his team mate out score him.

I think the issue for George was that after his cheeky pit stop move was ruled unlawful, he had to drop down to 7th place, while Latifi was in third place. This gave Latifi the track position, and we heard that George was willing to do what ever he could to help the team.

Considering George only finished 1.1 seconds behind, despite being 16ish seconds behind at the midway point shows George had better race pace, he was just not as lucky at Latifi was with his start.

Take a look at the stats here: https://www.racefans.net/2021/08/01...-interactive-data-lap-charts-times-and-tyres/

Interesting George is getting to do the Mercedes test for the 2022 tyres this week, it does feel like he almost has one foot in the Mercedes already, and it will be great to see how he compares to Lewis.

There are so many rumours around for it - I read the other day that Kimi is going to retire again, Bottas goes to Alfa Romeo and Russell goes to Merc giving Jack Aitken the Williams seat

Then I spoke to my dad last night who was a mechanic for McLaren so has friends all over the teams, he said he had heard Bottas had signed a new contract for 2022 but Russell would be there from 2023

Hope there's news on it soon

It's a tricky one for Mercedes. Bottas is clearly not at the level of Hamilton but he has shown that on his day he is capable of matching and beating him. Bottas is also the perfect team player which is important for Mercedes when it is a two horse race between Hamilton and Verstappen. Bottas is able to mix things up more in the Mercedes than Perez (or any other of Red Bull's second drivers in the last few years) have been able to in the Red Bull.

Russell looks a brilliant talent. He's proven that he has epic qualifying pace and there are encouraging signs that he has race pace to match. But it is hard to show that in the Williams. We all know that top drivers like Hamilton, Verstappen, Vettel (when at Ferarri) like to have a team mate who is not as fast as them, so that they are the defacto team leader. Do Mercedes want to risk upsetting the balance in the team in the first year of big regulation changes?

They have to be careful with not upsetting Russell too, He will be seen as the long term replacement for Hamilton, but if Red Bull come knocking, if Mercedes are saying another 2 years, I wouldn't blame him for taking up that interest

Rob said:

Russell looks a brilliant talent. He's proven that he has epic qualifying pace and there are encouraging signs that he has race pace to match. But it is hard to show that in the Williams. We all know that top drivers like Hamilton, Verstappen, Vettel (when at Ferarri) like to have a team mate who is not as fast as them, so that they are the defacto team leader. Do Mercedes want to risk upsetting the balance in the team in the first year of big regulation changes?

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He's also proven it in a Mercedes though; he was matching or bettering Bottas throughout the second Bahrain GP last Autumn and that was with less than a week's notice.

Mercedes have been lucky to have gone unchallenged in the constructor's championship for so long. If other teams are in contention they can't afford to have a second driver who is two steps down from the leading drivers, and that's where Bottas is.

Edit: slightly left-field idea from Villeneuve - JV suggests Valtteri Bottas to Aston, Lance Stroll to Mercedes | PlanetF1

WillPS said:

Edit: slightly left-field idea from Villeneuve - JV suggests Valtteri Bottas to Aston, Lance Stroll to Mercedes | PlanetF1

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Unless Laurence is buying Mercedes as well now I think that's a bit far fetched!

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...river-dan-ticktum.78MzATu4xsYrt55T4fMPbJ.html - Williams have released their development driver Dan Ticktum, he says its because there was no seat for hum next year, but apparently he said on Twitch that Latifi just paid to be in F1, he's also been critical of Norris too earlier this year again on twitch

I sometimes wonder whether Ticktum’s brain works properly. The amount of stupid things he says/does is somewhat worrying for a driver who’s that talented.

WillPS said:

He's also proven it in a Mercedes though; he was matching or bettering Bottas throughout the second Bahrain GP last Autumn and that was with less than a week's notice.

Mercedes have been lucky to have gone unchallenged in the constructor's championship for so long. If other teams are in contention they can't afford to have a second driver who is two steps down from the leading drivers, and that's where Bottas is.

Edit: slightly left-field idea from Villeneuve - JV suggests Valtteri Bottas to Aston, Lance Stroll to Mercedes | PlanetF1

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You're right, he did a brilliant job in the Mercedes in Bharain last year. I personally think he is more then good enough to have that second Mercedes seat and be very competitive. Maybe too competitive for now, mind. Depends on where Mercedes stand. And I guess they can afford to have a driver who is below the top drivers if their nearest competitor (Red Bull) do the same.

The idea of Stroll having a Mercedes seat is hillarious! I don't particularly rate him.

Wow, what a day.



Russell almost stole the show, and certainly was driver of the day.

Glad Lando is okay, he was driving brilliantly until his accident. Going to be interesting to see how he gets on from the back of the grid, but if the weather is anything like it was today, its going to be a really interesting race.

As much as Au Rouge and Radillion are fantastic to watch the cars going flying through, after all the incidents this weekend from the F3 race, W Series and F1, you can not help but feel like something needs to be changed at this section of track, I just dont feel like the run off space is enough, and with the cars bouncing back across the track, we have seen how dangerous that is.