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Formula One

Its all going off in the stewards room.

First Mercedes are in trouble for the rear wing on Lewis car opening to much, meaning a potential pit line start for the sprint race.

Then fan footage shows Max comparing the rear wing element on his and Lewis car, and now he has been summoned to the stewards. Some are suggesting that Max was tinkering with Lewis car, but I dont think that was the case.

I am not sure how Mercedes get out of this one, it failed the technical regulations, and as we saw earlier when Aston Martin failed the technical regulations due to a leak, claiming the part was faulty and should not do that is not enough to get you off the hook, but could they argue that Max broke it when he was touching it\looking at it?

Max has to see the stewards at 12.30 uk time, so we are not going to know anything for a few hours, so plenty of time for it all to go a bit crazy on social media :)

Video below of Max, make your own mind up what he's doing. .


No worse than what Vettel has done in the past though, but I guess the Mercedes has never failed a technical rule before.


Looking at the actual qualifying results, is anyone else getting a little fed up with Mercedes constant bluffing about speed and saying the RedBull is the faster car. The Mercedes car was .4 seconds faster than Max, and Bottas was faster than Perez. Both cars over the season are probably equal, or close enough that if you swapped the cars, they would still be getting similar results compared to each other. Mercedes and Lewis have just made more mistakes than RedBull and Max this season.

Gasly was fantastic again, and I really hope he can get on the podium again this weekend. I really hope that for 2023 he is back in RedBull and can give Max a run for his money. I think when Lewis retires might determine where he ends up.

Still not a fan of the sprint races in there current format. The risk/reward is off for me. And like DRS, it gets the faster cars out of trouble when they get qualifying wrong.

As they are keeping it, and increasing it to six events, I would much rather qual set the grid for both races, so the punishment for trying to make a pass and crashing is only in that race, rather than having to start at the back, and to give a little nod to the past, I would like the sprint races to have the initial F1 points system (8,6,4,3,2). More points on offer, more incentive to try and get an extra place.

Not using the result of the sprint race to form the grid for the feature race, also means that the faster race cars which made positions during the spring race, will have all that work to do again, can the cars in front do something different to keep the cars behind, will the extra fuel make a difference?

It will be interesting to see what they tweak to the rules for the Sprint Race next season.
 
IanB said:
Looking at the actual qualifying results, is anyone else getting a little fed up with Mercedes constant bluffing about speed and saying the RedBull is the faster car. The Mercedes car was .4 seconds faster than Max, and Bottas was faster than Perez. Both cars over the season are probably equal, or close enough that if you swapped the cars, they would still be getting similar results compared to each other. Mercedes and Lewis have just made more mistakes than RedBull and Max this season.
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The Redbull has clearly been the faster car at a good number of circuits this year, especially after the first few races. So many influences like air temp, track temp, altitude etc, means there isn't really such a thing as a definitively fastest car when two teams are as close as those two, but at many circuits Mercedes have undeniably had the second fastest car.

Yes, there's been mistakes and they might accumulatively tip the title one way or a other, but there have been plenty of MV wins that have been down to pure speed advantage with no notable driver or team errors and MV/RB have thrown away points from silly mistakes too.

Sprint quali sucks.
 
Max has been fined 50k for touching the Mercedes in Parc Ferme but did not cause any damage according to the FIA. Drivers and teams have been warned about future incidents after it had become the norm for drivers to touch and look at other teams cars.

Lewis has been DQ from Qualifying for failing a test on the car. It was a fault, not intentional. Mercedes were not trying to cheat. Mercedes did suggest that it might of been Max who caused the damage, but accept it was unlikely. Again, this is a fair thing to raise the question, and I am sure if it was the other way around, RedBull would be calling it out as well.

I don't think you can disagree with the punishments handed out, it is very unlucky for Lewis that something broke, which meant his car was outside the allowed parameters, but its no different to Aston Martins fuel issue, which again was something broken rather than trying to cheat the rule.

The good news for Lewis is that the Sprint Race determines the grid for the feature race, the bad news is he takes a 5 place penalty for the feature race, so even getting to the top 10, would mean starting 15th on Sunday.

We have two interesting races coming up.
 
If I were Mercedes, I’d be strongly suggesting to Bottas that him taking out Verstappen (either today or tomorrow) would not be a bad thing to do at all…..!
 
...but then Perez would just return the favour next time round, surely?
 
IanB said:
Max has been fined 50k for touching the Mercedes in Parc Ferme but did not cause any damage according to the FIA. Drivers and teams have been warned about future incidents after it had become the norm for drivers to touch and look at other teams cars.

Lewis has been DQ from Qualifying for failing a test on the car. It was a fault, not intentional. Mercedes were not trying to cheat. Mercedes did suggest that it might of been Max who caused the damage, but accept it was unlikely. Again, this is a fair thing to raise the question, and I am sure if it was the other way around, RedBull would be calling it out as well.

I don't think you can disagree with the punishments handed out, it is very unlucky for Lewis that something broke, which meant his car was outside the allowed parameters, but its no different to Aston Martins fuel issue, which again was something broken rather than trying to cheat the rule.

The good news for Lewis is that the Sprint Race determines the grid for the feature race, the bad news is he takes a 5 place penalty for the feature race, so even getting to the top 10, would mean starting 15th on Sunday.

We have two interesting races coming up.
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I'm not sure how a fault makes your wing open more than the specified amount unless it is clearly designed to atleast for milliseconds. Clearly Merc has been getting away with something for a little whilst, If only for a short burst.

Anyone hoping Bittas will do something tomorrow is forgetting how poor he has been for 6 months. Tomorrow will be damage limitation for Lewis if he can avoid trouble into turn 1.

Tomorrow is likely to be another gift for Max but hopefully we're in for an interesting race.
 
WillPS said:
Wouldn't you prefer it if they all raced?
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Of course I would. I was really looking forward to Hamilton vs Verstappen at the start of the sprint, it’s a real shame we didn’t get that but hopefully we’ll get to see it at some point tomorrow.

Epic sprint from Hamilton, and a good job from Bottas to make the softs last. Can’t help but feel it was a very poor spring from Perez, Verstappen showed how much faster the Red Bull was compared to the Ferrari with the gap he pulled to Sainz, but Perez never really got close.
 
That Mercedes is super fast, Lewis made it look so easy. His talent behind the wheel really comes out when you see how he thinks and tries different things to get past. Mercedes may not have the corner speed compared to RedBull, but the Mercedes is on another level on the straights and once they have track position, you are not getting past them. There is no way you can say RedBull have a performance advantage over Mercedes currently.

With the day Mercedes were having, I was half expecting Lewis to get a penalty for being so slow to form the grid. I am sure Mercedes were moaning to race control about it last week in Mexico :p I was disappointed not to hear an FIA/RedBull radio comms with RedBull moaning about it.

I would not be surprised if Lewis wins this race. 3 or 4 more laps in the Sprint race and he would of been third.

Still not sure what the point of the Sprint races are, just felt like we got the first 24 laps of what the race is going to be like tomorrow. Which I know is not true as the track conditions are different and fuel is heavier and so on, but its still going to follow the same pattern. I guess its better than watching an hours practice session, and the teams can still learn a lot from today, and make some changes for the race tomorrow.

Not sure if I understood correctly or not, but was Ted suggesting on the Notebook that the Sprint Series would be a separate championship next season? That is something I think really solves the risk/reward problem I discussed earlier. I guess the only risk is damaging the car for the main race.

At least I got most of the Ironing done tonight :)
 
I am not a fan of Lewis, and the Mercedes car with that new engine had a clear advantage over the rest of the field, but it was still a brilliant drive from him this weekend. Love him or dislike him, you have to admit he is one of the all time best. I As much as I would like Max to get his first World Championship, with drivers like Lewis put in this weekend, he deserves an 8th just as much.

You put two Bottas in the Mercedes, and Max would of run away with the championship. I think the same could be said for Max, put two Perez in the RedBull, and Lewis would be world champion. Both drivers have something which just allows them to get that something extra out the car. I know Lewis had the new engine, but he sailed past Perez when Bottas was struggling to keep pace.

Max made Lewis work really hard (maybe a little over the limit) to get past Max. Max did a great job keeping him behind as long as he did, and Lewis put the pressure on, and got past on the track. Once he was past he was a second a lap faster, so had he started from Pole, Lewis would of probably lapped the field.

The biggest impact of Max not getting a penalty, was that he did not lose second place to Bottas, otherwise the gap would of been 11 points instead of the 14. Its a real tough one, I have not seen enough angles, the on-board from Max is the important view. Lewis does take avoiding action, but would he of made the corner anyway? We have seen other incidents, Lewis and yellow flags, being investigated the following day after additional footage has been seen, I wonder if when the on-board from Max's car is shared, they will re-visit it. Who would want to be an FIA steward. They have been accused of been biased towards Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and now RedBull. No one loves the ref, and if the decision goes against you, the ref is clearly biased.

I dont think RedBull could of done anything differently today, the pace of Lewis was so great he was always going to get past, I am sure he got past drivers quicker today than in the sprint race. I was surprised RedBull pitted Max straight after Lewis, but they clearly felt track position was more important, and that worked for a certain period. Lewis would of taken more out of his tyres than Max at that point. Max should of aborted his second stop when the Williams went in, and done it the following lap. It probably cost him a second, maybe more?

It was great to see Perez and Gasly not have contact with Lewis, Perez pushed Lewis hard, and Bottas gave Max plenty of space at Turn 1.

I am not sure how Mercedes can lose the Championship now, I can not see any other result but Lewis winning the last three races. I dont know where RedBull find the straight line speed to combat the Mercedes.

It felt like a lot of the middle field battles got slightly lost in this race as well, with the focus being on Lewis recovery drive. Although we still managed to miss Lewis overtake on Leclerc.

Another tough race for Yuki, another race for him to throw away, and move on to the next one. Its a shame Yuki has not delivered this season, otherwise Alpha Tauri would of been in 5th place, potentially closing down on McLaren and Ferrari. It shows what a great job Gasly is doing, and unlike in Mexico, it looked like he had a more fun race, passing the two Alpines.
 
Brilliant race weekend in the end, with plenty of drama on and off the track. What a win for Hamilton!

The less said about the decision to not even bother investigsting Verstappen pushing Hamilton off the track (plus running wide at the corner where track limts were being enforced over the weekend to gain an advantage) the better. But we know that Verstappen can get away with pretty much whatever he wants on the track. He also knows you cannot weave like he did, got wanred for it, and seemed pretty happy with himself.
 
One thing that really annoys me about the media, is they try to portray Hamilton and this rags to riches story, that he grafted his way into F1 from nothing, when in truth he was sponsored by McLaren and Ron Dennis from a young age (I think 7) and they paid for everything from that age. Yes his dad did work a lot to get him into that position and hes a talented driver. But lets not pretend that the investments from McLaren didn't help a lot too.

He is a genuine talent and that shows in his multiple world championships im not denying that but lets be realistic in the fact that F1 is a rich mans sport, he may not have come from riches, but from a young age he had the backing of a lot of rich investors
 
Great race this weekend. Lewis has given himself a chance now

other news - Apparently Audi are buying McClaren
 
Tibble said:
One thing that really annoys me about the media, is they try to portray Hamilton and this rags to riches story, that he grafted his way into F1 from nothing, when in truth he was sponsored by McLaren and Ron Dennis from a young age (I think 7) and they paid for everything from that age. Yes his dad did work a lot to get him into that position and hes a talented driver. But lets not pretend that the investments from McLaren didn't help a lot too.

He is a genuine talent and that shows in his multiple world championships im not denying that but lets be realistic in the fact that F1 is a rich mans sport, he may not have come from riches, but from a young age he had the backing of a lot of rich investors
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Incorrect - he was 13 when he got into McLaren's development programme, and had already won a whole host of driving championships, some on multiple occasions. All this pre-McLaren success is justifably a rags to riches story, as it was up until that point entirely funded by Anthony and whatever sponsors he managed to partner with throughout that period. Meanwhile, Verstappen was born into a wealthy driving-influenced family - his father was an F1 driver, his mum a karting driver and his cousin a NASCAR champion and team manager! If anything I don't think the media stress enough how unusual and inspirational Hamilton's path into F1 truly was.
 
What a great weekend and kudos to Lewis and that car, the complete package at Brazil. You'd have to think Merc could just take a new engine for the next 3 races and still win the championship.

I thought Max's weaving was dangerous and just off the back of his pushing Hamilton wide was risking a penalty. He may still yet get one once the FIA work out how to download a video. That will be an interesting watch.

Personally I do feel that incident has highlighted how santized the sport has become with regards to attributing blame to incidents. The tattling between team bosses and calls to FIA is borderline schoolground behaviour and was novelty at first. Now it's just a bit juvenile to be honest. I think Max overstepped the mark as above but its still a reminder that these big incidents were "let them race" not so long ago.

Some big races ahead and perhaps Max should have taken a new PU with Hamilton at Brazil in hindsight.

Still a great season whoever comes out on top. If they do manage to figure out next year how to get cars racing together without DRS, it could be a better year ahead.
 
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