Maybe (other contender being Belgium)my favorite for in-car footage, but it feels like the on-track passes in the last 5 years is less than 10 total.Ferrari really messed up by mot changing Charles' gearbox and taking the 5 place penalty. Love the McLaren livery.
Monaco is a visually stunning race, but boy it's boring.
Wonder if that happens at many other circuits but man I was happy for Lando.Norris deserves a big shoutout for holding off Checo.
Yeah even some F2 cars would be nice.My favorite part of the TV commentary is when they noted that Fangio won the 1951 Monaco Grand Prix with an average speed of 61 mph.
If you organize a race on the track with hot hatchbacks like Top Gear sort of did a few years ago, it would be a very fun race.
Yeah I watched the F2 highlights and seeing how many cars caused some yellow flags It's amazing how few there were in the F1 race. Even the amount of time Stroll jumpef the curb, he came out relatively unscathed.10 One final note. I could be wrong, but I get the sense that both cars get more reliable and drivers more proficient. The fact that other than LeClerc no one else had an accident (not even Mazepin!) in what is a very tough track is pretty telling IMO. It's been the same way since Imola. But while this is a positive development, it also makes races more dull as accidents provide variance that shakes up races. Maybe things change in the future. Obviously, I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt. But we need the gaps between cars to become closer so that races have some more excitement.
Is it possible that the Ferrari chassis/setup really likes the C5 tyre (or alternately, that the Merc really does not, and the Red Bull somewhere in between)? This is the first race where the tyre selection was C3-C4-C5 and the next 2 races will be the same. Baku is much higher speed than Monaco, obviously, though the old town section is very tight/slow like Monaco. Montreal is somewhere in between - the section by the Wall of Champions rewards pinpoint placement like Monaco, but there is still more track width.3. In all probability, Ferrari had the fastest car in this track which besides being surprising in and by itself, it's also surprising because Ferrari ended up being the fastest in a slow track. The last time Ferraris were competitive, it was on faster tracks due to their engines and straight line speed. Is this a fluke? Did they really work on their chassis so much that they now excel at corners and high downforce tracks? Can they become competitive for the title, if they improve their engines as well?
It's really weird to not have even a VSC at Monaco. I would think the odds would have been very nice on a bet of "no VSC/no safety car" for Monaco. Those restarts are often the only place where people feel brave enough to try to overtake - sometimes too brave, with cascading chain reactions of crashes and more safety cars and more possible overtakes.10 One final note. I could be wrong, but I get the sense that both cars get more reliable and drivers more proficient. The fact that other than LeClerc no one else had an accident (not even Mazepin!) in what is a very tough track is pretty telling IMO. It's been the same way since Imola. But while this is a positive development, it also makes races more dull as accidents provide variance that shakes up races. Maybe things change in the future. Obviously, I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt. But we need the gaps between cars to become closer so that races have some more excitement.
The tyre failures on Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll’s cars that sent both drivers into the wall at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix may have been caused by debris on the track in Baku, according to initial investigations by supplier Pirelli. Via the independent.Hadn’t checked the results or watched this one yet until tonight. What a cluster. Has there been much reporting on what went wrong with the tires? Both Lance and Max’s crashes could have had much worse outcomes hitting the wall perpendicular at 190 mph.
According to the team radio, Lewis did turn off the magic, but accidentally re-engaged it on an upshift.Almost as bad as Hamilton leaving in the break bias magic button.
I watched a couple of videos about this and apparently, after FIA caught Ferrari injecting more fuel in the engine that it should, Ferrari lost 1 sec per lap in performance. They have managed to gain back around 20% of that.Is it possible that the Ferrari chassis/setup really likes the C5 tyre (or alternately, that the Merc really does not, and the Red Bull somewhere in between)? This is the first race where the tyre selection was C3-C4-C5 and the next 2 races will be the same. Baku is much higher speed than Monaco, obviously, though the old town section is very tight/slow like Monaco. Montreal is somewhere in between - the section by the Wall of Champions rewards pinpoint placement like Monaco, but there is still more track width.
I sort of wonder if the sidewall stiffness/construction of the softer tyres is different, which changes the suspension rates and the ability to carry lateral loads. There's 6 races of C3-C4-C5, 5 races of C1-C2-C3 (two of which are already in the books, and where the C1 tyre wasn't much preferred, I believe?), and the remaining 12 are C2-C3-C4. I can easily imagine a world where Mercedes thinks "we like the C2 tyre lets design for that, and the C3 secondarily for pit strategy options."
Or it could be what you said, that Ferrari decided to go for slow-speed tracks as their place to win.
It's really weird to not have even a VSC at Monaco. I would think the odds would have been very nice on a bet of "no VSC/no safety car" for Monaco. Those restarts are often the only place where people feel brave enough to try to overtake - sometimes too brave, with cascading chain reactions of crashes and more safety cars and more possible overtakes.
I think the Singapore layout is really the one to look at for how to make a "modern" street circuit with plenty of close-in barriers in spots but also plenty of width for overtaking. It's obviously not feasible to do something like that at Monaco though, so I don't know what they will do.
It was mentioned on the broadcast that sensors notify the teams when a tire is cut even before they begin to lose pressure. And yet, they had no warning about the failures we saw last weekend, which freaked them out quite a bit.Pirelli also mentioned that Lewis had an 8cm cut in the same tire location as Lance and Max. They are still claiming debris. Three tires, all in the same installation location in the car, all with the same compound, all cut by debris? I'll wait for the full report, but that doesn't pass the sniff test.
Yeah, and yet Lewis's tire was cut and Mercedes was shocked to discover it. It just doesn't add up somehow.It was mentioned on the broadcast that sensors notify the teams when a tire is cut even before they begin to lose pressure.
If Mercedes can't win a track that suits their power, they are in trouble. Red Bull are title favorites I think unless Merc finds an ace up their sleeves.Pretty telling that nobody discusses the podium.
The Merc strat guy apologizing to Lewis on the radio post-race was very telling. I think they just got beaten on strategy.If Mercedes can't win a track that suits their power, they are in trouble. Red Bull are title favorites I think unless Merc finds an ace up their sleeves.
I'd argue that he wasn't putting space because he was trying to preserve tires as it was considered to be a 1-stopper.Forget the Mercedes' strategy mistakes. In the first third of the race, when all teams thought it was a one stop race and Hamilton took advantage of Verstappen's mistake, Hamilton couldn't put any space between him and Max. When Verstappen pitted he was just 3 seconds behind Hamilton.
And lest we forget, Verstappen won pole position and Red Bull introduced a new power unit in this grand prix.
The margins are small though.
Point 2 was confirmed they were hoping to keep Bottas within 5 seconds in case Perez got the 5 second penalty. He was under investigation late in the race. Another miscalculation.Two comments:
-Nico said something in the post-race analysis before ESPN cut from Sky about how Lewis didn't even really make the pass difficult for Max, either by parking the car mid-corner or late-braking, or whatever - I 100% agree and was really surprised how easy it looked for Max in the end.
-And I am very very confused about why they didn't pit Bottas with 4-5 laps to go for a set of softs and try for fastest lap. There was plenty of time to do it (the excuses the commentators made were very lame, they were talking about it almost 2 laps after it could have first been done when Bottas failed to hold up Max for very long at all) and Bottas seemed like he had reasonable pace to do it, at least based on earlier in the weekend. They might wish they had that point later.
Well at least that sort of makes sense, even if they guessed wrong. Thanks.Point 2 was confirmed they were hoping to keep Bottas within 5 seconds in case Perez got the 5 second penalty. He was under investigation late in the race. Another miscalculation.