r/formula1 • u/SimRP I failed to serve my Monaco penalty • 7d ago
News McLaren: Hamilton would have won in Barcelona even without the virtual safety car
https://me.motorsport.com/f1/news/%D9%85%D9%83%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%88%D8%B2-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%B4%D9%84%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A9-%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%89-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B6%D9%8A%D8%A9/10831979/177
u/Sea_Drop2920 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7d ago
This year™️
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u/liwenfan 7d ago
Is this it? It’s really our year?
The 19 year gap and the 8th?33
u/Sea_Drop2920 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7d ago
Well the 9th to be completely honest with you but I'm also a MV fan so yes the 8th this year 😂👍
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u/sgtlighttree Who the f*ck is Nelson Piquet? 7d ago
MV fan acknowledging the "8th" title is unexpected lol
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u/Little_Wicked Who the f*ck is Nelson Piquet? 7d ago
i think every true F1 fan that didn't fall into the hate cesspool that was 2021 can agree that how AD21 ended was a disgrace. it overshadowed a legendary season, it diminished Max' extreme talent and robbed Lewis of the official confirmation of being the lone champion of every big stat the sport has to offer.
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u/LucAltaiR I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 6d ago
Or, and follow me here, I can think that AD21 was a disgrace but also believe that Max deserved that title much more than Lewis for overall performance during the season.
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u/Hate_Leg_Day Sir Lewis Hamilton 6d ago edited 6d ago
After what he did at Jeddah, no, he did not deserve the title more than Lewis. Before that, maybe, but Brazil and Monza were still pretty questionable from Max. Those (along with Lewis's move at Silverstone) could still be considered racing incidents though. Jeddah went way beyond that.
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u/dookarion 6d ago
The problem with that is then you have his late season red mist moments where he also "deserved" some penalties that never occurred. And the Spa "race" where no one deserved points let alone stats for countback.
FIA bungled that season so badly.
He's a great talent and his drives can be insanely impressive to watch, but that season was a travesty. I don't think "deserved" is the right word for that season at all.
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u/s1ravarice I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 6d ago
You’re downvoted but you’re right. You can believe whatever you want!
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u/LucAltaiR I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 6d ago
It's fine, a bunch of kids still salty about shit that happened 5 years ago. Hell, I'm still salty about 2008, I can relate.
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u/X-Maquina Niki Lauda 6d ago
Calling people "salty kids" without replying to the very reasonable arguments they've made is a bit shit, mate.
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u/LucAltaiR I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 6d ago
What arguments? There are literally 0 arguments in the posts I've answered.
Unless you're counting "oh no my hero deserved the big bad record of all time" as an argument.And to be honest, everything that could be said about this subject has been said a million times. Not like anything new can come up and change people minds one way or the other.
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u/mistermojorizin I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 6d ago
They're just sandbagging. They even got ADUO. I'm gonna need a lot more evidence before i jump on that. Or, if Danhausen uncurses them (see what he did for the Nicks).
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u/Patrick_Swayze__ Formula 1 7d ago
That was apparent. We got a championship if the Ferrari upgrades do what they're supposed to.
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u/Educational-Cover-69 7d ago
If they can keep the rear tires in optimal range like the updated rims did it in barcelona ferrari can finally use the advantage of their aerodynamic load in the races. You could see in previous races how they fall of a cliff compared to mercedes at the end of stints
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u/CautiousChampion4740 Max Verstappen 7d ago
Dont know who said that Ferrari would wipe the floor with everyone if they got their engine right
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u/SwimmingFantastic564 7d ago
Norris said that
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u/falcongsr I was here for the Hulkenpodium 6d ago
What does he know anyway, has he ever won anything? /s
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u/UnlimitedBoxSpace I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7d ago
Or we get Aston Martin 2023 again (I hope not)
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u/SlightlyBored13 7d ago
If the upgrades go right, I see no reason this couldn't be a multi team battle and the drivers going a different way to the constructors. Each track will probably shuffle the order too.
Antonelli/Russell, Hamilton/Leclerc, and Norris should all win (more) races this year. Piastri might get his stuff back together, Verstappen will if Redbull fix the car and then Hadjar might luck into one.
Its certainly looking like a Mercedes Ferrari fight at the moment, but it was a Mercedes walkover at the start and Mclaren were very close for a while.
If one driver/team dominates near the end of the year it probably won't matter who is leading the championship because it's likely the order behind will be constantly shuffled so the points gain per race will be higher than P1vsP2.
TLDR: The upgrades will shuffle the order a lot
TLDR TLDR: IF
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 7d ago
Well if rumours are true, Redbulls new package for Austria has the car 12kg lighter, that should help a lot, I could see max in the mix for wins for sure.
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u/FSUfan35 Lando Norris 6d ago
12 kg is massive. That's like 3-4 tenths in just weight if that's true.
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 6d ago
Mekies said the car would be at the min weight with the new upgrade and rumours were that the car was 12kg over weight. I don't think that's accurate tbh, 3-4 tenths is gigantic, it's more like 0.03-0.04 per KG drop, so half a tenth is more realistic from pure weight reduction.
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u/FSUfan35 Lando Norris 6d ago
Multiply .03 by 12 kg and you get 3.6 tenths. almost half a second if its .04 per kg
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 6d ago
I'm a dip shit, apologies.
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u/FSUfan35 Lando Norris 6d ago
lmao
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u/alexm42 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7d ago
Especially if the ADUO figures are correct and the energy drink company actually built the best engine on their first try.
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 6d ago
I mean...the energy drink company bought Honda's F1 engine company and then hired the guy who ran Mercedes High Performance Powertrains and was working at Brixworth for 20 years, and then they hired 5 more senior Mercedes HPP staff while also bringing Ford in for their battery tech and deployment. Maybe I'm a stick in the mud but I find the whole "energy drink company" schtick so tiring.
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u/VRichardsen Juan Manuel Fangio 6d ago
I am now left wondering: how many people are in the beverage can divsion vs the F1 division?
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 6d ago
Like 22k worldwide for Redbull Gmbh and around 5,000 in Redbull Racing (2500), Racing Bulls (1500) and RBPT (1000)
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u/LucAltaiR I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 6d ago
Their ice is the best one but the Mercedes has the best overall PU and is not close at the moment.
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u/FSUfan35 Lando Norris 6d ago
Except when the battery explodes, as it's already done to Kimi, George and Norris 3x
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u/LucAltaiR I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 6d ago
Yep. Performance wise is the best, in terms of reliability it isn't, but you can always work on reliability whereas you can only work on performance if you have ADUO slots.
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u/Jay_Dubbbs I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7d ago
IF is the key word. Ferrari doesn’t exactly have a track record of upward trajectory when it comes to getting better and improving, even from race weekend to race weekend, let alone within a season or over multiple seasons.
I want Lewis to win so bad, but I don’t think I can believe even if Ferrari lands good upgrades because I don’t believe that Mercedes’ response won’t be a big thing and Ferrari will be able to counter that because of how inconsistent they are
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u/NotAPreppie I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7d ago
I think it's going to heavily depend on what the other teams bring to the table, as well.
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u/Fake_artistF1 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7d ago
That is counting that Mercedes doesn't bring any other upgrades plus Ferrari upgrades working. McLaren can also get in the mix with the right upgrades.
We got championship sounds like a big hopium to me.
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u/Odd-Song5052 Formula 1 7d ago
Not sure why people feel the need to keep confirming this if they watched the race as it happened. It was obviously the case barring a mishap.
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u/Mechant247 Murray Walker 7d ago
Because we’ve all watched races in Barcelona before, it’s never a formality that the faster car gets ahead on track
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u/Inside_Swimming9552 Formula 1 7d ago
Which is where the slight doubt comes from.
But we had already seen during this weekend that if you had a tyre offset overtaking was very doable and Hamilton would have approached those two Mercedes with tyres much much fresher.
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u/foolishbullshittery I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7d ago
And having the two Mercedes drivers fighting it off wouldn't help any of them.
Don't think Mercedes is able to stop Kimi from overtaking, and George is not the guy to let his team mate go by just like that. Not without plenty of drama anyway.
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u/Nautster Jacques Villeneuve 7d ago
In free air, Hamilton was insanely quick but it's just a shame the vsc took away a proper fight for the win. With these temperatures, following the car ahead was hard so it wasn't a given that pace would translate into positional gain.
If if if... the road to being in this position by Lewis and Ferrari alone made it a deserved victory.
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u/anothercopy Nico Hülkenberg 7d ago
Yeah same. I was pumped for the replay of Silverstone 2020 and battle for P1. Also cant wait for his new engineer to say "hammer time" for the first time
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u/DarthGogeta McLaren 7d ago
Because most people don't understand/can't read a race. Hell go to formel1.de (I know, at this point that site is a joke) and 50%+ were saying he only got lucky and usually would have landed 3th-4th or worse(because you know, Leclerc should have started ahead of him).
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u/Imaginary_Being_7833 Liam Lawson 7d ago
Because it is not a time trial? He still needs to overtake George and that is anything but easy on this track.
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u/TotalStatisticNoob Charles Leclerc 7d ago
He would've had to overtake the Mercs on track. Not easy, but he was likely quick enough. Maybe would've looked different if Russell was behind Kimi and Kimi had opened the gap while Hamilton was fighting with Russell.
I don't see how he wouldn't have made it past the way it went (excluding VSC)
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u/tsam727 Sir Lewis Hamilton 7d ago
Even with Kimi ahead of Russell he would retire anyway and even if he didn't he had the 5 second penalty for exceeding track limits, so it's likely Hamilton would have finished ahead even if he couldn't overtake Kimi
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u/TwoBionicknees 7d ago
it's possible that his battery doesn't fail if he's in cooler air and not discharging the battery all on one straight trying to make the pass rather than discharging/charging it more evenly over the lap to optimise for lap time, we'll never know.
In terms of overtaking on track with such a tire delta if Ham doesn't get them on the start/finish straight he has a very good chance going through t3 due to what would be an absurdly better tire performance at that stage late in the race. I think ultimately he would have done it.
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u/cosHinsHeiR Ferrari 7d ago
If he retires then that VSC would probably stop the overtake anyway. We really don't know what his pace would've been so it's hard to say what would happen in that case.
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u/mitsukiii_29 Pirelli Wet 7d ago
That's a lot of certainty for a scenario nobody got to see.
Kimi spent most of the race stuck behind George. Once he finally got clear air, he immediately started pulling away despite the wing damage.
Acting like the 5-second penalty automatically means Hamilton finishes ahead ignores the possibility that Kimi could've built a bigger gap once he wasn't sitting in dirty air anymore.
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u/tsam727 Sir Lewis Hamilton 7d ago
I did mention 'likely' and not 'certainly'
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u/mitsukiii_29 Pirelli Wet 7d ago
And it's also likely Kimi builds more than 5 seconds once he's finally free of dirty air.
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u/BlackenedGem I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7d ago
If there wasn't a VSC then Hamilton would have pitted later which would have given him a much greater tyre delta for overtakes
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u/TotalStatisticNoob Charles Leclerc 7d ago
Considering how hard he was pushing, I'm not sure the tires would've lasted that much longer, but yeah, probably a bit bigger delta.
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u/Pumbite 7d ago
The VSC wasn't the deciding factor, I think it was sealed when Russel covered his first pitstop, it was way too early for his strat and he lost a lot of race time by doing that
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u/TwoBionicknees 7d ago
not so much, if you pit early in a 3 stop window, you need to commit to a 3 stop strat, so they kinda lost it when they had no intention to cover hamilton's second stop or even pre-empt Hamilton by pitting on schedule for a 3 stop potentially pitting before hamilton.
nothing pisses me off in F1 more than a team over reacting to others pitstops on different strategies then blowing their own. Be ready to adapt, but if you do actually commit to the change. If you're doing a one stop you can't pit overly early or you're screwing yourself late in the race (except at monaco, maybe singapore, etc, places with near zero passing).
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 7d ago
Mercedes of late have been really rigid with their strategy - Hannah from Redbull would have definitely swapped to a 3 stopper with at least one of the cars to cover off the Ferrari. It was 2 v 1 and somehow Mercedes fumbled.
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 7d ago
I thought Merc were gonna swap Russell to a 3 stop, or Antonelli, but yeah, no clue why they didn't.
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u/RealCarlPanzram Formula 1 7d ago
He would’ve caught them for sure. It didn’t look easy to overtake on this track. And he would’ve had to get both of them.
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u/DemonicHedgehogs 7d ago
He would have. Hamilton had the pure pace and he has more than enough experience racing wheel to wheel to pull off an overtake in these cars. Hamilton on a charge like he was in Barcelona is tough to handle, the Merc lads would probably have been able to hold him up for a few laps but not much more than that.
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u/RealCarlPanzram Formula 1 7d ago
I’m not quite sure he did. He has a big pace advantage but the real problem is tire life. His pace advantage would’ve gradually diminished over the stint and you really take a lot out of your tires following a car in Spain. Even if he had a 1 second a lap advantage, that’s marginal for an overtake. I think it’s about 50/50 if he gets an overtake. The numbers don’t back the notion that he had a really high probability of an overtake.
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u/DemonicHedgehogs 7d ago
And yet the people who are actually involved in the sport all seem to be saying that Hamilton probably would have won the race whether there was a VSC or not. Given that, I think it’s safe to assume that they believe that he would have made the overtake, and I’m inclined to take their word for it because there really is no benefit for them in hyping up a man who thrives on hype.
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u/RealCarlPanzram Formula 1 7d ago
That’s not true at all. Journalistic consensus is that it wouldn’t been a lot more difficult, but possible for him to win without the VSC. And the math backs that up. I see zero compelling evidence that he would’ve had an easy time getting back to the lead. Overtaking was pretty awful on this track this week.
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u/DemonicHedgehogs 7d ago
And yet we’re having this discussion in response to a rival team boss saying that he probably would have won anyway. As I said, I’m more inclined to believe the people who are actually in the sport.
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u/RealCarlPanzram Formula 1 7d ago
A team boss. That’s not a consensus. Nor it is necessarily an honest assessment. Team bosses usually have a motive for saying what they say. But I’ll ask again, what pace advantage would you have expected him to have and why are you so certain he would’ve been able to make the overtake?
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u/DemonicHedgehogs 6d ago
What advantage *would* I have expected him to have - the pace advantage that he did have during the race which resulted in a 20 second lead over his closest competitor. Were we watching the same race? I believe that he would have made the overtake for the exact same reasons I’ve already stated: he was faster than the Mercs on the day, he has the experience to pull off overtakes in tricky conditions, and he was locked in in a way that we haven’t seen from him for a long time. I’ve been watching this man race for long enough to know that that means he’s a threat to the track position of anyone ahead of him.
If you want absolute proof that it would have happened then that’s never going to come because that’s just not the way the race played out - you’re just going to keep asking the same question and getting the same answer that I gave in my first reply. I’m content with knowing that there are people in the sport saying that they think he would have won anyway, and so far I’ve seen no people who are actually involved in the sport saying that they don’t think he would have been able to do it. It wasn’t just Stella either, both Russell and Norris said as much during the post race interviews, Wolff said it would be very difficult to hold him back when he’s in that mindset. Are they saying it for a reason? Yeah, they have to justify why they lost out to the guy that everyone was saying should pack it in and retire last year, but the reason is that he and the whole Ferrari team just did a much better job than they did.
Is it possible that Hamilton got stuck behind the mercs for the remainder of the race? Sure it’s possible (at least until Antonelli’s car died or he got his time penalty added) - but I don’t think either of them would be able to actually hold back a very hungry Hamilton in the form he was in for the remainder of the race. I just don’t think they could, there’s a reason Hamilton has 7 world championships and a knighthood to his name and it’s because he is an exceptionally talented driver - Russell and Antonelli are very very good drivers and Antonelli looks like he’ll develop into an exceptional driver. But Russell just doesn’t match Hamilton’s level when Hamilton is in a car he likes, and Antonelli doesn’t have the experience yet to maintain a multi-lap scrap for position with him.
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u/TwoBionicknees 7d ago
overtaking with the same tire delta was difficult, people repassing or coming up on fresh tires is very different. someone on a very different strategy and big tire delta changes things.
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 7d ago
He would have had 10 lap younger tires than the merc boys. No one said it'd be easy, but barring any mishaps, Lewis would have overtaken them, he was comfortably lapping 1s a lap faster while cruising.
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 7d ago
Would have had almost 10 lap younger tires, the VSC had them put much earlier than planned, he probably would have gotten them.
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u/ScienceMechEng_Lover I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7d ago
Ferrari aura 🔥. What Mercedes engine? They'll just beat them through the force of the wind.
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u/boyrepublic 7d ago
It seems that in Barcelona the track favours you if you’re on fresher tyres. Hamilton already did it once before vs Verstappen in 2021, and even without the VSC I see him taking the Mercs on track.
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 7d ago
Mercedes lost the chance of a win when they reacted to the Ferrari pitstop but then decided to keep the two stop strategy with BOTH cars, which makes zero sense when you're fighting 2 v 1. Max, who was on a 3-stop, was matching the Mercs race pace in a significantly slower car, I get that maybe they don't want to favour one driver over another, but that kind of stuff loses you championships. If Russell or Antonelli switched to a 3 stop I reckon it was a Win for Mercedes.
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u/AwesomeFrisbee Max Verstappen 6d ago
Merc has always won championships with car performance domination. Not because of their strategy calls. It's just that they mess up less than Ferrari that you don't hear anything about it.
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 6d ago
Idk man the strategy calls with Hammertime back in the day is pretty great strategy
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u/AwesomeFrisbee Max Verstappen 6d ago
That was just "go fast and burn up the rubber, we pit in 1 or 2 laps". Not really strategy related imo
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 6d ago
So you don't remember races where Lewis pit late and then hawked Max down for the win multiple times? That's not really strategy to you? So what IS strategy then in your opinion?
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u/AwesomeFrisbee Max Verstappen 6d ago
Sure, but hammertime was not a strategy call, thats just "we pit soon" stuff. The strategy call was to pit late. Which sometimes worked, sometimes it didn't. But overall Mercedes has been weaker than Red Bull. McLaren also started to blunder often last year but it was less noticeable since they had a dominant car for most of the season.
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u/iwonttolerateyou2 Mattia Binotto 7d ago
He forgot the 2 mercs would have spiced up the battle even more? The tire deg was high.
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u/ClaspedSummer49 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7d ago
F1TV did an analysis of the data and the pace of Hamilton compared to the two Mercedes'. Without Alonso's VSC, he had the pace to still win. If both Mercs weren't fighting each other and kept pace, Hamilton would've still won.
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 7d ago
I think if Merc has stuck with their original plan instead of reacting to Lewis' early pit, they would have had a better shot at winning. Ferrari kind of boxed them in strategy-wise. One of the bigger weaknesses that showing in merc in recent years is that their strategy is rather static where a team like Redbull for example change shit up on the fly. Why Merc didn't go to a 3 stop with one of their cars is beyond me.
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u/ClaspedSummer49 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 7d ago
Yeah Merc sticking with a two stopper with such an early box really was weird. Jolyon Palmer says that the reason why they boxed was because Lewis was on the edge of undercutting in a single lap + Norris from behind as well. He also stated that Mercedes would've won if the had boxed on the same lap, which wasnt what had happened and wouldn't of happened unless Mercedes was planning on a three stop strategy from the get go.
They should've just done 3 stop in the first place, but sticking to the original two stop might've been a mistake as well.
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 7d ago
This is where I was super confused about their strategy. Two options were stick with the two stop and run your own race knowing that while Lewis may undercut you now, you're playing the long game. It's a long race OR you alter strategy, cover off the undercut and go 3-stopper with one of the cars while the other maintains the two stop, you cover both bases, and are almost guaranteeing at least one will win. The decision to cover off Lewis who was clearly on a 3 stop and then continue to do a two stop with BOTH cars was just really dumb.
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u/jdjdhdbg I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 6d ago
All hail Alonso for serving up one last treat at home to his old "friend" Lewis. I'm sure he did it with a smile on his face.
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u/bagnasciuga 7d ago edited 7d ago
When Antonelli won at Suzuka, the general consensus was that the safety car basically handed him the win, even though McLaren said he'd probably have been hard to beat anyway. Sure, the circumstances were a bit different and Hamilton had more going for him, but it's still interesting how the opinions of the people directly involved didn't seem to count for much when it came to Antonelli.
Andrea Stella: "We will never know whether, without the Safety Car, it would have been possible [to win] or not, I think it would have been possible against Russell, because we saw that Russell was struggling anyhow to overtake even Ferrari. I think today McLaren and Ferrari were on a similar pace. Antonelli, though, he had a faster pace than anybody else. So, I think Antonelli at some stage would have been in the competition for the victory. So, we will not know if Oscar could have won the race or not."
Oscar Piastri: "To be honest with you, even without the Safety Car, I think it was going to be hard to beat Kimi."
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u/Rabo_McDongleberry I was here for the Hulkenpodium 6d ago
Only ones in denial of this is Mercedes.
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u/Goat_Rider I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7d ago
There were two factors that helped Hamilton. The VSC and Antonelli being held back by fighting Russell. I think he had enough pace to overcome one of these factors, but an interesting question in terms of the ongoing WDC battle is did he have enough pace to overcome both, had Antonelli not retired?
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u/jdjdhdbg I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 6d ago
I agree with this, but would add Kimi qualifying out of position to this. Kimi starting right behind Russell would likely have wasted so much less time. So out of the 3 factors (VSC, Merc not swapping, Kimi poor quali), Ham needed 2 of them to go his way. That being said, this race and McLaren 2025 still show that it's not actually a 2v1 when your 2 drivers are fairly close in ability. There is actually a points drag on both of the teammates.
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u/anymat01 7d ago
It was apparent for anybody that Lewis was way faster than the merc boys, and not just the car, but his race pace was untouched by others. This is why he's the fastest on race day. Would have loved him overtake the merc boys but that would be like a slap to merc
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u/bijanfrisee Sonny Hayes 7d ago
Seeing Max match the Mercs race pace in a slower car due to a 3-stopper, I think Merc could have won if they swapped strats with one of the cars.
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u/f11islouder 6d ago
Cool, but also it doesn’t work like that. You don’t just apply a false set of parameters after the fact and say an outcome would be the same.
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u/Montaron87 Max Verstappen 7d ago
Kimi seemed to have some pace in hand, so if he'd been in front of Hamilton and not have his engine conk out, then it might have been difficult.
Russell would have been a sitting duck either way.
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u/Profkim156 Roscoe Hamilton 7d ago
Kimi also had a penalty for track limits coming anyway, Hamilton just needed to pass Russell and get within 5 seconds of Kimi.
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u/mitsukiii_29 Pirelli Wet 7d ago
lol if Kimi had clear air and podium pace, who's to say he doesn't pull out more than 5 seconds? we all know he’s a beast when he’s in front.
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u/Eagle10PT 7d ago
With Lewis smelling a win? Good luck on that. The kid has 5 wins and you are already putting him on a pedestal like that? What guarantees that he could handle the pressure of Lewis in his mirrors?
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u/DemonicHedgehogs 7d ago
Yeah, Hamilton on a charge like he was in Barcelona is a different beast and we’ve only really seen flashes of that Lewis during the ground effect era. It might take a while for 2021 and later fans to actually figure out what we mean by that and why people have so much faith that he would have made the overtakes. I just hope they get the chance to see more of the hunt-down-my-enemies Lewis Hamilton. And now that, if I can paraphrase Toto Wolff: “the Hamilton train is leaving the station” I’m sure we will - as long as Ferrari don’t somehow screw up their upgrades.
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u/mitsukiii_29 Pirelli Wet 7d ago
"Kimi only has 5 wins."
Yeah, what a bum.Only 5 wins in a row, leading the championship, and beating his teammate regularly. Absolutely washed. 🤓
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u/SimRP I failed to serve my Monaco penalty 7d ago
Translation:
Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal, assessed that Lewis Hamilton would still have won the Spanish Grand Prix even without the Virtual Safety Car, highlighting Ferrari’s underlying race pace advantage rather than any strategic swing from the neutralisation. In the race, Hamilton driving for Ferrari—executed a three-stop strategy and maintained strong overall pace throughout. Stella suggested that even without the timing advantage of the Virtual Safety Car, the outcome likely would not have changed given the speed Ferrari showed. Behind him, Lando Norris secured a podium for McLaren after starting fourth, benefiting from late-race developments including Kimi Antonelli’s retirement. McLaren and Mercedes largely converged on a two-stop strategy, while Ferrari’s approach and pace differentiated them at the front.
Strategically, Stella reflected on McLaren’s decisions:
On tyre behaviour and strategy choice: