OK then, I saw a lot of shit talking about the hards, but the alpines did really well (but they also one stopped).
Incredibly stupid. You canât use the hards unless itâs gonna save you a stop. 1-stopper with hards is fine, but 2-stopper when youâre going med-med-hard vs. villain who is soft-med-med is a big mistake.
This. I mean they saw someone pit early from their first stint on softs and their decision was to defend the undercut with their car on mediums. That wasnât even their worst mistake but their willingness to throw out their own strategyâs advantage at the first move by a rival is just shockingly bad. You could have predicted the cars starting on softs would pit early before the race started! Why start on mediums if youâre going to react?!?
The decisions were bad but looking back at some of the timings they lacked pace even on the mediums. I think Verstappen wins even if Ferrari goes M-M-S and stays out when Verstappen pits. They just had too much trouble passing Russell while Verstappen just flies past everyone because his higher straigtline speed plus DRS is deadly.
Max went 32 laps on mediums with a spin. Sainz went 23 on softs. Ferrari couldâve even tried a M-S-S, and probably won. But they never think outside the boxâŚnever even have a coherent strategy really.
I still contend that M-H prob couldâve won as well.
Not sure if this will make sense, but check out this chart:
This is Landoâs 2nd stint, when he was on mediums. The 2 blue lines are Ocon and Alonso who pitted for hards. You can see that at the start of the run, Lando was beating them by about 1-1.5 seconds a lap, but towards the middle-end of the run, the hards had made up the difference and then towards the end of the run, Alonso was even beating Lando by close to a second a lap.
Basically, once the hards came in, it wasnât that bad a tire compared to mediums, and if you save a pit stop (22 seconds), I think Max wouldâve been hard-pressed to make that up.
If you put 1 Ferrari on a M-S-S 2 stopper and the other on a M-H 1 stopper, I bet they win that race over half the time. In any case, there chances wouldâve been way better than whatever âstrategyâ they actually employed.
Finally, these are Max and Charlesâ lap times on the 1st and 2nd stints. They are very, very close, throughout. There couldnât have been more than a tenth or 2 tenths separating their race pace. Iâm not buying that Max was so dominant that it didnât matter what Ferrari did. For Ferrari to throw away a race win with the starting advantage they had on Max is criminal, quite frankly.
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Itâs so terrible seeing Ferrari waste a great car and drivers with such poor decisions.
In other news, Alonzo goes to Aston Martin. I guess that clears the way for Piastri in Alpine, which will be great to see.
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Yeah - the only seat I see as likely up for grabs now is if Williams drops Goatifi and brings in new blood. I believe Schumacher and Zhou have contracts expiring after this season but expect they both get renewed.
https://twitter.com/oscarpiastri/status/1554527452231262210?s=21&t=7HfiQ0ulAaS3UGlwSFcVwA
Hahahahahahahaha
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Wow, WTF. He must certainly have a solid offer from another good team to do this? I canât imagine Haas or Williams being a preferable team. So McLaren replacing Ricciardo?
Thatâs what the rumors are. Didnât realize the NBA and F1 both have silly seasons.
F1 silly season can be amazing and this one will be. Piastri is playing with fire though. No idea why he put that out before McLaren officially got rid of Ricciardo. Contracts have fallen through before or teams have ended up with 2 drivers having a contract for one seat.
Surprised to hear thereâs talk that Ricciardo might be without a seat next season. Why wouldnât a team like Alpha get rid of an inferior driver like Yuki Tsunoda when someone with an elite track record like Daniel is available?
buzzed through drive to survive on the plane. man, last season was so brutal. i could nt even make myself to put on the last episode yet.
makes this seasonâs verstep campaign look down right like snoozefest, although iâm sure iâll love it when it comes out. still hate him though. hopefully mercedes figures out lewis goatâs next yearâs car.
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There are drivers that secure their seat for reasons beyond their skills.
Tsunoda is there to have a Japanese driver on the grid with support of Honda.
Zhou same for China with Chinese money.
Stroll and Latifi because rich parents.
Schumacher because of name and German money backing him.
Albon because Thai owners of RedBull like him and back him.
Ricciardo expects a high salary and hasnât delivered. He left Alpine even though they loved him and then got schooled by Lando. He might end up in NASCAR as he has a lot of US fans.
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In that sense itâs crazy to think that there are only 20 seats in the pinnacle or racing and over a quarter of them are taken up by drivers who donât deserve to be there.
Over a quarter of the teams have no real chance of winning!
Iâm on the other side wrt Ricciardo. Why WOULD any team want him? Heâs 33 and appears washed, not to mention commands a massive salary. At least with a younger guy, thereâs a chance they improve a lot with experience.
2021 driver v driver #s:
Races: Lando 15 - Ricc 7
Quali: Lando 15 - Ricc 7
Races: Gasly 15 - Yuki 5
Quali: Gasly 21 - Yuki 1
2022:
Races: Lando 10 - Ricc 3
Qual: Lando 11 - Ricc 2
Races: Gasly 7 - Yuki 5
Quali: Gasly 8 - Yuki 5
So Yuki went from being not very competitive in year 1, to being much more competition vs. Gasly and Ricc has gone from somewhat competitive to not competitive at all. I donât think he deserves another shot.
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On open roads, Hamilton is an achingly sensible and careful driver, never speeding and frequently pulling over to let impatient drivers pass. As he explains, he actually doesnât like driving. Not this kind, the kind the rest of us do, with traffic in two directions, and pedestrians, and junctions, and nothing clear-cut to prove. In fact, he rarely does it. âI just think that I find it stressful,â he says. âI try not to do things that donât add to my life.â And then he addsâa statement said with sincerityââLook, weâre on these roads, anything can happen.â
After a while, we find ourselves in the outskirts of Nice, down toward the harbor. âThis is now stressful for me,â he says. âThis road is crazy. So much going on here. Iâm going to turn around in a second.â
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I think Ricciardo can still offer a lot of value, but it needs to be in a car that suits him. This video I thought had an interesting analysis on his struggles at Mclaren: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVKeBAyIjyw
There is an easy argument to make that other drivers would do a better job of adapting than Ricciardo has. I am not really trying to excuse his Mclaren results (though I do think getting covid preseason put him even more on the back foot).
But I can also see an argument where he was a gun for Red Bull, and all things considered he did really well at Renault in his second year. If he went to back to a team with a car that was designed more toward his style of driving I can totally see him being a good buy.
We really wonât know unless he goes to another team whether he is still a great driver in a car that suits him, or if he has dropped off. But if I was Alpine I think I would be pretty happy to have him back in their car next year.
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