-
Did you guys see that Mercedes had a "cooler" configuration for the second stint?
During their pitstops, a couple of mechanics removed panels at the side of the cockpit for improved engine cooling. I suppose Mercedes technical staff have figured out they can't run the streamlined cars for the whole race, so they just do it for the first part of the race, and then they can afford to have a draggy car that will not stress its engine too much in the second part.
The removal process did not add more time to their 2-second stops, BTW. Impressive.
-
I only saw the race highlights so couldn’t tell, but anyway, that’s impressive.
Still is that legal? To start and finish the race differently? For example, start the race in an illegally light weight car... and then during the last pitstop, you quickly add some ballasts to make the weight legal at the end?
But anyway, considering Hamilton still set fastest race lap in the end, it seems the light fuel load trumps the draggier configuration.
-
Hamilton's win is impressive in that it's his sixth at home, but it's hardly unexpected. However, I think the fact that he won the point for fastest lap with 30-lap old hard tyres, against Bottas in the same car with 5-lap old softs, in a sport where 'it's all about the tyres', is a quite remarkable demonstration of superiority.
Vettel must be feeling quite fed up; the whole weekend went badly for him, and Leclerc is starting to settle in at Ferrari. Having said that I can't quite jump on the bandwagon of Vettel-bashing; between Stowe and Club there was a point where Verstappen was more than a car's width away from the left hand edge of the track, having been hard up against it when running wide out of Stowe. So Verstappen had moved away from the left and opened a gap, which Vettel moved for just as it closed. Now, I still blame Vettel for the misjudgement, but it's not as inexplicable or crazy as some might suggest.
-
I'm going to file it under: Needless incident.
-
Yeah, the deeper you look into it, the more you'll realize that Hamilton did not win it by luck. Still, pretty sure the SC demoralized Bottas knowing that the game is over and the best he'll be able to do is to be the biggest loser! ;)
Oh, and Max obviously is very good at closing doors. Clearly Vettel didn't learn from Ricciardo! However, clearly Charlie boy has learned his lessons and has become better at racing with Max!
I don't think I'd blame Vettel for the incident as well, it's a racing incident, but one has to wonder whether if Ferrari will continue to support a #1 driver who might end up scoring less points to a rookie teammate. If Vettel doesn't up his game, it'll probably be game over after this season. Unless if Mercedes wants to make thing more interesting and swap Vettel for Hamilton and try to make a German champion?
-
Wow what another great race. I love the chaos!
-
Nice to see Mercedes performed so poorly at Germany! :p
-
Always love a good rain race.
-
Great race, but as a Kimi fan that may have been the most frustrating race.
Normally seventh is the highest he could finish, but if he had just one good pitstop I felt he could have easily finished on the podium
-
No doubt. However, I felt lots of drivers were probably frustrated...