Austria '18

[Bagwan]

Not too long before the race , so we had better get a thread going .

I expect curbs to break wings , and carbon fiber to cut tires .

[airshifter]

Seb was handed a three spot grid penalty for impeding Sainz during qualification.

Maybe this will cause the opposite of http://www.motorsportforums.com/showthread.php?39940-Are-the-Stewards-scared-of-Ferrari-or-Vettel to take place, and now we will have a thread claiming the FIA is trying to give the title to Lewis.

Bottas edges out Hamilton but just barely. The best of the rest are reasonably tight, and somehow the Haas cars are up at the pointy end of the grid. I've always enjoyed this track, and the curbs and lines often cause some off line mishaps that allow passes to take place. There isn't a lot of room for error, and a good variety of corners for such a short track.


Thanks for starting a thread Bagwan. As a forum we have been slipping to the point that nobody is talking about the race until it's almost race time!



Driver Grid Qual time

V. Bottas
Mercedes·#77
1 1:03.130

L. Hamilton
Mercedes·#44
2 1:03.149

K. Räikkönen
Ferrari·#7
3 1:03.660

M. Verstappen
Red Bull·#33
4 1:03.840

R. Grosjean
Haas·#8
5 1:03.892

S. Vettel
Ferrari·#5
6 1:03.464

D. Ricciardo
Red Bull·#3
7 1:03.996

K. Magnussen
Haas·#20
8 1:04.051

C. Sainz Jr.
Renault·#55
9 1:04.725

N. Hülkenberg
Renault·#27
10 1:05.019

E. Ocon
Force India·#31
11 1:04.845

P. Gasly
Toro Rosso·#10
12 1:04.874

F. Alonso
McLaren·#14
13 1:05.058

L. Stroll
Williams·#18
14 1:05.286

S. Vandoorne
McLaren·#2
15 1:05.271

S. Pérez
Force India·#11
16 1:05.279

S. Sirotkin
Williams·#35
17 1:05.322

C. Leclerc
Sauber·#16
18 1:04.979

B. Hartley
Toro Rosso·#28
19 1:05.366

M. Ericsson
Sauber·#9
20 1:05.479

[Tazio]

Should be an interesting race. I'm especially interested where Kimi and Rogro finish(if he finishes):rolleyes:

[gm99]

Not a very good start by Bottas. Hamilton seemingly running away with it at the moment.

[Tazio]

Boss is gonna' have to hustle!

[truefan72]

Pathetic mercedes race engineers. Yet again screwing their driver. It was an obvious call to bring him in and yet their "decision by committee" can't even figure that out. Oh well

[gm99]

Lots of technical failures today - Bottas, Ricciardo, Hulk, Hartley.

EDIT: Add Hamilton to the list.

[The Black Knight]

Pathetic mercedes race engineers. Yet again screwing their driver. It was an obvious call to bring him in and yet their "decision by committee" can't even figure that out. Oh well

It’s always the correct thing to do to pit under the safety car. Can’t believe they made that mistake again. I think that’s the 3rd time this year Mercedes have screwed up on strategy. James Vowles always makes these kind of mistakes throughout a season. They need a better strategist that doesn’t make these basic errors. First time since 1955 Italian GP that Mercedes had a dual mechanical retirement.

Great race though and thoroughly delighted for Max.

[COD]

A race that showed again, that Räikkönen is not done just yet

[airshifter]

A race that showed again, that Räikkönen is not done just yet

Somehow just when you think Kimi is well past any good races, he puts in a good race. It's also interesting that the bump by Max may have well been what cost Kimi a win today, but there was no excess whining and crying other than to mention the bump.

Great race for Haas today, keeping out of trouble and racing their race. Force India managed to do the same. LeClerc raced his way back up and helped his team both finish in the points after his off track incident.

Some decent action for Austria, but attrition took out a lot of potentially key players as well. Tires were the big factor after accounting for the other DNF's, and it seemed like the temp changes put a lot of teams on their heels. Even Max had some graining issues going on, and seemed to be in damage control mode towards the end.


A big crack in the Mercedes armor. A double DNF shows that despite being rock solid through most of the hybrid era, they are also being pushed themselves. And not pitting Lewis was just a horrible move, but that crack has reared its' head on several occasions now.

I was rather surprised and happy that Ferrari didn't use team orders and force Kimi to yield to Seb. It's one of the few instances where it might have been warranted now that team orders are legal again. It shows how they have changed as a team.

[Duncan]

Just astonishing that Mercedes made the exact same strategy blunder again. This comment from Toto was really strange to me:

"The VSC came out, we had half a lap to react, and we didn't. Fact. This is where we lost the race."

from the discussion, it sounds like they only started talking about what to do when the VSC was actually initiated. Wouldn't the strategy team be constantly working out what they would do if a hypothetical VSC (or actual safety car) was flagged right now? It sounds like they don't do that.

[N. Jones]

Yeah, they goofed but they still have the best car. I think they will still run away with both championships but for now these blunders make for more exciting racing.

[greencroft]

I was rather surprised and happy that Ferrari didn't use team orders and force Kimi to yield to Seb. It's one of the few instances where it might have been warranted now that team orders are legal again. It shows how they have changed as a team.

I was equally surprised and did wonder if Kimi had got the call and just ignored it?!

What would you do if you had just been told you had been sacked*?

Ferrari will look v silly at the end of the year if Seb misses out on the title by 3 points.

[*widely speculated but not confirmed]

[gm99]

Maybe it being Austria played a part in Ferrari's decision not to reverse positions. Surely they still remember the outrage they created in 2002. And with Kimi closing in on Verstappen, they probably couldn't have swapped until the final lap.

[Nitrodaze]

The reigning constructors world champion are beginning to crack under the sort of pressure they have not faced since the start of the hybrid era. Their bulletproof efficiency was evaporating from the get go. A catalogue of errors, simply dumbfounding lethargic reactions under fast changing eventualities during races. Redbull have got the measure of them on quick thinking under safety car conditions. Their strategist is slow and erroneous under pressure going back years.

They need to sack someone l think. If l was the one to make such a call, l would fire the strategist and bring in new young blood. Luckily l am not :-). But their problems are numerous actually. Reaching into their engineering and mechanic crews. When Peres had a failure two races back l think, l felt there was something amiss with the Mercedes engine. It is safe to say Mercedes is beginning to look like Ferrari of last year, with increasing emergence reliability issues at the summer of last year. But they have some very bright minds at Mercedes, so l expect them to turn things around. Ferrari is not seizing the moments either, which is bringing Redbull into the title fight.

If l was skeptical, l would say all of this is manufactured to produce an impression of a three way fight. But that is not the case which makes the picture more puzzling. The season is looking like the most lucky front runner is going to win it. Not superiority of skill and machinery but pure graft and a bucket load of luck it would seem.

[airshifter]

The strategy weakness has hurt Mercedes now several times, and in some cases could have been handled better by novice level viewers. I really think a few of the calls have been that bad.

RB and Ferrari are IMO, light years ahead in strategy. Even when it comes to the tough calls like double stacking the cars in the pits they make a decision, execute it about as well as could be expected, and run their race through the course. RB with their lightning fast stops seems to really excel at the double stacking move. Ferrari seems to be very good at splitting race strategy, often forcing the hand for other teams to react. Sometimes it turns out well, sometimes it's the wrong thing to do.... but they make the call and make their move.

Mercedes seems to almost be surprised when a VSC or regular safety car comes out, when tires aren't lasting as predicted, etc. And they sit on it, wait for an obvious window of opportunity to take place, and miss that window.

[Nitrodaze]

The strategy weakness has hurt Mercedes now several times, and in some cases could have been handled better by novice level viewers. I really think a few of the calls have been that bad.

RB and Ferrari are IMO, light years ahead in strategy. Even when it comes to the tough calls like double stacking the cars in the pits they make a decision, execute it about as well as could be expected, and run their race through the course. RB with their lightning fast stops seems to really excel at the double stacking move. Ferrari seems to be very good at splitting race strategy, often forcing the hand for other teams to react. Sometimes it turns out well, sometimes it's the wrong thing to do.... but they make the call and make their move.

Mercedes seems to almost be surprised when a VSC or regular safety car comes out, when tires aren't lasting as predicted, etc. And they sit on it, wait for an obvious window of opportunity to take place, and miss that window.

Yea, it is so easy to remember races that a Mercedes driver lost due to very poor strategic calls by the Mercedes pitwall. Clearly whoever makes these calls is a dinosaur or halfwit. Whichever is the case, Mercedes need to fix this area of their operation.