Race 21 - Brazillian GP 2024 [Sao Paulo]

[airshifter]

You forget, that whether there was a virtual safety car or not, there was still a yellow at the incident. Hulk's car still needed to be cleared which I believe was the reason for the VSC. I also don't remember seeing any cars passing others in the yellow zone.

But why wait? As I said, I can see how the conspiracy theorists found some meat in the delay..... even if I don't believe it. Stronger safety procedures never killed a driver, and they knew the car had to be moved. I just think it's a bad message, similar to the very poor message from the drivers that lef the grid for a second formation lap and got only very small fines. Rules exist for a reason, and in this case the reason being driver and track worker safety.




As for the overall weekend.... fairly insane really. I wasn't sure if they would pull off a race, but they did. And with the wet track, it had plenty of twists and turns.

Max had a beast of a drive, and used that different T1 entry as much as he could. Lando cracked at the restart, but other than that looked solid. The Alpines manage a podium..... after all drivers are claimed to make their own luck right? Both the qually and finishing grids tossed the expectations of the dry races, and a lot of "lesser" drivers seemed capable in the wet against teams with superior cars. It makes you wonder how many of the young guns might be monsters in the top cars given some time.


As for Lewis.... he had a crap race and being in his own head early on probably didn't help. But the mental gymnastics being applied to make him the greatest must be exhausting.

[airshifter]

So , anybody care to calculate how much Lewis gets paid each time he steps into the car to do his job ?

That , and the job his employer has done for him over the years of success they helped him achieve isn't enough ?

Lewis , with his record , is entitled to respect , but respect is a two-way street .

Not a single driver on the grid has won titles with poor cars. As such, I put more into the team effort than the driver effort.

I think Lewis is in his own head, and doing everything he can to move all blame to the team. Yet he gladly accepts any praise when he has a good weekend. George at times has been vocal about the car as well, but just tries to get on with things.

And in Brazil, he proved the car could approach the podium even with all the twists and turns.

[Nitrodaze]

I knew you were going to say that. This is not a totally different scenario. This is two old drivers having issues toward the end of their stay at a team. I don't think Lewis is going to be any better at Ferrari. Sure, he will be on the podium, but he is going to get beat by Charles.

We have to wait and see what happens. I don't underrate Leclerc. I fully expect him to give Hamilton a run for his money. If the Ferrari turns out to be the benchmark in 2026, then we shall enjoy a proper showdown between Hamilton and Leclerc. We should bide our time and watch how things unfold over the next two seasons.

One thing is certain, what would happen would not be dictated by what we think but the drivers themselves. So we can say what we like, what is going to happen would happen.

That said, this is such a great opportunity for Leclerc to attain cult status. If he is able to defeat the GOAT in a championship-winning car, he would attain the sort of respect that Verstappen would pay good money to achieve. Make no mistake, there is huge motivation for Leclerc to defeat Hamilton. He would take some comfort in seeing Russell doing so well against Hamilton in the dodgy Mercedes. And so many, such as yourself would love to see the champ beat. I understand that.

But when it comes to it, all of that would not matter. It would come down to the two men involved and how they are able to get the job done. That is what we are looking forward to seeing.

I would also say that l am sure Hamilton is not underestimating Leclerc. He would do his homework and learn as much as possible in the 2025 season in preparation for the 2026 season where it really matters.

This pairing may turn out to be a real headache for Vasseur.

[Nitrodaze]

I knew you were going to say that. This is not a totally different scenario. This is two old drivers having issues toward the end of their stay at a team. I don't think Lewis is going to be any better at Ferrari. Sure, he will be on the podium, but he is going to get beat by Charles.

I also want to touch on the "Old men having issues towards the end of their stay at a team" comment. I think it would be wrong to make that comparison, especially seeing how well Alonso is performing under the circumstances that he faces at Aston Martin. The mindset of Hamilton is so different from that of Vettel. Especially in a championship-winning car. So he would do things quite differently to how Vettel would. This is not to demean Vettel in any way, they just do things in very different ways; is my point.

What that is, is what we have to discover in 2026. I expect Leclerc to have the advantage in 2025 due to being well-bedded into the Ferrari team already. Hamilton has to learn how Ferrari works and build relationships with engineers etc.

We are talking about two men who have won championships at every. level they have competed in. So it going to be a battle royal. It would be a contest of youth versus experience. That did not work out well for Anthony Joshua against a much younger Dubios. That was boxing and not F1, what takes several minutes in boxing takes several months in F1