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Anyone watching the F1 race in Sochi, Russia today?
If so, any thoughts before, during or after the race?
If not, feel free to ask any questions about the sport or motor racing in general, if you'd like to beef up the ole knowledges.
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To be fair, LeClerc let Vettel pas using his slipstream in the first corner.
But I don't think they should have done that, because now there seems to be a lot of frustration in the team.
honestly, the argument ferrari or leclerc made was that he let vettel get the slip. But imo that argument is pretty much null, Vettel got such a good start that he couldve gotten leclerc's slip regardless of leclerc wanting to give it to him or not.
I disagree with Loire, I think it was a really interesting race. Albon's recovery was really good and interesting to watch. My only criticism with him is that his first stints are always too slow, compared to Ric and Verstappen. McLaren was interesting as well.
That's true, I honestly just wish they stop with the games and let them race.
Then this whole fiasco wouldn't have happened.
I get Charles being upset if the plan was for them both to get a good start and then let Leclerc back though.
I don't get him being upset when he's 3 seconds back and expecting Vettel to slow down so he can pass, especially with Lewis right behind him, it makes no sense.
Apparently for the Williams Russell’s car broke and they thought Kubica would do the same.
https://twitter.com/wbuxtonofficial/status/1178283362940854274?s=21
Williams were also apparently scared they wouldn't have parts for Suzuka so they boxed Kubica in case they couldn't run 2 cars / incur significant costs.
I'm not deluded into thinking Kubica should be pumping out WDC times and that Williams is holding him back in some grand conspiracy. But he has always struck me as an honest, ultra-professional chap, and his whole demeanour when it comes to Williams, leads me to believe he has drawn a very short straw, and Williams are fighting tooth and nail to keep Mercedes happy with Russell.
I imagine that Williams have finally woken up to the reality of their situation and have realised they need a close working relationship with Mercedes (buying more parts, 'selling themselves' as a quasi-B-team) in order to have any sense of a future. I do wonder what would happen if Williams were, assuming Kubica is alluding to they truth, treating Russell in a similar way to Kubica.
Honestly, Charles was being immature and Ferrari should have used their heads, and told him to shut up and drive, in order to do what was the best for LeClerc. If they had switched when he had wanted, I think (excluding Vettel’s woes) the same thing that happened in Singapore would have happened to LeClerc: Vettel would have undercut and gotten the lead anyway. Instead, the two drivers probably sabotaged each other, pushing harder than either needed too and compromised both of their races. So instead of working as a team to get a win for Ferrari, all they end up with is 3rd.
If I made a shitty strategy call for every time I said that recently, I'd be a Ferrari... ;)
My fear is that it's going to be the same shit next year, then we'll all be like "oh 2021" and bang, new regs = new domination by somebody else.
I totally agree, Ferrari came away looking like total cunts today, and not even in a good way a la Schumacher era. Never really was a Vettel fan, but recently he's grown on me, and today I felt sad/pissed off/angry about what had happened. It was comical how the race came off as if they were trying to stop themselves winning the race at every single moment in order to appease Todt's wonder boy, who also came off as whingey, spoilt and unlikeable over team radio. (Not my opinion on the actual person, just my interpretation of the narrative world feed team radio was pushing)
The Ferrari mess ended up hurting themselves quite badly. I don't think Leclerc is going to trust Vettel anymore, regardless of what he's said after the race. This has been brewing for a while now.
Otherwise a pretty average race; Grosjean crashing out (for once, not due to his fault), Williams severely underperforming, Renault being unimpressive, etc.
It was amusing when Hamilton came on the team radio asking if everybody's OK, and the response was something like (note: I forget the exact words and am exaggerating here) "All OK, just Grosjean". (Would be great if somebody remembers the exact wording, as I do remember laughing at that point.)
Leclerc Vettel is going to be extremely spicy. If only Mercedes had taken on Alonso, and Ricciardo had stayed at Red Bull, every race would have been absolutely glorious.
In all seriousness though, it's a shame that teams are effectively penalised for having '2 primary drivers' and encourage hard racing.
Most of us agree that 'something' needs to be done to promote close racing, and 'lots' of us agree that F1 shouldn't implement gimmicks to achieve this. Maybe some rules regarding the driver market might help achieve both goals...
Something like:
"The team of the WDC is obligated to hire the next best driver in the WDC - not in said team - to be the designated 'challenger' for next season, if that driver so desires. £40million will be awarded to the challenger's former team as compensation."
Through doing so, we'd achieve the following: