F1 2022-Round 12: France

Rossi IRL

I can safely say that Ferrari haven't got a world championship in them and either does Leclerc.

namloc1980

Leclerc not winning anything by making those mistakes. Max doesn't do that anymore.

KillerShamrock

Season is as good as done, max has one hand on the WDC and red bull on the WCC, Merc will steal second from Ferrari. And yet again Ferrari gonna Ferrari this race, next race and for the rest of the season.

eeepaulo

im sure everyone will agree it was a great result for merc, double podium and only 44 points behind ferrari in the constructors championship

mr_edge_to_you

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119380688#Comment_119380688

Best example was a few weeks back, I think he started towards the back, and then had worked himself up to P4/5, pushed too much and then he shipped a load of positions. Max has really matured.

PsychoPete

I think it's safe to say the championship is pretty much over unless Verstappen goes off the rails in the second part of the season

Lip Out

After a half season mentoring from Mercedes and Hamilton, Russell has got the whinging on the radio when he was at fault down to an art. Shame to see as he was a likeable driver before the switch.

ForestFire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119380591#Comment_119380591

Did anyone think he was a bit too insistent on it being a mistake? No one asked about the throttle he mentioned at the time?

I guess the telemetry would show if there was another throttle issue anyway.....

waynescales1

Ferrari are box office, can't wait to see what they get up to in Budapest.

Really starting to dislike Russell, comes across as quite ignorant on the radio.

ForestFire

On Sainz, I can only assume it was the tyres were never going to make it, is the only explanation, but if this was the case why not pit a bit earlier?

This is it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119380759#Comment_119380759

I think LeClerc is honest enough. Admits to it being his fault, if it was the car he'd have said. He knows himself that it's not good enough. Crazy considering the pressure he withstood earlier from Max to bin in when he's clear

RoryMac

Gotta love LeClerc's optimism in the interview that if he loses the championship by 32 points he'll know it was because of his mistakes, not a hope in hell he'll be anywhere near 32 points of Max at the end.

I'd imagine there was no hope of Sainz making it to the end but when he pitted he looked to have better grip than anyone.

Perez really needs to get his sh1t together, couldn't keep up with Hamilton or stay clear of Russell when he had the faster car. Then asleep to let Russell past. He has some good days but for me he has far too many bad days

quokula

Not the best race in the end, I thought the new cars would shine at Paul Ricard as they could follow more closely through the long corners but it never really happened. I don't think many people will miss the circuit when it's gone, as seems increasingly likely.

Another great job from Max for the victory. He put Leclerc under relentless pressure, the team made an aggressive call for the undercut, he did exactly what he needed to do to make the undercut work by overtaking Norris immediately, and then when Leclerc had to push to the maximum to try and keep a gap for the pitstop he made a mistake. People keep talking like he just inherited victory but without the pressure he put on Ferrari it wouldn't have happened, Leclerc himself admitted the mistake was because he had to keep pushing so hard.

Had Leclerc not crashed out, it looks very much like he'd have come out of his pitstop behind Max but with tyres a few laps fresher so it could have been a very interesting race. Such a big shame we didn't get to see that play out. A shame for the championship too of course, it's hard to imagine him making a big enough comeback to genuinely fight for the title at this stage, though you'd have to say Ferrari do still have the fastest car. Their strategists continue to be absolute clowns though. That nonsense with Sainz just left me speechless. I'm used to them being pretty terrible when it comes to strategy but that must have been a new low. He could have scored a podium today without the team screwing him over.

tanko

Le Clerc bottles it again, he’s not half as good a driver as he thinks he is.

blade1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119380732#Comment_119380732

Yeah a right loveable rogue.

How that time we all chuckled seeing him slap bottas on the head after wiping him out.

PsychoPete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119380964#Comment_119380964

That Imola crash was probably he's second stupidest move after putting the Williams into a barrier under a safety car. He's not a driver I'd have a fondness for, can't take a liking to him at all

dulpit

Even if they were always going to have to put Sainz, they handled it awfully. What's the benefit of fighting for position with your engineer in your ear and then just pit anyway?

Mercedes isn't as good a car as ferrari or red bull, but I'm reminded of what Christian Horner said earlier in the season - he'd prefer a fast unreliable car rather than a slow reliable one. Mercedes is slow but reliable, constantly picking up points.

Championships are both surely done now though, right?

Frank Bullitt

My pal is a Ferrari fan and he text me saying I was very quiet after they got pole, told him to wait for Sunday to be saying stuff like that…he is very quiet today for some reason?

Max has this one by the looks of it, once Charles was out he was super comfy and just managed the car until the end. He is the class of the field right now with the car under him.

I’ll echo some of the thoughts in here that Skys commentary is getting really tough to bear with. They were pretty much salivating at a Merc double podium, and even Di Resta at one point made some comment about Hamilton being in for the win…on what planet?

I might switch to the other commentary channel on my app soon.

ctrl-alt-delete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119381465#Comment_119381465

They have reliability this year it seems and it has them in relative touch, but on their own really in third.

Other than that the Mercs are the best of the rest and they know it, they had earmarked this track as one they would be strong at and were perplexed at their times through the sessions.

In saying that though many thought this track would be great for overtaking under the new regulations (2nd highest number of overtakes last year) and we didn't have much exciting racing really.

Faugheen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119380933#Comment_119380933

Well this is just absolute bollocks, isn't it?

Yes, LeClerc has had too many incidents like that, but he's a top, top driver. That's undeniable.

Don't know why people are kicking up such a fuss about Russell. Driver gets thick in the heat of the moment and armchair warriors with a shitload of different angles pile on. Perez was bitching that he was going off the track after he fell asleep at the wheel at the restart but yet everyone is staying quiet about that.

Usual nonsense pile-on because there is an inherent hatred for Mercedes because of Sky.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119380732#Comment_119380732

He was likeable the first year and a bit. Then he started buying into his own hype and began to gradually become an arsè

ctrl-alt-delete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119381668#Comment_119381668

You can't say anything bad about Perez either or some will be out to defend him too. He was miles off the pace all weekend and there can be no excuses for dozing off at the restart.

Hijpo

I backed a merc double podium on Wednesday.

Russel gone down slightly in estimation, I thought that was a very immature move into the chicane and then to start on about it over the radio as if it was Perez in the wrong.

Ferrari, there are no words.

Once again, the time penalties for causing an incident are a joke.

Stroll is an absolute pig.

Silly questions for sky as usual "does it feel like a normal win or does it feel slightly less when you know that your main competitor wasn't there battling with you right to the end?" Cast your minds back lads, Jesus christ.....

Dave0301

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119381858#Comment_119381858

Sky's coverage really is scrapping the bottom of the barrel stuff sometimes.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119381822#Comment_119381822

It turns out there’s a pretty good excuse for the restart as the FIA have admitted there was an error in the VSC system which gave incorrect information, he was told it was ending at one corner and sped up out of that before the ending changed to a different corner so he had to slow right back down at which point it ended while his momentum was in completely the wrong direction.

Russell (and everyone) did get the wrong information too, but depending on where on the track they happened to be at the time it incorrectly ended some suffered worse than others. I did notice some changes in gaps through the field from that safety car.

So Perez will have reason to feel robbed there, doubly so with the way Russell had earlier pushed him off the track and then repeatedly went outside track limits himself while defending.

He should never have really been in among the Mercedes to begin with though, his pace was very poor relative to Max this weekend.

MadYaker

I think Leclerc needs to accept that it isn't happening this year and relax a bit for his own good. If he gets a few more wins enjoy them but the championship is a goner with a 60 point gap to Max who doesn't put a foot wrong and has a more solid car. With his DNF today I think there must have been a throttle issue surely? He mentioned it at the time although afterwards in press conference said it was his mistake so maybe we'll find out more about that.

PsychoPete

Only of Checos quick reaction from Russells stupid lunge he could easily ended up with another hole in the side of the car like in Austria

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119381858#Comment_119381858

That was a terrible question, especially since Charles made a mistake largely as a result of the pressure Max put on him by pushing hard early in the race. Very different from just inheriting a victory after another car broke down or, worse, taking victory as a direct result of punting the other driver off as you alluded to.

For once though it wasn’t actually Sky at fault here, the question came from David Coulthard doing podium interviews and in fairness to DC he does the channel 4 coverage and 99% of the time their coverage is very fair, level headed and objective.

(unless sky asked the same thing later and I missed it)

recyclebin

Usually when VSC is ending the drivers are given a 10-15 second warning. When watching it live it seemed like an absolute age before the green flag came out.

This is it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119381917#Comment_119381917

I think the throttle comment was LeClerc trying to get out of the wall rather than a stuck throttle rounding the corner causing the spin.