F1 2022-Round 15 - Zandvoort :Dutch GP

McFly85

What a weekend!

As it was the first GP I’ve ever attended, I wasn’t sure what to expect. When we arrived in Amsterdam we had some negative locals tell us it will be total carnage trying to get there and back.

In fact, it was the complete opposite. Seemingly from lessons learned last year, there were near constant trains to Zandvoort and back with a good queueing system. Biggest wait was today, on the way back, and only around 10 minutes.

The walk to the track was excellent too. The small town of Zandvoort has fully bought into being an F1 town, with locals out selling random clothing and food, like a market. Because the heat was intense too, there were people giving away free chilled cans of water.

When we got to the track, it was a total festival atmosphere. EDM banging out with everyone in good humour. Our seats were just at the pit lane so we had an excellent view of the cars coming down the final straight(and there was a TV so we could see everything else) we could also see turns 2 and 3 due to the elevation.

Everything was so well organised. Never waiting too long to get a pint or food, and there was loads of options.

The atmosphere for the race was unreal. Obviously mostly max fans but a lot of Hamilton/Mercedes fans too, watching Russell overtake Hamilton had some people genuinely shocked! The collective groan of Ferrari being Ferrari was hilarious too. Being able to cheer Max across the finish line was unbelievable.

We stayed for a couple of hours after because there was a DJ the missus loved on stage, and to be fair he was excellent.

Just got back to the hotel now. Wrecked, but both of us already thinking about our next race. Still buzzing!

Jordan 199

McFly, did you get to meet any of the drivers?

McFly85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119571441#Comment_119571441

I wish! Saw Lando leaving, closest I got to them apart from that was the drivers parade, where they were out in open top porches waving to the crowd.

Obviously Max got the biggest cheer, but the second biggest by a distance was for Ricciardo. Goes to show that whatever about his struggles now, he’s still insanely popular.

Jordan 199

**

dubrov

It felt like Verstappen (and his car) are so much faster that barring mechanical failure there was no scenario he wasn't going to win today.

The commentators tried their best to generate excitement but it was never in doubt.

Frank Bullitt

What a race!

thefa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119571941#Comment_119571941

I don’t know, it felt like Hamilton had a shot at winning today with the way the one-stop and the hard tyres were performing. Verstappen, through no fault of his own, almost seemed to be in no mans land strategy wise before any of the safety cars. Hamilton was closing the gap rapidly after Perez and Vettel cost him time and Verstappen was going to have to come up past Russell and Hamilton from a bit of a distance whenever he did pit.

Relied on a clean race though and that was the risk. We know the Merc can’t match the RB. I think that was a big part of Hamilton’s frustration (knowing he had a genuine shot at the win) and then he doesn’t even get a podium.

Hijpo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119571331#Comment_119571331

Edit- not getting into it

Burkie1203

Social media fairly grim today. Seems to be a lot of hate directed towards Hannah Schmitz

Widdensushi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119572615#Comment_119572615

Why?

McFly85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119572729#Comment_119572729

Some nonsense conspiracy doing the rounds that she used AT/Yuki to get a safety car for Max’ benefit.

F1 Twitter is the worst. She’s been prominent this year because she’s been exceptional, but now people know her she gets horrible things said about her.

PsychoPete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119572744#Comment_119572744

Of course it's a conspiracy because RB are only 135 points ahead of Ferrari and Verstappen is only 109 points a head of Leclerc with the best car on the grid

Burkie1203

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119572729#Comment_119572729

She apparently had Max say on radio he didn't want hard tyres, right before she had Yuki pull a stunt to bring out a VSC to give Max a cheap stop but make it look like Max was being hard done by the VSC.

Apparently Red Bull,who lead both championships by 100 points are going to pull such a stroke that risks them getting thrown out of both championships that are 99.9999999999% going to win barring something fairly epic in the next 7 races happening.

A lot of it is also because its a woman calling the strategy too

flazio

I don't think Red Bull have any direct line to Alpha Tauri during the race. Ferrari would be lucky to have her.

PsychoPete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119573024#Comment_119573024

Sounds like it's mostly British fans up to that nonsense ?

MadYaker

Honestly your life will improve if you get off twitter. It’s used almost exclusively by complete morons.

Hijpo

Social media, giving idiots an audience and triggering mostly decent people to react to their idiotic comments in an attempt to change their ways. You can put out all the anti sexism and anti racist adverts you like, it's not a lack of education it's just awful people getting satisfaction from being awful.

Anyway she's still RB principle strategist doing a great job and they are still low life's sitting on their phones spouting nonsense, it will never change.

alastair_doom

Unfortunately its not just Twitter. This is the top story on Sky Sports F1:

"Wolff questions bizarre Tsunoda stoppage | 'Hamilton win was on'"

Faugheen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119573024#Comment_119573024

Last line is EXACTLY what I thought at first too.

tanko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119575775#Comment_119575775

As usual Toto Wolff shows what a complete and utter clown he is. SKY Sports are just as bad, they go into meltdown when their golden boy Hamilton loses yet again and start clutching for any straws they can cling onto, embarrassing stuff all round.

mr_edge_to_you

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119572744#Comment_119572744

She's very clearly the best at what she does.

Abu Dhabi last year was a masterclass in tactics and strategy. There was a number of incidents which forced RB into changing tact quite a few times in the race. As things changed, they kept adapting. I thought it was a joy to watch and have watched that race back quite a few times. Then when opportunity arose they were in prime position to capitalise. Same as they did yesterday.

They've been consistently the best at strategy for quite a long time. Fair play to the woman and her team.

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576027#Comment_119576027

Christian Horner can be just as bad. Last year in qualifying , I want to say at Jeddah, Horner gave out about a "Rouge marshal" who waved double yellows as Gasly pulled up on the main straight. Because live cameras hadn't picked it up yet race control hadn't put "yellow flag" on the screens as they hadn't been made aware yet. However the rules state you go by the flag you see, otherwise you could end up making an accident that happened a split second before much worse and Max got a 5 second place penalty.

McFly85

To be fair Wolff said it was bizarre and it did help Max but they still probably wouldn’t have won the race.

Sky will spin any story they can into a pro Hamilton one, because they’re a British channel and he’s by far and away the most popular driver there. If they can make people think Hamilton is back to winning races then they’ll get more people watching, it’s that simple.

A channel asking you to pay to watch a sport probably isn’t the best place to get news for it, I think.

Hijpo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119576839#Comment_119576839

Hang on, horner didn't insinuate that Merc planted a marshal with two yellow flags to screw them.

Frank Bullitt

Even Merc said their own timing would have given Max the win, but he would have had to work harder for it.

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119577259#Comment_119577259

I didn't make the point in order to exonerate Wolff, I only meant that both Horner and Wolff are whingey a-holes when things don't go their way and I refuse to pick one to concentrate on picking out whilst ignoring the other. Blowing out one candle doesn't make any other candle burn brighter.

Munstersrebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119575775#Comment_119575775

look Toto is protecting LH. Fact is LH made the call to stay on mediums... GR made a call to swap for softs... i guess GR was in on the conspiracy? Its all to protect LH

Andrew76

Anyone read these driver ratings? They sometimes have interesting bits of info that only come to light after the wkend is over - Lewis made a mistake on the safety car restart by being in the wrong engine mode, making it even easier to Max to overtake him. Russell made a mistake in qualifying on Saturday it mentions too - on his final run in Q3 he mistook a green flag for yellow a lifted off when he didn't need to, possibly cost him 1 position.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/edd-straws-2022-f1-dutch-grand-prix-driver-ratings/

LIGHTNING

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119577735#Comment_119577735

I dont even bother reading driver rating, the majority of the time they dont make any sense

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119572191#Comment_119572191

Hamilton had a shot at winning before the safety car. He had a few advantages which disappeared after the safety car. He would have had about 8-10 second gap plus Russell between himself and Max. Chances are max would have overtaken them both but he had a chance of the win.

After the safety car, he had no gap, old tyres and Max was on new tyres. There was no way he could hold max behind, even with Russell in the way. Mercedes could have pitted both cars and taken second and third. But they gambled on track position and then split the strategy by pitting Russell.

Truth is they just didn't really have the pace to win, but they had the pace for second and third. Excellent drive by Hamilton and we were robbed of the battle for the lead in the final laps by the safety car. But that’s the risk you take with a one stop strategy, a safety car can ruin your advantage.

Perez was poor again today. There's no good excuse for being beaten by both Ferraris (before Sainz penalty) and both mercedes

Andrew76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578152#Comment_119578152

Ah I pay no attention to the ratings themselves, just the extra info I find interesting.

micks_address

i thought Mercedes had their 'race planner' predicting they would win before the safety cars? Wasnt really much at stake for Red Bull but it would probably have fairly pissed off Max if Lewis had won his home GP.. pity its not the 3rd or 4th race and things might have been more competitive with the mercs but as it is its long over.. im curious what the mercedes will look like next year.. will they give up on the zero side pod design or go back to the more standard looking design

coltmaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578263#Comment_119578263

The VSC was the one that disadvantaged Hamilton, the SC was the one that gave an even greater advantage to him but he failed to pit like everyone else.

I seen on twitter last night Crofty hashtag was trending but to his stupid conspiracies, people calling for Sky to reign him in.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119580036#Comment_119580036

Yeah it might have been the VSC that screwed him first. In any case, it was possible for him to win in a straight fight with the one stop strategy and great pace on his hard tyres. But in hindsight, Mercedes needed to change tack and focus on maximising points rather than sticking to a strategy thst couldn't actually win anymore.

After the safety cars, the win was pure fantasy stuff. It must have been hard to give up the strategy that was a potential winner, but circulate changed and Mercedes should have adapted.

I don't blame Russell for pitting, BTW. He recognised that they couldn't maintain temperature in old hard tyres so he was dead right to pit.

Mercedes should have pitted Hamilton too.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119579025#Comment_119579025

Na it was the other way around, Max would have gotten them both with his pace advantage. That’s why Russel pitted under the SC, it was a gamble so why not?

thefa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578263#Comment_119578263

Agree. The battle Perez put up and Vettel’s blocking looked like it was going to cost Hamilton seconds he needed. Even when Merc reacted with Mediums after Max pitted for hards, the jig was up. Probably robbed a promising closing stint to the race in lieu of safety car excitement.

Perez form has been poor since Austria, even second in Spa was unconvincing. Hope he finishes strong like last season but some signs like poor quali, being poor off the line are back.