Formula 1 2019 - Round 4 - Baku

This is crap. Motor racing minus the racing

Amazing achievement for the ultimate underdogs Mercedes. How on earth did they manage to overcome the odds and beat the mighty Ferrari pace they've been talking about since the first pre season test.

It's not like they've won 75% of F1 races since the start of 2014, 5 x World Drivers & 5 x World Constructors Championships and had 4 x 1-2 finishes in a row or anything

Awful stuff, promised a lot, delivered nothing.

Crofty is wrecking my head. Miss the Eir coverage

Cool_CM wrote: »

Recorded and watched back, Ferrari really are their own worst enemy.

They really are. Most everyone online is groaning at Mercedes claiming to be the underdog, then wiping everyone out race after race. I still say though that Ferrari are handing positions to Merc through errors, bad strategies, and bad race management, and that the gap between the cars is still ever so slightly in Ferrari’s favour.

Great double points finishes for Racing Point and McLaren today. Kimi getting a point in the Alfa too.

quokula wrote: »

I'm not sure Ferrari did much wrong - Mercedes were just dominant as usual.

The commentary team were talking nonsense about Leclerc for most of the race, he was on the superior compound for the first stint so obviously he got into a good position, but in reality he was lapping no faster than Gasly who also started on those tyres, and there was no possible strategy that would ever have magically made him competitive once he did pit for softs, unless he got lucky with a safety car for his stop, which was a good reason to keep him out as long as they could. The reality is that he finished the race over a minute behind (would still have been over half a minute behind without the superfluous pitstop for fastest lap) and was about as close to Perez as he was to the top 3.

Mercedes were just not beatable today, Vettel and Verstappen did a decent job of hanging on to their coattails but the result was never in doubt (apart from which Merc would win, the repeated radio calls to Bottas telling him not to bother going fast followed by Hamilton getting into DRS range made me expect a position swap, surprised it didn't happen)

Charles had an extra set of brand new sorts because he didn’t take part in Q3. Could they have two stopped him, once his meejums got him to the front and they went off the boil, then stopped him again later on? Seems better than what they did, just left him out there on worn out tires lap after lap losing time to everyone

Given the nature of the track, Ferrari were probably hanging on with Leclerc waiting for a safety car, two stop might have been better strategy but I think he still would have struggled to be more than one place higher

Pretty embarrassed for Ricciardo. Taking out himself and another driver in reverse. Otherwise a pretty boring race.

To be fair to Bottas he drove a good race under a fair bit of pressure. Hamilton tried his best to out-do him at the first few corners but failed. You can be sure that if the world championship was at stake and Hamilton was defending a small points lead, that his driving would not have been quite so gentlemanly.
What will Hamilton come up with next - he has a skull cap or something similar on under his Mercedes hat on the podium, according to EJ he got a new tattoo yesterday (he’ll have one on his face next!) and he came out to the podium with a pus on him, the usual carry on when he’s beaten. If you were to believe a later interview, Bottas didn’t win because he drove so well, it was because Hamilton had a below par day.
Yes , you’re right, I don’t like the hamster.

I really don't see what Ferrari could have done differently with strategy, 2 stopping was never going to work and the softs only had 18/20 laps in them.

Aurelia Kind Bankroll wrote: »

Anyone here purchase a Sky F1 subscription for this year that didn't in previous years? cancelled mine last year, no regrets based on the first 4 races of 2019.

Trying not to give them any money.

I think they like to screw people. They could put F1 on their first SS mobile tier, but don't. They could sell F1 weekend pass on now tv, but won't.
Plus we pay more than UK etc.

Inviere wrote: »

They really are. Most everyone online is groaning at Mercedes claiming to be the underdog, then wiping everyone out race after race. I still say though that Ferrari are handing positions to Merc through errors, bad strategies, and bad race management, and that the gap between the cars is still ever so slightly in Ferrari’s favour.

Yes - that's what most people seem to be missing. When Mercedes say they're on the "backfoot", they actually mean it - what would be the point of "sandbagging" anyway? It's not like Red Bull or Ferrari would be "right, we're gonna walk this lads!".

I've said this before, but all the signs are there pointing to Ferrari having, in fact, the faster car - but they are struggling to understand it and set it up properly. Three times out of four so far, they've arrived at a track and led the early practice, often by a big margin, only to be "swallowed up" by Mercedes and even Red Bull as the week end progresses. This pattern can't just be explained with "engine modes", unless the prancing horse really has a bunch of idiots on the pit wall who push the engine to the max on Fridays.

Barcelona will be interesting indeed - all teams arrive there with plenty of data from the winter tests, and THEORETICALLY setups should be a done thing...

antodeco wrote: »

Toto looked really angry there when Bottas finished first, until he realised the camera was on him!

Nothing new - few remember it, but he celebrated unashamedly when Hamilton overtook Rosberg at the US GP in 2015...some will say because he was "delighted the intra-team battle would be over". Yeah right.

Ghost Train wrote: »

Given the nature of the track, Ferrari were probably hanging on with Leclerc waiting for a safety car, two stop might have been better strategy but I think he still would have struggled to be more than one place higher

Ferrari have been stupidly risk-averse with Leclerc in Baku; One would imagine having a young and fast charger in the car would lend itself to devise more "out there" strategies, but they're just not doing it.

Pitting Charles for softs as soon as he gained the lead - when he had nearly 15s over Bottas - would have put him what, a few seconds behind Hamilton? Then let him belt it out and chew through the new set of tires in 10-15 laps;

This could have gone three ways: best case scenario, the Mercedes would up the pace and shred their own tires, becoming vulnerable and potentially having to pit again before the end; Worst case, Hamilton and Bottas would have let Leclerc go knowing he had to pit again; Then see where he got after the second stop and take it from there - probably 3rd or 4th behind Vettel, but a lot closer to the leaders and with a chance to strike on fresher tires.

Yep, could have ended in the wall too - but that's one of the calculated risks. How many races did Ross Brawn turn around, back then, by just coming up with completely "do or die" strategies for either Schumacher or Barrichello?