F1 2019 - Round 12 Hungary

Lawlesz wrote: »

Gutted for Max

They had a window to react as well. Terrible mistake in the end. Even after they saw the first lap on the Mediums they could have pulled him in and given the chance for him to overtake Lewis.

Race won on strategy, really clever call from Merc and well executed by Hamilton. Shame for Max, would have been nice to see him convert pole for the win.

Special mention to Sainz, he's really impressed me this season putting in a series of mature performances. And also to Russell who managed to beat Stroll & Giovinazzi on track.

Bottas had a shocker, if all the rumours about this being a crunch race for his seat next season are true then he can kiss that one goodbye. Same goes for Gasly for that matter.

Well, stunning drive from Lewis and great strategy on Mercedes part - they came back spectacularly after they half dropped it in the first rounds of pitstops. Just yet another demonstration that Mercedes' dominance ain't down to any specific aspect of their car/racing, but to the fact they simply assembled an absolutely fearsome killing machine of a team. If we expect "regulations changes" to drop them down the order, I'm afraid we'll be sorely disappointed. It'll take for some key elements in the team to leave or retire to change things.

It's pretty much the same ruthless victories factory that Ferrari set up the late '90s/early 2000s; This race was in fact similar to the 1998 Hungarian Grand Prix, with the team concocting an "out there" strategy and Schumacher managing to deliver and win the race with an extra stop. Yep, in both cases they enjoyed an advantage (the Merc was a bit faster today, Hakkinen had some car trouble in '98), yet you still need to make it work.

Inquitus wrote: »

The Honda in the Red Bull defo seems to be pulling much closer to the Merc and the Ferrari. Redbull and Merc Aero packages seem to be the best overall packages covering the full range of an F1 season's worth of tracks, Ferrrari seem to have developed themselves down a dead end on the slower and more medum speed racks that they can't dig themselves out of, I think the tracks left after the Summer break do favour them somewhat more so they should come into play for race wins more often than in recent weeks. If Honda can keep up with the engine catchup game next year could definitely be a proper 3 way challenge, assuming Ferrari can rectify their chassis design as well. F1 competitivity is definitely moving in the right direction for the first time in a long time, the last few races good evidence of this.

Ferrari are just falling behind in the development race, I am afraid, which is nothing new - they did the same last year and two years ago; It's been a trend for a while. They are now effectively behind Red Bull and their only hope to cling to second place in the constructors will be the fact they have 2 closely matched drivers, where RBR is basically a one car team.

Ferrari SHOULD have good chances of victory in Spa and Monza, maybe a bit in Suzuka as well, but it remains to be seen if Mercedes and RB won't have closed that gap in as well come September.

Faugheen wrote: »

The Merc was faster than that Red Bull car, Hamilton and Mercedes were picking and choosing when to put the pressure on but they just couldn't get past.

Once the Mercedes was ahead it would have gone clear if Max came in the next lap.

Bringing Max in for softs in the last 10 laps would have been a better play.

Giving up track position was no option said Horner, especially on a track that makes overtaking hard. See Gasly, or Matsu****a today. Without Hamilton tyres falling of the cliff,no chance

When Hamilton pit he was 21s or so behind, they should have pit Max straight away, how did they not know at the time that he'd lose so much time per lap towards the end and Hamilton would catch him easy. They had a lap or two to sort it and didn't.

Merc had nothing to lose by pitting Hamilton as they had a full pit stop time in hand. It forced RB to make a firm decision, either come in immediately and try and prevent the undercut or stay out for the remaining laps; coming in wouldn't had worked as Hamilton carved a nice lap on his out lap and the undercut would have been effective.

The only way I could see this being in RB's favour is if Verstappen pitted before Hamilton, and forced the Merc's to make the decision. Would Hamilton's hard tired have lasted to the end if the strategies were reversed?!

astrofluff wrote: »

Merc had nothing to lose by pitting Hamilton as they had a full pit stop time in hand. It forced RB to make a firm decision, either come in immediately and try and prevent the undercut or stay out for the remaining laps; coming in wouldn't had worked as Hamilton carved a nice lap on his out lap and the undercut would have been effective.

The only way I could see this being in RB's favour is if Verstappen pitted before Hamilton, and forced the Merc's to make the decision. Would Hamilton's hard tired have lasted to the end if the strategies were reversed?!

Tyres would have made it to the end ..They would both be forced to do some serious Tyre management though ..which was possible with Ferrari waaaaay behind

Hamilton would have never been able to overtake Max so the team took the gamble putting him on mediums and hope for the best they would last long enough to close the gap and overtake Max ... And that gamble paid out big time