Official 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Thread **SPOILERS**

[peter tdci]

paulguitar said:

carlo996 said:

paulguitar said:

How talented Verstappen might be is not relevant. Perez had a big car advantage and didn’t deliver. He’s a decent journeyman.

Perez is #2 in the team, every team has a number one driver, even Mercedes, that's life...and racing. It's ok having two super talented drivers, but pick two top stars and they will have the same mentality to win...the team ceases to function properly.

And how do you know someone else in the RB would be any better than Perez?

Not every team has a number one driver? Merc and Ferrari, for example, appear to just let them race.

But didn't Russell have to be told today that it was okay to overtake Hamilton?

[PhilAsia]

Byker28i said:

What The Deuces said:

Does Russell still need to up his game?
Asking for a friend.

Nope. I think given the right car we're looking at a future world champ there

Yep. Next season should be a cracker within the team. Still got money on Lewis but George is the equal to Nico atm..... and that is a huge compliment as Rosberg really stuck it to both Schumi and Lewis.

[C70R]

God, that was a dull race.

A fitting end to a season of dull races.

[the-norseman]

Mick got told off by HAAS for doing donuts after the race.

[matrignano]

Poor guy! He was celebrating his retirement too!

[85Carrera]

peter tdci said:

paulguitar said:

carlo996 said:

paulguitar said:

How talented Verstappen might be is not relevant. Perez had a big car advantage and didn’t deliver. He’s a decent journeyman.

Perez is #2 in the team, every team has a number one driver, even Mercedes, that's life...and racing. It's ok having two super talented drivers, but pick two top stars and they will have the same mentality to win...the team ceases to function properly.

And how do you know someone else in the RB would be any better than Perez?

Not every team has a number one driver? Merc and Ferrari, for example, appear to just let them race.

But didn't Russell have to be told today that it was okay to overtake Hamilton?

No - Russell wanted Hamilton to be told not to overtake him last week and then wanted to be waved past this week when it is clear that the Mercedes drivers are free to race each other.

[entropy]

Muzzer79 said:

Why on earth would they want someone to come in and “challenge” Max??

We had this debate for a long time when Mercedes were dominating and people were suggesting top line alternatives to Bottas.

From Red Bull’s perspective; they are doing pretty fine as it is, they don’t need any other driver coming in and upsetting their applecart.

Will be interesting how the cost cap/development restrictions/BoP works out if we have the trend Ferrari, Merc and RBR in the mix and if it can be consistent.

Generally its better to concentrate on having #1 driver if fighting for WDC but if you have drivers who are near equal it can give you better strategy options.

[HighwayStar]

peter tdci said:

paulguitar said:

carlo996 said:

paulguitar said:

How talented Verstappen might be is not relevant. Perez had a big car advantage and didn’t deliver. He’s a decent journeyman.

Perez is #2 in the team, every team has a number one driver, even Mercedes, that's life...and racing. It's ok having two super talented drivers, but pick two top stars and they will have the same mentality to win...the team ceases to function properly.

And how do you know someone else in the RB would be any better than Perez?

Not every team has a number one driver? Merc and Ferrari, for example, appear to just let them race.

But didn't Russell have to be told today that it was okay to overtake Hamilton?

He simply asked the question as he did last week and has been asked by other team mates in other teams.
Russell wasn’t told he could overtake.. he was told he could race… if he could get the job done, do it. Bottas got wins on merit with Lewis right on his gearbox. As per Rosberg, Bottas was free to race for the WDC. He was never able to put up a sustained challenger. Rosberg got it done. Of course it’s easier to do that when your drivers were the only ones capable of winning a championship.
It’s easy to say that Lewis’s teammates aren’t allowed to race him but it’s not the case. RedBull have everything on Max but that doesn’t seem to be an issue here.

[super7]

85Carrera said:

peter tdci said:

paulguitar said:

carlo996 said:

paulguitar said:

How talented Verstappen might be is not relevant. Perez had a big car advantage and didn’t deliver. He’s a decent journeyman.

Perez is #2 in the team, every team has a number one driver, even Mercedes, that's life...and racing. It's ok having two super talented drivers, but pick two top stars and they will have the same mentality to win...the team ceases to function properly.

And how do you know someone else in the RB would be any better than Perez?

Not every team has a number one driver? Merc and Ferrari, for example, appear to just let them race.

But didn't Russell have to be told today that it was okay to overtake Hamilton?

No - Russell wanted Hamilton to be told not to overtake him last week and then wanted to be waved past this week when it is clear that the Mercedes drivers are free to race each other.

Thats one way to spin the story…. Equally you could take the view he was checking whether he could attack or defend robustly against Hamilton

[super7]

You would have thought that Verstappen would use his superior car and talent to back LeClerc up into Checo?????

[85Carrera]

super7 said:

85Carrera said:

peter tdci said:

paulguitar said:

carlo996 said:

paulguitar said:

How talented Verstappen might be is not relevant. Perez had a big car advantage and didn’t deliver. He’s a decent journeyman.

Perez is #2 in the team, every team has a number one driver, even Mercedes, that's life...and racing. It's ok having two super talented drivers, but pick two top stars and they will have the same mentality to win...the team ceases to function properly.

And how do you know someone else in the RB would be any better than Perez?

Not every team has a number one driver? Merc and Ferrari, for example, appear to just let them race.

But didn't Russell have to be told today that it was okay to overtake Hamilton?

No - Russell wanted Hamilton to be told not to overtake him last week and then wanted to be waved past this week when it is clear that the Mercedes drivers are free to race each other.

Thats one way to spin the story…. Equally you could take the view he was checking whether he could attack or defend robustly against Hamilton

He knows that’s the case. If he stopped whining all the time, he’d be a lot more likeable.

[HighwayStar]

super7 said:

You would have thought that Verstappen would use his superior car and talent to back LeClerc up into Checo?????

You saw last week… helping anyone but himself is not Max’s thing.

[peter tdci]

85Carrera said:

peter tdci said:

paulguitar said:

carlo996 said:

paulguitar said:

How talented Verstappen might be is not relevant. Perez had a big car advantage and didn’t deliver. He’s a decent journeyman.

Perez is #2 in the team, every team has a number one driver, even Mercedes, that's life...and racing. It's ok having two super talented drivers, but pick two top stars and they will have the same mentality to win...the team ceases to function properly.

And how do you know someone else in the RB would be any better than Perez?

Not every team has a number one driver? Merc and Ferrari, for example, appear to just let them race.

But didn't Russell have to be told today that it was okay to overtake Hamilton?

No - Russell wanted Hamilton to be told not to overtake him last week and then wanted to be waved past this week when it is clear that the Mercedes drivers are free to race each other.

It didn't sound entirely like that.

From the BBC live reporting:

Team Radio - Russell
Russell: What's going on?
Engineer: You're free to race

If they were always free to race, why didn't Russell just drive past him without calling his engineer?

[C70R]

Byker28i said:

Nope. I think given the right car we're looking at a future world champ there

Careful. It's only been a few seasons since F1 fans 'in the know' were saying that about Danny Ric.

[abzmike]

peter tdci said:

It didn't sound entirely like that.

From the BBC live reporting:

Team Radio - Russell
Russell: What's going on?
Engineer: You're free to race

If they were always free to race, why didn't Russell just drive past him without calling his engineer?

If the result mattered a monkeys he would likely have got a different answer.

[C70R]

85Carrera said:

He knows that’s the case. If he stopped whining all the time, he’d be a lot more likeable.

The sort of person who bases their opinion about a sportsman on their 'personality' in a series of short radio messages probably isn't worth paying much attention to.

[Hugo Stiglitz]

Absolutely awesome. A dominant season. A team mate who three years ago after an average career was facing F1 exit yet now both are dominant. What awesome drivers.

Surreal how no other team could suddenly bring a torch to the redbull team.


Bye F1.

[Pflanzgarten]

Pflanzgarten said:

The Mercedes mechanics threw Nyck de Vries into the marina, pulled him out, tied him to a tyre trolley and wheeled him down the pit lane to dump him in the Alpha Touri garage

https://twitter.com/Willowcooki/status/15943618630...


Toto stopped his Sky De interview to witness it.

Edited by Pflanzgarten on Sunday 20th November 17:44

Nyck going in...
https://twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/159437816...

Traditions, anyone leaving Mercedes gets a dunking...
https://twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/159439031...

[CornishSquire]

so thats 2022


clc excellent drive, i was willing him around
before i was behind checo, but i really wanted clc to beat him, just to highlight what a tt max was last race,
really cementing himself as collossal pk to his team & very helpful teammate
(but im sure his reasons were worth it)

and give congrats to redbull and max's 2 great years "**"
have to hand it to them, amongst other things they have a phenomenal catering department, :wink:


theres no way mercs can be as bad next year
im not really supersticious but the w13 was bad

looking forward to 2023
should be fun

Edited by CornishSquire on Sunday 20th November 19:55

[CoolHands]

Perez once again proves how utterly useless he is. I’m so glad he lost 2nd overall due to a combination of his teammate + his own shortcomings.