The Official 2018 Mexican GP *** Spoilers***
Discussion
Deesee said:
Marcia said:
Deesee said:
Marcia said:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpfiwQUhHHj/?utm_sourc...
Nice touch from Seb
Great Sportsmanship for Seb, followed it up with this.Nice touch from Seb
https://twitter.com/F1/status/1056675049611165703
cb1965 said:
Seb and Toto are often chatting and in all seriousness I do think there is an element of Vettel keeping the doors open at other teams as he is often seen chatting to the Red Bull guys too. Sensible chap in my opinion.
Almost the antithesis of Fernando "burn your bridges and then piss on the ashes" Alonso. 
(Amazingly, McLaren still took him back)
I think Mercedes are in for a rougher ride next year. Marchionne death mid season caused a lot of upheaval at the factory but there is no doubt from Suday’s result that the red cars have the measure of Mercedes now and Toto’s admitted the Ferrari PU is now the most powerful on the grid. Ferraris Achilles heel is always poor organisation led by italian politics vs the ice cool approach of the Germans. Seb is put under massive pressure from the italian media who treat the team like a religion and being such a Ferrari fanboy he feels enormous pressure to repeat the Schumacher years, but lacks the capability Micheal had to mould the team around him. I agree with Lewis he is unfairly criticised for mistakes when as Lewis knows at that level they are pushing the envelope for fractions of seconds and in those cars you overstep by an inch and you’ve lost it. I really don’t think Ferrari would be in contention without Seb at the helm - none of the young hotshots have got the experience to deal with the pressure cooker of Maranello and the Tifosi or seasoning to help develop the car to eke out those last percentiles to push past Mercedes. Sunday showed when it’s all working then Seb & Kimi can absoloutely drop the hammer, conversely when the arrows are struggling even Lewis’s prodigious talent can’t keep worn tyres on the tarmac and Bottas couldn’t fend off Grandpa Kimi.
Yes Lewis has 2x WDC on the bounce - ask Mika Häkkinen or Nico how much that saps from a driver, listen to the interviews and behind the cool exterior the ducks feet are paddling hard to keep pace with the Ferrari’s, to keep pushing at 110 percent season after season exhausts everyone so realistically that starts to take its toll on a team which is why we see the greats like Red Bull, McLaren and others rise and fall. Mercedes had a fantastic head start but there reaches a point where they’ve found all the easy gains and are now having to find the last drops of performance in the current formula as everyone catches up to them. The Mercedes was clearly harder on its tyres than the Ferrari in the last race, and the Ferrari has better pace on the straights - if Seb & Ferrari go away over winter and come back hungry to win, and Sebs job is on the line so he has everything to prove then Mercedes will have to battle all season which will put a bigger strain on Lewis - Mercedes aren’t unbeatable, the mistake they made in Monaco 15 shows it only takes one bad call to cost points no matter the talent of the driver and the more pressure Ferrari applies the more risks Lewis and Mercedes have to take exposing them to potential errors.
Bottas could be found wanting against LeClerc, he struggles to compete against Kimi so I think not taking Ocon now is probably going to cost them constructor points in 19. If Seb doesn’t take the WDC in 19 It’ll be interesting if Toto risks a repeat of the Rosberg/Hamilton duel by signing Seb, or goes with Ocon. Realistically if Seb doesn’t stay at Ferrari or go to Mercedes in 20 I’d expect Renault to grab him, paired with Daniel and without the Maranello pressure cooker that would give them a lot of capability and driver development experience to start the new formula with.
Yes Lewis has 2x WDC on the bounce - ask Mika Häkkinen or Nico how much that saps from a driver, listen to the interviews and behind the cool exterior the ducks feet are paddling hard to keep pace with the Ferrari’s, to keep pushing at 110 percent season after season exhausts everyone so realistically that starts to take its toll on a team which is why we see the greats like Red Bull, McLaren and others rise and fall. Mercedes had a fantastic head start but there reaches a point where they’ve found all the easy gains and are now having to find the last drops of performance in the current formula as everyone catches up to them. The Mercedes was clearly harder on its tyres than the Ferrari in the last race, and the Ferrari has better pace on the straights - if Seb & Ferrari go away over winter and come back hungry to win, and Sebs job is on the line so he has everything to prove then Mercedes will have to battle all season which will put a bigger strain on Lewis - Mercedes aren’t unbeatable, the mistake they made in Monaco 15 shows it only takes one bad call to cost points no matter the talent of the driver and the more pressure Ferrari applies the more risks Lewis and Mercedes have to take exposing them to potential errors.
Bottas could be found wanting against LeClerc, he struggles to compete against Kimi so I think not taking Ocon now is probably going to cost them constructor points in 19. If Seb doesn’t take the WDC in 19 It’ll be interesting if Toto risks a repeat of the Rosberg/Hamilton duel by signing Seb, or goes with Ocon. Realistically if Seb doesn’t stay at Ferrari or go to Mercedes in 20 I’d expect Renault to grab him, paired with Daniel and without the Maranello pressure cooker that would give them a lot of capability and driver development experience to start the new formula with.
Clockwork Cupcake said:
RichB said:
Indeed, Williams had a track record of sacking world champion drivers. 
Frank Williams pretty much had a policy of ditching drivers who got too big for their boots (in his mind) on salary demands due to now being a WDC. He always considered drivers to be a fairly minor part of the equation, so had no qualms about letting a recently-crowned WDC go. He did it many times. _Leg_ said:
I wish I could be bothered to drag up all the comments about Hamilton being mad to move to the floundering Mercedes team from McLaren.
where you go: https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24181/10039850/w...Alonso seems to have been pretty bang on!
Polite M135 driver said:
_Leg_ said:
I wish I could be bothered to drag up all the comments about Hamilton being mad to move to the floundering Mercedes team from McLaren.
where you go: https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24181/10039850/w...Alonso seems to have been pretty bang on!
Deesee said:
Wow, just read all that, Martin Whitmarsh and Nico Rosberg must be looking to take out a super injunction or google delete service
‘So I would say to any driver who wanted to win in this sport: 'Come and join McLaren and aspire to join McLaren'. I wouldn't advise anyone to leave McLaren if they want to win"Alonso “Join McLaren and experience being the fastest GP2 car in a F1 race”
Deesee said:
Polite M135 driver said:
_Leg_ said:
I wish I could be bothered to drag up all the comments about Hamilton being mad to move to the floundering Mercedes team from McLaren.
where you go: https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24181/10039850/w...Alonso seems to have been pretty bang on!
cb1965 said:
Deesee said:
Polite M135 driver said:
_Leg_ said:
I wish I could be bothered to drag up all the comments about Hamilton being mad to move to the floundering Mercedes team from McLaren.
where you go: https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24181/10039850/w...Alonso seems to have been pretty bang on!
Deesee said:
I just wonder if he (seb) can come back stronger next year, I hope so the stronger the opposition the better the racing for all involved.
When Danny Ric put some heat in the kitchen, Seb was found wanting and left. I think that if LeClerc repeats that at Ferrari, Lewis could be winning in cruise mode, while they take points from each other and BOT.I think Seb has now got to follow the approach that Nico did in his winning year - forget the wife and kids and just devote every second of every day to beating Lewis, but I do not see that happening.
Much as I want Honda to come good for RB and put Max in a leading position, I just don’t believe that it is going to happen either.
Polite M135 driver said:
_Leg_ said:
I wish I could be bothered to drag up all the comments about Hamilton being mad to move to the floundering Mercedes team from McLaren.
where you go: https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24181/10039850/w...Alonso seems to have been pretty bang on!
"He has looked at the roulette wheel and put everything on silver. He has quit McLaren, a team of proven, habitual winners, and decided to take flight with the Silver Arrows of Mercedes. If he has got this one wrong, he will rue the decision for the next three peak years of his career and probably for the rest of his life.
"But there is still a chance that Hamilton has got it right. Mercedes, as a works team, are well placed to exploit the complicated engine/energy recovery technology that will be unveiled in 2014.
"There is, however, no chance that McLaren have got this one right. While Hamilton and his advisers must be worried about the wisdom of his decision, for McLaren there is only the confrontation with disaster" - Paul Weaver, The Guardian.
Clockwork Cupcake said:
Polite M135 driver said:
_Leg_ said:
I wish I could be bothered to drag up all the comments about Hamilton being mad to move to the floundering Mercedes team from McLaren.
where you go: https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24181/10039850/w...Alonso seems to have been pretty bang on!
"He has looked at the roulette wheel and put everything on silver. He has quit McLaren, a team of proven, habitual winners, and decided to take flight with the Silver Arrows of Mercedes. If he has got this one wrong, he will rue the decision for the next three peak years of his career and probably for the rest of his life.
"But there is still a chance that Hamilton has got it right. Mercedes, as a works team, are well placed to exploit the complicated engine/energy recovery technology that will be unveiled in 2014.
"There is, however, no chance that McLaren have got this one right. While Hamilton and his advisers must be worried about the wisdom of his decision, for McLaren there is only the confrontation with disaster" - Paul Weaver, The Guardian.
I feel sorry for Alonso, because he could easily be up there in titles with Lewis had he gotten into the right car.
cb1965 said:
Deesee said:
Polite M135 driver said:
_Leg_ said:
I wish I could be bothered to drag up all the comments about Hamilton being mad to move to the floundering Mercedes team from McLaren.
where you go: https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24181/10039850/w...Alonso seems to have been pretty bang on!
It was a risk, but one that has paid off. It has proved to be a brilliant move.
nyxster said:
I think Mercedes are in for a rougher ride next year. Marchionne death mid season caused a lot of upheaval at the factory but there is no doubt from Suday’s result that the red cars have the measure of Mercedes now and Toto’s admitted the Ferrari PU is now the most powerful on the grid.
You may be right but the same has been said for at least the past two years yet nothing really changes. Marchione's death would unlikely to have had any impact in performance or results. That's just not how such organisations work; they are set up so that such occurrences do not influence things. And don't forget that Mercedes has been without Lauda for at least half the season.
I still find it strange how Ferrari's slight dip on performance coincided with the FIA starting to monitor battery usage.
Clockwork Cupcake said:
Polite M135 driver said:
It could have looked like a massive gamble from the outside but one assumes Hamilton had a fair bit more info about personnel, investment plans, development work, etc etc. Before he committed. So still a gamble, but maybe a smaller one.
Almost certainly. However, one could equally argue that Alonso's disastrous team move choices should have been equally well-researched. The "leave him alone, he knows what he's doing" argument doesn't always hold. 
My point was that hindsight is a wonderful thing and those at the time who were saying Hamilton's move was risky were making a fair observation. The fact that it turned out to be a shrewd move doesn't alter the fact.
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