Official Italian Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

[DanielSan]

CustardOnChips said:

The advantage was he kept his position.

Running another driver off the track is not racing. Neither is leaving the track limits.

I hope Lewis hangs Max or Charles out to dry soon, ending their race. There will be some on her calling for his head on a spike.

How is him ending their race an acceptable reply? Was his race ended be LeClerc yesterday or did he drop it off the track all on his own and drop to 3rd? You make it sound like Hamilton has never left the track limits to maintain an advantage ever....

It's about time Hamilton had to do some hard racing again, since Rosberg left Bottas has just rolled over in 90% of anything close to a battle that they've had. It'll be a nice change to see him doing what he can do best. Sadly it won't happen this season until the championship is finally decided and he can't lose it, until then he has no reason to take a big risk.

[exelero]

CustardOnChips said:

DanielSan said:

I'll ask the question a few have asked already in this thread, where exactly is the advantage in bouncing an F1 car over 2 speed bumps and damaging the floor, along with losing time to the car behind as a result?

Fans were complaining after Canada that the drivers should just be allowed to race, now that's happening people are still moaning about it because they aren't seeing the result they wanted to see.

The advantage was he kept his position.

Running another driver off the track is not racing. Neither is leaving the track limits.

I hope Lewis hangs Max or Charles out to dry soon, ending their race. There will be some on her calling for his head on a spike.

Could happen the other way around as well, beware of that. Max could easily wipe any of them out

[Quickmoose]

CustardOnChips said:

The advantage was he kept his position.

Running another driver off the track is not racing. Neither is leaving the track limits.

I hope Lewis hangs Max or Charles out to dry soon, ending their race. There will be some on her calling for his head on a spike.

of course REAL racers would just keep their foot in...

All that focus and determination, still found the time to press the comm button and quote rules and regs… obviously the real greats never cross such thin lines of right and wrong huh....

[anonymous-user]

CustardOnChips said:

The advantage was he kept his position.

Running another driver off the track is not racing. Neither is leaving the track limits.

I hope Lewis hangs Max or Charles out to dry soon, ending their race. There will be some on her calling for his head on a spike.

What about the Sainz vs Albon incident?

That was far worse and Sainz received nothing either.

[Byker28i]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

CustardOnChips said:

The advantage was he kept his position.

Running another driver off the track is not racing. Neither is leaving the track limits.

I hope Lewis hangs Max or Charles out to dry soon, ending their race. There will be some on her calling for his head on a spike.

What about the Sainz vs Albon incident?

That was far worse and Sainz received nothing either.

I thought the weaving was naughty, running hamilton off the track was naughty as H was alongside, that wasn't just taking a racing line, cutting the chicane and staying in front was naughty, but it was Monza, the Stewards were never going to penalise the leading Ferrari. Easy to do it to Vettel who'd already thrown his race away.

What is good is LeClerc coming through for Ferrari. He's been signifcantly better than Vettel all season and if the team hadn't been silly with some decisions trying to favour Vettel, they'd have a lot more points and probably a driver second in the drivers championship

[C70R]

REALIST123 said:

I think it’s pretty clear that Hamilton is happy with the ‘wingman’ and that he wouldn’t want any of the young up and comers in a Mercedes yet.

This leap of logic stuff always confuses me.

I'm not saying it's untrue, but what evidence have you possibly seen to make you convinced that it's "pretty clear"?

I'm not sure I could be categorically clear either way.

[E34-3.2]

Wills2 said:

rallycross said:

Very classy of CLC to ask Coulthard if he could speak in Italian to the home crowd - does anyone know what he said in ItalIan?

I weaved about to block him, ran him off the track, cut the chicane and still didn't get a penalty, grazie mille.

He actually said the same things that all drivers are saying when they win a gp.

[swisstoni]

Leclerc has jumped ahead of Verstappen as the top young-gun now IMHO. He combined speed, assertiveness and unflappability on Sunday.
Max has the first 2 but I’m not sure about the 3rd.

Also an interesting shift in the approach to stewarding.
If as Leclerc, and since Sunday now Hamilton, has found it now seems to be fairly open season on moving about to defend.

If that receives only a poxy flag on first offence, this may open the floodgates to a little more indiscipline in the ranks.

I don’t see this as a bad thing necessarily but it may detract from Verstappen’s USP.

There was a time when Hamilton only had to scratch his nose in the McLaren and he’d be landed with some penalty or other.

If the handcuffs are now off, we may see some interesting stuff.

Let’s hope it’s safe.

[angrymoby]

Re: stewards, we now have the slightly odd situation where according to Masi, if you're being forced off track on a straight/ braking zone to avoid touching- the aggressor will receive no penalty, just the B&W

But if you do touch, they will ...so you're pretty much actively encouraging collisions, which seems a bit at odds with the FIA's general mantra about safety

[Wills2]

E34-3.2 said:

Wills2 said:

rallycross said:

Very classy of CLC to ask Coulthard if he could speak in Italian to the home crowd - does anyone know what he said in ItalIan?

I weaved about to block him, ran him off the track, cut the chicane and still didn't get a penalty, grazie mille.

He actually said the same things that all drivers are saying when they win a gp.

Whoosh!

[TheDeuce]

SmoothCriminal said:

They need a driver who will win when Lewis is not in contention.

I doubt the damlier board will be happy with coming 2nd or if Ferrari 2nd driver and redbull are on it 5th.

As soon as Bottas got past Lewis despite sky creaming their pants most race fans knew there was no way he was ever going to get close when he nearly did he choked and went wide or over braked himself, did he even get into drs range?.

Merc could happily afforded to have had Journeyman Bottas there when Rosberg was there and they were smashing the competition but when races are close they cant.

I'm not talking about putting Max in the 2nd merc but they could have easily said to Russell (EVEN THOUGH LEWIS DOESN'T WANT IT) you are coming to Merc as a clear number two he would have jumped at the chance.

But he has won GP's this year. The times he hasn't won, either it's because Lewis has... or they were at a track where Mercedes struggled a little and for whatever reason, a driver from another team won.

He's emphatically good enough and a known quantity. The chances of Lewis, who is a fantastic and consistent driver, in the fastest car, not being in contention for a win is a fairly rare event. Hence, why change a driver that is good enough and known to comply at almost every race, for one that might not be so compliant but in theory slightly faster, just for the rare occasions when Lewis can't get the job done himself?

This is what seems to get missed. Yes, conventional wisdom says you want the best two driver you can have, and at a lot of teams that would make sense. But when a team has their car and race craft as well sorted as Mercedes the results are all but guaranteed. The last thing they would do is rock the boat. Even if by keeping on Bottas this year and next they run the risk of failing to plan for the future (when Lewis departs at some point), that isn't as important as winning this year and next. That is how they break records, and carry Lewis into equal WDC terms with Schumacher. That is the number one goal at Mercedes right now, and nothing else can be expected to matter as much. They're on that trajectory and won't want to change anything they don't have too until those goals are realised.

[Hungrymc]

angrymoby said:

Re: stewards, we now have the slightly odd situation where according to Masi, if you're being forced off track on a straight/ braking zone to avoid touching- the aggressor will receive no penalty, just the B&W

But if you do touch, they will ...so you're pretty much actively encouraging collisions, which seems a bit at odds with the FIA's general mantra about safety

Yep. It’s. massively flawed approach and I mentioned it earlier in the thread. Stroll’s penalty was less than Sebs because Gasly avoided him (Stroll having clipped Seb instead of just diving off track as Gasly did).

Masi said the stewards would have taken a harder view on Charles if there was contact. The only reason their wasn’t contact is Lewis avoided it.

They’re placing the nature of the penalty in the hands of the driver who isn’t at fault instead of just assessing the driving of the guilty driver..... No logic at all.

[Blib]

I wonder whether the reason why Hamilton was so magnanimous after the race about LeClerc's tactics was because he did not wish to upset the Tifosi before his move to Ferrari?

[TheDeuce]

Blib said:

I wonder whether the reason why Hamilton was so magnanimous after the race about LeClerc's tactics was because he did not wish to upset the Tifosi before his move to Ferrari?

You're mad, of course. But at least you sought some form of logic in your delusions

[Hungrymc]

Blib said:

I wonder whether the reason why Hamilton was so magnanimous after the race about LeClerc's tactics was because he did not wish to upset the Tifosi before his move to Ferrari?

Was a bit disappointing with Lewis’s level of chill.... Was half expecting an “I’ve got a message for Masi” moment.

[Deesee]

Here’s Masi on the Sky Pad..

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/f1/11...

Must watch if you want to debate rules/decisions on the future IMO..

[HighwayStar]

TheDeuce said:

Blib said:

I wonder whether the reason why Hamilton was so magnanimous after the race about LeClerc's tactics was because he did not wish to upset the Tifosi before his move to Ferrari?

You're mad, of course. But at least you sought some form of logic in your delusions

As Leclerc said, after his scrap with Max he then knew what the limit was. Lewis has said the same thing... he praised Leclerc’s driving and he would also adjust his approach...

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com...

[37chevy]

Deesee said:

Here’s Masi on the Sky Pad..

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/f1/11...

Must watch if you want to debate rules/decisions on the future IMO..

Think that’s a very fair assessment.. this sort of explanation needs to happen more often

[Teddy Lop]

37chevy said:

Deesee said:

Here’s Masi on the Sky Pad..

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/f1/11...

Must watch if you want to debate rules/decisions on the future IMO..

Think that’s a very fair assessment.. this sort of explanation needs to happen more often

it's nice of him to take the time soon after the race, even if you didn't agree with decisions made its closure to hear the explanation - contrast to the high-handed spanky max basically calling brundle a fool on camera for iquiring too far.

[Blib]

TheDeuce said:

Blib said:

I wonder whether the reason why Hamilton was so magnanimous after the race about LeClerc's tactics was because he did not wish to upset the Tifosi before his move to Ferrari?

You're mad, of course. But at least you sought some form of logic in your delusions

I'm just wondering. Why wouldn't he go to Ferrari? He'll win this year's title and has absolutely nothing to prove. Vettel seems to be falling out of love with F1 at the moment.

LeClerc and Hamilton together could bring the championship to Ferrari......?