Official 2021 French Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

[resolve10]

SturdyHSV said:

I hope the season stays like this (ideally RB to pull further ahead) as then we can see how good Toto is at pulling the team together. In the C4 interview I think he said 30% of their workforce has never lost a championship I think it's very easy to wax lyrical about what a great working environment you have and how everyone is honest and open about mistakes etc. when you're comfortably pissing off into the distance whatever you do. Now that the pressure is on it's good to see some actual stress appearing.

This 100%. The problem they've created for themselves is due to their own success, anything other than winning both championships is a failure.

C70R said:

The Sky Driver of the Day poll really made me laugh, and highlighted where fans' loyalty lies.

Max was leading by a country mile, in spite of having the fastest car, almost throwing it away at the first corner and 95% of his win being as a result of a team strategy call.

Lewis wasn't even in the top 3, in spite of being in the 'poorer' Merc chassis, having a slower car, watching his team make an absolute Horlicks of the strategy, and still managing to take the battle to the penultimate lap.

I agree. No real stand out driver of the day for me, I could make a case for Norris or Perez. Stroll also had a solid drive from P19 to points.

[whatleytom]

The Surveyor said:

Norris is 4th in the Championship 25 points ahead of Bottas, not 5th. He's showing superb consistency and is the only driver to have scored points in every race of the season. He's raised his game again this season and is not only staking a claim for No. 1 driver in McLaren, but also for one of the Mercedes seats in the future IMHO.

Thinking logically, Norris would make a better teammate to Hamilton than Russell when competing against the current Red Bull pairing. One fast No. 1 driver with a consistent scoring teammate. Norris to Merc and Russell to McLaren until Hamilton steps away leaving a Norris / Russell pairing at Mercedes

I'd love that to happen. Would be a good pairing, but given Norris has just signed for McLaren again seems highly unlikely. Norris seems a fair amount calmer than Russel. That overtake on Alonso was great.

[Mark V GTD]

Finlandese said:

Bottas stopped on lap 17, Verstappen on 18 and Hamilton on 19. Verstappen was a bit over three seconds behind Hamilton when he pitted to cover for Bottas and did not expect to undercut Hamilton. But he did, despite 0,1 sec faster pit stop for Hamilton.

I still don't understand how Hamilton was behind Max when he emerged from the pitlane. The experts here say the 'undercut was strong' - but not sure what that actually means. Anyone car to explain it in plain English please?

[Polite M135 driver]

Flooble said:

Ah, my mistake. I remembered during the race having loads of time to say "they've done a Barcelona again" so believed Horner was referring to two laps from Verstappen's stop. That makes Verstappen's out lap even more impressive then. Although as someone noted Hamilton somehow lost half a second in the pitlane - what did he do, stop for a drive through coffee?

If you look closely at the position of the first pit box then it was a bit of a detour compared to the others to get there from the pit entry, I think. I wonder if that could be it.

[Flooble]

Mark V GTD said:

Finlandese said:

Bottas stopped on lap 17, Verstappen on 18 and Hamilton on 19. Verstappen was a bit over three seconds behind Hamilton when he pitted to cover for Bottas and did not expect to undercut Hamilton. But he did, despite 0,1 sec faster pit stop for Hamilton.

I still don't understand how Hamilton was behind Max when he emerged from the pitlane. The experts here say the 'undercut was strong' - but not sure what that actually means. Anyone car to explain it in plain English please?

Before the stops Max is 3 seconds behind Lewis on the same tyres; they can both broadly lap at 1m37s. Even if Max has a faster car, he can't get too close to Lewis or he will be in dirty air and will burn out his tyres as overtaking needs a big pace difference.

Max pits, puts on new tyres and emerges into some clear air with not cars around him. He can use the extra grip of the new tyre and the free air to put in a 1m35s lap or better. Lewis was already going as fast as he can on his old tyres, at 1m37s per lap. Hence By the time Lewis completes another lap to pit, Max has reduced the lead by 2 seconds or more.

[Flooble]

Polite M135 driver said:

If you look closely at the position of the first pit box then it was a bit of a detour compared to the others to get there from the pit entry, I think. I wonder if that could be it.

Ironic if that was it, considering you are supposed to be "rewarded" for being the champions by having the "best" box. Maybe Lewis is just getting old and had to stop and ask for directions. No wait, that was Kimi the other year ...

[Blib]

I intrigued how Ferrari secretly manage to swap their half decent qualifying cars for utterly rubbish race day ones in parc ferme without anyone else noticing.

[Mark V GTD]

Flooble said:

Max has reduced the lead by 2 seconds or more.

Thanks for the response - so if he reduced it to two seconds he should still be a second behind Lewis - so I guess he must have made up the full three seconds in his one lap on the fresh rubber? - I didn't appreciate that was possible but I guess its the only explanation (sorry I just enjoy watching the F1 and am not really well up on the technical stuff).

[APontus]

Blib said:

I intrigued how Ferrari secretly manage to swap their half decent qualifying cars for utterly rubbish race day ones in parc ferme without anyone else noticing.

They're very heavy on their front tyres. Great for low grip, low speed tracks or qualifying where getting tyres to temperature can be a struggle. Awful for maxing out longevity during the race at normal tracks.

[-crookedtail-]

Mark V GTD said:

Flooble said:

Max has reduced the lead by 2 seconds or more.

Thanks for the response - so if he reduced it to two seconds he should still be a second behind Lewis - so I guess he must have made up the full three seconds in his one lap on the fresh rubber? - I didn't appreciate that was possible but I guess its the only explanation (sorry I just enjoy watching the F1 and am not really well up on the technical stuff).

Here is some info directly from Autosport - Quite helpful breakdown of the jargon. Even for the regular viewer.

"The undercut effect is often used by teams as a strategic overtaking method. By pitting for fresh tyres first, a driver can make use of the extra grip immediately and quickly close the gap to the car ahead. If the lead car doesn't react in time - or can't match the pace set by those behind it on faster tyres - it will be at risk of losing positions when it eventually makes a pitstop.

It's not always the case that new tyres will outperform old tyres, as on some tracks it takes a while to heat up new rubber. In that scenario the best strategy is to pit after rivals, and this is called the overcut."

So in short, Max pitting a few laps earlier than Lewis allowed him on fresher rubber to put some decent laps in and claw the difference back whilst also forcing Mercedes into a pitstop, at least for the first pitstop anyway.

[honda_exige]

C70R said:

The Sky Driver of the Day poll really made me laugh, and highlighted where fans' loyalty lies.

Max was leading by a country mile, in spite of having the fastest car, almost throwing it away at the first corner and 95% of his win being as a result of a team strategy call.

Lewis wasn't even in the top 3, in spite of being in the 'poorer' Merc chassis, having a slower car, watching his team make an absolute Horlicks of the strategy, and still managing to take the battle to the penultimate lap.

It's not a Sky poll its by F1 so yes Dutch Max fans are especially enthusiastic but Hamilton did win driver of the day in Spain this year where he did the same as Max today basically.

[Flooble]

Mark V GTD said:

Flooble said:

Max has reduced the lead by 2 seconds or more.

Thanks for the response - so if he reduced it to two seconds he should still be a second behind Lewis - so I guess he must have made up the full three seconds in his one lap on the fresh rubber? - I didn't appreciate that was possible but I guess its the only explanation (sorry I just enjoy watching the F1 and am not really well up on the technical stuff).

Someone else said that Lewis was also half a second slower in the pitlane; it also sounded as if there was confusion on the Mercedes pit wall as Lewis was heard asking on the radio "So are we coming in this lap, should I use up all the tyres?" which implies he may have been poodling around in tyre-preservation mode, while Max was going all out.

I can just about see where the three seconds went, but all credit to Max for pulling it off.

[Hungrymc]

honda_exige said:

C70R said:

The Sky Driver of the Day poll really made me laugh, and highlighted where fans' loyalty lies.

Max was leading by a country mile, in spite of having the fastest car, almost throwing it away at the first corner and 95% of his win being as a result of a team strategy call.

Lewis wasn't even in the top 3, in spite of being in the 'poorer' Merc chassis, having a slower car, watching his team make an absolute Horlicks of the strategy, and still managing to take the battle to the penultimate lap.

It's not a Sky poll its by F1 so yes Dutch Max fans are especially enthusiastic but Hamilton did win driver of the day in Spain this year where he did the same as Max today basically.

Powered by AWS isn't it ?

[Wh00sher]

Apologies if I missed it, but has there been any explanation why Mercedes didn't pit Bottas after Perez passed him so they could get the point for fastest lap and he'd still retain 4th?

He was around 50s ahead of the car behind, it was mystifying why they didn't take the opportunity of the point in what could end up being a very close championship

[Oilchange]

I wondered this also.

Plus, did I hear Bottas complain that he had suggested the 2 stop strategy and was overruled?

[MontyPythonX]

Wh00sher said:

Apologies if I missed it, but has there been any explanation why Mercedes didn't pit Bottas after Perez passed him so they could get the point for fastest lap and he'd still retain 4th?

He was around 50s ahead of the car behind, it was mystifying why they didn't take the opportunity of the point in what could end up being a very close championship

Merc think that Perez overtook Bottas with all 4 tyres over the white lines, and so would get a 5second penalty. They kept Bottas out so he would get 3rd place back after the penalty was applied and help them in the Constructors Championship more than a point for fastest lap would. However Bottas' pace was so bad that he couldn't stay within 5 seconds and Perez didn't get a penalty anyway.

[swisstoni]

Wh00sher said:

Apologies if I missed it, but has there been any explanation why Mercedes didn't pit Bottas after Perez passed him so they could get the point for fastest lap and he'd still retain 4th?

He was around 50s ahead of the car behind, it was mystifying why they didn't take the opportunity of the point in what could end up being a very close championship

I suspect he told them all to f off.

[Flooble]

swisstoni said:

Wh00sher said:

Apologies if I missed it, but has there been any explanation why Mercedes didn't pit Bottas after Perez passed him so they could get the point for fastest lap and he'd still retain 4th?

He was around 50s ahead of the car behind, it was mystifying why they didn't take the opportunity of the point in what could end up being a very close championship

I suspect he told them all to f off.

I thought it was quite an amusing piece of gambling.

• Pit Bottas for Softs: You get 1 point for fastest lap and you take one point away from Red Bull (plus you reduce Max's lead in the WDC by 1 point)

• Don't Pit Bottas: If Bottas (the man who seemingly gives up whenever things don't go his way, burns up his tyres at the best of times and has been on his tyres longer than any of the others) can stay within five seconds and if Perez gets a penalty you get three points.

Personally I think I'd have taken the 2 points and reduced WDC lead.

[resolve10]

Mercedes have come out and said they didn't pit Bottas because they thought Perez might get a 5 sec penalty for overtaking off track, which is puzzling as even the TV graphics came up as 'no action necessary' with a couple of laps to go, so they could have still brought him in.

Perhaps fear of another 48 hour Monaco pit stop? :-D

[whatleytom]

Flooble said:

I thought it was quite an amusing piece of gambling.

• Pit Bottas for Softs: You get 1 point for fastest lap and you take one point away from Red Bull (plus you reduce Max's lead in the WDC by 1 point)

• Don't Pit Bottas: If Bottas (the man who seemingly gives up whenever things don't go his way, burns up his tyres at the best of times and has been on his tyres longer than any of the others) can stay within five seconds and if Perez gets a penalty you get three points.

Personally I think I'd have taken the 2 points and reduced WDC lead.

According to merc Perez passed bottas with four wheels off the track. They were betting he was going to get a 5sec penalty, hence they didn't stop him for the fastest lap.