Sounding like Charles had Plank wear issues that the team saw and took action to stop it being a disqualification. I think they increased the tyre pressure and limited max PU power on straights. Once again Ferrari mess up their drivers chances.....
“ That was a remark about energy management in the hybrid system, team principal Frederic Vasseur said. Leclerc's pace then dropped dramatically in the final stint, making him vulnerable to Russell. Vasseur said that Leclerc had a problem with his car after his pit stop, the cause of which he was not yet sure.” Mystery continues…
Everything by wa pretty much a DRS train behind Alonso and Hamilton was on hards when pretty much everyone in front were on mediums and most of them only did one stop. And because of the closeness once you pitted you went backward very quickly position wise. Also, if you look at Red Bull, Verstappen ended up 72 seconds behind Norris in 9th even though he started 8th
Not sure what the relevance of Verstappen is, but yes it definitely wasn’t a good race for RedBull. Made two stops having lost time trying to go for a one stop and deservedly finished 9th on pace/tactics. You could argue that more teams than the obvious McLaren, Ferrari, Merc & Aston were faster than RedBull this weekend, so in that context 9th might be be seen as pulling a rabbit out of the hat (although tactically I’d say they dropped the ball and without that 7th/8th was achievable). Back to Hamilton. The Ferrari was the 2nd/3rd fastest car and on the Medium was close to McLaren pace, yes overtaking was harder than normal here this year and Ferrari were carrying a limitation towards the end it seems, but starting 12th, not really making progress at any point and then finishing 12th was genuinely surprisingly poor. It’s the first time I’ve thought, that maybe the naysayers are right and it would be better for everyone to move on (to be clear I don’t think he will and I’m sure we’ll see better from him in the future - I’m more commenting because maybe now I begin to see where others are coming from).
Interesting that several who know him well defended him, including Toto. With comments that next years cars are going be different they implied he will be remotivated. I think Stephano said he will be chasing his 8th, that he really wants it. I will give him the benefit of doubt and see what happens. I would like him to be challenging for wins.
Well, if Lando had been accepting 4th in Montreal he would be going into the break 3 points ahead of Oscar. I bet he rues that misjudgement for a long time but it might have been a necessary lesson. Those two are going to make the second half interesting to watch. IF Lando achieves the title, Sainz maybe green and sick. I think he rue'd the day he left Mclaren in the first season he was at Ferrari. There are many questions to be answered next year.
