Yeah Tsunoda will get canned, however I think the best test the Red Bull group could do is sticking Max in the Racing Bull to see what the max potential of that car is, given that Tsunoda, Hadjar and even to some extent Lawson have all performed well in that car. Max is brilliant but hard to argue that he hasn’t sent the team down the wrong rabbit holes in development.
First of all I don’t agree with the McLaren team orders in Hungary last year , and I don’t agree with today’s . If they told Piastri to let Norris by as a way of making up for last year and it means parity , then that’s that . Team radio - Piastripublished at 15:20 British Summer Time 15:20 BST Engineer: "Oscar this is a bit like Hungary last year, we pitted in this order for team reasons. Please let Lando pass and then you are free to race." Piastri: "I mean, we said a slow pit stop was part of racing, I don't get it." Apparently it’s not that Lando had a slow pit stop . It’s to do with the fact the team pitted Piastri first as the team were concerned LeClerc might get by . so when things settled down and McLaren were going to finish 2 & 3 , they asked Piastri to let Norris past .
Bit harsh imo. First 5-10 laps were good up front and there was generally something going on further back. TV direction wasn’t great, so we didn’t necessarily see the best of the action.
Max has been complaining about the direction the car has been going since early 2023, it’s fair to say that his ability to live with it might have led RedBull to continue on that path, but I don’t think it’s fair to say he “sent” them down this road.
I see what McLaren are trying to do by balancing luck out, but if one of the drivers suffers bad luck at the last race there's going to be nothing they can do. What happens if Piastri leads into the last 2 races by 48 points and has two engine blowups - are they going to tell Lando he needs to retire the car at Abu Dhabi because he can’t win the championship by less than the 6 point swing that was manufactured today?
I honestly think this was the same as Hungary last year . I don’t think they did it with any intention other than to ensure they didn’t let LeClerc jump a McLaren . Not sure if you heard Norris when team were discussing pitting Piastri first ? He agreed with it . Had the pit stop not been messed up it wouldn’t have been an issue .
They changed the pit order to protect the driver behind and the team's positions, and in doing so screwed over the leading driver. Completely different scenarios.
Look at it this way, Piastri will be more motivated at the next race. If Norris wants this he will have to step up his actual racing rather than fast when the track is clear. Maybe the left wheel nut gun holder was in tears. Maybe they did it for him?
Fair points. Having reviewed the radio transcripts, the suggestion that Oscar pit first came from Lando it seems, but it’s unclear if that was because of the risk of Leclerc passing. If so I’m not sure what McLaren were doing holding off on their stops until Leclerc was a risk? What I would say is that the gap before the stops was about the same as the difference in the pit stop times, so there’s a chance that barring external factors if the stops had been in the normal order and Lando had still had the long stop, they’d have been racing into T1. It also concerns me slightly that this approach rather mitigates the risk of a botched stop. It’s possible that Lando knew from prior discussions that if he offered the team this “opportunity” to derisk Oscar’s position, he’d also insure him self against a slow stop. That would be incredibly smart of him, and hats off to him if it’s the case, but for the fan it is removing the jeopardy. Honestly I can’t quite work out what’s making this title battle between two new contenders so dull to me, but I can’t help believe that McLaren’s desire to stage manage it to the n’th degree isn’t helping and I think it’s leading me to feel automatically negative towards stuff like this.
I agree,this championship should be getting really exiting now but because of this stage managed effort by Macca which I can`t help but think this borders on diversity equality and inclusion (DEI) has made this years racing boring.I knew that they shouldn`t have swapped in Hungary last year as it could set a precedent,and now it has. Can`t help thinking that if Piastri was leadig by only 2 points would he have done the swap then? Brundle commented on the lack of Max being willing to do it,which I must agree with.
I hope that we are back at “ 1 all “ so to speak , that the team let them race , with the instruction ‘ not to take each other out ‘ clearly understood . If they wanted to secure the WCC , it’s as good as done . Let them at it
Seems like Carlos's 10 second penalty and 2 points have been rescinded! The powers that be now suggest it was a racing incident! No change to the race results though. The explanation I read suggested that Lawson momentarily lost control and slid! Correct me if I'm wrong, but quite a few crashes this year have resulted from drivers not being in control. It's those drivers who have been given the punishment for lack of control! Once again a little confusing.
