The Greatest Show on Earth thread - British Grand Prix predictions

Eddie Jordan can be naff at times but he called it right in saying McLaren messed up in losing Honda and then went on to suggest they will have a Merc engine next year, ok it was tongue in cheek but interesting thought.

 

They were allowed to race with good effect.

 

Vettel has had so many mistakes in the last few seasons and we have all suggested he sees the red mist or has lost his mojo.
The mistakes are so many I think his reaction time has simply deteriorated, which leads to the mistakes. Thereby, he is not the driver he once was and is likely get worse, not improve. I think he has simply past his best and can not react quickly enough, hence spins, his apparent lack of judgement, his shunts. I think he is done. He is fast and when he is not dependent on his reaction time, as he is in a scrap, he is able to compete.
He should retire, he has past his best.

 

no one else is allowed to regain positions off track, so I don't see why he should be allowed to.

 

It was surprising it didnt get looked at.

It was a case of LeClerc hanging him off the outside of the track, definitely making a point about Austrua I think. But Max did seem to make the repass outside the track limits.

I don't recall LeClerc or Ferrari protesting the move so they must have thought it was legit.

Made for great racing though.

 

Not sure it was 100% intentional that time, their wheels touching gave him a snap on the steering which he had to correct, and that pushed him out on the kerbs. But it should make no difference, pretty much everyone else who's done it has been penalised.
We need more gravel, or sensors in the wheel hubs so that when all four are off track the engine power is reduced.

 

Just seen a great clip on the Facebook of their battle.

It shows that both he and LeClerc were 4 wheels off track on the exit of Club, so presumably two wrongs made a right in this instance.

Both kept their foot in, LeClerc was not giving that up without a good fight.

Hope we see more of these two!

 

yeah, I think the nature of the move in Austria has started a bit of a rivalry, and LeClerc has shown he's not adverse to removing the gloves. I want to see good racing, but I want to see it done fairly too.

 

Does anyone think now having seen Vettel up against the likes of Ricciardo, Hamilton and Verstappen across the past few years, that you’d consider him a little overrated from his Red Bull title days?

No agenda or bias here, just a genuine question.

Personally I’m not sure. My gut feel at RBR was that he had the measure of a good but not great Webber in Neweys dream machines, but wanted to see him in other fights to truly see how got on. Initially you could say Ricciardo had his number, but then at Ferrari he hammered Kimi Raikonnen (but then so did Alonso). He was putting up a really good fight last year with Hamilton until Germany.

I’d like to see him at his best because world champions fighting and racing one another is a spectacle we don’t get enough of and there are only so many of them to go around.

However, he has really had his vulnerabilities exposed in the last 12 months.

I guess all true Champions have to sit and suffer st some point in their careers. I think how he responds to this will define his legacy.

 

On his day Vettel is still blindingly fast, but something is up. I don't know if it's his style just not matching up to the post 2014 machinery or what.

It's hard to say because on occasion his drives have annihilated the field, yet on other and increasing occasions he's been slow, clumsy and mistake prone.

In order to follow forum rules I'll shoehorn Hamilton into this topic. 2011 he was abysmal, both slow (relatively) and silly with his constant incidents. 2012 I still maintain he was the class of the field, McLaren just let him down in numerous ways. Great drivers are not immune to failures, some come back from disaster and some spiral deeper.

Vettel isn't a bad driver, but he's driving bad at the moment.

 

I'd say he was having a crisis of confidence caused by Germany originally, but made worse by the 'team orders' nnouncement pre-season and CLC being right on it from the get go.

 

CLC is now only three points behind Vettel in the championship, despite Ferrari doing their utmost to cock things up for him.


Your call, Scuderia. What you gonna do?

 

I think that call has already been made, neither is going to challenge for the WDC or the WCC, so they may as well maximise their team points potential.

 

Maybe Ferrari have fooled us all, publicly back Vettel in order to take pressure off LeClerc.

 

I am still struggling with what constitutes an unsafe release, seems to me Verstappen did same as he did in Monaco but no one said anything.

 

Fooled Vettel too then

 

I think it depends on pit lane width but Silverstone isn't that wide

 

Yeah, that was a weird one.

 

I'm sure one of the McLaren pit crew had to actively move out the way to avoid being clipped as well. It seems to be a red bull trick these days racing the Ferrari that's in the neighbouring pit box and so no already in the pit lane fast lane. Or so they say.

 

I think the rules are now dependant on crowd popularity.