The Hungarian GP Chat & Predictions Thread

Sky pundits going crazy as he passed Max with a faster car and with new tyres by about 35 laps, amazing stuff

 

well, I enjoyed that a lot more than I thought I would after 5 laps. Race for the lead, lots of on-track action. It's a shame the WDC looks sewn up but, given the choice, I'd rather see tight racing than a tight WDC.

 

Was an OK race, mainly because of the hards not lasting as well as expected. It really shafted Verstappen and Leclerc. Much better than the normal Hungary fare, still a Mercedes win takes a point or two off any race.


Bottas was pretty disappointing I thought. Losing the wing wasn't his fault, but he only made it back to 8th when they predicted 6th and couldn't pass Raikkonen on the new tyres whilst Lewis cruised past Max. Reckon they should give Ocon the nod for 2019.

 

Well I didn't see that coming, Hamilton seemed to stall at 15s behind for a while but then just shot after him again. Always nice to see mixed strategy and a chase!

 

Another point is that this race should make it clear to Red Bull that they need to take action on their lack of a second driver.

Lewis would not have been able to try that if there was another RB that could keep within 20 seconds of Max.

 

I'm not sure any number 2 would have been within 20s of the pair of them. They were in a league of their own today, left all others for dead.

 

I have said before that sadly ( For me ) I don't think he will be there next season .

However , I am not sure Ocon will replace him . Really not sure why , just a gut feeling .

 

Just Ferrari, a casual 1 minute behind.

 

Wish it was Russell but maybe they're saving him to replace Lewis.

 

Toto has already gone on record as saying he want's Russell to stay at Williams to learn .

Will see if I can find it .

 

Sadly won't learn much about racing other f1 drivers.

 

https://f1i.com/news/350483-mercedes-cautious-not-to-burn-russell-with-untimely-promotion.html

 

Not yet

 

Could argue that Leclerc was a bit lucky to get away with this one. Both penalty and puncture wise.

 

Wasn't it Coulthard who said it was a brave decision to promote Hamilton in 2007 to partner Alonso and it could damage Hamilton massively if he couldn't compete with him. Look how that turned out. You only get better by racing with the best, you learn. Was it Coulthard or Hill Who said it was interesting to watch how a world champion interacts with the engineers etc when Mansell guested for McLaren or Williams and how he was telling them they should be going in this direction regarding improving the car?

 

Honestly can't remember , but a good point . Maybe it's PC talk for him joining when LH moves on ? * as pointed out by ST Slicks .

 

If

If Hamilton could coast past Max on his medium tyres, why wouldn't he have done that to Verstappens team mate. Hamilton was always second thought the race and when it comes to overtaking he is still the best in the business. Hamilton on newer tyres would have cruised passed Verstappen's team mate after his 2nd stop

 

Gasly needs to go, if Red Bull still had Ricciardo then I reckon they'd be good for nicking P2 off Ferrari. Mercedes and Red Bull have a clear margin on average over the Ferrari now.

 

Even spoiling Hamilton's undercut and allowing Max to pit would have been enough. Look at the end of the first stint. Mercedes couldn't pit early because Leclerc would hold them up.

Besides which I think the pass was only that easy because Verstappen's tyres were completely dead. Had Lewis caught up earlier I think he'd probably have spent a lot longer trying to pass.

Maybe Lewis would have won anyway, but regardless, only having one front runner limits Red Bull strategically.

 

Marko has already said there will be no driver changes at RBR or TR before the end of the season .