As the track was drying why not go for 7 laps on the soft tyre? Can get more heat quicker than the medium and track more rubbered in than when Vettel tried it on the mediums. When you see the inters when he stopped, they were basically slick anyway so surely the softs would have been just as grippy for those 7 laps?
Or when Max did... Would have maybe had the pace to catch and pass the cars ahead, and maybe even looking at second. Or another crash with Max.... Either possible.
Yes. He will be angry at the team for calling him in when they did, but if he had stopped earlier he could have got through the graining phase.
Haven't read everything so sorry if someone has pointed this out: Ocon was the only driver and to 0 stop, and he lost 50 seconds to Sainz in the final 14 laps. I wonder if they saw the start of that cliff in Ocon's data and panicked. 0 stopping was probably the correct call until that became apparent
Horner still implying on Sky that Mercedes are doing something illegal with their engine to have increased their straight line speed.
Alas. Not quite the classic I'd hoped for but no disaster for the Hamelots among us, and an enjoyable race overall. I love the next few race start times - evening time in the UK which works well for me. No negotiating with the family about not being out on a Sunday...
He made comment and said the FIA are aware, seemed to suggest it was going nowhere. I don't believe everything Toto said about concerns with the last engine possibly DNFing. I do think they have done something to tweak the engine. Let's see what happens in the US. I assume Mexico is more inclined to RBR. Rarely a good performance destination for Merc. Bottas made it look easy today.
All in all, not a massive loss for Hamilton. Title is wide open, could claw the deficit back at COTA. Might have to get me a ticket at this rate...though still not too happy being among the great unwashed over here atm, despite being fully vaccinated.
Le clerc made one error lost temps and was off the cliff. Theres no doubt the merc team could see the real situation that hamilton was going backwards and would have likely gotten swallowed up. Imo it's a classic Lewis moment where he comes off a complete xxxx by blaming everyone but himself and not following the teams first call. Hes had a few moments like that but the team and him have to work together he knows the car and pace and they see far more than he can. Just cos Merc in the past have made bad calls doesn't mean you second guess it constantly. Similarly Hamilton knows best about racing and what he can do. Having a whinge on the radio when you know bloody full well its broadcast to the world is a conscious decision. You can leave it off and curse them for 5 laps in your car if you want. In the end imo this is a 4th v 5th call when to pit. If they didnt pit He could have ended up 6th, possibly. That's mercs position.
Turnabout is fair play. Mercedes have had their whinges about others cars and pit stop tools to get changes.
Will Mexico be a shoe in for RBR, if Horner is complaining that Mercedes have increased their straight line speed faster than what you get with DRS? He was saying they had it increased by 15km/h?
Honestly, once chosing to try do it on one set of tyres, I'm not sure that stopping vs not stopping made a whole ton of difference. It would have probably been a similar outcome either way. The best strat was to pit when those ahead did. But... Once they committed to trying to go the whole way, changing the strat was always going to be a negative end result. So from Hamilton's point of view, he's giving up track position, having his destiny taken out of his own hands, dropping a couple of places and having a spell being a sitting duck. He's going to be frustrated, he's going to have a complain, rightly or wrongly. Moaning and disagreeing with a strat call is not a uniquely Hamilton thing. In fact its actually celebrated when some drivers do it. They want to win... Winning is everything, it's why they're the best at what they do.
The drag race Lewis had with Sergio down the pit straight did not suggest a 15 Km/h delta to Redbull. If they increased it, it more or less brought it up the RBR level, other than supposedly the Merc had more downforce, presumably more drag therefore. The Merc has never performed well at altitude, not sure if it is the thinner air impacting the downforce characteristics or if it is more complex that that. I am expecting RBR to take Mexico.
I did have the same thought when Horner was talking about the straightline speed of the Merc. Perez seemed more than capable of taking on the Merc in a straight line while the Merc was already out ahead. Maybe more a breaking/setup thing, but they didn't seem 15km/h off.