Grand Prix thread Aramco United States Grand Prix 2021

The Merc is looking mighty so far but the in car camera shots certainly show the the impact of the bumps. Grip is apparently much better than before though, 20k more on turn 1 I think I heard, that is a lot.

 

Your kiss of death is infallible.

 

FP2 race... Nice

 

I took way too much satisfaction from Di Resta saying that Giovinazzi wouldn't get his car in to the pit lane from the spot he backed up to, only for him to calmly steer the car in to the pit lane.

It's the small things in life.

 

Am I the only one that still sees the word Armco , when it is in fact Aramco ?

 

Adds a bit more to the story, shows the full warm up lap. Max seemed to jump Lewis first and I guess Lewis rather than back off and build another gap decided to let Max know he won't be getting away with queue jumping. xD

 

Ha! Figured it might just be Hamilton rattling Max's cage a bit... But he basically asked for it.

 

And from Hamilton's point of view. Seems to me like Max was playing the games and came off looking a bit of a fool.

 

Pressure getting to Max?

 

Interesting how just the last corner to first corner 'race' is being focused on in media. They seem to ignore that max overtook Lewis first.
Without seeing the max overtake I would have said Lewis trying to get in max's head. Now I see full story it's just Lewis not allowing max to get one over on him!
Button did say in commentary that he wanted to see what led to Lewis pushing max!
Also interesting that red bull say Merc lots more speed on straight but if anything max slightly faster on straight!
Should be good close battle. If we get to see it. Wouldn't surprise me if Lewis took ice and 5 place penalty.

 

I'm guessing he was trying to rattle Hamilton a bit. Thought it was the other way around initially. But of that's what it was, it failed.

 

Lot of fuss over nothing really. It is free practise, looked like Max was butting in and Lewis simply said, no, this is my space.

 

I mean... In the grand scheme of things it's all neither here nor there... But coming in to the twilight of the season with a handful of points in it, it's interesting to see the prickly side of it, and that was being prickly by the pair of them.

 

I think the media are hyping it up big time. Max overtook Lewis on 2nd to last corner as Lewis and Max were preparing for their fast laps. So Lewis took track position back on last corner and had a drag race down the straight. It's just each trying to get under the others skin. It's so close they both need to do everything they can. Lewis won't want Max thinking he got one over on him and visa versa.

All good fun really just hope we see a good proper clean battle.

After seeing the drag down the straight I think Merc turned down their PU as I don't think Red Bull gained a second a lap in tweaking the setup. If Merc have found a significant gain by dropping rake angle on high speed then I think they will be in a good chance of getting pole and finishing first if the PU lasts out!!
If the penalty for changing Lewis to change an ICE is only 5 places they might opt for that especially with the boost in high speed.

 

But of course they'll give that plenty of page time. It's the most interesting title fight in years, there's nothing between them in the points standings and they're finding ways to get under each other's skin in a practice session. It all adds to the spice of what could be a dramatic climax. It's kinda what we want, right?

 

I think quali might be very close unless Merc switched off their rake dropping system for FP2 &FP3.
Looking like Ferrari might be towards the front again which is nice but McL need to keep ahead of them.
It's just great that the battles are so close and not just Red Bull and Merc but Mcl and Ferrari as well.
Lots of Merc ICE changes in the other teams I still wonder if Lewis will take a new ICE and only the 5 place penalty, maybe they are waiting for Brazil where they think Red Bull might have the advantage anyway?

 

Hard to say. Seemed Merc had the upper hand In the deleted times contest... That and not sure what they were looking at on the back of Hamilton's car.

Guess we'll find out shortly where we stand tho.

 

I wonder if red bulls rear wing will survive a whole race?

 

Mercedes not exactly looking super with it so far today