Grand Prix thread HEINEKEN DUTCH GRAND PRIX 2022

In for a penny, in for a pound.

 

Wish it could have gone to the flag tho.

 

Let's listen out for sky making Russell the bad guy

 

No team can outthink RBR, they are just so decisive. Just a machine from top to bottom.

 

So much for no flares at least its at end of the race.

 

A bit rich to say they got everything right.

Merc clearly got the better tyre and a jump on verstappen there after tsunoda.

Bottas safety car made it a no brainer change and merc didn't accept podium but Russell saw what was.gping to happen.

Fair play to Russell.

Sainz.. **** me. Ferrari mistake after mistake after mistake.

Clearly no system to get mechanics ready in time for stops or one mechanic was in the toilet. Strat team **** up.

Then unsafe release in pit stop. Mechanics **** up.

Verstappen raced a way at the start on softs and again of softs at the end.

I just wonder what it would have looked like after hard/Medium call. ... the merc struggled to pass the ferrari so who knows.

 

It’s still a **** track though

 

It could be legendary but it's just too tight and they've added too many twists.

Those banked sections could be made full on and some of the jinxing taken out to make it an absolutely legendary track but modern cars need multiple lines.

Very dusty/sandy

 

Watching the replay of George getting past Lewis, the stewards need to check Lewis’s telemetry to see if he lifted as that was too close to a huge shunt

 

when you look at the aerial shots of the circuit it’s not like it’s built up so there’s is plenty of scope to actually extend the track lengthways to allow more than one overtaking point instead of at the end of the start finish straight. Would cost money of course but has the chance to be a really great circuit

 

Really enjoyed todays race. What a difference it makes having more than two teams fighting it out, excellent stuff.

Red Bull is the class of the field in a straight line- Newey clearly has nailed the aero concept alongside a powerful Honda in the back too.

They’ll win it in a cakewalk at Monza, but back to today I enjoyed some performances from Hamilton, Russell, Alonso- all of whom were excellent.

Mercedes getting a far better handle on their car concept, especially around downforce, but need a big rethink to trim the drag for next season.

 

Mercedes need to run low, it was said they had to raise 5he car to avoid two particular areas at spa and incompletely negated them.

Same issues at street circuits etc.

It seems the merc just about works at times but is fundamentally flawed and is not just drag. The red bull can getthe ground effect perfect and run higher so are just so far ahead of others.

The williams interestingly seems to have found something in low downforce trims give hope to merc engined cars

 

I think the only way Merc are winning a race this season is it misfortune befalls RBR. For the most part they did brilliant putting RBR in the position they did today, but again, RBR use the circumstances better than Merc and take it without much trouble.

The number of races Max is going to win this season is eye watering.

 

Ah well.. indyCar coming up in a couple of hours. Two races left, still seven drivers in it mathematically. Been a great season.

 

Well that was an interesting way to arrive at the expected result! Verstappen drove well enough, but most of the credit has to go to the team today, they didn’t put a foot wrong when it would have been easy to drop the ball. Ferrari on the other hand seemed to have booted the ball out of the circuit before it even got tricky - at least in Sainz’s case!

The Merc PR machine is always fun too, although they did a good job with it in public this time, which was a little disappointing

 

I thought merc played it reasonable but i just felt that it was a bit of red bull propaganda at the end cos they won.

Mercs wents and saw that both fast teams would go soft tyres at the start so they went medium and they brought themselves right into the race as a result.

Sainz helped them massively (another ferrari OG) but both mercs fairly got past le clerc there.

Prior to the first safety car hamilton has done well to et up there past perez for example. By lap 40 both mercs looks in a great position.

Verstappen was already locked into 2 stop. the softs were never going long enough and neither were the mediums so Once hamilton started in on the hard tyres the race swung firmly towards hamilton who had then a good tyre and a long sting at the front to run home and verstappen had to catch as pass.

for me that doesn't feel very much like very decision was right by red bull. Strategically they had covered ferrari which is really all they needed to do but to win the race they were lacking.

Sainz pitted before the tsunoda crazyness. that was lap 48.

Red bull took the chance to do their stops onto hards but merc again pull the trigger for both men and get out on mediums.

now the redbull has reacted to hamilton on hards and suddenly find that hamilton is behind them on the faster tyre

1, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) hard
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) medium
3. George Russell (Mercedes) medium
4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) HARD
5. Sergio Perez (Red Bull) Hard

at this point in the race theres lass than 30 laps left and the mercs are in prime position to at least have a go.

verstappen doesn't even look very fast on hards

theres 7 mins between the tsunoda clean up and bottas stopping. Hamilton is faster than red bull.

now the choas starts.

Verstappen has an easy call, he's on the wrong tyres he pits for new softs that were in the bag and perez pits for mediums (last new tyres he had), the ferraris pit and ruseel calls for a pits stop as well for softs. he demands them in fact.

So red bull do gamble and look heres but used mediums v brand new softs with no gap is a nobrainer really.


IMO
Race overall strategy = Merc, second red bull, ferrari not good enough.
the first virtual safety car = Merc steal a march on red bull knowing they have to try as same tyre = max catching inevitably, ferrari has pitted before it and lose out big time.
Second safety car = blows it for Hamilton but Russell sees the score and isn't up for being a sacrificial lamb.


The second that second safety car came out hamilton was toast. theres was no way he form there could do anything but pit and lose track position to verstappen really. at best he's on a soft tyre v the faster car behind who already sailed by mercs before.

Russell promoted himself from nowhere (despite being p2 on green flag if he stayed out) to actually taking p2 at the end. if he stayed on medium we was 100% 4th there.

Hamilton's best possible finish after that second car stop was always 2nd. merc wanted both cars to stay out on mediums which was the error.

Red bull? they matched ferrari who then fell away. the red bull was reactive to mercs not proactive imo. they has the fastest car so look heros but without safetys cars there was a half chance there the mercs had made the right calls to deny them.

 

Great summary!

 

I enjoyed the detailed analysis, but I’d contend that both Merc and RedBull simulations suggested that Verstappen would have won in any event. As you say, having the fastest car makes it harder to drop the ball and having a fast car in a straight line means that you don’t have to consider track position as much, which opens up the strategic options.

Another way to look at it is that RedBull had a lot less data to go on after losing much of the Friday running and chasing set-up through the rest of the weekend, in that context they did very well with limited data, reacted well to a faster than expected Merc and an unusual set of race circumstances. Conversely Merc admitted deliberately setting out to go another way and hope circumstances favoured the alternative approach, which they nearly did.

Two sides to every coin…