The 'Better Do It Now' Chinese GP Chat & Predictions

Amazed Vettel is so diplomatic about the whole thing.

 

So Ferrari win race one when Ferrari B (Haas) come a cropper
Red Bull wins race three when Red Bull B (STR) come a cropper

 

I hope Liberty Media fine him for dishonesty. He should speak the truth and say he wants to rip Max's effing head off!

 

Verstappen is awful how people rate him I don't know, he crashes more then any other driver I seen. Not even half the driver Ricciardo is, hopefully Ricciardo will be at Mercedes next season.

 

A mature head and he would have won this race. Hopefully his coach can channel that through to him.

 

I think k Ricciardo will be at Merc next year . If Kimj keeps performing , will Ferrari keep him on ?

 

As ever Lauda is sitting on the fence with his opinion

 

I don’t like it when a single driver action impacts on a championship, regardless of who those drivers are.

Ferrari were woeful on strategy, almost Merc like from seasons gone by and RBR were brilliantly opportunistic with their risky double stack. Yes they were fortunate but fully deserved.

The MAX rule was brought in due to his general conduct in th3 braking zones, he was never penalised under this rule but others were - it was subsequently dropped. In his 3rd year he probably has totalled more contact related incidents than most, and as usual the stewards have been exposed with the variance of rule implementation. These time penalties are pointless when not impacting track position or strategy - they only affect things when forcing teams into additional pit stops. It is getting to the stage now whereby I’m wondering what Max actually has to do to b3 held to account?

 

Ouch

 

I'm tired of these slap on the wrist punishments. We need to bring back drive through penalties. Put the offending driver in traffic.

Side note 6 races without a win is the longest barren streak for Lewis since these engines were introduced. Is the dominance over?

 

Which is exactly what everyone campaigned against to stop races being ruined by them

 

Never understood that logic personally. I want to see race positions fought for wheel to wheel, not contested via stopwatch.

They did start handing out too many penalties for a while, but that's a different issue. Either do nothing because it's a racing incident or make it meaningful because somebody was at clear fault. Today was the latter sort of incident and Max deserved to have to pass Alonso and Hulkenberg.

 

Marc Priestly had a few yesterday

 

This is Max's 4th season in F1. Saying he is only 20 is not really an excuse. He is fast but somewhat slow to learn. If he is intelligent he would know how to address this, fundamentally his judgement is flawed. These are classic mistakes that he should have been making in another formula.

I am not a young man but I remember the arrogance of first, my youth and then those who were 10-20 years my junior. It is simply a personality issue we are staring at but he should have sorted this in the main after 2 seasons. Perhaps his race engineer should give him the occasional reminder but I suspect a) he probably would only listen to someone he respects (another driver) and b) Daniel's performance shows what is achievable with a measured approach and I suspect he would be in awe of Daniel's performance.

Fundamentally though, looks like he hasn't learned and the suggestion of drive throughs would train him. Or perhaps a new Verstappen rule, double the penalty for him and only him. It is a classic, set the child some boundaries.

 

Great race, Wow for Daniel. Can Red bull give him a winning car next year? Would Vettel welcome him into Ferrari and can Ferrari avoid a number 1 and 2 driver? I think the answer is NO to both. Mercedes are Daniel's best bet if Red Bull (more a case of Renault) can't produce a car that can win a race other than opportunistically. a 3 year contract would see him with a choice for 2022. Not only is he good but he is a team motivator too.

 

Sadly max needs to hit a wall every hard indeed to learn he is not invincible.

His comment after hearing about penalty says it all.

 

A rare quality in this day and age IMHO

 

Moving to a team with a clear number 1 driver called Sebastian Vettel worked out pretty well for Daniel in the past. I don't think Ferrari are ever responsible for ruining a drivers career. Kimi would be favoured right now if he was quick enough. Massa was able to wrestle his way out of the number 2 position (until Alonso put him back there anyway).

If he's better than Seb (and i think he is) it's not a problem.

 

That was the whole problem. Penalties were handed out too frequently and were normally far too severe for the crime. There was no consistency and a driver would have his race ruined by a dubious penalty.

The system will never be perfect, but what we have is better than what it used to be. There is a penalty, you can see why Max went for the gap as it was there initially but ultimately it was risky as Vettel was always likely to come back onto his line but bothered suffered for it with their spins. Vettel's tyres were finished like the Mercs anyway, so Max was always going to finish in front of him (which Max should have realised and waited for a clearer opportunity, but that is another argument altogether about his desperation).

 

I don't think anybody wants to see penalties doled out willy nilly again, but Max really need something to cut out these errors. He could be a great driver if his decision making improves. The problem he's got is that he's surrounded by people telling him he doesn't need to change.