Formula 1 Talk

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I think most fans find Max actually quite boring to watch.

I don't think it's a Max thing, it's anyone way in the lead with the #2 spot being a very distant 2nd. Close battles are always more interesting than someone super far in the lead. It just happens that he's often in the lead.

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[Dannyvandelft]

I don't think it's a Max thing, it's anyone way in the lead with the #2 spot being a very distant 2nd. Close battles are always more interesting than someone super far in the lead. It just happens that he's often in the lead.

Exactly

 

[Dannyvandelft]

Good thing "boring" Max made it a race worth watching. Apparently Ferrari's strategy team worked for RedBull today. Felt terrible for Leclerc, he did so good until his 3rd stint. Went over the line a little with Russell. I swear that guy invites trouble
Piastri got racy in the end and was immediately recalled like a good little lapdog.
Norris did good. Couple small mistakes but brought it home.

Laughed my ass off listening to the British pundits crying for a penalty for Max when all he did was psych Lewis out and he panicked off track. Full control, no touching, just forced him into a mistake. Palmer on F1TV and the usuals on Sky immediately losing their marbles
Glad the Stewards got it right today.

Super happy for Bortoleto! Awesome job!

 

[BrettMRC]

I don't remember anyone crying out for a penalty, although Croft is the biggest wanker of a commentator on earth...

What did Max do that was so amazing? He had a solid race, but generally unremarkable I thought?

Good to see Norris and Piastri having a go, I thought the radio message reminding Piastri not to punt off Norris was fair enough.

Sounds like Hamiliton is having a rough time off track, nothing confirmed but hearing mutterings of family related bad stuff.

 

[Dannyvandelft]

What did Max do that was so amazing?

Don't know about amazing, but at least it was entertaining to see some passes on the rest of the track instead of the straight.

 

[FLtrackdays]

Laughed my ass off listening to the British pundits crying for a penalty for Max when all he did was psych Lewis out and he panicked off track. Full control, no touching, just forced him into a mistake. Palmer on F1TV and the usuals on Sky immediately losing their marbles
Glad the Stewards got it right today.

I’m with ya, as usual. I thought Max was fighting - as usual, Lewis & the British media pouting - as usual, and that’s about it. Max still has that instinct, even if you give him a spoon in a knife fight, he’s going to go for it. Lewis over reacted & is acting like a wounded animal. It’s kinda sad to be honest…

I don't remember anyone crying out for a penalty, although Croft is the biggest wanker of a commentator on earth...

What did Max do that was so amazing? He had a solid race, but generally unremarkable I thought?

Good to see Norris and Piastri having a go, I thought the radio message reminding Piastri not to punt off Norris was fair enough.

Sounds like Hamiliton is having a rough time off track, nothing confirmed but hearing mutterings of family related bad stuff.

It’s comedic but even moreso, they say what most of us are thinking… give it a try

 

[Ron L]

I don't remember anyone crying out for a penalty, although Croft is the biggest wanker of a commentator on earth...

What did Max do that was so amazing? He had a solid race, but generally unremarkable I thought?

Good to see Norris and Piastri having a go, I thought the radio message reminding Piastri not to punt off Norris was fair enough.

Sounds like Hamiliton is having a rough time off track, nothing confirmed but hearing mutterings of family related bad stuff.

I'm with you. I didn't see Max do anything amazing other than pass a couple of mid-fielders. YeeHaw!

Oscar was sure to get a call from the pit lane after almost running into Lando. He really wasn't close enough to make that kind of a 'dive bomb' move.

I love seeing some good wheel to wheel racing, but that rarely happens in F1 for more than a corner or two. On the other hand, I can enjoy a good strategy mix as well. Lando's one stop effort was well pulled out of the hat by the guys on the wall. Lando was was kind of 'sure, why not' but it worked better than any of them thought it would. And Oscar's two stop almost worked... would have if the race had been a few laps longer.

And then there was George catching Charles. I don't know who is making strategy calls at Ferrari, but they have made so many bad calls over the last couple of years, it's almost embarrassing. An then to get called out by Charles over the radio... YIKES! And in reality, Lewis has called them out a couple of times already this season. It's good to hear Charles get his courage up and call them out as well.

I don't know about any issues in Lewis' personal life, but he sure doesn't seem to fit in at Ferrari. And his comment about maybe Ferrari should replace him! To my eye he just doesn't seem to have the desire like he once did. It may be time to retire. Not everybody can maintain that competitive spirit AND ability like Alonso has.

But the line of the weekend to me was Max saying it's unlikely that Red Bull will win anymore 'normal' races this year. Way to get the engineering team excited dude! I'm not counting Red Bull or Max out from possibly winning races the rest of this year. But I think 2026 is starting to look pretty bleak for the team. They have lost too many good people behind the scenes. And I don't think Ford can pick up the engine program and make it run as well as Honda did. Maybe in a year or two. I wouldn't be surprised to see Red Bull being near the top of the 'best of the rest' midfield runners in 2026. I think Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren will be at the top (is some order). I think at least one or two of the current midfielders will get better and make life hard for Red Bull.

 

[Dannyvandelft]

But the line of the weekend to me was Max saying it's unlikely that Red Bull will win anymore 'normal' races this year. Way to get the engineering team excited dude!

At some point you just have to be realistic. It's a miracle he's won any races at all this year. But the gap from McLaren to the Redbull is just too big now. A good driver can find a few tenths, a great one maybe half a second, but not even Max can bridge this gap. With Max the Redbull is the 4th fastest, without Max, 5th? 6th?

But I like that the "line of the weekend" was Max stating the obvious, and not Lewis having a self pity meltdown and literally saying Ferrari should replace him I mean, come on. At least try and hide the bias.

 

[RWhiz]

There are guys that get faster because of the car,
And there are guys that make the car faster.
Senna, Schumacher, Max, are the only 3 I can think of that I've seen that could do that. The rest are all in the other category.

I would add Lewis in his McLaren years, his first couple at Mercedes too, but the car's dominance (in my opinion) made him lazy. I think that's what we're seeing today.

 

[J29DB03]

There are guys that get faster because of the car,
And there are guys that make the car faster.
Senna, Schumacher, Max, are the only 3 I can think of that I've seen that could do that. The rest are all in the other category.

Agree. I’d throw Jim Clark on that list too.

 

[romanLegion9574]

I would add Lewis in his McLaren years, his first couple at Mercedes too, but the car's dominance (in my opinion) made him lazy. I think that's what we're seeing today.

Looking through some of the conversation with his race engineer, he had to manage a brake issue from lap 3 and got a lift-and-coast order. Between that and Charles' chassis issue, the car is just in a bad way, ruining it for both drivers.

 

[Dannyvandelft]

Looking through some of the conversation with his race engineer, he had to manage a brake issue from lap 3 and got a lift-and-coast order. Between that and Charles' chassis issue, the car is just in a bad way, ruining it for both drivers.

Apparently, Charles' "issue" was plank wear. They ran the car too low, which is why it was so fast in qualifying, and they had to raise the tire pressures on his last set to make sure the car stayed legal and that's where the performance was lost.

 

[romanLegion9574]

Apparently, Charles' "issue" was plank wear. They ran the car too low, which is why it was so fast in qualifying, and they had to raise the tire pressures on his last set to make sure the car stayed legal and that's where the performance was lost.

They've had this issue all year. Annoying to see how they got something so fundamentally wrong and need to compromise practically every single race to mitigate it. If Kimi had better form, Ferrari would easily be in 3rd in the constructors.

 

[johnnyskids]

Have to say it was a bit more entertaining race than the previous week. A bit more passes, and some shuffling of the order from the start of the race to the last. Some different strategies played out, which I always like to see just because everyone doing the same thing is just so boring.

Lewis having a difficult time with Ferrari, I bet it's a combination of issues, both with adapting to the new time, car, strategy, but also I think there might be some off track things happening that might be impacting him mentally. I heard something about a health scare to his dog, which to anyone who has a dog would understand how that might impact a person.

Max being beaten by Lawson is certainly not a good look for RB. Mind you it doesn't speak so much about the drivers (Max is clearly the superior driver) but the fact that the lower team actually has a better balanced car.

You can always tell when Max is frustrated because he'll make moves where if the other driver doesn't back out he will cause a crash. This race was no different (also a repeat of last year when he ran into Lewis and lost a bunch of places), why didn't he get penalized, well it never got to the point of discussion because Lewis chose not to attend the hearing, and can't say I blame him, it's rather pointless meeting considering the outcome wouldn't have any impact on the race results or make any change to how Max drives. Here's how I view it, Max's front axle was not anywhere close to Lewis mirror at the apex, which is a must in order to claim the corner. Had Lewis chose to make the corner (and let's be real guys, he easily could have stayed on track) they would have had a pretty big crash, possibly taking one or both cars out, there wouldn't have been any discussion of if it's a penalty or not, it would have been an instant penalty. But because Lewis chose to avoid the accident, they chose to not make a decision in race (which I'm not fully sure why, maybe they needed to review telemetry to see if Lewis truly could make the turn on track or not). Regardless, it's a nothingburger because as stated above, it wouldn't have really impacted the end results much and it certainly wouldn't have changed Max's driving style.

I'm hoping that the rest of the season we see more battles with Lando and Oscar, we haven't really had a true two horse battle for the drivers championship since the Lewis/Max battle from a few years ago. There is a chance that this one might be even better due to both drivers having the same car, mind you likely less drama because they'll do their best not to run into each other.

 

[romanLegion9574]

Have to say it was a bit more entertaining race than the previous week. A bit more passes, and some shuffling of the order from the start of the race to the last. Some different strategies played out, which I always like to see just because everyone doing the same thing is just so boring.

Lewis having a difficult time with Ferrari, I bet it's a combination of issues, both with adapting to the new time, car, strategy, but also I think there might be some off track things happening that might be impacting him mentally. I heard something about a health scare to his dog, which to anyone who has a dog would understand how that might impact a person.

Max being beaten by Lawson is certainly not a good look for RB. Mind you it doesn't speak so much about the drivers (Max is clearly the superior driver) but the fact that the lower team actually has a better balanced car.

You can always tell when Max is frustrated because he'll make moves where if the other driver doesn't back out he will cause a crash. This race was no different (also a repeat of last year when he ran into Lewis and lost a bunch of places), why didn't he get penalized, well it never got to the point of discussion because Lewis chose not to attend the hearing, and can't say I blame him, it's rather pointless meeting considering the outcome wouldn't have any impact on the race results or make any change to how Max drives. Here's how I view it, Max's front axle was not anywhere close to Lewis mirror at the apex, which is a must in order to claim the corner. Had Lewis chose to make the corner (and let's be real guys, he easily could have stayed on track) they would have had a pretty big crash, possibly taking one or both cars out, there wouldn't have been any discussion of if it's a penalty or not, it would have been an instant penalty. But because Lewis chose to avoid the accident, they chose to not make a decision in race (which I'm not fully sure why, maybe they needed to review telemetry to see if Lewis truly could make the turn on track or not). Regardless, it's a nothingburger because as stated above, it wouldn't have really impacted the end results much and it certainly wouldn't have changed Max's driving style.

I'm hoping that the rest of the season we see more battles with Lando and Oscar, we haven't really had a true two horse battle for the drivers championship since the Lewis/Max battle from a few years ago. There is a chance that this one might be even better due to both drivers having the same car, mind you likely less drama because they'll do their best not to run into each other.

Didn't even think about Roscoe, but he has to be getting up there.

Hungary definitely didn't suit the Red Bull, being a slow track when the Red Bull really needs high speed corners to shine. I think Singapore might be another track they struggle, similar to 2023.

It's been weird how inconsistent the FIA has been with penalties, stating they focus on the outcome rather than the action. Max's incident with Lewis had no further action because Lewis drove off track (because he stopped caring) and nothing happened, but if he didn't, it could've been a high speed crash. But on the flip side, nobody was really negatively impacted in Silverstone during the safety car, but Oscar still got a penalty there. You could make the same case between Charles and George -- no crash, but Charles got a penalty. More consistency would be nice.

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