F1 2019

[GeeJayW]

I agree, Max should have been awarded a drive-through penalty for Red Bull's mistake. He did his best to pressure Lewis, but at Monaco as long as the driver in front is quick where they need to be, protect the line at the few overtaking opportunities and make no errors, it's almost impossible to overtake. His lunge at the Nouvelle Chicane with one lap to go was somewhat petulant and as you say could easily have resulted in a different story.

Mercedes definitely put Lewis out on the wrong tyres, though he would have moaned over the radio about being put on the hard tyres too. It's what he does, he always moans about something. As it is he drove a very controlled race which was a bit of a nail-biter.

As for LeClerc, he was again let down by the team, but he also failed to bring the car home. Clipping the barrier in Rascasse was a bit clumsy and resulted in the puncture. He should have pitted immediately, but that's easy to say in hindsight. A full lap with a puncture was never going to end well.

 

[leef44]

Although I agree MV's penalty was lenient, I'm happy that it keeps him in contention for a third place for the Championship, which would be a great result for him and Red Bull. Had Red Bull not released him early in the pit-stop, he would have ended up fourth anyway.

Interesting hearing what Matteo Binotto said about qualifying strategy for Le Clerc. They had to take risks to try to get an edge of Mercedes since they were so far behind on points. So they tried to save tyres for quali 2and quali 3. I think the criticisms are a bit harsh because this is what Red Bull used to do and some times they would bit caught out similarly.

 

[Bellow]

Four Honda engines finished in the top eight.
On the road, one finished second - admittedly by a tactic that saw the place denied and demoted to fourth (agree with the forum - MV should have been handed a stop/go. VB was).

 

[bob6600]

I did get a bit sick of Lewis' moaning over the radio and was interested to hear what he had to say at the end. His comments were that he wasn't going to come in no matter what as he learned his lesson from 2015 when he pitted because of worn tyres and lost the race. So why all of the radio messages? Toto said that they were happy to let Lewis vent his anger and frustration over the radio because they did make a bad call and he needed to vent it out. Might be a defence but it does make sense.

 

[Stratman]

Don't completely discount sandbagging in the radio traffic. If your opponent modifies his behaviour and tactics because of disinformation it can only be a good thing.

 

[190]

Heat, sunlight and age has the same effect on all tyres although not quite as quickly as the race tyres used in anger in F1.
The very same applies to all road tyres, and whilst they may have tread left, it certainly does not mean they have grip. seven years is the recommended life of a road tyre and the grip degrades hugely after that. That's why date marking was introduced.
Couple of years ago I did a road test for a magazine on a concours XJ220 with very few miles on it. It drove perfectly except the tyres were 20 years old and they displayed all the grip of a cat on wet Lino.

When I bought my BMW motorcycle at 6000 miles and 28 years old it still had the original tyres from new with which it had bizarrely just passed an MOT. They didn't look too bad physically but you could let all the air out and it just sat there as if nothing had happened. They were so stiff I cut them off rather than risk damaging the alloy wheels.

Low annual mileage owners need to be careful as when tyres get hard they seem to last longer and longer and never wear out.

 

[Mactech]

Don't completely discount sandbagging in the radio traffic. If your opponent modifies his behaviour and tactics because of disinformation it can only be a good thing.

At Le Mans in 1988 Jan Lammers had the main pinion shaft in the gearbox break with 40mins of the race still to run. He got the car in 4th and drove to the finish (including a pit stop!) without shifting gear again. The shaft was just held together by the splined hub over the top of the shaft, and any spreading load from gears closer to it would have been the end of the gearbox. He told us on the radio he had a secret to tell us after the race and continued to lap at a pace befitting a car with a laps lead in the the final hour of the race. Nobody really suspected anything and assumed a 'cruise and collect'
He said nothing else until after the race. Hans Stuck was gaining on him at 10 secs a lap for the final half hour. Good job neither we or the Porsche team knew anything about it! Disinformation or no information can be a strong tool.

 

[zipdip]

Well a great win for Hamilton,he did have the power to keep MV at bay,the major thing to happen at Monaco is that Ferrari completely lost the plot, just why did they not send Leclerc out in qualifying,have they come down to saving tyres,when Monaco proved again that you can do in excess of 50 laps on tyres,no they made a gigantic mistake,and without doubt Leclerc payed them back by running over a the corner and parked his car in the pits with a damaged floor,they deserved nothing more,the strange situation is SV is making mistakes but still a very good driver and Ferrari are treating Leclerc badly and he can go to any team.

 

[bob6600]

Don't completely discount sandbagging in the radio traffic. If your opponent modifies his behaviour and tactics because of disinformation it can only be a good thing.

I initially thought that as obviously all teams monitor team radio but Lewis' was a bit too frequent. Double bluff? Not to sure this time.

 

[Stratman]

If all of the radio traffic was genuine, what was Hamilton hoping to achieve? All the computations and simulations in the world will give a binary answer: stay out or come in.

Stay out and there's a chance you'll win, come in and there's no chance. Surely someone of LH's experience should know the team will have done the sums and he should trust their answer.

 

[Deletedmember130310]

I think there was a bit of gamesman ship by LH here - the more he whined about the tyres going off, the easier it was for to him to claim it was the hardest race he has ever won..

Just how much slower per lap than the car behind do you have to be in order to be overtaken at Monaco? 5 secs, 10 secs?
Drive around the middle of the track and I doubt any one can pass...but hey I'm only an armchair fan so what do I know

 

[GeeJayW]

If all of the radio traffic was genuine, what was Hamilton hoping to achieve? All the computations and simulations in the world will give a binary answer: stay out or come in.

Stay out and there's a chance you'll win, come in and there's no chance. Surely someone of LH's experience should know the team will have done the sums and he should trust their answer.

I agree, he and the team had a simple stay out or come in choice. Coming in for another set would not have yielded a win and would have handed it to Seb.

I think Lewis 'likes' or even maybe 'needs' to have something to moan about. He (unsurprisingly perhaps) wants everything to be perfect, but it never is of course. Hence he moans. Without the radio traffic, we wouldn't know that. Instead we would have just seen a flag-flag victory with a long stint on the wrong tyres. It's all very easy to sit in judgement, that's what we do. The guy can still pedal though.

 

[Bellow]

If all of the radio traffic was genuine, what was Hamilton hoping to achieve? All the computations and simulations in the world will give a binary answer: stay out or come in.

There is still the 'whenness' to consider and time is anything but binary!

Stay out and there's a chance you'll win, come in and there's no chance. Surely someone of LH's experience should know the team will have done the sums and he should trust their answer.

But they have got it wrong before (2015) and did on Sunday also by their on admission (wrong tyres). Maybe Lewis prefers to get his excuses in early. Not that he needed to on Sunday.

Vettel's second place though seems overlooked. Not so very shambolic then.

 

[GeeJayW]

Seb had a steady race on Sunday. Didn't need to do much and so didn't do much. Inherited 2nd after VB stopped again after being sideswiped by Max in the pit lane. Prior to that was on target for 4th. Hardly stellar.

 

[Stratman]

From Jolyon Palmer's analysis. Just what is the point of pretending Monaco is a race?

We were all thinking: 'Surely he can't do it; he knows he can't do it.' It had the ingredients of a Monaco classic.

But in reality, Hamilton still had the race under control.

Without a massive car advantage and a huge amount of risk, you can't pass at Monaco.

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel in third and Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas in fourth knew that for the entire race. They didn't seem to even think about giving it a go as they just circulated within five seconds of Verstappen for the 62 laps post-safety car and waited to head to the podium at the end.

 

[baxlin]

Seb had a steady race on Sunday. Didn't need to do much and so didn't do much. Inherited 2nd after VB stopped again after being sideswiped by Max in the pit lane. Prior to that was on target for 4th. Hardly stellar.

This ^^^^
Without Max/Red Bull's misdemeanour, assuming no overtaking, it being Monaco, the result would have been LH, VB, MV, SV.

LH is being accused by some of being WDC only because he has 'the best car', but wasn’t that how SV won his 4, with no mention of this nowadays? He’s being shown up now by CL, the latter being let down (apart from by team orders, of course) by his inexperience.

 

[grober]

Ferrari kept CL in the pits during Q1 in the mistaken belief that he could be on better tyres during the race, but as 2 times winner David Coulthard pointed out that "At Monaco you can be on the best tyres in the world but if you are starting from the back of the grid its academic!"----a principle amply demonstrated by LH and MV's struggle to be first over the line later in the race.

 

[Nat]

From Jolyon Palmer's analysis. Just what is the point of pretending Monaco is a race?

100% agreed.

Monaco is my least favourite track and always has been. There is much better out there.

 

[GeeJayW]

Ferrari kept CL in the pits during Q1 in the mistaken belief that he could be on better tyres during the race, but as 2 times winner David Coulthard pointed out that "At Monaco you can be on the best tyres in the world but if you are starting from the back of the grid its academic!"----a principle amply demonstrated by LH and MV's struggle to be first over the line later in the race.

At Monaco Qually is key. Ferrari once again this season took their eye off the ball and the fallout cost LeClerc and the team. When qualifying, concentrate on that. When racing, concentrate on that. To let a front row car go out in Q1 due to a pitwall error is really poor. As a sponsor paying millions to the team, I would not be especially happy about it to be honest. As for LeClerc, the team so far seem to have done their best to undermine his confidence in them. I think that when the trust between driver and pitwall breaks down, it's difficult to get that back.

 

[GeeJayW]

100% agreed.

Monaco is my least favourite track and always has been. There is much better out there.

And yet, to see those cars ripping through the streets of Monaco on the limit must be amazing. I would love to be there for qualifying just to see that first hand.