Alienturnedhuman wrote:
Mort Canard wrote:
pokerman wrote:
I believe we are witnessing a changing of the guard?
Well RB seems to have passed Ferrari among the top three teams. I will need more convincing to decide that RB is better than Merc.
Austria and Hungary are both circuits that play to the Red Bull strengths. I'm not saying that means that Red Bull is clearly the fastest car at either, I believe it was on race day at Austria, here due to Merc being hobbled by the temperatures. At Hungary I don't want to call it between the Merc or the Red Bull, both cars have been fast all weekend, but I would lean to Merc have a narrow margin today given that Bottas ran Max so close and Hamilton appeared to fluff his first sector.
I am not sure we have witnessed a changing of the guard yet. For starters, that's not like flicking a switch. Secondly, there is a reason the WDC requires a whole season of races and not just 3, momentum is with Max at the moment, he's driving well and getting results - but let's not forget, it's taken him a while to get his first pole position despite categorically having the car to do so in some of the race weekends he competed at. Some times I think that F1 fans have the memories of goldfish. Yes if Max wins tomorrow he'll have won 3 of the last 4 races and that is a tremendous achievement. But it's a championship fight and it's still less than half of what Lewis has won this season. People may say "But Hamilton was in the all conquering Merc" but that "all conquering Merc" narrative was because it won the first 8 races. With the same shallow analysis we could say Max is driving the "dominating Red Bull of the last 4 races" - (which would be an equally incorrect assessment)
To be clear, I do think that Max is overall, so far, the driver who has delivered the best this season. That's largely on account of the fact it's been pretty much equal up until Germany - so it's not like he's been 9.9/10 and Hamilton has been 7/10. They are still very close and it could easily swing back to being equal by the end of tomorrow (or swing more towards Max or remain where it is)
Ultimately Max is going to be Hamilton's successor in F1, much in the way Schumacher was to Senna - but I would hope for the interest in the sport that that is over the period of a few seasons and not just a passing of the baton. I won't say any more on this as it is the qualifying thread, and for anyone who wants to have an actual analytical discussion on the matter - rather than just present fuzzy data and present subjective opinion pieces as hard empirical data - I take it to an appropriate thread.
But bring it back specifically to qualifying. Max did a good job, but his lap wasn't a miracle drive. It was where the level the car was capable of. It's not like Bottas or Hamilton stuck in really shabby laps or made huge errors. The star of qualifying for me was George Russel. Seein a Williams at 14th on merit at one point in Q3 was one of the best moments of the season (and not just because I'm originally from King's Lynn...)Supposedly Lewis didn’t have his drs open at some point in the lap. Don’t think it cost him pole though.
What is eye opening for me was that the Redbull was just as fast as the merc in the first sector, which is where straight line speed counts for the most. I’d say that before Austria that Merc was the clear best car in the corners but Redbull has once again closed the gap and I believe they are on par now if not slightly ahead in that department.
I still believe the merc is the best car and today was just an example of Hamilton underperforming but Redbull is much closer than before and I do anticipate them to surpass merc at some point.
Ferrari is now third best imo. They will have their moments at Spa and Monza probably because they are still the benchmark for straight line speed but i don’t see them ahead of Redbull and Merc at any of the remaining circuits.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
