[Official] United States Grand Prix 2019: Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Yup, cause how it plays out has no part in getting to the end. Do you just fast forward to the end of races?

Hope Max doesn't need that engine, sounds like he's ragged it out coming off the corners late in the race. But it's late in the season and guessing more than a few are on the run it until it blows engines

Was watching it live.

[steve nielsen]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Hope Max doesn't need that engine, sounds like he's ragged it out coming off the corners late in the race.

The Honda engine always sounds rough coming out of corners

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

You mean you didn't see that coming? After the first lap it was a no brainer. There was plenty of fun being had further back, but not much at the front.

Didn't see what coming, Vettel breaking his right rear suspension?

[Adam43]

What has Hamilton done to Mercedes? Another race where they purposely ruin his strategy and now they’ve started ruining his qualifying.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Didn't see what coming, Vettel breaking his right rear suspension?

He was in trouble from the start but the terminal suspension issue pit him out of his misery.

The top two were always going to finish in that order, failing accidents or damage.

[steve nielsen]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

The top two were always going to finish in that order, failing accidents or damage.

If there had not been a yellow flag for the Haas Max would probably have overtaken Lewis

[Peter Mallett]

Doubtful but like I said, barring accidents.

[GT6]

Not a great race but some overtaking and some good clean fighting rather than blocking and then incidents, also did not remember the stewards getting involved during the race.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by GT6

Not a great race but some overtaking and some good clean fighting rather than blocking and then incidents, also did not remember the stewards getting involved during the race.

The one time they were called on that I can remember, it was to advise that Kimi should have his place returned (by Magnussen I think) as he was overtaken with all four wheels off the track.

A good example of where stewards can intervene quickly, and allow the racing to be decided on the track still.

[Peter Mallett]

That was Hulk. And as mentioned Albon had a ping for track limits.

[steve nielsen]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Doubtful but like I said, barring accidents.

He did have DRS on that straight but had to stay behind, he really would have overtaken Lewis, also because he had better tires

[Peter Mallett]

Again I hold my position. Not a hope in hell.

[E.B]

Interesting that Albon, for the 4th race in a row managed to get a faster race lap than Max, and was faster than Max in a good number of other laps. He has also outscored Max in points during his time at Red Bull

Im certainly not saying Albon is as fast as Max, but for a rookie in a team built around Max he is doing a bloody good job and deserves to keep the seat next year.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by E.B

Interesting that Albon, for the 4th race in a row managed to get a faster race lap than Max, and was faster than Max in a good number of other laps. He has also outscored Max in points during his time at Red Bull

Im certainly not saying Albon is as fast as Max, but for a rookie in a team built around Max he is doing a bloody good job and deserves to keep the seat next year.

I concur.

[S griffin]

It was always going to go to Lewis the title, but at least he had a fight on his hands today coming from 5th and good to see Valterri getting another one. Mercedes have been a class above everyone else again.

Albon is getting better and better, certainly he is able to match Max's pace a lot more than Gasly did.

Good drive from the back by Checo, he's certainly still got it in him

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

He was in trouble from the start but the terminal suspension issue pit him out of his misery.

I wonder if the rear suspension was failing from the start. He said he had bad understeer especially in right handers. That would fit with corner weights being out, possibly due to something bending or relaxing in the rear suspension. (Though admittedly with so much carbon fibre in the system there is more of a tendency to just go with a bang.)

[Peter Mallett]

My thoughts too.

[E.B]

The fact the Ferrari pit wall radio warning to Leclerc (aired in the Sky broadcast not long after Seb's retirement) telling him to avoid the apex kerb at T8 for fear of damage to suspension might have been a clue to something Seb had done and suffered from that had come up in Seb's telemetry.

[Peter Mallett]

Indeed, I caught that too, but Vettel was suffering from the very start so I suspect it was a problem that was made worse by hitting the kerbs.

[S griffin]

I think that was the case with Vettel, if you put two and two together, it makes sense

[crmalcolm]

Listening on R5L, the failure, the kerb at T8 and the pace issues were all discussed.

The general consensus seemed to be:

A F1 car's suspension is either broken, or it isn't. A bit like you can't be partially pregnant, you either are or are not.
They asserted that the amount of time a car can carry a damaged suspension would be no more than one corner - definitely not a number of laps.

The pace issue that both Ferrari's had was unrelated to the failure of Vettel's car.

The warning to avoid the kerb at T8 came from a fear within the Ferrari garage that Vettel may have weakened his suspension the corner prior to it failing.

Vettel himself, when asked, said that he had never touched that kerb at T8.

[steve nielsen]

Originally Posted by E.B

Interesting that Albon, for the 4th race in a row managed to get a faster race lap than Max, and was faster than Max in a good number of other laps. He has also outscored Max in points during his time at Red Bull

Im certainly not saying Albon is as fast as Max, but for a rookie in a team built around Max he is doing a bloody good job and deserves to keep the seat next year.

Albon was more than 70 seconds behind Max at the finish, so he was a lot slower in most laps

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

He was in trouble from the start but the terminal suspension issue pit him out of his misery.

The top two were always going to finish in that order, failing accidents or damage.

He may have been in trouble from the start but going out of the race with suspension failure was unexpected.

That was only the third time this season both Mercerdes drivers had finished in that order. All the other 1, 2 finishes had Hamilton first and Bottas second.

[Peter Mallett]

IIRC Albon had damage on the first lap and headed for the pits. That would account for much of the 70 secs don't you think? Seems to me that Max may well have a good match in Albon.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

He may have been in trouble from the start but going out of the race with suspension failure was unexpected.

That was only the third time this season both Mercerdes drivers had finished in that order. All the other 1, 2 finishes had Hamilton first and Bottas second.

Agreed, but my point was, that on the basis of the first lap order, there was no need to manipulate the finish thus when they decided to change the strategies it was bloody obvious Bottas would be quicker at the end of the race. Lewis didn't roll over, he fought to keep his position but his tyres were pretty much finished.

But, I say again, it was a function of the circuit not necessarily the tactics. Whilst there are two DRS zones you can only use them if you have grip and power. This was demonstrated quite well between Lando (no grip) and Danny Ric (grip) both with the same engine but one in a better chassis on the day.