F1 2021 – spoilers here

9 years to the day since it was announced that Lewis would be driving for Mercedes in 2013. It took a lot of people by surprise and plenty of armchair experts thought he was crazy. History has shown it was a very shrewd move for both parties!

Schumacher went to Ferrari, developed the car and ended up with 7 WC’s
Schumacher went to Mercedes, developed the car and gave Hamilton his 7 WC’s

Hamilton has had it easy 😉

Schumacher went to Ferrari, developed the car and ended up with 7 WC’s
Schumacher went to Mercedes, developed the car and gave Hamilton his 7 WC’s

I think the mastermind was Ross Brawn – not Schumacher or Hamilton!

I think the mastermind was Ross Brawn – not Schumacher or Hamilton!

Check and see what Jean Todt was doing during all this.

Check and see what Jean Todt was doing during all this.

Michelle Yeoh?

Schumacher went to Ferrari, developed the car and ended up with 7 WC’s
Schumacher went to Mercedes, developed the car and gave Hamilton his 7 WC’s

I think people forget that Merc were the 5th best team on the grid when Lewis joined them.

Ferrari were never lower than 3rd in the constructors the whole time Schumacher raced for them.

So the idea that Schumacher built Ferrari into a race wining team and Hamilton was gifted a Championship winning car is bunkum

I remember Lewis signing for Merc and speaking to a guy at work about it, he was a massive Hamilton fan and couldn’t get his head round it. I remember saying he’ll endure a crap 2013 all because he knows they’ll have the best engine on the grid for 2014. I wish I’d put money on it.

And behind the scenes it was Lauda that convinced them botht he make their respective moves….

I think people forget that Merc were the 5th best team on the grid when Lewis joined them

Yup, and even Nicko bagged 2 wins that year off Michael’s hard work, Hamilton only got 1….

(STW Disclaimer: please note that my comments are entirely tongue in cheek before someone gets upset)

Check and see what Jean Todt was doing during all this.

And Rory Byrne.

Lewis signing for Mercedes for sure appeared a brave move from the outside! It was known at the time that they had been poaching some key personnel from top teams…. but I’m pretty sure no-one could have predicted their dominance ever since!
I wouldn’t count them out when the new regs kick in next year either – despite their wind tunnel time handicap. I think they pre-empted that and have been working on the 2022 car for even longer than usual – perhaps accounting for their less dominant car recently? But will be interesting!
Absolutely LOVING McLarens resurgence.

Final laps for Lando and Lewis

Gutted for Lando, he looked close to tears after the race.

but I’m pretty sure no-one could have predicted their dominance ever since!

I still shudder remembering the first tests where it became very clear that only one brand had a decent power train

Never really understood why a driver who’s been employed to do precisely what he’s done for the last 4 seasons gets as much grief as he does.

Bottas had one job on Sunday and that was to make his Mercedes the widest thing in the world and hold max up for as much of the race as possible. He managed to do that for about 100m before letting him through as if he was the redbull number 2 driver. He has the opportunity to keep max out of the points but failed miserably

Mark Hughes has an analysis of the different setup choices. Merc and McLaren went for higher downforce setups for qualifying on the assumption that they wouldn’t need to pass cars if they started from the front. Red Bull gave Max a low-drag setup for straight-line speed. Max could pass cars down the straight quite easily, but Bottas and Hamilton couldn’t, even though the Merc was quicker over a whole lap. However, Max started on hard tyres and the low-downforce setup knackered these quickly whereas Lewis started on mediums but the higher-downforce setup meant these lasted longer than Max’s hards.

If the qualifying had been dry, I think Hamilton would have taken pole easily and romped off into the distance if he could have stayed ahead on the first lap, or, if the rain had come earlier in the race, Max would have had no chance against the higher downforce cars. Just a matter of random luck with the rain.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.tech-tuesday-the-wildly-different-ways-teams-tackled-sochis-set-up-conundrum.ssChkXEjCKSXMFqjz3Wpr.html

Bottas had one job on Sunday

Sure, but he didn’t have the right tool for that “one job”

What, a clue?
True.

I bet Mercedes can’t wait for him to walk out of the door for the last time – based on last weekend, he’s bringing nothing to the team any more.

Botas needs to watch out if he fails to consistently outscore Perez and allow Red Bull to catch up on the constructors championship.

In that situation I can see Merc showing him the door early and putting Russel into the car for the remainder of the season.

In that situation I can see Merc showing him the door early and putting Russel into the car for the remainder of the season

I’d love to see that! Can you imagine? Toto “now George, your only job is to keep Max behind you!” That would make for a fun end of season 😀

Merc are not going to dump Botta mid-season. Zero chance of that.

“ Sure, but he didn’t have the right tool for that “one job””

Alonso managed to keep a much faster car behind him for a few laps a few races ago. Plenty of drivers manage it.
I would not be impressed with his peformance if I was his new team – I don’t know what he thought he was doing letting Max by but it looked like a kid throwing his toys out of the pram.

Merc are not going to dump Botta mid-season. Zero chance of that.

Agree.

Blocking Verstappen isn’t really what he needs to do most races, his primary job is to get amongst the front runners on a Saturday (which he does pretty regularly) to give Merc strategy options and take points off Perez on a Sunday.

If Hamilton can’t win the drivers championship then Mercedes obviously want to win the constructors. They are odds on favourites for this because Bottas regularly outscores Perez

his primary job is to get amongst the front runners on a Saturday (which he does pretty regularly) to give Merc strategy options

and surely the ultimate end result of that is to stay in front of the Red Bulls so why let MV past so easily? I think he just thought “sod it!”

swavis

and surely the ultimate end result of that is to stay in front of the Red Bulls so why let MV past so easily? I think he just thought “sod it!”

Quite, I don’t think he’s doing himself any favours either. Okay so he has a deal for now, but why burn bridges by failing to do your job. All he’s doing is making it look like he either cannot defend, or chooses not to and therefore is not following the teams instructions.

but why burn bridges by failing to do your job

His job is to help Mercedes wins the Constructors championship, and you do that by scoring points. He went from 16th on the grid to 5th. Given that he qualified 7th, that’s a good result. I’d also imagine given where he started and how the race went in closing stages, Mercedes will be pleased with that.

so why let MV past so easily? I think he just thought “sod it!”

Bottas’ race engineer has said that because it was colder than they expected both cars were having issues with understeer and neither of them couldn’t get the front tyres up to temperature. Wolff has pretty much said the car wasn’t good enough to overtake, and even on the closing laps Hamilton radio’d to say he couldn’t follow the Mclaren closely enough to overtake it. Mercs plan relied on their speed to put them on pole and then prance off into the distance. That Bottas finished 5th was pretty much down to him and a bit of luck.

His job is to help Mercedes wins the Constructors championship, and you do that by scoring points. He went from 16th on the grid to 5th. Given that he qualified 7th, that’s a good result. I’d also imagine given where he started and how the race went in closing stages, Mercedes will be pleased with that.

He got lucky with the rain – he was trundling round in 14th before that, going nowhere.

He got lucky with the rain

As did Hamilton, and Norris was unlucky. Sometimes F1 is all about the luck or lack of it that comes your way.

You could argue, Hamilton wasn’t that lucky with the rain. He’d have gained more points on Verestappen if he’d finished second and Verstappen stayed back in 7th.

Not sure why people are defending Bottas so much – he’s been in the best car for 5 seasons now and only has 9 wins to his name. He should have been knocking out 4 or 5 wins a season at least if he was properly top-drawer.

He’s a good No.2 and always will be, most of the drivers on the grid could bring that Merc home in the points but only a few can win consistently.

And Hamilton had managed to get into 2nd in the dry, without the lottery that the rain brought.

Edit – still more gutted for Lando though.

He’s a good No.2 and always will be

Which is what Merc pay him for

nickc

His job is to help Mercedes wins the Constructors championship, and you do that by scoring points. He went from 16th on the grid to 5th. Given that he qualified 7th, that’s a good result. I’d also imagine given where he started and how the race went in closing stages, Mercedes will be pleased with that.

Couldn’t disagree more.
Horner basically said thanks to Valteri after the race for not holding up Max, it was an absolute joke of a performance. Before the rain, he was on for 14th place whereas Verstappen was up in 7th.

He’s in one of the top two cars on the grid yet spent 10 laps behind Raikonnen in the second worst car, and I think Kimi might actually have been on older tyres as well.

All it says is either he won’t follow orders and therefore not a team player, or his pace/lack of defence/lack of overtakes was genuine in which case he’s not good enough for a top team.

link: https://www.planetf1.com/news/valtteri-bottas-very-fair-russian-gp/

Yeah, his “defence” against Max was pitiful, he might as well have stuck his hand out the cockpit and waved him through. I’m dubious there was an issue and I’m of the thinking they put him back there solely for the purpose of keeping Max behind and he failed that miserably. He needed to get his elbows out, weave around, block, do whatever was necessary within reason to keep him behind and he didn’t. His “recovery” to 5th was largely down to luck and Merc using him to test the conditions/tyres so they could make the right call for Lewis.

He is very quick over one lap, no one can deny that, but his race craft is not up to the standard of the best. I mean look at Alonso keeping Lewis behind in Hungary, or the Alonso/Schumacher battles at Imola in 2005/2006. That is how to defend like your life depends on it.

All it says is either he won’t follow orders and therefore not a team player, or his pace/lack of defence/lack of overtakes was genuine in which case he’s not good enough for a top team.

or possibly that he had a setup issue

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/why-bottas-faced-impossible-task-to-come-through-field-in-sochi/6677871/

All it says is either he won’t follow orders and therefore not a team player

His engineer has said that the weather meant that the car was understeering because they couldn’t get any heat in the front tyres, Wolff has said the car wasn’t good enough to use for overtaking or defending, and Hamilton was on the radio telling the pits he couldn’t even run close enough to Norris to overtake him. The car Bottas and Hamilton were driving on Sunday was fast enough but didn’t handle all that well, The car MV was in was both v fast (low downforce set up) and was handling really well. Bottas had no chance to keep MV behind him…

mashr

or possibly that he had a setup issue

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/why-bottas-faced-impossible-task-to-come-through-field-in-sochi/6677871/

Maybe so, but that doesn’t explain how he put up absolutely no defence to Max. He basically moved over and waved him through.

And not sure what to make of their comparison with Hamilton who was struggling to get past the mclarens which is a decent car with the best engine on the grid, equal age tyres and two very good drivers. As opposed to valteri who was struggling to get past back markers with crap engines and older tyres. I mean come on, the understeer won’t have helped, but seriously, that was a mediocre performance. Do you honestly think if Max was in that Merc he would have been stuck behind Kimi for 10 laps?

The truth is if Hamilton, Norris, Max, Leclerc etc starts at the back, you’d not be hugely surprised if they ended up top 5, maybe even up on the podium. If Valteri starts at the back, he’s on for 7th or 8th. He’s quick over a lap and I like him as a person but he’s just not top tier at racing.

Bottas had no chance to keep MV behind him…

That’s no reason not to try though, Hamilton/Russel/Verstappen/Alonso/… in that car would have defended like crazy for as many corners as they could.

Merc have years of data on how Bottas compares to Hamilton. Their opinion is the only thing that matters. They seem to hold him in fairly high regard and respect him.

Bottas had no chance to keep MV behind him…

That’s absolutely no excuse for not even trying.
Too late!

You do know that the Merc can’t run that closely to cars in front because of it’s design philosophy right? It relied on the aero rules that were revised for 2021. Whereas because of it’s design philosophy, the rule changes made the RB a faster, and better handling car.

The 2021 Merc. is not the all-conquering beast that it has been in years past, it’s compromised and struggles in traffic. Hence the reason MV can slice through the traffic (and the Aston martins as well for that matter,  check out how many overtakes Vettel has done this year) and the likes of Bottas and Hamilton can’t run close enough in traffic to pass cars that are slower (in theory) than they are. It’s the same reason Hamilton struggled to get past the Mclaren as Bottas failed to get through the field. The car loses grip and slows down…