[br438]

Charles is the most intellectual, most focused and driven driver in F1 at the moment. He is absolutely faster than Sainz, and is firing on all cylinders right now. If he keeps this level of mental focus, he will be so, so, so hard to beat this season.

I do expect Merc to keep finding more "race speed", and I expect Redbul to eventually stop tanking one or the other car, but.... Leclerc is in a league of his own right now.

[F87source]

Originally Posted by br438

Charles is the most intellectual, most focused and driven driver in F1 at the moment. He is absolutely faster than Sainz, and is firing on all cylinders right now. If he keeps this level of mental focus, he will be so, so, so hard to beat this season.

I do expect Merc to keep finding more "race speed", and I expect Redbul to eventually stop tanking one or the other car, but.... Leclerc is in a league of his own right now.

The most important qualities is that he's so calm and his race IQ is so high. He doesn't make emotional mistakes and is willing to live to fight another day, this is key because it almost costed max last year with his never back down attitude and how emotional he is.

[TheBingoBalls]

Originally Posted by F87source

The most important qualities is that he's so calm and his race IQ is so high. He doesn't make emotional mistakes and is willing to live to fight another day, this is key because it almost costed max last year with his never back down attitude and how emotional he is.

Remind you of anybody?

[F87source]

Originally Posted by TheBingoBalls

Remind you of anybody?

Reminds me of a certain Lewis Hamilton. It's literally what everyone says of him.

Max has immense raw speed, but he's so emotional it's concerning because if the mind games start he will probably lose out alot. He literally almost lost out to Lewis last year when he could've wrapped it up so much earlier, and no mind games were played last year.

[F87source]

Here are some trap speeds from Australia:





- Redbull were immensely quick, and surprisingly Alonso in the alpine was right there with them.

- Mercedes and their engine customers aren't doing too badly, with merc themselves being 5-6 KPH off the top speedand pretty much even with ferrari. So not looking too bad. Clearly they don't have the massive engine advantage anymore, but they aren't too far off in terms of peak speed. Acceleration might be the question, but merc's super short gear ratio (even shorter than ferrari) might help them out - but I can't find the traces.

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

You still don't get it ..
I'm speaking of the cause of a DNF .

There is a big difference between a "driver crash vs a motor (PU) failure" !
"Own fault vs helpless and bad luck"

In other words :
Charlie could have beaten Sainz in 2021 , but Charlie lost it by his own DNF faults !
Charlie's (own fault) DNF's are included in his race results , that's why he lost it from Sainz .

That should tell you what you need to know.

Never mind my friend, the techs will fix Max's car and reduce the weight by how much they can, less weight is a faster and more reliable car,Lec's car can only go so fast.

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by F87source

Reminds me of a certain Lewis Hamilton. It's literally what everyone says of him.

Max has immense raw speed, but he's so emotional it's concerning because if the mind games start he will probably lose out alot. He literally almost lost out to Lewis last year when he could've wrapped it up so much earlier, and no mind games were played last year.

Oh my..it's been said many times ie the tyre blow out amid other things meant Max couldn't wrap up the title earlier last year.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

Oh my..it's been said many times ie the tyre blow out amid other things meant Max couldn't wrap up the title earlier last year.

If LEC is compared to HAM I sure hope LEC doesn't forget to turn off his brake magic at a restart lap and finish a race last instead of 2nd or at least 3rd
This is something you'd expect from a rookie that still doesn't fully understand his car, not from a 7 times wdc.
Talk about monumental mistakes under pressure....costing him at least 15 points.

Or not going in for slicks where literally everyone else did, resulting in not winning a race where he starts from pole and all his major competitors are either out of the race or have severely damaged cars.
Ham sure could've used those 6 extra points and the extra win at the end of the season

And I hope for LEC that he doesn't succumb to pressure of winning in front of his home audience resulting in ramming his main competitor off the track in a 300kph+ corner, giving him a 51G crash endangering his life (51G crash means your head suddenly weighs 250kg! and I don't even include what it does to the added helmet weight..., just to give one example what an event like that does to a body)

I don't see the comparison
And I hope I still don't see it at the end of the season, no matter who wins

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

If LEC is compared to HAM I sure hope LEC doesn't forget to turn off his brake magic at a restart lap and finish a race last instead of 2nd or at least 3rd
This is something you'd expect from a rookie that still doesn't fully understand his car, not from a 7 times wdc.
Talk about monumental mistakes under pressure....costing him at least 15 points.

Or not going in for slicks where literally everyone else did, resulting in not winning a race where he starts from pole and all his major competitors are either out of the race or have severely damaged cars.
Ham sure could've used those 6 extra points and the extra win at the end of the season

And I hope for LEC that he doesn't succumb to pressure of winning in front of his home audience resulting in ramming his main competitor off the track in a 300kph+ corner, giving him a 51G crash endangering his life (51G crash means your head suddenly weighs 250kg! and I don't even include what it does to the added helmet weight..., just to give one example what an event like that does to a body)

I don't see the comparison
And I hope I still don't see it at the end of the season, no matter who wins

Indeed the cowardly way the stewards burried their heads in the sand on that incident at silverstone last year because it was a 'home' GP for the eventual race winner will be remembered by many race fans.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by F87source

Reminds me of a certain Lewis Hamilton. It's literally what everyone says of him.

Max has immense raw speed, but he's so emotional it's concerning because if the mind games start he will probably lose out alot. He literally almost lost out to Lewis last year when he could've wrapped it up so much earlier, and no mind games were played last year.

Probably you mean , if MAX wasn't rammed in the wall in the copse turn at Silverstone !

#Ham'sDirtyTricks !!!

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by F87source

Reminds me of a certain Lewis Hamilton. It's literally what everyone says of him.
Max has immense raw speed, but he's so emotional it's concerning because if the mind games start he will probably lose out alot. He literally almost lost out to Lewis last year when he could've wrapped it up so much earlier, and no mind games were played last year.

Not sure if you realize that this is about Formula 1 with several drivers and teams getting paid millions by sponsors and merchandise to achieve results. It's a very expensive elite eco system with extremely stiff competition for all drivers. 20 race seats - 20 heads - 40 elbows. Not your friendly local bridge club.

It's generally known that during mandatory schooling in Flanders, VER spent virtually *all* his free time on karting circuits (mostly in Genk, karting heaven for lots of future F1 pilots). Sunshine or rain, warm or cold: didn't matter, VER was usually out on track. He had three hobbies: karting, karting and karting. He made it to F1 without money because he is such a machine, drilled and toughened by his dad Jos, learning all tricks of the trade - completely obsessed by driving, likely having spent more seat time than most drivers of his age. When F1 drivers were asked what they usually do when returning home after a race, most replied something relaxing. VER replied that he usually climbs straight into his simulator to drive for hours on end.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by Artemis

VER replied that he usually climbs straight into his simulator to drive for hours on end.

Friends of mine know Max from a young age because their kid used to kart in the same racing class as Max. Obviously Max always won (he was gone from the start) and the race was obviously for 2nd place.
But in the evening when racing was done, all the kids played football with eachother.
Except for Max, he was in the simulator all evening every evening.

That is what it takes to become world champion nowadays.

[Killed by Death]

[Fliplegend]

Originally Posted by Artemis

He made it to F1 without money .

Yeah right.

[Foghorn]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

And I hope for LEC that he doesn't succumb to pressure of winning in front of his home audience resulting in ramming his main competitor off the track in a 300kph+ corner, giving him a 51G crash endangering his life (51G crash means your head suddenly weighs 250kg! and I don't even include what it does to the added helmet weight..., just to give one example what an event like that does to a body)

Silly to repeat this over and over. Interesting how distorted the rules become when VER is involved. In this case being inside before corner turn in somehow required HAM to hit the apex rather than leave room on the outside for VER. On this basis the vast majority of VER’s passing manoeuvres would put him on the wrong side of the rules.

Speaking of being on the wrong side of the rules, weaving in the braking zones, being along side the leader for the restart after a safety car incident, 2 examples of when rules were changed because of VER and his tendency to push the boundaries.

[GuidoK]

yeah well, something resulting in a 300kph+ cornercrash / 51g impact is something different in my book than ease along at sub pacecar speeds.
Going into a corner so fast that you're not able to follow the racing line/missing the apex while the other one leaves room for that is just insanely dangerous. (soamething tells me that I have to post those pictures again to prove that there was easily enough space for a car to fit on the inside...)
HAM clearly took too much risk there because of the pressure in front of his home crowd. He went in way to hot, not being able to follow the racing line and use the room VER left him, resulting in hitting VER at really high speeds in a high G corner.

And I guess that's what happens to drivers. I mean it arguably happened to LEC too, while qualifying for the Monaco grand prix last year. Yeah he took pole in a previous lap but later crashed his car in another attempt to set a new fast time that he couldn't start on race day. That crash was also 100% drivers error, so....pressure?
Maybe that's why VER almost hid himself the days prior to the Dutch GP, to totally focus on the race and not being consumed by reporters etc all day.

[M5Rick]

Talking about the pace/safety car, the Aston M driven by Maylander was going like a 'turtle' and the drivers with hards on couldn't get enough heat in them probably resulting in Sainz going off. If Maylander wants to drive like Mr Magoo he should hand the reins over to a more competent pace car driver.

[TTM0TION]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

Talking about the pace/safety car, the Aston M driven by Maylander was going like a 'turtle' and the drivers with hards on couldn't get enough heat in them probably resulting in Sainz going off. If Maylander wants to drive like Mr Magoo he should hand the reins over to a more competent pace car driver.

I saw those comments also. So you are blaming maylander and not the car? What if the car is just a bit shit LOL? I thought I saw that part of Russel's comments were that they were almost always about 5mph slower.

[NickyC]

Ugh, hate to see what could be a great/close championship year derailed by DNFs. Max has a huge hill to climb now.

[minn19]

Originally Posted by Fliplegend

Yeah right.

The stuff that gets written here is beyond belief at times. Next thing they’ll say is Jos being a former F1 driver and all his connections had nothing to do with it either.

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by minn19

The stuff that gets written here is beyond belief at times. Next thing they’ll say is Jos being a former F1 driver and all his connections had nothing to do with it either.

Parents of VER were not wealthy. His mom was a respected karting driver who raced with several guys that ended up in F1. His dad ended up in F1.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by Artemis

Parents of VER were not wealthy.

Indeed, Jos Verstappen always struggled to get enough personal sponsors to keep a seat in F1. No rich daddy that paid for his seat, and apparently just not good enough to get a paid seat at the top teams. He ended up at Benneton for a few races because he was a test driver and Lehto got injured. That's when he got his podium finish.
For the rest he always was in the bottom tier teams; simtek, arrows, minardi, tyrell..