I really should stop reading F1 twitter. What an absolute cesspool. The Max fans remind me of Trump supporters or Brexiteers. There's so many making absolutely delusional claims. My favourite theme being that Max didn't brake (they all say break) check Lewis and that Lewis once did it to Vettel (Baku) and it's FIA bias. Both of those cases were investigated using the telemetry, so it's factually proven who did what... If there's been any bias from the FIA in those cases, it's been more a desperate attempt to not penalise the drivers so that they can artificially keep the title closer.
Finally had a good look at the track changes for Yas Marina. Seems like altogether great changes for Mercedes. They lost a lot of time last year at turns 5 and 6 which are gone. Turns 11 through 14 are now one long medium speed turn 9 which RB struggle with.
Honestly I’ll be shocked if Lewis doesn’t win it. But all it takes is one hectic start to knock one of them out. It’s gonna be interesting.
Eep. Bottas absolutely nowhere as well. Red Bull in a strong position for the race, aside of the soft tyre start.
They key now for Max is to build up a big enough gap at the front being on the softs, yet to stay out as long as possible, so he doesn't need to make an additional stop compared to Lewis. But you have to think at the moment Max just might take it all; last 6 pole sitters at this track have gone on to win
I haven't seen much in the way of strategy calls for this race. Unsure if they're planning to use the hard tyre in the race or just the medium and soft. If it's all medium/soft compounds, then it won't come down to number of stops anyway. It will be whether Max can get far enough clear for his first stop to not drop back into the slower medium runners when he does. You're right on the pole sitter stat. No idea if the track changes are going to alter that. Tbh, if Max can run quickly in clean air, it might not even matter. He had a decent advantage in quali.
I wasn’t expecting that quali result at all. Missed it going over to my parents but looks like we’re set up for an exciting race
In fairness, not replacing Mazepin is economically sensible anyway. The car stays in the garage, out of the way, rather than being out on track, in the way. It'll finish in exactly the same spot by not moving.
I never knew the rule though, so that’s interesting. You can’t field a driver in the race who hasn’t participated in practice or qualifying. Means he finishes the season in 21st.
Argument is over how much advantage Lewis got. Don't mind him keeping the place, but he really fucked off up the road there.