2021 Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Kingshark]

The qualifying pace looked really promising in Jeddah, whatever happened to the race pace? Not enough battery recharge?

[ringo]

Can Max calm down in just a week. Can Horner and Helmut drop the emotions and focus on the job?
A 2 week break would have better for the wounds to heal a little. I don't think redbull will be in the best shape it can come this last race.

[NL_Fer]

The qualifying pace looked really promising in Jeddah, whatever happened to the race pace? Not enough battery recharge?

Mercedes had a problem getting the soft into the right window. They were slow in qually. Race pace was equal.

[Kingshark]

The qualifying pace looked really promising in Jeddah, whatever happened to the race pace? Not enough battery recharge?

Mercedes had a problem getting the soft into the right window. They were slow in qually. Race pace was equal.

C5 tyres should help Red Bull in qualifying

Don’t think the race pace was equal in Jeddah, Mercedes was constantly gaining 5 tenths down the straights. Red Bull had to make it all up through the corners, but that came at the expense of more tyre wear.

Abu Dhabi should hopefully have closer straight line speed, because it has more braking zones and battery recharge should be less of an issue.

[Jambier]

Toto assembled the better car, the better PU and, of course, the better driver.

Earlier in the season when Hamilton was under real pressure of not having by far the best performing car and worse season prospects he was falling off the track every second race. If it were not for Bottas playing bowling in Hungary then Hamilton's title chances would be much, much further away than what they are now. It's easy to play strategic mind games on track if you're in an inherently faster car that's also sh1tloads faster on straights, thus making it dead easy to put constant pressure on the guy in front.

If only Max had run wide and conceded his position at Silverstone (just like countless times Lewis did in the last 3 races) then Max would be going into the last race with a 18 points lead, which practically means a guaranteed championship for him. That's even with the Bottas playing bowling in Hungary!

I agree, championish was lost on two things:

- Silverstone, Verstappen not clever enough to understand that at some point Hamilton will do something against him
- End of season with an unbeatable Mercedes again, on that side, it is just... the better team being the best again

So I can understand VER frustration and trying anything, because he knows championship is lost if no HAM retirement of a race.

Now this is too late, crashing into Hamilton and Verstappen will be DSQ from championship

[seense]

Earlier in the season when Hamilton was under real pressure of not having by far the best performing car and worse season prospects he was falling off the track every second race. If it were not for Bottas playing bowling in Hungary then Hamilton's title chances would be much, much further away than what they are now. It's easy to play strategic mind games on track if you're in an inherently faster car that's also sh1tloads faster on straights, thus making it dead easy to put constant pressure on the guy in front.

If only Max had run wide and conceded his position at Silverstone (just like countless times Lewis did in the last 3 races) then Max would be going into the last race with a 18 points lead, which practically means a guaranteed championship for him. That's even with the Bottas playing bowling in Hungary!

I agree, championish was lost on two things:

- Silverstone, Verstappen not clever enough to understand that at some point Hamilton will do something against him
- End of season with an unbeatable Mercedes again, on that side, it is just... the better team being the best again

So I can understand VER frustration and trying anything, because he knows championship is lost if no HAM retirement of a race.

Now this is too late, crashing into Hamilton and Verstappen will be DSQ from championship

Why was it lost on only those two things? Baku tyre, Hungary bowling bottas.

[Jambier]

If only Max had run wide and conceded his position at Silverstone (just like countless times Lewis did in the last 3 races) then Max would be going into the last race with a 18 points lead, which practically means a guaranteed championship for him. That's even with the Bottas playing bowling in Hungary!

I agree, championish was lost on two things:

- Silverstone, Verstappen not clever enough to understand that at some point Hamilton will do something against him
- End of season with an unbeatable Mercedes again, on that side, it is just... the better team being the best again

So I can understand VER frustration and trying anything, because he knows championship is lost if no HAM retirement of a race.

Now this is too late, crashing into Hamilton and Verstappen will be DSQ from championship

Why was it lost on only those two things? Baku tyre, Hungary bowling bottas. Oh wait I understand. Because the Ham fanboys want Max to look bad.

Because there was also the luck of SPA, or Monza that played for Max.

Baku tyre was awful also, but fortunately Hamilton did stupid start after that.

[DChemTech]

If only Max had run wide and conceded his position at Silverstone (just like countless times Lewis did in the last 3 races) then Max would be going into the last race with a 18 points lead, which practically means a guaranteed championship for him. That's even with the Bottas playing bowling in Hungary!

I agree, championish was lost on two things:

- Silverstone, Verstappen not clever enough to understand that at some point Hamilton will do something against him
- End of season with an unbeatable Mercedes again, on that side, it is just... the better team being the best again

So I can understand VER frustration and trying anything, because he knows championship is lost if no HAM retirement of a race.

Now this is too late, crashing into Hamilton and Verstappen will be DSQ from championship

Why was it lost on only those two things? Baku tyre, Hungary bowling bottas. Oh wait I understand. Because the Ham fanboys want Max to look bad.

And possibly by
- The FIA poorly applying the rule about leaving the track and gaining an advantage in Bahrain - had Lewis not gained those ~3 seconds with 29 white line excursions, Max might have had a better shot at passing cleanly - points that are now crucial.
- The whole saga around 'flexiwings' which is essentially down to RB exploiting a gray area left in poorly written FIA rules - not dissimilar to DAS - but in this case the rules were changed mid-season to close it, thus benefitting particular teams, although it is impossible to know to what degree.
- The whole saga in pitstop regulation changes on poorly supported grounds, which MB was one of the proponents of. Without it, Max might well have remained ahead at Monza, rather than the two colliding.
- The tire wall change seemed to benefit MB, although in this change, there was an underlying safety reason to do so.

We never know how things would have turned out differently for these cases, but they were certainly of potential influence.

[NathanOlder]

The qualifying pace looked really promising in Jeddah, whatever happened to the race pace? Not enough battery recharge?

Mercedes had a problem getting the soft into the right window. They were slow in qually. Race pace was equal.

If th race pace was equal, wouldn't Max have gapped Lewis when he was on those medium tyres ? The fact was Lewis stayed very close and was in and out of DRS range.

[diffuser]

The qualifying pace looked really promising in Jeddah, whatever happened to the race pace? Not enough battery recharge?

Mercedes had a problem getting the soft into the right window. They were slow in qually. Race pace was equal.

If th race pace was equal, wouldn't Max have gapped Lewis when he was on those medium tyres ? The fact was Lewis stayed very close and was in and out of DRS range.

The whole shift back to Mediums by RBR was an admittance that Merc race pace was superior. RBR were closer on the faster tire.

[diffuser]

If only Max had run wide and conceded his position at Silverstone (just like countless times Lewis did in the last 3 races) then Max would be going into the last race with a 18 points lead, which practically means a guaranteed championship for him. That's even with the Bottas playing bowling in Hungary!

I agree, championish was lost on two things:

- Silverstone, Verstappen not clever enough to understand that at some point Hamilton will do something against him
- End of season with an unbeatable Mercedes again, on that side, it is just... the better team being the best again

So I can understand VER frustration and trying anything, because he knows championship is lost if no HAM retirement of a race.

Now this is too late, crashing into Hamilton and Verstappen will be DSQ from championship

Why was it lost on only those two things? Baku tyre, Hungary bowling bottas.

Cause that was out of Max & RBR control. Shiit happens. The other 2 items he listed are directly under RBR's & Max's control.

[Jolle]

Mercedes had a problem getting the soft into the right window. They were slow in qually. Race pace was equal.

If th race pace was equal, wouldn't Max have gapped Lewis when he was on those medium tyres ? The fact was Lewis stayed very close and was in and out of DRS range.

The whole shift back to Mediums by RBR was an admittance that Merc race pace was superior. RBR were closer on the faster tire.

The whole weekend it looked like RedBull saw their only chance to have track position. This is why, I think, Verstappen took incredible risk in Q3, why they didn’t pit during the safety car (just imagine where they would end up if it wasn’t red flagged) and putting on the mediums to jump Hamilton at the restart.

[SiLo]

If th race pace was equal, wouldn't Max have gapped Lewis when he was on those medium tyres ? The fact was Lewis stayed very close and was in and out of DRS range.

The whole shift back to Mediums by RBR was an admittance that Merc race pace was superior. RBR were closer on the faster tire.

The whole weekend it looked like RedBull saw their only chance to have track position. This is why, I think, Verstappen took incredible risk in Q3, why they didn’t pit during the safety car (just imagine where they would end up if it wasn’t red flagged) and putting on the mediums to jump Hamilton at the restart.

Without the red flag Max would have been way back in the pack seeing as so many did pit.

[diffuser]

If th race pace was equal, wouldn't Max have gapped Lewis when he was on those medium tyres ? The fact was Lewis stayed very close and was in and out of DRS range.

The whole shift back to Mediums by RBR was an admittance that Merc race pace was superior. RBR were closer on the faster tire.

The whole weekend it looked like RedBull saw their only chance to have track position. This is why, I think, Verstappen took incredible risk in Q3, why they didn’t pit during the safety car (just imagine where they would end up if it wasn’t red flagged) and putting on the mediums to jump Hamilton at the restart.

Yep and during quali on that last lap, Max had no idea what Hamilton's time was. Plus, that last sector, Merc was a 10th and a half faster than RBR.

[Tvetovnato]

The whole shift back to Mediums by RBR was an admittance that Merc race pace was superior. RBR were closer on the faster tire.

The whole weekend it looked like RedBull saw their only chance to have track position. This is why, I think, Verstappen took incredible risk in Q3, why they didn’t pit during the safety car (just imagine where they would end up if it wasn’t red flagged) and putting on the mediums to jump Hamilton at the restart.

Yep and during quali on that last lap, Max had no idea what Hamilton's time was. Plus, that last sector, Merc was a 10th and a half faster than RBR.

He did know, Lambiase told him on the radio what time Lewis had done just before he started his lap (available on F1TV onboards)