2022 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Mostlyeels]

And Lewis is old, he shouldn't have the same impetus as he used to fight for positions. Perez is old too, but he has less to lose by being crazy. I remember Lewis was a much more aggressive driver to overtake and defend when he was younger (and I know that well, since I was a fan of Felipe Massa.).

I don't think Lewis is really that old. Perhaps wiser, and a little less aggressive as a result? Alonso is "old" (for an F1 driver), and he's driving beautifully at the moment; his race craft at the start is still great. This Silverstone car is the first one where I've seen Hamilton really looking good in the car. I would love to see Mercedes make it into a three-way fight.

[basti313]

Lewis should never have left the door wide open for Checo entering Village? I was honestly shocked he never closed that door off. Given they were side by side and lewis tried his wider line onto the straight, with Checo taking the inner line, the pace of the RB car won overall. Bit of a 'mistake' on Lewis' behalf there, but he drove a good race overall and that 1 instance is the only fault I can pick with him this race (aside from wanting to stay out on the hard tyres at the safety car). Superb start to begin with before the red flag, gaining 2 positions into 3rd. He drove a great race today, fastest lap after fastest lap and matched the Ferrari on race pace. (And i'm a Max fan.)

It wasnt a mistake, as he was thinking 3 corners ahead. But the top speed og the RB and the braking point was nothing as poor as his own car.
If you look on where he let him through, had Lewis tightened up that line Checo and charles would be behind him and had him lined up 2 corners later. So a bit o damned if you do damned if you dont. Block Checo there would have required some dirty driving after to keep him behind.
But maybe Lewis would have to rewatch himself and see what could be done. But I dont think its much that he could do. Taking the racing line was maybe his way of trying to let Checo in and ratake on the straight but he underestimated the RB capabilities both in top speed and braking.

I think this is the mistake. He was thinking 3 corners ahead to do his usual "signature" move to run Perez wide. It looked even clumsy in the end how Ham was squeezing a ghost. It would have been enough to keep it a bit tighter and Perez would not have had any room to slide to the inside and get a good exit on the straight. With this running wide attempt the whole inside was open, the exit was bad and Perez could get past.

[Quantum]

All pretty moot given that Perez should have received a penalty for not respecting track limits while overtaking Charles.

[Just_a_fan]

All pretty moot given that Perez should have received a penalty for not respecting track limits while overtaking Charles.

Exactly so. That and crowding out should between them have got something more than "noted" from the stewards.

The key issue now is whether similar antics are penalised in coming races. If, for example, a race is dull and that's the only excitement, will we see a penalty just to make things interesting? It felt like TPTB were so excited by the race - and it was a great race - that they didn't want to look like nasty school teachers ruining everyone's day.

It should be noted that all of this is entirely off topic in this thread - it should be in the race thread, not polluting a team thread.

[Tvetovnato]

Now that the car is coming good that biazzaro world where George qualifies ahead has ended. Knowing how to drive bad cars well does not translate into driving fast cars at any elite level.

On the contrary, I believe it’s going to continue to be nip and tuck, as it has been all season. I don’t buy into George being better at driving a bad car, since there are plenty of circumstances explaining the difference so far this season (bad luck with SCs, setup experiments backfiring). George is an elite driver who will be good no matter what, as is Lewis.

[ab_f1]

Those medium speed turns in Austria may just play to their strenthts.

I watched some of the fight with checo. Hamilton left the door open through in one of the turns roght before lewis was pushed off. Either the redbull is so good under braking its hard to judge if they can stop and turn on a dime, or thr mercedes just doesnt have the downforce to do the latr braking and make the corners.
Perez also showed how good the top speed is compared to the w13. He outdragged Lewis basically to keep the place.
So yes mercedes are miles away from a genuine win.
Ferrari are also far off. Redbull just seems ominous now, and Max can easily get 13 wins this season. It's his championship to lose.
Only Checo and Charles can stop him.

Teams....Red Bull won't let Perez win, they are too invested in Max.
For Charles Ferrai for some reason is giving fairness a chance, whereas they need to get fully behind Charles if he has any chance left.

[Shrieker]

On a different note, George will probably have to serve a penalty next race too...

Any word on that yet ?

On account of what? Thought his crash was just a racing incident?
I'll be bummed as I'm itching for continued momentum from both drivers.

Causing a huge crash ?

[SuperCNJ]

On a different note, George will probably have to serve a penalty next race too...

Any word on that yet ?

On account of what? Thought his crash was just a racing incident?
I'll be bummed as I'm itching for continued momentum from both drivers.

Causing a huge crash ?

Has this not been resolved by the FIA during the race?

[mstar]

Is it me but has Lewis just gone "soft" with drivers? he leaves MASSIVE gaps on the inside, backs off early when the others keep on it and sometimes hesitant to go for clear gaps.
I mean the perez pass was a rookie mistake the other drivers protected at least the inside but lewis when he knew perez was so close left a hole as big as the circuit and invited perez through. I have seen this last season with Max (and hence why max took risky moves as he knew lewis back off). I mean the abu dhabi pass by max AGAIN lewis left SUCH a big gap on the inside max could sail pass. And then when lewis had a run on him he should of just sent it down on MAX and hope for the best as he isn't going to win coming second and at least having a go is good enough as he could of tapped his rear tyre sending max to wobble or spin.

Sorry i am starting to become frustrated with lewis and his "safety" and Mr "nice / fair driver" business.

[Just_a_fan]

Is it me but has Lewis just gone "soft" with drivers? he leaves MASSIVE gaps on the inside, backs off early when the others keep on it and sometimes hesitant to go for clear gaps.
I mean the perez pass was a rookie mistake the other drivers protected at least the inside but lewis when he knew perez was so close left a hole as big as the circuit and invited perez through. I have seen this last season with Max (and hence why max took risky moves as he knew lewis back off). I mean the abu dhabi pass by max AGAIN lewis left SUCH a big gap on the inside max could sail pass. And then when lewis had a run on him he should of just sent it down on MAX and hope for the best as he isn't going to win coming second and at least having a go is good enough as he could of tapped his rear tyre sending max to wobble or spin.

Sorry i am starting to become frustrated with lewis and his "safety" and Mr "nice / fair driver" business.

In recent seasons, he was fighting against people who had less to lose. So he had to be careful.

This year, the FIA have issued a set of racing rules telling drivers what they can and can't do. At Silverstone, several drivers ignored those rules and Hamilton was made to look "soft" because he was abiding by the new rules.

It's just another example of the stewards / FIA not applying the rules as they should.

[chrisc90]

Is it me but has Lewis just gone "soft" with drivers? he leaves MASSIVE gaps on the inside, backs off early when the others keep on it and sometimes hesitant to go for clear gaps.
I mean the perez pass was a rookie mistake the other drivers protected at least the inside but lewis when he knew perez was so close left a hole as big as the circuit and invited perez through. I have seen this last season with Max (and hence why max took risky moves as he knew lewis back off). I mean the abu dhabi pass by max AGAIN lewis left SUCH a big gap on the inside max could sail pass. And then when lewis had a run on him he should of just sent it down on MAX and hope for the best as he isn't going to win coming second and at least having a go is good enough as he could of tapped his rear tyre sending max to wobble or spin.

Sorry i am starting to become frustrated with lewis and his "safety" and Mr "nice / fair driver" business.

Careful saying that in here, people will come after you!

I agree though. Even in the 2 incidents you note, he could have put the car bang in the middle of the track and would have been significantly harder to get past. Even from Dubai, you could take Perez positioning of the car by not allowing room either side to be able to get a move started, as it would have required full send/commitment to get past on the inside or the outside.

JAF - I disagree with you a little there with the FIA/stewards ruleset. Those were rulings that define where racing room has to be left given overtakes on the inside or outside. If we watch the video F1 posted on Facebook (apologies if any regional restrictions for anyone), you can see that if Lewis moved a car to a car and a half width across, he would have had Perez covered off and he would have had nowhere to go. You can see Lewis move over quite a lot in order to get the racing line through the corner. If Lewis stayed in the middle, he could have took a line similar to Perez, or even not go out as wide on the left, and had a good swing at the left hander onto the straight. Perez would have had to stay behind, as he was on Lewis' right, so he was never ever going to outbrake him from that position on the left of Lewis to go round his outside, even so Lewis could have shut the door on him on the outside by moving across like Perez did meaning Perez would have had to go across the kerbs and would never have been able to attack on the straight due to the poor car positioning, the door being closed on the outside, and having a terrible angle for the left hander onto the straight. That move probably cost Lewis 2nd place IMHO.

[Shrieker]

On account of what? Thought his crash was just a racing incident?
I'll be bummed as I'm itching for continued momentum from both drivers.

Causing a huge crash ?

Has this not been resolved by the FIA during the race?

Then again, they have been proven incompetent time and again, haven't they ?

[Stu]

Soft tyres at Silverstone were hands in Monaco. Pirelli were expecting very high degradation.

[rifrafs2kees]

Is it me but has Lewis just gone "soft" with drivers? he leaves MASSIVE gaps on the inside, backs off early when the others keep on it and sometimes hesitant to go for clear gaps.
I mean the perez pass was a rookie mistake the other drivers protected at least the inside but lewis when he knew perez was so close left a hole as big as the circuit and invited perez through. I have seen this last season with Max (and hence why max took risky moves as he knew lewis back off). I mean the abu dhabi pass by max AGAIN lewis left SUCH a big gap on the inside max could sail pass. And then when lewis had a run on him he should of just sent it down on MAX and hope for the best as he isn't going to win coming second and at least having a go is good enough as he could of tapped his rear tyre sending max to wobble or spin.

Sorry i am starting to become frustrated with lewis and his "safety" and Mr "nice / fair driver" business.

Absolutely agree. He needs to re-watch some of these races or get a talking to. Lauda-type input, however minute could've helped a lot right now.

[Big Tea]

Is it me but has Lewis just gone "soft" with drivers? he leaves MASSIVE gaps on the inside, backs off early when the others keep on it and sometimes hesitant to go for clear gaps.
I mean the perez pass was a rookie mistake the other drivers protected at least the inside but lewis when he knew perez was so close left a hole as big as the circuit and invited perez through. I have seen this last season with Max (and hence why max took risky moves as he knew lewis back off). I mean the abu dhabi pass by max AGAIN lewis left SUCH a big gap on the inside max could sail pass. And then when lewis had a run on him he should of just sent it down on MAX and hope for the best as he isn't going to win coming second and at least having a go is good enough as he could of tapped his rear tyre sending max to wobble or spin.

Sorry i am starting to become frustrated with lewis and his "safety" and Mr "nice / fair driver" business.

In recent seasons, he was fighting against people who had less to lose. So he had to be careful.

This year, the FIA have issued a set of racing rules telling drivers what they can and can't do. At Silverstone, several drivers ignored those rules and Hamilton was made to look "soft" because he was abiding by the new rules.

It's just another example of the stewards / FIA not applying the rules as they should.

I think this also. In past years getting by a car could mean a championship or no championship, this year it means one place higher in the finishing order. Its like reaching out for a dropped used till receipt and a 20 note.
You have far more urgency when there is 20 on it than just something you would like.