2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Baku, April 28 - 30

[101FlyingDutchman]

I have absolutely no problem with RUS going for it. That’s racing. More please. But the fact is Russell locked up and understeered straight right. Turn 4 lunge was therefore not really on as he couldn’t make the corner side by side with the entry speed he had. Shame. Love me some good wheel 2 wheel racing. Was a mistake by RUS. Time to own it, but he’s absolutely entitled to be there

[vorticism]

Big cars + street circuit + sprint race = no room for error. Can it be said the cautious/conservative driver is rewarded in such an equation?

[Tvetovnato]

AD21 1st lap...no contact and there was enough room left. Max also had completed the overtake by the apex of the corner, and made the corner himself so there was no concern. Poor reference to pull up to defend your point IMHO.

What does surprise me though, is the incident wasnt even noted by the stewards, given the contact (minimal appearing damage I have to admit) but it was out in the open the lap after. Strange one.

And why was there no contact? Because the other driver took evasive action. Had there been a wall there, Lewis would have nowhere to go and both would have been out of the race. Clear as daylight. Very similar racing situations, with the difference that George was a lot further up the inside to start with, hence had all the right to make the move which Max didn’t even have. The double standards of Max and people’s attempts to defend him is beyond belief.

Anyway, Max was the only one who paid the price in the end today which was very good to see. Let’s hope for something similar tomorrow.

[Matt2725]

AD21 1st lap...no contact and there was enough room left.

Must have imagined Max barely keeping it on track and having to cut back further left to make the right hander on track.

Regardless, I hope everyone races Max the way he's raced others in the past. He might have a fast car, but why not give it a go I say.

[dialtone]

AD21 1st lap...no contact and there was enough room left. Max also had completed the overtake by the apex of the corner, and made the corner himself so there was no concern. Poor reference to pull up to defend your point IMHO.

What does surprise me though, is the incident wasnt even noted by the stewards, given the contact (minimal appearing damage I have to admit) but it was out in the open the lap after. Strange one.

Sorry but no... Max was 100% at fault in AD '21 exactly like GR was today.

[Gooch]

If Russell had put his nose ahead at the apex, would he suddenly be absolved of any potential wrongdoing? What if he deliberately let off the brakes to make it to the apex first, even if it meant going too fast to complete the corner himself?

Too many people get hung up on the positioning of the cars and completely neglect that speed is also a critical element of overtaking. IE the telemetry for Hamilton/Verstappen at Brazil last year showed Verstappen carrying more speed into T2 than even George Russell on the fastest lap of the race (with a lighter fuel load), which makes it much easier to award a penalty.

Per F1-tempo, Russell actually ended up 3 kph slower at the apex of T2 than Alonso behind him on a similar line (Albon on the outside), which would suggest to me that he did intend to make it through the corner with room to spare for another car.

I think it should also be noted that there was more than a car's width of space the entire way through the corner. Yes, his trajectory was most likely influenced by contact as well, but we have seen past incidents which get penalized (Brazil above or Silverstone 2021) often have both cars ending up off track, conservation of momentum or something like that...

He cocked it up, which may be worthy of a penalty in a just world, but not in today's F1. Only way they were gonna penalize him is if Verstappen retired on the spot.

[fourmula1]

The racing incident was minor relative to the outburst by one of the drivers. Thats the kicker here. George made a small error in tight racing that is classified as a racing incident 100% of the time. (Blabla stewarding inconsistency is for a different discussion yes they get it wrong many times). This is only blown up because the champion and ambassador for our sport demonstrated entitled infallible bratty behavior.

[ispano6]

So far I'm liking the sprint weekend, minus the misfortune Tsunoda has been going through. Georgie boy is being the thorn and prick Toto wants Russell to be and we've seen the types of misshaps he is capable of like what he did to Bottas and Zhou.

[mendis]

There has been zero agreements over an incident ever since this forum exists, yet both sides try hard to prove a point.

George was dumb yesterday, despite full awareness that Max would blast past him in the first DRS opportunity, he still tried that move as if he is a title contender. He would have easily ended up with a penalty and lose points. He is better than such d*** head moves.

[cplchanb]

There has been zero agreements over an incident ever since this forum exists, yet both sides try hard to prove a point.

George was dumb yesterday, despite full awareness that Max would blast past him in the first DRS opportunity, he still tried that move as if he is a title contender. He would have easily ended up with a penalty and lose points. He is better than such d*** head moves.

so just because 4 races in hes trailing Max is justification for him to drop all effort in aiming for a win....
get off the maxipad koolaid

[mendis]

There has been zero agreements over an incident ever since this forum exists, yet both sides try hard to prove a point.

George was dumb yesterday, despite full awareness that Max would blast past him in the first DRS opportunity, he still tried that move as if he is a title contender. He would have easily ended up with a penalty and lose points. He is better than such d*** head moves.

so just because 4 races in hes trailing Max is justification for him to drop all effort in aiming for a win....
get off the maxipad koolaid

Maldonado tried so many times to win with same energy.

[mendis]

AD21 1st lap...no contact and there was enough room left. Max also had completed the overtake by the apex of the corner, and made the corner himself so there was no concern. Poor reference to pull up to defend your point IMHO.

What does surprise me though, is the incident wasnt even noted by the stewards, given the contact (minimal appearing damage I have to admit) but it was out in the open the lap after. Strange one.

Sorry but no... Max was 100% at fault in AD '21 exactly like GR was today.

George was wrong, not Max in AD21. Only because there was run off, Lewis took the shortcut. If they would have put a sausage kerb in 21, like they did in 22, Lewis wouldn't have taken that route and lost position or lost his car like he did in 22. It's entirely another thing to squash another driver in a wall.

[dxpetrov]

So far I'm liking the sprint weekend, minus the misfortune Tsunoda has been going through. Georgie boy is being the thorn and prick Toto wants Russell to be and we've seen the types of misshaps he is capable of like what he did to Bottas and Zhou.

Oh God, please don’t say that! Because of the opinions alike we will never rid of this utter nonsense that we are forced to watch due to american F1 ownership catered to sub 100 IQ population.

[Matt2725]

There has been zero agreements over an incident ever since this forum exists, yet both sides try hard to prove a point.

George was dumb yesterday, despite full awareness that Max would blast past him in the first DRS opportunity, he still tried that move as if he is a title contender. He would have easily ended up with a penalty and lose points. He is better than such d*** head moves.

Counter point, is why is Max resisting being overtaken when he has the fastest car on the grid by a fair margin?
Hamilton said himself in previous years that he just let Max do his thing, because he knew he'd overtake him a few laps later.
I thought Max was this mature and wise champion these days? He didn't show that yesterday at least.

[search]

Pirelli's tyre list is available now. Hadn't noticed that Aston used their only new set of mediums for the sprint