2023 British Grand Prix - Silverstone, July 07 - 09

[Zynerji]

2 things, there indeed wasn’t much chance to defend. It would have to be a very hard move. A brutal one. A not really allowed one.

The alternative is to not do that but try to hook up in the tow and get DRS, with both!! cars. I am quite sure this was a hoped for run plan by McL.

Another day he will defend for his life. Lando is one of the best on the grid imho.

I think people are just disappointed that Lando didn't defend the inside rather than staying outside and even leaving plenty of space that's all.

I agree that people are letting Max by, and maybe until this race for good reason, but this time Lando had the pace to stay in front, things might be different if the next race they continue to be this strong.

It doesn't appear to need to find many additional setup optimizations to be pole contenders at this point...

[Sieper]

For now it was the best option. But like dialtone was saying, if they continue to be on pace ofcourse Lando at some point will go for a win. Right now they need points.

[PackFansXL]

Oh, boo-hoo. A driver spending a few years in an ultra-dominant car and everyone talks about them like some supernatural talent. It was the same with Schumacher and Hamilton.
I think it's clear that Leclerc, Norris or Russel could bring the fight to Verstappen. Failing to measure up is what relegated Perez to a de-facto second driver.

Are you saying the comparisons of a dominant Verstappen to a dominant Tiger Woods are misplaced?

[Sieper]

Golf and F1. To me, but I am a fan, Max has always been super special. Tiger Woods as well. Everyone that doesn’t know or cares about golf knows how good Tiger is. I think in that way a comparison is possible.

[Just_a_fan]

Let’s face it, Lewis should have been past at the Safety car restart on 2 compounds softer tyres, which will give a lot more grip…. But that didn’t happen.

Lando, in an inherently quicker car, defended very well. They raced wheel to wheel without contact and Lando was able to use his greater speed to his advantage. It was good driving from both of them.

Even if Lewis has got by immediately after the SC, Lando would have still ended the race P2 - the McLaren was quicker than the Merc all weekend. In a DRS fight, the Merc couldn't pass the McLaren. If Lando had been behind Lewis after the SC restart, with DRS he'd have flown by anyway.

Why do you reckon Oscar couldn't do it?

Maybe Oscar isn't quick enough yet. Lando and Lewis has FL within thousandths of a second. Oscar was some way off that.

Lewis had Lando in the slow corners (of which there are few) but had him more than covered in the fast corners and on the straights.

[Just_a_fan]

Mad to go to a winning team? Saying such things is madness...

Mad to go to Max's team. Any driver going to Red Bull at the moment is going in to a number 2 seat. Why would Lando do that? Lando isn't interested in playing second fiddle to Max.

Oh, boo-hoo. A driver spending a few years in an ultra-dominant car and everyone talks about them like some supernatural talent. It was the same with Schumacher and Hamilton.
I think it's clear that Leclerc, Norris or Russel could bring the fight to Verstappen. Failing to measure up is what relegated Perez to a de-facto second driver.

Difference between measuring up and being allowed to. RBR run as a no.1 + no.2 team and Max is their man. Anyone coming in has to deal with that. They don't want team mates fighting each other - they want a tail gunner for Max. That's not a criticism of the team or Max, it's just the way they run their setup.

[organic]

Let’s face it, Lewis should have been past at the Safety car restart on 2 compounds softer tyres, which will give a lot more grip…. But that didn’t happen.

Lando, in an inherently quicker car, defended very well. They raced wheel to wheel without contact and Lando was able to use his greater speed to his advantage. It was good driving from both of them.

Even if Lewis has got by immediately after the SC, Lando would have still ended the race P2 - the McLaren was quicker than the Merc all weekend. In a DRS fight, the Merc couldn't pass the McLaren. If Lando had been behind Lewis after the SC restart, with DRS he'd have flown by anyway.

Why do you reckon Oscar couldn't do it?

He's a rookie, Lando is very fast and at this point fairly experienced, and Lando had a further upgrade that Oscar didn't yet receive (front wing). If I'm remembering correctly, Lando was running with a trimmed rear-wing and Oscar without the trimmed flap, so there was a fundamental df level difference as well that may have paid off on Sunday for Lando, especially given the lack of tyre management that was required. Could be that without the fw upgrade the balance couldn't be optimized with the trimmed flap.

[PlatinumZealot]

Oscar did very well. McLaren defintely well justified in giving him the seat.

[Rushu]

If Perez had had a normal qualifying, would he have won the McLarens?

[Juzh]

If Perez had had a normal qualifying, would he have won the McLarens?

No chance, dude was slow AF. In first stint at times he was up to a second slower than Max up front. He was at 2 seconds gap to Gasly for god knows how many laps (who himself was stuck behind alonso) and wasn't gaining anything at all, rather losing some time on a few laps.
Even if by some miracle he'd qualify second and run in second place during the race he'd get overtaken in no time.

I think this race was the worst for Perez in terms of pace this year. He better have some car issues, otherwise unacceptable performance.

[Ominous]

I think this race was the worst for Perez in terms of pace this year. He better have some car issues, otherwise unacceptable performance.

He has already had some unacceptable performances. Monaco was even worse than this, only made it to 16th from 20th with two retirements in the race. I understand that it was raining and that the cars are huge, but the performance difference surely should have helped him at least hit the points.

[AMG.Tzan]

Max was well past Norris before entering the braking zone. That’s the speed of the RB with DRS.

Hamilton couldn’t get ahead of Norris, even with DRS (same with the Ferrari). The Mercedes didn’t have enough speed to overtake before the braking zone(or in it for that matter). Therefore there was actually a ‘fight’ to have in the corner.

I’d have had a guess Lando would destroy his tyres trying to keep Max behind, so whilst the first 3 laps were great to watch, ultimately, in the long run, Norris cemented his 2nd place by keeping tyre life.

Let’s face it, Lewis should have been past at the Safety car restart on 2 compounds softer tyres, which will give a lot more grip…. But that didn’t happen.

No he wasn’t “well past” as some of you write here! He got past at the braking zone! What I’m referring to though is Lando not taking the inside line just like he did with Lewis! Of course Max would have gotten past at some point but what’s the point in racing then if you aren’t going to battle the world champion?

Max himself battled the almighty Mercedes W11 here at Silverstone in 2020 although even his own team were saying to him not to battle them because he’ll destroy his tires, believing they aren’t going to beat them anyway…yet guess what! He managed to beat them! Wow

Though some in here may believe that I wanted Lando not to battle Lewis at all! Well no! Just battle everyone the same way! That’s what I’m saying…

And I gave my example of other races in the past where drivers raced the then champion (or fastest car) even if they knew he was going to get past anyway…! Tires don’t even degrade nowadays so saying “he wanted to protect his tires” isn’t even an argument in 2023!

As for Lewis not getting past Lando on two compounds softer tires please tell us where Lewis could have done the pass and he didn’t manage to do it because apparently he isn’t good enough to do so! Probably nowhere cause Mercedes as always these last 1,5 years hasn’t got straight line speed! And you could see that on the run to Copse where they were side by side and it was as if Lando had his DRS open…

[AMG.Tzan]

If Perez had had a normal qualifying, would he have won the McLarens?

Nice question!

I don’t think so! He couldn’t even get past the Ferraris and the Aston easily so probably he would have had a hard time even getting close to the Mclarens!

But we’ll never know for sure…

[chrisc90]

As for Lewis not getting past Lando on two compounds softer tires please tell us where Lewis could have done the pass and he didn’t manage to do it because apparently he isn’t good enough to do so! Probably nowhere cause Mercedes as always these last 1,5 years hasn’t got straight line speed! And you could see that on the run to Copse where they were side by side and it was as if Lando had his DRS open…

Just about any braking zone. Through the lower speed corners.

Lewis was close to lando at copse, but he backed out. Let’s face it, Lewis is more than capable of overtaking through copse, in some cases, and making it stick. He passes Charles there a couple years back. He could have stuck it up the inside and been level with lando down to mags and becks.

[PlatinumZealot]

Mercedes was simply to draggy to threaten Lando in attempted overtakes.