ringo wrote: ↑28 May 2024, 06:58
chrisc90 wrote: ↑27 May 2024, 13:03
Mercedes undercut chance was scuppered before even the outlap. If you look at the telemetry and the lap times for the in lap, and each out lap, if the positions were reversed, and Max was the one boxing to undercut, he would have done so pretty closely, even ignoring the outlap.
https://ibb.co/9cB80mC
https://ibb.co/Tq0ZBtc
https://ibb.co/TkJQkF2
Lap 50 - Which was Lewis' in-lap was a 1:35.209 (thats the lap that includes driving into the pitlane and box. And the stop itself presumibly).
Lap 51 - which was Max's in-lap was a 1:33.905 (again, the lap including the box and the stop) Which is 1.304 seconds faster over all, before any out-lap times were taken into account.
Closest Lewis was to Max during the start of his inlap 1.395 and actually increased to 1.6 to 1.8seconds on the actual inlap, rather than closing right up.
Lap 52, which was Lewis's out-lap was a 1:19.702
Lap 53 - which was Max's out-lap was a 1:18.724
Thats a difference of 0.978 across the out-laps (so basically a second).
If george backed up Max you can add lots of time to max's inlap. So Merc could have orchestrated ruining Max's race using both cars but didnt ask George for some reason.
Well, they screwed up in some way for sure. But I do not think this makes sense:
- Merc tried to keep Rus in the pit window of Norris. Small chance that the frontrunners screw up and they win one or two places.
- After Imola another one putting Ham in front of Rus by the pitwall...would have been a complete disaster politically, right? And it would have been difficult, the gap was quite big before the stops. So Rus would have needed to do a full stop with 4sec slower pace...not sure if this is realistic.
- Merc put Ham on the Hard. No idea why. They could have put on the Soft and go maximum on the undercut. Hards were never good for an undercut in Monaco. The Softs lasted without any issue.
- Ham did not push. Also here...no idea why. The team radio said that they did not tell him, but jeezzzz...why? Wasn't it clear to everyone that this is the time?