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Norris was lapping on leading car pace when he went to pits on 36 lap old hards.
Precisely, they were incredible on the hard tyre. I don't think there was a scenario where we won easily, I think Piastri was going to be quick enough to fight even if Leclerc stayed ahead.
Looks like the pace is so similar it comes down to details.
Leclerc not defending inside of T1 is such a detail.
I think he will learn just like he did in Austria years ago against Max. Always defend the inside.
Norris was lapping on leading car pace when he went to pits on 36 lap old hards.
Precisely, they were incredible on the hard tyre. I don't think there was a scenario where we won easily, I think Piastri was going to be quick enough to fight even if Leclerc stayed ahead.
I think Leclerc had the pace to stay ahead "easily" after the warm-up phase.
Sainz lap times were very competitive on the hard tyre, even though he had the opportunity to manage more at the beginning.
Dirty air is just insane. In order to stay close, you need to push a lot, and then you can't overtake because they are too quick in the straights.
I agree with everything except the fact that it would've been "easy"
There have been several errors made today with Leclerc, each was leading into the next one basically
- Leclerc was pulled in way too late, tyres have gone off 5 laps earlier. Just one lap earlier would have saved his gap to Piastri and it should have been at least 2 laps earlier. All that advantage was cut to 1-2 second after Leclerc got out of pits. No idea why Ferrari missed the chance to stop among first of the top cars, like they did with so much success in the last two races
- Hards took too long to turn on, tyre warm up will be the bane of this season without any doubt, not even Spain floor did so much damage as tyre warm up. Sainz was following other cars and pushing through and suring that period they probably got into the window as they would want them to and showed superior pace on Hards to anyone
- Lack of defense from Leclerc was most likely because he had zero reason to belive Piastri had so much grip on Hards, as Piastri was even closer a few times in first stint and couldn't do it. A mistske in any case, even if no one could expect an attack from so much behind
To top it off, McLaren is now taking a wiz at FIA with their rear wing flexing, it's clear now how they managed to run that Spa wing on Monza and not surffer too much on straights. There was no car that could pass a leading McLaren today. I hope they will make a formal protest on legality of that wing, it's just an open mockery at this point
If just one of these things went the other way, Leclerc would have sailed into the distance and Sainz would probably finish the race in points. That incident with Perez is unbelievable, you can't say Perez did anything to cause it and he obviously didn't do anything to prevent it as the car behind. If there was anything wrong from Sainz, I have zero doubt FIA would give him a penalty for the next race, just as they gave him a sham penalty in Miami
In any case, many things to crunch on until Singapore. They will have to nail the Q3 laps and tyres to perfection, pole position is much more valuable than here in Baku. One of the few positives is 4th podium in a row for (Leclerc), even though it should have been another victory.
Precisely, they were incredible on the hard tyre. I don't think there was a scenario where we won easily, I think Piastri was going to be quick enough to fight even if Leclerc stayed ahead.
I think Leclerc had the pace to stay ahead "easily" after the warm-up phase.
Sainz lap times were very competitive on the hard tyre, even though he had the opportunity to manage more at the beginning.
Dirty air is just insane. In order to stay close, you need to push a lot, and then you can't overtake because they are too quick in the straights.
I agree with everything except the fact that it would've been "easy"
By "easy" i meant the pace was there to keep Piastri 3-4s behind.
The dirty air was so insane that Norris "struggled" to overtake Tsunoda with massive amount of damage
Although I still believe McLaren were too good on the hard tyre. They had 0 degradation and could put straight out of the box. Even if you ignore Piastri. Look at Norris hard stint.
I wonder if Charles hadn't missed Oscar, and ended up pulling away at the end of the race no worse than he did on the first stint (it's pretty obvious to me that Ferrari's pace was faster, but not by a delta of overtaking), would you think the same?
However, I do agree I think the DNF and not winning put us completely out of contention for either championships.
We've gone particularly well at the handful of tracks where downforce matters the least, but this was never gonna last. We should remember that even at Monza, Mclaren were faster still. This was probably the one time all year I think we can say the Ferrari was probably the fastest car. It's simply not a championship caliber car and were were not really in contention in the first place.
After so many seasons in F1 Charles should have managed better...even if he got overtaken he had a few chances to overtake. A Verstappen or a Hamilton would try a lunge on the inside instead of trying to get by from the outside. The car stayed at DRS distance for so many laps and the tyres held so many laps. Ferrari was 0.3s at least faster...
"It is necessary to relax your muscles when you can. Relaxing your brain is fatal." Stirling Moss
I tried this and I had understeer, I tried that and I had oversteer, at the end of the corner I just run out of talent
After so many seasons in F1 Charles should have managed better...even if he got overtaken he had a few chances to overtake. A Verstappen or a Hamilton would try a lunge on the inside instead of trying to get by from the outside. The car stayed at DRS distance for so many laps and the tyres held so many laps. Ferrari was 0.3s at least faster...
Verstappen or Hamilton would have never been there in the first place as they are quite mediocre in this track.
Hamilton won in 2018, Verstappen in 2022. Charles should have become sharper in wheel to wheel battle.
Hamilton had a trash race in 2018 making a massive mistake in the first stint and losing 4s (huge lock up into turn 1). Won only because of lucky circumstances.
