Paa wrote: ↑20 Sep 2024, 10:17
Jurgen von Diaz wrote: ↑20 Sep 2024, 09:48
chrisc90 wrote:
Lando Norris discussing a team/driver not optimising their results. How ironic.
Someone needs to have a look in their own back garden on that one first rather than looking over the fence first at others
Lando is talking as if he is fighting for the WCC but not the WDC. In Baku, Lando gained three more points than Max and was all smiles after the race. Where is his killer instinct? In my opinion, it was damage control from Max and disappointment on Lando's side. You don't catch Max with that three-point difference in other races.
To be fair to Lando, the damage was done on Saturday and he was quite stressed/disappointed after qualy.
Gaining 3 points after that starting position was not something to be sad about.
In my opinion, that's the wrong way to look at the 3-point gap that resulted.
Going into Qualifying, through Q1, Verstappen(& the team) knew that he had a bad car and that they had goofed up a settings change. The car would anyway be bad in the race, irrespective of Qualifying position.
Norris was out of Q1, purely out of his volition (or the team sending him on used S instead of fresh S - whatever) , but there was nothing wrong with the car. With that 2km straight, and a low drag setup, Norris could almost overtake 1 car every lap in his first stint, and that's exactly what he did.
So , overall, on balance, the 'position gap' between P6 and P15 was nullified in the first stint itself, which is what we all expected. In that case, driving a slower car that was made even worse, losing just 3 points to Norris, was a relief for Verstappen. That's how I look at it.
To lend some perspective,
WDC point gap b/w Verstappen and Norris, after 5 races (before Mclaren became fastest car) : 47 (=102-55)
WDC point gap b/w Verstappen and Norris, after 17 races (before Singapore when Redbull's become much slower) : 59 (=313-254)
That's a nett gain of 12 points in 12 races for Verstappen despite having the slower car.
So the WDC picture isn't as bad as it's made out to be, as far as Redbull/Verstappen are concerned.
WCC, well that's gone from Redbull.