2019 Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team

[zibby43]

It's difficult to say because they were in traffic but, yeah, Hamilton in particular had awful pace in the dry. Bottas seemed to have decent pace but couldn't get past Stroll. It was a race from hell for Mercedes.

Thank you for the info., erudite. Appreciate that bud.

Was helping a friend move today. I had the race recorded, but of course, social media notifications went wild and spoiled everything.

So many blunders I’m hearing about now.

I don’t know if they never fully understood how to set up the car with the new upgrades, but Merc never looked in the game from a pace or focus perspective.

If they don’t bounce back resoundingly in Hungary, Verstappen could make up some more ground.

You are welcome bud. It was a great chaotic race (from a neutral perspective) but if I didn't watch it live, I wouldn't watch the replay. I can't stomach the disappointment Like I wrote in an earlier post, it wasn't a straightforward wet race. Hamilton was a class apart on the first 3 laps on the full wets and he had very good pace afterwards on the inters. The changeable condition threw a spanner into the works for him and the team.

It might be a wet race at the Hungaroring, hopefully it's a better one.

Haha I hear you on that one! I’m not super pumped to see the implosion myself. Glad that F1 had its third exciting race in a row though.

At least Hamilton nabbed a few points so it wasn’t a completely shutout.

Bottas has to be feeling immense pressure.

[zibby43]

Yesterday after Ferrari debacle Toto said they had an illness in there.i think he should have kept his mouth shut cause Mercedes embarrassed themselves today

That’s such a blatant mischaracterization of Toto’s overall comments that I can’t pass on calling it out.

“It’s a shame for Ferrari, a shame for Sebastian at this home Grand Prix - we really need him here for the crowd and you can see that it’s a bit subdued at the moment,” he said.

“Ferrari really have an illness in there that they need to cure, it’s a shame because we need them for a strong championship.”

He was trying to express disappointment on their behalf, not trash them. Good grief.

[erudite450]

Yesterday after Ferrari debacle Toto said they had an illness in there.i think he should have kept his mouth shut cause Mercedes embarrassed themselves today

That’s such a blatant mischaracterization of Toto’s overall comments that I can’t pass on calling it out.

“It’s a shame for Ferrari, a shame for Sebastian at this home Grand Prix - we really need him here for the crowd and you can see that it’s a bit subdued at the moment,” he said.

“Ferrari really have an illness in there that they need to cure, it’s a shame because we need them for a strong championship.”

He was trying to express disappointment on their behalf, not trash them. Good grief.

I decided against calling him out as I'm sure it wouldn't change anything.

[Bill]

I think Toto have made a habit of trolling Ferrari every weekend he will talk them up about how quick the would be even if Mercedes have clear dominance. Anybody who doesn't see through him is being blind

[RZS10]

I can only assume that Wolff wanted to express the german idiom "Die Seuche haben" which he translated with "have an illness" - it directly translates to "to have the plague" and means"having a streak of bad luck" ... closest english idiom is "to have rotten luck" which is quite close to the plague one actually

[Manoah2u]

I think what we saw today was a clear case of simply 'running out of luck'.
And boy, did they run out of luck in Murphy's Law kind of way.

It could have been worse though, if they retired Hamilton, which i actually expected.
Sky mentioned they probably went to look for harvesting 2 points with a fastest lap in a top 10 finish,
but in the end they got it 'for free'.

[Pyrone89]

Really horrible performance by both drivers. But at least Bottas had his crash under green flag conditions. Hamilton crashed behind the saftey car at a spot of double waved yellows, only just missing the stricken Ferrari while the Ferrari driver was walking away. So very dangerous moment also and in my book worthy of an additional penalty/penalty points. Instead he leaves the race extendimg his championship lead by 2 points after the scuteneerimg penalty for Alfa. Totally undeserved.

Edit: just see Davidson mentioned the same on Sky.

[bill shoe]

Really horrible performance by both drivers. But at least Bottas had his crash under green flag conditions. Hamilton crashed behind the saftey car at a spot of double waved yellows, only just missing the stricken Ferrari while the Ferrari driver was walking away. So very dangerous moment also and in my book worthy of an additional penalty/penalty points. Instead he leaves the race extendimg his championship lead by 2 points after the scuteneerimg penalty for Alfa. Totally undeserved.

Edit: just see Davidson mentioned the same on Sky.
Edit2: someone literally just downvoted me with ‘haters gonna hate’. Sad fanboy behavior.

Totally agree, a genuinely lousy race for generally great driver. The 2 pt championship lead increase is irrelevant because the realistic strongest challenger is Max who gained approx 25 pts. The fact that Vettel was so happy with 2nd shows he’s given up on championship, and Bottas doesn’t have a Rosberg-like ability to take the championship when Lewis loses focus.

[marvin78]

You can't come with facts and logic in parts of this forums. They don't like it.

We don't need to bash Mercedes or it's employees (eg. drivers). They had an off day. Putting Hamilton on a podium with god was always wrong and he showed that every driver has problems when he does not have a car in the sweet spot. All this talk that a Hamilton (replace with every other driver, this talk goes on about) can drive around every problem, was nonsense from the start of it. So we saw nothing unusual today. Races like these always had surprises in their pockets. I don't really love it because in some aspects, it's all about luck. Every wet race is.

[zibby43]

You can't come with facts and logic in parts of this forums. They don't like it.

We don't need to bash Mercedes or it's employees (eg. drivers). They had an off day. Putting Hamilton on a podium with god was always wrong and he showed that every driver has problems when he does not have a car in the sweet spot. All this talk that a Hamilton (replace with every other driver, this talk goes on about) can drive around every problem, was nonsense from the start of it. So we saw nothing unusual today. Races like these always had surprises in their pockets. I don't really love it because in some aspects, it's all about luck. Every wet race is.

I personally welcome facts/logic. And opinions. It's important not to conflate the two.

In my opinion, the one bad mistake made by Hamilton in this race was spinning late in the race after all the other calamities had taken place. That was just carelessness.

The earlier incident? You're going to be in trouble when your racing on wet tarmac with slick tires, and in even more trouble when you hit a drag-racing strip runoff area that's slicker than an ice-skating rink. At that point, it's not skill, it's physics. Anyone that has actually raced themselves will recognize that, and they'll be the ones that won't come down too hard on any drivers' mistakes in inclement conditions.

Verstappen almost crashed into Bottas after getting a handful of oversteer from trying an ill-advised overtake. He also spun once himself, and was fortunate enough to get away with both. The people that are first in line to scream that Hamilton is lucky when a day like this past Saturday happens are also the first in line to deny that Hamilton was unlucky to have his off on slicks where he had it.

It has been a long, long time since Hamilton has made a mistake like he did today. Maybe Brazil 2017 qualifying was the last? It's fair to criticize the mistakes. Hamilton will be the first to admit to them. But the rabid overreaction to his performance in the German GP, by some, is just as comical as any other sensationalist talk that happens here or elsewhere.

[nacho]

They can't win every race, mistakes happen.

[Just_a_fan]

I didn't downvote you (I've never downvoted anyone), but from my vantage point, a lot of your posts come across as pure trolling (which is probably the cause of the downvotes).

Careful, I got told off by TPTB for calling him a troll.

But +1 for your post from me

[Jambier]

They can't win every race, mistakes happen.

True.
Pace was good as well.

So drivers and strategy made mistakes, it can happen. It changes nothing for the titles as they are already won.

[Midi]

The pace on the full wets and inters was definitely strong, unfortunately the real pace on the slicks was hard to evaluate yesterday.

But after qualifying Toto seemed a little unimpressed by the improvements of the upgrades. For the remainder of the season it will be interesting to see if they just need more time fine tuning the package or have to revert back to an earlier spec.

I don't think the title race will be close at any point but the fight for victories will be.

[El Scorchio]

Really horrible performance by both drivers. But at least Bottas had his crash under green flag conditions. Hamilton crashed behind the saftey car at a spot of double waved yellows, only just missing the stricken Ferrari while the Ferrari driver was walking away. So very dangerous moment also and in my book worthy of an additional penalty/penalty points. Instead he leaves the race extendimg his championship lead by 2 points after the scuteneerimg penalty for Alfa. Totally undeserved.

You think Hamilton should have had an extra penalty for losing control of his car and going off track in the wet because it happened to be in the same place Leclerc had already crashed?

What a bizarre thing to say....