LHamilton wrote: ↑01 Aug 2021, 02:05
Interesting race with Mercedes on mediums and Red Bull on softs. For Perez hopes of a contract renewal he needs to finish nose to tail to Verstappen, and that probably means nailing the start. Will be interesting to see if Perez will get in the way of Verstappen if Perez gets off the line better. Or if he will be aggressive into turn 1. I think he kinda needs to have a controlled aggression at the start, because it is reasonable to pass people in the turns 1 to 3 sequence at the start. And he needs to be on the heels of Verstappen, at least.
Ricciardo will be interesting to watch since he will be the first person probably on the mediums with only Mercedes ahead of him on the mediums. He is also someone that really needs a good race going into the break.
Last year the 3 stop (this year’s 2 stop) was actually viable and Stroll managed a top 5. Bottas even was able to chase Verstappen down despite pitting one more. It is a very aggressive strategy but will work if you’re right behind the leader or you are the leader, ideally you don’t want to be sucked into the midfield or be stuck behind other drivers if you pit again. If Perez can keep 4th place then the 2 stop is good for Max, otherwise these C2 tyres can easily last 45-50 laps like they did for
some drivers in last years race, then you can still make it an effective 1 stop race stretching the C4 20-25 laps then stretching the C2 if you start on the C4 that is.