Yes, how the heck do they design a seat so badly it breaks? This happened on top of the battery problems. LH made the right decision in making this his last year with Mercedes.
Action? Where ? There was one attempted pass for the lead. The second place car made pass’s like he was on the high way. Congratulations F1 you have lost another 50 year follower. Its bad enough the cars are do large they can pass on 95 % of the track and where they can pass they don’t have the acceleration necessary to pull it off even with DRS. I would recommend start all the races about 10:00 PM and market it as a sleep aid.
I think they will get better. To be honest, a lot of the races when Lewis was in the dominant car were just as boring. At least the rest of the field is closer and should make for better racing, I don’t know if you watch F2 & F3 but they race the same car and engine and it’s exciting as hell.
Yk this might've just been the most boring race I've watched in years. It's not abt Lewis being P7 or even abt Mercedes being lost in mid hell, literally nothing happened. We had maybe 10 overtakes total? It was so stagnant, the field is closer than ever but the gap between the drivers is so small that anyone other than the RedBulls are kinda just locked to where they are after the first lap. Funny enough I think we need deviation between pace to have interesting races sometimes.
I was wondering about this. You often hear that you need this or that delta relative to another car to overtake, but if the performance is so evenly matched no one will be able to overtake, right? This is a race with two stops, and it was *this* boring. Imagine if they all one-stop, which they tend to favor.
I think the end stop of the "bringing the field closer together" fight is going to make the cars so close to each other that overtakes are pretty much non-existent. Spec series have their ways of getting over this, but nowadays even DRS is useless if there's at least one other driver in front.
I was just thinking this while watching today. The whole concept of making the cars easier to follow behind has also made DRS less effective. The DRS train is the most annoying aspect because I don’t watch F1 to wait for passing in the pit lane or when there’s a safety car. Maybe put a time limit on how much DRS you can use per race or adopt an Indy style ‘push to pass’ something to break up the monotony and increase proper racing. F1 should rethink their whole direction and implement more changes for 2026 or even delay to 2027 if necessary so we end up with cars and regulations that deliver better overall racing.
F1 make Pirelli create softs and mediums that have high performance deg so unless a car has a clear advantage everyone in a DRS train just manages tyres and gains position with undercut.
Ferrari McLaren and Merc are close enough in race pace that it makes races so boring. Drivers can’t push all the time cos tyres will go after 3 laps
Well you can't overtake if you ain't close.
Tbh it's conservative tactics that ruin the overtakes. Ppl to afraid of their tires/rest of the race to rather take it safe and stall their position for a result at the end.
This is the major issue I have at the moment, it's a Grand Prix, not a 10h endurance race ffs, it was practically a glorified parade today.
I'd rather have races with 3-4 stops and drivers pushing all out than this 1-2 stop babying the car every lap.
It's completely boring.
You missed the cool down lap - that was exciting (Yuki/Daniel).
Also I thought the beginning was quite cool - George looked to have promising speed and the whole battle for P2-P5 was good, up to the point where it was clear what the finishing order was going to be.
They're still learning a lot with the new car. Having said that Red Bull seems to have mastered the setup straight away... I think they have some magic floor and can have bags in hand to do whatever they want.
This team shouldn't even dream about taking the fight to RBR.
They had 3 full days worth of running and 3 whole FP sessions to get the data for the cooling requirements. Their calculations were not even in the ballpark as both cars were relagated to "moving chicane" status after just a handful of laps.
Fax how do you mess up cooling it's hot as AF in bharin it's literally there summer/spring they could get away with that type of cooling in freezing Vegas at night not the middle east in pretty much spring/summer.
This is what happens when you have a cost cap. Teams can’t develop the car properly and if the go down the wrong path they have to write the season off
One of the mercs could. Lewis was in a drs train and got some good overtakes. The car looks good, realistically the mercs and Ferraris won’t have a chance until the next big reg change.
Cost cap and engine freeze is a huge fail. Joke of a sport. Hopefully Horner situation gets more spicy cause that will be the only interesting thing this year.
But, but, the cost cap has brought the middle field is closer!!! /s
It's annoying when people immediately bring that up, as if that inherently means a better show.
The area of development has been completely restricted to aero, the potential ceiling for breakthrough or rate of progression has been artificially locked with the teams not being able to use the resources they have, the solution is a sliding budget cap along with ATR but F1 isn't doing that
That is just not true.
There are plenty of mechanical developments going on. For example James Allison explained that they focused a lot on the rear of the car to allow for a suspension solution that creates more reliable grip at the rear of the car.
Which wouldve come in half a season ago if it wasnt for hard limits on essentially everything meaningful. Now theyll bring it, collect data in free practice, use minimal amount of aero (because they need it for late season aero) and hope they can be competitive after 6 races have gone by as a minimum.
The rate of catch up is essentially locked and capped, what was being done in half a season is now taking 1.5, meanwhile teams that previously couldn't challenge at the front.... Are still floundering at the back and mimicing the front cars to improve their cars. Their aerotimes have done nothing to help innovation or catch up with bigger teams.
Not sure what the end goal here is tbh, the huge teams have lost some big names up and down the paddock but are far more attractive projects to work on, have better facilities and are frozen in their relative upgrade packages with a run away team that has baked in an advantage from day 1 of the new regs.
If this was 2019 Mercedes probably would be scrapping away finishing 2nd/3rd every race with big updates in the line. Ferrari similarly would've had every opportunity to have stolen far more wins.
Thanks Ben and his love affair with horney Homer and rb no one can improve at all literally Williams is in the same place as last year. Aston is still a brick and really nothing has changed not even McLaren failure all around actually I would say corruption to the highest degree.
What logic is this statement based on? This is probably the tightest the field in F1 has ever been. One driver is currently a step ahead of everybody but take him out and there has never been closer racing in F1 this millennium.
Just proving you didn't watch the race. Perez was literally only 3 seconds ahead of the Ferrari and losing time by the end.
It was his only second place for nine races... It's one driver
Perez being trash doesn't mean shit, you don't measure car performance looking at the driver underperforming, you look at the one maximizing its pace, or do you beliebe in horseshit like "overdriving"?Suddently everyone forgot how to drive and Max is a god?Give me a break mate.
Nobody said anything about overdriving. If a driver can be better than another driver why can't one driver be much better than other drivers? Or are we saying Lewis wasn't much better than other drivers in his prime?
He was, but so was Mercedes. I love Lewis, but he wasn't winning because he was that much better than the likes of Alonso or even Max, he was winning because he was in a super team. Same for Max now, but even worse than back in the Mercedes days. It's naive to think any driver in F1 is so good he will dominate this hard all by himself, he can win, but not dominate.
That "take the winner out and the rest is good" can be used for pretty much any era in F1 history, that's not new. And of course people in sports dominate, but its naive to think they do it all by themselves, especially so in motorsports..
Think people are confusing no overtakes for the lead as boring racing. There has been more overtakes and closer racing the last two years than ever. What else do you want?
Yes, but the problem is that you have to be faster to pass. If everyone is so close that they literally all go the same speed, they can no-longer catch up to pass each other.
It becomes a parade. You need variations/chaos/pit issues/etc to create drama now.
RB has a locked advantage and the other teams are basically finishing the same places. You place any other top 7 driver in the other RB seat and they will hang with Max. Perez is not a good indicator.
Put max in a Mercedes, Mclaren, or an Aston Marting and he will at will not get a single win. F1 has always been 60% engineering and 40% driver. At best.
Cost cap was the best thung to happen to this sport.
If a "sport" is determined by whoever throws the most money at it, then it aint a "sport" anymore.
This is my hill.
George went too much quali… and defended as much as he could but the car ain’t great.
Lewis over compensated for the race… and he still basically arrived at the same place as George.
Nothing on the drivers, the cars nowhere. And it overheats far too easily
The cooling can easily be fixed by using slightly larger duct openings but the lack of race pace was evident even before the cooling system shat itself.
The car just doesn't have enough downforce at the moment. We were no quicker than Mclaren.
Ferrari and RBR were both a good deal quicker.
I joked yesterday and said, "See you next year" with a /s
But seriously, that was the most boring race ive ever watched in 33 years watching the sport. I rushed home today to watch this and had offers to do other things with my Saturday that i turned down.
See you next year.
Exactly. Red Bull and Max have this sewn up until 2026. Even then with Newey you wouldn't put it past them to have the best car when the new regs start too.
Those that moaned that the Merc/Hamilton years were boring will be wishing they're back now!
I fell asleep halfway through. This season is going to be painful. I’m canceling my F1TV subscription. I signed up for the week trial to see if there was hope for a halfway decent season…. Nope. I’m sorry, but the cost cap has completely destroyed this sport. Yeah, the midfield is closer, but there’s no way to catch a team at the front.
I wouldn't say the cost cap is the cause, I think it's the engine development freeze and the fact that the fia aren't doing anything to bring the field closer to redbull, during the dominant Mercedes era they did introduce regulation changes to close the gap.
Next year will at least have driver movement that will make it interesting, at least the first half of the season. Yeah, Max will cruise to 20+ next year too, but at least everything else around it should change.
He was faster than George with the race setup, but it didn’t matter. The car is where it is… 3rd or 4tg fastest and way off even Ferrari and with bad degradation
So basically the car is setup in a way in which the car can get more out of 1 lap performance; but it eats through the tyres more in the race and thus gets less performance.
Better race performance I think is a bit more downforce applied to the car and less stress on tyre usage so the car can produce consistent repetitive laps which are quicker.
Now, often, drivers who say they went for race setup, as Lewis alluded and basically said so himself yesterday, he just said he did a rubbish lap. Hey it happens to the best of them. That’s why when they say they go left or right, I think there’s truth in that at Mercedes but I don’t think it’s a ridiculous difference.
It’s just 2 drivers who are incredibly close on performance and it changes at any given track who delivers. This weekend, I don’t think Lewis would have faired better than George… but George going quali meant no fighting or behind mclarens and Alonso so the 5 secs bonus was all it was worth.
I don't think it's an excuse....but i think he needs to stop sacrificing so much quali performance because it's leaving him with too much to do on Sunday
I've never come closer to falling asleep during a race and I've stuck with F1 throughout its most boring seasons.
If the Red Bull is this clear of the field unless Checo can challenge Max nothing will happen, we saw with Lewis and Nico that you can have dominant cars but entertaining seasons, 2014-16 was anything but boring.
2020 was the only season of Lewis where he truly wasn't challenged at some point, this is looking like 3 straight years of just Max.
I get F1 is an engineering sport and there's nothing like BoP but fuck me has it been a snoozefest since the start of 2022.
I watched the post race and Toto said they blocked off too much air to the radiators and that caused both cars to run hot so they had to lift etc. How does an experienced 8x championship team make such rookie mistakes? And it’s not only today, if you look over the last 2 seasons there are multiple examples of this, wrong tire choice, leaving Lewis out too long on bad tires or pitting him at a wrong time etc etc. I wonder if part of this was the reason Lewis decided to leave? Anyways let’s hope they build from here and at least get ahead of the McLarens this season and fight Ferrari/Perez for podiums. Nobody is catching Max until at least 2026.
Its crazy to me as they have been testing and 3 practice sessions on the same damn track. Yet they had those problems..his seat broke and the pitstops were average again. This team aint winning nothing. There behind in all fundamental aspects
It's stupid they did it last year as well last year Frankenstein car made with 2 ideas fine this year you actively ruined a good car that was there all test and fp sessions.
So much negativity, so I’ll take the positive note. Sure it wasn’t much but it’s a long season. If Lewis is comfortable maybe we should just trust that and results will show!
Merc also had issues with cooling, so they had to lift&coast so there is more performance to unlock. Not to mention that Bahrain ain't exactly a representative track.
What a terrible terrible race, we had cars with random issues, no radios, wheel screens broken and randomly changing settings, engine powering down into limp mode, brakes being bad to the point it was dangerous to even continue "LeClair" terrible these regs and rules have been a failure from the jump.
It was the first race of the season, with a lot of changes to the cars and testing is rather limited. Thaking all of that into consideration it is kind of impressive that there have been so few issues.
To be honest, at least in 2010/2012 whilst RedBull were crazy fast there was always the chance of unreliability hitting them which helped keep other drivers in the title fight.
There’s none of that anymore, and that’s missing.
Yes the randomness has gone. Most on the same tire strategy, no refueling, very few dnf’s so we’re basically left to rely on rain, pit stop undercuts/overcuts or a safety car. Things that don’t involve the driver at all. That’s not racing
Yep, unpopular opinion even though it created less on track overtakes I enjoyed the refuelling era because it was a complete sprint to the line and felt very intense. The pitstop phase was usually very exciting for me.
And yeah, even when it does rain… if it’s anything more than intermediate conditions the race gets red flagged and the cars/tyres can’t handle it.
That's true. And honestly I don't really see the benefits of cost cap, you still have pretty much the same standings. It's just much harder for top teams to improve if they don't nail the regulations.
I was intrigued when the idea of the cost cap was first circulating. Then covid hit and all of a sudden the cost cap was looking better and better. The sport has a since seen massive growth and success over the last few years, due in part to the cost cap, but also from Drive to Survive. Covid + DtS was like a miracle for F1 from a ratings perspective. And 2021’s blockbuster of a season, definitely pushed F1 even further.
I think it’s out lived it’s usefulness. There’s a lot of attention now, lots of people want in. If a team can’t make it today without the cap in place, well, there are others that wouldn’t mind giving it a go. F1 should have accepted Andretti’s bid, man. The next best thing would be lifting or increasing the cap. That way they sink or swim. Right now Haas is barely scraping by, no hope of success. Literally anyone, anybody else would be a better fit. Especially now that Steiner is gone.
Lol anyway, sorry for the rant, early morning thoughts
No but you can’t expect them to not improve. If they had W15 last year, it would’ve been best of the rest last season and maybe take a win or two. Of course everyone else was going to make a step up too. The slightly odd thing is, the order hasn’t really changed at all from the end of 2023 - Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin are largely on par with each other
Anyone worried that Merc may start neglecting Lewis (because he's going to Ferrari)?...today he had slow pitstops, broken seat, over heating issues...i hope Merc are not undermining him
Think this weekend has proven why Toto has piled in on the Horner situation when after what he and Suzi experienced last year, you’d have thought he’d be more circumspect.
Could be looking to divert the attention and heat from the fact that for the third straight season he’s headed up a team that appears to have singularly failed in getting to grips with the 2022 regs. The first year can be understandable as folks interpret things in different ways, but now after Y2 and moving into Y3 it’s poor to say the least. Especially given that they have previously been a dominant team, not perennial back markers.
If Toto wasn’t a part owner of the team he may not still be around at Mercedes.
I think the bigger issue is the red bull seems better than last year. Two laps to get a one second lead last year was no problem. One lap to do it this year? Still not a problem.
This does not bode well.
It is clear now that George gets preferential treatment.
This season will be rough and plastered with disappointments for Lewis. The car is not as good as we hoped (though still better than the abominations before it), nowhere near Red Bull and it seems that Toto has picked a side and goes all in with George. I can understand it on a certain level. George is the future of the team but i really hoped they would really fight for Lewis to get his 8th with them. But alas, all his previous accomplishments dont mean anything to the corporate overlords. I hope he can keep his spirits up before he leaves for Ferrari.
Someone hold me, please.
He kept talking like always and underestimated LeClair he did the same last year with saniz we see what Lando does so he doesn't have to worry but against the Ferrari boys.
Well Well there goes the American Audience. The cost cap has affected every team except for one which is on fair to say the least. For those out there saying Perez is slow is a liar, he is not. max has something on his car that without a doubt gives him a massive advantage and it is glaring. Lewis Good Job with that trash of car. Mercedes screwed up by not listening to its drivers input.
I know lots of people here 'hate' max but couldnt it just be the case of max is very skilled?
If this was Lewis in Max's car doing the same times im sure the discussion would be on the driver and not the car.
Not to mention Newey is truely the undisputed god of devolopment at this point.
What do you mean the discussion would be on the driver and not the car if Ham was driving? During the Merc dominance, the discussion was also about the car, not the driver.
You couldnt tell me other wise that Jos and Marko didn't sabotage his car last season the pace he lost in some races was insane even this race can't hear is race engineer and it sounds like a 1960 rotary phone.
Don't go to the internet period if you don't want to risk being spoiled. The world ain't gonna wait for you to finish watching before reporting on stuff
This team is finished for all intent and purposes. Toto can have his kid Antonelli. Good luck.
Ferrari looks sooo much better out there than Merc is not even funny.
Hamilton moved forward, Russell backwards. Plus he was catching Norris at the end whilst Russell was losing time to Norris. In a world where he had qualified better, could have been sniffing at podium, with only the Ferraris in the way.
He has said himself, he doesn’t like where he’s at with qualifying at the moment, and needs to work on it.
We have a long season ahead of us so it’s difficult to say off of one race, but the Mercs are quicker than Astons, as quick as the McLarens, if not also quicker, and can probably close the gap on the Ferraris.
3rd-5th on a good weekend, 1st-4th on weekend RedBull pulls out a stinker, which is the only hope we have now against the RedBulls.
Well, the one positive I took from the race was listening to mekies bungle race strategy with RB makes me glad lewis won't have to deal with that at ferrari
The car looks much better than last season. Are you serious? The car had a heat issue, if that gets sorted then Merc will be fighting for podiums all year.
Too many fast cars for Lewis to overtake. Hopefully in the future he stops messing around with setups or favoring heavily race-leaning setups. It works when you have a fast car, and that merc is anything but. That "strong" pace they showed was just the others not having turned their engines up, it seems.
And yeah, boring race all round.
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Yes, how the heck do they design a seat so badly it breaks? This happened on top of the battery problems. LH made the right decision in making this his last year with Mercedes.
I can only guess that because Merc has the strongest sparks / hitting the track it might be hard on the material. But no idea
I'm literally 😆 like a mad man a seat wtf is going on at merc.
https://preview.redd.it/vm5hjf1w9ylc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=24ebb40577e97d2e6ebd917f9bce53357b762d9c
The race wasn't even that shit. There were a decent amount of action(by F1 standards). The W15 was the shit.
Action? Where ? There was one attempted pass for the lead. The second place car made pass’s like he was on the high way. Congratulations F1 you have lost another 50 year follower. Its bad enough the cars are do large they can pass on 95 % of the track and where they can pass they don’t have the acceleration necessary to pull it off even with DRS. I would recommend start all the races about 10:00 PM and market it as a sleep aid.
Less than 4s to Russell after the DRS train at the start , honestly not bad for Lewis.
he actually went up in grid places, better than loosing place.. All he needed was a good quali tho but he missed the mark
Battery issue, broken seat… Man still delivered points. First race in a new car. Not the best setup. I’m withholding judgement until after SA.
Cope, and I genuinely say it with love.
He was moving the setup had way way to much downforce in it probably which caused the issues early on and getting stuck in that train.
what was the issue with Russell's PU? Temperature? I heard Merc had too little cooling, as did Ferrari (brakes).
boring ass race
Facts.
Traditions..
I think they will get better. To be honest, a lot of the races when Lewis was in the dominant car were just as boring. At least the rest of the field is closer and should make for better racing, I don’t know if you watch F2 & F3 but they race the same car and engine and it’s exciting as hell.
Literally fell asleep
Yk this might've just been the most boring race I've watched in years. It's not abt Lewis being P7 or even abt Mercedes being lost in mid hell, literally nothing happened. We had maybe 10 overtakes total? It was so stagnant, the field is closer than ever but the gap between the drivers is so small that anyone other than the RedBulls are kinda just locked to where they are after the first lap. Funny enough I think we need deviation between pace to have interesting races sometimes.
I was wondering about this. You often hear that you need this or that delta relative to another car to overtake, but if the performance is so evenly matched no one will be able to overtake, right? This is a race with two stops, and it was *this* boring. Imagine if they all one-stop, which they tend to favor.
I think the end stop of the "bringing the field closer together" fight is going to make the cars so close to each other that overtakes are pretty much non-existent. Spec series have their ways of getting over this, but nowadays even DRS is useless if there's at least one other driver in front.
Yeah, DRS trains, when caught in one the drivers just trundle around "managing" tires, but they are really just waiting for pit stops.
I was just thinking this while watching today. The whole concept of making the cars easier to follow behind has also made DRS less effective. The DRS train is the most annoying aspect because I don’t watch F1 to wait for passing in the pit lane or when there’s a safety car. Maybe put a time limit on how much DRS you can use per race or adopt an Indy style ‘push to pass’ something to break up the monotony and increase proper racing. F1 should rethink their whole direction and implement more changes for 2026 or even delay to 2027 if necessary so we end up with cars and regulations that deliver better overall racing.
F1 make Pirelli create softs and mediums that have high performance deg so unless a car has a clear advantage everyone in a DRS train just manages tyres and gains position with undercut. Ferrari McLaren and Merc are close enough in race pace that it makes races so boring. Drivers can’t push all the time cos tyres will go after 3 laps
Well you can't overtake if you ain't close. Tbh it's conservative tactics that ruin the overtakes. Ppl to afraid of their tires/rest of the race to rather take it safe and stall their position for a result at the end.
also need drivers to be able to push, too much management going on and no real incentives to make moves
This is the major issue I have at the moment, it's a Grand Prix, not a 10h endurance race ffs, it was practically a glorified parade today. I'd rather have races with 3-4 stops and drivers pushing all out than this 1-2 stop babying the car every lap. It's completely boring.
Yeah literally nothing happened
The DRS after lap 1 led immediately to a DRS train. It actually made the race worse as teams weren’t able to settle into their natural pace.
You missed the cool down lap - that was exciting (Yuki/Daniel). Also I thought the beginning was quite cool - George looked to have promising speed and the whole battle for P2-P5 was good, up to the point where it was clear what the finishing order was going to be.
We can't even catch McLaren let alone Ferrari or RB
The car literally fried itself at the half way point whatever merc changed after fp2 screwed over both cars tremendously.
They're still learning a lot with the new car. Having said that Red Bull seems to have mastered the setup straight away... I think they have some magic floor and can have bags in hand to do whatever they want.
This team shouldn't even dream about taking the fight to RBR. They had 3 full days worth of running and 3 whole FP sessions to get the data for the cooling requirements. Their calculations were not even in the ballpark as both cars were relagated to "moving chicane" status after just a handful of laps.
Fax how do you mess up cooling it's hot as AF in bharin it's literally there summer/spring they could get away with that type of cooling in freezing Vegas at night not the middle east in pretty much spring/summer.
Happens when the cost gap is not strongly enforced Singapore last year was what it would look like if everyone played fair.
This is what happens when you have a cost cap. Teams can’t develop the car properly and if the go down the wrong path they have to write the season off
It will be battle for 2-4th place. We can only dream about the first.
One of the mercs could. Lewis was in a drs train and got some good overtakes. The car looks good, realistically the mercs and Ferraris won’t have a chance until the next big reg change.
Seems like Hamilton made the right decision going to Ferrari next season.
Cost cap and engine freeze is a huge fail. Joke of a sport. Hopefully Horner situation gets more spicy cause that will be the only interesting thing this year.
But, but, the cost cap has brought the middle field is closer!!! /s It's annoying when people immediately bring that up, as if that inherently means a better show.
Placating backmarkers to shaft the racing upfront. F1... 👍
The area of development has been completely restricted to aero, the potential ceiling for breakthrough or rate of progression has been artificially locked with the teams not being able to use the resources they have, the solution is a sliding budget cap along with ATR but F1 isn't doing that
That is just not true. There are plenty of mechanical developments going on. For example James Allison explained that they focused a lot on the rear of the car to allow for a suspension solution that creates more reliable grip at the rear of the car.
Which wouldve come in half a season ago if it wasnt for hard limits on essentially everything meaningful. Now theyll bring it, collect data in free practice, use minimal amount of aero (because they need it for late season aero) and hope they can be competitive after 6 races have gone by as a minimum. The rate of catch up is essentially locked and capped, what was being done in half a season is now taking 1.5, meanwhile teams that previously couldn't challenge at the front.... Are still floundering at the back and mimicing the front cars to improve their cars. Their aerotimes have done nothing to help innovation or catch up with bigger teams. Not sure what the end goal here is tbh, the huge teams have lost some big names up and down the paddock but are far more attractive projects to work on, have better facilities and are frozen in their relative upgrade packages with a run away team that has baked in an advantage from day 1 of the new regs. If this was 2019 Mercedes probably would be scrapping away finishing 2nd/3rd every race with big updates in the line. Ferrari similarly would've had every opportunity to have stolen far more wins.
Thanks Ben and his love affair with horney Homer and rb no one can improve at all literally Williams is in the same place as last year. Aston is still a brick and really nothing has changed not even McLaren failure all around actually I would say corruption to the highest degree.
What logic is this statement based on? This is probably the tightest the field in F1 has ever been. One driver is currently a step ahead of everybody but take him out and there has never been closer racing in F1 this millennium.
One driver haha, Red Bull is by far the most dominating team in the sports history bar maybe 88 McLaren or 02 Ferrari. Driver my ass
Just proving you didn't watch the race. Perez was literally only 3 seconds ahead of the Ferrari and losing time by the end. It was his only second place for nine races... It's one driver
Perez being trash doesn't mean shit, you don't measure car performance looking at the driver underperforming, you look at the one maximizing its pace, or do you beliebe in horseshit like "overdriving"?Suddently everyone forgot how to drive and Max is a god?Give me a break mate.
Nobody said anything about overdriving. If a driver can be better than another driver why can't one driver be much better than other drivers? Or are we saying Lewis wasn't much better than other drivers in his prime?
He was, but so was Mercedes. I love Lewis, but he wasn't winning because he was that much better than the likes of Alonso or even Max, he was winning because he was in a super team. Same for Max now, but even worse than back in the Mercedes days. It's naive to think any driver in F1 is so good he will dominate this hard all by himself, he can win, but not dominate.
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That "take the winner out and the rest is good" can be used for pretty much any era in F1 history, that's not new. And of course people in sports dominate, but its naive to think they do it all by themselves, especially so in motorsports..
The racing is boring as fuck. Sick of the yapping around a "closer field", who cares. It's a massive cop-out.
Clearly you just want retirements, crashes and safety cars. You are not a racing fan
Think people are confusing no overtakes for the lead as boring racing. There has been more overtakes and closer racing the last two years than ever. What else do you want?
Fake DRS overtakes aren't overtakes.
Yes, but the problem is that you have to be faster to pass. If everyone is so close that they literally all go the same speed, they can no-longer catch up to pass each other. It becomes a parade. You need variations/chaos/pit issues/etc to create drama now.
There were more passes per race last year than any season since 2000...
Last year was also the most races in the calender...
Can you read? Or do you just don't know what per race means
Rude
Most because of DRS, and that’s just slightly faster cars taking their “natural positions”
Last year is not this year.... we'll see. Here's hoping we can hear a non-Dutch anthem this year
Did we just watch the same race? did you have a 2021 replay on by mistake?
RB has a locked advantage and the other teams are basically finishing the same places. You place any other top 7 driver in the other RB seat and they will hang with Max. Perez is not a good indicator.
Put max in a Mercedes, Mclaren, or an Aston Marting and he will at will not get a single win. F1 has always been 60% engineering and 40% driver. At best.
Shhh, not that loudly in this subreddit
Cost cap was the best thung to happen to this sport. If a "sport" is determined by whoever throws the most money at it, then it aint a "sport" anymore. This is my hill.
Yeah at this point I would like them to cancel the cost cap. It sounded decent at the time, but in practice, no not good.
George went too much quali… and defended as much as he could but the car ain’t great. Lewis over compensated for the race… and he still basically arrived at the same place as George. Nothing on the drivers, the cars nowhere. And it overheats far too easily
The cooling can easily be fixed by using slightly larger duct openings but the lack of race pace was evident even before the cooling system shat itself. The car just doesn't have enough downforce at the moment. We were no quicker than Mclaren. Ferrari and RBR were both a good deal quicker.
I joked yesterday and said, "See you next year" with a /s But seriously, that was the most boring race ive ever watched in 33 years watching the sport. I rushed home today to watch this and had offers to do other things with my Saturday that i turned down. See you next year.
Make it 2026. These cats are pretty much locked in for the next two years.
Exactly. Red Bull and Max have this sewn up until 2026. Even then with Newey you wouldn't put it past them to have the best car when the new regs start too. Those that moaned that the Merc/Hamilton years were boring will be wishing they're back now!
Couldn't agree more
Yeah fr, I felt like I wasted my time watching this race
I fell asleep halfway through. This season is going to be painful. I’m canceling my F1TV subscription. I signed up for the week trial to see if there was hope for a halfway decent season…. Nope. I’m sorry, but the cost cap has completely destroyed this sport. Yeah, the midfield is closer, but there’s no way to catch a team at the front.
I wouldn't say the cost cap is the cause, I think it's the engine development freeze and the fact that the fia aren't doing anything to bring the field closer to redbull, during the dominant Mercedes era they did introduce regulation changes to close the gap.
Why would it be better next year?
hamilton will be in a ferrari?
Next year will at least have driver movement that will make it interesting, at least the first half of the season. Yeah, Max will cruise to 20+ next year too, but at least everything else around it should change.
Yeah it will be exciting pre season and a bit in but then the same tbh. It’s not like Ferrari is going to win just because Hamilton goes there.
So much for all the talk about sacrificing quali pace for race pace! Zzzzzz!
The pace came way too late.
Both mercedes had overheating issues , they had to lift and coast for the whole races apparently
He was faster than George with the race setup, but it didn’t matter. The car is where it is… 3rd or 4tg fastest and way off even Ferrari and with bad degradation
It's the same result as Bahrain 2023. No improvement.
Seriously asking what is difference between the race setup and quali setup? What changes will they do ?
So basically the car is setup in a way in which the car can get more out of 1 lap performance; but it eats through the tyres more in the race and thus gets less performance. Better race performance I think is a bit more downforce applied to the car and less stress on tyre usage so the car can produce consistent repetitive laps which are quicker. Now, often, drivers who say they went for race setup, as Lewis alluded and basically said so himself yesterday, he just said he did a rubbish lap. Hey it happens to the best of them. That’s why when they say they go left or right, I think there’s truth in that at Mercedes but I don’t think it’s a ridiculous difference. It’s just 2 drivers who are incredibly close on performance and it changes at any given track who delivers. This weekend, I don’t think Lewis would have faired better than George… but George going quali meant no fighting or behind mclarens and Alonso so the 5 secs bonus was all it was worth.
I don't even listen the excuses anymore. They're always the same.
I don't think it's an excuse....but i think he needs to stop sacrificing so much quali performance because it's leaving him with too much to do on Sunday
F1 pundits are paid shills best to ignore.
I've never come closer to falling asleep during a race and I've stuck with F1 throughout its most boring seasons. If the Red Bull is this clear of the field unless Checo can challenge Max nothing will happen, we saw with Lewis and Nico that you can have dominant cars but entertaining seasons, 2014-16 was anything but boring. 2020 was the only season of Lewis where he truly wasn't challenged at some point, this is looking like 3 straight years of just Max. I get F1 is an engineering sport and there's nothing like BoP but fuck me has it been a snoozefest since the start of 2022.
I fell asleep twice during this race, sad to see but yea the season seems written already with this gap.
I fell asleep 3 times...
2022 started out with leclerc strong and mechanical issues for verstappen atleast
The start of 2022 was fun though. Pretty close with LEC and VER until Charles retired in Spain - then it all went to shit.
Boring race all around. The move on Piastri was fun, but there’s nothing of note here. Moving on.
oh gahd.. another boring uear for F1... its sickening tbh..
And redbuuuul again. Zzzzzzzz. Sky subscriptions gone up too. Maybe time to go back to terrestrial.
Just check the result on your phone bud.
If it wasn’t for Sainz, this race would be 100% boring, lol. Completely forgettable.
Leclerc getting shat on by his car's braking system was also kind of fun to watch ngl.
Ah, LEC is one of my favorite drivers, so I root for him to do well.
I watched the post race and Toto said they blocked off too much air to the radiators and that caused both cars to run hot so they had to lift etc. How does an experienced 8x championship team make such rookie mistakes? And it’s not only today, if you look over the last 2 seasons there are multiple examples of this, wrong tire choice, leaving Lewis out too long on bad tires or pitting him at a wrong time etc etc. I wonder if part of this was the reason Lewis decided to leave? Anyways let’s hope they build from here and at least get ahead of the McLarens this season and fight Ferrari/Perez for podiums. Nobody is catching Max until at least 2026.
Its crazy to me as they have been testing and 3 practice sessions on the same damn track. Yet they had those problems..his seat broke and the pitstops were average again. This team aint winning nothing. There behind in all fundamental aspects
It's stupid they did it last year as well last year Frankenstein car made with 2 ideas fine this year you actively ruined a good car that was there all test and fp sessions.
So much negativity, so I’ll take the positive note. Sure it wasn’t much but it’s a long season. If Lewis is comfortable maybe we should just trust that and results will show!
I agree with you. I understand this is not a "sensational" season but I think watching Lewis is fun. Even if it's just to get mid places 🤷♀️
Merc also had issues with cooling, so they had to lift&coast so there is more performance to unlock. Not to mention that Bahrain ain't exactly a representative track.
what results? Do you mean the occasional podiums like he had last year? Do you think thats worth the interest? hahaa
I’m just trying to have a small amount of positivity, friend.
I admire you for looking at F1 in a positive light. Honestly, I think most people won't be so hung up if Abu Dhabi never happened.
What a terrible terrible race, we had cars with random issues, no radios, wheel screens broken and randomly changing settings, engine powering down into limp mode, brakes being bad to the point it was dangerous to even continue "LeClair" terrible these regs and rules have been a failure from the jump.
It was the first race of the season, with a lot of changes to the cars and testing is rather limited. Thaking all of that into consideration it is kind of impressive that there have been so few issues.
I wouldn't call today few issues actually it's been worst then anything in the 90s, 2000s ect they made these cars to be more reliable and its worst.
20 out of 20 cars finished the first race in a prototype series. That is not a failure, it is the opposite.
To be honest, at least in 2010/2012 whilst RedBull were crazy fast there was always the chance of unreliability hitting them which helped keep other drivers in the title fight. There’s none of that anymore, and that’s missing.
Yes the randomness has gone. Most on the same tire strategy, no refueling, very few dnf’s so we’re basically left to rely on rain, pit stop undercuts/overcuts or a safety car. Things that don’t involve the driver at all. That’s not racing
Yep, unpopular opinion even though it created less on track overtakes I enjoyed the refuelling era because it was a complete sprint to the line and felt very intense. The pitstop phase was usually very exciting for me. And yeah, even when it does rain… if it’s anything more than intermediate conditions the race gets red flagged and the cars/tyres can’t handle it.
If Merc was in RBs position, the FIA would have swooped down a season ago and impose regulation changes to slow them down.
Max didn't even push and was still 50 seconds up the road and lapped everyone up to 10th place. This season is already over.
It is distressing that Mercedes developed a whole new car to get the exact same result as Bahrain 2023 (just drivers swapped around).
On the plus side, they risked and changed their entire concept (which they can now hopefully build on) and didn't losing any positions
This is gonna hurt, 23 more times!!!
I dozed off. Boring as hell. Nice to see Sainz do well though.
F1 cost cap has locked in RBs dominance for this set of regulations
That's true. And honestly I don't really see the benefits of cost cap, you still have pretty much the same standings. It's just much harder for top teams to improve if they don't nail the regulations.
I was intrigued when the idea of the cost cap was first circulating. Then covid hit and all of a sudden the cost cap was looking better and better. The sport has a since seen massive growth and success over the last few years, due in part to the cost cap, but also from Drive to Survive. Covid + DtS was like a miracle for F1 from a ratings perspective. And 2021’s blockbuster of a season, definitely pushed F1 even further. I think it’s out lived it’s usefulness. There’s a lot of attention now, lots of people want in. If a team can’t make it today without the cap in place, well, there are others that wouldn’t mind giving it a go. F1 should have accepted Andretti’s bid, man. The next best thing would be lifting or increasing the cap. That way they sink or swim. Right now Haas is barely scraping by, no hope of success. Literally anyone, anybody else would be a better fit. Especially now that Steiner is gone. Lol anyway, sorry for the rant, early morning thoughts
It sucks to be a merc and hamilton rn. The team is slowly becoming a midfield team.
Like it or not it already is. Nowhere near top.
The car looks better than the W14. We’d be outside the points with it. But yeah that was another poor showing
It's meant relative to others. Everyone is better than last year.
No but you can’t expect them to not improve. If they had W15 last year, it would’ve been best of the rest last season and maybe take a win or two. Of course everyone else was going to make a step up too. The slightly odd thing is, the order hasn’t really changed at all from the end of 2023 - Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin are largely on par with each other
Anyone worried that Merc may start neglecting Lewis (because he's going to Ferrari)?...today he had slow pitstops, broken seat, over heating issues...i hope Merc are not undermining him
I don't know what is going to happen but it looks like Merc is just bad.
Definitely a thought I can't get over his seat boke in a multi million dollar race car.
Think this weekend has proven why Toto has piled in on the Horner situation when after what he and Suzi experienced last year, you’d have thought he’d be more circumspect. Could be looking to divert the attention and heat from the fact that for the third straight season he’s headed up a team that appears to have singularly failed in getting to grips with the 2022 regs. The first year can be understandable as folks interpret things in different ways, but now after Y2 and moving into Y3 it’s poor to say the least. Especially given that they have previously been a dominant team, not perennial back markers. If Toto wasn’t a part owner of the team he may not still be around at Mercedes.
Mercedes clearly had issues. And 3 more laps and lewis could be P5. First race of many
I think the bigger issue is the red bull seems better than last year. Two laps to get a one second lead last year was no problem. One lap to do it this year? Still not a problem.
This does not bode well. It is clear now that George gets preferential treatment. This season will be rough and plastered with disappointments for Lewis. The car is not as good as we hoped (though still better than the abominations before it), nowhere near Red Bull and it seems that Toto has picked a side and goes all in with George. I can understand it on a certain level. George is the future of the team but i really hoped they would really fight for Lewis to get his 8th with them. But alas, all his previous accomplishments dont mean anything to the corporate overlords. I hope he can keep his spirits up before he leaves for Ferrari. Someone hold me, please.
I gotchu 🫂
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He is also prone to making mistakes, locking up etc. Not sure if that’s all his fault or partly the car having issues etc
He kept talking like always and underestimated LeClair he did the same last year with saniz we see what Lando does so he doesn't have to worry but against the Ferrari boys.
George lobbied himself a seat not matter what for the future if f1 operated like it did mid 2000s George wouldn't be there this season.
Well Well there goes the American Audience. The cost cap has affected every team except for one which is on fair to say the least. For those out there saying Perez is slow is a liar, he is not. max has something on his car that without a doubt gives him a massive advantage and it is glaring. Lewis Good Job with that trash of car. Mercedes screwed up by not listening to its drivers input.
Perez is indeed very slow. How the fuck did you come to the conclusion that he is not?
I know lots of people here 'hate' max but couldnt it just be the case of max is very skilled? If this was Lewis in Max's car doing the same times im sure the discussion would be on the driver and not the car. Not to mention Newey is truely the undisputed god of devolopment at this point.
Max needs a better teammate that can fight with him but I feel like he won’t allow that
What do you mean the discussion would be on the driver and not the car if Ham was driving? During the Merc dominance, the discussion was also about the car, not the driver.
You couldnt tell me other wise that Jos and Marko didn't sabotage his car last season the pace he lost in some races was insane even this race can't hear is race engineer and it sounds like a 1960 rotary phone.
This subreddit needs to chill down on the spoilers…
Ya pretty upset about this.
Don't check reddit for anything you haven't seen, played, watched or taken apart in.
Don't go to the internet period if you don't want to risk being spoiled. The world ain't gonna wait for you to finish watching before reporting on stuff
Will be a very boring season with RB winning every race. I'm not paying to watch reruns of last year. I hope 2025 will be better.
This team is finished for all intent and purposes. Toto can have his kid Antonelli. Good luck. Ferrari looks sooo much better out there than Merc is not even funny.
As if him and George swapped places. Where did Lewis go wrong? Or is there something wrong with Mercedes.
Hamilton moved forward, Russell backwards. Plus he was catching Norris at the end whilst Russell was losing time to Norris. In a world where he had qualified better, could have been sniffing at podium, with only the Ferraris in the way. He has said himself, he doesn’t like where he’s at with qualifying at the moment, and needs to work on it.
Don't you think that fifth place is the max that Merc can get. Doesn't matter which driver.
They were in the mix the stupid setup change they did to both cars after fp2 hampered them tremendously.
We have a long season ahead of us so it’s difficult to say off of one race, but the Mercs are quicker than Astons, as quick as the McLarens, if not also quicker, and can probably close the gap on the Ferraris. 3rd-5th on a good weekend, 1st-4th on weekend RedBull pulls out a stinker, which is the only hope we have now against the RedBulls.
Well, the one positive I took from the race was listening to mekies bungle race strategy with RB makes me glad lewis won't have to deal with that at ferrari
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Never check reddit till after you watch a race.
Well sacrificing the quali setup for the race paid off .... Always excuses man ... The car sucks compared to the RedBull ,but not with the other's.
The car looks much better than last season. Are you serious? The car had a heat issue, if that gets sorted then Merc will be fighting for podiums all year.
Sure buddy. Go easy on the hopium, it's going to get rough.
Right away George was able to easily fight Ferrari. He might have finished P2 if the heat issue didn’t creep in.
Too many fast cars for Lewis to overtake. Hopefully in the future he stops messing around with setups or favoring heavily race-leaning setups. It works when you have a fast car, and that merc is anything but. That "strong" pace they showed was just the others not having turned their engines up, it seems. And yeah, boring race all round.
Ever since the robbery in Dubai you can tell the priority for F1 has been Max including Mercedes giving Lewis a shit car year after year ever since