OV9

Yeah, if McLaren want to win Driver's Championship, favouring one driver makes sense, although I wonder of they will only do it when it is pehaps too late to make a difference.

Has to be something contractual at McLaren.

Gotta feel for Lando a bit, he’s not the most confident kid and he now has a team who publicly stated they don’t really care about the WDC. Teammate actively taking points off him whilst Max is idolised above all else at Red Bull.

Also very surprising that Oscar’s original contract really is this strong - rookie driver on a 2 year contract with equal status. Maybe that’s what Zac did to drag him from Alpine.

Mito Man wrote: Sun Sep 01, 2024 9:30 pm Gotta feel for Lando a bit, he’s not the most confident kid and he now has a team who publicly stated they don’t really care about the WDC. Teammate actively taking points off him whilst Max is idolised above all else at Red Bull.

Also very surprising that Oscar’s original contract really is this strong - rookie driver on a 2 year contract with equal status. Maybe that’s what Zac did to drag him from Alpine.

It’s a good point, but nothing else makes sense

Baffling from McLaren

Very strange, you’d have thought team orders should have said whoever is ahead at the exit of turn one is lead driver for the rest of the race.

Oscars move looked pretty risky and pushed Lando out of position losing him another place. Probably would have been an easy 1-2 if they’d held position and worked together. I don’t get it.

Baffling indeed. Oscar was quick today, and I kinda understand that getting a win is a big deal for a driver and quite harsh to take away (if you're being kind, rather than ruthless like an F1 team need to be!). However, I can't believe they didn't switch them at the end when it was clear Leclerc was going to make it, 2nd or 3rd, who cares? I don't get it.

Dear Lando, Plz git gud. Your fans are melting.

Not even that, just seems a bizarre way to ‘help’ a potential world champion. Can’t even say it was for the sake of the team because it compromised their points there too.

Do you think Perez would have been allowed to do the same if max and him were 1 & 2 after the first couple of corners?

Piastri is not the #2 driver and even if he was Norris got caught with his pants down in that chicane and even a #2 will struggle to pass up a gift like that. You can see Norris lifted early then as Oscar swept past Lando tried to reclaim the corner and then stitched himself up doing it to lose a further place.

Norris cannot let others eat his lunch even/especially not his team mate.

RobYob wrote: Mon Sep 02, 2024 2:37 am Piastri is not the #2 driver and even if he was Norris got caught with his pants down in that chicane and even a #2 will struggle to pass up a gift like that. You can see Norris lifted early then as Oscar swept past Lando tried to reclaim the corner and then stitched himself up doing it to lose a further place.

Norris cannot let others eat his lunch even/especially not his team mate.

I'm personally not saying Oscar shouldn't have gone for the gap, and I agree that he looks too good to be considered a number 2 driver (regardless of contact situation). However, the opportunity to win a championship is bigger than either driver, and if Oscar had put himself in the hunt for the championship earlier in the season the roles might have been reversed. Reality is, Lando did better than Oscar when the car was less competitive and IMO has earned the right for the whole team to get behind him.

As previous, maybe if a race win was on the line I'd understand the team being reticent, but not for switching the other podium places.

If I was a team boss (assuming you're not miles ahead of the competition) I'd be saying before the season starts "you can race for the first half of the season (or whatever the stats say), but whoever emerges in contension after that, the team get behind".

It does seem short sighted. Yes you maybe get a nicer relationship between the drivers (for a bit), but you hamper your chances of winning a drivers championship.

given the choice of getting:

- second and third, or

- 1st and third with one fucked off driver

I know id be taking the second option (just like all the other successful teams in F1 history). No one looks back at a list of drivers who nearly won.

My usual way of catching up on F1 these days is via YT highlights, and Monza was no different.

Great to see the excitement that a Ferrari win in Italy creates.

Delightful to see the Stapp forced to play with the others.

McLaren strategy this year is weird. If it was a clear "no team rules, you are free to race each other" I'd understand - whilst on the face of it that approach is not necessarily to the overall benefit of the team, it's more "respectful" to the drivers and should keep them both fully fired up and potentially create a better spectacle for onlookers. But that's not their strategy.

won't embed, but you can click the "watch on youtube" link

This goes beyond the first lap as Mclaren had the car to finish 1-2.
Lewis had an interesting interview. He said the McLarens were pushing so hard there was no way they could do a 1 stop. Piastri doing fastest laps to build a gap to Norris and Norris pushing hard in his dirty air so they both killed their tyres. Ferrari did their own thing after their first stops and made it work.

Yeah, I thought that, their two drivers pushing each other hard was definitely not the way to go with these tyres. Oscar's overtake was just all round the worst thing that could have happened for the team, because I think they would have been able to manage the tyres and strategy much more easily with the roles reversed. It's hard to tell Lando not to push Oscar with a championship on the line, but if the roles were reversed I think telling both cars to go into management mode would have been much more acceptable to both drivers.

Seeing reports that newey to Aston is a done deal, wonder if they end up with a monster of a car, how long will daddy put up with lance?

jamcg wrote: Wed Sep 04, 2024 2:42 pm Seeing reports that newey to Aston is a done deal, wonder if they end up with a monster of a car, how long will daddy put up with lance?

If they have a winning car they’ll attract a winning driver and he’ll continue to be the number 2, as long as they’re winning championships he won’t care who’s doing the winning.

Disaster again for Norris, another chance to potentially take a good bite out of Max gone begging by the looks of it. Good quali though.

Poor McLaren, choosing Flakey over Piastri.