OV9

Still did better than P20, and he got shafted with that ridiculous aero package.

Zonda_ wrote: Sat Apr 05, 2025 12:03 pm Lawson out qualifying the Red Bull, bet there's some smug going on there...

Outqualified him by far fewer places than Yuki did him in China though.

Dull.

Who I woke to greasy damp track, I was hoping for slightly more excitement. I blinked and missed both overtakes, thoughts and prayers to the video editors creating the highlights clips.

I thought the whole point of the change in rules to use more underbody aero was to allow closer following, but it never worked, and it's worse than ever now.

Lando should have kept his head on pit exit, backed off and tucked in right up max’s arse. Wouldn’t surprise me if he couldn’t catch him because he damaged the floor in his pointless grass cutting adventure

Maybe LN's tyres weren't in great shape late in the first stint, but there is some merit in the point made in commentary about McLaren using the sister car better. If they were confident in the pace, surely use the fear of OP's undercut to get MV in, and then see what LN could pump in. Worst case is LN is undercut by OP/MV but the team have lost nothing, best case is LN is quick in free air.

It certainly wasn't like most track / tyre combinations where lap one pace on the new tyre is immense, so the undercut was pretty weak.

I didn’t bother waking up for this, Suzuka is usually a boring procession unless it rains. Apparently not even worth watching the highlights according to what I’m reading on WhatsApp
It’s a constant high energy track. The short start finish straight ends with a high speed corner entry and the back straight has 130R which means no DRS and the entry into it is also the high speed spoon curve. So a pretty terrible design for “modern” F1.

Lando needs to get his shit together, he should have qualified first yesterday perhaps he’d have a better chance. Then he has the risk of his teammate taking points of him and bam, Verstappen wins the championship again.

Watched the highlights on YouTube and it was dull, even compressed to seven minutes. McLaren seem very focused on gifting Max wins. Oscar might not have been able to catch him, but they didn't even let him try.

Seinz fined €20000 for going to see the doctor.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1EDhFAMt ... tid=wwXIfr

That’s some expensive Imodium.

Jeez, glad I didn’t get up early for that.

Lando should have let Oscar through 15+ laps from the end to see if he could catch max. Even if he couldn’t he might have taken a load of life out of his tyres.

The pit exit thing was silly. Yeah Max played it a little dirty, he definitely closed the gap, and seemed pretty tardy coming off the pit limiter knowing Lando had nowhere to go. They’ve raced together enough to know that’s exactly what he would do. Play him at his own game, you were behind, blend out and keep it tight up his chuff.

integrale_evo wrote: Sun Apr 06, 2025 8:27 pm Jeez, glad I didn’t get up early for that.

Lando should have let Oscar through 15+ laps from the end to see if he could catch max. Even if he couldn’t he might have taken a load of life out of his tyres.

The pit exit thing was silly. Yeah Max played it a little dirty, he definitely closed the gap, and seemed pretty tardy coming off the pit limiter knowing Lando had nowhere to go. They’ve raced together enough to know that’s exactly what he would do. Play him at his own game, you were behind, blend out and keep it tight up his chuff.

I'm not sure he did close the gap?

Watching the way other cars left, they all seemed to straight line the exit which gives the impression of cutting across the exit, but it's just flattening the 'kink' in the exit

I think that's all Max did

It was a gap that was always going to close, unless he'd forced Max off line (and which might have put Max over the line on the other side if the exit 'funnel' - this is based on a mental image, so there may have been room for Max to move without incurring a penalty)

DaveE wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 9:28 am

integrale_evo wrote: Sun Apr 06, 2025 8:27 pm Jeez, glad I didn’t get up early for that.

Lando should have let Oscar through 15+ laps from the end to see if he could catch max. Even if he couldn’t he might have taken a load of life out of his tyres.

The pit exit thing was silly. Yeah Max played it a little dirty, he definitely closed the gap, and seemed pretty tardy coming off the pit limiter knowing Lando had nowhere to go. They’ve raced together enough to know that’s exactly what he would do. Play him at his own game, you were behind, blend out and keep it tight up his chuff.

I'm not sure he did close the gap?

Watching the way other cars left, they all seemed to straight line the exit which gives the impression of cutting across the exit, but it's just flattening the 'kink' in the exit

I think that's all Max did

It was a gap that was always going to close, unless he'd forced Max off line (and which might have put Max over the line on the other side if the exit 'funnel' - this is based on a mental image, so there may have been room for Max to move without incurring a penalty)

I think Max probably gave space so that Lando would at least have 1 wheel on the grass, but Lando over-reacted (which you can't blame him, with Max's form in the past)

I quite like Max's answer when a journo asked him about their run in on the pit lane exit.



I wanted Max to win this race, so the season doesn't become a 1 team win fest, but boy that was a dull race!

DaveE wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 9:28 am
I'm not sure he did close the gap?

There is room for two cars wide on that pit exit, but no obligation for Max to consciously give space for a car that is half-alongside. And FFS Lando - if there is any driver on the grid that would 100% squeeze you off in this scenario each and every time - it's Teh Stapp. It's like being surprised that Trump told a blatant lie.

Yea max took the normal line, but you’re also supposed to leave a car widths room if there’s a car beside you, which again he could easily have done.

From the two onboards it definitely seemed like max was purposefully slow in starting to accelerate, maybe 1/2 a second or so.

Again, I’m not accusing max of anything or blaming him for Lando deciding to mow the lawn, but he certainly encouraged the situation.

If he purposely accelerated late to let Lando get alongside and hence be on the grass (instead of accelerating away from the line where Lando would have been more inclined to drop slot in behind on account of being further back) that is deviously quick and clever thinking.

Have to say, Max's stock is rising in my eyes a lot lately, he's starting to get into the conversations as one of the greats if he can maintain his standards IMO.

duncs500 wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 12:43 pm Have to say, Max's stock is rising in my eyes a lot lately, he's starting to get into the conversations as one of the greats if he can maintain his standards IMO.

He's certainly lining up to be one of the greats of this generation, but IMO the all-time greats win championships with other teams and/or have another championship winning driver as a teammate (who is still in their prime) and match - or preferably - beat them.

I'm sure Max is that good, but it's a bit of an unknown.