Agree with this. Mercedes has had a car in the last 5 years at least that was more hungry on its tyres and the harder tyre has really benefited them. Not saying it is because Mercedes have greater downforce as I would argue that Red bull have greater downforce than Mercedes but it is just how it puts its power down from having a more powerful engine than Red bull with firstly Renault and now Honda.

Otmar said they thought Perez caught it from his personal chef.

At some point during practice or qualifying I'm thought Sky said "Otmar Szafnauer of Mercedes."

Uneventful race. What is it that Magnussen did that upset Räikkönen so much? I've seen the footage three times and I just don't see it

My two cents:
1. Max staying within like 1.5s for a while was... amazing, and futile.
2. Seeing Ferrari fighting with JV RedBull made me smile.

Have to say again Red Bull would have to be losing patience with Albon's qualifying as that performance yesterday shows that you can get stuck behind drivers and not make any progress if you qualify down the field. Gasly did himself no harm again with his drive as well to getting back that Red Bull seat.

POWER RANKINGS: Hamilton or Verstappen – who came out on top after Spain?
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...LxeKvsB2B.html
People, what you think about this?

Yeah I like how Gasly scored 4th best driver.

The problem with this is that it wasn't any different when Gasly was in that car and he was even worse when he needed to overtake people. I think that Red Bull car has been build on an edge and only drivers like Ham and Ver can handle it which means any other driver will look like an idiot when compared to more stable cars and compared to Ver.

I think you'll probably find Gasly's qualifying was better and if Red bull had gave him a greater chance you would have seen a clear difference between the two in their finishing positions too.

See one of the things is with this Red bull seat that not many appreciate is that the higher places in practice and qualifying that no doubt that most would think Gasly would get over Albon is actually much more valuable to the Red bull brand and presence in the sport than Albon being able to say score one higher place in the race than Gasly if we look at their current racing ability in the race. However, as I said above, that gap that Albon had as a better racing driver compared to Gasly is fast diminishing and if you are a far better qualifier well that exacerbates the issues that Albon is facing.

I expect if Gasly gets back into that RB he will struggle just as much in qualifying as Albon does. Gasly also never qualified within a reasonable margin of Ver so why would it be different now. Neither of them can get the expected performance out of the RB but both look great in an AT. RB just needs to get Hulk as an ideal number 2 for Ver.

I think Gasly would comfortably qualify in the top 6 and that is all I reckon Red bull would expect from him as the no. 2 to Max which is much better than what Albon is doing atm.

Not sure what Verstappen should have done to get a higher score than 9.0. He got the absolute Max out of the car. 3rd in qualifying and 2nd in the race.

RB is not changing drivers any time soon, unless they can bink a big name like George Russell. Hulkenberg is in a similar category as Albon/Gasly.

I thought this was a pretty interesting list. One-lap driver speed, calculated by AI.

Nr	Driver	Difference
1	Ayrton Senna	0.000s
2	Michael Schumacher	0.114s
3	Lewis Hamilton	0.275s
4	Max Verstappen	0.280s
5	Fernando Alonso	0.309s
6	Nico Rosberg	0.374s
7	Charles Leclerc	0.376s
8	Heikki Kovalainen	0.378s
9	Jarno Trulli	0.409s
10	Sebastian Vettel	0.435s
11	Rubens Barrichello	0.445s
12	Nico Hulkenberg	0.456s
13	Valtteri Bottas	0.457s
14	Carlos Sainz	0.457s
15	Lando Norris	0.459s
16	Daniel Ricciardo	0.461s
17	Jenson Button	0.462s
18	Robert Kubica	0.463s
19	Giancarlo Fisichella	0.469s
20	Alain Prost	0.514s

SOURCE

This list puts Max and Lewis pretty close together (with Alonso as well), behind Schumacher and Senna and before all the rest.

George Russell seems like he is destined to replace Lewis.

George Russell is definitely destined to go to Mercedes and as a result not likely to accept a RB seat. Rumors are still that Ver is the likely replacement for Ham especially if RB can't deliver a WDC in the first season of new regulations. Ver wants that WDC sooner rather than later. Of course this all is about timing and only Ham knows how long he wants to continue.

It is telling that we've had a race and there have been no comments itt

LOLFERRARI is all there is to say. It's hard to win points without blatant cheating.

We have to extract our pleasure from the fight for P2 (and only because Bottas is driving so badly) and the battle for 3rd in the construction championship.

Everyone remember what I said here

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...php?p=56289461

And look at Alpha Tauri's straight line performance in the race and over the weekend actually.

Something about Monza makes drivers stupid.

Monza delivering today.

Going to be a great ending

I've said it before but F1 is a much better sport when Merc is not involved.

Meh

Take out Mercedes and this year would have been about Verstappen dominance.

Monza was great entertainment because of random shyte happening and the field being shuffled. With no rules change on the cars for next year, FIA should seriously consider altering the format and forcibly add in randomness for each race. We've seen with Hockenheim last year, the messier, the better

If they really go ahead with Nürburgring in October, that could be quite messy

I still think sprinklers is the best way to improve the races but hopefully spending caps and better regulations is enough.

My predictions are delivering well