Grand Prix 2019 Mexico Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

1st of apologies completely forgot to upload it yesterday. got doing other thing & other concerns it flew out of my head

after a last few races recently not classics but decent. & where Mercedes have made a very good case to be considered the most dominant F1 team in series history. no team has won both titles 6 in a row, not Fangio, Prost/Senna McLaren, Schumacher Ferrari or Vettel Red Bull. which is even more impressive as theyve done it over 2 different rule changes. which has brought many a dominant team to an also-ran. but i feel its a perfect storm alot like Ferrari in early 2000's who for me were more dominant than Ferrari over the 6 constructors , the best driver in the most efficient team

but anyway enough of the events of post Japanese gp & its place in history next time out it will be the final Mexican gp, because next year under the new deal it will become the Mexico city gp & become only the 2nd grand prix named after city rather than a country after abu dhabi. but im delighted about the new deal because I think mexico even so early on would have been a big loss to calendar. because it is a fantastic vibrant city with all the day of the dead festival. Fans love the racing shown by the great atmosphere given by that stadium section & only a support matched by tifosi & british. because you dont need a commentator to tell you if perez has overtaken anyone because the huge crowd roar let people know. the circuit has a bit of everything you've got the 1.2km front straight & long straight between 3 & 4. then flowing section between 7 & 11 then into the stadium section. also the altitude throws a unique factor into it, as mexico at 2,300m is higher than other 20 combined, Altitude has been a issue for Mercedes & very good place for red bull because even in 2016 they only got pole by a few tenths compared to 7 tenths over the season. also since the rule change no Mercedes has been on front row, only bottas in 2017 has been on the podium & Bottas even got lapped last year which is unthinkable for "dominant" Mercedes, which barring reliability the championship will highly likely will carry on til USA

Circuit outside of F1 does have Rich History of Motorsport up there & beating some of the historic circuits from around the world there is rarely global or North American series that hasn't raced here at some point, you have old sportscar series & New WEC, Formula 3.5, Champ Car/CART, NASCAR, Porsche Supercup, A1 GP, Rolex sports car series (US WEC), Formula E & Race of Champions. the stadium section the Foro Sol has played host to some big names in music Madonna, Paul McCartney, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Coldplay, The Killers, U2, Iron Maiden & Lady Gaga

Circuit is Honoured after the Brothers Ricardo who died in 1962 & later Pedro Rodríguez who was also killed on the track in 1971, 2 very talented drivers who were taken too soon, Ricardo who was the Max Verstappen of the late 50's early 60's, at just 16yrs & 4 months was due to take part in le mans 24 hrs but organisers judged him to too young so was replaced by jose behra brother of teammate jean behra to race alongside pedro, but after allowed to compete but retiring in 59, he would finish 2nd in 1960 at just age of 18. still youngest ever to stand on the podium at le mans, held the record for youngest driver to start a race for 48 years, until Jaime Alguarsari came in for Bourdais mid season. was youngest for 55 yrs to start from the front row until Verstappen Belgium 2016. he is still the youngest F1 driver ever to race for Ferrari at just 19, a year before his tragic death which all start Ferrari opted not to enter the non-Championship Mexican GP so signed to drive Lotus 24, but during the 1st day of practice, approaching the peratalta the Lotus's rear right suspension failed & he hit barrier dying instantly

Pedro who was considered the best driver of his era in the wet, won 2 F1 Races, his 2nd & final F1 victory was in the final Belgian GP on the old circuit in 1970 in a race where only 6 took the chequered flag, but only managed the best of 6th in the championship so it was sportscars where Pedro was more successful came 3rd in 1967 24hrs of daytona, then despite having a terrible reliablity record where he retired from 12 of 14 le mans he entered, he won the 1968 le mans 24 hours in the GT40 & also won the 1970 & 1971 24 hours of Daytona which was to be his final success. because Pedro Rodríguez at age of 31 was driving for the lead was killed in an sports car race at Norisring on July 1971. as a slower car edged him into the wall & upon impact it burst into flames.

but to end it on cheerier note & not the tragic death of 2 very successful drivers. enjoy the race & hope everyone has a good weekend :D :cheers:
 
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Weird race and promised a good ending - but didn't deliver. Albon seemed to be in contention for a podium finish to start with but seemed to go nowhere after the first pit stop. Both him and Leclerc seemed to be let down on pit strategy.
 
I didn't see qualifying so am not aqare of the full situation with Verstappen and the grid penalty but this is an interesting read: UNBELIEVABLE: Verstappen's Arrogant Comments in Press Conference Led to FIA Investigation and Hence a Penalty

I take this to mean that either of the two laps Max put in were good enough for pole, although the second was under waved yellows. Then by shooting his mouth off the FIA have demoted him regardless of lap times. If any of you watched qualie was this the case?
 
Karma on Max for the rash qualifying ; it did mess teh race a bit but he needs to obey the rules especialliy ones there for safety!

As for Seb ; why no warning for squeezing Hamilton to less than a cars width at the start. I get it going round a corner where you unwind teh lock and reduce teh gap but this was a straight line and forced him to back off or crash .... Seb needs his wrist slapping ....maybe they did not do so because he has so many penalty points already that he'd have a race ban?
 
FB I read the same thing.


Initially, stewards did not investigate the incident with Verstappen, even though television pictures showed him passing a yellow flag and Bottas' car without slowing down.
But after he admitted in the news conference that he was "aware Valtteri crashed" but did not slow down, he was summoned to see the stewards.

Why would the incident not be investigated initially and only after Verstappen was arrogantly mouthing off did they do so?

Also, why no penalty for the first corner incident which forced a driver off the track?
Deliberately running wide to force someone off is far worse than someone locking up and accidentally forcing them off.

Same old inconsistent bullshit, as usual.
 
Had Ferrari done a long, or even any, stint on the hards they would have known that it would be the right tyres for the second stint; they already knew that softs were not the way to go.

Vettel lost the race because he did not pit when Ferrari wanted him to do so.

Another race thrown away, I am beginning to think that when it's not the team that gets it wrong it's Vettel who does.
 
thinking overnight Lewis won but wasn't the fastest driver over the race because so many factors got him the win, of course fantastic tyre management, even if I have no clue why the commentators take his moans/concerns seriously because he does this almost weekly, "my tyres are finished" "they arent going to last", "we've made the worse decision". cue 35 laps later he's still there he's setting personal best / purple sectors. but if its a tactic that is very effective 'fools' his rivals keep goinf

but reason i say is because i believe it was the old adage perfect storm. because Leclerc who i actually think was on better statergy. aside from the lock up that brought his momentum to huge halt. he lost 4 seconds in pitstop. that puts him 0.5 off vettel in final classification so its likely to assume he would've been on bottas gearbox with 15 laps to go. with faster car better tyres he would likely overtook bottas then vettel. then 8-10 laps to go 2nd its different race

albon lost 5 seconds on that lap i believe, if kept ahead of sainz. horner says delta has him ahead of lewis after the pit stops again different race. then its the big thing. Verstappen bottas move was just unlucky max wasn't at fault there. was fantastic move but if he maybe gave up the corner be 4th not 8th he wouldve won this gp i have feeling no doubt because it was race some needed to grab by neck it was his race for the taking & he wouldve. but as we know max biggest strength is also his biggest weakeness because you cant bit of verstappen he is light switch not a dimmer he is all or nothing.

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it feels like dejavu so i just repost the quote from Japanese gp because it still stand as much as it did then

but if any one wants to know or questions why mercedes won 6 in row right we take 2014 - 2016 out the picture because that was better car. but today Japanese gp is last 3 years in a nutshell, as a lot say they have the best car. i think bar 1st 8 this season theyve been 50/50 55/45. but what they do maximise what they have, Ferrari make too many errors could've won 9 (now 10) grand prix this season but actually won 3 instead of 180 point gap it could should be 50/70. case in point today you would rarely if ever see Mercedes lock out the front row not have reliability issues & Ferrari finish 1st & 3rd very nearly 1-2. wouldn't happen
 
As for Seb ; why no warning for squeezing Hamilton to less than a cars width at the start. I get it going round a corner where you unwind teh lock and reduce teh gap but this was a straight line and forced him to back off or crash .... Seb needs his wrist slapping ....maybe they did not do so because he has so many penalty points already that he'd have a race ban?
Also, why no penalty for the first corner incident which forced a driver off the track?
Deliberately running wide to force someone off is far worse than someone locking

wouldn't that come under what F1 always say alot more leniency on 1st lap
 
I winced at the start expecting a flurry of investigations into the bumping and banging and was somewhat surprised to see there weren't any.

I Hamilton pulled off a ballsy move sticking around the outside of Verstappen who had a comfortable inside line around the first corner. The car ran out of grip and it got messy after that.

As for Vettel v Hamilton off the line, when does leaving a cars width apply? Clearly not in this case as Hamilton was alongside but was forced to exceed the track limits to avoid a collision.

All fun and games.
 
I winced at the start expecting a flurry of investigations into the bumping and banging and was somewhat surprised to see there weren't any.

I Hamilton pulled off a ballsy move sticking around the outside of Verstappen who had a comfortable inside line around the first corner. The car ran out of grip and it got messy after that.

As for Vettel v Hamilton off the line, when does leaving a cars width apply? Clearly not in this case as Hamilton was alongside but was forced to exceed the track limits to avoid a collision.

All fun and games.

Essentially, the stewards only seem to penalise a first lap issue if a driver is punted off the track completely - but this has been the case for quite some time.
 
Max has already had his warning. This is the second time that he has committed this offence. Villeneuve was disqualified from the Japanese GP in 1997 for this!


My thoughts exactly about Max - they should have sent him to the back of the grid or give him 10 places to show he does not disregard driver and marshall's safety. He got hammered from all sides this weekend whether unfairly or not - he bought it upon himself with his actions on Saturday. Sooner or later he's going to cause a serious accident and there will be calls to get him banned
 
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