Why is Hamilton being booed?
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Why is Hamilton being booed?
Well done Vettel and Ferrari. Seasons getting exciting now :D
the Mercedes in hamiton's hands, was clearly the faster car today but hampered by piss poor strategy and a self inflicted wound by hamilton's rash thinking. Although the first issue of not splitting the strategy caused the latter poor thinking.
There really needs to be better race management from mercedes. this has gone on for 3 years now. It is one thing to win races when you are miles ahead of the others in terms of pace and you can make up poor pit stops and shoddy strategy. But not in 2017. This one cost them the race, pure and simple. I don't care if they pitted Bottas first (he was the lead car and had the right to come in). In fact, the moment vettel pitted, bottas should have come in the next lap. He was already complaining about his tyres and would have covered vettel. Verstappen and RBR did it. but not arrogant mercedes. It was obvious for everyone to see what needs to be done but not toto and his gang of fools.
Speaking of Bottas. he was shambolic today IMO. If there was ever a race for him to win, challenge vettel and announce himself part of the WDC fight, this was it. He accomplished none of the three and firmly placed himself as a #2 driver. couldn't manage his tyres and let vettel sprint away on identical tyres after the safety car. He simply wilted like a frail flower and opens the door to that 2018 seat.
Kudos to vettel for driving a solid race. As well as for kimi to clawing back from Ferrari Vettel myopia . But missed opportunities are what i take from this race.
Force india bounced back well
Sainz was completely at fault
Mclaren are just an embarrassment
Much better race again, Aus was such a low point.
As for Lewis he cost himself the chance with the 5 second penalty, but not sure why the team didn't send him out on super softs for the last stint?
Because Bottas was struggling with them. Based on the times he was doing, it was probably the right call.
Why he was left out for so long on his middle stint, considering he was going on softs anyway, seems pointless - two or three or more laps earlier could have won him the race.
What do you think about the Stroll-Sainz crash? I'm not so convinced that it was 100% Sainz's fault - it didn't really look like he overshot the corner, it's just that Lance wasn't expecting him there. IMHO it was an overoptimistic attempt by the Spaniard, but a wiser driver than Stroll would have given a bit room there, especially considering that they would be fighting for position and thus a dive was not out of the question.
(Aside: Hey everybody! It seems like forever since I've posted here. Been checking in now and again, but have had an extended period of being super busy...)
Anyway, seems like this season is shaping up to be a great one. It's about time we had some real racing, and it looks like we're going to see much more of it.
Really interesting race today. Mercedes still seem to have the pace, but are being let down mostly by terrible strategic calls, whereas Ferrari seem to have mostly got their act together on that front. Hamilton's driving in slowly was not that smart, but the penalty seemed harsh in the circumstances; he was behind the safety car for one, and no advantage was gained thanks to a slow stop in any event. Nonetheless, that situation should really never have arisen in the first place. What was Mercedes thinking stacking the pit stops like that?
It's almost like they have been able to get away with much on the strategic front up until now by virtue of overwhelming on-track pace, and now they can't do that any more their strategic deficiencies are being highlighted. They have been able to try to treat both drivers equally and finish 1/2 many times in the past few seasons. Kind of thinking that they need to choose at this point. Ferrari wouldn't have stacked Vettel behind Raikkonen if they were in the same situation. Bottas is good, but I really don't think he's in Hamilton's league.
Also: McLaren. Oy vey.
Anyway, not exactly much to complain about from a fan's viewpoint today. On to Sochi!