2018 Russian Grandprix [SOCHI]

https://www.racefans.net/wp-content/...al-street-.jpg

Sochi is a low abrasion track with a number of right angles corners [ten right angle corners to be exact] and two fast stretches. It would seem like, this could bring Redbull into the fight for the win. Mercedes have been strong here in the past, but that was when they had speed advantage over all comers. This time round, they are struggling to keep up with the Ferrari cars. But are somehow managing to stay ahead due to a recently found solution to their tyre degradation problem during the race at Singapore.

Would that fix work on the low grip surface of Sochi?

Sochi is a "must win" race for Ferrari and Vettel especially. The constructors and drivers championship are slipping away from Ferrari with six races left in the championship. Chances are, if Ferrari mess up in Sochi, it would be difficult to see them as contenders for both titles for rest of the five races. Another missed opportunity possibly. Hence Ferrari must approach this weekend with excellent preparation and determination to win this race.

From Mercedes perspective, they are in a unique position to deal the first death blow to the faltering black stallion. Failing to do better than Ferrari in this race would leave the door open for Ferrari to drag the fight out to the last race in Abu Dhabi and potentially steal one or both of the championships in the process.

It is tight and highly charged going into this race with a great deal to be won or lost by the leading pair. I am hoping the championship do not end too early. Hence l am hoping that Ferrari would do their utmost to ensure they win this race, so that we have an exciting fight to the end of the season.

That said, may the best man win!

Ferrari needs to stop shooting itself in the foot. Mercedes has done no wrong outside of Austria so Ferrari need to be inch perfect the rest of the way. Red Bull are only Max at this point and his car just isn't much up to the task of winning a race.

Considering his car will probably break down. I hope Ricciardo gives this race a miss so he can watch his Australian Football team, West Coast Eagles, demolish the Collingwood Magpies this weekend in the AFL Grand Final this weekend!

Ricciado is saying there is some degradation on the track this year. Hence, it may be a two stop race on sunday. Both Redbull may be starting from the back but they seem faster than the Ferrari.

Given that Mercedes have a great chance to close down the drivers championship, are they going to let Bottas race Hamilton for the win? It is a hard one; since Bottas has not won a race this year and this may be his first.

Let the show begin ;-)

Verstappen is scything thru the field. & Vettel passed Hamilton

Skysport going way overboard with an understandable team order. Didn't hear them all the times this year when ferrari issued orders. Oh well. I guess they want controversy.
They spend more time talking about that than hamilton overtaking vettel on the track. Which to me was a bigger factor.

Driver of the race was LeClerc

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by truefan72

Driver of the race was LeClerc

---

I think driver of the day was Max Verstapenn but Leclerc was brilliant.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by truefan72

Skysport going way overboard with an understandable team order. Didn't hear them all the times this year when ferrari issued orders. Oh well. I guess they want controversy.
They spend more time talking about that than hamilton overtaking vettel on the track. Which to me was a bigger factor.

---

David Croft kind of over did it. In all the forums, there was a concensus that Mercedes were going to do this to put the championship fight further away from Ferrari.

That said, Ferrari has taken a huge punch to the gut today and l think they would be keeling over with disappointment. What really mystify me is where the hell has Ferrari's pace gone? They simply could not let loose their usual speed today.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nitrodaze

David Croft kind of over did it. In all the forums, there was a concensus that Mercedes were going to do this to put the championship fight further away from Ferrari.

That said, Ferrari has taken a huge punch to the gut today and l think they would be keeling over with disappointment. What really mystify me is where the hell has Ferrari's pace gone? They simply could not let loose their usual speed today.

---

Yup. Well said.
They seem deflated. But i also think that Sochi isn't their best track. Luckily for them RBR started from the back.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by truefan72

Yup. Well said.
They seem deflated. But i also think that Sochi isn't their best track. Luckily for them RBR started from the back.

---

It is looking like Ferrari are turning their attention to next year's car. Kinda feel like the championship fight is over. It is a hoping game now. Hoping Mercedes have some bad form over the next five races.


I feel for Bottas but l think Mercedes would make it up to him in due course. And Force India seem to have got their race head together for this race.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nitrodaze

David Croft kind of over did it. In all the forums, there was a concensus that Mercedes were going to do this to put the championship fight further away from Ferrari.

That said, Ferrari has taken a huge punch to the gut today and l think they would be keeling over with disappointment. What really mystify me is where the hell has Ferrari's pace gone? They simply could not let loose their usual speed today.

---

They go overboard with everything.

Amazing drive by Max to carve through the field that quickly. And heads up thinking by playing the long game with Ricciardo's front wing. The pass by Lewis on Seb looked almost too easy, but I think Seb also knew it was inevitable at that point.

Good drives by both Leclerc and K Mag to stay up there in the points. After all the whining, Perez couldn't get by K Mag either, but at least Force India seemed to have made a decent call on giving it a try.

I'm sure Bottas wanted that win, but in this case it was the right thing to do. Extending that lead is a big blow to Ferrari and Seb.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by airshifter

After all the whining, Perez couldn't get by K Mag either, but at least Force India seemed to have made a decent call on giving it a try.

---

Lol. I completely forgot about that situation and how annoyed I was at Perez. He was never going to get past Magnussen. It is a shame that Ocon is the one left out for 2019.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by truefan72

Lol. I completely forgot about that situation and how annoyed I was at Perez. He was never going to get past Magnussen. It is a shame that Ocon is the one left out for 2019.

---

Yeah me as well. Of the two drivers Ocon deserves a top drive more. Perez had his chance at McLaren and he blew it. Ocon deserves his F1 seat.

Can’t understand those complaining about Mercedes swap in Russia. It was a no brainer and Mercedes would have been thick stupid not to have Hamilton finish ahead of Bottas.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The Black Knight

Yeah me as well. Of the two drivers Ocon deserves a top drive more. Perez had his chance at McLaren and he blew it. Ocon deserves his F1 seat.

Can’t understand those complaining about Mercedes swap in Russia. It was a no brainer and Mercedes would have been thick stupid not to have Hamilton finish ahead of Bottas.

---

True, the same media that is stirring up things would be the ones that would have criticized Mercedes if they had not done the swap. It was a hard decision for them but very necessary. I guess, some would have wanted Bottas to win so that the fight for the championship can rage on with a mathematical chance that Ferrari can catch up. Like you say, it would have been very stupid for Mercedes not to have swapped them.

I did state at the beginning of the season that Bottas could become king maker if he was allowed to race Hamilton through the tricky parts of the championship fight with Ferrari.

The team order was not great to see from a sporting point of view but inevitable and made sense in situations like this
If Lewis is genuine in feeling 'conflicted' about the team order I'm sure he will give Valteri back his win nearer the end of the season if Mercs dominance continues and he can.
I'll be furious and slate him big time if he doesn't!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zico

If Lewis is genuine in feeling 'conflicted' about the team order I'm sure he will give Valteri back his win nearer the end of the season if Mercs dominance continues and he can.
I'll be furious and slate him big time if he doesn't!

---

Personally, I think there is nothing as pathetic as gifting your team-mate a victory in a race where he isn't the fastest in exchange for a win given up in a race where he was.
Just ask Barrichello how highly he rates his "win" in Indianapolis 2002 or Gerhard Berger about Suzuka 1991.

Personally I don't like a race win being decided by team orders, but this was a sensible decision from Merc. The team always comes first and securing the WDC is much more important than "fairness".

Funnily enough, before the race I was going to say that I would be very surprised if Merc handed out team orders to Bottas, but that I expected Hamilton to chase him and possibly overtake him on the track. Thankfully my unstable Internet connection saved me some embarrassment at the time. :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gm99

Personally, I think there is nothing as pathetic as gifting your team-mate a victory in a race where he isn't the fastest in exchange for a win given up in a race where he was.
Just ask Barrichello how highly he rates his "win" in Indianapolis 2002 or Gerhard Berger about Suzuka 1991.

---

Yes, it is very unsporting and I can imagine how it must grate on Botas... but wouldnt repaying the unearned win the lesser of the two evils?
It wouldnt be a great feeling to win in that manner but I'd still accept it if I was Valteri.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The Black Knight

Yeah me as well. Of the two drivers Ocon deserves a top drive more. Perez had his chance at McLaren and he blew it. Ocon deserves his F1 seat.

Can’t understand those complaining about Mercedes swap in Russia. It was a no brainer and Mercedes would have been thick stupid not to have Hamilton finish ahead of Bottas.

---

yup. The same media that is all up in arms about the fact that mercedes did the switch at Sochi and "robbed Bottas of a win" are the same ones that,on 2 different occasions, complained about Ferrari not being quick enough to switch the drivers, and on another occasion that Ferrari did not favor Vettel properly. Especially Sky Sports, who seem to be suffering some kind of short term memory loss with their commentary.

BTW, i'm pretty sure Hamilton would have challenged Bottas in the latter stages until the team would have told them to hold station...which would then incur more rancor and turmoil from the media folks who would ask, why they didn't switch the drivers, and why mercedes were telling the guy leading the championship to hold station behind his teammate and get into a potential tussle with his championship rival. SMH

#BanTeams

:D

Did anyone catch the exchange with Hamilton and Putin? I couldn't quite make it out. I think Hamilton was asked not to spray champagne on Putin again, and he replied something to the effect that it wasn't him last time. :laugh:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by airshifter

Did anyone catch the exchange with Hamilton and Putin? I couldn't quite make it out. I think Hamilton was asked not to spray champagne on Putin again, and he replied something to the effect that it wasn't him last time. :laugh:

---

i couldn't help but notice that the Russian dignitaries got off the stage as quickly as possible before the champagne was deployed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by airshifter

Did anyone catch the exchange with Hamilton and Putin? I couldn't quite make it out. I think Hamilton was asked not to spray champagne on Putin again, and he replied something to the effect that it wasn't him last time. :laugh:

---

Putin threatened: "If you spray champagne on me, we will spray Novichok on you".

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The Black Knight

Can’t understand those complaining about Mercedes swap in Russia. It was a no brainer and Mercedes would have been thick stupid not to have Hamilton finish ahead of Bottas.

---

MB wouldn't have been stupid if they just let it go for Bottas to win.

It would've been good PR for MB had Bottas won because Hamilton isn't really under serious pressure from Vettel, the situation is the same in the wcc, everyone would've recognised it was an accurate reflection of performance for the weekend.

In a scenario where they could've deployed team orders, to not do so would make them look good in front of fans wanting to see a meaningful race. Because Hamilton isn't under serious pressure from Vettel, it also undermines his season because people can speculate where else Hamilton is being favoured.


Had Bottas won. Because it's been infrequent that he's had the better of Hamilton, it' would've validated Hamilton's season more so than what has happened. Even if Hamilton ends up giving Bottas two freebie race wins at the end of the year, it would actually still invalidate their performances, because it's not a reflection of performance. It would've affirmed the notion that MB don't do team orders (unless it's reasonable to do so), which is what the audience likes to see.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by journeyman racer

MB wouldn't have been stupid if they just let it go for Bottas to win.

It would've been good PR for MB had Bottas won because Hamilton isn't really under serious pressure from Vettel, the situation is the same in the wcc, everyone would've recognised it was an accurate reflection of performance for the weekend.

In a scenario where they could've deployed team orders, to not do so would make them look good in front of fans wanting to see a meaningful race. Because Hamilton isn't under serious pressure from Vettel, it also undermines his season because people can speculate where else Hamilton is being favoured.


Had Bottas won. Because it's been infrequent that he's had the better of Hamilton, it' would've validated Hamilton's season more so than what has happened. Even if Hamilton ends up giving Bottas two freebie race wins at the end of the year, it would actually still invalidate their performances, because it's not a reflection of performance. It would've affirmed the notion that MB don't do team orders (unless it's reasonable to do so), which is what the audience likes to see.

---

At the time it would have been difficult to tell how things might have turned out. Hamilton in front of Vettel was like a carrot for Ferrari and offered possibilities for overtaking Hamilton and putting Vettel in position to fight for the win. This would have been the only sensible perspective of the Mercedes pitwall during the race.

Taking the decision to remove any possibility of Ferrari and Vettel getting by Hamilton was the smartest call that Mercedes pitwall could have done. We have always criticized the Mercedes strategy in the past for being slow and lethargic in making strategic calls during races. On this occasion, they were super smart and took what was without doubt the correct decision to eliminate all possible risks of losing ground to Ferrari in the drivers championship fight.

I suppose some would say they should have taken the risk for the sake of PR. But l think it would have been stupid to hang it out there to see how things would work out. If it had gone wrong, it would have upset the dynamics of the Mercedes team as they would start to doubt themselves. Why risk it when you can remove the risk. It also shows that Mercedes are not underestimating Ferrari at all which is a clear indication of how awesome that Ferrari car is this season. Shame they did not operate at the optimum to take full advantage of that great car.