2022 - Race 6 Spain

[F1nKS]

Race 6 to Spain

1. Leclerc 104
2. Verstappen 85
3. Perez 66
4. Russell 59
5. Sainz 53
6. Hamilton 36

Really need either Sainz/Perez or Mercedes to win a race here or there to really shake up the results.

[airshifter]

I think Ferrari have some fairly big upgrades due in Spain, and that might change things up some more. Overall I think the Ferrari and RB are fairly close cars, both very fast and RB seems to be slowly sorting out the reliability issues some. At this point I think the drivers are playing a big part of the things at the top, with of course some good/bad luck being spread to both teams on occasion. But Charles and Max and just better overall drivers than Carlos and Sergio, so short of big mistakes I expect it to more or less stay that way.

It would be nice to see Merc get into the hunt, but for now it seems they still haven't come to grips with things. Both drivers seem to indicate the car is difficult to get set up properly and that even minor track changes make a huge difference in what they need to get the car working. If they don't sort it out soon both drivers will end up being frustrated, as well as the team. Merc have already stated that if they don't sort things out by Canada IIRC then they will start trying radical changes.

[Bagwan]

Everyone , bar Haas , has a multitude of upgrades , so this is going to be interesting .
Merc is looking much more sorted , and less bruising .
AM is looking more "bullish" .
Fred is stylin' into 6th in the first , and 5th , a half-second off , in the second .

And , the Bulls were long-running it only , quietly going really quickly .


This could be a big reset here .

[airshifter]

Lots of upgrades through the field. And Merc have finally at least somewhat come to grips with the car and it's looking much better. AM did a lot of upgrades for nothing it appears, but at least they tried.

Fantastic lap by Leclerc. I'm not sure if Max had more in the car or not, but apparently we won't find out. The last I saw, it was just a DRS issue, and the light showed it activated when it was not, so Max though the car had lost power. I suspect him and Charles will be seeing a lot of each other tomorrow.

BOTH Haas cars in the top 10, good stuff. Also glad to see Danny Ric doing better. Lewis and George had to push hard, but overall the Merc seems to have made big gains. Let's see if they translate to race pace or not.

[N. Jones]

Ferrari has no luck.
Verstappen has all of the luck in the world.
Mercedes keep making their own luck. I can't believe that they are hanging on near the top.

[F1nKS]

Ferrari has no luck.

Leclerc's result was definitely bad luck for this race. He had a really good weekend and looked to have dominated this race.

Sainz has been making errors all season.

Verstappen has all of the luck in the world.

Idk, Verstappen might take exception to that characterization with the bad luck he had in two races he had DNF.

Mercedes keep making their own luck.

Russell drove a great race. I was surprised Hamilton wanted to call it a day so early and begging Mercedes to have him quit.

I can't believe that they are hanging on near the top.

Idk, why it had to believe. One of the richest teams in terms of engineering talent and money eventually will figure it out.

As much as things have changed, not much has changed. RBR, Ferrari, and Mercedes are the top 3 teams with everybody else at a different level below them.

Evidently, Verstappen was not the only driver having problems with DRS opening at times.

Overall, a very boring race. But it was good see the Spanish fans turn out in large numbers.

[airshifter]

I watched the race late and really enjoyed it overall.

Leclerc had a clear command of the race, but it wasn't to be today. The car is fast, and he is easily driving better than Sainz. I hope their reliability issues are minor and they stay in the hunt.

But behind him, some chaos was taking place. First Sainz, then Max at the same corner. Without that mistake from Max things might have been boring up front, but watching him and George go at it with Max having DRS issues was great. I thought George raced clean and did good to keep Max at bay. Then Perez is in the mix of things, and with fresher tires and properly working DRS makes it stick right away.

Though I do get the comments from Perez about the team order, at that point Max was so much quicker it was sort of an assumed thing to let him blow past. And let's be real here, RB has been behind Max from the start, so it wasn't unexpected at all.

KMag blew the start of the race for Lewis, but his attitude after showed how different his mindset is this year as compared to last year. The Merc was leaps and bounds better this race and Lewis was ready to throw in the towel. Merc did their job of convincing him otherwise, and overall a good result came of it.

Another great drive by Bottas in the Alfa. And the top ten was a mixed bag once again, with 8 different constructors in the points.


This weekend showed just how quick momentum and championship swings can happen. With a long season the the new cars getting some updates, it could remain a year of big swings. I hope so.

[Bagwan]

That was , indeed , fun to watch .

Thanks to the new formula , they can follow closely , and this race had some fine battles .

I understand that the Chuck failure was down to the "Drake curse" , as Drake had a $300k bitcoin bet on Chuck to win .
Drake's also a good buddy of Lewis's , which made for a Kmagging at the start , but at least Hamilton was able , after some tender coaxing from his handlers , to work his way back up the order .