Official 2024 Spanish Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

[RichB]

732NM said:

troc said:

I’m pretty sure the hard compound has never been the right choice around this track. That was an odd decision to put Russell on them.

Maybe he chose those himself.
Lewis said his strategy was to always go soft 3rd stint, the decision was made before the race started.

As Karun said, both sides of the garage start with exactly the same tyres and information, it's then up to them how they organise their weekend.

[DanielSan]

Westyn said:

vaud said:

Not a bad race, a 6/10.

As the field is converging than Perez looks like a terrible choice for second slot.

Perez is certainly not in the team because of his driving skills. It would be a better thing for Red Bull to replace him with Yuki in the upcoming season or maybe sign Sainz.

I'd hope for Red Bull that Perez' sponsorship more than covers the shortfall between first and second in the constructors. If Persz keeps going like this Mclaren are looking likely to take the trophy.

[Jasandjules]

MrBogSmith said:

lus Max said, "We definitely weren't the quickest out there today..."

From 07:25: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojUQLuSqV4s&ab...

What, team who don't want to be nobbled due to their huge pace advantage claim they don't have the pace??!?!

[vaud]

DanielSan said:

I'd hope for Red Bull that Perez' sponsorship more than covers the shortfall between first and second in the constructors. If Persz keeps going like this Mclaren are looking likely to take the trophy.

They don't need the money.

[Forester1965]

Red Bull set themselves up specifically to support one driver to win the drivers' championship. With the cost cap and associated rules we're now in an era where it can be advantageous not to come 1st in the WCC, because the extra wind tunnel/CFD time can boost your chances of winning the WDC. Not that I think it's an explicit aim, but coming 2nd wouldn't be much of a big deal for the team.

Perez is and was a journeyman driver with a decent budget behind him. Does as he's told. Gets to drive a decent car. Doesn't rock the boat. Suits all parties.

Verstappen is the quickest driver out there at the moment, but he's flattered by a team pointing all their resources at him, in the same way Schumacher had at Ferrari. To avoid accusations of being another Vettel, he really ought to test himself in another team partnered with a top level driver.

[Sandpit Steve]

Forester1965 said:

Red Bull set themselves up specifically to support one driver to win the drivers' championship. With the cost cap and associated rules we're now in an era where it can be advantageous not to come 1st in the WCC, because the extra wind tunnel/CFD time can boost your chances of winning the WDC. Not that I think it's an explicit aim, but coming 2nd wouldn't be much of a big deal for the team.

Perez is and was a journeyman driver with a decent budget behind him. Does as he's told. Gets to drive a decent car. Doesn't rock the boat. Suits all parties.

Verstappen is the quickest driver out there at the moment, but he's flattered by a team pointing all their resources at him, in the same way Schumacher had at Ferrari. To avoid accusations of being another Vettel, he really ought to test himself in another team partnered with a top level driver.

Max to Ferrari and Charles to Red Bull?

Wishful thinking I know, but would love to see Lewis and Max at the same team. Some of my earliest F1 memories were the fireworks of Prost and Senna together at McLaren.

[PlywoodPascal]

troc said:

I’m pretty sure the hard compound has never been the right choice around this track. That was an odd decision to put Russell on them.

They decide they had to pit Russell when they did because his tyres were done, racing Norris hard and going side by side with him for half a lap tipped them over the thermal degradation edge. He was slow and about to start holding up/racing Hamilton. So they had to pit him when they did. because he didn’t get the tyre life from his set that they needed to go onto softs. So with the stop happening when it did, the only option to get to the end was hards.

Hamilton managed the middle stint better and got the tyre life needed to go soft medium soft.

I think Russell only raced Norris so hard because he messed up so badly in stint 1 defending from Norris. He went defensive when he didn’t need to and basically just invited him past when Norris wasn’t even planning a pass, I’d say.

[honda_exige]

Jasandjules said:

MrBogSmith said:

lus Max said, "We definitely weren't the quickest out there today..."

From 07:25: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojUQLuSqV4s&ab...

What, team who don't want to be nobbled due to their huge pace advantage claim they don't have the pace??!?!

2023 called and wants its comment back!

4 different poles in 4 races + 4 different winners this year suggests if the above is true then RBR as a team need to be Oscar nominated

[PlywoodPascal]

PRO5T said:

What did you think he did poorly on?

The implied bar you’ve set though is not ‘don’t do anything poorly’, it’s ’you must ace everything’. As other posters have pointed out - max made a mistake that cost him a couple of seconds.

[PlywoodPascal]

honda_exige said:

2023 called and wants its comment back!

4 different poles in 4 races + 4 different winners this year suggests if the above is true then RBR as a team need to be Oscar nominated

Acting when you aren’t an actor is called lying, so I guess this is plausible.

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

I was out yesterday so watched the 8 minute highlights on YouTube. Didn't feel like I missed anything.

[asfault]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

I was out yesterday so watched the 8 minute highlights on YouTube. Didn't feel like I missed anything.

You kinda did.
You missed the interesting strategy lando had to go one once he lost the lead.

[isaldiri]

PlywoodPascal said:

I think Russell only raced Norris so hard because he messed up so badly in stint 1 defending from Norris. He went defensive when he didn’t need to and basically just invited him past when Norris wasn’t even planning a pass, I’d say.

Norris never overtook Russell in stint 1. And exactly how is someone inviting a driver past if he went defensive early?

[8Ace]

DanielSan said:

Westyn said:

vaud said:

Not a bad race, a 6/10.

As the field is converging than Perez looks like a terrible choice for second slot.

Perez is certainly not in the team because of his driving skills. It would be a better thing for Red Bull to replace him with Yuki in the upcoming season or maybe sign Sainz.

I'd hope for Red Bull that Perez' sponsorship more than covers the shortfall between first and second in the constructors. If Persz keeps going like this Mclaren are looking likely to take the trophy.

Perez will more than account for the extra prize money, and finishing 2nd instead of 1st means they get more wind tunnel time. I hate it, but I can see the logic.

[Byker28i]

PhilAsia said:

skwdenyer said:

PhilAsia said:

Amazing start by Russell, which was followed by a flaccid defence on a wafty passing move. Max pulling - once again - a second ahead in the next three nanometers.

Max passing Russell so early stopped any real possibility of attack from Norris. Norris drove a great race, with the difference in the pace of the RB and McLaren being shown with the relative passes on Russell. Norris now has a car that shows his abilities and he is shining.

Excellent race and strategy by Max and RB nonetheless. Just doing enough at the end.

Despite Russell's limp-wristed Max defence he deserved a third place imo, but both he and Sainz were stymied by the hard tyre choice.

Lewis did well. Solid, apart from a poor start. His second and third stint allowed him to take advantage of the poor tyre choice for Russell.

Checo possibly left his charge too late...

Was George stymied, or did he take too much out of his softs, forcing him to put early? Lewis appeared to be able to get more out of his first stint, like Lando.

Lewis is better than Russell at tyre management, but the hards were sliding around too much to become effective, leading to Russell eventually succumbing to Lewis on better performing tyres.

Russel put in fastest lap straight after putting on hards. The thought is he took too much out of them straight away

[Mark-C]

8Ace said:

DanielSan said:

Westyn said:

vaud said:

Not a bad race, a 6/10.

As the field is converging than Perez looks like a terrible choice for second slot.

Perez is certainly not in the team because of his driving skills. It would be a better thing for Red Bull to replace him with Yuki in the upcoming season or maybe sign Sainz.

I'd hope for Red Bull that Perez' sponsorship more than covers the shortfall between first and second in the constructors. If Persz keeps going like this Mclaren are looking likely to take the trophy.

Perez will more than account for the extra prize money, and finishing 2nd instead of 1st means they get more wind tunnel time. I hate it, but I can see the logic.

Piastri needs to up his game more than Perez to make McLaren Constructors champions ...

[Blib]

Byker28i said:

Russel put in fastest lap straight after putting on hards. The thought is he took too much out of them straight away

He doesn't seem to be amongst the very best at tyre preservation.

[Zolvaro]

Blib said:

Byker28i said:

Russel put in fastest lap straight after putting on hards. The thought is he took too much out of them straight away

He doesn't seem to be amongst the very best at tyre preservation.

I've been noticing the opposite with Lando recently, he tends to fallback a little with new tyres and but then closes at the end of stints. He seems to really have this generation of tyres worked out.

[isaldiri]

Zolvaro said:

I've been noticing the opposite with Lando recently, he tends to fallback a little with new tyres and but then closes at the end of stints. He seems to really have this generation of tyres worked out.

Take a look again at the laptimes - everyone goes at it like the clappers on the first lap out of the pits to maximise the undercut. Norris did it for 3 further laps actually on his last stint while most of the other drivers (Hamilton/Verstappen) just did a very quick outlap then paced themselves after.

[HighwayStar]

Blib said:

Byker28i said:

Russel put in fastest lap straight after putting on hards. The thought is he took too much out of them straight away

He doesn't seem to be amongst the very best at tyre preservation.

Russell is a very good driver but he doesn’t have any real in race strategy/management. Early in the race, after Max has passed him, Russell was asked about his pace… he basically said he was maximum attack. The Merc doesn’t have RedBull pace. He knows that but ruined his tyres chasing Max and and screwed his own race.