Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 33. (Read 142989 times)

While I do agree that this mistake feels like something terrible and Russell will feel terrible about it, I think it is something he can overcome not that hard. First of all, there are many situations when drivers could even lead a race and then crash, sad situation when it happens but it is in the game, your car could break down, your engine could fail, many things could happen, or you could just have a pit stop issue and not even continue the race.

These drivers are aware of it and live all their life facing these tough situations, either themselves or at least they see others have it. So when something like this happens, while it is definitely not a great feeling, I am sure that he can overcome it easily.

Plus if he won, then he won and he did all he could, with a one stop strategy as well, keeping Hamilton, a seven time world champion, away from him even with DRS, which shows you how great Russell drove. This could be something to feel happy about, if Mercedes ends up getting their car getting better like this, then their future with Russell seems bright, so it is a good sign for their future and he must feel good about it. It is a bad situation, but nothing too bad to stay hung up on at all.

Mercedes owes Russel an apology, he has worked hard to get P1, but because of a mistake his team made he had to be disqualified and Lewis emerged as the winner of the race. It's just unfair to him. But apart from that, I can say that this race was quite exciting because there were lots of overtakes, and especially Max who wasn't as monster as before. This makes the race even more exciting to watch.

Tragedy for Russell but the disqualification is fair.
Even if the weigh was only 1.5kilo shorter the advantage was huge.

even if we assume only 1/10 of a second per lap, over the duration of the race he was "cheating" for 5second total of advantage.

Toto Wolff apologised to George Russell for this huge mistake they made. It is really unbelievable, just think about all your effort goes for nothing because of a stupid mistake your team makes... 

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/wolff-apologises-to-russell-after-mercedes-mistake-leads-to-belgian-gp.3iQ5OuQj81l7DQbCaYKKt9

Russell is a really talented driver no matter what people say. He acted so smart by going for one-stop strategy as well. He was wonderful with saving his hard tyres for like 34 laps. I thought Hamilton would absolutely overtake him but he couldn't. Russell defended his position strongly. Even Piastri caught up with them thanks to that but didn't have enough time to get past any of them.

After Russell is out, Hamilton is winning his second GP in a row while Leclerc is also finding a chance to finish on podium. 

Mercedes has had a major scandal. Race winner Russell disqualified from Belgian Grand Prix for underweight car and Hamilton became the new winner. The car weighed 1.5 kilograms less than the minimum weight of 798 kilograms. Russell was therefore disqualified. Mercedes retained first place, but they lost important points in a race in which they scored a double podium.
It's unfair to Russell, his hard work has been wasted, but the Mercedes team seems to be to blame here. Losing points because of such a mistake is one of the unforgettable moments of this year.

Incredible race for Mercedes.
Russell went in god mode with his idea of making only 1 pit box.

Again a missed opportunity from Norris.

Due things are now sure, Mercedes is back and Redbull is not the best car anymore.

Both Redbulls were not capable of passing on track of any car including Ferrari,Mercedes and McLaren,if this is their true power after claiming a huge massive upgrade for this race in Verstappen car it means that most likely they are not going to be winning this Championship at least the constructor title is not at all guaranteed for them.I wonder what decision they will take about Perez tomorrow,most likely he is going to be sacked as he did not show anything,starting 2nd and finishing 8th does not mean anything good for him and not good for the team also.To bad we are having a long break right now in the middle of where things are becoming beautiful.

There are only 10 minutes to go for the race to start. It is going to be interesting to watch Verstappen climb the positions today.    He looks really fast this time if you watched the qualifying session. A time gap like 0.6 seconds is really big but he is unlucky to have that grid penalty. I'm still expecting him to finish on podium of course.

But can he win the race? I don't think so. Perez needs to keep McLarens behind to give Verstappen a more realistic chance to win here. But I wouldn't trust Perez even a bit. 

I mean Perez was great yesterday. He was so close to taking pole also but I think he used the track conditions to his advantage. No rain is expected today so I feel like he will drop down by many places.

2024 F1 Belgian Grand Prix - Qualifying Results
Pos   Driver   Nat.   Team   Q1   Q2   Q3
1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m54.938s   1m53.837s   1m53.159s
2   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m55.349s   1m54.193s   1m53.754s
3   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m55.139s   1m54.470s   1m53.765s
4   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m55.692s   1m54.037s   1m53.835s
5   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m55.582s   1m54.358s   1m53.981s
6   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m54.835s   1m54.136s   1m54.027s
7   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m55.353s   1m54.095s   1m54.184s
8   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m55.169s   1m54.112s   1m54.477s
9   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m55.489s   1m54.258s   1m54.765s
10   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m55.417s   1m54.460s   1m54.810s

Pole position for Leclerc cause Max got 10 positions penalty.

It will be a fun race to see, if we have raid I guess Max will win.

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1052777/1/2024-f1-belgian-grand-prix-qualifying-results

Tomorrow at least there is no sight of rain and although cooler weather we are free from rain which will make a beautiful race.I was watching in F1 official Instagram page a scrolling post with many small ones reviving to us what happened in 2008 where Hamilton and Raikkonen fought it hard for the win and although Hamilton won back then he was penalized with 25 seconds for touching with Raikkonen,so Massa got the win,glorious times which I hope we can see a repeat tomorrow judging from the starting grid.It sure promises a lot of action and the track permits it.

My source says it is full rainy today at the location. So we had better get ready for some interesting action.    It isn't expected to rain heavily though, only around 1 mm.



Source: YR served by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and NRK

However even this amount of rain can make a big impact. If it rains, stops and starts again then having the right strategy can carry even an unexpected driver to pole position. 

Only half an hour to go and the odds are like 2.49 - Verstappen, 2.85 - Norris. But one should keep in mind that even if Verstappen finishes the session as the 1st he is starting the race 10 positions back because of a power unit change.

That doesn't sound right...  If Newey still has a live contract until early 2025 then he should be doing his job and help the team win the most races they can.  And I don't think he would do Horner dirty like that, leaving him at the middle of the season.  Lol. 

Unless...  I missed something?

Anyway, track was wet at FP3 and most of the drivers just had under 10 laps in.  So no additional info to pick up on.  Quali in an hour or so. 

2024 F1 Belgian Grand Prix - Free Practice Results (2)
Pos   Driver   Nat.   Team   Time
1   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m42.260s
2   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m42.475s
3   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m42.477s
4   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m42.837s
5   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m43.098s
6   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m43.290s
7   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m43.401s
8   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m43.485s
9   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m43.504s
10   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m43.519s
11   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m43.532s
12   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m43.538s
13   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m43.675s
14   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   Visa Cash App RB F1 Team   1m43.823s
15   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m43.829s
16   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m43.846s
17   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m43.892s
18   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m44.226s
19   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m44.302s
20   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Visa Cash App RB F1 Team   1m44.348s

Source:https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1052680/1/2024-f1-belgian-grand-prix-friday-practice-results

Mclaren is still ahead, rain could be a possibility.

I'm expecting a big difference in cars, long tracks kinda do

First practice session has ended with Verstappen's lead. Norris wasn't competitive yet. But now after the second session things changed quite much.    Norris finished as the leader and Piastri followed right behind. Verstappen followed them in the 3rd position. McLaren isn't joking at all as of now. They are targeting the championship which is very realistic considering how bad Perez is.

By the way Esteban Ocon has signed a multi-year deal with Haas. I wonder what Gasly's future is going to be as well. Does Alpine think of keeping him?

He already left his position.
He is still in redbull but he is not contributing anymore in the development of the car.

He is still payed by them but he is doing things for redbull outside the F1.

^  Wait what?  I may have missed something...  Adrian Newey already left Red Bull and will not stay til the end of the season?

*Checks internet*

Ah no.  Lol.  He's set to leave early 2025.  I think Newey could still figure out something to get their edge back.  But it's gonna be another close fight between Red Bull and McLaren for sure.  It's the season that we have been waiting for and deserve.

Since Adrian Newey left they have no more engineering superiority.
Next race is Spa he can recover easly to top 4, after that it will be harder.

The race for the world title is still on.

If I can remember correctly we will have a spring race next race too and I'm assuming the penalty will be on the race start and not on sprint race start.

So I heard that Max Verstappen will have a 10 place grid penalty because Red Bull replaced his car's power unit.  What does this mean?  I guess watch quali and see how he finishes.  If he gets pole position then we could be pretty sure thst there's a good chance he'll be on the podium even if he starts at 11th on the grid.

If he's still behind the McLarens then we'll see a lot more shenanigans that we saw in Hungary.  He's frustrated now.

McLaren has been said to have the fastest performance car at the moment, but they are very bad at managing their drivers which makes clashes inevitable. They need to manage their two drivers as quickly as possible, because otherwise McLaren can make Lando and Piastri the same as Hamilton and Nico as before, and they will miss the opportunity to make one of their drivers become world champions.

I congratulate McLaren on an outstanding performance. They've come back from the bottom to the top. As for the team order, if they had a plan to keep Piastri in front, I think they could have easily dealt with it with an early pit. It was a clumsily managed sequence. Congratulations to Piastri, but he is still behind Norris in terms of pace. I hope Red Bull, like Ferrari, have been misled by the updates. They were saying they completed the program three weeks early, but they were not in a good mood. I hope they didn't understand the updates or it wasn't something track specific and they messed up.

The season is going exactly as I thought it would. It's evolving into a scenario where they lose the constructors' championship. I thought Ferrari would be champions in the constructors' championship, but McLaren have been very strong in the constructors' championship this year. I think the relationship between Verstappen and Red Bull may have broken down, Verstappen knows that next year he will fight for the top with McLaren and the championship will not be easy with Red Bull. Mercedes, on the other hand, is on the upswing in terms of performance and bringing Allison back into the project has been very effective. Next year, when he designs the car himself, it looks like we will see Mercedes and McLaren at the top. Maybe Ferrari will join them if they get Newey. Therefore, the ideal scenario for Verstappen seems to be Mercedes.