I think Hamilton was being warned about it before RB enquired but in any case I don’t see what the problem is.
Anyone could have done it and then everyone was told they could not. There wasn’t a point in the race where Hamilton was getting an advantage that was denied to others. Drivers seek to squeeze out every last 1/100th they can until told otherwise. They aren’t known for being shy and retiring with such edge decisions.
Plus, you can’t just say that he did it for x laps and gained y each time so actually gained (xy) seconds. Races don’t work like that.
There is also a case to be made that running wide may not have been the best strategy for retaining tyre life (which was as much of a part of the Merc strategy as pumping out 10/10ths laps.)
It seems to me that allowing Hamilton to do it for so long and then clamping down when anyone else did so appears to me that not anyone could have done it. Perhaps RBR should have violated track limits earlier to force the issue, but it seems to me that Hamilton got an advantage that the FIA stopped anyone else from getting after anyone else tried.
Hamilton himself obviously thought he was gaining an advantage, as he kept doing it, and when it was told to stop it he was incredulous on the radio. Saying he’s been doing it all race.
Well I’m not sure it rises to the level of “big” problem but sure, clarity from the off would be better.
To be honest, F1 hardly has a stellar track record when it comes to cutting Hamilton any slack so if they were being generous to him it’d be a change. (I don’t think he needs any generosity of course)
Interesting comments about the ride buying. This is a tradition as old as Formula One itself. One of the fascinating aspects of F1 in its early years was to be a sport of the rich and royalty, an extremely and often fatal pastime of the well-to-do. I think it wasn’t until the mid 60s when more and more teams were investing more and more money and wanted more professional drivers handling their machines. But obviously it still exists.
Even in NASCAR, now recently retired Paul Menard, part of the family that owns Menard’s, bought a seat. I’m sure there’s more.
No mention of Tsunoda yet? Pretty clear from Bahrain that he’s not afraid to race hard. It will be interesting to see how he does in the next few races.
I agree, he has a lot to commend him, he could be immense fun. There are quite a few young guys in there this year who could give us a lot of entertaintment if they are able to bump shoulders.
We’ll know within the next few days whether a Montreal GP will take place in early June. The city is prepared to let it run - but with no spectators. In that case, the promoter is asking for at least $6 million to cover his losses. Apparently - Istanbul is ready to step in if a decision can’t be reached.
If you had a VPN you could probably find the race highlights on All4 - which is the VOD service of the channel which shows the free-to-air highlights on the UK.
It’s on air now though so might be an hour or two before it becomes available to stream.
I watch em all on demand on the ESPN app on my xbox. I’d bet you can just go to espn.com and watch it. Though you’d have to sign in with your cable provider info, if you know it.
That was quite a race. To answer the questions I posed above:
Will Verstappen take P1?
Yes!
Can Hamilton stick to the track limits?
No! But neither, it seems, could anyone else (except see below).
How well will Ferrari do in their home race?
P4 and P5 – pretty good!
How many laps before Mazepin spins out?
In a race where almost everyone spun off, if not out, I did not actually see Mazepin spin once.
Biggest incident is, of course, Bottas and Russell’s collision, causing the race to be red flagged:
Russell claims that Bottas twitched as he was coming alongside, causing him to swing wide onto the wet grass, which caused his overcorrection right into Bottas’ car. Bottas claims he did no such thing and was simply sticking to the dry part of the track. I, frankly, couldn’t see any such twitching, but then I don’t have the visual acuity of an F1 driver. What say you?
