2023 Formula 1 Thread

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Another thrilling race..
Mercedes could have actually won, if they'd set George a one-lap target to get past Lando, Lewis was clearly so much faster and they should have swapped places for Lewis to attack for the remaining laps.

Carlos was so on the ball, many laps before the Mercedes caught up with Lando, brilliant racing head on him.. It's in the genes😉

stevec14

My first instinct was that Lewis may well have won were the placings reversed, but in hindsight they were never going to switch Russell out of p3 having done the donkey work to bridge the gap after pitting for mediums.

either way, the way Carlos managed lando’s DRS was a master stroke and likely would have been a similar scenario whichever of Lewis/ george were in 3rd. They’d driven the wheels off those cars and likely the tyre advantage was beginning to negate.

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If Mercedes had been shrewd and offered George the caveat that if Lewis can't get past Lando and Carlos, then they'd switch back again, it's a legitimate team tactic that they've used very effectively in the past. Obviously, trust between the teammates is imperative and I have no doubts that Lewis would do the right thing as he has done in the past.

Yes, Carlos was different class today, he's gotten so much more consistent of late, and it's an absolute pleasure to see him now very much on the same level as Leclerc.

stevec14

We’ll never know. Maybe with a couple of laps extra they could have done that, but either way it would have been a stretch to get past Carlos too. Thus George would be left in p4.

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It's likely that once Lewis opened the door, George would have followed through, instead George was carwatching the back of Lando and followed his line into the wall, only George came off far worse than Lando who merely scraped it.

DrmexicoII

I agree. If Lando was on his own I think they'd have got through after a few laps but with the DRS I don't think there were enough laps to get past on this circuit. Not to mention they'd probably taken quite a bit out of those mediums by the time they caught up.

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The Mercedes looks such a handful at Suzuka, completely unbalanced.
So good to see McLaren being so consistent, and Piastri is on fire, such a talent.
Another excellent qualifying from Liam Lawson, just pipped by Alonso by a tiny fraction; if Ricardo isn't on the money straight away when he comes back, he's gonna be in trouble.
I can't believe how patient James Vowels has been with Logan Sergeant it's a decent thing to do and probably the right thing to do, completely antithetical to Red Bulls' approach, but that seat really needs to go to somebody who can take it to Albon, or at least keep him honest.

stevec14

Logan has been pretty lame this year. Albon by contrast has driven the wheels off that thing. Maybe the patience with Logan is that the package might not tempt anyone across - thus they’d likely have to bring another rookie in. In that circumstance, maybe Logan will show the benefit of experience but I highly doubt it based on what I’ve seen.

the merc does indeed look terrible, but on the upside they have a good race car and an extra set of hards which might be a good thing.

max out on his own again. Car or not, he’s on a different level to the whole grid. He absolutely aced every corner on the pole lap. Was mesmerising to watch.

8100_RPM

I've been following Logan Sargeant since his F3 days. Personally, I think he was rushed and would have benefited from a second year in F2. He'll probably have a good career in IndyCars or IMSA/WEC.