OMG - What a race - and not for on-track battles but more for on-team-mate battles. Lando clearly won that race and McLaren bosses should be ashamed of the way they handled themselves in that race.
I’ve been an advocate for McLaren getting back on top for years of a sad hiatus in development but it makes me wonder if the team leadership now deserves it.
Nice for the drivers to get the 1-2 but an unnecessary way to do it.
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Oscar got sniffed when they chose to pit Lando first, he had track position and the team forfeited it. That’s why they made Lando switch places at the end, Oscar beat him off the line and it was going to stay that way.
Lando needs to work on his starts, he’s fumbled too much after putting in all that work in on Saturday. If he could just get off the line he wouldn’t have to worry about Oscar or anybody else. The first few moments of the race are critical with these large machines. He needs to learn to execute, take control, and take pressure off of the pit wall.
I hope he learns to keep his head down, and his mouth shut when push comes to shove because “life isn’t fair”.
I am happy for Oscar that he won his first race of the season but I am not sure if it was the best decision by McLaren. Lando is a real threat to Max in the race for the drivers championship this year and in this race McLaren made him lose some points that can prove crucial at the end of the season in terms of the drivers chapionship.
Max is going to need a miracle to pull this off this year. He hasn’t been happy with the car all season. Newey lost the gamble, and it doesn’t seem like they’re going to figure out the problem this season. All Lando needs to do is get good launches off the line and the championship is his.
I rewatched the race and the pit stops were mainly to cover off Lewis.
Yes Oscar was ahead at the start but wasn’t really pulling away to any great degree. The main loss in position for Lando at the start was in dealing with Max’s torpedo manouevre.
When Lando got into first place he was just cruising and even with 2 lap older tyres started to pull away at the end even forcing the team after much begging him to relinquish the place to eventually say OK, Oscar can’t catch you, you’ve proved your point.
Then he dropped from over a 6 second lead with 3 laps to go to let Oscar win the race and still said he deserved it. I still think he should have been left to take the win and let Oscar prove himself on another day (which will undoubtedly come).
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He had the inside line, and Lando squeezing Piastri allowed Max to get a draft in the middle of the track with plenty of room on the outside until Lando moved over to defend. None of that should’ve happened, Lando should be pulling off into the sunset.
He’s like 2 tenths quicker than Piastri on Saturday, and during the race. All he has to do is start strong, and the race is his. I agree it’s not fair, but for someone so fast in everything but starting, things like that happen.
The only way I see Piastri beating Lando this season is if the same thing happens, but team strategy favors Oscar instead of Lando.