Perez in Q3
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Less strategy for Ferrari to screw up too
Forgot to add, well done to DR on his first quali back.
Let’s see how he goes tomorrow
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To be fair, 2021 produced a great race, and last year’s race was decent, but it’s more of a “meh” track to me.
F1 is definitely prioritizing money over good racing. If they weren’t, we would have more great racetracks like COTA, Hockenheim, and Interlagos.
Hungaroring seems to be a track that produces either a snoozefest or a mediocre race, but every once in a while makes something good. To be fair, there’s a lot of tracks on the calendar like that.
Perez is BACK BABY! Only finished 37 seconds behind his teammate! DOTD material right there!
/s obviously
This might seem outlandish but wow, Max is basically the HAM or MSC of his generation. He’s only been winning lots of races for 3 seasons now and he’s already proven himself as an all time great. His combination of great racecraft and absolute raw speed and talent is just amazing.
I think of him as the perfect combination of Alonso/Hamilton and Leclerc, minus being crash-prone like Charles is. Absolute raw speed over one lap and impeccable racecraft on Sunday. I know he has had a dominant car for two seasons now, but most of the true greats (other than Alonso) did too. I’m not a Max fan but you just have to appreciate how well he is driving.
Great drive today, definitely deserved DOTD instead of Mr Can’t Qualify being crap on Saturday and putting the car where it should’ve been in the first place while also being 37 seconds off his teammate. DOTD merchant at this point.
Oh yeah, for sure. You can’t deny that his early days in F1 were plagued with some pointless incidents but 2019 onwards he really cleaned everything up. That’s where I think the Max we see today started. 2020 was a really impressive season for him, capturing two wins against the most dominant car of all time, and almost beating Valtteri (who was much more consistent than Checo) in the championship in the 2nd (or on some tracks, 3rd) best car. It’s great to see him consistently getting championship caliber cars, because that’s the caliber of driver he is.
This season hasn’t had a lot of action (yesterday’s race really was the “Hungaboring” at it’s worst) but it would still be cool to see Max smash a record or two, which isn’t out of the question at this point. I don’t think the RB19 is quite as dominant as the W11, but it’s certainly close. He’s already on 7 race wins in 7 races so I wouldn’t be shocked if he beats Vettel’s record at Monza.
This does feel like we’ve gone full circle, haha. Don’t get me wrong, Checo was a great driver in a Best of the Rest car in 2020. It seems like joining Red Bull, he hasn’t been able to perform under pressure. I know this seems like a weird comparison but it’s a similar situation to Lance. Did a respectable job against Seb in 21/22 in a midfield car, but now that the car is capable of podiums, he isn’t performing under that pressure.
I find the comparison to Russell odd, as Russell is more similar to Max or Lewis than Bottas or Checo. Bottas was better in the Merc (for the most part) than Checo in the RB. He was very consistently right there with Lewis in quali, and occasionally beat him on merit in both quali and the races. And when Lewis was having an off week, Bottas was always there to pick up the pieces and snag a race win. You can’t say the same for Checo. He has failed to qualify anywhere near where he should be in a dominant car, and if Max is having reliability issues or just an off weekend, there is no guarantee Checo will even get a podium. It seems like he’s a great Best of the Rest / midfield driver who can’t handle the pressure of a top team.
Either way, I’ll be interested to watch what he does for the rest of the season. A good performance might get him his confidence back (and a podium is a decent start), since it was crushed after Monaco like you said.
All that talk about being here to win a championship from Checo has ceased. He should be okay now; seems a lot more humble.
Max by .8
That’s just…I mean I know RB do well at spa under the new regs but yea, wow.
F1tv has clamped down on VPNs. Raah.
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I was rolling when Max asked if he could box to give the team some “pitstop training”. Absolute menace.
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SARGEANT FIRST Q3
WHAT THE HELL IS A KILOMETER
…and that didn’t last long 
Dutch GP quali spoilers
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The joke was that Logan is American, and we use miles here in America.
And yeah, absolutely insane lap from Max. Also great quali from Albon. Hopefully Williams have the pace to score some points tomorrow.
It will be interesting to see them in a quali scenario, this track definitely seems like one that would suit their car. If they nailed the low-downforce setup, some good points aren’t out of the question.
Haas were strong in FP3 but we know their pace tends to go down the toilet in a race scenario, so I don’t expect much from them. Hulk might make Q3 but that’s about it.
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That was really close. Tomorrow should be very interesting.
Respectable job by AT, P11 and P12. Not bad. Nothing to rave about from Haas unfortunately.
Alex definitely has a lot of experience in this scenario. If the team doesn’t screw anything up, he’ll be in for a great race tomorrow.
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I would say the livery designers need a raise, but then I remember that eyesore of a Belgian GP livery. The Italy one is quite nice though.
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Tilkedromes are starting to look real good with all of these crappy street circuits in the US and middle east.
“#WeRaceAsMoney”
-FOM, probably
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In the end I think the calendar could be condensed significantly while adding better tracks and taking F1 to more countries. Both the US (I’m American and think we have too many races on trash circuits) and the middle east have too many races. But that’s because they are willing to pay the most.
Ditch at least two of the middle eastern races, probably AD and Jeddah. Ditch Vegas and Miami. Bring back Hockenheim, Kyalami, and a track in France that doesn’t suck. Get rid of a few street circuits since most of them aren’t good anyway and stick to traditional tracks as much as possible. Monaco is tough for me because as much as it produces poor racing, the drivers love it and the spectacle is incredible. And for god’s sake, if we need a track in Mexico, find a better one.
I don’t think any of this is likely to happen though, FOM/FIA aren’t trying to please fans. They aren’t trying to please drivers. They’re trying to line their pockets as much as possible, which is beginning to cause the degradation of this sport.
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