Singapore GP

[rmassart]

Somewhat dull race, due to lack of overtaking possibilities. Could have been a cracker otherwise. No real overtaking in the top six.

Even though he probably doesn't agree, for me the biggest winner was Lewis, who despite coming fourth still extended his championship lead.

The other take away I have from this race is just as the other teams finally catch up with Mercedes in the current regulations, they plan to completely redo them in 2021 as far as I understand. Shame!

[Willy]

I agree it was a dull race.
But Singapore is all about manufactured excitement with lights and spectacle.
Not a great track to watch a race with poor to nonexistent passing and zero run-off areas.
Any race issues bring out Safety Cars and then we have a procession for a few laps until the next one.

Sad for Leclerc as Ferrari pooched his race with a poor strategy.

Lewis still held his own and extended his lead with the best points finish he could hope for today.
Vettel got his 1st win of the season so maybe that will give him a reason to stay and refocus him.

I have been impressed with Lance Stroll the last few races as he has shown driving talent that I did not know he possessed. I figured he had a seat due to Daddy buying him a team. I may have been wrong. He
appears to possess more talent then Grosjean, or at least better judgement.

Max drove a clean race and kept out of trouble to earn a 3rd place podium.

Not a surprise to hear Kubica walking from F1 at the end of the season. I guess there only so many times you can start and end every race from the far end not get discouraged. I hope he finds his passion again.

 

[Dare]

Team politics again decide the winner.

Binotto said that pitting LeClerc first not an option in this case as Ferrari feared Leclerc, a 21-year-old in only his second season in Formula One, would come out behind slower cars.  Yeah right.the second year driver
had just won 2 races back to back

[Alianora La Canta]

Team politics again decide the winner.

Binotto said that pitting LeClerc first not an option in this case as Ferrari feared Leclerc, a 21-year-old in only his second season in Formula One, would come out behind slower cars.  Yeah right.the second year driver
had just won 2 races back to back

It says something that the "slower car" in question would have been Bottas, and ended up being Vettel (the one time Sebastian was slow all race).

[John S]

Team politics again decide the winner.

Binotto said that pitting LeClerc first not an option in this case as Ferrari feared Leclerc, a 21-year-old in only his second season in Formula One, would come out behind slower cars.  Yeah right.the second year driver
had just won 2 races back to back

You're glossing over the real result for Ferrari - a 1-2 how long has it been since we've seen that. Especially at a track that no one gave them a hope of winning a week ago.

Binotto approved pitting Vettel first to put pressure back on Merc and then left them in 1st & 2nd as surely as Jean Todt gave orders for teammates to move over for Schumi. 

For all the talk of 'Malborough Man' Arrivabene being a tough hard man when he was team principal he has nothing on Binotto.

The present Ferrari team principal is cut from the same cloth as Frank, Ron and dare I say it Colin. 
Binotto appears gentlemanly when sweet talking the media and us the public, but seems to rule red team with an iron will so heavily camouflaged by a butter wouldn't melt and empathetic outward persona that Maranello and the drivers find hard to resist.

Rather than just focusing on LeClerc misses the point, I'm convinced we are witnessing the rise of one of the greatest Team leaders in Ferrari, and maybe F1 history.

   

[Monty]

Leclerc really let himself down with all of his very public whinging. There was no strategy that was going to guaranty him a win - he had failed to break away from the pack and therefore Ferrari took the option to maximise their chances of a one/two and it worked.
Mercedes really let themselves down by not listening to Lewis - he had already said 'come on, let's undercut them' but they left him out and tried to respond to Ferrari. From how well the cars that had started the race on hard and medium tyres were doing it was obvious that an undercut was going to work. It was equally obvious that, even with worn out tyres, a leading track position would allow a good driver to keep everyone behind them! Of course waiting for safety cars could have made a big difference but that is just gambling.
Reluctantly I have to admit that Max drove a very mature race.
My big disappointment was Ricciardo getting a puncture - I really thought he was going to get into the points. He certainly deserved to!

[Jericoke]

You're glossing over the real result for Ferrari - a 1-2 how long has it been since we've seen that. Especially at a track that no one gave them a hope of winning a week ago.

Binotto approved pitting Vettel first to put pressure back on Merc and then left them in 1st & 2nd as surely as Jean Todt gave orders for teammates to move over for Schumi. 
...
The present Ferrari team principal is cut from the same cloth as Frank, Ron and dare I say it Colin. 
Binotto appears gentlemanly when sweet talking the media and us the public, but seems to rule red team with an iron will so heavily camouflaged by a butter wouldn't melt and empathetic outward persona that Maranello and the drivers find hard to resist.

Rather than just focusing on LeClerc misses the point, I'm convinced we are witnessing the rise of one of the greatest Team leaders in Ferrari, and maybe F1 history.
   

An interesting perspective.  Taking it further, he is looking at the long term.  Ferrari isn't going to have a WDC this year, so consolidating second in the WCC has to be the priority, which means maximizing points over the race weekend.

Ferrari is ALSO setting the table for 2020.  Both drivers need to learn their place, and that is:  listen to Binotto.  LeClerc has certainly shown he is no mere 'rear gunner', but he still needs to learn to put the prancing horse first, as does Vettel.  Managing driver egos is a massive challenge in F1, and Binotto is doing that.

[Dare]

from PlanetF1

Binotto has revealed the Scuderia did consider swapping the drivers given that it was their strategy that cost Leclerc, but ultimately they decided against it.

“Did we consider to swap? Yes, we did,” he told the media on Sunday night.

“We thought at that stage at least that it was the right choice not to do it.

“Now we are still discussing with our two drivers, was that the right choice or not?

“It’s something on which internally which we may still have a different option or discuss.

“But, yes, we thought about it but we didn’t.”

[cosworth151]

They may have been afraid that Lewis would slip past one or both of them if they tried to switch position.

It looked like Haas was going to get points until K-Mag got a plastic bag caught in his front wing & lost front end downforce. The last pit stop was primarily to remove the bag.

[Alianora La Canta]

I'll give it a couple of years before deciding if Binotto ought to be deemed among the first rank of team principals, but he's certainly gaining momentum after an unpromising start.

If Ferrari are this good here, they're a win threat everywhere. Since it's clear Ferrari doesn't see the outside (very outside) chance of a 2019 driver title worth chasing, this has to be the build-up to a 2020 fight. In which case, what happened here made perfect sense - it cannot become a one-driver team in either direction, for that way lies the trouble that came with the Alonso approach. Vettel needed this lesson in Bahrain and much as I hate to admit it, Leclerc needed it yesterday (I did wonder when things were going to ground, and having it happen like this is probably as gentle a reminder of how top teams work as possible). He drove well, but the team has to come first. (He didn't pull out much lead in the beginning because Singapore always has Safety Cars, and the obligatory SC hadn't happened yet. There's no point in doing so - unless the other side of the garage has a genius strategy move and deploys it when it's not expected, which is exactly what happened).