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Author Topic: Turkey 2020 Heroes and Zeroes  (Read 1901 times)

Offline Jericoke

Turkey 2020 Heroes and Zeroes
« on: November 15, 2020, 06:45:00 PM »
Heroes

Lewis Hamilton, not just a winning drive, but a world championship drive.  A rough weekend that wasn't going to go his way, but not only did he find a way to win, but he won convincingly.  Supreme skill, patience, tire management, team management.  It's easy to argue he has the best car, but there's no way to argue he was the best driver today.

Perez.  Second place, are you kidding me?  It was supposed to be a race of attrition, and while no top cars went out, there were plenty of spins; but like Hamilton, Perez put on a display of pure skill to get the car to the end, on the podium.

Vettel.  On a slick rainy track like we had, skill, racecraft and patience are how you win.  I'd say that this race might have been the best indicator of all the drivers' true skills.  Vettel might be having a bad season, but he still is a 4 time champion.

The Track itself.  Yes, creating a disastrous slick track should have put it as a 'zero', but it creating an amazing spectacle, making rain even MORE interesting.  The track punished mistakes, but didn't take drivers out.  It's hard to say what was luck, and what was design, but what an incredible event to watch!

Zeroes

Racing Point.  Not sure how things went so wrong for Stroll, and so right for Perez.  The only difference was Stroll's second pit stop and that totally scuppered his race.  (I don't think Stroll would have won, but a podium could have happened)  Part of it is experience.  Fighting for wins is a skill that they don't have yet.  Mid field teams take gambles on a different scale, and when the pressure is up, it's harder to make your drivers trust you.

Anyone suffering from spins, or being careful to avoid spins, it's had to call them 'zeroes'.  No matter what a driver or team did today, it was going to be a gamble.  Very few mistakes were 'predictable'.  No one took a crazy chance out there, and any mistakes really could have turned out better.



Offline rmassart

Re: Turkey 2020 Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2020, 09:30:04 PM »
For me the two main heroes and zeroes were in the same team.

Hamilton - what an astounding drive. As with most of the other drivers, he made the odd mistake in the opening laps, but kept his cool until he understood the track conditions and then never looked back. Already after 20 odd laps, whilst still stuck behind Vettel, I felt he was going to win. As far as I could tell at the end he was still pulling away from Perez and the guys behind on tires which were 20 laps older I think. Truly outstanding. What a way to win his seventh title. And let no one say it's only the car. Why? Because, well, compared to...

Bottas - what a race to forget. Lapped by his team mate, finished down in 14th. Ok, he had an unlucky start, but it only got worse. He was spinning so often it felt like he was on a merry go round at the local fair! I like Bottas, but today's race made him look really rather ordinary

Offline lkjohnson1950

Re: Turkey 2020 Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2020, 09:42:27 PM »
Bottas does the occasional rally, the conditions shouldn't have bothered him so much. I wonder if Mercedes hedged their bets and gave him a set up tilted more toward dry conditions thinking the track would dry more quickly than it did.
Lonny

Offline lkjohnson1950

Lonny

Offline Philbe

Re: Turkey 2020 Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2020, 12:04:09 AM »
Of course King Lewis would have to be a hero if not for the one call to stay out on slick inters with a stop in hand at the end of the race. Bold.
Poor poor Valterie...nuf said.
Big Zero..Charles for making a last ditch lunge for second giving the podium to Seb...
And to the Inters that made great racing tires if you ran them to the core. Lance didn't figure that one out where Sergio did.

Online Dare

Re: Turkey 2020 Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2020, 02:30:11 AM »
Hero's

The drivers....3 dnf's and no safety cars
                     in that mess

Bottas            If he had no steering I give him a thumbs
                     up for not parking it.
 
Mark Twain once opined, "it's easier to con someone than to convince them they've been conned."

Offline Andy B

Re: Turkey 2020 Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2020, 07:07:43 AM »
Seven WC's cannot be ignored but when you do a comparison he must be one of the cleanest WC's in the history of F1.
Even MS thought LH could do it. - https://www.bbc.com/sport/av/formula1/54932452
It's been said many times that it's down to the car and anyone in F1 would win in that Merc but this race proved that is not true as VB spun at the start and never looked comfortable, he said during practice the track is great I love it.
MV showed his frustration in a car that was going to take it to the Merc's.
SP showed why he should have a seat next year.
AA drove an excellent race and maybe if he had been allowed to stay out on the Inters he could have done better but will he keep the drive?
I quite agree with GR the way that track performed is not what F1 is about.
Once you have retired every day is a Saturday!

Offline Monty

Re: Turkey 2020 Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #7 on: November 16, 2020, 09:01:27 AM »
 :good: Hamilton - a true Champions drive
 :fool: Verstappen - he could/should have won but drove like a petulant kid and threw it away at least twice!

Offline Alianora La Canta

Re: Turkey 2020 Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #8 on: November 17, 2020, 03:02:41 PM »
OK. Wow. Deep breath...

Heroes

Hamilton - Seven-time world champion. We are very lucky fans to see this degree of talent. This race was a great display of why. In conditions that sent his teammate and nominal championship rival Bottas into a spin (six to be precise), Lewis made the tyres and the track work well with each other, picked off competitors and planned his way out of a distinctly sub-optimal starting position.

Perez - Started in a good position, but discovered the race wear the Racing Point produced was a bit high. Made his intended one-stop strategy work anyway, took an unusually low-risk approach to the race and kept his head while chaos surrounded him. Checo can be very proud of his podium. Give this man a 2021 F1 drive. Please.

Vettel - Starting 11th is not a good place to try clambering onto the podium. However, Seb did some nice overtakes, drove sensibly, and was visibly more confident every lap. I hope this means he can have a good end to his association with Ferrari (a team that doesn't understand him because it stopped listening).

Honourable mention: Leclerc - Starting 12th is an even worse to try clambering onto the podium, especially given that the track was quite green (as evidenced by nearly all the drivers on the dirty side of the grid getting an indifferent or worse start). Took risks on strategy and overtaking alike to reach the podium, nearly get 2nd... ...and that last risk backfired. His reaction to it was so harsh, it was scary... ...I hope he has the right support in place.


Zeroes

Before proceeding, I will tell you no drivers made this half of the list. Given the conditions, and the fact nobody outright exited the race despite them, I find it difficult to say any of them did a worse job than the non-driver people/groups cited below:

Michael Masi - I don't care how many times you try telling us that releasing cars into the path of a yellow-flagged recovery vehicle retrieval is fine because he was promised the vehicle would be out of the way in time. It is not. That attitude is a significant part of the reason I'm on first-name terms with lawyers. And I'm willing to do it again if it stops you from making these dangerous mistakes...

The Turkish NSA - for the decision to replace the national NSA steward halfway through the weekend with someone who was:

- not a qualified steward
- not Turkish and not holding any previous standing with the Turkish NSA
- not neutral, in a situation where the non-neutrality would have mattered

Yes, I appreciate Jacob Boulton selflessly volunteering in what was obviously a sticky situation for the NSA. However, the Turkish NSA should have noticed his pass for the weekend read "Racing Point communications engineer", saw the caseload for the evening included two Racing Point drivers, and said, "thank you for the offer, but we'll get a local FIA staffer from a different position to fill the post".

The promoter of the Grand Prix - for trying to sell 100,000 tickets despite it being patently obvious that it would be impossible to preserve social distancing that way. Result: the city council found out and banned it from having anyone at all. A more modest target of, say, 20,000 well-spaced fans would at least have given it some chance of having a race with any spectators at all (though as we all know, pandemics aren't good at giving guarantees).

Dishonourable mention: Intercity - the owners of the track, having advised F1 that they would use the old surface, then decided to get a local contractor to resurface... ...with motorway tarmac. It might have defined the race we got, but it's probably prevented Turkey ever appearing on a F1 calendar again. And that place is too good to become a car park again.


Jeri, I was also mystified by Lance's race, and thought either driver or team had really spectacularly blown it. Then it turned out that Racing Point found an aero strake blocking one of the floor aero tunnels during the set-down process... (The fact there was no upper surface damage implies the strake wasn't Lance's, but no confirmation is or is expected to be forthcoming).

Philbe, Checo said that one more lap and his strategy would have failed... ...which, in light of Lance's strake problem, suggests it wasn't an option for Lance to go one-stop. (Lance wanted to try that, but Racing Point could see from the data this was impossible, and were hoping to wait for the dry tyre window to open if possible before pitting him because they knew a second inter wouldn't go well for Lance. When no such window opened...)

Monty, while Max had damage on his car, I tend to agree with you that he lost the race the moment he lost his temper... ...which appeared to be Saturday afternoon. Don't hold a grudge, friends.
Percussus resurgio
@lacanta (Twitter)
http://alianoralacanta.tumblr.com (Blog/Tumblr)

Offline Monty

Re: Turkey 2020 Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #9 on: November 17, 2020, 03:40:41 PM »
Quote
Monty, while Max had damage on his car, I tend to agree with you that he lost the race the moment he lost his temper... ...which appeared to be Saturday afternoon.

I still feel he threw it away and I do not buy the damaged wing whine. I have become so cynical I actually think the team are providing him with excuses. I say this because he actually seemed to have the fastest car all race (Ali - I know you will correct me if I am wrong  :good:).

Offline Willy

Re: Turkey 2020 Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #10 on: November 18, 2020, 05:41:35 PM »
I will not add to what has been very well said by others above.
I will say Lewis certainly deserves his 7th title and I look forward to #8.
A big thank You to Ali for bringing up points and info that most of us would not be aware of and incompetence and greed behind the scenes we only find out from her.
(how come Ali is not writing a sports column or hosting an F1 podcast)?



Offline Alianora La Canta

Re: Turkey 2020 Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #11 on: November 18, 2020, 07:14:04 PM »
Quote
Monty, while Max had damage on his car, I tend to agree with you that he lost the race the moment he lost his temper... ...which appeared to be Saturday afternoon.

I still feel he threw it away and I do not buy the damaged wing whine. I have become so cynical I actually think the team are providing him with excuses. I say this because he actually seemed to have the fastest car all race (Ali - I know you will correct me if I am wrong  :good:).

I'm pretty sure the wing got damaged because Max lost his temper and got into a fight he might otherwise have avoided (at least sufficiently to not get the damage).

I would happily write a sports column if anyone would hire me. Alas, I tried podcasting a decade ago and decided doing it for F1 wasn't for me because the audience thought I sounded like I was reading a children's bedtime story...
« Last Edit: November 18, 2020, 07:18:43 PM by Alianora La Canta »
Percussus resurgio
@lacanta (Twitter)
http://alianoralacanta.tumblr.com (Blog/Tumblr)

Offline lkjohnson1950

Re: Turkey 2020 Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #12 on: November 18, 2020, 11:20:47 PM »
I will not add to what has been very well said by others above.
I will say Lewis certainly deserves his 7th title and I look forward to #8.
A big thank You to Ali for bringing up points and info that most of us would not be aware of and incompetence and greed behind the scenes we only find out from her.
(how come Ali is not writing a sports column or hosting an F1 podcast)?

I have been wondering this for years. Stumbled across Alia on another site and followed her here because she knew more about F1 than anyone I knew.
Lonny

 


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