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Author Topic: 2021 French Grand Prix Heroes and Zeroes  (Read 1136 times)

Offline Jericoke

2021 French Grand Prix Heroes and Zeroes
« on: June 20, 2021, 11:55:34 PM »
Heroes:
Red Bull - they're a team that is doing everything right right now.  The car is a great car.  The drivers know what they're doing.  The strategists know what they're doing.  Mechanics and crew seem to be running very smoothly.  There's trust from top to bottom which is an ingredient that makes an F1 team into a championship team.

Max Verstappen - He had a golden opportunity, and seized it.  That wasn't a guaranteed win, not by a long shot.  That was the drive of a champion.

Sergio Perez - he may not have set out to be a 'number two driver', but he's really fitting the role perfectly.  He drives differently from his teammate and is providing Red Bull with options and strategy, as a #2 should.

Lewis Hamilton - started second, finished second.  He put up a good fight with a losing strategy.  He knows the championship is going to be a marathon, and taking what he can get now will help in the long run.  It's a different road to the championship than he's taken before, and he recognizes it.

Norris - McLaren looked like they were going to have a lost weekend, and then all of a sudden we've got a mango car in 5th. 

Vettel - Perez is doing great, so I'm not sure that Vettel is an 'upgrade' over the driver he replaced, but he's really connected with the Aston Martin car and looking pretty good out there.  He may have been a 'lateral' move for AM, but not a bad move.

Zeroes:
Mercedes - they've been invincible for so long, the little mistakes can easily look like mountains instead of molehills.  They're going to have to learn to deal with adversity if they want to get their mojo back.

Ferrari - Just... what the heck guys?

TV Coverage - I felt like the announcers were telling us about the action instead of showing it to us.  Lots of passing/battling off camera.  Pit stops shot between mechanic's legs instead of a view we can see what's happening.

Ocon - as per coverage complaint above, no idea what happened to him, but it definitely wasn't good.

Bottas (this is more of a 'zeroish', covered by Mercedes above) - With RBR having a 'solid #2' in Perez, it does make Bottas stick out as not quite capable of covering the #2 role (which is much different than the 1B he sees himself as).  Certainly his relationship with the team isn't great right now.  Maybe Bottas can fix it, maybe he can't.  I don't know what the issues are, and who to blame, but the brutal way the sport works, Bottas isn't doing himself any favours.

Honourable mention:
Everyone finished, there was some close racing and a few incidents, but over all responsible and fair driving for everyone involved.  We can argue about which drivers 'deserve' to be in F1, but the 20 we have seem to be up to the bare minimum of racing safely.



Offline Dare

Re: 2021 French Grand Prix Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2021, 12:10:57 AM »
Hero

Max         He's starting to look like the future of F1

Zero's

Ferrari            what happened

Stewards        why must every pass be looked at as a incidence
                      let them race for gosh sakes
Mark Twain once opined, "it's easier to con someone than to convince them they've been conned."

Offline Willy

Re: 2021 French Grand Prix Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2021, 05:06:05 PM »
I agree with all that has been said above but will also add an even bigger ZERO to Bottas. Lap 44 when he had the responsibility to hold up Max and give Lewis some room, he caved and did nothing. Then he blamed it all on Merc as they didn't listen to him and do a two-stop as he said he asked for.  I have had enough of his whining and blaming everyone else for the fact he can't handle the pressure of being a teammate to a 7-time world champion.
I so look forward to George in that seat.

Another Zero goes to the Paul Ricard Circuit and the stripes. It takes some getting used to, to pick out the track from all the other spaces that swirl around when the run-off areas are painted like that. I for one, dislike this track for that and the horrible pit lane entry.

Offline John S

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Re: 2021 French Grand Prix Heroes and Zeroes
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2021, 05:37:40 PM »
Heroes:-
Max & Red Bull, they took a chance with lower downforce and a risky 2 stop strategy, especially as they gave up track position to make the 2nd stop.

McLaren, who certainly put it over Ferrari this time. Daniel had a much better time on the Mediums than Lando, but I think the team had already agreed a split strategy of pitting the leading car early for Hards leaving the other out for much longer stint. This allowed Lando to come back later in the race with better tyres than Danny Ric, good strategy and race car.

Lewis, yeah I know he lost out to Max but it was not as clear cut as the win he achieved in Spain with the roles reversed, many others might have  crumbled a lot earlier than actually happened.

Zeros:-

The bloody multi coloured kaleidoscope mess that assaults our eyes when viewing Paul Ricard racetrack on TV.  :sick:

Ferrari, did anyone see where they went after 1st pitstops???

Mercedes strat crew, they got much credit for Spanish win but seem to have forgotten others are free to do it to them. Come on guys 'n gals keep your eyes on the early stoppers times and get your heads out of the computers arse.  :crazy:

Ocon, now he's safe in the seat for a few years he's become so relaxed he's forgotten where the load pedal is.

   
Racing is Life - everything else is just....waiting. (Steve McQueen)

 


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