Max is an alien. He beat that car into submission and got every ounce from it.
Oscar is his main competition because Lando keeps bottling it and I think he’s starting to spiral mentally.
Yuki is close at times but hasn’t found the rhythm yet, but he’s still a far better number 2 than they’ve had recently. Glad to see him getting on okay; I want him to succeed.
Yeah when the racing and results are so changeable… you have to wonder if there’s any lint in changing refs but there’s not going back.
Max is incredible (although I think yuki give him a slight tow so hats off to RB there). It sounds like he’s even surprised himself at the level of performance he (in conjunction with the team) is able to extract. That’s true champion material.
Lando needs some resilience training. I suffer from that kind of negative mindset a lot, but he’s taking it to a new level. If he get his head out of his proverbial arse he’ll find more consistent performance.
Excited to see Sainz further up the grid.
Yuki is neither excelling or sucking , see what he pulls off during the face. Actually he’s a little closer to sucking. But the bar is low with how Lawson suffered.
What a race! Leclerc was driving for his life, so glad he got the podium after the disappointment in Bahrain. Oscar is already the title favourite imo, if he didn’t have that off in Melbourne he would be well clear of everyone else. The main difference between him and Norris was perfectly displayed by their attempts to overtake Hamilton: Piastri did it in his first chance while Norris spent 3 laps stuck behind him because he fell for the same trick twice. Great race by Williams to secure double points too.
What are kartpulses thoughts on the Verstappen incident?
I had the telemetry up live, and he did lift off the brake pretty substantially. I can’t find any telemetry online anymore though for the first lap. Only after lap 4
As the driver instructions are not accessible to the public, we can’t actually have a valid opinion on it.
It looked like neither driver was going to make the corner cleanly, as the both seemed way too fast and not turning early enough.
A lot of what-ifs for the opening lap between Piastri and Verstappen for sure.
Supposedly the FIA mentioned some leniency being given for T1 in the driver briefing. I think Max’s strategy was to gamble on getting a free pass if he went off since it was T1. He still got the leniency but not as much as he had hoped.
Piastri drove a stormer though. For this race I’d say he out maxed Max in terms of gamesmanship. Piastri’s move around Hamilton was pretty ballsy and could have gone very wrong.
Max was aggressive and tried to make the stewards see he was “run off the track”, but the reality is he lifted the brake and tried to win the race to the apex. Even if he gets a penalty, having the lead and being able to dictate the pace was worth the risk for him, because he was controlling that first stint well. Piastri was fully alongside, made the corner no problem, and would’ve made the pass if Max didn’t scoot through the run-off.
I agree with the penalty. Just enough to make that move not worth it, but not an egregious penalty that would ruin the race.
Piastri drove great and his pass around Lewis was completely balls-to-the-wall.
Feel bad for both Yuki and Pierre. I think Gasly was a little optimistic to put his car on the outside like that and squeeze Yuki on cold tires. That was a sketchy position he put his car in.
We can absolutely have a valid opinion. That’s what opinions are meant for. I’m asking if people thought it was fair. I’m not asking if it was true to the exact rules (still a grey area where opinions can be different and yet still valid)
I don’t need Lewis to win another championship but damn it I need to see him be competitive again and that’s not working out for him. The weird thing is he has times in the middle of the race on used rubber where he has pace but not when it counts.
He better have this figured out before Monza so i can justify buying these damn tickets!
Penalty on Verstappen should have been 10 sec per the rulebook. Race direction has been very lenient with him despite the blatant move
I personally find the entirety of the rules around passing in F1 maddening. Drivers playing games with releasing brake pressure to reach the apex first, while compromising the corner, just to say they “had the lead at the apex” is downright stupid. In addition, drivers intentionally run others out to the stripe and squeeze them off before having them cleared. Just because you have your nose in front doesn’t give you free reign to drive wherever you please, the car to the outside cannot just evaporate. There needs to be clearer requirements for when a car must give racing room, or give no requirements whatsoever and let drivers decide.
The pass with Max and Oscar is a great case in point. Oscar drove straight out to the stripe as if no one would be there, which forces the car being passed to either take the off-track or bail out on the corner early and brake early. It prevents contesting a corner safely. Then you have Max playing games with brake pressure trying to reach the apex first, but knowing he can never make the corner doing so. This isn’t proper racing or overtaking from either driver.
My ideal rule set: If a car is alongside up to the nose or front axle even with the cockpit of another car, then racing room should be given. Overtakes should occur with the overtaking car on the track (however that is defined at the moment). Overtakes should occur with no contact between cars. Failure to meet those three criteria should result in loss of position and/or time penalty that is meaningful.
Maybe the answer is 5sec for both drivers 
Although, Ver went outside track limits AND gained an advantage by doing so.
Oh well, next race.. new drama
Overtaking is like dancing. You need to know when you are leading and when you are following and respond accordingly.
It isn’t Oscar’s fault that Max released the brake and cruised back along the outside. Oscar shouldn’t need to take avoiding action and keep the car that he’s overtaking from piling into the side of him as he desperately struggles to keep it on the track.
Oscar had position, Max should’ve conceded. But Max will never concede. The only way to race someone like that is to force them to concede; in this case, running them out of road when you’ve got position on them.
Easy solution is putting gravel traps everywhere
@tjkoyen 100% agree. Max was beaten on the start and Piastri had the corner. What Max did was not racing and did not display skill, and it was not at all surprising because he’s done it before.
I say this as a Max fan. He is head and shoulders above the rest of the grid.
But he is a dirty driver and always has been. He will take any opportunity to cheat and leave it to the stewards to punish him or be cowardly and let him get away with it. If you best him and beat him into a corner, he will skip sections of the track to get back ahead of you.
I don’t think Max is quite as shamelessly dirty as Senna and Schumacher were (obviously, deliberatly crashing into sidepod of opponent with no attempt to hide it, completely unrepentant). He will attempt to avoid collisions that he thinks will catasrophically damage his car.
But any driver who wants to seriously challenge Max must give him no quarter and expect none in return.
For me, it does diminish his legacy a bit in comparison to champions like Hamilton who made dirty moves at times, but overall usually conceded when he was beaten.
For you maybe, but it doesn’t imo. Almost all multiple-champions push the regs (not that we can actually read said driver code as apparently that’s not accessible to general public).
Do we all think the teams aren’t doing exactly the same thing with the cars? is what McLaren are doing with the wings diminish their legacy? Not at all.
It’s F1.
Max knows the rules as good as anyone (hence the reference to driver’s briefing with regard to track limit strike). The goal is to win, not court favour with the internet. That is literally all there is to it - win.
I remember when Hamilton came under enormous criticism when he came into F1, then 2011 was a disaster year, and the contacts with Rosberg. There’s been a bit of revisionism with Hamilton because he kinda had a smooth run at it for a few years, but when things get tough, Hamilton is as savage as the rest of them.
Max did the right thing. He either slots behind Piasti and finishes second 100%, or gambles with the worst being second, or the best actually winning.
Why anyone would want to be in the former category is beyond me.
@Alan_Dove I respect your opinion, but I don’t share it.
Sounds like some punting is needed.
That’s not being a dirty driver, that’s just racing. Rules are only rules if they are enforced. The rulebook can say whatever you want, but if a driver doesn’t get punished for something, then is it really a penalty? Max is great at figuring out exactly what will get a penalty and playing that game, as any good driver should.
Lewis Hamilton did that in Abu Dhabi 2021, he is just as guilty of not conceding as any other championship-caliber driver. Not to mention the thing he had for the RB right rear tires as well, he got done around the outside and just drove to the edge of the track like they weren’t there. You’re angry at Max for pushing the rules, but you can turn that focus to any driver fighting for a championship and see the same thing. There are millions of dollars and World Championships on the line, if you’re not willing to find the exact limit of the enforcement of the rules you don’t deserve to win the championship.