Formula 1 Johnnie Walker Belgian Grand Prix 2019Formula 1

[DriftShock]

Leclerc is from Monaco.

Leclerc is the only driver from a French Territory that has any chance of winning, so really he was the only one who could dedicate that victory to Hubert. That, and they were best mates

 

[TenEightyOne]

As for the Max and Kimi incident, well I blame the track - what do you expect will happen when you have a hairpin 150 metres from the start line. There's almost always some carnage there, sometimes enough to wipe out a small country's GDP à la 1998.

Very similar to 2016 where Vettel said he would have given more room in hindsight. FYI the 1998 accident was nothing to do with the hairpin, it was triggered by Coulthard losing it on the downhill section afterwards.

Great win today for Leclerc, kind of poetic on a particularly tragic weekend.

Leclerc is the only driver from a French Territory that has any chance of winning, so really he was the only one who could dedicate that victory to Hubert. That, and they were best mates

Whut? Monaco isn't a French territory. You must be thinking of France.

 

[Betty blue]

Albon was no special. He was battling the midfield same as Gasly. He overtook Kvyat in a Toro Rosso ( who started behind him btw) in the final laps.

 

[daan]

Leclerc is the only driver from a French Territory that has any chance of winning, so really he was the only one who could dedicate that victory to Hubert. That, and they were best mates

Monaco is not a French territory. Leclerc speaks French, I'll give you that.

 

[sumbrownkid]

I have suddenly decided that I hate Renault.

Literally first lap and last lap debacles for Mclaren.

Only positives: the MCL34 again showing best pace of midfield. The team still has a sizeable lead for F1.5. And Norris got Drive of the Day.

 

[PaMu1337]

Albon was no special. He was battling the midfield same as Gasly. He overtook Kvyat in a Toro Rosso ( who started behind him btw) in the final laps.

He struggled until his pitstop (his own words). After the stop he was a lot faster, and made some brilliant moves. First half was not impressive, second half was.

 

[baldgye]

People has been impressed by a driver with fresh soft tires eating a Ricciardo with destroyed tires. I'm not.
The outcome of that race regarding RB/TR drivers was written after the first corner:
A damaged car that was going to DNF
A driver starting with Soft tires (I don't know why,) and and old spec engine.
Two drivers starting last but with both the best tire strategy and the last spec of the engine, one with a better car than the other.

He started from the back and finished p5, best possible result.
The frustration Red Bull had with Gasley was that he was unable to get through the pack (a perfect example of this was at Austria vs Kimi). While Albon struggled initially, towards the end he was on it.
Red Bull don’t expect anyone else to match Max’s speed, but they need a drive to be able to maximise the points available and Albon did that.

Can’t ask anymore from him.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Albon was no special. He was battling the midfield same as Gasly. He overtook Kvyat in a Toro Rosso ( who started behind him btw) in the final laps.

He had a difficult first stint, not only that, but also had to avoid a stalled car in his path at the start which lost him ground. Not sure how you come to the conclusion you did

 

[PzR Slim]

Just watched the whole race on catch up as was at daughters cricket tournament this afternoon. Pretty good race overall, decent battle up front, lots of action in the midfield as usual. Absolutely gutted for Norris!

 

[FUNanywhere]

Takes 2 ferraris to win against Hamilton.

 

[Betty blue]

He struggled until his pitstop (his own words). After the stop he was a lot faster, and made some brilliant moves. First half was not impressive, second half was.

He had a difficult first stint, not only that, but also had to avoid a stalled car in his path at the start which lost him ground. Not sure how you come to the conclusion you did

He's in a Red Bull. A car that is much superior than the once around it. It's expected for that car to be in the top 6 even starting from the back, and Spa is not a track that you get held up by others. Yet... had Lando finished, he would have been far behind a McLaren.

 

[AshenGraey]

Takes 2 ferraris to win against Hamilton.

You had me rolling because in this particular instance, it is so true!! One of them had to be sacrificed to guarantee the win...haha

 

[Auditore]

These last 2 races made me realize that being chased down by Hamilton must be scary as hell lol

 

[NotThePrez]

These last 2 races made me realize that being chased down by Hamilton must be scary as hell lol

During Hungary, both Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button said that there's nothing quite like being hunted down by Lewis Hamilton during a race.

 

[PaMu1337]

He's in a Red Bull. A car that is much superior than the once around it. It's expected for that car to be in the top 6 even starting from the back, and Spa is not a track that you get held up by others. Yet... had Lando finished, he would have been far behind a McLaren.

A Red Bull that is notoriously bad at high speed circuits like Spa, on medium tires while almost everyone around him was on softs.

 

[RazorSharkz]

Charles Leclerc joins a pretty exclusive group of drivers with that win. Pretty much a who's who of the best of the best in F1 have been winners in Belgium.

 

[Milouse]

Leclerc is the only driver from a French Territory that has any chance of winning, so really he was the only one who could dedicate that victory to Hubert. That, and they were best mates

Whut? Monaco isn't a French territory. You must be thinking of France.

Yes that a bit special, because Monaco:
- has a french postal code
- is dépendant of France for certain matters (like Defense)
- have his soccer team playing in France Ligue 1
- host a WRC race that actually takes place in France, not Monte Carlo
- saw his promising driver, namely Leclerc, making his classes through the French federation, with Ocon, Hubert and Gasly.
Leclerc even heard the french anthem once after a victory in a lower championship.
But when a french TV interviewer asked him if we can consider him to be partly french, Leclerc categorically answered "no". And that's our final answer, then.

The frustration Red Bull had with Gasley was that he was unable to get through the pack (a perfect example of this was at Austria vs Kimi). While Albon struggled initially, towards the end he was on it.
Red Bull don’t expect anyone else to match Max’s speed, but they need a drive to be able to maximise the points available and Albon did that.

I followed Gasly very closely on each race since the start of the season, i.e. onboard cam with radio + sectors times.
I don't think, and never did that is has the "thing" that World Champions need to make the difference. But the simplistic view and interpretation that people have on his performances is quite insane. A lot of things happening are just not broadcasted on main TV stream, like for exemple most of Gasly overtakes at Baku when he start last and finished P6. And people who do not pay attention to tires are missing the whole story: regarding most of action we got on track nowadays, there's rarely more than a tire story behind. Today was not different, with Albon and Kyatt end race form over Ricciardo, Gasly, Grosjean and Perez being entirely down to tire compound and state. That's also why Gasly overtook Vettel at Silverstone, why Versappen won his first race this season by stomping on every one (with a 10 lap gap in tire freshness) and why Hamilton overtook him on Hungaroring. That obviously contradicts the romantic view of the sport we're looking for.
Considering all this and the former engine swap, Albon performance of today didn't look different from Gasly previous week-ends. Only long term results will speak.

 

[phillgt2002]

What a great race. I was trackside on the kemmel straight (the other side) and got to hear these cars scream up close.



Right at the end you can hear the crowd reaction to Verstappen’s crash.

 

[sumbrownkid]

So Mclaren doesn’t know why Lando was so much quicker today than on Friday and Saturday.

Essentially having the exact opposite issues Haas has been having all season.

 

[MarcoM]

Yes

What a great race. I was trackside on the kemmel straight (the other side) and got to hear these cars scream up close.



Right at the end you can hear the crowd reaction to Verstappen’s crash.

How did you get there? I thought that area is not for the public. Great spot!

Totally Max's fault at turn 1.

 

[ScottPuss20]

I guess that race could've been worse. But again, the gap between the front runners and the midfield was just absurd. Hamilton had me worried for the last couple of laps, but I knew that Charles was safe if he didn't get within DRS range. He is a deserving winner indeed. My driver of the day was Albon though; what a drive from 17th on the grid. He did things that Gasly wouldn't even dare, and it paid off for him. Albeit at Norris' expense...

 

[niky]

He's in a Red Bull. A car that is much superior than the once around it. It's expected for that car to be in the top 6 even starting from the back, and Spa is not a track that you get held up by others. Yet... had Lando finished, he would have been far behind a McLaren.

Having the entire field held up by Kevin Magnussen for a dozen laps before his tires went completely off the cliff suggests otherwise. Which is what helped Lando build up his big gap over everyone else.

A Red Bull that is notoriously bad at high speed circuits like Spa, on medium tires while almost everyone around him was on softs.

I'll give him credit for making headway, but it's still just the first race. I want to see how things pan out over the next few before making a declaration.

We still haven't seen how close he can get to Max in qualifying.

We still don't know if he can hold on to the rest of the top six in a straight race.

 

[MarcoM]

We still don't know if he can hold on to the rest of the top six in a straight race.

How straight do you want it? The only top 6 contender eliminated himself in the first corner. Albon came from the back to 5th. Topnotch effort there.

 

[TenEightyOne]

How straight do you want it? The only top 6 contender eliminated himself in the first corner. Albon came from the back to 5th. Topnotch effort there.

He matched what we would expect from Gasly, nearly a full lap behind the leaders, given that Spa is tough for the Red Bulls (as Monza will be) that has to be taken on balance. My own opinion is that for a first Red Bull drive he showed more promise than Gasly but I wouldn't say it was a stellar performance. I think he'll get improve to be far better than Gasly but that can't be demonstrated from that single drive yesterday. However, he certainly seemed to be prepared to go for gaps in a way that Gasly doesn't seem to.

 

[baldgye]

But the simplistic view and interpretation that people have on his performances is quite insane.

Except it isn’t.
I agree he’s been hard done too and not really given the benefit of the doubt. But this is F1 and Red Bull are ruthless with their drivers. He was expected to perform and didn’t.

Maybe he’ll be like Perez and have a great time in the mid-pack, but it looks like the right choice was made to drop him.

 

[Milouse]

Except it isn’t.
I agree he’s been hard done too and not really given the benefit of the doubt. But this is F1 and Red Bull are ruthless with their drivers. He was expected to perform and didn’t.
Maybe he’ll be like Perez and have a great time in the mid-pack, but it looks like the right choice was made to drop him.

That's my view on Gasly even before he started at Red Bull - he only won the GP2 championship in his second season struggling to beat his rookie team-mate Giovinazzi.
But i still read 95% of ill informed comments about him, even if the conclusion is the same. Even a broken watch gives you the right time twice a day.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

He's in a Red Bull. A car that is much superior than the once around it. It's expected for that car to be in the top 6 even starting from the back, and Spa is not a track that you get held up by others. Yet... had Lando finished, he would have been far behind a McLaren.

Too bad power tracks are the great equalizer of F1 circuits. And why Redbull looks to tracks like Hockenheim and Singapore which are technical tracks, that actually allow them to show how superior they are in chassis and aero. Spa doesn't and Redbull for sometime have had a mediocre low downforce package. It's not at all expected at a track like this after a bad first stint, and having to avoid a stalled car thus resulting in being dead last for him to have ended up in the top six. It's quite hard to do an typically takes most of the race to do it, even the other drive through this season by Ferrari and Mercedes have shown that.
He was far behind a McLaren cause Lando actually got a good start and was able to control the pace, while again Albon was coming through the back on a power track where most midfield cars could challenge him on power alone. Also Lando didn't finish fifth so the argument is a non starter anyways.

All this still ignores the fact this is the first race in the RBR for Alex, and yet did the job asked of him, while Gasly has shown enough times that he would have struggled and probably not done as well. I'm just trying to understand why you're purposely indicating Albon didn't really do much on his first race in the car, that he doesn't know on a track that isn't very strong for RBR...

That's my view on Gasly even before he started at Red Bull - he only won the GP2 championship in his second season struggling to beat his rookie team-mate Giovinazzi.
But i still read 95% of ill informed comments about him, even if the conclusion is the same. Even a broken watch gives you the right time twice a day.

It's RB Junior program, it's highly competitive. There really isn't an excuse to be made here for why he has been in the program for much longer than most of those who graduated before him to F1, and yet struggles. He had more support I'd say in the feeder programs to hone his craft than others. I think he'll make a great journeyman driver but I don't see him ever being on level with those like Sainz, Verstappen, Ricciardo or Vettel. And I suspect Kvyat will be hard for him to deal with as well.

What ill informed comments are you seeing though?

 

[andrea]

 

[DriftShock]

Can we ban all Verstappen fans from every Formula One Race?
Why would you have fun on a weekend where someone DIED?!
And apparently a couple of dickheads were playing “If I die young” over at the Merch shop (I wasn’t there, just heard it on Twitter)
God, people please have some respect...

 

[MarcoM]

Can we ban all Verstappen fans from every Formula One Race?

Ok the things you edited are pretty tasteless. But at F1 events and motor sports events in general a lot of beer is drunk and stupid things happen. But where do you get the idea that these folks here are only Max fans?