With the missed opportunities now adding up for McLaren, what do you think they need to do in the fight for the F1 Constructors Championship with Red Bull? How will Mercedes restore the driver’s faith in the team after Belgium, when at the end of the race nobody looked very happy at all? Let us know what you think in the comments below…
I think you’re misinterpreting Stella’s comments. I think Stella has realised how good Piastri is and is fully backing him. Norris is in trouble for me
Stella knows that Oscar will focus on addressing any weaknesses, in order to get the perfect race. Stella also understands that Oscar has already probably identified making better pit stops as a priority for his overall race pace management, so it’s nothing new to Oscar. Oscar is like Lewis and Max, in that he doesn’t need to be careful managed to get the best out of him.
The fact Oscar is already this competitive with Lando in his sophomore year and Lando is in his 5th season and still making basic mistakes gets overlooked way too much
Thats because Lando is British and Oscar is Australian. If Oscar was British every media will be singing his praises to the high heavens. I am British by the way.
@@delebalogun9926 Speaking as an Australian, F1 does have media coverage in Australia but not same extent as the British media. Due to time differences, most races happen late at night, it’s only Australian F1 diehards that actively follow the sport all year. So outside of the Australian GP, media coverage in Australia is limited one race report or to driver changes that impact Danny Ric or Oscar.
This seems ridiculous, Lando had to deal with every kind of issue and underperforming cars, and now when McLaren has things sorted, Piastri is all of a sudden better. Let’s see how Piastri deals with a good chunk of a season of adversity before anointing him team leader.
Oscar has a lot of similarities to a young Lewis Hamilton imo. I think if oscar gets the right car (which he currently has) he can do some damage with wdc titles. I also think he's one of the smartest drivers on the grid and is a very quick learner which has some similarities to Alain Prost.
Lando once again making mistakes at the start, it just ruons his race. The fact that Piastri already jave the raw pace to match in only his second year and getting better every race os certainly cause for concern for Lando. He needs to clean up his starts and also in my opinion sharpen his wheel to wheel as well.
Oscar is absolutely the better driver. Has a racers mindset. Identify your weakness and eliminate it. Lando more focused on other people and things he can’t control
I think Stella cost oscar the race in pitting him on lap 29 and not going long. Piastri had just done fastest lap and then stella pitts him. If oscar goes long there is no way lewis was getting past him. Oscar was also 5 seconds ahead of Russell when they pitted oscar.
Leclerc's defence ended Oscars challenge for P1. He needed clean air. All it took was the pit error. Having said that the engineers weren't on top of the metrics for the ideal window
The underweight was not because of tyre pick up issues. FIA can put spec wheels on if they think the pick up is too much. It’s not fuel as that is irrelevant. Could be excess weight loss elsewhere. Oil, fluids, plank wear, Russell’s own weight etc. Fine margins are always used but it is a strict limit and you need to be on only one side of the line. Cock up is most likely explanation - it’s not as if they haven’t done it before.
We complain when 2 drivers at a team are mismatched because they aren't raking in maximum points and then as soon as a team gets 2 drivers that are both performing well we complain that they are too closely matched and say that the team has to prioritize one over the other. 2 strong drivers is what you want. Just start them on the same tires and tell them whoever is in front after 1 lap can choose whether they stop first or go long.
If Alain Prost had to deal with two great drivers as his teammates at McLaren, why can’t Lando? Alain Prost had Niki Lauda and Ayrton Senna as teammates. The difference here is that Lando is British and an Australian driver is starting to beat him regularly and the British media don’t like it now.
@@durodesduvo8424 The upside it forces two competitive drivers to up their game and to be better drivers. This was the when Senna and Prost were teammates at McLaren.
@@GrizeldaOConnor Max won this year, I'm thinking if McLaren can keep up this momentum for 2025, _(and that is not a guarantee at all)_ if they have both drivers fighting for the WDC against Max in near equal machinery, then Max wins by default, because his teammate isn't taking points off him.
It wasn't the weight but the team no letting hamilton know he was actually racing hiis own team mate...If he had been told immediatly he would have uipped his pace and taken him..
Everyone knows there is no in-lap after the race at Spa - which applies to all competitors - so this is clearly irrelevant. Alonso, Stroll, Tsunoda and Magnussen also 1-stopped I'm pretty sure and car 63 was the only underweight car in the field, so I'm not convinced by this argument. Maybe the others accounted for it pre-race because they knew they were going to 1-stop? Whereas Russell and Merc switched strategy on the fly? Hmm I suspect it was an error unrelated to tyres tbh
i think alex has been covered this sport for years,, one car is illegal and the other one is legal, so its not the same car,, what are you talking about?? stop the narrative man.. what he saying is just like a personal opinion.. jeez
I dont want to be rude here, but F1 should ban him or them on attending another F1 press conference in the future,, poor journalistic content as he put (maybe) his personal opinion on the show, just because he saw george face turn like a thunder after the press conference??
Lando's chance at a WDC this year disappeared in Austria when he was dive-bombing Max and got knocked out of the race. Now its about maximising points as they have a great chance at a WCC...no favourites, just who is ahead on the day get first choice of pitting. Lando has a habit of burning his tyres up to make a point of how fast he is... like he did in front of Piastri in hungary and behind Ricciardo in Monza...he's a super fast driver but Piastri is getting close to matching him, but with a much better emotional control.
@@semadragun What are you on about? They weighed 19 cars after the race and all were within regulations apart from Russell. Literally google “FIA weight checks Belgian Grand Prix" and you’ll see the official document right near the top. Maybe do some research next time before you comment mate 👍🏽
Just take weights with the tires off after the race. They are spec wheels and tires, no reason you can't just subtract that from 798kg requirement. But at the same time, no one else was under weight, so I'm not going to take tire wear + no cooldown as gospel. Far more likely that they borked his initial weight. Nothing malicious, just a mistake and lost points.
Please stop this praising of George. He always so this when he doesn't have the pace of the top runners. He did this out of desperation with nothing to lose NOT because he used some great race car craft. It really shows the negative bias against Lewis. His drive was way more impressive than George's drive disqualification or not! Just teams not understanding tie wear so don't really understand the excuses for George. He probably didn't lift and coast enough because all he is concerned with is beating Lewis. I see why Merc trying to get a top driver post Lewis!
This argument is so tired, you can’t see the merit of this kind of performance in a vaccum showing growth as a driver that helps the team get better moving forward, it’s always all about Lewis.
Some interesting reflections including discussion about Oscar’s 2nd pitstop - so frustrating. Did I miss it in the discussion, or did the team get their due praise for the first pitstop being the fastest one of the race at 2.05s and McLarens first fastest pitstop for the 2024 season.
This shows how bad the Red Bull is. It isn’t the ceiling, because the RB-20 isn’t anywhere near to how well the McLarens are running. If Max can’t get it to P1, has run offs & complains about the balance, then surely that means the car is really, REALLY tricky & difficult to drive. Max has proven he can continue racing in the points even if his car is severely damaged. like Hungary ‘21, Silverstone ‘22, Baku sprint ‘23, etc. When I was trying to figure out who they would replace Perez with, it just made me wonder who’d be most suitable but it would be a for *this* car which is by far their worst in years. I say worst because it looks harder and harder for Max to even win A race. So with the gap times in mind and the top teams closer together, I’m less convinced it’s all on Checo to pick up the pieces. It’s more important to develop a car AT LEAST on/similar to McLaren’s level.
I think the reason for a lower than expected tyre degradation at spa is because of the new tarmac, which should be more smoother than the old one. I am also starting to like Oscar piastri for his great driving but with a calm mentality. A bit similar to Lewis, but I hope he shows more balls when it comes to dealing with max because you can’t let a rough guy own you.
Alonso had a similar race he did 31 laps on the hard and his car was not under weight…. Just saying so let’s stop the tires conspiracy Russell started the race under weight
Between Lando not delivering in crunch time and mclaren cocking up on strategy in the last 4-5 races will probably be the reason Max will win the WDC.. it’s too bad for us fans! It should’ve been a repeat of 21’
Who cares about the constructors championship? McLaren have thrown away the drivers championship. RB had the dominant car only in the first 5 races, and in one of those Max had a DNF. Lando should Nynke at the very least be very close to Max, and given their car advantage that would have put him in absolute prime position for the drivers title. Instead him and the team have been messing up on an almost weekly basis. Replace Lando and McLaren with Ferrari and Vettel and they would have been absolutely ridiculed.
So that we are clear. George didn't force his strategy. Thats not how F1 works, and it's disappointing that you pundits didn't even realise that due to British bias. George made a suggestion, and based on what the team saw with Lewis tires that had plenty of rubber left, and their simulations, they agreed. Toto alluded to this in his interview. Drivers don't dictate their own strategy in F1. Poor punditry.
George did multiple times since 2022. Its funny with mercedes, they never let driver chose strategy before with Lewis and Bottas. But they did allow George. That how bias they are. They give him all the green light. And if you believe everything Toto said, then you’re fooling yourself.
Piastri was 5 seconds behind Lewis with the gap staying the same until Lewis started losing time behind George. Let’s not act like Oscar somehow threw a win away 😂😂
All the praised of how great Russell is, is funny. Haven’t seen him come on top when he’s on the same strategy with everyone. He always needed a gamble strategy. That already shows his real level. Which is mediocre. What Lewis did to get the well deserved win from lights out easily dismissed by all these white british journalists because their white boy driver needed a lighter car to win and a gamble strategy. Luckily got a well deserved DSQ. No one deserved a win when they didn’t follow the regs. End of, be it your fav or not. Lewis got DSQ at cota but no one singing praise to his drive that rattled max that day. But when George did a mediocre drive and a gamble strategy, he is a genius, great drive. Absolute moronic to go for a gamble strategy. A desperate move from a mediocre driver.
Lando is still miles better, he had one bad race and this is the headline?!?! When it comes to Lando, sport journalists turn into F1 Twitter haters, doing everything they can, making these type of headlines to drag him down.
@@WH0oo...wasn’t his age, it was George getting a cleaner line out of La Source to deny the pass on the Kemmel Straight, Lewis always brakes late, and always runs onto the kerb around that corner.
