I don't think we had a thread on the race at CotA so just wanted to check if any other resident RG'ers had any final thoughts on that one before heading into the Mexican GP this weekend. Also, did anyone from RG attend? I seem to remember some talk of that possibility earlier this year.
I found the United States GP very entertaining; the whole weekend really showcased how much bigger the sport is now than just a few years ago. It was awesome to see the difference in just a few years time...F1 is really having a moment in the States. New fans(myself included) have also really gotten lucky to be jumping in with both feet because we have a helluva championship fight between Max and Lewis going on right now. Everything is so close, the margins are razor thin which is a huge difference from my first go around following the sport last year.
United States GP thoughts:
- I thought for sure Max and RB had made the wrong call pitting so early for their third set if tires. It just had a bad feeling to it knowing Hamilton would be chasing with tires that were 8 laps fresher. I kept waiting for Max's tires to fall off and it just never happened. That coupled with maybe a lucky DRS activation while working through traffic at the end...really a nail-biting race down to the last lap if you had any emotional investment in the championship battle. I'm not convinced Lewis would have caught Max even without the DRS luck though, Max seemed to have saved just enough to put up a proper defense in the end.
- Happy for Danny Ricc. Not so much for Lando. More on that below
Mexican Grand Prix:
- Red Bull and Honda historically doing well on this track(high altitude) coupled with the Red Bull win last week at seemingly Merc dominant CotA has to have RB fans confident about how this championship wraps up and Merc fans scratching their heads. RB just seems to have more answers, at least Max does. I wish Checo had been more consistent up to this point to take the fight to Merc in constructors as well.
- I'm not waving the white flag yet but Ferrari's recent pace gains stemming from their battery upgrades coupled with Ferrari being strong in Mexico has me feeling not so great about McLaren's chances of holding on to 3rd in the Constructors. Wishing the weirdly bad Ferrari from last year had hung around a little longer but they have done a killer job developing that car. Hope it bites them next year going into the next gen cars.
I found the United States GP very entertaining; the whole weekend really showcased how much bigger the sport is now than just a few years ago. It was awesome to see the difference in just a few years time...F1 is really having a moment in the States. New fans(myself included) have also really gotten lucky to be jumping in with both feet because we have a helluva championship fight between Max and Lewis going on right now. Everything is so close, the margins are razor thin which is a huge difference from my first go around following the sport last year.
United States GP thoughts:
- I thought for sure Max and RB had made the wrong call pitting so early for their third set if tires. It just had a bad feeling to it knowing Hamilton would be chasing with tires that were 8 laps fresher. I kept waiting for Max's tires to fall off and it just never happened. That coupled with maybe a lucky DRS activation while working through traffic at the end...really a nail-biting race down to the last lap if you had any emotional investment in the championship battle. I'm not convinced Lewis would have caught Max even without the DRS luck though, Max seemed to have saved just enough to put up a proper defense in the end.
- Happy for Danny Ricc. Not so much for Lando. More on that below
Mexican Grand Prix:
- Red Bull and Honda historically doing well on this track(high altitude) coupled with the Red Bull win last week at seemingly Merc dominant CotA has to have RB fans confident about how this championship wraps up and Merc fans scratching their heads. RB just seems to have more answers, at least Max does. I wish Checo had been more consistent up to this point to take the fight to Merc in constructors as well.
- I'm not waving the white flag yet but Ferrari's recent pace gains stemming from their battery upgrades coupled with Ferrari being strong in Mexico has me feeling not so great about McLaren's chances of holding on to 3rd in the Constructors. Wishing the weirdly bad Ferrari from last year had hung around a little longer but they have done a killer job developing that car. Hope it bites them next year going into the next gen cars.
