Incredible race. I am so happy for Perez. I feel he deserves it more than anyone else, especially after being in F1 for 10 years, always fighting in a midfield team. I hope he lands the Redbull seat for next year.
What a drive from George
![Clapping](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/Clapping.gif)
. Definitely a champion material. Luck is not on his side yesterday, but he will get to the top soon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DevilzzzzOwn Absolutely, Bottas is a substandard driver.. |
Before commenting on this, I will put forth that I am a hardcore Seb fan (also Riccardo but not as much as Seb)
I don't think Bottas is sub-standard at all. Yes, he has to improve his race starts. But, he is a very good racer and is unstoppable when he is in his zone. He is getting too much hate of late but no one had the amount of bad luck he had this season. He had 5 pole positions and 2 race wins this season but there are around half a dozen races where he lost points due to reasons beyond his control. It makes the points gap to Lewis even bigger.
1. Late tyre failure just after the pit entry in Silverstone (zero points while Hamilton scored 25)
2. Collected the Ferrari "tractor" debris in Imola and lost close to 1 second per lap and lot of downforce points.
3. He was left nursing damage in Turkey following a turn 1 crash with Ocon. Again not his mistake.
4. Leading the race at Nurburgring from pole but had to retire following a power unit issue. (Again zero points vs Hamilton 25)
5. Suffered damage in Monza, again beyond his control. Finished fifth.
Even Hamilton said last week that Bottas throws enormous challenge on him during qualifying where both of them differ by the smallest of margins and called on the F1 community to give Bottas greater recognition than downplaying him with hate.
Sakhir qualifying was not his best but still got pole. There was another tenth or two in it where he could have improved.
Coming to the race, George was indeed brilliant. Full credits to him. Future champion in the making. Due to poor start, Bottas lost the race leader position to George. We have seen such things happen to Hamilton as well this season. But just like Hamilton, Bottas always maintained around 2 seconds gap with George, managing his tyres. In a race having 87 laps, we can't expect him to push from lap 1. Then on lap 46, Russel pits and the gap was around 2.7 seconds before his pit entry. Mercedes for some reason didn't pit Bottas the next lap (don't know why?) and George gained a massive undercut advantage due to this. Then on lap 49, Bottas comes in for hards. By the time he exits the pits, he was trailing George by around 9 seconds. But after that, I saw signs of Hamilton class in Bottas. He kept pumping fastest laps, lap after lap. Within the next 10 laps, he closed in by 5 seconds, lapping 0.35s faster than George per lap, before they again pitted for the horrendous pitstop. So by the time the second pit stop happened, both almost entered pits at the same time. Gap was around 4-5 seconds. Down from 9 seconds. Still there were around 27 laps left. If there wasn't a VSC, I think he would have overtaken George.
But again his luck is so bad, he lost a truckload of time in the pits as well as came out in that same old used softs. George was also unlucky, tragic even, had to pit again to change the wrong set put on his car earlier but had much fresher mediums. This gave him much much greater pace than Bottas and was able to overtake many. Bottas' tyres were done by then, so horrible that even Sainz, Albon and Gasly passed him and eventually the race ended in P8 and P9.
So that's how the Mercedes saga turned out yesterday and Bottas is no way a substandard driver. Lewis just has more consistency and better tyre management. Other than that, both are almost similar in pace and neck and neck in qualifying. The F1 twitter has become so toxic and lately are trying a lot to break him emotionally. The kind of hate comments I see in his timeline is apalling. But I truly admire how he sidelines all the negativity and maintains that calm demeanor, returns to the next race week with the same positive attitude. He has the pace, he needs to develop the consistency required to beat Hamilton.
Next year, it is Ham and Bot for 2021. In case, if Ham win another championship and retires, we will see George and Bottas teaming up. If he outperforms Hamilton, anything is possible. Both may stay for 2022 or one of them leaves.
One final race to go then. Hope Hamilton recovers well but I also want George to have another chance in that Merc as well
As for Seb, I wish it was over already. Thankfully, only one race left. F2 pitstops are quicker than Ferrari's. Had enough of their clown show, week after week.