[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by Artemis

The career of Russell shows that he was/is a super talent. What a driver. Great to see him boldly squeezing everything out of his car. Not star-struck by Hamilton. Made his mark from the get-go at Mercedes, doing a stellar job, showing his colors: new team, new car, quickly adapting and regularly outperforming his legendary team mate Hamilton in 2022. And today he pulled it off again. Yet another performance that may induce Mercedes a "let them race" approach, instead of "Bottas'ing" Russell to favor Hamilton. If Hamilton wants to finish races ahead of Russell, he will need to do what he's paid for (± 10 times the Russell pay): race. The days of "Valtteri, this is James" favors seem to have vanished.

We will never know, but imagine for a moment a 2007 'young' Hamilton (instead of 2023 'old' Hamilton) competing with Russell at Mercedes.

Certainly the easy wins for HAM with the 'Val slave' days have all but disappeared for him.

[Artemis]

If Checo aspires to become 2023 WDC, he should show us tomorrow that he is capable of getting a podium finish. Truly gifted drivers can do amazing stuff. But is Checo truly gifted or just a good driver who's lucky to be racing the best car of the field ?

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by Artemis

If Checo aspires to become 2023 WDC, he should show us tomorrow that he is capable of getting a podium finish. Truly gifted drivers can do amazing stuff. But is Checo truly gifted or just a good driver who's lucky to be racing the best car of the field ?

Attachment 3144353

For sure the pressure is on Checo now but I'm not expecting a stellar drive from him on the low grip track, so he'll have plenty of other tracks to try on.

[GuidoK]

I missed the qualifying but only saw the highlights.
But what a strange error from Checo, he's considered to be a street circuit specialist.
Blocking the front wheels for such a long distance and totally miss that corner.

Interesting to see the MERCS qualifying this high. Street circuits always have surprises

[Killed by Death]

Ferrari

Something tells me LEC is going to MB given the opportunity

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by g21

Perez blocks Verstappen in 2023 by getting gravel trapped

he's been practicing this i must add, this is the 5th time in the same gravel trap today. he must think the team sabotaged his brakes.

Checo is actually a gravel racer .

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

I missed the qualifying but only saw the highlights.
But what a strange error from Checo, he's considered to be a street circuit specialist.
Blocking the front wheels for such a long distance and totally miss that corner.

Interesting to see the MERCS qualifying this high. Street circuits always have surprises

Checo has said the brake balance is extremely tricky to set up with the low tyre wear track surface and it's the over steer set up element of Max's car that's mixed in to make Max have less brake bias problems.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by Artemis

A kiwi crossed the track when Verstappen passed during Q2.

And The Hulk doing Hulk things.

Yeah . Strange birds in Australia .I think kiwi's are deaf

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

Certainly the easy wins for HAM with the 'Val slave' days have all but disappeared for him.

22th Pole for MAX !!!

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Yeah . Strange birds in Australia .I think kiwi's are deaf

I had a kiwi fruit this morning

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

22th Pole for MAX !!!

It's no April fools day that Max got pole, not even a poisoned meal served by someone can stop Max, only Sophie his mum should cook for him!

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

Checo has said the brake balance is extremely tricky to set up with the low tyre wear track surface and it's the over steer set up element of Max's car that's mixed in to make Max have less brake bias problems.

The RB19 has still gearbox issues and lag in the downshifts .
The RB19-2023 gearbox is smaller in order to optimize the RB19's aero package.

The RB19 is very fast but it isn't easy to drive with ...

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

The RB19 has still gearbox issues and lag in the downshifts .
The RB19-2023 gearbox is smaller in order to optimize the RB19's aero package.

The RB19 is very fast but it isn't easy to drive with ...

Then it's understandable with a narrower casing the downshift is maybe not such a problem as much as a signature of the downshifts.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

Then it's understandable with a narrower casing the downshift is maybe not such a problem as much as a signature of the downshifts.

It wasn't easy to get the RB19 tyres on temp.

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by Killed by Death

Ferrari

Something tells me LEC is going to MB given the opportunity

The Scuderia won't like that

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

Then it's understandable with a narrower casing the downshift is maybe not such a problem as much as a signature of the downshifts.

MAX said : I have nice memories from Albert Park !

I drove my first F1 race here in Australia without driver license because I was just 17 ..

6 months later MAX returned to Belgium to get his citizen's driver's license .
I heard , the Belgian examiner wasn't really happy with MAX's drivers style !

He said : MAX had a hard time to drive 30 km/h in the 30 zone's

To be honest , me always !

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

The Scuderia won't like that

Ferrari Fred s@cks my friend . Bino the clown was better ...

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

It wasn't easy to get the RB19 tyres on temp.

The main thing is Max's 19 can be fettled to what it is now without going too much over when not really needed, Russel was on the absolute limit.

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

MAX said : I have nice memories from Albert Park !

I drove my first F1 race here in Australia without driver license because I was just 17 ..

6 months later MAX returned to Belgium to get his citizen's driver's license .
I heard , the Belgian examiner wasn't really happy with MAX's drivers style !

He said : MAX had a hard time to drive 30 km/h in the 30 zone's

To be honest , me always !

That makes three of us

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

The main thing is Max's 19 can be fettled to what it is now without going too much over when not really needed, Russel was on the absolute limit.

The Russell boy will ignite his dive bomb in T1 ...

But MAX loves to play anyway !

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Ferrari Fred s@cks my friend . Bino the clown was better ...

I agree, Fred may be a waste of space being too busy seing what people are doing giving them 'job evaluation questionnaires' than making the car go quicker, Mattia has a funny hair style but I believe he only put his foot down when it was needed (finger wagging at Charlie when he got stroppy) and the same people there would have meant a quicker Ferrari than last year.

[///M Power-Belgium]