I'm actually not a fan of any driver. I'm more of a McLaren team fan. But seeing someone finally able to challenge the superior merc in a car thats down on power made me interested this season.

FIA has always been making stupid regulations on engine changes. Whoever dominated in 2014, will likely dominate for next couple years until a major rule change.

Having the fastest car is subjective. RBR has to sacrifice downforce for speed, while Merc on the other hand can afford for more downforce compensated by higher output.

RBR pulled some distance in the slow twisty section of baku. Merc being longer wheelbase doesnt help in those section. In the straights, the merc managed to cut back some distance. Had the straights been longer, it would pass the RBR's

Honda from another planet? Lowest speed trap captured looks powerful to you? RBR has always been pulling distance not via power advantage. Even back in pre turbo-hybrid days, the renault pu were not the highest output

No doubt Honda has improved, but its still not at the merc's level

I was looking forward to your conspiracy theory that the Bottas crash was a calculated one.

Exactly, I dont think it was intentional. After crashgate this type of things are being monitored closely

Yup the only car able to match the merc's pace is probably RBR but with the damage sustained, the RBR wont hold a candle against the merc.

The rest are all sitting ducks back in the straights

F1 was never fair. For all the damages done by Merc on RBR, the repair cost has to be fully borne by the victim. On top of that, the victim will get penalty for an engine change

Not negative, just common sense. If a damaged engine wasnt caused by your own fault, it warrants for a change without penalty. Why should one take punishment for mistakes of others?

It's like you already got "punished" by someone crashing into you, on top of that you get punished again for changing a broken engine caused by that someone. Stupid no? It jeopardises your championship in the long run

What max and lewis? Perez?

Sometimes it makes you wonder how other teams know about something that's hidden.

This goes all the way back to 90's where ferrari lodge a complain on mclaren's mercedes engine having beryllium cylinders, also not forgetting the renault mass dampers

Max and Lewis were pretty even in Dutch GP. Probably Lewis would have won with better pit strategy.

Next one though, Monza, would be interesting to see how RBR would handle the power deficit. Running smaller rear wings would be problem for long sweeping fast corners

I'm not RBR supporter. I've been a McLaren fan since Senna days. In fact I was damn excited to see McLaren-Honda name reappear in 2014, but then it turned out bad

Just stating what I observed. It's a fact that RBR has been playing with wing sizes to match the mercs. In Baku, they pulled a gap big enough in the twisty sections. You can see how quickly the mercs close in on the final straights. Had the straight been slightly longer, the Mercs would have eaten them

Steering input on the RBR is definitely not as straight forward as Mercs.

RBR has always been a car that's not easy to drive. Not many can handle it. If you observe the lines taken by Max and Lewis in Turn 3 at zandvoort, the RBR has always been dancing around the edge, while the Merc always managed to take a tidy line

Merc? It seems more forgiving that any driver can beat the rest of the field. George Russell can get a win despite having his first drive in the merc

From your previous reply, I can already guess you're a Lewis/Merc fan boy. You totally ignored the fact that Max didnt even managed to pull a 6 sec gap, and concluded the RBR is from a different planet.

If there's anything I would term "from a different planet", the 2014 Merc F1 would be it. That was pure dominance back in its days

Overall, I think LH/Merc fans are an insecure bunch. They're totally chill when merc win the WDC by hundred points. But when there's a challenger, they start to overexaggerate things.

A few seconds gap gained over almost 20 laps isnt considered planets apart. 2014 merc gaining over 20 sec over the rest in the same amount of laps, THAT is what you call planets apart. Get it? I would term the 2021 RBR and Merc as "equally matched" at most, instead of overexaggerate to "different planet"

What I'm saying is they have to sacrifice something else to gain back something. The fact they changed rear wing size for power track says something. Hard to catch?

There's everything to play for with 9 more races to go and merc fan boys already had their panties in a bunch. Talk about insecurities I guess this is what happens when their idol ran away with the title easily for too long

You think I care who wins? I watch it to pass time and also for the techy stuff. Merc deserved all the wins in hybrid era, with their PU innovations. Honda has a similar design but their engines were never powerful or reliable enough until recent years. Yeah they did make progress, still behind merc but close. If merc's engine plenum sensor was found to be illegal, I believe then Honda will have a power advantage

Not gonna argue anymore. If only you even bothered to look at speed trap statistics, you would know the "power advantage" made up by Lewis and Toto is nonsense.

There's also other factors like wheelbase difference which is why RBR can pull a big gap in Baku, and prevent the Mercs from using DRS before the final straights. Even without DRS, Mercs can still close in on the straight

But then again, you can go on and believe whatever Lewis/Toto/Merc feed you with.

Heck, even Ross Brawn think Merc have a chance of winning in Zandvoort because the RBR and Merc had so similar pace. But they failed due to wrong pit calls

Yes, but you forgot that Merc took an aerodynamic hit with this year's regulation. So they're pretty much neck and neck when it comes to power/aerodynamic compromise.

Spa and Monza would be the best power track to test the Merc vs RBR. Unfortunately spa never materialised. Monza would be interesting to watch

Actually I dont care who wins I just find the brainwashing by Merc/Lewis quite annoying, and their army of fan boys repeating it everywhere. If you dont look at stats, you'd probably get fooled by them

Also, Max will have to take an engine penalty eventually. So there's no clear advantage yet in terms of title chances

Uhhh, depends on how you look at it. He was on medium, the mclaren's are on soft. Softs should have better grip from launch.

Some say he botched the start, but I think its down to the tires

Seeing he got mclaren on his left and right, he wouldnt risk doing crazy move for so little points

You did notice that DR shot pass MV right and was half a car ahead? Just that he has to backoff into the turn 1. Not sure what you were watching

By backing off, I was referring to DR. DR did go ahead MV by half a car, since you wanna talk facts right? Both McLarens are also on softs. So yeah, softs managed to catch the mediums from a dig down to turn one.

Once the mediums gets up to temperature it doesnt matter as much

Woohoo. Finally mclaren has a clear chance for a win after so long

He's on mediums. Given that he cant get pass Perez, and used up his tires, pretty much McLaren 1-2 is guaranteed

Current F1 is a funny one. The cars have gotten so long and wide that in some tracks, the car's width itself is blocking any overtake attempts.

They always thought about changing the aerodynamics to reduce dirty air, DRS to promote overtake etc etc, but at the same time the cars keep bulking up while the track remains the same

I havent followed F1 for a few years, but I dont remember seeing so many crashes in one season when cars were smaller.

These things increase in size so much that they're now bigger than F segment sedans