Page 2 of 2
Re: Driver(s) of the Day - 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix
Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2020 10:49 pm
by mikeyg123
WHoff78 wrote:mikeyg123 wrote:TheGiantHogweed wrote:i'm not sure Racing point are the 2nd best team just yet. They appear not to know how to make the most of things yet. Their strategy was strange too. Both drivers looked far faster in one stint than the other and I think it could be more to do with the set up than the driver. The team need to understand how to work with such a good car before I could consider Stroll and Perez to have the 2nd best opportunity to score high points.
Stroll finished well ahead of Albon... Would you consider Lance a much better driver than Alex?
I think Verstappen has been really flattering the Red Bull. Incredible that without his mechanical failure in Austria he'd only be a few points off the championship lead.
Do you think it’s that clear between RP and Red Bull at this stage?
It’s a curious one but I definitely think that Stroll could be better than Albon at this stage in their careers (and more certain for an on-form Perez) – especially in the environment with the RP team focused to get things set-up to Stroll’s liking; and effectively the opposite happening at Red Bull where more of the focus would be towards Max.
But Hungary is kind of unique as well. The main difference is qualifying where the RP drivers held a 0.3-0.6s advantage over Albon in Q2. Probably a solid argument that the RP has the advantage there, especially with Stroll only 2 tenths down on Verstappen and obviously beating him in Q3. The race is fairly compromised though and so we probably never saw Albon’s true pace as I assume that he was fairly handicapped in terms of tyre wear / fuel efficiency in coming back through the field (can’t recall exactly at this point and would need to look again check). I expect we’ll get a clear indication at tracks like Silverstone where overtaking is a little easier. I am curious though which car holds the advantage at the moment.
I think they are both relatively close but If you took Verstappen out of the Red Bull then very few people would be claiming they were the 2nd best car.
The first Austrian race I think they had the edge on Racing Point but the Styrian Grand Prix Perez caught Albon despite starting miles back and Stroll was comfortably faster in Hungary.
So it's marginal but I'd just give Racing Point the nod at the moment. It will be interesting to see what happens at Silverstone but I suspect Verstappen will still be comfortably ahead of them with Albon slightly behind. I hope Perez can do a better job than in Hungary or i'll start to get suspicious.... In some ways it would be quite convenient for Perez to have a downturn inform right about now. As an aside I recently read an article about how much Sauber tried to hobble Nasr in 2016 to appeal to Ericsson's backers. So it does happen.
Re: Driver(s) of the Day - 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix
Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2020 11:43 pm
by WHoff78
I think it is only natural that a team would focus development towards the driver that is staying (realize there are other things at play with RP too), obviously balanced against maximizing points they take home – of course what we don’t know is what Racing Point are thinking for their line-up next year, but this could provide some clues. If one driver is on the way out then as the season goes on you will start to turn your efforts to next season and the driver that is staying on. I think that will hurt Racing Point in terms of overall pace if that is Stroll.
I kind of expect to see the same happen at Renault as the season goes on, although perhaps I’ll be proved wrong because right now Ricciardo looks most likely to bring home the blockbuster result Renault probably need and Ocon has time.
Re: Driver(s) of the Day - 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix
Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2020 6:54 am
by mikeyg123
WHoff78 wrote:I think it is only natural that a team would focus development towards the driver that is staying (realize there are other things at play with RP too), obviously balanced against maximizing points they take home – of course what we don’t know is what Racing Point are thinking for their line-up next year, but this could provide some clues. If one driver is on the way out then as the season goes on you will start to turn your efforts to next season and the driver that is staying on. I think that will hurt Racing Point in terms of overall pace if that is Stroll.
I kind of expect to see the same happen at Renault as the season goes on, although perhaps I’ll be proved wrong because right now Ricciardo looks most likely to bring home the blockbuster result Renault probably need and Ocon has time.
I think perhaps you're overestimating the effect that would have over what it is a short period of time. Don't forget development is somewhat limited as well. If a team wants to make one driver look better than the other then there are lots of things they can do from one week to the next. The good thing is I don't think Perez is the sort of guy that would stay quiet about it.
Re: Driver(s) of the Day - 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix
Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2020 6:55 am
by JN23
TheGiantHogweed wrote:mikeyg123 wrote:TheGiantHogweed wrote:i'm not sure Racing point are the 2nd best team just yet. They appear not to know how to make the most of things yet. Their strategy was strange too. Both drivers looked far faster in one stint than the other and I think it could be more to do with the set up than the driver. The team need to understand how to work with such a good car before I could consider Stroll and Perez to have the 2nd best opportunity to score high points.
Stroll finished well ahead of Albon... Would you consider Lance a much better driver than Alex?
I think Verstappen has been really flattering the Red Bull. Incredible that without his mechanical failure in Austria he'd only be a few points off the championship lead.
I would say on the whole, Stroll looks to be getting better and could well be close to albon, but would say he did a better job last weekend.
The car is capable of being the 2nd best, but I think the team working out how to make the most of it is as much or more to do with the result than the drivers at this stage. Stroll usually underperforms, But to me, he really didn't last weekend.
BiB - I actually thought the same of Red Bull last weekend. They still wouldn't be close to the Mercs but I don't think they've yet realised the potential of the car.
Re: Driver(s) of the Day - 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix
Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2020 8:58 am
by mikeyg123
Paolo_Lasardi wrote:TheGiantHogweed wrote:i'm not sure Racing point are the 2nd best team just yet. They appear not to know how to make the most of things yet. Their strategy was strange too. Both drivers looked far faster in one stint than the other and I think it could be more to do with the set up than the driver. The team need to understand how to work with such a good car before I could consider Stroll and Perez to have the 2nd best opportunity to score high points.
I disagree.
Perez was just weak in Budapest. In Styria he was easily one of the quickest in the race. He messed up qualifying and crashed into his opponent for the podium - but that's a driver issue. And Stroll was just painfully slow in Styria.
I think it is the drivers. With decent drivers, the Points would have easily scored at least two podiums so far.
I don't think the drivers or the team have made the most out of what they have thus far. Perez could have won in Austria if he'd been pitted under the 2nd safety car for example. Then they lost what would have been an easy 4th in Styria with a poor performance in quali. Perez was then subpar in Hungary and Stroll basically finished in the lowest acceptable position given the speed of the car.