I hadn't twigged this until today but Verstappen can feasibly finish every race in second place, including the sprint, even if it's behind Leclerc and still win the title.

 

He would need to take the fastest lap more often than not but it demonstrates how commanding his position is following a 109 point swing in the last nine races

Edited July 26, 20222 yr by Severin

And there's more chance of Mazepin returning in a Mercedes than there is Ferrari winning every race from now. All they can rely on is Red Bull unreliability whilst having no more of their own.

As it tradition!

 

Best driver: Hamilton [optimal result, crucially kept Perez behind in the early stages]

Worst driver: Leclerc [a few contenders (Zhou, Magnussen) but you really can't go crashing from the lead]

Best team: Red Bull [they had the pace, Perez had a bad race]

Worst team: Alfa Romeo [the hell has happened to them of late, now unreliable and super slow]

Best overtake: Sainz on Perez [NOT NOW!]

Worst overtake: Gasly on someone [when he went straight on]

Best moment: Sainz teaching Ferrari what a 5-second penalty means just shades Russell's pass on Perez

Worst moment: NOOOOOOOOOO!

Best thing about the race: Lots of action throughout the field, I'm warming to Paul Ricard

Worst thing about the race: Red Bull have one and a half hands on both championships with barely a fight...

 

And the race in a sentence: Charles throws it all away, Max goes on with his day

Best driver: Sainz (Had the measure of Leclerc all weekend and had the pace for pole and the win)

Worst driver: Zhou (Out of sorts all weekend - see also Perez)

Best team: Red Bull

Worst team: Alpha Tauri

Best overtake: Sainz on Perez

Worst overtake: Russell on Perez

Best moment: Sainz (in general)

Worst moment: George Russell's increasingly obnoxious behaviour (particularly when blathering on about being the only one knowing the rules when he's clearly in the wrong)

Best thing about the race: The sea of tricolors fluttering in the crowd - shame it's just too late if next years calendar is correct

Worst thing about the race: Another missed opportunity for Leclerc

 

And the race in a sentence: French GP says Au Revoir(?) with an uncharacteristically decent race

Vettel is retiring at the end of the season

Aww that's a shame, thought he'd do another 1 or 2 years at least.

 

Such a great presence around the paddock. Wonder who gets the vacant Aston seat next season now then...

Whilst I've never thought he was an exceptional enough driver to warrant as many as four titles (in comparison to others like Prost, Senna, Lauda etc) and that it is hard to argue that his best years aren't long behind him, it will still be a shame to see him leave. He's easily one of the most likeable, knowledgeable and respected figures in the paddock. If he's hanging up his helmet for good I'd really like to see him combine his environmental concerns with an advisory role at the FIA. I still think he has a lot to offer the sport and can be a leading figure in sustainability in a similar way to how Jackie Stewart was on safety.

 

At the very least I expect we'll see him continue to mentor Mick Schumacher whilst he's around

 

 

As for the vacant seat, well it was just the other day that Toto was saying they need to find Nyck De Vries a seat or let him leave Mercedes.

Edited July 28, 20222 yr by Severin

Piastri is also a Name in the hunt for a seat

 

 

It is a shame to see him go but I think it’s unarguable at this point that the best is in the past for Vettel and his talents are perhaps best served elsewhere. The man is smart as hell and I think the idea of him working in the Governing body structure in some capacity is a great one

Seb was a great driver in the Red Bull days, and he’ll be a fantastic campaigner in his retirement.

Sad to see Seb go. Such a shame his last podium was taken from him (unless he gets a fluke result this year!)

 

This also makes me feel old - he shares my bday and was the first driver to win a race when younger than me!

A 4x world champion, a gentlemen and a wonderful ambassador for F1. Thank you for the memories Sebastian! Best wishes for the future.

Andretti in F1, do you think it will happen?

 

 

Supposedly it’s a Renault engine going in the back if it happens so I’m all for it because we need another team running our motors to help us with the extra testing mileage/data :lol:

@1553351746231193600

 

?????????

Elated for George, very interesting grid all round.

The grid is certainly set up for an exciting race. Hopefully Mercedes can show good race pace again and Russell can convert pole into a win. It's generally just really positive to have a third team up there.

A third team would be great, but it would be nice if it was literally ANY of the others apart from f***ing merc. Beyond over them being at the sharp end.

 

 

Really hoping Alpine and/or McLaren can actually make a solid strive and start turning this into a proper dog fight

That was a great lap from George, completely unexpected and always good to see someone new on pole. Hopefully he can turn it into a win but I certainly won't hold my breath.

The most notable thing about George's lap was that he wasn't fastest in any sector. Both Sainz and Leclerc should be able to get ahead on him on pace and probably Verstappen too but The Merc is generally a better car in race condition than for qualifying so it should be interesting to see if he can hold them off or do one of his frequent iffy starts. George should benefit from Sainz being on what is quite a dirty line at the start

Russell will take several laps to get tyre temperature. I think he’ll be a sitting duck at the start.