"Missing Chunk" of Floor to Blame For Hamilton Pace

[snyperal]

Hmm

 

[Turk]

Missing chunk, hmmmm, sure, he never hit or was hit by something.

How do you know that? There were two front wings dumped on the track in the first lap.

Why is F1 being followed so closely here, but WEC and IMSA are almost never mentioned?

Because this is the F1 forum. Makes sense to talk about F1.

I don't think Mercedes would need to come up with excuses for Hamilton, they're just stating what happened.

It must be slightly alarming for the other teams that a damaged Mercedes is capable of taking 2nd and Bottas was untouchable.

 

[NikiGouda]

Lewis himself stated after qualifying that Bottas was continuously
super fast at the sessions and he had to put out "something special"
to grab the pole. Then after the race he said that he has to do some
"homework" now and Bottas has done everything right. This indicates
that indeed a big chunk of his 20+ seconds gap might have to do with
Bottas elevated his performance to a new level due to hard work over winter
break and Lewis hadn't simply the form to compete over race distance.
In addition to that Hamilton had to cover a possible undercut from Vettel
so Mercedes decided to let him pit way earlier than he wanted.
To what extent the stated claim of a "missing chunk of floor" contributed
to his gap to Bottas can only be suspected, but i would say not much,if
at all, to be honest.

 

[BazzaLB]

I think the missing chunk of floor might have been jammed under vettels car. That would explain a lot

 

[Ruy Horta]

Because F1 is more popular and attract more people to the site, Makes more business sense to cover a the worlds most prestigious motorsports competition.

It is the famous chicken egg story, F1 is more popular so it gets more exposure, F1 is more popular because it gets more exposure. Everywhere I look it is F1, I have to search to find some other motorsport of interest and it is actually getting worse not bettter - unless I go for pay services, which are still very much biased towards F1. There are now +10 F1 related items in row on RD.

Personally I haven’t been interested in F1 for decades, IMO it get far too much attention as it is to the detriment of motorsports in general.

...not a hater, lets make that clear.

 

[mrbungle83]

It is the famous chicken egg story, F1 is more popular so it gets more exposure, F1 is more popular because it gets more exposure. Everywhere I look it is F1, I have to search to find some other motorsport of interest and it is actually getting worse not bettter - unless I go for pay services, which are still very much biased towards F1.

Personally I haven’t been interested in F1 for decades, IMO it get far too much attention as it is to the detriment of motorsports in general.

...not a hater, lets make that clear.

The point remains, even here articles about F1 are popular that by no means makes me think it's the best form of motprsport same can be said for anything F1 is to motorsport what Pop is to music. I really believe if Sky picked up the DTM for example created a moody advertisement, put some presenters in pink shirts (tucked in obviously) walked a camera backwards whilst the 3 middle class gentleman discussed all the happenings, they could have a huge influence on the ratings and opinions of the said motorsport. I kind of like the BTCC the average looking missus in the pit lane who just loves their motorsport fanatic husband it feels real.

 

[Koen Verlinde]

It is the famous chicken egg story, F1 is more popular so it gets more exposure, F1 is more popular because it gets more exposure. Everywhere I look it is F1, I have to search to find some other motorsport of interest and it is actually getting worse not bettter - unless I go for pay services, which are still very much biased towards F1. There are now +10 F1 related items in row on RD.

Personally I haven’t been interested in F1 for decades, IMO it get far too much attention as it is to the detriment of motorsports in general.

...not a hater, lets make that clear.

Endurance Info . Com

 

[F1Aussie]

Because thats not what happened? He had damage and it was pretty obvious, im not saying he wouldve won this race because he got jumped at the start after Valterris great start and Valterri drove an amazing race, but no way would he have been 25 seconds off the lead so im not sure why you think that gap was all down to driver skill. Lewis was even complaining about the balance in the race so its obviously not right. Valterri deserved the win today but by no means are mercedes making up excuses for Hamilton being 25 seconds behind, he did have damage.

Sure, are there any photos going around of this supposed damage? Unless there is proof it is just words.

 

[F1Aussie]

Why is F1 being followed so closely here, but WEC and IMSA are almost never mentioned?

I can tell you why, what is Imsa?

 

[F1Aussie]

A piece of his ego fell off, when his "captain slow" teammate was outpacing him. That damaged the floor.

Lol

 

[F1Aussie]

How do you know that? There were two front wings dumped on the track in the first lap.

Because this is the F1 forum. Makes sense to talk about F1.

I don't think Mercedes would need to come up with excuses for Hamilton, they're just stating what happened.

It must be slightly alarming for the other teams that a damaged Mercedes is capable of taking 2nd and Bottas was untouchable.

How do I know? Because we would have heard all about and seen it during the race coverage. Hamilton gets a lot of airtime, it would have been all over the coverage if something like that happened.

 

[Andrea Lojelo]

Sure, are there any photos going around of this supposed damage? Unless there is proof it is just words.

Yes. There is a picture of the car at the end of the race with a missing piece, and one that show that that part was there at the beginning of the race.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-floor-damage-mercedes-australia/4355058/

 

[ClimaxF1]

Missing chunk, hmmmm, sure, he never hit or was hit by something. Why can't they just admit that he was actually outdriven on the day!!

Even Hamilton said himself that irrespective of what the problem was that he lost the race already in the first corner and this is quoted by him.

 

[samprince053]

There's a picture for everyone calling bs

 

[samprince053]

Sure, are there any photos going around of this supposed damage? Unless there is proof it is just words.

Yes, I just posted it above.

 

[Turk]

The point remains, even here articles about F1 are popular that by no means makes me think it's the best form of motprsport same can be said for anything F1 is to motorsport what Pop is to music.

There's probably a lot of truth to that. I think part of the problem is the car itself isn't as amazing to the average person as it once was. If you go back to any time before the 1990s in motorsport and people didn't have to have a huge interest in the sport side of racing they could go to enjoy seeing incredible machines that you couldn't see anywhere else doing things that seemed impossible.

Now not only is the car ubiquitous, even really, really fast cars are as common as muck. You take just about any normal car made this century, travel back in time to pre 1980s and even your average family saloon would become a sports car by the standards of the time. When you hear that GT cars have to have their engines neutered it goes to show that race cars aren't really the unicorns they used to be.

You can see that as a bad thing, or you can see it as a good thing. Do we really need fans that are only watching in the hopes of seeing an accident? Or because it's popular so they can have something to talk about at work the next day?

F1 is never going to rekindle the popularity it had in the past. In the past it was a spectacle but now it's a sport. Well, it's trying to be both, it will fail at that, hopefully it doesn't put the sport under in the process.

We need to adjust our expectations for the modern world. I'm completely over this nostalgia trend that seems to be around at the moment. I want to see the future not the past.

 

[Kaygeeoh]

View attachment 297102 There's a picture for everyone calling bs

Incase there's the how did you know it wasnt there at race start.

Hands down to Bottas. As much as i am a HAM fan, i dont think he would have passed Bottas in the race. Bottas was on song, Lewis will have his hands full this year. I really hope Bottas can challenge like this and keep Lewis honest for the rest of the season.

What i really want to see though, is a 3 way battle between Bottas, Verstappen and LeClerc.

 

[snyperal]

Incase there's the how did you know it wasnt there at race start.

Hands down to Bottas. As much as i am a HAM fan, i dont think he would have passed Bottas in the race. Bottas was on song, Lewis will have his hands full this year. I really hope Bottas can challenge like this and keep Lewis honest for the rest of the season.

What i really want to see though, is a 3 way battle between Bottas, Verstappen and LeClerc.

While this would be interesting, I think the Lewis Hamilton onslaught would break anybody. Look what the continual pressure did to Seb, and he's a past champion. I think maybe Verstappo would be the only one with the strength / aggression needed. I just don't know if they have the car with which to do it, although i enjoy watching the redbull, without the outright pace, having to compete with differing strategies, and do well with them too. That alone should be enough to cause some upset, it certainly did last season.

 

[NDG]

I heard Williams lacking spare parts. Could be them borrowing parts especially the rear area since they have same engine.

 

[dadara74]

View attachment 297102 There's a picture for everyone calling bs

Jep, that clearly explaines the 0.5 sec deficit on Bottas & Verstappen