2018 Baku GP: Race

[jgonzalesm6]

Its really a shame that Kimi didnt manage to get a lap together yesterday, of course we will never know what would it happen. But I think we would be 1-2 today, because we could protect each other.

yep, we will never know. This whole business of strategy was to blame and the VSC/SC to blame along with Ericsson, Ocon/Kimi, Max/Ricci, Grosjean and anything else that "contributed" to Ferrari losing the race is a bunch of hogwash. We have a very fast car and the whole F1 team, from the drivers and the pits, failed once again on one of the best packages we have had in a long time....+10yrs. So far 4 races in and we should be miles ahead of Mercedes. We can look back at all this and it's all coulda-woulda-shoulda but for the moment with 4 races in, IT'S NOT THE CAR!!!!

I think I am the only one on this forum who likes the track

Love this track.

I like it too, mini monza with Walls

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I actually think it's a very exciting track...

The track reminds of Monaco from a picturesque perspective, with the Caspian Sea in the background. In fact, Monaco should be a charity race IMO, you cannot pass and it's a procession race really; get P1 during quali and just hand the trophy that same day...really. Baku is a street track but there are turns from 17 through 20 that are flat out full throttle which makes for excellent overtaking and braking. Surprised to see Renault is right there with RedBull....Hulk and Sainz will be a force to be reckoned with. This track bites you when you least expect it and it does'nt disappoint. I don't know which year has the most excitement...2017 vs 2018.

[angeljr]

Just caught up with the race and wow.. what a downer :(

I'm angry at Seb, really. Considering all the experience he has, that was a total boneheaded move, trying to pass Bottas.
Sure if it was the last lap I'd understand it but it wasn't. He stuffed the move up and ruined his own race for impatience.

Then to top it all, Bottas gets a puncture and goldenboy gets a win gifted. That sucks so much :(

Kimi sleeping again during the race, from when I see he seemed to make no progression at all in what is supposed to be one of the best cars if not the best.

I hope Seb can claw back some points in Spain.

Couldn't agree more, absolutely spot on and I feel the same way. If Vettel want's to win WDC, he should learn to be patient and should know how to pick his battle. He was ahead of his nearest rival and should protect that second place. He would have taken the lead back when Bottas get's his puncture and his tyres were getting up to temperature faster that the Mercs so he would have his chance anyway.

In situation like this, I couldn't help but think of Alonso. He would definitely do a good job in that Ferrari.

[Aberracus]

Alonso is pure racecraft

But I will have any day a driver who tries to go for the gap than one that sleeps at the wheel hopping to somehow finish in the podium; and I am not referring to ALO.

At least kimi is having all the luck and we as Ferrari are getting points for the WCC.







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[Brembo]

If the big man wants Kimi out, Leclerc would be a great replacement. He drives clean, is fast, and hasn't crashed his Sauber like Gio did. I am content with Kimi, and think he's probably good for one more season.

I know it looks bad seeing Kimi on the podium and Seb messing up like a rookie, but Kimi's points count anyway. Imagine Leclerc moving over for Seb. Seb can't win from pole pos. Kimi with both eyes shut, 80 + yrs. old , is bringing WCC to Ferrari. And to think there are fans here who were wishing Dan on Ferrari! Better now than later realizing Max would be better than Dan for sure, at least you know what your dealing with. And to top it all off, Lewis gets another win.

[nani_s23]

Final thoughts:

I’m disappointed with final result. Should have been another 1-2. With driver mistakes & SC costed lot of points.
2nd consecutive race where Ferrari should have been 1-2. Its more painful when you have fastest car & still not able to bring the points which are expected. I hope these mistakes won’t haunt us back in next part.

Kimi in the race seems to be sleepy as usual. For vet, I can understand his frustration as it’s 2nd consecutive race where he’s been robbed 1st place so he made the move on bottas.

Coming to next race Spain, mercs in those mediums looks superior during testing. Also we saw in yestdays race, mercs are good on hard tyres than softs. So further updates on that mercs car, they might challenge us.

Only good thing is, we are leading WCC.

[Aberracus]

I hope we can get pole on the race, stop first, and not let them undercut us
Let’s hope kimi does his part and keep his second position at the start


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[stefa]

Next two weeks are going to be the longest...

Still cannot get over what happen yesterday....

[XXX132]

Next two weeks are going to be the longest...

Still cannot get over what happen yesterday....

It's not all bad, this was a track the Merc was going to dominate, but we got pole and only lost out due to SC again. Our car is good. Just wish we could maximise our chances while we can.

[aroutis]

We need to get the good with the bad.
1. The car is blazing fast; hopefully with coming upgrades from all teams we will not lose that.
2. Kimi. He is really fast and contrary to other seasons he is delivering. We 're doing great in WCC and we should not lose focus of that.
3. People keep blaming Seb about that move, but people miss the point ; He saw an opportunity and he took a gamble; If that gamble paid off , everyone would be all about what a God he is, now everyone is all about what he should've done; and this is how things are always turning out in cases such as this. But point is, he has to live with this, not you, nor I. But the real question is, do you prefer someone with a winning attitude or someone always playing safe?

I believe that Baku is not a race to forget, even if we could have had an 1-2 or 1-3. It's a race we can get lessons learned and move forward.
I enjoyed it, even if we did not get P1 , which of course I'd prefer. We did get a P2 with Kimi and should celebrate that.

[Ferrarichamp]

well we are leading WCC which is positive, but don't forget Bottas has also been pretty unlucky so far. Gear box problem in Australia + puncture in Baku, he lost a load of points. The last 2 races are tough to accept, hopefully there will be no SC in Spain and we get a third win.

[trim reaper]

I feel quite sorry for Seb as he controlled the race up until the safety car came out,as for his attempted over take on Bot,what else could he do????,the DRS wouldn't have been activated as we only had two laps left so respect for trying.

Kim was lucky though after ballsing up his qualifying lap and kissing the force India(not Kims fault) on lap one,at least he got a good amount of points for the constructors championship

Great race from Lec and I would love ferrari to show some balls and put a young driver in the car,he has to prove his worth this season though

Four races down and I'm completely at ease with our car as it's fast,as long as we can be on point with development we can win both championships(we just need a little luck thrown in)

[alfa84]

Result: our strategy sucks again. If Seb stayed 3 more laps and put ultrasoft he could have been first and not in such a pressure. Its not his foult at all.

[ss-89]

Result: our strategy sucks again. If Seb stayed 3 more laps and put ultrasoft he could have been first and not in such a pressure. Its not his foult at all.

I agree to an extent though understand they put the softs to cover hamilton, not really factoring bottas as a legitimate threat (which he wasn't until a safety car came out).

I know Seb is copping a lot of flak for his attempt at an overtake but isn't that what we want from winners? That they take those chances to win when they present themselves? As a ferrari fan I can't say I'm too upset, the luck in terms of safety cars has gone against Vettel of late (and went for him in Aus) but over the course of a season it's swings and roundabouts. He had no way of knowing Bottas would retire the very next lap. I much prefer his attitude than the like of Bottas who are very much by the percentages.

[Ferrarichamp]

I think in this situation Alonso would have settled for P2.
you are leading WDC and your main rival is behind you. (i'm not a big alonso fan btw).

[racingbradley]

It as a pity but drivers in that situation have not got the luxury of time to think. It was a quick reaction to a possible opportunity but that's the nature of a champion.
F1 reversed is IF
Maybe if Seb had been leading his car would have got the puncture and no points!!!!!
Let's hope Spain is a day when we see red across the podium.

[paolo lalli]

Well lets throw this in seb does not dive in to try and take lead from botas mentality tells himself well ham is behind me 2nd will do and i score more points than ham extend my lead over him then bang botas puncture hes out vet moves back into lead and wins scenarios loyal ferrari fans can torture you lets win in spain and l pray the race is a clean one determined by the car and the driver and by the way i have been tortured with the scenario bug.

[barzini77]

He started 6th, found himself because of Ocon collision and resulted pitstop on 14th place or so and ended finally on podium.

Why do you even bother?

[JPBD]

Result: our strategy sucks again. If Seb stayed 3 more laps and put ultrasoft he could have been first and not in such a pressure. Its not his foult at all.

Seb’s tyres were done. Bottas was catching him at that point of the race. A very bad strip of blistering or graining jad appeared on his front right, so he pitted. He had the whole field covered. He was safe from the undercut. It was the best available strategy.

If the redbull drivers were simply competent drivers - Ferrari would have won. Simple. Bottas would not have caught him (and overtaken) on ultras by the end.

Give the team some credit! They did everything right, luck was not on our side. The arrogance of some people on here to think they know best constantly is such an ugly quality.

[MJ]

3. People keep blaming Seb about that move, but people miss the point ; He saw an opportunity and he took a gamble; If that gamble paid off , everyone would be all about what a God he is, now everyone is all about what he should've done; and this is how things are always turning out in cases such as this. But point is, he has to live with this, not you, nor I. But the real question is, do you prefer someone with a winning attitude or someone always playing safe?

i totally agree with this point.. heck, if i was in his shoes, i’d do the same.. there was a window of opportunity, and you just have to grab it.. it’s 50/50 at that point and he knows that.. also, it was still early in the season and you can afford such, if this happened late in the season, then that would be unforgiveable..

[Vettel165]

Well bad luck happened now for Seb two races in a row, hope now its a time for better things. What comes around, goes around.
I honestly think in Barcelona we will be again very quick, mark my words we will take the victories in Barcelona, Monaco,Canada, I am feeling it. Yes we suffered very hard in last two races, but better times should come soon, things should equal out in next 17 races, the best car will win the title. 425 points still available.

[Larry_Cule]

Do we have any chance in Catalonia?
It would be really helpful if someone can analyze the sectors so we can see if we can expect a good performance.

[ss-89]

Do we have any chance in Catalonia?
It would be really helpful if someone can analyze the sectors so we can see if we can expect a good performance.

Absolutely pointless to speculate as Barcelona is high downforce package compared to Baku. In addition, all teams will be bringing upgrades to the next race which will further complicate any comparisons.

[SilverSpeed]

Who cares in 2021 we'll have a breakaway series .

[Vettel165]

Do we have any chance in Catalonia?
It would be really helpful if someone can analyze the sectors so we can see if we can expect a good performance.

I think in S1,S2 we should be very strong, as good AERO efficiency is promoted there, dont know about S3 which is a downforce section. We were strong in that tight section in Baku, high-rake should help us there comparing to the Mercedes. For now it looks like our car is working in every conditions.

[racingbradley]

Do we have any chance in Catalonia?
It would be really helpful if someone can analyze the sectors so we can see if we can expect a good performance.

In my humble opinion Lady Luck plays a significant part in every race.
Look at Australia she was on our side and maybe China as well.
Yesterday we probably had the better car but she supported Ham.
I think we are so evenly matched now it's all about who seizes the opportunity and makes less mistakes on the day!!!!!

[NasI]

Inside news. Red Caws are favoring Max because he is the driver sticking with them. Luis is praising Botas because he needs him for next year. Richardo is in his way to Mercedes. Luis fears this move and wants Botas in the family.

[Vettel165]

What I find funny that this Baku is really a crazy race, looks like it. Yesterday there wasnt a single driver than didnt make mistake, Hamilton, Vettel, Kimi all did it. Maybe the only driver on the grid who was clean, was Bottas this race, from 20 drivers. This race is heavier to drive as in Monaco, and the high-tyre pressures didnt help. I really think that things will get back to normal in next races, without to much drama.

[512 TR]

So I was browsing the F1 reddit website. One of the posts mentioned that according to Sky Italy, Liberty Media asked Charlie Whiting to use a Safety Car instead of a VSC because it would "improve the show".

If anyone had access to Sky Italy, can you confirm whether this is true or not before I get too off because if this is in fact true I can safely say that this race and the one in China had some tampering from Whiting to "improve the show". This would mean that Ferrari were robbed of two more race wins.

Regarding the Red Bull incident, I think a VSC would have sufficed because the two cars had already slid of the track. An even better decision would have been to stop the race and clean the entire track.

Hopefully this is all just a theory and Charlie Whiting has not succumbed to the demands of Liberty Media.

I woudn't be surprised at all if that was the case. I can't confirm it though but China was obvious manipulations to get Bottas and Seb out of contention for the win and then our pitwall dropped the ball with Kimi who could have come in as RBR did (but that's another story).

In Baku there should have been red flags for both the Ocon incident and then later for the one with Grosjean as it's a street track with barriers and the wrecks were standing on track. They've said there would be more red flag and standing restarts but somehow that doesn't happen. In Monaco they are super quick with wrecks so probably no red flag is necessary as the SC is only out for a short time. In Baku it was out for many many laps. As for the RBR incident one can maybe understand the SC instead of a VSC as it bunches up the field and let the marshalls have a bigger gap to clean and sweep. On the other hand race control could have ordered a VSC and still going through the pits on delta time. But if we take two red flags and a SC we get a completely different race result. Even if Seb would lose his lead to Bottas because of the SC for the RBR incident he would have been given many more laps with a red flag for Grosjean, plus a restart chance to jump Bottas. He probably wouldn't have made his mistake as there would have been many more racing laps left.

[Christopher]

Do we have any chance in Catalonia?
It would be really helpful if someone can analyze the sectors so we can see if we can expect a good performance.

Barcelona is normally hard on the tyres so should suit us more than Merc and the Mercs had really bad tyre graining in winter testing but there is a new surface which is supposedly kinder on the tyres

[Michal2_F1]

"The happiness they've had, doesn't matter whether they've earned it or not, fingers up in the air... I'm just wired differently."
Another quote from Hamilton. Was there ever bigger hypocrite that yesterday's lucky winner? He seemed to forgot how much he celebrated gifted wins in Silverstone 2014 or Russia 2015. But he couldn't resist having a dig at Vettel. He is afraid of the Ferrari, that's clear. Now it's time to scare him even more in Spain and Monaco.