A Red Bull driver shouldn’t have to be reliant on a second run to go through to Q2. By his own admission, his first lap wasn’t good enough. When that happens, on a tight and short track, you’re asking for trouble.

The cars are the same, that’s not the issue. Having said that, we know that Verstappen’s ability (and preference) to handle a nervous rear-end allows Red Bull to trim the everloving shit out of their car. It’s probably a result of him going straight from go-karts to F3, and then immediately to F1. The other drivers…

Apparently, you weren’t paying attention either. Bottas didn’t go for the fastest lap. He went purple-purple, probably to give his team a heart attack, and then backed off massively in the last sector, temporarily setting a fastest lap which allowed for Hamilton to easily beat it by 1.4s on fresh tyres.

Gasly’s talent and raw speed have never been in question.

Perez has always been a mediocre qualifier at best, hard to see that change at age 31.

Sure, let’s overlook the fact that he was out of contention within a few laps. For five years now, he’s had every opportunity to show he can match Lewis. Same material and same support to start every year. He’s always faded as the season progressed. So of course they are going to compromise his race when they feel…

Agreed about the onboard laps… that looks absolutely insane.

I don’t think Mick makes much sense there, assuming that Bottas is indeed joining Alfa-Sauber on a multi-year deal. Sauber has their own junior, and he’s probably the best young prospect in all of racing. Pourchaire will be in that Sauber no later than 2023. So one season of Mick seems pretty pointless.

You can say a lot of nasty things about Tilke tracks, but not that they create processions.

That’s a pretty good point. Though Di Montezemolo signed Kimi against Todt’s wishes, which led to the whole Schumacher/retirement debacle, Todt did seem to realize that Kimi was the one that was going to be their best shot at remaining competitive.

If you’re going to make that argument, which seems pointless since that’s during the era BEFORE Spa 2008, at least get your facts straight. In 2003, Kimi had 1 mechanical DNF, not ‘4-5’ vs Schumacher’s 0 and he lost by 2 points. That was the only season he came close to the title. McLaren had the fastest car for most…

They did, but they can get out of that deal after one year if needed. It’s being rumored that Sauber are unhappy with Ferrari’s performance, and with Sauber reportedly looking to sign De Vries  (a Mercedes driver) to partner Bottas this rumor does seem to have legs.

Esteban Ocon is 15cm taller than Alonso, and Gasly is 18cm taller than Tsunoda, who’s the shortest F1 driver by quite some margin.

That 2008 Spa meltdown has always felt to me like the end of the old Raikkonen. That took him out of the title picture, and he’s never challenged for another one again. With his career not even halfway at the time, and his many disappointing seasons since then, I think there’s a pretty strong case to be made that he’s…

Kimi retired 8 years ago. He just didn’t tell anyone.

It has, but their multi-year deal actually has ‘review’ clauses after each season. With Bottas and De Vries lined up for Alfa drives, we may not see the Alfa name in F1 for too long.

Officially, there’s no maximum amount of teams they can supply. Only if Sauber were left without a supply contract, could the FIA force the manufacturer supplying the lowest amount of teams (Renault) to supply them.

Mercedes doesn’t really have a history of treating their drivers differently. Rosberg/Schumacher and Rosberg/Hamilton were always treated the same. They also have nothing to gain by prioritizing Lewis over George.

Would that be considered typecasting?

Well, Daytona has a larger capacity for fans but it’s also much more centralized. And in terms of global audience, the Daytona 500 doesn’t even come close to any Formula 1 race.