multi21

Oh boy... this isn't going to sit well with RBR after his teammate gets pole and the victory.

“This track is not suitable for F1.
Starting 11th, the weekend is wasted”.
- Checo Perez on DAZN Espana mics

9.5 Degrees

Red Bull is in trouble. Their upgrades did not seem to help and Ferrari's upgrades were pretty pedestrian as well. McLaren on the other hand seem to have made such a huge leap their pace before Miami that they should be contenders in this long long season. Were it not for the tow Max got on Saturday, Oscar and then Lando would have been on pole and most likely taken the victory again especially given there was no safety car period at all.

As it relates to Perez, I'm not sure why he's complaining about Imola not being suitable for F1. If Imola isn't worthy then what about Monaco? They all drive the same track every weekend and he's now into what they call the Eurozone of the schedule where he typically falls off. At this point, I'm not sure who would take that spot, but I did see Helmet Marko walking with Sainz to the grid, a long walk, just him and the umbrella holder. I don't think an 80 year old is going to do that walk unless he wants to talk to someone alone.

As it relates to why Mercedes swapped their driver's position. It's a mystery and makes zero sense. Even Ted Kravitz and the Karun were expecting Lewis to pit and get the fast lap. Would have loved to be in the debrief meeting for that one.

StoogeMoe

Max’s comment on the radio was very telling. It was something like “Whoa, really had to work for that one”. Which implies that all the previous races he just cruised to victory without much effort. I don’t know if Lando would have got by with a couple more laps like he said. Catching up is one thing, but passing there is nearly impossible. Still is great to Max’s dominance being threatened. I see exciting races ahead! Except for Monaco.

thebishman

Here’s Wolfe’s explanation as for the swap in positions. Tbh I will take it at face value, as the points remained the same for the team, and it’s not like either George or Lewis are anywhere close to being at the sharp end of the WDC at the end of the season. But team position in the Constructor’s Championship is valuable. If this secured a 6th and 7th place, instead of perhaps Russell losing pace and finishing less than 7th, then I can see the logic.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/toto-w...gp-driver-swap

ParadiseGT3

Some more context to this, he did 2 stints, 35 total laps, so almost 5 hrs of drive time around the ring between F1 sessions in Imola.

Pit stops, traffic, every real world variable involved. In an M4 GT3. Sort of like grabbing a different set of clubs and hitting range ***** at midnight between rounds at the Masters.

I really don't get it, but he's a weirdo for sure. His driver database and adaptability is super ai level.

Nizer

^^Watch his eyes.

Nothing weird about living and breathing racing 24/7.

Here's his out lap:

ParadiseGT3

Yes, same expressionless calculation that's occurring here.

Nizer

Seems like sims played a pretty big role in RB recovery at Imola.

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1048913/1/how-red-bull-went-nowhere-win-imola-turnaround-explained

https://www.si.com/fannation/racing/f1briefings/news/f1-news-max-verstappen-broken-after-imola-grand-prix-everything-is-hurting-01hy9bb8xg2j

ParadiseGT3

Bottas headed back to Williams, replacing Sargeant https://www.planetf1.com/news/valtte...t-f1-2025-seat

Article suggests that means nowhere for Antonelli. But don't know why the move wouldn't imply Antonelli straight into Merc.

And Carlos to Audi, I guess. Although, the fact that hasn't been announced yet at Audi makes me think he's waiting to see if the RB seat might open up.

9.5 Degrees

Perez was 26 seconds behind Lewis with 10 laps to go when they pitted George and with Checo's pace, he was never going to catch either one of them. Team points earned are the same regardless, but Hamilton was gifted a higher finishing position and in the record books and head to head comparison it will show Lewis beat George, but that's not entirely true.

Nowanker

Pit delta is extra long at Imola?
26 seconds sounds like a lot, but bad things sometimes happen in a stop.
I think the commentators did comment on that factor at the time.
You'd hope that Hammy would have been able to dust off Perez even if he came out behind him...

goin2drt

The HAM haters are all riled up today. Guys it was for 6th and 7th good lawd, get over it and move on.

StoogeMoe

I’m sure it’s the sim rig, and not the driver.

Carrera51

LOL! An Adrian Newey designed sim rig?

ParadiseGT3

They do have virtual equivalent Adrian Newey engineers working on vehicle setups. So, he's still sort of cheating, we can't be sure of his abilities.