Lando Norris ‘should have’ won Spanish Grand Prix:

David Coulthard pointed out after the race that Norris admitted via team radio that the Spanish Grand Prix was a race he could have won — but Norris quickly clarified his statement.

“Not could,” Norris said. “Should have done. I got a bad start, simple as that.”

“I need to look back and review,”

“I don’t know what I did wrong, or if I was just slightly out. It was only a little bit to Max that I lost; it wasn’t like he was completely alongside. It’s more that George was suddenly outside and kind of had me over.”

“I know that I can just work on it for next time.”

“I think we were for sure the quickest,”


VIA: [PLANET F1:

 

Norris could come in 23rd and still be in the running for Driver of the Day - lol. Not sure how it works, but I think all the tween Brit girls go online and vote for him in droves every race.

 

It's Perez.

 

With Sergio not exactly setting the world on fire since his extension I wonder who the rennlist brain trust thinks Christian should have put in that seat next year?? I'd vote Lawson at least to give him a chance. He couldn't be slower than Perez...

 

What’s interesting about Perez is that right when his performance started to drop off is exactly when everyone started saying the RB was vulnerable and no longer the best car.
Obviously Max is the #1 driver there, so probably all the tweaks they’re making to the car to improve are based on Max’s driving and not suited to Checo’s? It’s been well documented that Max likes cars set up very different than others.
Or(and?), as Winders keeps saying, Max is just dragging a decent car to an exceptional level.

 

SAINZ. Let the fathers figure it out.

And yes, this is clearly Max brilliance at this point. He's doing exactly what he needs to do, when he needs to do it in that car to win now.

I haven't seen it mentioned -- GP's radio to him in the early stages to communicate some urgency for the Russel move. Gets it done next lap into/through turn 1, with the usual precision. He is totally ridiculous.

Toto will be lucky to have him

 

The downtrend corresponds exactly to Newey's lack of involvement, plus the car's intentionally slowed development (by regulation), which is now showcasing Max's adaptability. His ability to consistently extract the maximum out of any car, real world or virtual. He is clearly an alien across the board.

 

The RB20 is, at best, the third best car on grid right now - potentially fourth if Merc remains consistent. Max is the different as Perez was lucky to bring the car home ahead of the two Alpines.

Newey is being linked more closely to Aston Martin. I would love to see him go more than any other team and give Alonso a win late in his career.

 

This dude, who is a former F1 aerodynamicist. Seems to think what’s missing is Newley’s ability to set up the car at the various tracks.

 

Yep. Particularly where wind tunnel testing and objective data is lean, you'd surely like to have the Newey setup encyclopedia on hand.

 

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/a...es-in-seconds/

 

Someone posted a Newey interview in this thread a while back in which he says he had very little input to the aero of the current car.

What he did design was the suspension. And that’s what seems to be letting Red Bull down now. Their suspension set up is not as spot on track to track as it used to be.

 

Now there are rumours that Alpine wants Carlos too- why in the world would they think they have a chance to get him???? Actually I'd love to see him with Alex at Williams but that is probably a pipe dream as well.

 

I have been saying for 2 months that Verstappen is making the RB20 look better than it is and that Perez is not as bad as Verstappen makes him look. I am confident win the first part of statement as I mostly agree with @LuigiVampa . For the last 5 races, the RB20 has been the no better than the second best car and often the third best car. Verstappen, the pit crew, and the team strategies have been phenomenal.

I am starting to feel less confident about the second part of my statement. Perez is in some kind of funk. He should have been much closer to Piastri and Sainz in Spain. I don't think it is the RB20 is being developed in such a way that it is all of a sudden undrivable for Perez. Other teams have made more progress since the start of the season with their updates. RB20 changes have been few and subtle.

 

I’ve read in several places that Perez needs a very particular set up to his car in order to be quick.

To me that seems to be the problem. Red Bull are having trouble getting their cars set up track to track and with Perez any working set up at all.