I'm feeling surprising calm after that shit show. Just not looking forward to all the think pieces and trolls that will come out over the next 2 weeks. I hope max leaves to merc or something so that people can focus on that and forget about charles being the punching bag as usual. I have some thoughts though, and they're all over the place, but if I may share:
1. Charles had a bad day. Not excusing that. But he's been so great for so so long a bad day is bound to show up now and again. And one bad day in a really tricky race doesn't mean he forgot how to drive or that hamilton will suddenly beat him or Ferrari fired the wrong driver or whatever other bs I've seen in the past hour.
2. I really really like silverstone but the last few years I can't enjoy it because we always seem to have our worse race of the season here. I blame mattia binotto. This used to be a good track for charles and then that man wagged his finger at him and since then it's been a cursed race for him.
3. When the initial forecast for rain was predicted earlier in the week I saw loads of people saying that that's bad for charles because he cant drive in the rain. And I've been thinking hard this week how I don't think that true at all. Charles doesn't help my hypothesis at all with his performance today but I still don't think charles sucks in the rain. I just think that everyone is so stuck on that old adage that "the rain is the great equalizer" that they don't want to see how these days in the rain the car performance is much more important than the driver and will make a bigger impact. And the Ferrari has for years been bad in the wet. Alpine/AM and traditionally red bull are good cars in the rain. That's why pierre was suddenly flying today. That's why they got the double podium in Brazil last year. The car is just good in the rain. Usually the red bull is one of those cars too, though today obviously max was compromised by his wing choice. Merc these last 2 years are good in these cold conditions too, but then suck in the warm. No one is saying George Russell is bad in the heat. They know it's the car. Charles has basically only driven a Ferrari, so his sample of races is very limited so he's only been driving cars that are bad in the rain, and therefore it appears he's bad in the rain. You only have to look at his teammates to see that it's not him, it's the team that's not good in the rain. Both the car and the pitwall. Seb came to Ferrari with the reputation of being a fantastic wet weather driver and during his time at ferrari he has so many high profile incidents in the wet. It's not that he forgot how to drive or he lost confidence (maybe that's true for later years), but he was driving a car with a core philosophy that just doesn't work in the rain. The same with sainz - he came to Ferrari with the labels of a good wet driver, he was said to have those "rally driver" instincts from his dad - and though I don't know if anyone picked up because people only seem to focus on charles' mistakes, but sainz has had more mistakes in wet races than good wet races. It's just the way they build their car. And then bring in the already questionable pitwall that struggle with choices in a straightforward race let alone a changing race and a radar that's wack compared to the other teams and miscommunication and you have a recipe for disaster.
4. On that point, Lewis ended up in p4 sure. And on paper it looks like a good race, but even he is saying it was a bad day. He lost out to a sauber. If it weren't for max and George having worse days, he would have been 2 positions behind too. He made many mistake too. But at least he's supporting my theory in the previous point and saying that this car is just not good in the rain. He said it was tricky and it didn't like this conditions and he was making lots of mistakes. Lewis is a great wet weather driver and he is having trouble with this car, so it's definitely an inherent Ferrari issue. And then couple that with Charles extreme set up and a tough race is too be expected.
5. Like charles said in his interview, the pitting at the beginning was a mistake, but it was even more worrying that he couldn't get in the rhythm and find the pace. I hope they're able to figure out what was not gelling with the set up and sort that out for the next wet races. But basically he was fucked from when they entered parc ferme yesterday then and he decided on this set up, just like max was when he chose his front wing. I guess they all weren't anticipating that much rain. The thing for me with Charles race is I won't judge him for the offs and snaps, because I know he was driving a car that was not meant to be driving in these conditions and literally every driver had a bozo moment, but I will raise my eyebrows at his decision making. I do think that the bad qualy put him in the all or nothing/hero or zero mindset and he decided to take the gamble at the start. Maybe also because he doesn't have much confidence in the car/team in these conditions so he's more likely to try a hail mary strategy. But I wish he'd stop gambling like this. It's so many races now in changing conditions when he's the first or one of the first to experiment on a different tyre. I wish for once he'd just play it safe because it usually never works out and the car doesn't have the performance to overcome a strategy blunder.
6. On that note though, I love how Ferrari won't listen to his opinions other times when he's asking for a strategy decision, but times like this when they should override him they don't. He did s1 and s2 - the two dry sectors - and then decided he wanted to box. The pit in is before you even get to most of s3 - the wet part - so Ferrari should have intervened and said no, the part of the track you haven't gotten to yet is way too wet to risk it. Or if they didn't know, they should have played it safe and stayed out. His race was finished after that. There was a degree of bad luck as well though, because like George said in his interview, the sun was out and the track was drying fast and he was told (like charles was) that rain would only come in 20-25 minutes. So then boxing isnt such a gamble, because the thought of slicks for so many laps on a drying track is a tough job. However with the vsc and safety cars obviously the cars weren't clearing up the water as quick as they should've and then the rain also came 10 minutes earlier than the radars predicted, so that just threw that whole strategy out. But it wasn't that crazy of an idea at the start with the info they had available. And then it was also unlucky that just as the slick runners were picking up the pace and the track was drying and the inters were graining and those guys that gambled were showing an advantage, the next cell of rain started falling. So there was some bad luck sprinkled in there.
7. Wet weather god max can't do shit in the rain in a car not suited to the wet, so I wish people would stop trying to claim he's untouchable in the wet. He - like all the drivers - are totally dependent on their cars in these conditions more than normal conditions. He just usually has a car that likes these conditions, and today when it didn't like these conditions he was nowhere. He only recovered those positions at the end because the track was drying and his car is set up to be good on the slicks, so he was able to make up positions at the end. But if it had stayed wet, he would have been fucked too. Also on this point, I'll bring this up to the day I die and until every pole-to-win ratio conversation disappears: even max can't convert poles to wins when he doesn't have the best race car.
8. It was a bad day, but I'm mostly pissed off at Lando being gifted his home win. He was outqualified by his teammate. He got outqualified by a car that he shouldn't have been. He basically did nothing at the start, only got past max because max made a mistake. And then because his teammate is an idiot, he got handed the win. I'm so mad because charles will never get that sort of luck. He had to go through the 7 circles of hell and back to finally get his home win and he fully earned it and deserved it, and then this guy gets it handed to him. Not to mention oscar being a total idiot. How are those 2 the championship contenders ffs.
Anyway, this was alot. I need to find a new hyperfixation to take my mind off f1 for the next 2 weeks.
darling anon I could kiss you on the mouth for this ask because you pretty much said everything and you did not stutter once. also someone make stickers out of this sentence "I blame mattia binotto" please because I will apply it to any and every inconvenience I may encounter from now on. you are absolutely right, this man's evil has cursed Silverstone for us.
