When Charles eventually pits our podium contenders are going to be on each other’s backs.
Whether any of them can get an overtake
done is another matter though.
Not to take anything away from his fantastic performances this season but Kimi does seem to have things falling in his favour fairly often.
Curious how Lando’s going to feel about the race (quite well it seems).
Edit: The cooldown room was good with those 3. Funny it seems someone tried to stop Lando from drinking a can of coke (likely for sponsorship reasons) 😄
@BearsEatBeets I agree things are falling in place for Kimi, but you have to be there to pick up the pieces of others misfortune, and he is there time and time again.
I've been really disappointed by Russell tbh, I know he's had a LOT of bad luck, but he's also just not quick enough or competitive enough.
Lando should be pretty gutted. That should have been his win. Moreover that should have been his 3rd win in 4 races. He seems like the best competition for Antonelli right now, but it's all seemingly too late and he's 106 points behind.
Race was pretty dull, with the slight excitement of waiting for mistakes / SC / VSC.
@themightyant Oh totally. He's having the outstanding combo of exception performances and a helpful sprinkling of luck on top. George has had a bit more bad luck but then totally fluffed every opportunity that he has had to try and catch up.
Although I don't see anyone catching Kimi now I would class Lando as actually his closest rival for it. George might be closer on points but being in the same car I don't see him outperforming Kimi and even if he did Kimi could finish behind him in every race now and still be ahead. Whereas if the McLaren continues to improve and the Merc drops off a bit and others get in the mix it could cause more of a swing. If that makes sense (don't think it likely but more likely than a George swing).
I don't think it was Monaco bad but not much better. I remember Martin Brundle saying something on commentary about making tweaks to the track so I hope that is the case and they can make some changes to try and improve it. Just very bizarre to not plan it better when building the thing. We've got the knowledge of knowing which tracks on the calendar work for overtaking so why not copy them.
@themightyant Nothing in-depth. Simon Lazenby did bring up, like we have, that lack of overtaking on an old track is one thing but when a track has literally just been made for this purpose what is the excuse. I can't remember everything mentioned but Nico did comment that Carlos Sainz was an advisor for the track and that 'he had clearly messed up' (paraphrasing but it was something that blunt, as is his style 😄). Not sure what his level of input was but it's hard to say Nico is wrong.
Other than that I think Bernie spoke as to what Martin briefly mentioned in commentary in that the track isn't permanent. Some of it is public road (I think)so I suppose it gets partially broken down until next year and maybe other parts could maybe be dug-up/resurfaced in a different way. Hopefully there is a lot of leeway to make some dramatic changes.
It’s a shame as it’s seemingly both a fun and challenging track to drive for the drivers - qualifying was excellent - but as a race it leaves a lot to be desired.
As it’s almost constant right left corners with little let up there are very few overtaking opportunities. Feels like they need a bit of both. Hopefully it will be better next year.
@BearsEatBeets@Titntin It’s just such a shame, they had a blank canvas and designed… this. Lando was so much faster and should have had an opportunity to overtake, as Max replied when asked how he kept Lando behind “just drive in the middle of the track”. Ouch!
Charles also shouldn’t have been able to hold up the front runners without stopping.
But one comment I saw online really put it into focus for me: “we lost Spa for this”. A shame. Fingers crossed they will address it soon as they have a 10 year contract.
@themightyant yeah when I heard we were getting a brand new built track this year I was actually excited thinking they would design something specifically to create great racing. Such a let down. I'm eager to hear how Domenicali thinks that went. I hope he at least acknowledges they need to make changes before coming back next year.
We haven't totally lost Spa (yet), but will only see it every other year swapping with Barcelona. I get the point though. We do seem to be slowly losing more and more proper, historic tracks for newer worse ones.
The only truly decent new one I can think of is Austin.
@BearsEatBeets Indeed. I watched an interesting video by The Race that suggested organisers were aware of the overtaking issue and were proposing plans to change the track layout for 2026, but the project was already behind schedule and in order to hit the deadline - it was literally finished days before the race - hence it was deemed that the current plans would do for this year but they would look at changing it for 2027.
@themightyant yeah I caught that vid. It's the old adage 'Things can be done on time/fast, done to budget/value or done well, but only ever 2 at most' and we know which two they chose.
I caught this and thought it seemed like a decent idea
@BearsEatBeets Interesting solution. Possible speed issue heading back into the tunnel, may need to have another chicane before it. But I like it.
One thing that someone pointed out is that the track was designed before we knew how these 2026 cars would handle and that target is always shifting. E.g. if this had been the first race of the season with more yo-yo racing then it may have had more overtakes. The trouble is by the time we get round to the race again the cars will handle slightly differently again.
Also on the subject of Monaco, I've seen lots of comments of more than overtaking at Monaco than Madring. I'm no fan of Madring but I remember at least one actual overtake from Lawson yet Monaco supposedly had 10! I don't recall a single overtake. Are the stats including drivers getting past crashed cars or something?
@BearsEatBeets Sprint at Monoco. LMAO. Hopefully they mean removing the processi… err… race and making it a sprint instead. 😂 (only joking, pit stops are one of the only things that keep the race vaguely watchable)
I’ve seen people saying there were 10 overtakes at Monaco and 4 at Madring but I don’t know what criteria they are using. Regardless it’s a foolish line of reasoning, they are both bad races no need to hand out a wooden spoon. But while we can’t fix Monaco, Madring can be better. Fingers crossed.
@themightyant I have given up on them finding some way to improve Monaco but lets hope they can show some initiative and have Madring improved for next year and not in several years time.
I really can't get my head around someone thinking a Sprint at Monaco is a good idea but then they did just create a new track just as bad as their worst one.
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