2019 Hungarian Grand Prix

Man I have some arguments about what we do, but Honda definitely can build a damn engine. I’ll never argue that at work. Lol now if only we weren’t so damn practical in development
 
Haven't see it yet but I suspect t was 67 laps of Hamilton being in bad air and unable to pass, followed by the usual undercut instead of wheel to wheel racing. If they had gone back and forth that would have been good racing, but I suspect it was just a matter of the faster car being unable to get around.

Now everyone is in trouble. Hamilton stretches his lead into the break, which will be followed by Hamilton going into kill mode for the rest of the year. That's been the pattern for, what, six seasons now?

We are having the blessing that's also a curse. The domination is killing the sport, but we are also witnessing a level of greatness in Hamilton we have never seen in the history of F1. Literally no one has anything for him, except maybe Botas on the rare occasion he can put it all together. Everyone complained at the time about the McLaren, then Porsche domination in the old CanAm, or the Prost/Senna McLaren routs, and even the Schumacher years thumping the crap out of everyone, and now Toyota's death grip on the WEC, but we also look back on those times and admire the greatness, We are witnessing the same thing now, so while it's not the best racing, it's still historically significant.
 
Really enjoyed watching that Mercedes strategy play out. Feels like
Bottas has a target on his back here on out. He certainly
did not help himself this race.
 
I can't tell what happened to Bottas on the first lap to damage the car besides a little hipcheck from Hamilton. Too many ultrasensitive bits and bobs on these things.
 
Great strategy call by Mercedes, they caught Red Bull napping there. However, it says a lot that they felt sending Lewis 20+ seconds back with fresher, softer tires was better than having six laps' fresher, same tires right on Max's tail - and with a better long run car as well. Hungary is a notoriously difficult place to pass at but the aero woes make it even worse. Still, I'll consider it four interesting grands prix in a row, which is a hell of a streak. I think we deserved it after a miserable open to the season that finished with Paul Ricard actually putting me back to sleep.

Going into the summer break my team of the year so far is McLaren. They're getting both drivers in the points consistently and sitting pretty at 4th in the WCC by a healthy margin. It'd be their best finish since they still had Lewis in 2012 and a healthy bump in prize money.
 
Some analysts are arguing that Red Bull should have switched strategies, which could have only entailed pitting Verstappen the lap after Hamilton. You can't pit him before in anticipation, as Mercedes likely would have stayed out with roles reversed, except the Merc was slightly faster in terms of race pace. Mercedes had nothing to lose with everyone else so far behind. They weren't going to lose a position no matter what, so the gamble was worth it and worked perfectly.

Red Bull's argument is that by the time Hamilton pitted and made a great out lap, Verstappen was already going to lose the lead by answering with a stop of his own. While it seems like Verstappen got hung out to dry, I am persuaded that it was still his best chance to win the race, as Hamilton erasing that large of a lead and overcoming the dirty air seemed very improbable. Yet it happened.
 
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