Bottas doing all he can to sustain wafer-thin title chance

14 comments on “Bottas doing all he can to sustain wafer-thin title chance”

1. 

   David BR (@david-br)
   3rd November 2019, 12:25

   At the start of the race weekend I speculated that Hamilton should get into Q3 and then qualify 5th or 6th as the safest way to getting the championship, avoiding first corner and first lap incidents. With Albon on soft tyres, could well be an effective ‘6th’ anyhow. Now I’m not so sure though. If Ferrari’s engine has been tamed, getting a clean start and away could be better. But should be feisty at the start anyhow.
   1. 

      NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
      3rd November 2019, 13:17

      Fastest way to finish the race is by winning it. Cruising in front, minding the temperatures, staying out of trouble.

      I’ll be very disappointed if Hamilton finishes the race 6th cruising behind Albon.
   2. 

      socksolid (@socksolid)
      3rd November 2019, 13:30

      It is much safer to start on pole than from 5th. When you start from first the only cars around you are either behind you or next to you. In 5th you have cars battling for positions in front of you and behind you. Also when starting from first it is much harder to become a participant in someone else’s accident but when you start from 5th you can get hit by cars who have accidents in front of you or get hit from behind if you slow down too much to avoid that accident in front of you. Of course it is much worse in the mid pack but there are no positives to starting in 5h compared any places near the pole. The only which is better situation is with p1 and p2. Sometimes one is on the racing line and is grippier whereas the other one is not and long run to turn 1 can sometimes be advantage for the p2 guy if he gets a good slipstream. But even then the 2nd placed guy needs to be able to perform that move which is more difficult than getting a good start from pole.
      1. 

         David BR (@david-br)
         3rd November 2019, 13:59

         @jureo @socksolid Usually yes, however the first corner at Austin is tricky even from pole, we’ve seen it contested successfully numerous times. Hamilton tends to be cautious at race starts, Mexico being a real recent exception, but there’s not much you can do to be cautious at Austin if you’re in P1 or P2, you’re swamped very quickly by other cars trying different lines, which is the great thing about the first corner. I tend to agree though, playing safe seldom works.
   3. 

      Joseph (@bigjoe)
      3rd November 2019, 15:34

      @david-br

      Could anyone have speculated that Lewis would only win 2 races in the last 8 of 2007 and 1 in the last 8 of 2008
      and now potentially 2 in the last 8 of this season, although he should finally wrap it up today he should have a good reboot and win for fun again.
      1. 

         DeanR (@deanr)
         3rd November 2019, 17:38

         When you have won 8 of the first 13 races cruising to a WDC is a luxury you can afford but hey…according to BigJoe a season is contested over the final 8 races. Great maths Joe.
         Lest I remind you.. Lewis has won more races than the entire grid combined this year. Enjoy the race 👏
      2. 

         David BR (@david-br)
         3rd November 2019, 17:41

         2007 was hamilton’s rookie season, by far the best rookie season ever in Formula 1, beating an established two-time world champion, losing by one point after said rookie was left out too long by his team in China (which they admitted) and then suffering a mysterious issue in the final race (again the team taking the blame). 2008 he was competing in an equal car against two drivers, the previous years world champion and the guy he was helping, including pulling over in China, and against FIA, who the boss at the time, Mosely, admitted had to ‘help’ Ferrari as it was them against the rest (the UK ‘garage’ teams).

         The real question is why you demand so much from Hamilton when other drivers – all of them – have had far less impressive rookie seasons? Why do you single out Hamilton for this skewed view? We all know the answer of course. But you just keep on pretending.
2. 

   petebaldwin (@)
   3rd November 2019, 12:42

   I wonder if there will ever be a day where I don’t read “wafer thin” in a French accent…..?
3. 

   Jim from US (@jimfromus)
   3rd November 2019, 13:16

   Would like to see BOT or VET win. Second row lunatics will make it interesting. Young men trying out to make a point with the season coming to a close. Think HAM sits back and tries for a place using a 1 stop strategy after all he is a fan of RIC.
4. 

   DaveW (@dmw)
   3rd November 2019, 14:05

   I find it astonishing that Bottas is potentially only a couple Hamilton dnfs from the title, given how Hamilton has dominated him on Sunday’s this year. In the olden days mechanical dnfs were a real possibility and still happen though we largely discount them now.. I remember when Hamilton had his mystery glitch in Brazil in 2007 that probably cost him the title.
   1. 

      Joseph (@bigjoe)
      3rd November 2019, 15:29

      @dmw
      Lots of probably’s in 2007 and 2008 some even claimed Lewis bottles it.

      Not to take anything away from the Ferrari drivers in 2007 of course! with 6 + 3 wins and Massa with 6 fantastic poles.
      Lewis won 2 races in the last 8 of 2007. This years title should have been wrapped up in September.
      Same in 2008, only 1 win in the last 8. Credit due to Massa and lots of ‘probably should have won the title’ to him
      1. 

         anon
         3rd November 2019, 17:14

         @bigjoe, at the start of September, you still had 9 races and nearly 45% of the calendar still to go – even by the end of September there’s still nearly 25% of the entire calendar left to go, which just underlines how many races now form part of the championship.

         In that situation, Hamilton has to outscore Bottas by 52 points, or 13 points per race, for Bottas to be out of mathematical contention for the title – which is not that easy to do. In order to achieve that, Hamilton would have to win all four races, with Bottas finishing 4th or lower – if he finished 2nd in each of those races, he’d then need Bottas to average 8th or lower, whilst 3rd would require Bottas to average 9th or lower in those races.

         Given that, in most normal circumstances, Bottas wouldn’t be finishing outside the top 6 at worst, the only way that he would get that winning total was to win four races back to back and hope that Bottas was beaten to the podium. It wasn’t necessarily impossible, but it requires Bottas to have been consistently beaten by two of the three drivers in competitive enough cars to beat him whilst, simultaneously, winning all four races – so, at the very least, still a pretty tall order to achieve that.
      2. 

         DeanR (@deanr)
         3rd November 2019, 17:44

         Come on Jo! That’s a bit rich! You are the king of “Ifs and buts” when it comes to Lewis. I’m sure I heard cries of hypocrisy last week when Lewis said saving the environment was a good thing. Keep em coming my good man. Keep em coming.
5. 

   Jose Lopes da Silva
   3rd November 2019, 16:18

   Smells like 2015.

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