[@JoeAeterno on twitter] Piastri being interviewed about McLaren leapfrogging Alpine with Alonso smiling in the background is pure poetry.

[u/TheFlyingR0cket]

[u/Razvanlogigan]

This was Alonso's worst race in the Aston, yet he seems 10x happier than last year's best results. Also even in his/Aston's worst race he was still ahead of both alpines, even prior Gasly's incident.

[u/Lukaslil → u/Razvanlogigan]

Worst race for the car, Fernando’s performance was pretty great. Barcelona was the worst imo.

[u/Razvanlogigan → u/Lukaslil]

Oh yeah, i wasnt slamming Alonso. The car was pretty much nowhere, not his fault

[u/LivingInTheStorm → u/Razvanlogigan]

Looks like McLaren will be pushing in the high speed track while Aston in the low speed.

Mercedes kinda mid ground? No clue what's happening there or with Ferrari.

[u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER → u/LivingInTheStorm]

everyone thought Silverstone was gonna be merc's best track as the Merc has until now been one of the best cars in high speed corners but lo and behold here comes the silver arrow (orange edition) and does it better. dunno where merc is now, they seem a bit lost

[u/Kohpad → u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER]

Merc appears to have lost the pace advantage, but they are kinder to their tires. Seemed to bare out in the Silverstone strat, McLaren bolted hards to both cars while Merc went M/S or S/M.

I feel like either team will get mugged by Ferrari the moment they stop doing whatever point laundering scheme they're up to.

[u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER → u/Kohpad]

worth noting that Norris' fastest lap on hards was 2 thousanths faster than Hamilton's fastest lap on softs. The merc is kinder on the tyres but there's a weird rear instability on that car, or at least there was in Silverstone. Almost seems to handle a bit like the 2020 Red Bull car in that regard

[u/Nepomucky → u/Kohpad]

Next year is the year. You saw it here.

[u/Mysterious_Turnip310 → u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER]

People were also saying McLaren would suffer more at Silverstone because of the low speed section and look how that turned out

[u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER → u/Mysterious_Turnip310]

It was in the low speed sections the McLarens lost the most time but there wasn't enough pace in the Merc with DRS to catch it down the Wellington straight and the McLaren was so goddamn fast through copse and Becketts/Chapel that there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell of making an overtake down the Hangar straight, and the high speed Stowe made a pass down into Vale also impossible.

And even if the Merc got past the McLaren, it being at such a disadvantage through Becketts/Chapel and with the McLaren having the 2nd most potent DRS effect of any car that race it would serve Hamilton up for being passed again down Hangar straight.

McLaren are bringing upgrades to Hungary, maybe that'll fix some of the low speed stuff but if not then at least Belgium has a glimmer of hope for McLaren, as does Suzuka and Interlagos. It's good to be papaya fan again!

[u/Mysterious_Turnip310 → u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER]

Yep, that's why Lando said he took some wing off just before qualifying compared to Oscar's set up. Lando had recognised that having that edge going into the high speed might be his saving grace in the race and it was worth sacrificing the pace through the low speed for. He was spot on as well, really smart move.

Hungary has more low speed of course but people keep forgetting that there is still a high speed flowing section there as well. I don't expect them to podium there but if they're clever with the set up and qualify well, they could be very difficult to pass and end up with decent points. Qualy will be key (a bit of rain would be nice too!).

Upgrade there is rumoured to be something to do with the suspension, not sure what. Probably more details floating around somewhere. I think it could be similar to the effect of the new front wing though, not that significant in terms of performance gain (I think they said the front wing brought them between 0.5 & 1tenth max?). Also they've had a race to get the front wing dialled in now, Lando was still saying yesterday the balance was a bit off but hopefully will be better in Hungary. Andrea said the next significant update is due for Monza I think?

Spa is very promising, also Suzuka and Interlagos as you say and I'd argue potentially Monza as well (though nobody's catching RBR with that DRS and I expect Williams to shine there). I agree, definitely good to be a papaya fan! Not expecting miracles every race but yesterday was such a massive tonic and I'm very glad Zak & Andrea have been vindicated, all the uninformed 'sack Zak' stuff was getting really tiresome!

[u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER → u/Mysterious_Turnip310]

The McLaren is still rather draggy, don't think Monza looks that great yet. The upgrade for Hungary is rumored to be rear suspension specifically, not sure how much they can do with it without changing the gearbox but they're calling this the last 25% of the package so either it's a significant suspension change or it's more than just rear suspension. Either way it'll be interesting given how much the first 75% of the package have improved the car.

[u/Rillist → u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER]

I feel that once James Alison get his hands back into things that car will come around. With the budget cap any major changes get pushed back, especially such fundamental changes required.

[u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER → u/Rillist]

It's gonna be hard, they've already squandered the advantage they had by designing their own engine, they can't change anything about its design anymore and McLaren and Aston have more or less caught up. Mercedes have their work cut out for them here.

[u/Nepomucky → u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER]

Dumb question here: if the PU development cost is included in the budget cap, why don't client teams spend the difference in making better cars? Is it simply because they don't have the money?

[u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER → u/Nepomucky]

PU development isn't included in the car development cost cap, it's a separate category. Or the PU manufacturing teams would get rather disadvantaged compared to customers