DISKUZE K ČLÁNKU Poslední šance: McLaren musí využívat příležitosti a bodovat

Vzhledem k tomu že se stále diskutuje pod tímto článkem, tak to dám sem...
Toto je vyjádření od anonymního z Mercedesu (myslím že postavy poznáte) :

What Lewis Hamilton did this weekend at Interlagos track was unprecedented, at least for me, who was or watched all the Brazilian Grand Prix at the José Carlos Pace Circuit, except for three or four. I even went in 1972 to the inaugural race that was not worth for the championship.

I didn't go in 1979 because I lived in the United States and in the two or three remaining because I was travelling outside of Brazil. But the times I didn't go to Interlagos when I was in Brazil, I watched it on TV.

I haven't seen anything like it at Interlagos in these 49 years. It started on Friday with FP1 and then a dominant qualifying, always being the fastest in every session without giving any chance to his opponents. He drove with a knife in his teeth every time he went on track, tested several racing lines, did the straights many times in practice without using DRS and tested lines and braking for the two most important corners of the track - the S of Senna and Junction - in every way. He saw very quickly that he couldn't enter these two key corners of the circuit 'sold', because he would lose on the next straight.

He also saw that in those curves he couldn't brake as he likes, inside, because he also lost in the two straights doing that. He found a way to help not to overheat the tyres by doing Pinheirinho on the outside in a way I've never seen anyone do.

But he was disqualified. 0.2 millimeters on one side of his DRS were beyond the allowed, while the other side was right. His DRS was "crooked", which definitely didn't help him at all, but it did break the regulations.

Mercedes knew about the disqualification on Friday night itself, although it was not announced until Saturday. The suspense is part of F1's marketing. Almost everything is decided long before it is made public, but I am lucky enough to have a friend inside the Mercedes team, Dude, who told me the following:

"Adawtow, we knew the man would be disqualified early on Friday night. Of course it was a DRS fitting error, a legitimate 0.2 millimetre error that didn't help but hindered the man, because the wing when it opened was crooked by 0.2 millimetres."

"The FIA knows that, the opponents know that, but the regulations are clear, even though they are badly written. The possibility was mooted that we could appeal and run on Saturday starting from pole under protest. We all wanted to do that, but two people didn't; Wolff and the man himself."

"The man interrupted the discussion by asking, 'Can I use full power in the sprint race all the time?'

"Then Shovlin said: 'You can, but the rear tyres won't cope with that, you're already running less downforce at the rear' So Bono suggested that if we weren't going to run under protest, that would be our best chance."

"From there the man, looking at Wolff, said that's what we should do, he would make sure the tyres would hold up by driving round mainly from 5 (Orange) to 12 (Junction). Then Wolff asked us all, 'Why not'?"

"At that point I would say the man decided he would run 24 qualifying laps in the short race on Saturday. But for Sunday, Wolff called the factory and asked for new simulations for PU considering that strategy. Less than 1 hour later the simulations arrived and we started studying the three most risky and the three least."

Then, on Saturday, the fans at Interlagos and the millions watching on TV witnessed the mind-boggling 24 laps of qualifying without a single mistake from Hamilton, who pulled off an impressive 15 overtakes and still had the tyre for half a dozen more laps.

"He came in ecstatic after the (sprint) race, he said he couldn't remember feeling like that before. Even so he was calm, focused, he said he learned all the ways of the track, it was like Silverstone, a track where he has been about 50 times more than Interlagos. And that atmosphere helped him too, he said that himself.

But the next day we would have the race, so the work wasn't finished, but Lewis Hamilton wanted more.

"We honestly didn't think he would win the race. A podium yes, but not the win. But I don't think anyone told him that, because he went in to win. We only really believed it when he was in P2 closing in on Verstappen. We thought Max was saving his tyres for when that happened, but the truth is he wasn't. The man was getting closer with every lap and then the near certainty of victory took over the pits. The mood changed inside, the grandstand roared every time he passed in front of us and we started clenching our fists, just as he certainly was inside the car."

"That manoeuvre on lap 48 from Max didn't scare us, the man knew that was going to happen, so much so that he sidestepped Max very easily. Then he knew he needed to lead Max into the error to get by before the braking at either turn 1 (Senna's S) or turn 4 (Lake turn). So he threatened at 1, Max went inside and then it was over, we knew he would pass on the opposite straight next."

"I didn't ask anyone, not even him, but for me it was the best performance I've seen a driver put in since I've been working in Formula 1 for almost 20 years."

"I don't know what will happen next, but that weekend was Lewis Hamilton's masterpiece. I don't know if or when we will see that again."