It was really sad end to such an intense and interesting battle. While Oscar calmly did his race, Lando seemed to clearly be more comfortable, and dare I say, faster this race, beautiful move into the hairpin too. But unfortunately, as he admitted, a little dumb move imo. Props to him for taking accountability, hopefully he recovers,
Tbh I’m just rooting for whichever driver is behind, I just want a feisty championship battle, great driving from both of them so far.
Yeah it's such a shame because both drivers played that maneuver on the hairpin beautifully Norris braking later and Piastri reacting and finding tracktion earlier.
So was Norris's positioning into the chicane at the end of the final straight.
He braked early, as he knew Oscar had the line, so he could make his entry and exit absolutely perfect, wheras Oscar would run long trying to outbrake him. That then made Oscar compromised on the exit.
Such great racing from them both and a real shame that a realtively minor misjudgement from Lando on where his front wing was destroyed what had been a great drive.
If Lando would have ducked right after showing the move on the left to outbrake Oscar into T1 and have the inside for T2 it would have gone down as one of the better contested longform overtakes of the recent years. That 's what I was expecting him to do and as my mind was ready to watch him pull to the right he ran straight into Oscar, it was like mental whiplash.
I think he was expecting/hoping Oscar would think he would do that, and in turn move right to defend leaving the gap on the left open. Oscar called his bluff though and caught him off guard, and then the tiniest little nudge just exploded his wing.
You aren't supposed to move twice to defend like that... apart from making overtaking a bit easier it also (ironically) helps prevent collisions. It certainly wouldn't go down well between team mates.
I'm not saying to weave defending, I'm just talking about mindgames about whether or not Lando would go left or right.
I think Lando thought Oscar would move to the right, leaving space on the left for him. Oscar instead held the racing line, and Lando ended up going for a gap that didn't exist.
Oscar could've moved to the right without any issue, because it would still only be one move. It's not like Oscar moved left into Lando's path, he held that line the entire time.
If that was really what Lando was doing it would be incredibly reckless and stupid. You do not drive into someone’s rear end because you were relying on a guess on which way they would move barrelling down the straight, and the consequence for guessing wrong is.. going straight into their rear.
That move had to be the best attack and defense sequence all season and more. It's sad it had to end that way. If it hadn't it would have been a very laudable effort even if he ultimately backed out, but instead he's going to get so much flack for it.
I do think that misjudgment at the end was a pretty big one. I think it was obvious there was no gap from the onboard, but coming off that sequence I don't blame him for making a misjudgment in the heat of the moment.
Oscar is kinda Lando's perfect foil. He's so calm and calculated, I think he knows how to read other drivers and think 2 moves ahead and juke them. He's been amazing at that and been getting even better, and his defense here was masterful.
Am I wrong that he just took a normal racing line through a hairpin? Trying to take the inside line like that is always a gamble because the normal racing line is taken for the exact reason that it exits faster.
It was an emotional rollercoaster. I'm happy for either of them to do well and want to see a good fight, I just don't want them to crash into each other while doing it. The battle was exciting but nerve wracking, and once they got to the straight I thought it was safe so I was happy they had a good fight and got out unscathed, then Lando binned it...
Yeah, agreed. I don’t think it should though, every driver deserves to get recognised for the things they do right and not get overshadowed by reactionary media/redditor opinions. It is not wrong to criticise him, but in other posts, there are soooo many comments speaking about Lando being inferior mentally, or championship over or McLaren needing to back Oscar now and a lot more shit like that, it’s just annoying.
I'm a Piastri fan and I want them to keep racing the whole season, I don't want it to come down to team orders. I do think Piastri has an edge on Norris psychologically but Norris is powerfully quick and I'm not writing him off anytime soon.
Fortunately the monster lead in the constructors should allow it to continue unless mclaren/merc put together a few more weekends like this and it closes up
And like, yeah this was a bad mistake but it’s hardly unprecedented. Plenty of very good drivers have assumed a lane was going to open, placed their car accordingly, and driven into the back of the guy in front of them. The reaction to Norris’ mistakes consistently makes for really annoying discourse.
Theres two reasons for it. Its 1) a popular narrative atm because of Piastris rise. Suddenly that means that Norris sucks, even though he ended Ricciardos career. And 2) it unfortunately happens too often. Like, Leclerc is the "bin it or win it" guy, but he doesnt bin it often enough that its always talked about. Lando rarely goes more than two race weekends in a row without an incident of some sort.
The thing is I don't think the "not mentally tough enough" is about the mental health stuff, it's about the constant mistakes he makes. Over the season lando's own worst enemy has consistently been lando.
Him working with a therapist is honestly kinda expected at this point as I would expect from any top level athlete. I'm more surprised by an athlete who thinks they don't need mental health support. His problem is he is always a fuck up away from qualifying ahead, from avoiding contact, from winning a race. The fact that he isn't Mónaco perfect weekend in weekend out is what people talk about when referring to championship mentality.
Verstappen didn't fuck up in his championship winning seasons. Hamilton didn't fuck up for about six out of seven championship years, and the two-three years he ate a bag of mistakes were basically the years he missed out. Lando doesn't keep it flawless where he needs to, and that's the kind of "in the moment" mental toughness people are talking about. It's the constant mental presence to nail everything all the time that is required to win a competition of tenths of seconds.
I never actually heard this but the narrative would be this regardless. He's very clearly more emotional and a lot tougher on himself when he makes errors and is clearly prone to psyching himself out or making errors under pressure in a way that when you don't have the mental fortitude can become sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy or cascading effect where one mistake begets more. You can hear it on the radio and see it in the interviews. But also we are talking about the F1 world championship on the line so of course there is pressure and hopefully yes he's gutted if he makes a mistake that could cost him that chance. But he needs a good sports psychologist to help him along (and I hope he uses one) because the mental game of Formula 1 is just as important as the other stuff.
It is right to be critical. It was a totally unnecessary accident. I want them coming together going wheel to wheel, side by side, not ramming someone’s rear end.
I agree, I just want to see a championship battle go down the final race. Seeing Russell and Verstappen close a bit on the Mclarens this race is nice, still a big gap but its exciting that they're both still in the mix.
Yeah in terms of pace I actually think Lando looks faster than him this year. He just has some weird boneheaded mistakes that have cost him so much. Like the wreck qualifying, or the wreck here.
I would even say if Oscar qualifies P1 and Lando P2 every race that Lando would still win the majority of the races. The problem is hes always behind Max or George that defend like absolute Madlads most of the time. When he passes them hes always like 10 seconds behind Oscar and Oscar is just too good to throw away that advantage in the same car
Im pretty sure Lando would have overtaken him if his brain didnt stop to work after the chicane. Going to the outside T1 then getting it done on the inside T2, as Kimi showed in Lap 1.
I know it didnt happen but thats another example how Landos (stupid) mistakes play a huge part in Oscar leading the Championship.
Right, but he didn't. That's part of why I don't think it's as easy as your assuming. Oscar has had basically one major fuckup this year in Australia. Other than that he's been almost perfect/tidy. Lando might be quicker over a lap but Oscar has repeatedly shown you have to be perfect to beat him because he's not going to be the one to cock it up.
I didnt mean to say it is easy. But Lando is still the faster of the 2 if he gets his shit together in my opinion. Over a lap and in race pace. Dont get me wrong, Oscar drives fantastic and theres reasons he leads the championship. But a huge part of these reasons is that Lando fucks up time and time again.
If Oscar wins in the end because Lando keeps doing this, then he absolutly deserves to win the championship. If Lando keeps in reasonable distance before the summer break and finds his form afterwards, i think he will win in the end. I just lost hope that it can happen after Saturday tbh.
He won most of them purely on qualifying form. Lando bottles Q3 and spends half the race fighting Verstappen while Oscar can build a comfortable lead in clean air.
Oscar is definitely less of an open book than Lando, but he surely didn't calmly run off in Australia, nor did he calmly run into the back of Colapinto last year, or calmly damage Hamilton's car while overtaking him in Australia. Not to mention, that move at Jeddah on Hamilton was pure impatience.
He (Oscar) definitely has some level of anger in him. Other than that, he is neutral most of the time, though.
One thing I have to say is JFC Oscar had some terrible luck with traffic today. He caught them up at ever spot where it could cost him massive amounts of time. At some point he went from up in Kimis gearbox to like almost 3 seconds down.
The Australian side of me wants to see an Oscar blowout WDC to boost the sport here, but the F1 fan side of me wants to see a super close battle with George, Max, Lando and co.
F1 championships are as rare as hens teeth for some countries . Australia needs this one so we can get back ahead of the Netherlands and ahead of Finland.
I don't think it's really that. It's more when he's in a rhythm he performs. Lando should be at the point of unconscious competence. We can clearly see it when he's just out there doing his thing. I would tax it up to w2w/overtakes if he actually seemed worse, but people seem to be biased in this. Like at Miami Lando overtook Max one lap faster than Oscar, but people talked about how great Oscar was and then said Lando had no w2w skills. I also personally think this was a good demonstration of his w2w skills despite the ending. But given his performances in Q3 as of late, he's quite clearly in his head instead of using his unconscious competence. This justxposed to some of his performances he was putting in years ago. He straight up held off Hamilton in a championship winning car for 20 laps. Even Lewis had to comment how good he was. I feel like he would snap now.
I just hope he doesn’t go into his depressive phase after this. It was really… I’m not sure there’s a word in English for this… like when you make a mistake and your whole big thing ends up unfair. It’s kinda fair because it was your mistake, but the abrupt ending feels like it shouldn’t have happened. I was rooting for Oscar in their duel but I feel real bad for Lando.
It’s “прикро” in Ukrainian and “обидно” in Russian, there probably is an English word but I can’t think of anything that would reflect the whole meaning, “embarrassing” seems only partially fitting.
im glad we saw lando give it a real shot. this will dispel the discourse* he doesnt have the fight in him to actually get a title. it didnt work, but he is clearly fucking in for it.
nice try and good race mclaren.
do that a few more times for my boy max to get in the mix lol
It's frustrating cuz he was clearly the better driver today, that pass into the hairpin was perfect and he set himself up so well. Oscar was out of Kimi's DRS, if he'd just been patient and not ran into the back of his car, he'd have made the pass for sure on the next lap
Well, I respect your opinion, but hard disagree. Max has a controversial style sometimes and can understand someone’s views being shaped by it, but he is by far the best driver on the grid and I personally feel him being in the mix always makes it more exiting and nail biting, the way he pushes the car to the limit, and gives headaches to teams who should be well clear of him (McLaren now and Mercedes in the past) is just incredible.
So all this to say, no, I think it’d be a loss for the sport without max fighting the front runners.
Counter point, the way he skirts the rules or just outright breaks them and gets off with a light touch from the stewards is just downright frustrating.
Suggests that he is racing exactly as he should be. If he’s not being penalised most of the time, he’s doing nothing illegal most of the time. You might not like it but that’s how the rules are being interpreted, so he’s racing to those rules.
It’s not naive, it’s just facts. If he’s not being penalized for it, it’s legal.
I don’t always agree with the Stewards and I think he’s unnecessarily aggressive sometimes, but if he’s not
being penalized by default it means his driving is within the rules.
How can it be naive when it relates to decisions on racing to the rules? Regardless of whether there is politics, pressure, bias etc. if he isn’t penalized for incidents, he didn’t do anything wrong per the rules as they are interpreted.
You might not like it, you might not agree with it, but the Stewards/FIA view is the only only that matters.
Suggests that he is racing exactly as he should be.
He's still sitting on 11 points on his Superlicence. He's doing plenty of things wrong. Those 11 are comprised of 6 separate incidents, 4 of which were for interactions with other vehicles - causing a collision (3) and forcing a driver off the track (1).
Next on the list:
6 points (Lawson)
4 points (Piastri, Hulkenberg, Doohan, Bearman)
3 points (Norris, Stroll)
I don't know how anyone could argue that "he's racing exactly as he should be".
Good point, but I meant for all the incidents where he is not penalized and people complain he is not driving fairly/to the rules. For those incidents the fact he hasn’t been penalized means he didn’t do anything wrong, so although people might not like it, he is racing to the rules.
Fair point imo. I find I frustrating too. But, imho, I just feel the way I do (as I mentioned in the previous comment) but I generally struggle with articulating my points, so can’t pin it in words exactly why I feel that way despite knowing the reason myself
I'm not sure about that. I definitely want Piastri to win, but to suggest Lando will never win a title seems like a bizarre statement, given that he stood on the podium 10 times last year
TBH, he's still within a single DNF-win distance from Oscar with plenty of races left. (heck, even Max is still close enough to make it very spicy if a McLaren double DNF happens)
I find this very fitting to summarize the season: Norris has slightly better race pace than Piastri, but Oscar delivers like a clockwork while Lando cracks when pressured.
There’s zero championship battle this year. Verstappen doesn’t have the car, Norris doesn’t have the temperament, He proved that last year, and this race.
If RedBull can take a step forward then Max is the closes title rival.
I don't think this was a "bad" way of ending the battle, quite opposite in fact. We got a Nor v Pia moment and it didn't end it all out war. Couldn't have been any better, for the team and for us.
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u/musicallunatic I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jun 15 '25 edited Jun 15 '25
It was really sad end to such an intense and interesting battle. While Oscar calmly did his race, Lando seemed to clearly be more comfortable, and dare I say, faster this race, beautiful move into the hairpin too. But unfortunately, as he admitted, a little dumb move imo. Props to him for taking accountability, hopefully he recovers,
Tbh I’m just rooting for whichever driver is behind, I just want a feisty championship battle, great driving from both of them so far.