Alexander Albon, Romain Grosjean, Hungaroring, 2020

Albon collision damage spoiled handling – Grosjean

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In the round-up: Romain Grosjean says damage caused by a tangle with Alexander Albon explains his slip out of the points places in Hungary.

What they say

Grosjean praised the team’s decision to pit both him and team mate Kevin Magnussen for slick tyres before the race started, though it later led to a penalty for both drivers:

It was a good move from the team. I took the radio and said ‘guys it’s too dry for inters’. So we took the gamble. The first few laps were a bit leery but after that things worked really well. The pace was good.

Then I started to have graining on the front-left tyres so we didn’t protected enough. But anyway it was going OK.

Sadly, I need to see the image, but Albon had a quite late move on me in turn one, hit my front wing and damaged it. Then the car had much less performance. We tried but then everything went out of sync and I just couldn’t stay in the points.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Kribana was surprised Mercedes gave Lewis Hamilton an extra pit stop to make a bid for the fastest lap point, given the potential risks:

I get Mercedes’ situation, and Toto Wolff does not like going for the fastest lap point because of the risk of putting a car in the barriers, or for a potential puncture, and even a mechanical failure due to putting more stress in the car. Not to mention the fact that pitting for new tyres, and going for it, could easily lead to a slow pit stop or even a mistake during the pit stop.

It was a bit surprising that they pitted Hamilton for it considering that he did not have such a big gap to Verstappen. Four seconds window is not a window that was worth risking just for one point, while staying out would have guaranteed the 25 points. I can understand the reason to cover a Safety Car or a possible puncture for Hamilton. It just came as a shock considering how Mercedes normally work.
Kribana (@krichelle)

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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26 comments on “Albon collision damage spoiled handling – Grosjean”

  1. Agree with the COTD. It’s just unusual for Mercedes to pit a leading driver for the fastest lap point… but it just shows the supreme amount of confidence they have in their pit crew, Lewis, and their ability to make up lost points this season with ease.

    1. Honestly, I think they might recognise just how far ahead they are of everyone this year. Perhaps it’s easier to let Lewis go for the fastest lap that he’s looking for vs. telling him no when you have such a fast car?

  2. Re COTD: Yes, there are both pros and cons that come with doing en extra pit stop, but most of the time, the pros outweigh the cons. BTW, the tyres weren’t entirely fresh as it was a set he had used them for a single flying lap in QLF, but quite fresh.

  3. Was surprised Albon got away with penalty for that lunge, although Grosjean moved out of the way which mean Albon got away with damage. Albon seriously need to get his eyes tested.

    1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      22nd July 2020, 8:51

      Grosjean even opened his steering twice. This move by albon was a failed ricciardo lunge.

    2. F1oSaurus (@)
      22nd July 2020, 9:37

      If Grosjean had steered in and crashed then probably Albon would have gotten a penalty. It’s just weird how these penalties work.

      Like in Austria, Hamilton is ahead for Albon on lap one. Albon pushes him off and Hamilton yields. No penalty. Similar situation at the end of the race. Hamilton is ahead a the braking point, Albon goes past on the outside anyway they crash, Hamilton gets a penalty.

      Why would they not get a penalty even if no crash happens? Like driving through a red light is fine unless you hit someone.

      It’s even weirder to be honest since Hamilton was ahead before the breaking point which would give him the racing line. Plus Albon took the narrow line out of the corner rather than use the full width (like Verstappen did when going outside of Bottas in Styria)

      Stewarding is an utter mess lately.

      1. I’m not sure and am happy to be corrected, but the penalty is for causing an avoidable crash, not for risking an avoidable crash. If there’s no crash there’s no breach. It’s not really like the red light scenario.

        1. So driving driving into rival and ruining rival’s race is OK and that Grosjean shouldn’t have taken avoiding action taking Albon out of the race. This is 3rd race weekend where Albon was involved in track incident ruining race for one of drivers involved.

      2. Couldn’t agree more

  4. Re COTD: Maybe conversation transcript leading to the decision could clear this.

    1. @ruliemaulana Hamilton was pushing for it, he wanted the fastest lap point, to me in the broadcast it sounded like the team found a reason they could tell themselves would mean it was about ensuring it was ‘protecting against safetycar’ and not about the extra point. But wasn’t the FLAP point in Vettel’s hands at that point (or Bottas?) – if it was, this was also about maximising gain from the race (if Bottas, yeah, that’s no difference to the team then which driver has it).

      1. @bosyber I mean it’s good to have full transcript for clear insight if there’s any disagreement at all. I prefer Hamilton to actually threaten his engineering to allow him to pit than Merc just giving anything he wanted. It’s understandable to asked some excitement after long and lonely drive.

        1. I did hear Hamilton wanting the fastest lap point, asking for soft tyres, because it could prove vital in his fight with Bottas, and in case we have a resurgence from Red Bull. When you have the chance to get points, you might as well try to get them. However, being a Mercedes fan, and knowing how they operate, it came as a surprise that they decided to pit Hamilton, especially that there were only 3 laps left. But well, the pit stop was decent, and it worked out. So, I think we are happy with that.

  5. Following up on the mysterious round-up link I wonder: @bascb and @bosyber, are you related to each other?

    1. yes, we are twin brothers @coldfly

      1. Yep, indeed @coldfly, as @bascb says we are twins

  6. Albon sure is getting in a lot of scrapes in the last few races. He can blame others as much as he likes, and Hamilton certainly isn’t blameless in those he was involved in, but it takes two cars or more to hit each other – maybe Albon needs to be a touch more circumspect with his car placement in future.

  7. Albons car colliding with another car during a pass…

  8. Yeah, Grosjean should have accepted he wasn’t racing Albon and shouldn’t have wasted time or effort defending an undefendable position. He lost time and damaged his car in the process.
    It was a poor drive from Grosjean.

    1. Indeed it’s Sad if even F1fans now concede that drivers should give up position to faster cars because ‘they are not racing them’.
      I kind of understand that the teams do it when they ‘strategise’ the quickest way to the finish, but I’d expect F1 fans to hope for every position to be defended. The fight for position is the best part of an F1 race IMO.

      1. I was more of a Prost fan than a Senna fan.
        I want to see intelligent racing. Not poor racing and than whining about the consequences afterwards.
        Funnily enough this incident was a Senna, Grosjean left the door open and Albon went full Senna on it.
        When you race as poorly as Grosjean, you might aswell concede position, smallest chance of messing up one’s own race.

    2. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      22nd July 2020, 9:58

      He didn’t even look like he tried to defend? Did you watch a replay? Albon came out of nowhere and Grosjean opened the steering twice to try and avoid yet contact was still made. You can’t blame Grosjean for this. Grosjean’s pace over the previous 10 laps was matching (in fact slightly gaining on Mgnussen). It was only after this contact that he lost significant pace. I think your view on albon’s move is a bit unreasonable. From the way he let Stroll and others through, it was clear he wasn’t trying to waste time. Albon’s move was just a bit too much of a lunge.

      1. No it was fine.

  9. Why is Grosjean still in F1? He is not helping Haas effort to move up the grid. People bashing Albon fit this pass or the one on Hamilton haven’t been watching motorsport enough. ALDO, CAN RACEFANS PLEASE DISABLE COMMENTS ON THEIR POSTED ARTICLES OMN FACEBOOK?? It is sadly full of racists and trolls at the moment.

  10. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    22nd July 2020, 12:36

    Really confused by people agreeing with Grosjean it was a late lunge by Albon. I watched the rear view camera on Grosjean’s Haas – you could see Albon coming from miles away with the pace advantage he had. To my mind Grosjean must have known he was there and tried to ‘close the door’ when Albon was already halfway in it. I thought to be honest it was a lazy defense by Grosjean, but understandable given he must have known a Red Bull was always going to blow past a Haas. He left the door slightly ajar and Albon took it, no different to Perez leaving the door open for Norris a few races ago.

  11. Sometimes I get lazy responding to comments replying to my comment, but I’ll definitely thank @keithcollantine for my first COTD. LOL

Comments are closed.