Is there a recommendation for an Indycar community on Lemmy? I watch extremely casually but I'd be interested in some places to keep up with the news at least.
No word on the specific cause that I've seen, just the team acknowledged that they made an error according to the release from the stewards. I'm not insinuating anything but I have to wonder how that happened and if it was isolated to just George's car.
It sucks, a sour end to an otherwise brilliant day for him and the team.
I don't disagree with sensible team orders, on the rare occasion such a thing exists. What I don't like is the neutering of competition just because "team first."
Most of the time the teams are quick to slit a driver's throat if some hot new talent comes along so it's hard to find fault with a driver that wants to capitalize on an opportunity to win, or even just to race and compete. As an example I think we've seen some excellent wheel to wheel battles between the Ferraris in recent years without the catastrophe the teams would have us believe is inevitable. We definitely wouldn't see that with team orders.
What we saw last weekend was more a result of incompetent race management, and a driver that's seen it too often driving that point home. I can't say it was handled in the most professional way from either side, driver or team.
I'm not suggesting he was the fastest car all race or something ridiculous. People win races all the time because of fouled up pit stops, safety car timing, etc etc. Drivers find themselves in convenient or cursed positions basically every weekend. All of them want to win.
All I'm saying is the frustration is both understandable and ridiculous. The drivers shouldn't be in these stupid positions, and McLaren has to improve drastically in regards to their decision making and execution.
Headline is a bit much but we live in a click bait world so I guess by that metric it could be worse. Anyways.
I think this was a particularly bitter pill for Lando because it's the second time he's been asked to not challenge for a win at McLaren. The last guy he followed team orders for fell out of F1 only to come back as a PR stunt, while Lando continued to grind through mediocrity with McLaren. Now Lando and McLaren are consistently challenging for wins and, in my opinion, some of that frustration came out last Sunday. The pit wall has not evolved with the rest of the team, and their mistakes are causing both drivers undue stress and frustration.
Gaffs aside, Lando could potentially be a 3 time race winner at McLaren but instead has a P1 and two team ordered P2 finishes behind a teammate. He seems like a very level headed person but I think it's fair to assume that would frustrate someone.
His last stint was a statement that he wants to challenge for victory no matter who leads, and I think that's fair. It sucked for everyone it had to play out so sloppily and publicly, but it was coming sooner or later. McLaren has to find a better balance of competitiveness and decision making. They have the car and the drivers, now it's the choices from the pit wall holding them back.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the rapid change in direction that happened at McLaren vs the awful performance at Sauber. There were a lot of people at McLaren giving credit for the uptick in performance to a change in direction right after Andrea took over. Since then they have only continued to move forward.
I always felt like Andreas did a pretty decent job during his time at McLaren but maybe some of the problems were because of him, who knows.
It's a stretch but I could see it being used as an excuse if someone at Audi feels Mattia is the better hire. I don't think anyone expected much out of Sauber this year but so far their showing has been pathetic.
Pencil erases. Or Jesus idk.