Merc drivers lost race craft?

[mateo8]

With how dominant the Merc cars have been in the recent past, have the drivers lost their race craft especially when following cars??

This is the second race in a row where Merc drivers have been involved with a first lap incident that has resulted in a red flag. They really have not followed cars on the first lap in recent past so have they lost their feel with fighting with other cars when they are loaded up with fuel?

[L8Braker35]

Silverstone and Hungary are two separate issues, but can loosely be tied to race craft.

First, it’s been known for a long while that the Merc is sub-par when following another car closely. On a wide open circuit, they can get by on power, but Hungary highlights their deficiencies in traffic.

Silverstone was ego and poor judgement in my mind. Lewis saw what happened in the Saturday sprint race and was determined to not let that happen again. It was also crucial for their strategy. The problem came when he chose the absolute worst line to charge into Copse. There was no way he was going to make the apex from where he started, and he clearly didn’t.

For Bottas, it’s clear his mistimed his braking, but what I haven’t heard mentioned is when Lando passed on the inside and then took position directly in front of him, I think that took some significant air off the front wing, which caused him to lock up almost instantly. It was over from there.