Why would going in to the pits first give the driver an advantage over his team-mate? Surely it would even out when the second driver goes in?
Also Iāve never really understood the politics behind making drivers give up a race to their team-mates. Why do teams want to do that? Seems unfair to the driver that has to relinquish.
Pitting first allows for a technque called undercutting.
The first guy in the pits gets new tyres allowing them to reduce their lap time enough on the next lap, against the driver yet to pit who still has old tyres on, so that when the second driver come back out they find themselves behind.
Team orders has been a thing since the beginning of Grand Prix racing.
The main thing for a team is to maximise the Constructors Championship points haul as this translates into MONEY.
A team decides who is best placed to win either by track data, place in the Championship, or other agreements. Some drivers are recognised as second to the other and the numero uno gets preferential treatment. Sometimes, if the driver pairing is more equal and to protect the team from risk of them crashing into each other, sets agreements in place; such as āwhoever is leading the first lap, shall be the winnerā.
This, after the under cut or subsequent pass, will lead to the team asking one to give way to the other.
There are a million permutations of this.
McLaren handled the situation badly, but it happens more frequently than most people realise.
Thanks. Interesting it makes such a difference that the second canāt recover.
Yeah, itās one of those things Iāve always been aware of but never thought to ask, until nowā¦
Yes, but as long as one of the drivers wins it surely doesnāt matter who, insofar as championship points?
I guess there are other factors as you went on to describe.
Only just watched the race - Iāve never cringed so hard. McLaren: WTF? The team made themselves look like amateurs - Andreas Schiffer is a twat. They made the drivers and their race engineers take all the heat for a stupid strategic decision.
Anyone wondering about the Verstappen/Hamilton moment - watch the overhead view: Lewis was firmly on the racing line, Max red-misted so badly he cut back in across Lewis causing the contact - doing almost exactly the thing he accused Lewis of. Racing incident, but itās telling how red-misty Max gets when heās on the back foot - reminds me a lot of Seb Vettel when he was at a similar point in his career with the same team.
Brundle called this right: have him give the place back immediately then let them race
Situation did seem to cry out for Dad to intervene and tell the kids to stop fucking about though
I felt Ferrari were premature binning Mattia Binotto (face-saving resignation notwithstanding), so well-done Audi:
I posted on a Farcebook page how maybe Maxi should retire given heās no doing so well, citing the endless derision the fanbois had directed at LH. It was very much tongue-in-cheek, and the comment ended with a āwinkā.
Oh my.
How easily they are triggered! 
I can heartily reccomended the Fanboi accunts on Twatter. Absolutely stark raving fucking bonkers
Daresay itās entertainingly deranged, but itās also akin to wading in sewage to keep your legs warmā¦ 
Itās a sport in its own right.
Maxverbating.
Odd race, wasnāt it? I nodded off in the middle, and woke with 6 to go, struggling to work out how it was Merc 1-2.
Esp. puzzled the DRS didnāt seem to work as (the teams) expected and at previus races at Spa.
Meanwhile, party time for @MGOwner
https://x.com/titoritzf1/status/1817588257820946595?s=46&t=JAZ29qzJW_ggL3AI1Le9Xg
I was a bit puzzled to hear a commentator say that they had reduced the DRS zone by 75 metres from last year in an effort to reduce overtaking.
Everyone: āYeah, Spaās all about overtaking.ā
Also Everyone: āYeah, itās all about pit strategy and tyre deg.ā
After quali Iād expected Max to rip thru the field, especially with the new power unitā¦
Oh wellā¦
At a guess Georgeās DQ was marginal and down to the sheer amount of tyre mass lost by going so long on that set of Hards. Has to be one of the teamās spotting that was likely to put the car underweight, as the marshals had to remove the fuel from the car to be sureā¦
Georgeās car was 1.5kg under weight post race.
Fronts weigh ~9.5kg each, rears ~11.5kgs each, most of that is the contact surface.