#charles and lewis fight so beautifully for example

[chussyracing]

That twitter account has since clarified that Carlos was actually lifting in those turns for most of the race, not just the last laps, so that data set doesn't prove much. That being said though, I do still believe Carlos was likely purposefully keeping Max in his DRS. We know he's done it before to hold off a faster threat from behind. He was lifting for most of the race at that turn, but not all of it. He should have pulled ahead enough to drop Max from DRS and let Charles pass earlier to more safely ensure the 3-4 finish. Knowing how he strategizes though I am sure that he was very aware if he gave Charles enough laps it would be a fight so he waited.

i will be honest, i didn't even notice anything during the race besides the fact that charles was one second faster than carlos behind max (also caused by the fact that charles was sped up by lewis with the same lap times behind him and both were also faster than george in p1). the data can always be manipulated a certain way and it just depends on the way you look at it and hwat you decide to focus on and what to omit. there is also the thing that if you are close behind someone and using drs you are obviously faster than after you overtake them and suddenly have a gap and clean air in front.

my issue during this race lies completely outside of this moment though (you can even go on and say max had nothing to work towards and chalres should have overtook him on his own without carlos' "help" and that is valid and true). the problematic part i see are the fights in moments they can hurt us the most. if we were in mercedes' place with next best car 8 seconds behind and with 5 laps to go, by all means, fight and try to grab that win for yourself. as long as you keep it nice and clean, it doesn't matter who wins becuase you maximise the points for the team and carlos is not obliged to help him get p2 in wdc. my point is that you cannot fight in the middle of the race when you are in the conserving part. you cannot fight at the start of the stint when you know your biggest weakness is warm up and graining and you already pitted once with the same issue. you SHOULD fight towards the end of the race, towards the end of a stint and at the start of the race where the offset is zero. and the most important part is: you always have to make sure not to cause a double DNF at this point of the season when funds are low, every point counts and you are slowly trying out stuff for 2025.