Midfield 'almost stood still' at the start - Verstappen

Again, well said. Before the race I was going to ask if anyone wanted to take odds that he was going to crash, but I didn't want to piss of any of the fanatic fanboyz. There was even a betting line on him crashing again. Should of put a fiver on it.

Maxanado Crashtappen is his new nickname.

Come on... Yes this was sloppy l, but other than the last two races Max has been brilliant. Arguably the best this year. I expect to see him back in form at Singapore. Should be a fun race.

I'm really not a hater. I try to be objective when looking at all the drivers. Go back and look at the races earlier in the season. He consistently made contact with other drivers when it looked like he was going to be overtaken and even at times when there was no apparent reason. He's good and he's quick but he has only had 3 races where he hasn't made contact by my recollection(not always a correct recollection), hardly what I would call brilliant except perhaps in the last couple of races like you mention, but he hasn't really had much competition from his teammate. Most of his fans are so enamored by him that they don't look objectively at his performance. In my estimation he's one level above Jesus Christ in their eyes. It's kind of funny actually to see how worked up his fans get when it's pointed out that he isn't a refined driver. He probably has the most raw talent of anyone on the grid aside from Hamilton, and maybe LeClerc who reminded me a bit of Senna how he is able to squeeze a few extra 10ths out of thin air, but Ham learned from his mistakes much faster and continued to get better year after year. I was hoping after the last few races when he put in a good clean race that he was cleaning up his act, but now two weeks in a row incidents on lap 1. If it was any other driver they would be comparing him to Grosjean. He has the luxury of being in one of the best chassis on the grid so that makes him look better than he is. Why is it most of the other drivers can fight an overtake without hitting the guy next to them but he has to hit someone to get the advantage? I've been driving and racing for nearly 40 years so yeah, I think maybe I have a bit better eye for talented drivers than some of these guys who barely have a driving license. Just calling it as I see it, but everyone is entitled to their own opinions. As the song goes, "There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy. There's only you and me and we just disagree." I want to root for him but I just can't yet. It took me a couple of years to warm up to Lewis as well but he has just gotten better and better. I can't really say that about Max. He looks to me to be just about as good as he was his first year or two. To his credit his aggressiveness has brought out more aggressiveness in other drivers and helped the stewards relax a bit on penalties like they did today, but like Hammy said now they all know what they can get away with so I predict more crashes from Max this season from guys who aren't going to back down. It's good for the racing and the show.

I mean I am no fan of him, but I'd still say he is great. Reckless for sure, but still among the current top 5 with ease.

Haters will be haters.

Me I thought Leclerc driving was rather dangerous.

So true.
Of course you did,
but when Max was driving like that you were cheering not complaining.
What is now acceptable has changed thanks to Max. That's a good thing.
LeClerc got the black and white and heeded the warning. Go no penalty call.
He made some bold moves but dangerous? Did he hit anyone? Did he cause a crash?
Ham knew the door was closing and adjusted accordingly, he didn't try to force himself into a position that was not there like Max did last week.

Max got an penalty for cutting a corner in Italy previously, Leclerl didn't get one.

The mapping/options of mappings is the same such things generally don't tend to differ from driver to driver AFAIK (a lot of work and high costs for marginal gains, and A LOT could go wrong methinks), but from what I take it, the drivers can choose from various modes of how they want to deploy their ERS power. So my guess is that Max tend to run Max power consistently, or in a way that it then has to harvest power in suboptimal areas of the track. The Hondas generally tend to be more prone to harvest than the other cars, but Max in particular seem to be stricken of this more than the others.

I could maybe see the turbo lag be due to your explanation, however they tend to limit the battery in a fashion that the drivers cannot deplete it to an absolute zero charge (this can damage the battery AND cause turbo lag, among other things), so it'd point to a pretty unconventional config. Dunno if it's good or bad, but it has at least not been an intentional function thus far in the hybrid era.