Formula 1 2021

[Oldddudders]

3 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Red Bull’s head of aerodynamics moves to Aston Martin as technical director

 

https://www.racefans.net/2021/06/25/red-bulls-head-of-aerodynamics-moves-to-aston-martin-as-technical-director/

He will be on gardening leave for quite some time. His knowledge of what makes the RB cars quick would be invaluable to any rival, so he will be kept out of their hands for a while. Maybe next season. 

[LNERandBR]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/57615056

 

Bottas has a grid penalty for spinning in the pit lane. 

[Oldddudders]

13 hours ago, LNERandBR said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/57615056

 

Bottas has a grid penalty for spinning in the pit lane. 

Setting off in second does sound like a silly thing to try first in a live pitlane, not least in one with paint and a potentially damp surface. McLaren's protest was hardly without merit. 

[Oldddudders]

FP3 has Lewis fastest, but so many drivers have had laps disallowed due to track limit infringements. Do that in Quali and you are seriously disadvantaging yourself. Russell seems to have worked that one out, being 14th fastest, with Raikkonen and both McLarens behind him. Last Sunday he finished 12th, in a race where all 20 saw the chequered flag, and several much-better-equipped drivers, including a Ferrari, were behind him.

 

We have three extremely good Brits in F1 at the moment, more than I can recall for some years.  

[Zomboid]

Another good Saturday for Russell. Latifi was ahead of more than just the Haas cars too, so this looks to be a circuit where the Williams is closer to being competitive than some.

 

And Bottas still has something to say in the deciding who Lewis' wingman will be next year contest. Though I think that might depend more on how much Mercedes rate Russell. If they don't promote him soon he'll be very much in demand elsewhere...

[EddieB]

22 hours ago, LNERandBR said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/57615056

 

Bottas has a grid penalty for spinning in the pit lane. 

 

Doughnut?

 

9 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Setting off in second does sound like a silly thing to try first in a live pitlane, not least in one with paint and a potentially damp surface.

 

Doughnut!

[Andrew P]

If Merc do keep Bottas, and that will depend on the next couple of Races, Russell WILL need to start looking else where, and with Danny Ric not performing, I wonder if McLaren have an exit policy in place, and may get pressure from Merc and Toto.

[Andrew P]

Russian GP to move from Sochi to St Petersburg in 2023.

https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/31711410/russian-gp-move-sochi-st-petersburg-2023

[Andrew P]

Looks like C4 may be sold off quite soon, and was wondering how people think that might effect Whisper Films contract to show the F1.

Edited June 26, 2021 by Andrew P

[rocor]

16 hours ago, Andrew P said:

If Merc do keep Bottas, and that will depend on the next couple of Races, Russell WILL need to start looking else where, and with Danny Ric not performing, I wonder if McLaren have an exit policy in place, and may get pressure from Merc and Toto.

 McLaren with an all British driver line-up, interesting!

[Gareth Collier]

Still got 20 odd laps to go and am wondering why I waste so much of my life watching these dull processions no matter how exciting the commentators try to make it. Just praying for rain to add some interest.

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Gareth Collier said:

Still got 20 odd laps to go and am wondering why I waste so much of my life watching these dull processions no matter how exciting the commentators try to make it. Just praying for rain to add some interest.

There's the British touring car championship on ITV3 at the moment.

[Zomboid]

3 hours ago, Gareth Collier said:

Still got 20 odd laps to go and am wondering why I waste so much of my life watching these dull processions no matter how exciting the commentators try to make it. Just praying for rain to add some interest.

This one might not have been great, but most of the races this year have been pretty exciting.

 

Got to feel for Williams and Russell. What do they have to do to score a point?

 

Hopefully Mercedes will find a little speed to come back at RB and it'll be back & forth all year.

[Gareth Collier]

6 minutes ago, Zomboid said:

This one might not have been great, but most of the races this year have been pretty exciting.

But have they? I agree there has been a fair amount of overtaking in some races, there was today, but it is artificial overtaking. A car pits for new tyres, drops half a dozen places then rejoins and takes advantage of their new tyres and then overtakes all of those that passed them while they were in the pits. Alternatively they can't overtake so pit for new tyres in the hope they will recatch the car they were struggling with then beat them as they have newer tyres whilst the car that stayed out just has to hang on and cross their fingers. The dullest bit is where they can only overtake with the under/over cut or the incredibly artificial DRS.

Today MV and LH were a class above everyone else as normal and held a large gap to VB and SP in the sister cars showing the cars are by far the best if not the number 2 drivers who in turn held a large gap over the rest of the field all of whom were lapped.

Touring cars are far more entertaining with weight penalties to even things up as are Indy Cars which I follow. The first 8 races of the season saw 8 different winners. Barring incidents there are only 2 drivers that can realistically win a F1 race this year and if they don't their team mate will.

I sincerely hope next years cars will even things up and make overtaking a genuine skill rather than a strategic move.

[Zomboid]

9 minutes ago, Gareth Collier said:

Touring cars are far more entertaining with weight penalties to even things up

That's just as artificial as anything in F1.

 

Not that I'm flying the flag for anything in particular, the excitement in most sports comes from the jeopardy of not knowing who will prevail, and there is a large degree of that in F1 at the moment. You're right that there's not much entertainment to be had from a car that's clearly much faster carving through a load of slower cars.

[Gareth Collier]

32 minutes ago, Zomboid said:

That's just as artificial as anything in F1.

Weight penalties are artificial but I'd argue that it benefits the racing rather than F1's artificial attempts to allow overtaking. If a car is faster than the rest of the field the additional weight levels the playing field making the skill of the driver far more important than the car they are sitting in. Chuck a few extra kilos in a Red Bull or Merc and you wouldn't see their massive budgets allowing them to disappear into the distance. 

But like I said roll on next year and the new cars. 

[Pete the Elaner]

1 hour ago, Zomboid said:

 

Got to feel for Williams and Russell. What do they have to do to score a point?

 

Hopefully Mercedes will find a little speed to come back at RB and it'll be back & forth all year.

 

Russell did everything well this weekend. Almost got into Q3 then started 10th after some one else's grid penalty. He was running comfortably in 8th before an issue caused many pit stops.

 

I am not sure where Mercedes are going to get a little more performance from. After today's race, Wolff openly admitted that all development is focussed on next year's car. It was not the first time he said this either. Hamilton also seems a little less disappointed each week with 2nd place than he would have been this time last year.

It has also been mentioned that there are development freezes on many more of next year's components, so it is important to get things right before they are submitted.

They duped Red Bull back in 2013 by having a couple of good races around the summer break, which prompted RB to keep working on their car right until the last race. The pay-off for that was winning both driver's & constructor's titles for the next 7 years.

Maybe they have got some developments in the pipeline & the talk about focussing on next year is just a dummy they want to sell to stop RB developing this season (but I doubt it). Without exception, They all like to get whatever advantage they can, whether this is exposing illegal parts on others' cars or with mind games.

[Zomboid]

I suppose both Mercedes and RB are looking at it in the context of Mercedes having won everything for the last 7 years. MB obviously want to win again, but RB probably want it more. Honda especially will want to go out with a title, Max hasn't won any titles yet either, whilst Lewis' legacy is secure whether he wins another one or not.

 

Nobody has any real idea who will be fast next year - might be RB, might be Mercedes, could be Ferrari, might even be Williams.

[PaulRhB]

Well done Max, and Mercedes? You just got Mercedes’d! I hope they pull it back as the closer racing between those two was so much better.  

[Andrew P]

Fairly dull but you really have to feel for George Russell, he drives so well, and has proved he could be a winn, but still not a single point for Williams.

[Andrew P]

https://www.facebook.com/Formula1/photos/a.570461836444136/2148876651935972/

[Zomboid]

12 hours ago, Gareth Collier said:

skill of the driver far more important than the car they are sitting in

I think the counter argument is that F1 is about pushing technology to the limit at least as much as it's about the driver.

 

Drivers play a massive role in that. At one end the likes of Lewis and Michael Schumacher contribute a lot to making the cars go as fast as they possibly can, not only when they're driving, but also in the feedback they can give to the engineers. And at the other end you have dangerous liabilities like Mazepin. But the "who can build the best car?" element of the series is a huge part of the point of the exercise.

 

And it gives fans something else to latch onto - personally I like to see McLaren and Williams do well regardless of who's driving for them. Conversely it doesn't matter who's driving for Ferrari, I want them to be overtaken.

[didcot]

You have to feel for Russell. Must be one of the unluckiest drivers on the grid. He's been so close to points only to have them taken away or thrown them away through an uncharacteristic mistake. 

Edited June 28, 2021 by didcot

[rocor]

17 hours ago, Gareth Collier said:

 

Touring cars are far more entertaining with weight penalties to even things up as are Indy Cars which I follow. The first 8 races of the season saw 8 different winners. Barring incidents there are only 2 drivers that can realistically win a F1 race this year and if they don't their team mate will.

I sincerely hope next years cars will even things up and make overtaking a genuine skill rather than a strategic move.

 

The essential difference between F1 and many other categories of racing, is that the teams have (within evermore increasingly restricted rules) freedom regarding the design of the racecars. This is an indispensable part to the competition at present. The World Drivers Championship could be run with identical machinery, but that would put an end to The World Constructors Championship. 

 

I can envision within a few years identical power units being used in F1, as the other major car manufactures, following Honda's lead, leave the sport as they divest themselves of internal combustion engines in their production vehicles.

[EddieB]

Even were the bodyshells and power units identical, there could still be plenty of differentiation in F1 - even before the relative merits of drivers were factored in.  Assuming there would still be scope to tinker with levels of downforce, and all having to use the same tyres/compounds has hardly resulted in uniformity.

 

Ok, I understand that some only want to see out and out racing, lots of overtaking and (I hope not) incidents and accidents - but to me the whole race-craft package, played out at different types of circuit over the course of a season - is what holds my fascination.