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2021 Formula 1 Season Thread

Apple fanboy said:
Truth is in 2022 no-one knows which is the car to be in. Yes it would be highly unlikely that Mercedes, RBR or Ferrari won't be up there, but with all the changes, who knows!
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Indeed, I’ve been saying this to my colleagues today. Lewis will also be 37 next season and I’ve already seen comments suggesting that if Russell outperforms him in the early part of the season, it will mean all Hamilton’s Mercedes championships will be because of the car. When you point out that Russell will perhaps also have a good car, the conversation runs dead lol. It’s this constant quest to find the best ever driver and the reason I try and stay away from websites where the less informed choose to comment. So glad this thread exists.

I think we are in for a treat and I hope Mercedes manage this partnership better this time around. Bottas was a good fit because he was good enough for consistent constructors points, but not good enough to consistently outperform Lewis. The same could be said of Rosberg apart from 2016 where the stars aligned and cars were more temperamental. If Russell qualifies well, Mercedes will struggle to call the order. I can’t wait.

I still want to see Lando winning a championship in a McLaren though. I know Mercedes are probably as British, but that branding takes away some of the romance :p
 
The-Real-Deal82 said:
Indeed, I’ve been saying this to my colleagues today. Lewis will also be 37 next season and I’ve already seen comments suggesting that if Russell outperforms him in the early part of the season, it will mean all Hamilton’s Mercedes championships will be because of the car. When you point out that Russell will perhaps also have a good car, the conversation runs dead lol. It’s this constant quest to find the best ever driver and the reason I try and stay away from websites where the less informed choose to comment. So glad this thread exists.

I think we are in for a treat and I hope Mercedes manage this partnership better this time around. Bottas was a good fit because he was good enough for consistent constructors points, but not good enough to consistently outperform Lewis. The same could be said of Rosberg apart from 2016 where the stars aligned and cars were more temperamental. If Russell qualifies well, Mercedes will struggle to call the order. I can’t wait.

I still want to see Lando winning a championship in a McLaren though. I know Mercedes are probably as British, but that branding takes away some of the romance :p
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Imagine the radio call. Lewis, Russell is faster than you. Please pull over so he can get up the road!

I can't see it somehow. One of the reasons Lewis has won so many titles is consistency. He just gets out there and does the business. Yes having a good car helps, but Perez drives the same car as Max and they are rarely on the podium together are they?

I'm expecting Russell to behave himself as a good number 2 next year. Then things to be up for review in 2023. If he is looking like he'll be faster, Lewis might call it a day. Then again he could drive until he's in his 40's. Can't see him picking up drives down the grid though. But I'm also surprised to see Vettel, Alonso and Kimi do that as well. I'd rather go out at the top. But I'd have to get there first!
 
I think the only battle better this year than Max v. Lewis is Schumacher versus Mazepin.
 
Apple fanboy said:
Imagine the radio call. Lewis, Russell is faster than you. Please pull over so he can get up the road!

I can't see it somehow. One of the reasons Lewis has won so many titles is consistency. He just gets out there and does the business. Yes having a good car helps, but Perez drives the same car as Max and they are rarely on the podium together are they?

I'm expecting Russell to behave himself as a good number 2 next year. Then things to be up for review in 2023. If he is looking like he'll be faster, Lewis might call it a day. Then again he could drive until he's in his 40's. Can't see him picking up drives down the grid though. But I'm also surprised to see Vettel, Alonso and Kimi do that as well. I'd rather go out at the top. But I'd have to get there first!
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Yeah I can’t see Lewis going to a lesser team. The difference between him and Alonso and Kimi is he’s won so many titles already and they probably deserved more than they got. I think he’ll retire if Russell beats him or pushes him too close. There is a huge age gap and people need to start expecting that he’s not going to be as good as he was at 25. Lewis is still a brilliant racer and the best of this generation. Russell, Lando etc are the next generation and this is the crossover period IMO. One more title and I think Lewis will retire very happy, although he could do that now without any questions over his ability to be fair.
 
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The-Real-Deal82 said:
Yeah I can’t see Lewis going to a lesser team. The difference between him and Alonso and Kimi is he’s won so many titles already and they probably deserved more than they got. I think he’ll retire if Russell beats him or pushes him too close. There is a huge age gap and people need to start expecting that he’s not going to be as good as he was at 25. Lewis is still a brilliant racer and the best of this generation. Russell, Lando etc are the next generation and this is the crossover period IMO. One more title and I think Lewis will retire very happy, although he could do that now without any questions over his ability to be fair.
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I think you sum it up well.

Lewis has such a strong desire to win that I can't see him being happy to sit in a mid-pack car seeing out his days towards retirement. He's more likely to divert his time to some of the causes he's taken on recently and become a special adviser in the way Lauda was.

He's got nothing to prove now, so I think he's enjoys the competitive battles with either his team mate or a rival team a lot more than he did. The winning mentality hasn't gone, but there is more maturity. Hopefully he does another three seasons or so being right at the sharp end of the sport, then hands the baton over to Russell and rest of the new generation to try and do what he's already done.
 
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The-Real-Deal82 said:
Yeah I can’t see Lewis going to a lesser team. The difference between him and Alonso and Kimi is he’s won so many titles already and they probably deserved more than they got. I think he’ll retire if Russell beats him or pushes him too close. There is a huge age gap and people need to start expecting that he’s not going to be as good as he was at 25. Lewis is still a brilliant racer and the best of this generation. Russell, Lando etc are the next generation and this is the crossover period IMO. One more title and I think Lewis will retire very happy, although he could do that now without any questions over his ability to be fair.
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I think he wants that one more title to get the record. It’s the only one he hasn’t got. But I genuinely think Max will win this year as they have the best car. Next year is all up in the air. Those first practice sessions at Australia (assuming that’s where we start!), will be very interesting in 2022. I just hope the gap between teams isn’t massive.
 
Glideslope said:
Alex Albion going to Williams. Mercedes was trying to block this was my understanding.
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Toto Wolf had expressed discontent with it happening and since they are the PSU supplier to Williams, Mercedes likely have some influence on who sits in those seats, but in the end they didn't put up a formal fight.
 
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I presume Albon is a "pay driver" for Williams, so is RBR picking up part of that check?

As to a possible VW-Williams connection, there was talk of VW entering Formula One under the Porsche name after they finished in WEC, but those plans (like their WEC program) were scuttled after "Dieselgate". VW was present at the F1 Engine Stakeholder meeting in Austria this year so there is now speculation they are still interested, now aiming for 2025/2026 when the next generation of engine regulations come into effect.

The current management team of Williams F1 were formerly the management team of the Volkswagen WRC team so there could be ties to a Williams-VW partnership in Formula One. And if Red Bull Racing does become the primary customer team for a Volkswagen-family engine, as the video Marty-Macfly suggested might be possible, then Williams also having VW-branded power makes some sense.
 
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Watching Sprint Qualifying at Monza and...
...it's bloody Amateur Hour in the pits and the on-track vehicle queuing has been downright dangerous. I agree with the Sky commentators something needs to be done about the latter.
 
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CWallace said:
Watching Sprint Qualifying at Monza and...
...it's bloody Amateur Hour in the pits and the on-track vehicle queuing has been downright dangerous. I agree with the Sky commentators something needs to be done about the latter.
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sprints ... meh
 
pachyderm said:
sprints ... meh
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What don't you like about them? It's still racing, only a shorter distance.

The one thing I don't like is how it affects the record books. Pole in the books should be based on the qualifying, not a mini race.

You could put in an absolutely amazing lap and beat the field by half a second, but if it falls on a sprint weekend, it'll be wiped out if you don't win the sprint.
 
I’m getting too old, I was nodding off during the flipping sprint race! Anyway interesting result, Mclaren right up there! Gonna be an interesting start.
But the Gap is just over 50 laps, the sprint race 18 laps, nearly half the GP. Not sure I like these sprint races.
I won’t spoil it for the Lewis fans….

Hopefully we get to see a good battle tomorrow. Also hope to see Alonso and Seb battle it out again.
 
michael9891 said:
What don't you like about them? It's still racing, only a shorter distance.

The one thing I don't like is how it affects the record books. Pole in the books should be based on the qualifying, not a mini race.

You could put in an absolutely amazing lap and beat the field by half a second, but if it falls on a sprint weekend, it'll be wiped out if you don't win the sprint.
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The previous sprint race I felt like it just made the GP less interesting, erasing the results of qualifying and forming a grid that would’ve been formed during the race anyway. This time though there were some extra incidents which make for a less predictable grid. And it plays nicely into my bias so that’s cool.
 
In some ways we have been spoiled by the current qualifying system, as it pretty much ensures the fastest cars will be at the front of the grid.

Before 1996, qualifying was held on both Friday and Saturday and the fastest time over the two days counted. But if Friday was dry and Saturday was wet, then Saturday's session was essentially pointless and as I recall cars would not even bother leaving the garage so as to not risk damage.

Then we had the One Hour Shootout from 1996 to 2002 where each car had a maximum of 12 laps to set their best time. Issue with that was if a track was improving throughout the session, nobody wanted to burn their 12 laps early so all the cars piled on to the grid towards the last 10 minutes or so and much faffing about occurred.

Mind you, we all pined for that come 2003 with the various One Lap Qualifying rules where each car had one lap on a clear track to set a time. Especially the aggregated Qualifying of 2005 when your final grid position was calculated by averaging your Saturday time on low fuel and Sunday time on full fuel. It was so bad they dropped it six races in and went back to the 2003-2004 rules for the rest of the season and then in 2006 the current three-round system (with tweaks in 2008-2009 and the current rules as of 2010) coming into play.
 
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