2021 Formula 1 Season Thread

[Pezimak]

I do admire the faith you lot in Max being a complete and utter cheat and Mercedes being holier then thou...
Thankfully Max isn't called Michael and isn't the type of driver to ram people off, that's the other guy. He's aggressive not a deliberate cheat.

We will see some good racing I think, but the qualifying will be very interesting. But I've not sent the new layout and it could be rubbish?

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I do admire the faith you lot in Max being a complete and utter cheat and Mercedes being holier then thou...
Thankfully Max isn't called Michael and isn't the type of driver to ram people off, that's the other guy. He's aggressive not a deliberate cheat.

We will see some good racing I think, but the qualifying will be very interesting. But I've not sent the new layout and it could be rubbish?

The last few races haven’t really reinforced my faith that Max doesn’t take people off the circuit. Missing his braking point in Brazil with no sign of understeer and taking Lewis with him was one instance. Doing the same in Saudi and this time being punished for it was the second and the slow down on the slipstream topped it for me. Let’s not forget driving over the top of Lewis at Monza after an audacious late braking manoeuvre from behind. It could be that he simply lacks judgement during aggressive moments rather than being a cheat. Either way, now is time to mature and get the job done cleanly.

Mercedes aren’t angels. Listen to the tit for tat radio broadcasts by them and red bull last race. It was pathetic from both teams.

 

[nebo1ss]

I don’t agree with you in the slightest, and I want to know why the FIA and the stewards did not penalise Bottas for breaching the rules and purposely hanging off the safety cars pace to allow Lewis to have a free pit stop. Even the Sky presenters stated he was cheating.

Except that is not what he was doing. They were planning a double stack and hence he was slowing so that Lewis pit stop would be completed by the time he came in. They were on a virtual safety anyway so Max was go9ng no where.

 

[nebo1ss]

It would certainly sum up Max’s year and if he’s going to win it, I think it would be rather fitting. Part of me is expecting Max to take Lewis out knowing he’ll win based on race victories. It would be remembered as a scrappy year where desperation and unsportsmanlike behaviour broke Mercedes’ run. I’m sure plenty will still celebrate it though as something amazing. I’m not sure I like the new wave of F1 fan in this era, but hey.

I totally agree with this centiment. I am more convinced than ever that Max is a dirty and dangerous driver. He is either going to kill himself or someone else in the next few years. I think Lewis only change of winning the championship is to get pole and just pull away from the field. If he and Max gets in a scrap we all know how it will end.

 

[Phil77354]

. . . We will see some good racing I think, but the qualifying will be very interesting. But I've not sent the new layout and it could be rubbish?

Yes, qualifying may well be determinative. Hugely important for both drivers, and teams. One way we could get a 'clean' finish to the season would be for a return to past races where Lewis was on pole and then dominated the race throughout, without really being challenged. But is the Mercedes that much better than Red Bull at this point of the season? And which car and driver will be most suited to the Abu Dhabi track?

The stakes are very high. If Lewis wins the championship then he will have more than Schumacher. I have mixed feelings about Lewis as a driver, compared to Schumacher (and Senna), both of whom had their careers cut tragically short. And neither was always gentlemanly in the race.

I will be glued to the screen for the race this weekend, that is for sure!

REVEALED: The track changes aimed at improving overtaking at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit | Formula 1®

This year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will take place on a new and improved layout, after the Yas Marina Circuit announced the track will be reconfigured in time for this year’s race – the season finale.

www.formula1.com

 

[2REPOU]

There is no way Max will allow Lewis to pass him on track. If Lewis is to finish ahead it will have to be a lead from the start or pass in the pits or it will end in tears. the FIA/F1 missed its chance to stop Max's over the top style many times before and that had just given him justification going forward. Marko and Horner will "fake news" any story to make Jos's racing machine the victim

 

[CWallace]

If Lewis and Max are side by side at the first corner or anywhere on the first lap, I think Max will forget to brake for a third time this season but this time collect Lewis.

At least since 2007, the FIA does have the power to penalize a driver WDC points - they considered doing it to Lewis for his alleged brake-checking at Fuji 2007 that caused the two RBRs to collide behind him.

So if Max did egregiously run Lewis off the road ala Senna-Prost, they could penalize Max the necessary driver points to give Lewis the WDC.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I do admire the faith you lot in Max being a complete and utter cheat and Mercedes being holier then thou...
Thankfully Max isn't called Michael and isn't the type of driver to ram people off, that's the other guy. He's aggressive not a deliberate cheat.

We will see some good racing I think, but the qualifying will be very interesting. But I've not sent the new layout and it could be rubbish?

Clearly we’ve seen different races.

 

[Apple fanboy]

At least since 2007, the FIA does have the power to penalize a driver WDC points - they considered doing it to Lewis for his alleged brake-checking at Fuji 2007 that caused the two RBRs to collide behind him.

So if Max did egregiously run Lewis off the road ala Senna-Prost, they could penalize Max the necessary driver points to give Lewis the WDC.

They never would though! It would be dragged through the courts for months.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

The stakes are very high. If Lewis wins the championship then he will have more than Schumacher. I have mixed feelings about Lewis as a driver, compared to Schumacher (and Senna), both of whom had their careers cut tragically short. And neither was always gentlemanly in the race.

I will be glued to the screen for the race this weekend, that is for sure!

I’ve always seen Lewis as being hard but fair on the track. He’s never been known for crashing into people and drivers did a survey on the C4 coverage a couple of years back and Lewis, Kimi and Alonso were drivers picked as being the kind you could trust wheel to wheel. Grosjean being one of the worst. Lewis has had incidents in his career, but on the whole very few. Of course all drivers exhibit dominant behaviour as it’s part of the inflated ego of your average racing driver. They all thing they are entitled to have position and that’s part of being competitive.

Schumacher raced in F1 over a 21 year span, retired twice and was still racing at 41 despite being well past it. He arguably had lesser competition by todays standards I would say and the cars are more closely matched now. Senna was gifted and one of the greatest as his contemporaries would agree, but he made stupid errors on occasion and won all of his titles in largely dominant cars with only his team mate and Williams for competition. One similarity between Lewis and Michael is they won titles in two different teams and dominated those teams by their superior talent compared to team mates. Paddy Lowe said earlier in the year that Lewis is the best driver he has worked with for adapting to cars not to his liking and rated him the best champion in that field. He also said the fastest driver he worked with was Mansell and he said Nigel would extract every bit of speed available from a car.

Every champion is good enough at the end of the day and it’s impossible to totally compare.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Yes, qualifying may well be determinative. Hugely important for both drivers, and teams. One way we could get a 'clean' finish to the season would be for a return to past races where Lewis was on pole and then dominated the race throughout, without really being challenged. But is the Mercedes that much better than Red Bull at this point of the season? And which car and driver will be most suited to the Abu Dhabi track?

The stakes are very high. If Lewis wins the championship then he will have more than Schumacher. I have mixed feelings about Lewis as a driver, compared to Schumacher (and Senna), both of whom had their careers cut tragically short. And neither was always gentlemanly in the race.

I will be glued to the screen for the race this weekend, that is for sure!

REVEALED: The track changes aimed at improving overtaking at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit | Formula 1®

This year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will take place on a new and improved layout, after the Yas Marina Circuit announced the track will be reconfigured in time for this year’s race – the season finale.

www.formula1.com

Schumacher had retired when he had his tragic accident.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I’ve always seen Lewis as being hard but fair on the track. He’s never been known for crashing into people and drivers did a survey on the C4 coverage a couple of years back and Lewis, Kimi and Alonso were drivers picked as being the kind you could trust wheel to wheel. Grosjean being one of the worst. Lewis has had incidents in his career, but on the whole very few. Of course all drivers exhibit dominant behaviour as it’s part of the inflated ego of your average racing driver. They all thing they are entitled to have position and that’s part of being competitive.

Schumacher raced in F1 over a 21 year span, retired twice and was still racing at 41 despite being well past it. He arguably had lesser competition by todays standards I would say and the cars are more closely matched now. Senna was gifted and one of the greatest as his contemporaries would agree, but he made stupid errors on occasion and won all of his titles in largely dominant cars with only his team mate and Williams for competition. One similarity between Lewis and Michael is they won titles in two different teams and dominated those teams by their superior talent compared to team mates. Paddy Lowe said earlier in the year that Lewis is the best driver he has worked with for adapting to cars not to his liking and rated him the best champion in that field. He also said the fastest driver he worked with was Mansell and he said Nigel would extract every bit of speed available from a car.

Every champion is good enough at the end of the day and it’s impossible to totally compare.

Every multiple WC is certainly up there. If only we could go back in time and see the greats race together.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

At least since 2007, the FIA does have the power to penalize a driver WDC points - they considered doing it to Lewis for his alleged brake-checking at Fuji 2007 that caused the two RBRs to collide behind him.

So if Max did egregiously run Lewis off the road ala Senna-Prost, they could penalize Max the necessary driver points to give Lewis the WDC.

I don’t think todays FIA have the balls to penalise a driver to that extent. Some of their decisions of late have been bizarre in the extreme.

I would go as far to say that the 5 second penalty in Saudi for Max was less deserving than the incident in Brazil. At least in Saudi it was obvious he was correcting a slide and had locked up, whereas in Brazil it was more clear he had deliberately driven wide.

I wouldn’t want Lewis to win a title by the other being penalised to be fair. If Max drives Lewis off the road and wins, I hope it sticks and it will be part of the lads own legacy.

 

[CWallace]

Schumacher had retired when he had his tragic accident.

True, but he was (effectively) fired by Ferrari at the end of 2006 and (effectively) forced into retirement (for the first time).

By the time he came back with Mercedes in 2010, his skills had atrophied and I do not believe he had anywhere near the close relationship with the team like he had with Ferrari. By then testing was also significantly reduced compared to Michael's time at Ferrari - something he used not only to hone his own skills, but the skills of the entire team.

 

[CWallace]

For me, Fangio will always be "The Best" if for no other reason he actually survived to win five titles in an era when death was always riding beside you and had one hand on the wheel.

Next is Lewis and Schumacher because while they won more titles in an era when racing was so much safer, they still dominated their respective eras and their peers.

And then I would choose Senna, who is on the list just for his utter fearlessness and car control in a time when the cars were not nearly as engineered to the nth degree like they are now.

 

[Pezimak]

Yes, qualifying may well be determinative. Hugely important for both drivers, and teams. One way we could get a 'clean' finish to the season would be for a return to past races where Lewis was on pole and then dominated the race throughout, without really being challenged. But is the Mercedes that much better than Red Bull at this point of the season? And which car and driver will be most suited to the Abu Dhabi track?

The stakes are very high. If Lewis wins the championship then he will have more than Schumacher. I have mixed feelings about Lewis as a driver, compared to Schumacher (and Senna), both of whom had their careers cut tragically short. And neither was always gentlemanly in the race.

I will be glued to the screen for the race this weekend, that is for sure!

REVEALED: The track changes aimed at improving overtaking at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit | Formula 1®

This year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will take place on a new and improved layout, after the Yas Marina Circuit announced the track will be reconfigured in time for this year’s race – the season finale.

www.formula1.com

IMO Senna was the all time great, and his style was much the same as Max, but I gotta say that new track looks like it'll favour Mercedes'.
If Lewis wins, again, then more fans will turn off from the sport, they have already nailed the constructors which means next year they'll have more money then any other team. If the new rules next year don't balance this sport out a hell of a lot, then F1 is IMO finished.
But we shall see what this final throws at us.
Alonso and Seb have given us some of the best racing all year long, be great to see those two fighting at the front.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

True, but he was (effectively) fired by Ferrari at the end of 2006 and (effectively) forced into retirement (for the first time).

He was given the opportunity to race alongside Kimi in 2007 with Massa being relegated to TD but he declined. He didn’t feel that was fair to Felipe after his performances in 2006 and also didn’t want to lose his number 1 status to the £50m per season Raikkonen lol.

 

[Pezimak]

Except that is not what he was doing. They were planning a double stack and hence he was slowing so that Lewis pit stop would be completed by the time he came in. They were on a virtual safety anyway so Max was go9ng no where.

And it was a clear breach of the rules, which state you MUST stay within 10 car lengths of the safety car at all times, hence Bottas was clearly cheating and got away with it.

 

[Pezimak]

Clearly we’ve seen different races.

I agree with that.

 

[Pezimak]

There is no way Max will allow Lewis to pass him on track. If Lewis is to finish ahead it will have to be a lead from the start or pass in the pits or it will end in tears. the FIA/F1 missed its chance to stop Max's over the top style many times before and that had just given him justification going forward. Marko and Horner will "fake news" any story to make Jos's racing machine the victim

Perhaps shockingly the FIA don't see Max as having an over the top style, I mean they ARE the experts who run the sport after all, allegedly.

 

[Apple fanboy]

IMO Senna was the all time great, and his style was much the same as Max, but I gotta say that new track looks like it'll favour Mercedes'.
If Lewis wins, again, then more fans will turn off from the sport, they have already nailed the constructors which means next year they'll have more money then any other team. If the new rules next year don't balance this sport out a hell of a lot, then F1 is IMO finished.
But we shall see what this finally throws at us.
Alonso and Seb have given us some of the best racing all year long, be great to see those two fighting at the front.

The new rules will more likely spread the field out rather then bring them closer. I know the changes are designed to allow teams to follow one another, but one team will interpret the rules better than the others.

 

[Pezimak]

The new rules will more likely spread the field out rather then bring them closer. I know the changes are designed to allow teams to follow one another, but one team will interpret the rules better than the others.

If it becomes more of a train then the sport is finished. That's a fact, if it gets more boring and more predictable and less exciting, less people will watch which will lead to less sponsorships.
I think the opposite will happen and we will get more wheel to wheel racing and more excitement. We'll find out whenever the new season kicks off.

 

[UBS28]

IMO Senna was the all time great, and his style was much the same as Max, but I gotta say that new track looks like it'll favour Mercedes'.
If Lewis wins, again, then more fans will turn off from the sport, they have already nailed the constructors which means next year they'll have more money then any other team. If the new rules next year don't balance this sport out a hell of a lot, then F1 is IMO finished.
But we shall see what this final throws at us.
Alonso and Seb have given us some of the best racing all year long, be great to see those two fighting at the front.

Senna was nothing like Max.

Senna got:
1. Screwed over by the FIA by changing his pole position to the wrong side of the track (the FIA president hated Senna back then), and Senna already warned what would happen if the FIA changed his pole position to the wrong side of the track and Prost got ahead of him because of it.
2. It was also a revenge of how Prost beat him the year before.

Senna had great wheel to wheel action with drivers like Nigel Mansell and he didn't have this mentally that Max has of "you give up the corner or we both crash out of the race".

Senna was more like Lewis Hamilton in his early years, very aggressive but he made some mistakes that was not on purpose. (While Lewis is now the perfect combination of Senna + Prost). Also Senna was driving far more difficult cars than the current F1 cars, so it is much easier to make mistakes when driving 1300 hp F1 cars with low downforce.

Max is the biggest nut case we have ever seen in F1. And he knows he can do it because he is blessed by the FIA as the FIA never punishes him for his dirty driving. He wasn't even punished for this race too, because Max would have finished 2nd anyway since Lewis was that much faster.

The final race of the season will be fun. All Max has to do is crash Lewis out of the race. And given how Max still has never been punished yet for his dirty driving, what is stopping him?

 

[Crazy Badger]

I can't remember exactly when and where, but I'm sure Schumacker lost championship points for deliberately taking out an opponent. If it is clear Max has done the same in the final race, it won't be #winnermaxwc

I fully expect Lewis to win a fairly uneventful race, as they can't afford another fiasco this weekend. Lewis will then retire with his 8 WC record, and Max will win the next 3 WCs! You read it here first!!

 

[CWallace]

I can't remember exactly when and where, but I'm sure Schumacker lost championship points for deliberately taking out an opponent.

Yes, Schumacher was disqualified from the WDC in 1997 after his collision with Jacques Villeneuve at the European Grand Prix at Jerez was deemed an intentional act intended to secure him the WDC (as he led by 1 point at the time).

However, all of his race results (including points, wins and poles) for the season remained on his official statistics.