Formula 1-2021 Season

WRT Seb- I was hoping to see a "new Vettel" at Aston Martin, and I would give him the benefit of the doubt for the lack of seat time and not getting totally under the car.  Until the Ocon debacle.  When he blamed Ocon for changing lanes causing him to lock up and crash, it just re-enforced what I don't like about him on the track.

Add that to the comments that someone made on AM about Perez's driving style vs. Vettel- throwing the ONE person who absolutely saved that team from utter collapse under the bus- yea- that's the team I would be totally happy if they scored zero points all season.

In reply to trigun7469 :

My opinion of Vettel has been the same since his time at RedBull. He has often been the cause of his or others collisions. The pulling along side of Hamilton and banging wheels intentionally was the last straw for me. Same mentality as his torpedoing Ocon last weekend. He thinks everyone else is doing something to him when the facts show the opposite. I do respect that he owns up to his faults.

I think Hamilton and Vettel are more alike than some want to think. Vettel I think had better mentoring early on to keep family and work air gapped. Hamilton had family IN his work with his Dad. But I suspect they would both walk away from F1 and enjoy their retirement. Vettel will probably start something else just like Hamilton would. It is just that Vettel had the best car back in RB glory days and he had preference in the team. So without that, retirement would look better for any driver. If Hamilton found the 2022 cars not his style (unlikely) he might be ready to leave just like Vettel. 

Some of you may get a kick out of this, although it does seem like the Haas will be a difficult car this year...

How badly do Mick and Mazepin have to do before our opinoin of the abilities of Grosjean and K-Mag change?  How real is the possibility that they were dealing with a truly Horrific car for like 5 years and they actually are very good drivers?   

K-Mag looks strong in the Endurance cars.  It will be interestig to see how Romain does in Indy.  

In reply to nocones :

None of that matters, Mick and Mazzy bring lots of money with them- which was required for Haas to continue.  If they can safely make it to next year, maybe the long term view will be more positive.  Haas didn't use their change allotments, and they have claimed to not have any plan on changing the car- so they've already given up other than beating Williams once in a while.

I am curious how much development will happen by Imola. Will everyone have the diffuser loophole exploited?

Will Mercedes get their rear end more stable? I think not, maybe by Portugal or Spain.

Will Williams get points? I hope Imola suits their car.

I kind of doubt the entire field will have the McLaren diffuser- the low budget teams may take a little longer to get it finished.

As for Mercedes, seeing the probable progress from testing to the race, and even the progress during the weekend, I do expect them to have made some progress in the rear end stability.  But to a more expected level, I agree that it will take a few more weekends.  Their sister team, though, I don't see them getting through the issue for some time- just more complaining that they were hurt more in the rule change.

I also wonder if Renault will show any progress.  Given the cars change so much next season, I was kind of shocking that they moved the cooling up so high..  Not for the weight, but for the aero effects of blocking the wing.  I kind of thought that some teams would focus some possible 2022 changes into the 2021 program- but this really says otherwise.

The relative performance of McLaren and Ferrari will be interesting to watch- do they continue to be the 3rd and 4th paced teams?

Advan046 said:

I am curious how much development will happen by Imola. Will everyone have the diffuser loophole exploited?

Will Mercedes get their rear end more stable? I think not, maybe by Portugal or Spain.

Will Williams get points? I hope Imola suits their car.

 

I think 3 weeks is enough time for Mercedes to get the McLaren style diffuser on the car. Actually, they will have had 5 weeks to develop and build it because they first saw it in pre season testing. I just love all the unknowns for this season, I'm sooo excited!

I bet the m ercedes will be more dominant at the next race, but it will stop be a fight all year with red bull.

I am in the minority that thinks grosjean is a fantastic driver.  He does need a car that the brakes are very well set up to his needs.

I read somewhere that the diffuser is so integral to the floor of the car that it's not something easily replaced/integrated to your current car. I think it may require a pretty substantial redesign, and don't know that many teams will be able to copy it. 

wvumtnbkr said:

 

I am in the minority that thinks grosjean is a fantastic driver.  He does need a car that the brakes are very well set up to his needs.

Yes you are. I thought he was a good driver. Better than many but just too inconsistent. Bad luck kept him from winning some races. But he had a really horrible year when he got suspended for a race. And his final crash was basically a reminder of that year of crashing caused by him. So he just doesn't rate. 

Just two sleeps until FP1! Will Max get revenge and dominate this one? I dunno, he's had pretty bad luck in Italy. I'm looking forward to all of it

loosecannon said:

Just two sleeps until FP1! Will Max get revenge and dominate this one? I dunno, he's had pretty bad luck in Italy. I'm looking forward to all of it

Haha.  My friends make fun of me for using "sleeps" as a time measurement.

I am currently watching f1 videos on YouTube. 

It's interesting to see some of the tube of U talking heads suggest that Mercedes would go to a high rake concept for the season- not understanding that it's 1) not possible what so ever, and 2) why? - 2022 is coming up fast, which is a low rake set up by the very nature of the aerodynamics.   It's not as if Mercedes is massively slow- it's just that the gap between them and Red Bull is basically zero at this point.

But also listening to the quotes from Toto- I think they know what the problem is.  If they can fix it or not is a good question, but given Mercedes patterns over they years, I do think they will figure out a solution.  And they will do it faster than Red Bull has been able to fix their issues in the past.

Looks like canada 2021 cancelled

In reply to alfadriver :

If you'd like, I would be willing to bet a hard cold dollar the Mercedes will figure something out.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

That's a little open of a bet, pretty easy to say they figure *something* out.  As long as they keep ahead of everyone but Red Bull, they will make progress. 

But I do think they will find a solution to at least reduce the tire squirm effects on the floor. Will it be enough to beat Red Bull, dunno, but it should be at least enough to stay in the top 2.

The cold weather and rain potential will be interesting variables. Does MB still have the hot weather deficiency? Did that make a bigger gap to RB? Will the sweeping track even things?

Super excited to see. And I know Hamilton's skill will win the day but curious how 5th through 16th shakes out.

In reply to alfadriver :

It would take a brave person to bet against Mercedes for the championship, but it may be a little closer this year than previously. 

Then again, we may have said the same a year ago. 

Mazepin spins in qualifying in the first race.
Mazepin spins again in qualifying in the first race.
Mazepin spins and crashes all by himself on the first corner of the first race.
Mazepin spins in FP1 at the second race.
Mazepin spins again and hit the wall in FP1 at the second race.

Total for 5 sessions and 1 race start:
Laps raced: 0
Corners navigated during a race: 0
Qualifying times set: 0
Spins: 5 
Wall hits: 2

You have to say his stats are pretty spectacular. I hope Haas has a lot of spare parts.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

It's nice to have a rich daddy, I guess

Update: he completed FP2 without spinning and was only 0.5s behind his teammate in last place.

wae said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

It's nice to have a rich daddy, I guess

Speaking of rich daddies, Stroll beat his teammate by 0.4s in FP2 

Keith Tanner said:

Mazepin spins in qualifying in the first race.
Mazepin spins again in qualifying in the first race.
Mazepin spins and crashes all by himself on the first corner of the first race.
Mazepin spins in FP1 at the second race.
Mazepin spins again and hit the wall in FP1 at the second race.

Total for 5 sessions and 1 race start:
Laps raced: 0
Corners navigated during a race: 0
Qualifying times set: 0
Spins: 5 
Wall hits: 2

You have to say his stats are pretty spectacular. I hope Haas has a lot of spare parts.

You misspelled "Mazespin". 

Keith Tanner said:

wae said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

It's nice to have a rich daddy, I guess

Speaking of rich daddies, Stroll beat his teammate by 0.4s in FP2 

While I'm fairly confident that Stroll is only in F1 today because daddy bought the team, he has at least been a mostly competent driver.  Mazespin just seems to be a disaster in and out of the car.