Formula 1-2021 Season

Considering what appears to be a very poorly balanced spin happy Haas car along with low driver experience of two rookies I can't help but wonder if this year is going  to heavily cost Haas despite the cash infusion of the new drivers. To the point of being in even worse shape than the last two years???

I will say it seems obvious that Schumacher is a much superior driver to Mazepin despite also crashing out last race. What are the chances that if Imola is a two crashed cars repeat that Haas's stance of not working on this years car will change? I don't see crashing two cars every race all season as acceptable for any team.

For 1B Euro and full control of the team. Choose between:

• Latifi
• Mazespin
• Stroll

In reply to Keith Tanner : Romain and Mags has so much more experience in F1, I don't think this years HAAS is drivable. Mazepin gets a lot of attention because of where his money comes from and he social media incedent. I think he could be as good as Gio, who had trouble with spinning in a better team and situation. Gio is a hard comparison because I don't think Kimi is a good comparison, I think he has really dropped off.

Yeah, I posted a few weeks ago that Haas is really suffering from having no experienced drivers at all. Grosjean and KMag never set the world on fire but they were competent and I expect their feedback really benefited the team. Still, one of the two 2021 drivers cannot keep the pointy end aimed forward while the other is having far less trouble. I'd love to see Hass borrow a Ferrari driver for a practice or two to get some setup suggestions.

While I don't think Stroll has championship potential and he'll never live down how he got his seat, I think he's shown that he does deserve to be on the grid.

When did Mazepin last spin? A handy webpage for people who must know when the last time Mazepin spun

asphalt_gundam said:

I will say it seems obvious that Schumacher is a much superior driver to Mazepin despite also crashing out last race. What are the chances that if Imola is a two crashed cars repeat that Haas's stance of not working on this years car will change? I don't see crashing two cars every race all season as acceptable for any team.

Mick Schumacher spun but didn't crash.  He finished the race in last place (16th), 1 lap down.

Advan046 said:

For 1B Euro and full control of the team. Choose between:

• Latifi
• Mazespin
• Stroll

Mazespin's russian, and the FIA is adhering (sort of, overlooking that livery) to the Olympic/WADA ruling that bans all competition under the russian flag for a few years.  I'm not sure they'd allow the sale to go through now, but if his performance doesn't improve and he's still there next season the only reasonable conclusion is that Haas is waiting on that ruling to lapse before selling.

I'm not sure how the team sale would work these days, if it still needs to be approved by the organizations and teams around F1.  But, if there's no hurry for pops to buy the team because the seat is safe, why worry?  Gene gets a guaranteed sale and a firehose of cash in the meantime, Mazepin gets time to develop, and daddy gets to own a russian F1 team eventually.

The whole Mazespin thing has been nice for Schumacher, he's been able to sort of quietly enter the sport while all of the negative attention is put on his teammate. If he was up against one of the former drivers and underperforming compared to them that could be a lot of extra pressure and press that he wouldn't want, right now he is getting a season to adjust to the cars, the sport, the media while outperforming a teammate and the positives that come from that.

That was exciting! Wonder how Max feels about that? Feel bad for Norris, so close but you gotta keep it on the track.

In reply to adam525i :

I felt bad for Norris, too- I'm sure he didn't gain too much time, so that means that the McLaren is quite quick this season- which is REALLY good.  If they can poke their heads into the Mercedes-Red Bull fight, that would be very entertaining.

That was a fun watch. I am impressed that Perez out ran Verstapen (and happy because I still feel like he got a raw deal). I  have been impressed by Stroll, like I have heard others say he probably wouldn't have gotten here without his fathers money but he seems very competent. 
 

the track limits thing is annoying especially here. Let's make some new track limits for Imola, they are called walls. Stay between them and race. It seems to me on tracks like this where there isn't a lot of paved run off areas they could just let them race the whole track. I mean obviously you couldn't just cut a corner but where we are seeing these infractions they can't go much further without being in the stones, the grass or the wall. 

Congratulations to Mazepin for completing his first timed lap in F1! Only 2.4s off pole. 

Exciting qualifying-wow! Lando is on fire, I'm happy for him and Lewis shows again why he's the GOAT. We should have a great race tomorrow.

I guess we get to see whether the much touted "teammate up front" really does make a difference to race strategy.

Having the two Red Bulls on separate strategies is only going to make this more interesting. And Lando! What a heartbreaker. 

Finally had chance to watch qualifying highlights and starting grid. Crazy to see Bottas down in 8th, nice to see a break up on the mercs. Also major props for Perez, be interesting year with 2 good red bull drivers.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Yes it will be interesting but also muddied by the mclarens, Gasly and Leclerc getting into pit windows and maybe holding up one of the MBs or RBs. 

Holy cow did things change quick- this rain was not supposed to hit the track, and now it's we enough to need full wets.  And it's 30 min before the race.

So bad that Alonso slid off on inters.

But it's also totally dry on the other side of the track.

I was so sure that it was Mazespins fault....

What a mess- Hamilton was a LOT too aggressive passing that Williams- going off was just going to happen.  But then he's lucky that Bottas didn't give Russel any space to get a free spot.

Valteri is having a horrible weekend.

Russell was doing so well there, running in the points.  It looks like Bottas thinks he's number one, though.

Ugh!! I was so excited watching Lewis putting pressure on Max and that mistake! Lewis can still get a podium, though. A lot of drivers are having a horrible day.

The overhead shot we had as Lewis made that move made it so obvious how bad it was, I was yelling at the TV before he'd even locked up and gone off. It's strange though as that was Russel he was passing, and within half a lap him a Bottas were off, I'm guessing the Hamilton incident led to the Bottas/Russel incident.

It'll be a fun race for Williams to clean up from, both cars in pieces

loosecannon said:

Ugh!! I was so excited watching Lewis putting pressure on Max and that mistake! Lewis can still get a podium, though. A lot of drivers are having a horrible day.

If the grid notification is right, he's have a tough time doing that- they have him at 9th, a lap down.  But it looks like they will grid and a lot of cars will get unlapped.

"George is going over to help."

"Oh.  George is not going over to help."