Formula 1-2021 Season

Oopsie.

That was an opening lap! I feel like that was bound to happen.

Watching the in car from Leclerc made a crash seem inevitable.

They were going for it, no doubt.

I guess Christian thinks there's a rule against passing in corners?

Well, we know what everyone's going to be talking about for a while...

Max gets hit by a lot of people, he never seems to at fault :) Given the way these guys were scrapping in both this race and the start of the sprint, this was pretty much inevitable. Great to watch while it lasted though. 

I think Perez is going to be fun. 

Seems like the rule change to slow down Red Bull's pit stops may have had a larger affect on everyone else's? Just a casual fans theory of course.

Okay, Lewis is going to try to run down his teammate. This is going to be fun. 

Silverstone in the heat isn't a good passing track, alas. There's like a force field at 1.5s. 

Good lord, Hamilton has no fear. That pass was ballsy. 

8 times, has a nice a ring to it.

I noticed the bit of super glue and duct tape going onto Hamilton's front wing during the red flag, seems to have made it to the end.

I was watching that flag on the cool down laps thinking "don't let that get into the intake..."

Too bad Perez wasn't able to make a dent on that starting position. And boy, would it have been fun to see Lando get a podium. Not quite. 

IMO, lap 1 was a racing incident. But then again, I always think that F1 throws penalties around too much. Let them race, I say!

The rest was vintage Lewis.

Lewis was a whole lot more polite going into Copps on Charles.

I didn't think he would be able to get through the bad air to win.  Also, waiting for a tire failure like last year.

I hope Max doesn't have any lingering damage that keeps him out of any future race.  Concussion could be trouble.

I also hope that Horner doesn't poison the paddock too much (more). He managed to get himself a lot of airtime during and post race to bitch about someone doing to Max what Max has been doing to others for years. Lewis was judged to be at fault and was given a penalty. Accept the steward's decision and move on. Hopefully Max and Lewis can shake hands on it in person.

Valteri said post race his drink system was broken.  That would have been tough.

Max and Lewis will be as good with each other as Nico and Lewis were, I'm sure.

Streetwiseguy said:

Valteri said post race his drink system was broken.  That would have been tough.

Max and Lewis will be as good with each other as Nico and Lewis were, I'm sure.

With Nico and Lewis, one of the pair was playing hard core mind games. Remember, Nico has suggested that Bottas do things like have a big smoky BBQ outside vegetarian Lewis' trailer just to mess with his head. 

I don't think Max feels he needs to do that, I think he'd rather beat Lewis on track directly. I'm just hoping the two of them can keep racing with respect to each other. That contact today was pretty small and could easily be viewed as accidental, a long way from things we've seen in the past where one driver took out another on purpose. It just happened to have a fairly immediate effect and will have a real effect on the championship race.

Anyone else surprised at just how much damage the Red Bull took? The wheel came right off the tether instantly. Usually I'd expect to see a flat tire and some front wing damage from a hit like that. Must have been just the wrong forces for the RB suspension components.

It will be interesting how Max handles this moving forward. As this could be the change of the tide. Smart move by Charles not pushing the envelope, he would have likely be in the wall. Have to wonder if George Russell would have moved over like Bottas.

Keith Tanner said:

Anyone else surprised at just how much damage the Red Bull took? The wheel came right off the tether instantly. Usually I'd expect to see a flat tire and some front wing damage from a hit like that. Must have been just the wrong forces for the RB suspension components.

It wasn't a tether failure.  The tire was either stripped off the wheel, or the barrel section broke off the spokes, because there's a shot when Max is spinning that you can see right through the wheel.

Makes sense. At least it stayed close to the car instead of careening into the stands, otherwise we would all be having a very different conversation.

I think George would have toed the party line. By the wording of the messages to Bottas, it was pretty clear they were not competely confident that Bottas would. It would be ironic if the only car Bottas could block was his teammate, though...

Keith Tanner said:

Anyone else surprised at just how much damage the Red Bull took? The wheel came right off the tether instantly. Usually I'd expect to see a flat tire and some front wing damage from a hit like that. Must have been just the wrong forces for the RB suspension components.

The wheel actually looked like it stayed on the car with a big crease in the rim after the contact, the tire then came off the wheel. If that hadn't of happened I think the consequences of the crash would have been a lot less with the possibility of him just having a fast spin towards the paved run off at corner exit.

I would imagine once a tire that big on a wide 13" diameter wheel is pretty easy to get on and off once the bead is broken. Maybe the new 18" tires will be better in situations like this?

Edit - Just a bit too slow, like Leclerc today

I liked Red Bull as a team since their inception before this race, but pitting Perez in from a driver and team points finishing position for fresh tires and fastest lap, I personally think that shows a lot of disrespect towards Perez.  Red Bull gained no points for their team or drivers this race, pitting Perez only served to pull one point away from Hamilton.  Everything about that just rubs me the wrong way.

In reply to JesseWolfe :

Kinda shows how Red Bull and Horner are going to deal with this. Which I think is good for Mercedes. 

Racing incident with an unfortunate outcome.  Max and Lewis are real racers, if the situation were reversed, would Max have gone for the opening?  You bet he would.  There are racers,and there are chasers. . . 

Ya know... If a guy were a conspiracy theorist, he might watch the McLaren left front tire changers bank account for a significant anonymous deposit.  Has Lando been in front of Lewis post pit stop, I think we'd be cheering Charles glorious win right now.