Formula 1-2021 Season

In reply to Keith Tanner :

And holy cow, yes on the Red Bull! I don't understand because STR had amazing liveries, and the RB test car liveries are awesome, and then the real RB race car is just... meh.

Toro Rosso Liveries:

RB Testing Liveries:

That blue/silver Toro Rosso is more like it!

The Red Bull testing liveries are dramatic, but they're still not great liveries. You need a strong graphic element, not just a logo slapped on the car. I'm a strong believer that the best liveries are ones that you lay out in tape on the car because 1) they match the shape of the car and 2) it keeps you from doing fades and over-complex designs that pull away from the purity.

The one thing Red Bull's livery has going for it is that it's relatively consistent across different types of motorsports and other sports. I mean, it doesn't really fit any of them well but it's familiar thanks to repetition. Then again, Martini Racing managed to put their livery on everything from rally cars to F1 cars to boats and it actually looked GOOD.

The AMR21 looks sharp to me.

The Aston Martin livery kinda looks like an alternate Mercedes livery - that's awfully close to Petronas Teal. Does the fuschia reference anything? Black, fuscia, teal - it's like I'm back in the 1980's ski shop. I still have one of these.

I will miss the pink. It made me smile.

The fuchsia seems to be their 'bright color to add contrast to the black and near black green metallic'

There's history of Astons with yellow accent colors, though. I don't think I've seen fuschia used before.

The DBR9's had an orangy red on car 58, some photos its vibrant, others its pale. 

Duh, it's BWT pink. They're still a sponsor. 

So since we're pouring over the liveries in detail, has any one been able to see if the Williams car still has the Senna tribute on the nose? Or is this a sign of things already changing over there since the sale?

Day 1 of testing is live right now with a half hour to go, you can watch on your normal illegal streams.

Edit: The clock is going the other way, 2 hours twenty minutes to go as of 8:40 am EST. 

Also, just a thought. Are we going to hear Hamilton complain about the speed of the safety car when it's the Mercedes or just when it's the Aston Martin? Same but the opposite for the Aston Martin drivers (even though there's a Benz in the back!)? lol

Hamilton (or anyone else) never seemed to avoid complaining about the speed of the safety car when it was guaranteed to be a Mercedes :) 

I have a question, though. Where the heck do you get teal casters to match your livery? Do all the teams have color-matched wheels on their dollies?

Caster wheels match car livery +5 hp.

The Red Bull is looking like a strong car this season. Is Mercedes sandbagging or just not doing any qualifying simulations?

loosecannon said:

The Red Bull is looking like a strong car this season. Is Mercedes sandbagging or just not doing any qualifying simulations?

Merc has never used winter testing as a measuring tool to other teams.  Call it sandbagging, or just following their very structured test plan.

MB are a strong TEAM which means even if all their testing resulted in decisions to discard ideas they already had that covered and will have their best fixes in the pipeline of production or shipping for the first race. 

RedBull, Aston Martin, and Alpine are solid maybes but I don't see their teamwork allowing them to win the championships. McLaren is a favorite of mine but I don't have a feel for if they are going to be up front. They are the closest to the TEAM capabiltiy that MB as mastered. If they keep the TEAM focus they might be the biggest threat to MB. 

I'm still willing to take Mercedes and Lewis as champion at the end of the year, if anyone would care to bet against me.  I'm pretty confident we could go back to the very same time last year, and read this very same conversation.

And the year before that.

MB also prefers to let themselves feel pressure. We'll know what the real pace looks like at the end of the race in a couple of weeks. Based on what Lewis was saying about overall race pace, we may actually have a season on our hands. 

This has to be a different year fro strategy for HAAS since they have two rookies.

trigun7469 said:

This has to be a different year fro strategy for HAAS since they have two rookies.

Haas is just treading water for the year, which probably does not make part owner, big sponsor and driver pappy all that happy.  IMHO, this is the long term impact of Rich Energy making a mockery of their finances.

Streetwiseguy said:

I'm still willing to take Mercedes and Lewis as champion at the end of the year, if anyone would care to bet against me.  I'm pretty confident we could go back to the very same time last year, and read this very same conversation.

And the year before that.

Isn't the year before that the one that the one that Rosberg won?

Regardless, the only driver that even has a shot at Hammy this year is Verstappen. I could see McLaren making a run at the Constructor's as well.

Alonso and Vettel with both get podiums, Riccardio and LeClerc will win a race, Hammy and Verstappen take the rest and go 1/2 (or 2/1) in the WDC. HAAS to the rear, Alfa in 9th, Williams 8th, and then it's a bloodbath between AT, Alpine, Ferrari, and AM in the middle with Mercedes, RB, and McLaren dicing it up for the WCC. Mercedes and McLaren 1/2 (or 2/1).

The big unkown this season is how the Mercedes powerplants are going to hold up, especially in hot races with everyone's "shrink wrapped" bodywork making cooling an issue. All they have to do is pop a couple to have RB/Honda sneak away with points.

The new circuit from Saudi Arabia looks like it has no passing opportunities, just lots of chicanes ;( Onboard Video of Jeddah Street Circuit

In reply to loosecannon :

It's nice that Youtube has a thumbs down option, perfect for any F1 Saudi videos!

Anyone else watched Drive To Survive season 3 yet? Just finished watching it and thought it was pretty good, possibly the best one yet. Russell's performance at Sakhir was barely given a mention, would've liked to seen more coverage there. The footage of Grosjean's accident was horrific, so glad he got out mostly unscathed. Apart from that, I can recommend it to all GRMers. Enjoyed it thoroughly... :)

Only two episodes in so far :) It's a great warmup for the season, though.