Formula 1-2021 Season

Here is another controversial opinion:  Ferrari has the best driver pair in F1 currently.  McLaren probably second, RB and Merc tied for third.

Remember I said "Pair."

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Seems fair to me.  Neither is #1 or 2, and neither is treated like that, and both work together to get some great results.  Although, I'm still not 100% convinced that Ricciardo is really back- hope so (very much so).  And I think I would put Perez over Bottas- even with the mid-season lull for Checo, he's doing really well for the team- seeing how fast the Mercs were this weekend, Bottas should have stayed closer to the front after letting Lewis by and pressured more at the end.

Streetwiseguy said:

Here is another controversial opinion:  Ferrari has the best driver pair in F1 currently.  McLaren probably second, RB and Merc tied for third.

Remember I said "Pair."

Bottas does seem to have trouble keeping Red Bulls behind him, doesn't he?

It will be interesting to see how Hamilton and Russell do together next year.

I root for Bottas, but he just has too much trouble too often. And he can't stay in front of a Red Bull to save his life - although if today's race had been 10 laps longer, things might get interesting. He does have good raw speed, but he hasn't been able to deliver on Sunday consistently. Perez has a bit of the same problem at times but I think he's a little more solid. 

Ferrari with a good car would be a tough team to beat for the championship, but ironically the drivers might trade off too many wins to take the driver's title. And yes, the George and Lewis show will be great fun to watch. 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I have very often thought Valtteri's true calling is time attack..., he's incredible out of the gate, on green tracks, and while everyone's still adjusting.

In reply to accordionfolder :

He's Finnish.  He grew up driving on really changeable road surfaces.

I really like him, and I think he's a pretty good shoe.  He's in the same car as Lewis, though...  makes it tough.  He had no trouble moving over today.  That would have been a very clear discussion earlier in the day.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

True, maybe "Rally" than, and yeah, I want so badly for him to be consistently great, but he seems to really struggle in the w2w race craft.

Regardless of if a penalty should or should not have applied, I'm glad that they didn't issue one when Max pushed Lewis and himself off the track.  There would have always been the question of if Lewis would have been able to make it around if it weren't for a penalty but now we know for sure!

Agreed about VB.  I have been rooting for him since he moved up to the big team, but I feel like Charlie Brown getting the football pulled away from me every time!  He can make the car go like stink, but he just doesn't seem to be able to perform in a wheel-to-wheel battle.

I read something earlier today about Lewis' power unit being "turned up" for this race, and that Mercedes may simply take a penalty in exchange for using a new engine every race till the end of the season. 

F1 is not my forte-can somebody explain?

In reply to CrustyRedXpress :

They used to allow you to change engine modes during the race, that's not allowed this season - so whatever you start on (engine mode wise) you have to use through the entire weekend. Some of these "party-mode" engine settings shorten the life of the engine, they used to only turn them up for short periods of time.

You're also only allowed a certain number of engines/transmissions/etc over the course of the season - if you need more than the allowed amount, you take a penalty for adding it to your pool of engines or what have you.

Essentially Mercedes is saying, "Ef it, turn the wick to 11 and send it - we can drive through the pack even if they give us a 5 place starting penalty" 

Which is apparently true!

Maybe worth noting that everyone is saying that the last three tracks this year (I'm pretty new to F1, so I'm not sure?) - straight line speed will trump all, and the Redbull is notoriouse for not having a ton of straightline mph.  There's also new spending caps that play into this, but I'm not really up to speed on those details...

CrustyRedXpress said:

I read something earlier today about Lewis' power unit being "turned up" for this race, and that Mercedes may simply take a penalty in exchange for using a new engine every race till the end of the season. 

F1 is not my forte-can somebody explain?

Drivers have to make do with only 3 power units for a whole season and get grid penalties if they go over that. If Lewis took a whole new power unit, he would have to start at the back (I think) but he took only the internal combustion unit for this race and got a 5 place grid penalty. He would get the same penalty if he took another one for the next race.  A new motor can be cranked up to the max and gain a tenth or two per lap but that would eventually come back to haunt them because the motor won't last as long. For this reason, teams usually run used motors in practice and save the fresher ones for qualifying and the race.

accordionfolder said:

Which is apparently true!

It was true at Interlagos, but this varies widely by track.  It would not have worked at Monaco, for example.

Also, this is why the arguments about engine penalties not being fair to drivers and how they should only apply to the constructors' championship are flawed.  To avoid teams gaming the penalty system, a penalty needs to be severe enough to zero out any gain that you might get from breaking the rule that incurs said penalty.  It seems that, at least in some cases, a 5 spot penalty for an engine change (after the first) is not severe enough, and that should probably be adjusted for future seasons.

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

Understood - my (limited) understanding of the remainder of the season is that the tracks will demand straight line speed....

We are lucky to see two pretty evenly matched drivers.  That was a mighty drive by Lewis (all weekend).  Whoever gets the championship this year will have really earned it.  We rarely get to see such seasons.  Totally agree about the comments relative to Shumacher, he was a great talent but I always disliked his track ethics, just like Senna.  I've followed Lewis' career since he came out of karts, thanks to a cover article in Autoweek back in the stone ages when he was graduating from karts to F3, and he has worked hard all the way to deserve his success.  I don't recognize any one GOAT due to too many variables in length of seasons, type of cars, mortality rate, etc, (how could you really compare Fangio to Clark, Lauda, Senna or Lewis?  Impossible) but Lewis is definitely in the top rank.

What a race!

accordionfolder said:

Understood - my (limited) understanding of the remainder of the season is that the tracks will demand straight line speed....

That isn't the same as saying having extra power will enable driving through the field -- look at Monza earlier this year for example.

It has a lot to do with the ability to follow closely through the corner that leads onto the long straight(s).

Christian Horner keeps making noise about the Mercedes speed and I wonder how much of it is just posturing or trying to deflect from their own exploiting of grey areas. In this Racer.com article, he claims that Lewis was running Monaco wings and was 30 km/h faster than Max in Brazil but if that were true, why would Lewis lose time to Max in sector 2 (the twisty bits)? It seems that Red Bull just can't accept that anyone could be as good as they are and on the rare (in 2021) where Mercedes matches the RB, Horner suggests that the Mercs must be illegal. 

I don't think Lewis is going to win the Championship without a miracle because the Red Bull is so superior this year but dang, Lewis drove like a true champion today and that level of performance could make for an exciting last few races. So, I see that Formula 1 has never raced on the Losail Circuit in Qatar before so I am excited to see who figures it out the quickest. Bottas has been very good at figuring out new circuits quickly and I expect him to top FP1 and FP2 but I'm guessing that Lewis will prevail in Qualifying and the race, and Lewis already holds the record for winning on the most different tracks (29).

If Lewis and Max finish the next two races in first and second, like today, they will be tied on points starting the last race of the season. That assumes neither of them scores a point for fastest lap . I would think both teams would be sending their second drivers out on soft tires late in the race to steal that point. If either driver has some misfortune befall them this scenario goes out the window. It will be interesting in any case. 

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

If Lewis and Max finish the next two races in first and second, like today, they will be tied on points starting the last race of the season. That assumes neither of them scores a point for fastest lap . I would think both teams would be sending their second drivers out on soft tires late in the race to steal that point. If either driver has some misfortune befall them this scenario goes out the window. It will be interesting in any case. 

Yeah, three races with a 14 point gap and it could easily go either way.

Max and Lewis crash each other out in all remaining races, Bottas wins all 3 and the Championship 

loosecannon said:

Max and Lewis crash each other out in all remaining races, Bottas wins all 3 and the Championship 

Bottas was mathematically eliminated after Mexico, there aren't enough points left for him to make up the gap.  He's at 203, to 318.5 for Hamilton and 332.5 for Verstappen.

Incredible race - Good to see them battling it out on the track vs. the pits, and not crashing into each other.

I think Max will pull it off this year, the statistics seem to be in his favor.

But honestly, defending your position to the point where you are off-track yourself is not what I want to see.

It's crazy that a few races back Lewis was not able to follow/overtake, but now it worked. If that really was just the engine, it will be interesting to see if it lasts the next 3 races.

Janel pointed out before the start that Bottas should have taken one for the team and Senna'd Max right off turn 1 at the start. Boy, the reactions to that would have been fun to watch, especially in Brazil. Would have left the manufacturer championship about the same but handed a big championship lead to Lewis.

It is a possibility, depending on who leads when going into the last race.

It's an interesting Season!

In reply to CrustyRedXpress :

I miss the engine mode switching sometimes - it was always kinda nerdy cool when they'd deploy engine modes as a Hail Mary. Still get chills from Lando in 2020.

https://youtu.be/XgXo0509S28

F1 doesn't allow embedding, so you'll just have to click it the old-fashioned way if you're interested!

Keith Tanner said:

Janel pointed out before the start that Bottas should have taken one for the team and Senna'd Max right off turn 1 at the start. Boy, the reactions to that would have been fun to watch, especially in Brazil. Would have left the manufacturer championship about the same but handed a big championship lead to Lewis.

That would have been easy to do, given that Max forced Valteri off the road.  Hold your line a little, and let Max do the dirty deed of crashing.