F1 2021 Season

First topic message reminder :

The season opening Australian Grand Prix & the Chinese Grand Prix have been postponed.

Bahrain Grand Prix on the 28th March to be the first race of the 2021 season.

Formula 1 to revert to 2pm race start times at European races this year.

F1 practice sessions will be shortened to one hour during Fridays across the 2021 season.

Cognizant have been announced as Aston Martin’s new title sponsor. They will be called ‘Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team’.

Alex Albon will drive in DTM this season, on selected race weekends

Lando Norris has confirmed he has contracted Covid, while staying in, Dubai.

Hamilton pits

Norris spins off

Hamilton win

Verstappen second

Unbelievable

RB will be over the moon

Norris what an idiot.

Norris stupidity cost McLaren. Lack of maturity

Shame for Lando. 50 nerveless laps lost due to one bad strategy call for inters and a bad stop for Danny Ric.

Merc tried every trick in the book, and in the end Max eats all his penalties and still comes second. Has to sting a bit.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Norris stupidity cost McLaren. Lack of maturity

Thats harsh. I'd call it more lack of experience. He was on the verge of his first win, had Hamilton behind him (wasn't sure if he'd pit or not) and its not surprising he wanted to try and see the race out on slicks.

Well that was a pretty incredible race...helped by the unusual front 3, with Russell in particular bunching up a lot of cars behind him.

A great early few laps by Sainz to take the lead, but equally good work by Norris to work his way back and pass his former team mate on track.

Lando drove faultlessly for the rest of the race until the rain came. Think bad luck and lack of experience led him to make a bad call. The rain didn't look that heavy when the team asked if he wanted to come in, then it became a torrent literally a lap later. By that time Hamilton had pitted and was chasing him down at around 5 seconds a lap.

To rub salt into the wounds he got hit with a penalty for crossing the white line when he was eventually forced to pit for inters. Lost so much time and finished 7th, though he got fastest lap as some consolation. Could and should have been so much more though.

Absolutely gutted for the lad. This will hurt a lot but hopefully he will learn from it. Maybe the team will too and tell him to box, rather than asking if he wants to.

Ricciardo did well to recover from a slow stop that left him out of the points, to finish 4th. McLaren definitely seem to have some momentum behind them at the moment. Hope we'll see them on the podium over the remaining races.


Decent race for Lewis. Didn't make a great start but kept up with the leaders and worked his way back into contention for the win. Made the right call when the rain came and took the chequered flag at the end. Congrats on 100 victories!

Though Bottas was having another awful race. I wouldn't blame him if he was deliberately driving poorly after the team decided to screw his race by giving him a new engine and making him start at the back. Not sure how or when he decided to wake up but like Kimi used to, he suddenly found some pace at the end and after spending most of the race absolutely nowhere, he finished 5th.


Good drive by Verstappen...though his overtaking and general anticipation & awareness still leave a lot to be desired at times. Apparently also helped by running Austria spec low downforce wings. Went from 20th to 2nd, ensuring the engine penalty hurt as little as possible.

Rare points finish for Raikkonen, bringing his Alfa home in 8th and Russell doing a fair job, earning another point for Williams.

That was an insane weekend, amidst what must be the best season of F1 in recent memory!

Like all, feel for Lando. Don’t really blame him, but do blame the team. They have to overrule him and let him know more rain is coming there, they seemed a bit rabbits in the headlights, which is kind of understandable but needs to be learned from. Mercedes schooled them in that regard

Great win in the end for Hamilton, after an uncharacteristic qualifying and start to the race. The Bottas penalty decision was…weird but ultimately him and Perez aren’t really putting up much resistance or help in the drivers title fight for their teammates

As for Red Bull…I’m not entirely sure how, but as good as they could have hoped for this weekend with the Max penalty. Thought he drove a really good race

The rest was mayhem, Danny Ric was brilliant but screwed by the pit stop. Poor weekend for the Alphatauri lads though

Lance Stroll also given a 10 second time penalty, and two penalty points on his licence

Re weather, not entirely sure Lewis wasn't just gonna do the opposite of Lando anyway.

At that point they were miles ahead of the field and he wasn't getting past the McLarens straight up. So harmless gamble

GSC wrote:Re weather, not entirely sure Lewis wasn't just gonna do the opposite of Lando anyway.

At that point they were miles ahead of the field and he wasn't getting past the McLarens straight up. So harmless gamble

Definitely not harmless. If they got it wrong he was basically throwing away any chance at a win. You obviously want to stay within a second or two of the leader otherwise as, in fairly difficult conditions, it’s easy for someone to make a mistake and drop a few seconds.

Mercedes got the call right, McLaren didn’t. No blame (or credit) really to either driver. Lewis was just given better info.

Qatar fills out this year's calendar and will host a street race from 2023 onwards

GSC wrote:Qatar fills out this year's calendar and will host a street race from 2023 onwards

It's Rights out and away we go

More sportswashing. No real surprise LM is going down this route, to claw back lost income, post-Covid. Losail is bland, so hopefully the new track is more appealing.

Helmut Marko says Red Bull failed in a move for Lando Norris. Doesn’t specify when but must’ve been before they signed Checo Perez.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Helmut Marko says Red Bull failed in a move for Lando Norris. Doesn’t specify when but must’ve been before they signed Checo Perez.

Was early this season - it's what prompted McLaren to go to Norris with a huge extension and tie him up long term, then Red Bull gave Perez another year for 2022 when they couldn't get Norris.

MGU H to be ditched from the 2026 spec engine so VW let Audi/Porsche enter as an engine supplier

23 race calendar for 2022, finishing mid-November. Tough on the crews.

Unfortunately, seven or eight of these really crap sprint races are to be included.

Looks like Mercedes are edging towards Hamilton engine penalty at Istanbul. Weather looks pretty mediocre so in wet weather Verstappen and Hamilton are generally the best of the bunch.

Fudge this nonsense sprint race crap. It’s ridiculous that Liberty media are obsessed with catering towards the American market. F1 has always been based around Europe. It’s stupid how they are insisting on these Mickey Mouse adaptations to diminish the sport.

Red Bull to run Japanese flag livery at Istanbul Park

New ICE for Lewis so 10 places

GSC wrote:New ICE for Lewis so 10 places

Do we reckon they take other component parts later in the weekend? Seems a bit risky to have him start mid pack, and also to potentially have to replace other parts at another race in the future and start down the grid again.

Merc easily quicker this weekend, so definitely a chance Bottas denies Max the win tomorrow and it’d be a surprise if Hamilton can’t work his way onto the podium from 11th (I wouldn’t say a win is totally out of the question if he can gain some places off the start)

LeClerc/Gasly/Alonso look like they can put up a good fight to Lewis, but also can compete with the Red Bulls too

Andretti Motorsports on the verge of buying out Sauber’s 80% majority stake in the Alfa Romeo team.
Talks are at an advanced stage and an announcement could be made at CoTA.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Andretti Motorsports on the verge of buying out Sauber’s 80% majority stake in the Alfa Romeo team.
Talks are at an advanced stage and an announcement could be made at CoTA.

Helps explain why that 2nd seat hasn't been confirmed yet - chance Colton Herta takes it?

Looking from afar it seems to me that Perez hasn't really kicked on from his earlier promising performances and is not close enough to Verstappen to really help him in his fight for the driver's championship which is now a straight battle between Verstappen and Hamilton.

Given this, he doesn't seem too much of an improvement over Gasly or Albon, in a car which is said to be far better understood and easier to drive than the car they had last season. In the Turkish grand prix Gasly outqualified Perez and wasn't too far behind Verstappen. I am sure it is not purely stubbornness on Red Bull's part that Gasly is not being promoted back to Red Bull.

Red Bull did try to get Norris for next year and when that fell through only then signed Perez for an additional year. They still want to keep an interest in Albon and helped him get the seat at Williams for next year because they still think he has promise.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

Jeff Navarro wrote:Andretti Motorsports on the verge of buying out Sauber’s 80% majority stake in the Alfa Romeo team.
Talks are at an advanced stage and an announcement could be made at CoTA.

Helps explain why that 2nd seat hasn't been confirmed yet - chance Colton Herta takes it?

Herta doesn’t have the super licence points to move into F1 - I’m not sure it’s there’s a workaround at present.

Red Bull won’t be offering Gasly another opportunity at the top team. I saw an interview with Dr Marko and he basically suggested the Frenchman will be free to leave after 2023.

Amazing how much more motivated Bottas is when you give the carrot of a race win rather than shunting him to the back of the grid to act as a mobile chicane for Max

Think Mercedes in the end just outsmarted themselves. Don't really think they ever needed to try and stay out for a no stop, Lewis was the fastest car on track in equal conditions and Max already had a pit stop and new tyres.

In the end they had to do in case he just started sliding off the road.

Think red bull will be delighted - Monza, Sochi and Istanbul considered Mercedes tracks. Verstappen walks away with 36pts. Hamilton got 35pts.

GSC wrote:Amazing how much more motivated Bottas is when you give the carrot of a race win rather than shunting him to the back of the grid to act as a mobile chicane for Max

Eh, to be fair any driver would be motivated at the prospect of a race win. I think the hardest thing he had to do today was nail his start and stay ahead of Max for the first stint. After he did that the race was pretty much in the bag.

Also, re Mercedes' engine changes, Bottas managed to finish 5th after starting 16th in Russia, (though upstaged by Max going from 20th to 2nd). Lewis managed the same result after starting 11th today.

GSC wrote:
Think Mercedes in the end just outsmarted themselves. Don't really think they ever needed to try and stay out for a no stop, Lewis was the fastest car on track in equal conditions and Max already had a pit stop and new tyres.

In the end they had to do in case he just started sliding off the road.

Agreed. I think regardless of how Lewis felt his tyres were, or what weather the team were predicting, they should have just run a normal 1-stop strategy. Trying to do a full race distance on the same set of tyres is not a smart move. When he finally did pit, his tyres were completely slick and inters aren't designed to run like that. They could have punctured or delaminated had he stayed out. Ocon managed it, but you could argue he got lucky.


Anyway, not as exciting a race as Russia, but thats probably expecting a bit much. I was surprised Red Bull didn't have more pace and that Max was unable to really challenge Valtteri. Other than that no major surprises.

Good weekend for Red Bull. Decent one for Mercedes, as they still lead the constructors' standings. All still to play for in the drivers' championship.

Good results for Leclerc & Gasly. Pretty forgettable race for McLaren. They will definitely be hoping for better in the remaining races, to hold onto their 3rd place in the constructors' standings.

Both Verstappen and especially Bottas lucked out with the weather change in Russia. Max had a fairly average drive and Bottas an exceptionally bad one up to then. Par for Lewis was probably 4th today given the pace of the front three.

Pretty much status quo after the engine penalties. On reflection, Mercedes won’t be too disappointed. Today’s points deficit, was the equivalent of Verstappen winning the race with a fastest lap, and Hamilton coming second. Given their respective grid positions, it’s a more than decent job of damage limitation.

Yeah it continues to remain tight in the drivers battle, albeit I do think Merc's latest upgrades have shaded them ahead of Red Bull - they've been quicker the last three races (albeit at tracks they usually are). Actually pretty glad neither engine penalty for each team has cost them ground in the title race

Think they needed to be firmer with Lewis when originally trying to call him in after Perez's stop. Can understand why Lewis wanted to stay out, but as GSC said above, they had the pace on Perez on equal tyres, and I'd have backed Lewis to get him in the final 15 or so laps.
Do think they made the right call to bring him in and make sure he stayed ahead of Gasly/Norris - people saying Ocon managed a whole race on one set...and he did sure, but he was losing 5 seconds a lap for the last 5-7 laps, if Lewis had done that he almost certainly would have fallen lower than 5th.

Great race by the maligned Bottas and Perez - really stepped up when their teams needed them this weekend.

Gasly got a very harsh 5 second penalty I thought, he had another solid weekend. I do think being a #1 driver for a team is better for him than being #2 at Red Bull.

Not much else, Stroll had another good race in damp conditions he seems to thrive in...Mick had a great quali on Saturday.

Setup for a fantastic final stretch of the season!

It is being said that since the break and maybe since Silverstone the Mercedes is now the fastest car on the track, and that has come from Mercedes learning and understanding more about the cars behavior.

Red Bull said they and others wanted a clarification from the FIA to be sure that Mercedes were working still within the regulations and they seemed to have got assurances that this was the case.

Toto Wolff said that the new regulations for this year had resulted in loss of performance/ speed of the car and that had allowed Red Bull to close the gap to them and maybe overtake them. However they learnt about their car in the spring and summer and used that to make changes that appear to have now given them an advantage at this moment in time.

Horner said that for Red Bull both the drivers championship and the constructors championship are equally important. The drivers championship gives them prestige but no cash, while the constructors championship gives them cash - which translates to everyone working in the team getting more money. Hence for several reasons it is important that Perez is also on top of his game. In this race he was - Perez had a very good race.

Horner really grates my goat ffs. Where exactly where Mercedes 15-20kph faster on the straights? Hamilton was literally stuck behind Yuki. If Mercedes where as quick as Horner suggests, Hamilton would’ve breezed pass.
Secondly when Perez and Hamilton when wheel to wheel, Hamilton clearly wasn’t 15-20kph quicker.
The flip flop nature of the championship is mainly down car characteristics and tyres.
Mercedes are quicker on the hardest compounds and in cooler conditions.
Red Bull are quicker on the softest tyres and warmer conditions.
We’ll see what the balance of power is at CoTA as it’s supposedly going to be pretty warm.

Mercedes suggesting Hamilton may take another engine penalty at CoTA as they fear failures at Mexico and Brazil.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Mercedes suggesting Hamilton may take another engine penalty at CoTA as they fear failures at Mexico and Brazil.

Seems like they're taking the, "we'll take a couple of smaller grid penalties in multiple races approach", rather than Red Bull's just take it all in one hit in one race approach...

Certainly seems like that Merc unit is less reliable than the Honda one this year.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

Jeff Navarro wrote:Mercedes suggesting Hamilton may take another engine penalty at CoTA as they fear failures at Mexico and Brazil.

Seems like they're taking the, "we'll take a couple of smaller grid penalties in multiple races approach", rather than Red Bull's just take it all in one hit in one race approach...

Certainly seems like that Merc unit is less reliable than the Honda one this year.

Red Bull suggesting they will mirror any Hamilton penalty as well
The skullduggery increases…

The Horner stuff is the usual F1 cage rattling. Anyway Mercedes taking penalties would suggest they're now running their engines at a higher rate than earlier in the season

Taking one at Cota would surprise me anyway. Mexico is expected to be pretty routine for RB so that seems more sensible

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Certainly seems like that Merc unit is less reliable than the Honda one this year.

Nonsense

CoTA undergoing some TLC to reduce the effect of the bumps at certain parts of the track. A full resurface is set to happen when the 2021 race schedule is over. Smart move as the MotoGP event was pretty dangerous.

At the moment the only factor being considered are grid penalties. But isn't the cost cap already in play for this season? Earlier in the season Christian Horner was saying it was very expensive to replace the parts being damaged on the Red Bull cars and that would mean less money for the development of next years car which they are also working on.

China still off the calendar so Imola included again next year

No name Bertie wrote:At the moment the only factor being considered are grid penalties.  But isn't the cost cap already in play for this season?  Earlier in the season Christian Horner was saying it was very expensive to replace the parts being damaged on the Red Bull cars and that would mean less money for the development of next years car which they are also working on.

Paying for a new engine isn't covered by the cap. Unclear whether manufacturing a new part would, but I would imagine teams just have an allocation for parts anyway

The last 3 races of 2021 and first 2 of 2022 - all in the Middle East...
Human rights matter...only after Liberty gets their pay cheque...

And with regards to development I think Red Bull had to halt parts as they reached the financial limit. They haven’t added anything new aero wise at Monza, Sochi or Istanbul.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Horner really grates my goat ffs. Where exactly where Mercedes 15-20kph faster on the straights? Hamilton was literally stuck behind Yuki. If Mercedes where as quick as Horner suggests, Hamilton would’ve breezed pass.
Secondly when Perez and Hamilton when wheel to wheel, Hamilton clearly wasn’t 15-20kph quicker.
The flip flop nature of the championship is mainly down car characteristics and tyres.
Mercedes are quicker on the hardest compounds and in cooler conditions.
Red Bull are quicker on the softest tyres and warmer conditions.
We’ll see what the balance of power is at CoTA as it’s supposedly going to be pretty warm.

I'm pretty sure that 15-20kph was based on the car running in clear air. Mercedes traditionally don't follow other cars well. Their aero is more heavily compromised in dirty air.

Max's inability to get close to Bottas would seem to indicate there is some truth in that.

Also when Perez and Hamilton had their duel, Lewis' tyres were worn and he didn't have the grip to complete the move. You're conveniently forgetting he DID breeze past Perez on the straight, but went wide under braking into the corner and couldn't carry the speed, allowing Checo to regain his position.

Other than that, you're correct that the margins are generally fine enough that things like weather, track temperature and tyre compounds can be the deciding factor.

Plus qualifying. If Merc get pole, its damn near impossible to catch them. If Max does it, he can usually build just enough of a lead and rely on RB's famously quick pit stops to keep him in front.