F1 2021 – spoilers here

So Vettel dropped by Ferrari (6th) picked up by Racing Point (4th). Checo dropped by Racing Point (4th) and picked up by Red Bull (2nd).

Have two drivers ever been sacked and then picked up by a team with a better car in the same season before?

— RicardoHCAFC (@RicardoHCAFC) December 17, 2020

I think Perez is slightly average tbh. He has had a good year, topped off with a win as a result of a Mercedes blunder and some good strategy, but that RP is really good. Stroll even seems decent. He’s been outshone by Ocon and Hulk before.
Be interesting to see how he gets on in Max’s car but I think Max will still be well ahead, as he is genuinely one of the best.
Feel sorry for Albon. ushered into that seat halfway into his rookie season, in a car set up to be difficult to drive and then expected to be on max’s wing. Needed long in to Toro rosso. You can see how Gasly has rejuvenated himself out of the team in a more normal car.

me too…not sure he’s going to do well at Red Bull

Looks like Toto is confirmed at Merc for the next few years and I get the feeling that was one of the things Hamilton wanted before signing, so expect that contract will fall into place pretty soon as well.

BBC reporting Toto confirmed and Ineos to become 1/3 shareholders. I’m happy about one of these things.

Perez now confirmed at RBR. Not bad for a number two driver…

Glad to see Perez still on the grid.
Hopefully he can add to that initial win with a strong car.
I think Haas should drop Marzipan (sic) and draft the Hulk in – the kid seems like a liability on and off the track.

I think Perez is slightly average tbh.

The average F1 driver these days is pretty good. Perez finished 4th in the championship out of 20 drivers and won a race. Red Bull hired a driver who beat Albon in a slower car. I don’t think anyone expects him to beat Verstappen, but Red Bull hired him on merit.

BREAKING: Sergio Perez will partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull in 2021!#F1 pic.twitter.com/31xnAstbqn

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 18, 2020

I think Haas should drop Marzipan (sic) and draft the Hulk in – the kid seems like a liability on and off the track.

I wonder why they haven’t terminated the contract of the Billionaire’s son already?

Edit. Late to the party. 😳

I think Haas should drop Marzipan (sic)

I think Haas should drop out of F1…they’re going to in a year or two anyway, and 2021 will be a disaster for them – rubbish car, little development, two rookie drivers. I really don’t understand why Gene Haas is persisting with F1

I wonder why they haven’t terminated the contract of the Billionaire’s son already?

Billions of dolllars?

Mazepin’s behaviour has been consistently vile, but Haas needs cash and lots of it.

I wonder why they haven’t terminated the contract of the Billionaire’s son already?

Billions of dolllars?

Wooooosh… 😉

F1 radio animated is back, 2020 recap:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJEUNVeAfq_/?igshid=wzby9mk7is4e

Arise, Sir Lewis.

I thought he didn’t want a knighthood.

yeah pretty disappointed he didn’t refuse it but as it’s got the daily fail and it’s readership in complete apoplectic melt down and calling for them to be scrapped it’s well worth it.

Well deserved knighthood. And a poke in the eye for the racist haters.

Should have been knighted for his overtake on Raikkonen at Monza in 2007 to be fair, but 13 years later is fine.

I’m laughing with him not at him. Honest…

Well deserved Lewis – Eddiebaby when did he say he did not want a Knighthood seems unusual for someone that has an OBE.

No surprises, Australia postponed https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/154434/2021-f1-australian-gp-set-to-be-postponed
How much of a season will we get? Last year was a bit ad-hoc but seemed to work, I really enjoyed most of it

It’ll be the same as last year. They’ll struggle to get the first race going but once they’re in their team bubbles they can just go from one race to the next.

Last year was a bit ad-hoc but seemed to work, I really enjoyed most of it

It seems to be one of the only sports that a lack of crowd doesn’t not have an adverse effect on the spectacle.

I wonder how the current UK lockdown is affecting the finishing touches to the development of the 2021 cars?

I wonder how the current UK lockdown is affecting the finishing touches to the development of the 2021 cars?

I think Merc started working on theirs months ago. Aston Martin should be fine, they’ve had 12 months to see what their car would look like. Based on the last few years, Red Bull will turn up at the first race with something half finished and have a world-beater for the final three races.

I think Merc started working on theirs months ago. Aston Martin should be fine, they’ve had 12 months to see what their car would look like. Based on the last few years, Red Bull will turn up at the first race with something half finished and have a world-beater for the final three races.

Aston Martin/RP have had since the start of 2020’s season to copy Merc. they should be fine.

Having been involved in the industry in the past, I’m confident that nothing will stop the development of the cars during lockdown.

Some may WFH, anyone who needs to, or wants to, will be working flat out in the factory.

Its a race and all the employees know this.

I’m confident that nothing will stop the development of the cars during lockdown.

You’re forgetting Ferrari’s (and Williams’ and McLaren’s) recent accomplishments of turning up with a car that was worse than the previous year’s.

You’re forgetting Ferrari’s (and Williams’ and McLaren’s) recent accomplishments of turning up with a car that was worse than the previous year’s.

To be fair Ferrari’s 2020 car may have been better than the 2019 one – if only the pesky FIA had allowed them to use their ‘pushing the boundries’ 2019 engine! 🙂

I just realized that Ferrari, McLaren, and Williams used to be the Big Three 30 years ago. How they have been humbled.

Ferrari have often had some pretty bad lulls, when I started watching F1 they were pretty middling. I can’t even remember who was driving. Prost and Alboretto maybe? Alesi and Berger didn’t have great cars it was all Williams and McLaren in the early 90s then Benetton came along.

When Schumacher went to Ferrari it was a bit of a shock because they were in a terrible funk then came good. Really over the last 30 years it’s only really been the Schumacher years that they were consistently good. And they were a bit crap then for the first year or two.

Edit – Williams makes me sad though, I was always a Williams boy from the first Mansell days.

Yes, I started following F1 when it was Mansell and Piquet in the Williams, then Senna-Prost in the McLaren. All Honda, really, Ferrari barely got a look in. I was a Prost fan, so was happy when he went to Ferrari and nearly took the title, then they produced a dog of a car and sacked Prost. They were nowhere until they hired Jean Todt and the Benneton tech people, and then Schumacher. Todt, Ross Brawn, and Schumacher all knew each other from Group C sportscars, and those three (plus Rory Byrne) were the core of the Ferrari success. Brawn wanted to step up to tech director after Todt left, but was passed over and joined Honda. The rest is history.

Williams had Patrick Head as co-founder, he was a solid engineering guy, but the Honda engine was just so good that it would have made any car look good. Then they got Renault engines, hired Adrian Newey and utterly dominated. Frank Williams and Patrick Head annoyed Newey, so he went to McLaren. Williams never quite made it back to the top again, despite getting the BMW engine, which was a beast of a thing.

Newey’s time at McLaren reminds me of Red Bull. He won some championships, but then had year after year where he’d produce a promising looking car, only to disappoint. McLaren were still producing good cars until 2012, or so, but I guess Hamilton saw the rot setting in and they were never competitive again after he left.

China on the ‘at-risk’ list now…

https://www.racefans.net/2021/01/06/algarve-and-imola-in-the-frame-to-hold-races-as-china-joins-at-risk-list/

Am feeling a little nostalgic reading the recent comments – my first full season as an F1 fan was watching the moustachioed one dominate the 1992 season in a Williams FW14. I remember reeling in shock when it was announced that Prost was joining for 1993 and that Mansell decided he was off to Indy.

It’s very easy to look back on those years as some sort of golden age of sonorous V10s and V12s, but often the audio commentary was delivered by low quality satellite links so those wonderful engines were muted when played through your CRT television’s mono speaker. In 1992 the season was sixteen races long and Mansell won nine of them, wrapping up the drivers’ title in Hungary in mid-August. Ferrari were in the middle of what became a four year winless drought, having last won in 1990. Honda had just terminated McLaren’s engine deal earlier than expected, leaving Senna with customer spec Ford HB power for ’93 and of course, some German dude won his first race at Spa.

Almost one-third of the originally-announced 2021 #F1 calendar already looks set to change.

And two of 2020's stand-in circuits are back in the mix for races.@SMitchellF1 has the latest on how the calendar could look:https://t.co/ThTD1jTUm2

— The Race (@wearetherace) January 7, 2021

Cyril Abiteboul out at Renault. Completely. He won't head up Alpine on either #F1 or road-car side. Laurent Rossi is the new Alpine CEO. Full story here: https://t.co/hX7AV3gcZx

— Scott Mitchell (@SMitchellF1) January 11, 2021