F1 2021 – spoilers here

Well, who said the French GP was going to be a boredfest!?

Really enjoyed that. I though that after 10 laps or so it would just settle down but the high wear rate on the tyres caught everyone out, especially Mercedes. Some great passed through the field and not much was a given over the last 10 or so laps.

Does that mean Austria is destined to be a boring procession instead to make up for it? 🤣

think it shows (on some circuits) the most bold and pro-active team wins…. mercs did it to red bull earlier in the season and now they’ve been on the receiving end of their own tactic

Hondas decision to leave seems to always have this effect. Look what happened last time they left!
Payback indeed. Great to see two teams fight it out. Bottas getting closer to his p45 judging by the outburst in the car. Amazing to see Russell push the Williams around the track above a Alpine, Ferarri and an Alfa whilst his team mate is sitting somewhere below.

Bottas getting closer to his p45 judging by the outburst in the car.

Sounds like both Bottas and Lewis felt 2 stop was the way to go before the race.

If Mercedes can get Red Bull to blow the budget chasing this championship while keeping a lid on their spend by just doing enough then it could favour Merc again for the new regs.

Great race, really didn’t expect that from Paul Ricard.

Apparently only the 10th race ever with no retirements.

Merc always relied on a car advantage and it used to help hugely with tactics. Now its a lot closer they are getting shown up for been a little slow and lax.

Now RB have clearly the faster car Merc seem a very much at sea with tactics.

In Ferraris cheat year, it is pretty widely accepted that Ferrari had the faster car for the majority of the season. It was Mercedes more meticulous analysis of unfolding situations rather than knee jerk reactions that swung the advantage back to merc. Maybe it won’t work out for them so well this time but I don’t think merc should throw away their winning methodology yet.

I was surprised how easily Verstappen got past Hamilton, was it so late that Hamilton thought he’d never stop in time?

Bottas makes it harder for Hamilton to overtake than he does for Verstappen…

Both Mercs tyres were knackered, they were seconds per lap slower, I don’t think they had any fight in them.

Now RB have clearly the faster car Merc seem a very much at sea with tactics.

By the time they had to commit to either a one or two stop, I don’t think the one-stop was a bad decision. If they’d switched to two stops they still would have been behind on the road and needed to pass on track. Do you rely on Hamilton’s ability to look after his tyres and retain track position, or do you rely on his ability to pass on track? The latter isn’t helped by the fact that the Red Bull was set up with low wing on a track with a couple of decent straights, that it was Verstappen that he’d be up against, and—most crucially—that they wouldn’t have had any tyre offset without throwing away as much time as they’d gain from it.

I think their mistake wasn’t that they went one-stop with Hamilton, it was earlier: that they didn’t switch Hamilton and Bottas two or three laps into the second stint to let Bottas burn Verstappen’s tyres out. If they’d done that, Hamilton could have just lurked a couple of seconds back and had much better tyres at the end, which should have comfortably bagged the win. It’s only if that didn’t work out they’d have needed to go to a two-stop with Bottas.

But then, everyone seemed to be a bit caught out by the wear rate on the hards, so who knows what everyone’s race models looked like at that point.

It’s only tenths of a second here and there. Bottas could have put up a tiny bit more of a fight and Mercedes could have had a slightly quicker pit stop. Gain a second between those two and Hamilton might still have won.

One thing I do struggle to figure out is why Mercedes didn’t bring Bottas in once Perez had passed him, so as to get the fastest lap. Makes no sense, they had almost enough time to stop twice before Norris would have caught them.

One thing I do struggle to figure out is why Mercedes didn’t bring Bottas in once Perez had passed him, so as to get the fastest lap.

Because Perez went off-track to pass him so there was the chance of a penalty. Perez wasn’t penalized though, so Max got the bonus point. Still a poor decision though because Perez was so much faster that Bottas was more than 5 seconds behind at the finish.

To me, the Merc strategy went wrong when they didn’t bring Hamilton in straight after Max and gave Red Bull the undercut. The undercut was larger than Merc calculated, but surely they should have brought Hamilton in anyway.

My guess is that Merc figured they had a faster car so just played it conservatively, whereas Red Bull knew they had to gamble on strategy. The tyre degradation was much higher than everyone expected because the rain cleaned the circuit, so that threw Merc’s calculations off.

On a brighter note, McLaren were very impressive. Good to see Ricciardo looking like he’s getting up to speed. Ferrari just looked lost. A few more results like that and both teams will probably decide to switch all their effort to developing next year’s cars. If Merc and Red Bull are forced to keep developing their cars through the summer, it might give those two teams a chance of closing the gap next year.

One thing I do struggle to figure out is why Mercedes didn’t bring Bottas in once Perez had passed him, so as to get the fastest lap. Makes no sense, they had almost enough time to stop twice before Norris would have caught them.

I wondered about this – the TV even showed the pit crew coming out with tyres, although Perez was still behind at that point. So I thought they were waiting until Perez got past, and then there was the possibility of a 5 second penalty for Perez for track limits, so Bottas had to stay out until there was at least a 5 second gap. I think that happened with about 3 laps to go, so just about time to have a go at fastest lap.

By the time they had to commit to either a one or two stop, I don’t think the one-stop was a bad decision

Agreed, Martin Brundle said in the commentary something along the lines of “Track position always trumps second guessing your tactics” You’ve no idea what’s going to happen in a race, you’re in the lead, the tyres will last (at least in theory) and your opponent have got come into the pits, change tyres, get through the field,  to catch you, pass you and hang one to end…literally anything could’ve happened to the RB to stop that happening, meanwhile you’re sailing on round the track in first place, happy as a lop.

Ah yes, I’d forgotten the 5 second thing. Took a bit longer that expected for Perez to get past, as well—seemed like he wasn’t getting too much out of his tyres. To be honest I was surprised his first stint wasn’t a bit longer, I was expecting them to use him to let Verstappen past after the first stop and then put a few seconds’ delay into the Mercedes.

Weirdly it seemed like for the first time this season both teams had their second drivers in play and could have gained from using them, but didn’t.

Odd race all round, I thought. Props to Vettel for the early pass on the Alpine, though—that was the move of the day by some margin.

To me, the Merc strategy went wrong when they didn’t bring Hamilton in straight after Max and gave Red Bull the undercut. The undercut was larger than Merc calculated, but surely they should have brought Hamilton in anyway

I thought he came in next lap? They’d have had to commit to bringing him in first, without knowing when Max would pit otherwise.

Was a bit strange to not switch Bottas to a two-stop but even if their data showed he’d be caught (and likely passed) as few laps before the end, as has been said, it doesn’t mean there won’t be an incidents on track that might prevent that happening (and if that happened they’d get criticised for throwing away 3rd place just based on data showing he’d be caught).

Having both drivers wreck their hard tyres keeping up with Max did seem a bad call though

New layout for Abu Dhabi race

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/abu-dhabi-approves-new-layout-plan-for-f1-track-to-improve-racing/6593131/

I thought he came in next lap?

Sorry, that should have been “straight after Bottas”, which would have been on the same lap as Max. They left him out for an extra lap, which gave Max the undercut.

Fair play to the Abu Dhabi guys, some significant changes being made to the track for this year

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/new-banked-corner-part-of-abu-dhabi-f1-track-changes/6602969/

I’m unconvinced that those changes are going to spice up the racing that much – the turn at the end of the back straight was already a passing opportunity but probably needed tightening up to give a bigger braking area rather than feeding into a banked turn which will reduce the braking demand. The change tp the other hairpin is more likely to give passing, but I’d have thought they’d want to slow the cars down round the hotel so the people paying $$$$ for those suites get a better view 🙂

Yeah sounds like they’ve had a good crack at it within the space available. Wonder how ‘banked’ it will actually be?

Wall of death banked hopefully 😁

No SAFER barriers mentioned, so not very I’d guess. Certainly they are saying all the right things, would be a shame if they’ve put in some nice changes and accidentally reduced it to 1 overtaking area……. theres a thought, its DRS into that banking. That could be quite interesting. More Super Speedway style overtaking rather than doing it under hard braking.

Heres’s hoping anyway

For some reason (possibly that the only excitement it’s provided has been the possibility of championship-deciding overtakes that haven’t actually happened) I’ve never even really noticed what the Yas Marina layout is. Hopefully it’ll be worth paying attention to now.

Yas Marina was one of those frustrating tracks where a better layout was already there on the ground. All they really needed to do was remove the chicane before the hairpin. Fair play for taking a look a the whole circuit and making some more changes too.

Now if someone could have a similar word with the guys at Barcelona

So, in his continuing bid to lose his seat, Bottas spun in the pit lane in FP2…could have taken out the Mclaren pit crew. He’s been summoned to the stewards

Here.
Looks like he’s ruined a set of tyres of tyres in about five yards

Oopsie! That is really quite bad.

With skills like that he’s sure to get a seat at Haas next year – Mazepin Sr would pay Bottas a fortune to make his kid look good 😀

45 seconds in, just gives you an idea of the speed those things get up to in the first second or so. And that’s practice so I guess not really gunning either!
Amazing what perceptuons different camera angles can create, the usual shots dont look that fast

NEWS: Valtteri receives a three-place grid penalty for pit lane spin. pic.twitter.com/ZnY621Ysws

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) June 25, 2021

Has anyone managed to spin a car in the pit lane before?

Lucky to get away with a 3 place grid penalty

I cant recall anyone doing it in practice or when leaving the box.
There’s been a few hit the pit entry walls on the way in during a race and a few bumping other cars or the front jack man

Are we sure Toto wasn’t giving Mazaspin a test drive?
😃😃😃

"During the hearing Bottas stated that in the past they have been losing time in the pit departure. So they tried something new, which was to leave in second gear."

Stewards' verdict on Valtteri Bottas' pit lane spin ➡ https://t.co/SuBmpkW6BD#SkyF1 #StyrianGP ??

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) June 25, 2021

Places to not try something new: 1. A busy pit lane

I don’t buy the excuse that the wheelspin was more in second than they expected, normally you go a gear higher to reduce the wheelspin risk. Maybe they were trying to lay some rubber down on the concrete for better traction and he just overcooked it.

I cant recall anyone doing it in practice or when leaving the box.
There’s been a few hit the pit entry walls on the way in during a race and a few bumping other cars or the front jack man

Might give C4 an excuse to roll out the clip of Coulthard binning it on the way into the pitlane at Adelaide though 🤣

(which I believe was put down to a sticking throttle)