F1 2021 – spoilers here

Am I alone in getting increasingly suspicious at Red Bull’s resurgence this year? 8/10ths is a huge margin. And Mercedes were meant to be bringing improvements this weekend to a circuit they are traditionally very strong at too.

:-O

Am I alone in getting increasingly suspicious at Red Bull’s resurgence this year? 8/10ths is a huge margin.

FIA’s 2021 floor regs are working better than they anticipated. 😉

Am I alone in getting increasingly suspicious at Red Bull’s resurgence this year?

Considering the very limited changes from last year to this year, it’s pretty surprising. I know the changes were supposedly hitting Merc’s low rake concept more than the high rake RedBull, but last year the Mercs had about a second over Max at both Silverstone rounds so it’s one heck of a performance change when supposedly not much was changing.

Am I alone in getting increasingly suspicious at Red Bull’s resurgence this year? 8/10ths is a huge margin.

1. Honda finally made the engine that everyone expected five years ago.
2. The changes to the floor hurt Merc much more than Red Bull. Also, the benefit of DAS may have been underestimated.
3. Merc may have underestimated Red Bull/Honda progress and thought they could cruise this year and focus all their resources for next year.
4. Red Bull had the fastest car at the end of last year and may have decided that this was their best chance to win a title, so they might have prioritized this year over next year. We’ll know the answer to that question next year.

I don’t think there’s anything suspicious beyond the gray areas of the rules like flexi wings, tyre warm up, etc. Red Bull and Honda seem to have built a really fast car and Max is driving really well.

The have a new super oil as well iirc.

Don’t forget, qualifying for tomorrow’s sprint race is live now.

How the heck has Russell hauled that Williams to P8? Not sure what more he can do to get the Merc seat.

Wow Russell !!

Good from ric as well

I don’t understand how engine upgrades for reliability aren’t by definition a performance upgrade. Surely making the engine more reliable means you can run a better mode for longer as the risk of blowing the engine up is lower

The should add turbo to F1 engine to make it faster otherwise it’s boring now.

I mean big engine vs turbo small engine whatever …

They are turbo-charged. And only 1.6ltr.

They are turbo-charged. And only 1.6ltr.

I think they should increase the capacity. They used to have turbo on big engine but not sure what happened to them to make them reduce the engine size.

The current engines are already pushing close to 1000bhp. Power isn’t the issue with F1 at the minute, too much downforce is! 😀

They used to have turbo on big engine

The turbo engines cars have always been smaller capacity. In the “turbo era” they were 1.5L and the N/A engines were 3.5L. Turbos were banned in 1989, and engines made smaller (to N/A 3.0L) in 1995 and then went smaller again in 2006 to N/A 2.4L. Then went smaller again to 1.6 in 2014, but back to turbo with various recovery sytsems.

How the heck has Russell hauled that Williams to P8? Not sure what more he can do to get the Merc seat.

Yep, very impressive performance. If he’s not in the second Mercedes seat next year (preferably announced this weekend!) then Toto has made a massive error.

Crikey I have not followed the changes for so long I still think of me boy racer mate with Benetton Ford … LOL!

Yes, one of me boy racer mate from Borneo was actually a mechanic with F1 Benetton Ford at one time … we were all surprised but not too surprised coz he had the fastest car in Borneo at that time and he could speak English and educated overseas … Imagine you are driving down London and a dragster pull up beside you … LOL!

How the heck has Russell hauled that Williams to P8? Not sure what more he can do to get the Merc seat.

While I wouldn’t disagree with that sentiment, there’s always the other way of looking at it: Williams have a car that’s capable of Q3 so why is Latifi always out in Q1 and, this weekend at least, over a second off his teammate’s pace? With the team looking like turning its fortunes around I would expect a big sponsorship deal for next year with the opportunity that it brings to have two decent drivers in the car. (Not that either of them will be Russell 😉)

True Bez – its only when team mates are side by side on the grid that you can be pretty sure they’ve both driven to the potential of the car. But I expect Williams have their reasons for having (son of a very rich man) Latifi in the other seat…

Can Williams afford, financially, to drop Lattifi? If so Botas and Aitken might be a good combo for next season
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Who are the most evenly matched qualifiers this season, Sainz and LeClerc? I know the Haas are usually next to each other but the gap is bigger than the Ferraris

Can Williams afford, financially, to drop Lattifi? If so Botas and Aitken might be a good combo for next season

The actual ownership seems to be a mystery. It was bought by Dorilton Capital, but nobody has been able to confirm who actually owns Dorilton. It’s possible that it’s Latifi’s father, which would make sense. If it’s not and they don’t need Latifi’s money, Bottas and Hulkenberg would seem to be obvious candidates, along with Magnussen and Grojean. Having experienced drivers to develop the car is going to be essential if they plan to move up the grid. However, my money is on Bottas and Latifi being there next year.

Who are the most evenly matched qualifiers this season, Sainz and LeClerc?

On average results, Ocon and Alonso, and Vettel and Stroll are closer than Sainz and Leclerc.

https://www.racefans.net/2021-f1-season/2021-f1-statistics/2021-f1-qualifying-data/

I’d guess, though, that the variation in times is greater for the Alpine and Aston pairs than for the Ferraris: both Vettel and Alonso had ropey starts to the season but have since pulled well ahead of their teammates, whereas Sainz and Leclerc have been fairly well matched throughout.

As for the possible Dorilton/Latifi link (not something I was aware of or had given any thought to…), that would certainly cast a different light on trying to predict the Williams line-up…

Well this is……….fine, I suppose

Well this is……….fine, I suppose

Fine if you’re Max, Alonso or Russell. Not so fine for Hamilton, Sainz and Perez.

Just seemed a bit pointless to me…normal qualifying is more exciting IMHO

First lap was on fire, tapered I fed a bit after that. I reckon maybe have a normal Q1 and then turn Q2 and Q3 into 15 minute sprint races 😉

Although you could see from yesterday that 3 days of proper competition must be good for ticket sales and broadcast rights.

Tbf they don’t struggle with ticket sales across all 3 days at Silverstone even when Friday is just fp1 & 2. (Broadcast rights I don’t know about)

It was OK – needs tweaking – perhaps a bit longer so tyre deg comes into it more?

May work better with next years cars if they can follow closely as we are promised.

And they could add some Mario Kart weapons to go with the new graphics! 🤣

Too much weaving too!

Here’s an idea! Perhaps the sprint race should be done in F2 cars!? 🤣🤣

It’s kinda taken the shine off the race for me, because I feel like I’ve already watched it.

I think 2 practice sessions on Friday then quali and sprint quali on Saturday would be better.

That just served to demonstrate that the most exciting bits of F1 are the start + first 3 corners and the pit-stops.

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Twodogs
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Just seemed a bit pointless to me…

Maybe slightly more frantic at first, then just petered out imo

The race was OK and as they said on C4, Silverstone isn’t the best place for passing anyway. But FP2 was rather pointless as there was no scope for a setup change.

I was wondering whether swapping the schedule around might help so it’s

Friday FP1 then Sprint, grid based on FP1 times and no Parc ferme afterwards

Saturday FP2 and current Q1-3 (I don’t think it needs changing FWIW), Parc ferme starts from Q1

Of course you then need a reason for the Sprint as just awarding points for the top 3 wouldn’t motivate many. That’s what’s stumped me…

Listening to the interviews afterwards I think all the drivers and team principles were a bit “meh”

Personally I hope it dies a quiet death. YMMV.

Pretty much don’t feel I want to watch tomorrow as I’ve seen how it’ll go, what with no tweaks so no change. Even if LH takes P1 in first few corners MV will win overall.

Friday FP1 then Sprint

TV audience figures will rule that out (as will tickets sold at the event)

Well that new format will work a treat in Monaco won’t it….

Who are the most evenly matched qualifiers this season

Massive spin and that German driver have been pretty close on the grid 🤣