F1 2021 – spoilers here

Is that Vettel or Prince William???

Neither. It’s Orville.

Neither. It’s Orville.

Vettel (looking wistfully at Hamilton)

“I wish I could drive
As fast as that guy
But I can’t”

🙂

Oof. I’m in an STW minority for being a bit of a Vettel fan.

McLaren have fired up their MCL35M complete with Mercedes power for the first time here..

McLaren have fired up their MCL35M complete with Mercedes power for the first time

That must be the 2nd time, first time was on the previous page 😉

mercedes take on the new rules

Interesting listening – will be good to see how much the cuts and subsequent gains have made on performance.

Will be interesting to see if Williams have managed to claw back any performance with the extra wind tunnel and CFD time allocated as they finished bottom.

I find the aerodynamics stuff fascinating but know bugger all about it. I really enjoy the videos of people explaining how all the little wings, grooves etc.. effect the air flow.

Amazing how a few slots cut in the floor can make you 1 sec a faster round a track. With that in mind in amazing how the teams at the bottom aren’t event further away.

Anyone else spotted that Norris, Leclerc and Gasly have all had covid since the end of the season?

…just getting it out of the way so they don’t miss any races this season! 🙂

Anyone else kind of hoping Lewis throws a strop and doesn’t re-sign for Mercedes! 🤔

Rumour is Lewis is on verge of signing a 2 year deal with @MercedesAMGF1 with a veto on his team mate. I'd do the same. Actually, I wouldn't have a team mate at all! #f1

— Damon Hill (@HillF1) February 3, 2021

Whenever I hear about anything like that I can’t help but recall this interview (from 0:57 in this clip) 🙂

My first thought was that Russell will be SOL, but then I realized that Hamilton is probably thinking that he doesn’t want to have to deal with Alonso and Verstappen throwing tantrums.

I would be amazed if Mercedes allowed him to veto Russell. Verstappen has three more years on his current contract; Alonso has two. So if the rumour has any truth then it seems slightly paranoid—unless he really is locking Russell out, but that would be a dick move on both his part and Toto’s. I’m not sure I buy it.

Maybe he’s contemplating staying beyond 2022 and trying to veto a signing for 2023…? In any case, Senna’s remarks still apply (even with the caveat of “well he would say that wouldn’t he”).

Verstappen has three more years on his current contract; Alonso has two

There will be escape clauses in the contracts. With Red Bull losing Honda, Verstappen will almost certainly be able to leave on the basis that they don’t have a works engine supply. I’m pretty sure that Alonso would pay whatever it cost to get out of a Renault and into a Merc. I’m also pretty sure that Hamilton demanding a veto over Alonso would be seen as a win-win situation by Merc.

Mm, though Horner has claimed that Honda’s departure doesn’t trigger any clause in Max’s contract—but yeah, there’s always some way out if need be.

I dunno, just doesn’t seem like Hamilton to me. He beat Alonso (albeit by the narrowest margin imaginable) in his rookie year despite the spats; given that they’re both older and wiser and Hamilton’s pocketed seven titles since then, you’d hope he’d fancy his chances now if it came to a rematch.

Maybe driver vetoes should be outlawed in F1. After all, plenty of classic seasons have involved teammates sparring gloves-off in the top car. I mean, Damon’s a nice guy but there’s no one on the planet who wouldn’t have preferred to see either Senna or Mansell alongside Prost in the Williams in 93.

Verstappen might not need an exit clause – if Red Bull don’t get their way with an engine development freeze the Red Bull team may cease to exist! 🙂

Mm, though Horner has claimed that Honda’s departure doesn’t trigger any clause in Max’s contract

Which means it probably does 🙂

I quite like Horner, but he is a bit Borisy sometimes, especially about drivers.

Maybe driver vetoes should be outlawed in F1.

I would like to see a system where each team is allowed to hire one driver of their own choosing and the other seat is reserved for the highest placed driver from the previous year, if he wants it. So that would mean that Hamilton would choose his team first (obviously Merc), then Merc could hire whoever they want for the second seat (obviously Bottas). Then Max could choose (obviously Red Bull), then Red Bull could choose their second driver. However, Perez was fourth, so he would be able to choose a seat at any of the remaining teams if he didn’t want to go to Red Bull. Then Danny Ric would be allowed to choose his seat, and so on.

Max could choose (obviously Red Bull)

why would Max choose Red Bull?

why would Max choose Red Bull?

Because both Merc seats would be gone and Red Bull currently have the second fastest car, plus the whole team is built around him. He would leave if he could get a Merc seat, but that’s not happening so Red Bull is where he’s staying.

It would make a great deal of sense to put Russell in the second Merc sooner rather than later. For Russell to stand in for Hamilton in a car that didn’t fit him, with minimal prep time AND recover from other people’s blunders to fight his way through to the front TWICE was remarkable. We know that Russell is good, but he had an edge over Bottas everywhere except for qualifying, even then the margin was narrow.

Re the driver vetoes, as we know Senna vetoed Derek Warwick from the second Lotus in 1985, Mansell vetoed himself against Prost for 1993 and Prost did the same with Senna for 1994. Ultimately, if two drivers in the same team hate one another then sooner or later they will stop playing nicely to the detriment of the team. Mansell and Piquet famously disliked one another to the extent that both of them asked for the team to reduce the height of their cars’ rollover hoops in an attempt to out-psyche one another. Had Alonso and Hamilton not played silly buggers with one another in 2007, Raikkonen probably wouldn’t have won the championship by a single point.

I thought any veto rights would be to block Russell from taking the second seat? Didn’t think Alonso or Verstappen would be remotely in the picture?

Hamilton likes Botas and he’s not a threat for the drivers champ but is good enough to get regular podiums for the constructors championship. So its been a win – win – win situation for all 3, Hamilton, Merc and Botas (I don’t think he’d get regular podiums if he wasn’t in a Merc).

So far Merc have been happy to play along with this arrangement. But I guess now that Russell is in the picture, Merc are now thinking of the long term plan and to fully develop Russell into a true top end driver. I presume thats the sticking point? How long will Hamilton stick around for, 1 season? maybe 2? Then what? Will Russell still be free to jump into a Merc seat? Also whats the point of young driver program if you don’t take your new up coming young drivers into the team and let them go else where?

I’m hoping Netflix have a camera crew in the room during Lewis’ contract negotiations…😃

Who knows but I’m not sure Hamilton would veto Russell. I suspect it is more to veto drivers like Verstappen or Vettel (highly unlikely now though) getting into the car. Not that Hamilton would have anything to fear from Vettel I suspect but Verstappen would be like an angry Rosberg and no-one except the other teams on the grid would want to see that.

I just can’t see Hamilton demanding a veto. Vettel, yes, Alonso, yes, but Hamilton seems like he genuinely doesn’t worry about that sort of thing. He must know he can put psyche any of them if he needed to, he’s that good. Even Max.

Only person I can see Hamilton vetoing would be Verstappen – I don’t think he’d be too bothered about Alonso or Vettel, and I’d see him being happy playing Stewart to Russell’s Cevert.

 … to the extent that both of them asked for the team to reduce the height of their cars’ rollover hoops in an attempt to out-psyche one another. 

Did not know that – like! 🙂

As a curve ball I wonder if Hamilton wants a stake in an F1 team ala Beckham in MLS franchise. He has entered e extreme team.

Possible. Hasn’t Kimi got a stake in Sauber/Alpha?

I’d see him being happy playing Stewart to Russell’s Cevert

I hope not, for George’s sake!

I might be being a bit pedantic here, but isn’t a race between flying vehicles actually an aircraft race, not a car race.

https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/30832753/airspeeder-launches-world-first-electric-flying-race-car

Also, they seem to be radio-controlled drones that can fly at 120 km/h, which is not very fast, really. Must be a slow newsweek over at ESPN.

Only a single year contract extension for Lewis.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/hamilton-finally-signs-new-f1-deal-with-mercedes/

I’m surprised. I was expecting two more years, win again this year against Botas, then against the protege next year before stepping down and letting Russel pick up the baton.
Russel and Bottas in 22?

Yeah that’s a bit of a shock

Title No 8, then sit back and have a think about it. He’s dominated in this car, there’s less of a guarantee in a new one. Why not go out on a high and as the greatest F1 driver ever?

Thumbs up for the Hamilton Foundation too.

Wonder which side was pushing for 1 year vs multiple years.

Interesting development. Maybe Bottas has pricked his ears up a bit. Maybe Hamilton doesn’t want to go into the new era and happy to see out this next year with what he hopes is a good chance of record breaking WDC and walk away. Maybe there’s other stuff in his life that he is looking at how that shapes up and this season will allow him to take stock of what that looks like and whether he could maintain that as well as the commitment needed to keep successful in F1 – especially now the number of races per season has crept up. Certainly leaves the speculation open for Russell in a Merc next season

…perhaps he’s driven next years car in the simulator and decided he wants no part of the new regs. 🙂

Unsurprised that it’s only a single year, and I imagine it’s Hamilton keeping his options open. With the salary cap coming in and Toto staying a while, I can’t imagine it was Mercedes who would have been pushing for a short contract.

2022 looks wide open, then. I would guess Hamilton’s presence beyond 21 is more about his enthusiasm to drive the new cars than anything—if he’s on 8 titles and over 100 wins by that point then motivation looks at best very different. I’d reckon 70/30 this will be his last year. Either way, I expect to see Russell in a Mercedes in 22, and I’d say the odds of Bottas getting another extension are now quite long.

So, now the musical chairs have officially ended… Verstappen looks like the only potential title challenger, and even then an outside bet. On-merit race wins on the cards for Perez, Ricciardo, maybe Alonso, and Vettel if he can find his groove again, but I struggle to see any of those realistically sniffing the title beyond the first half-dozen races or so.

Should be fun, though…

Maybe they didn’t agree with the veto and compromised with the foundation work. It might have been conceivable that Russell could have been option even at this late stage which played into their hands.

I’m glad we have Hamilton racing with Alonso,Vettel,Verstapen,Leclerc this year.